Teaching Strategies

Three Level Reading Guides

Reading beyond the surface level is a challenge for many secondary school students. The three level guide was devised by Herber (1978) and developed further by Morris and Stewart-Dore (1984) to help students think through the information in texts.

The teacher writes the guide to help the students locate information in a text, interpret what the author means, and then apply the information. The three level reading guide has a series of statements divided into three levels:

• level one (literal) - the student reads the lines to work out the writer says;
• level two (interpretative) - the student reads between the lines and infers what the writer means;
• level three (applied) - the student reads beyond the lines and relates the knowledge to other contexts.

The three level guide helps the student to focus, first of all, on the information in the text. The student then thinks through this information, and interprets what the writer is trying to say. Finally, the student critically evaluates the information and relates it to what they already know.

Students will need a period to work through the three level guide. In class the teacher should:

• introduce the topic and text;
• ask the students to read the text independently, or read it aloud to them;
• ask the students to work through the reading guide by themselves;
• put them in pairs or small groups to discuss their answers;
• make sure the students explain their answers and justify their views.

Three Level Guide Examples

ESOL

High Use of Cellphones
ESOL - ELIP, stage 2, D Day
Genetically Modified Foods
The Big C
The Anzac Biscuit

English

Genetically Modified Foods

Health and PE

Physical Education - Year 11 NCEA 1.4

Science

Air Friction - Years 9,10
Air and Water Pressure - Years 9,10
The Gorse Community - Year 9
Genetically Modified Foods
The Big C What is Biotechnology?

Maths

(please note)

Graphs - Year 11
Problem Solving - Year 11
Graphs - Year 11
Problem Solving - Year 11
Problem Solving - Year 11
Algebra - Year 11
Year 13 Statistics

References

Herber, H. (1978). Teaching Reading in the Content Areas. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Morris, A. and Stewart-Dore, N. (1984). Learning to Learn from Text: Effective Reading in Content Areas. New South Wales: Addison-Wesley.

See also: My Read