Recommended for Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: Level 3

ACTIVE READING STRATEGIES

SUGGESTION FOR NOTATING THE NOVEL: Take notes as you read Fahrenheit 451. Record your ideas on paper or use sticky notes within the pages of the book. A good practice is labeling your responses with the strategy used (e.g. J Symbol). You are NOT REQUIRED to take notes as you read, but it is recommended. Remember, active reading means that the reader interacts directly with the text to discover its meaning, the author’s intentions, and the author’s methods of presentation.

Visualize Create images in your mind while you read, as if you were watching a movie in your head. Certain spots in the text will require you to create these images very carefully. If your “movie” stops, this is a good indication that your understanding is breaking down.

? Question Ask questions about what you are reading. The

answers to these questions might be found by looking elsewhere in the text, by consulting another resource, by making a prediction, inference or connection. Some questions will never be answered.

Determine Decide what parts of the text are essential to your

What’s Important understanding of the piece. Once you have set a purpose for your reading, it’s easier to do this. Pay close attention to understanding parts of the text that you determine are important and spend less time trying to understand parts that may not be as essential.

Make Connections Use what you already know and what you have already experienced to help you connect with what you are reading. You may make connections between the text and the real world, the text and your own experiences, or between the text you’re reading now and text you have read earlier (or movies, tv shows).

= Summarize Summarize (retell in your own words) the content

& Synthesize of what you are reading periodically as you go through the text. Synthesizing is a little more complex than summarizing. To synthesize, readers do more than just retell what’s happening, they add in their deeper understandings, realizations, interpretations, and conclusions about what they are reading.

P Make Predictions Make an educated guess about what is going to

happen later in the text. Predictions are made by piecing together clues in the text and/or a reader’s prior understanding of the way things tend to happen.

I Make Inferences Figure out what the author is trying to imply (suggest) by piecing

together the details and clues you are given. If the text says that Mary took her ball and glove outside, the reader might infer that Mary is going to play baseball.

“ ” Significant The author seems to be saying something important or profound.

Quotations Write the first few words of the quotation and why you think it is important. Think about how it may affect the rest of the book.

Symbols An object or action seems to be appearing multiple times as you read, suggesting it is being used as a symbol. What do you think it represents? What is the author using it to say? What message is the author sending?

Motifs/Themes Note when an idea appears again and again, suggesting it is a theme or motif. What is the author saying about this idea? What are your thoughts about this idea? How do the actions and events in the book indicate what message the author is trying to send you?

Author’s Craft Mark any imagery, word choice, writing style, or techniques that the author uses that are particularly striking and jump out at you. How does the author achieve this effect?

Revising Meaning Think about how you felt about a subject before you started reading the text. How have your thoughts on that subject changed? What is happening in the text that is causing your ideas and opinions to change?

Y/N Reactions Indicate areas of the text that you agree or disagree with. Write

& Reflections how what you are reading makes you feel or what certain passages make you think about.