Thinking beyond the text

Proficient readers use a variety of reading strategies to make sense of the text they are reading. As an adult we don't think about this, because the reading process has become unconscious.  Students benefit from explanations, modeling and practicing how to integrate the different strategies effectively with many kinds of texts.
I like to use picture books as models. During the read aloud I stop and ask the reading buddies share their thinking. This way all students have access to the same text and all students get to share their thinking. After the buddy sharing, one or two students share with the whole class. Usually they don't share what they thought, but rather what their buddy said.

Readers think within the text, beyond the text and about the text.
Thinking within the text means that the reader understands the basic meaning of the text. This is the foundation for higher thinking skills.
Thinking beyond the text means that the reader goes more deeply into the meaning, beyond the literal understanding.
One of the reading strategies, and a way to think beyond the text, is to activate a schema and make connections. Activating schema means that we use our background knowledge to help us understand the book. For example when we started reading Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake, the students didn't know anything about the author. The next day when I showed them Patricia Polacco's When Lightening Comes in a Jar, they activated their schema and were able to tell that this author writes and illustrates her stories and that she sometimes writes about her own life.

While I read both books, the students made text-to-self connections. This means that they thought of similar events, relationships and feelings in their life. Thinking beyond the text, connecting the reading to their own experiences helps them to understand the characters better.