After Reading Strategies

Many students will finish reading and then move on to the next task in their life. They do not take time to analyze and process what they have just read. They believe they have finished the reading process and are done with it. This is a thought that desperately needs to be changed. Students must know that reading the text is not the end because of all of the possible learning that comes afterward. We need students to understand that "just closing a book doesn't close off the thinking that shapes our understanding of a text."(Beers 139). The closing of the book is just an opening for more discussion and comprehension of what just been read. What students do after they read can determine how much they comprehend and get out of the reading that just took place. Many times as teachers we just ask basic questions and that is how we determine if the students read and understand. These questions intend well but do not get to the point of finding meaning in the text. Students just find the answers and write them down instead of thinking about them and discovering meaning from them. That is why we as teachers need to engage students in after reading strategies as well. We also need these to be meaningful and creative for it to grab students attention.
Some of the things these strategies need to do is "comment on the text or their understanding of the text, connect what they are reading to other texts or personal experiences, [...] compare one part of the text to another, summarize the text, [...] and distinguish between fact and opinion"(Beers 139). These are just some of the things but  they show the importance and impact after reading strategies have. After reading strategies can change a students view of the book and make them find new meaning after reading. Some Strategies that could be implemented are now going to be shown.
Semantic Differential Scales:
Semantic different scales are a way to get students thinking and coming up with their own opinions. These scales let students "decide how much of the trait a character possesses"(Beers 141). This lets them decide on what the character really is like after reading. It can make them think deeply about attributes that we all have. Some books can dive into deeper discussions than others so it is open for how deep you want them to go. These also affect their lives since most of your students want to develop good characteristics in life. Filling out the charts will make them question their own traits and get down to the root of what each trait really means in life. This also allows for students from different backgrounds to discuss why they think differently about different traits. That is a great way to have students voices heard and considered in the classroom. A simple Semantic scale would look like this:

You can create your own scale based upon the questions the text brings up. It is very accessible and easy to change and use for varying texts. This will lead to good discussion and thought from a text and create an open environment in the classroom.
Somebody Wanted But So (SWBS):
This strategy looks at specific characters in a book and evaluates what happened to them throughout the book. Many times teachers will look for a class to just summarize a book after reading it. This becomes boring and repetitive for students. They know exactly who will answer and who won't and that won't change. That is why a SWBS is a good change up for students to see. A SWBS "offers a framework as [the students] create their summaries"(Beers 145). This helps student get over the daunting feeling of summarizing the book where they likely will say everything or nothing. Setting it up in a SWBS lets student focus on a character and summarize the story from that characters perspective. This gets students more involved and more likely to participating in the discussion of summarizing a story. The set up is simple but making the categories and putting them up on the board. It will look something like this:

This makes it easy to write down what students are thinking and have everyone see it. Also writing it on the board and having the class discuss it can provide some varying opinions on what the characters really wanted. This leads to a wide variety of possible answers and great discussion. This strategy also makes it possible to summarize the story from multiple viewpoints. This is good for students because it helps them see things from varying angles. This will help them in life in general when they are making decisions. They can see that their decisions effect other people by seeing how different a SWBS looks like for two separate characters. This will help students get more out of what they have read and be able to apply it to their daily lives.