Middle Link
Read Around the Text
Lesson Plan
Printable version 
Background
Read Around the Text is a series of six steps that asks students to preview text to be read. It is an adaptation from “Read Around the Text: The Reading Strategy That Worked!” by LouAnn Clayton Jacobs and Dee Dee Benefield Jones (both authors are from Alabama). One of the single best things readers can do to improve comprehension is to set a purpose for their reading and activate prior knowledge. Read Around the Text prompts and guides readers before they dig into the reading.
Directions
Begin by distributing a blackline master of Read Around the Text that students can keep in their binders. Take the time to model this activity with a textbook. Select a new lesson and have students work in partners to answer the six questions from Read Around the Text . To ensure all students are practicing the strategy, have one partner be A and the other partner be B. For the first question, ask partner A to tell partner B what the ideas are behind the pictures being presented. Call on several different partner teams to share answers before moving on. Alternate the responsibility for who begins the discussion on question #2.
- Look at the pictures. What ideas are being presented?
- Look at the captions and read them.
- Look at the maps, charts, and graphs. Discuss what information they present.
- Look at the titles and headings. What is the big idea?
- Read the first and last lines of each paragraph for more information.
- Ask questions. Give yourself a reason to read.
Extension Idea
Romig staff created an acronym for Read Around the Text called R.A.T. Encourage students to "rat out" the important information before reading a passage in its entirety.
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