What is Active Reading??

Well, simply put, active

reading can be described as
reading with an awareness of
a purpose for reading.

Why should you take active
reading notes?
In order to better understand and
relate to the text, a reader needs
to have meaningful interaction
with the words and ideas.
Active reading and note-taking is
one way to have this interaction.

Why should you take active
reading notes?
When you are reading actively, you are
engaged in the material, thinking about
the information you are trying to take in.
You are making a conscious and
continuous effort to understand the
material you are reading and relating it to
other information or knowledge you
already have.

Why should you take active
reading notes?
You are also engaged in an on-going
process of asking questions of the
material you are reading, and seeking
answers to questions that you may
have already had about the topic.
Active reading will help you gain and
retain more, as well as help you be a
stronger participant in Socratic
Seminar/Fishbowl discussions.

Important points!
There are no wrong or right answers
when you are taking notes. It is all about
what is going to help you better
understand what youre reading and help
you later during the summative
assessments.
This is sort of a no brainer, BUT you are
welcome to write notes directly on
photocopied literature. However, when
we are working in textbooks or novels,
you must use Post-it notes (that is why
they were on your school supply list!).

What can/should you take notes about?
Since the general rule is that there are
no right or wrong answers, you can
write about anything, but here (on the
next page) is a long list of things you
could consider:


What can/should you take notes about?
1. Predictions, such as with title of
story
(Make predictions using an
educated guess based on what
you already know about the story
or what you are learning about the
story, and looking at hints in the
reading that seem to lead to a
certain outcome.)



What can/should you take
notes about?
2. things you notice
3. things you like (or dont like)
4. things you dont understand
5. things you want to understand better
6. answers to things you didnt understand earlier
in story (such as, why do the characters act the
way they do? What caused events to happen?
Why does the writer include certain information?


What can/should you take notes
about?
7. Ah-ha! moments- places in the text where
something suddenly becomes clear or makes
sense or seems important to you for some
reason
8. examples of figurative language/literary
devices
9. clues about what might happen later
(foreshadowing)

What can/should you take notes
about?
10. If youre more of a visual
person, you might consider
sketching or drawing notes that
might help you create a mental
picture of what youre reading
11. Look for connections you can
make to the literature- try to
connect the literature to yourself
or the world around you
12. Vocabulary, especially words
that you dont know or want to
know

What can/should you take
notes about?
13. Theorize- What theories do you have
about the plot and the characters motivations
and actions? Use specific details to infer the
main idea, topic, and theme of the reading.
Try to use good detective work as youre
reading.

Do I expect you to make notes
about all of these?
No way.
I just want you to know about all
the different things you could be
writing (or drawing) about. Again,
you cant really go wrong as long
as you are thinking about and
trying to interact with the text.

Remember, active reading
notes will help you . . .

better understand the text
prepare you for fishbowl discussions
prepare you for summative
assessments about theme, figurative
language and the essays you will
write about the literature (I will let you
use your notes!!!)