What: Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) is a reading strategy that allows the teacher and students to make predictions throughout the text.

Who: DRTA can be used at any grade level.

When: DRTA should be used DURING reading.

Why: DRTA encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers. It activates schema by scaffolding the text. It teachers students to monitor their own understanding of the text as they’re reading. DRTA strengthens reading and critical thinking skills.

How: The teacher will choose a text and preselect stopping points that will allow students to make predictions about the text. Next, the teacher will activate students’ prior knowledge about the topic of the text. Then, students will make predictions about what they think they will read about in the text. Students should be able to explain how they created their predictions. The teacher will read the text until the first stopping point, then ask students to confirm or revise prior predictions, and make new predictions. This process will continue until students have finished reading. When students have finished reading, ask questions that will promote thinking and discussion.