All the Right (Reader) Moves

By Doug Buehl,
Madison East High School teacher
Member, Wisconsin State Reading Association

June 2004

It’s another incredible save by Cujo!” As fans, we have become accustomed to the enthusiastic raves of sports announcers as they chronicle the exploits of exemplary players. Undoubtedly, another amazing stop of the puck by Detroit Redwings goalie Curtis Joseph (Cujo to his admirers) will result in several instant replays, as hockey commentators systematically dissect the various moves that enable him once more to engineer a remarkable save.

Sports aficionados relish regaling each other with the fabled moves of their favorite players.

Former Wisconsin teacher Jeff Wilhelm has coined the term “moves” to refer to the actions we take as readers when we engage with a text. The analogy to the effective moves developed by highly skilled athletes is a powerful one: proficient readers have established a repertoire of successful moves that enable them to handle a wide range of texts for a variety of useful purposes.

The Strategy
What moves characterize us as readers? Helping students identify the moves that can work for them is a significant step in their development as independent readers and learners.

Step 1: Begin by asking students to brainstorm what is meant by the term “moves” as it is used above – moves by athletes as they perform in their various sports. Students will likely offer that “moves” are actions an athlete takes. Further discussion should reveal other elements of “moves”: these actions are intentional; they are undertaken to achieve success in one’s efforts; they are the result of a great deal of practice; they are adaptable to a number of situations or circumstances; they can become a matter of habit; they could be personalized.

Extend the analogy to readers. Ask students to generate a list of the moves that readers use to successfully make sense of what they are reading. When several “reader moves” have been identified, pose some further questions:

• Do certain moves work with some kinds of reading and not others (for example, narrative vs. expository)?
• How do you decide what reader moves to use?
• What do you do when none of your moves work?
• How aware are you of the moves you use when you read?
• Are there reader moves that you have not yet mastered?
  

At this point, it might be helpful to sort these reader moves into two categories: Thinking Strategies and Study Strategies.

Examples of Thinking Strategies might include: I try to think about things I already know that are connected to what I’m reading; I try to picture what I am reading in my head; I imagine that what I am reading is actually happening to me; I ask myself questions about what I’m reading; and I look for ways the author signals what is most important.

Examples of Study Strategies might include: I underline things that I think are significant; I jot annotations in the margins; I reread passages that are hard to understand; I take notes on key information; I chart qualities and salient details on major characters; and I clarify difficult vocabulary.

Step 2: Model, by thinking aloud, some of the moves you use with a short text that you can display with the overhead projector. Wilhelm advocates devising a Text Protocol Form (see example above) to assist students in tracking their reader moves. As you think aloud about the text presented in the left column, use the lines in the right column to register what you notice yourself thinking.

The Text Protocol Form prompts students to record what they are thinking, feeling, seeing, doing, or connecting to as they read. In our Tornado example, you might note several moves that qualify as thinking strategies: you thought about what you knew and had viewed in movies to help you “see” this particular scene; you noticed yourself becoming personally involved when the author stated that the tornado was headed right at the man in the article; you imagined what it would be like to be in that situation; you began to speculate what this man should do.

Next solicit any study strategies that might be appropriate moves. Underlining details like 200-mile-an-hour winds might be helpful in collecting key information. Some students might mention strategies for figuring out unknown words, such as “hamlet.”

Step 3: After students finish their reading of a passage, have them reread what they entered in the right column of the Protocol Form. Then, ask them to list five moves that they observed themselves using while reading. Next, ask students to characterize the way they read this excerpt. For example, a reading of the tornadoes passage might have centered on visualizing events as a primary move. Other moves might be reading with a critical eye, reading with empathy, or reading with connections.

Posted June 2, 2004