Twenty-Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Reading

Twenty-Five Ways to Get the Most Out of Reading

(Adapted from After-School Curriculum Guide, Children's Defense Fund: Washington D.C., 1999. Used with permission. This permission does not imply endorsement by the Children's Defense Fund.)

• Create a story from the title before the story is read.
  
• Write three new titles for the story that would give a good idea of what it was about.
  
• Create a poster to advertise the story so people will want to read it.
  
• Restructure the roles of the main characters to create new outcomes in the story.
  
• Compose and perform a dialogue or monologue that will communicate the thoughts of the main character(s) at a given point in the story.
  
• Imagine yourself as one of the main characters, and write a diary account of daily thoughts and activities.
  
• Create an original character and tell how the character would fit into the story.
  
• Decide which character you would most like to spend a day with and why.
  
• Judge whether or not a character should have acted in a particular way, and why.
  
• Decide whether the story really could have happened, and justify your decision.
  
• Consider how this story can help you in your own life.
  
• Appraise the value of the story.