Example: Narrative text

Don't you just love reading and getting awesome reading experiences! No? Before you start reading, try building up your Interest and your curiosity. Think about the title, the author and what kind of literature... "genre" the book is. Then you will be using the strategy: Predict Um, the book's title is "The girl" Who is she?

Why is the book called that? Maybe she is a ghost? It looks like that in the illustration. Maybe the book will be about her. Author, Lovis Björsell... ?

Have you read anything she has written before? But perhaps you like the ghost genre! The sun had already warmed up the stone that I sat upon. Beautiful flowers of summer were rising up above the high grass. I tried to catch a passing butterfly.

It smelled of summer. Summer vacation! Finally! - Do you want some strawberries Charlie? My mother asked. I smiled and reached for a strawberry.

It was warm from the sun and tasted sweet. I laid down in the grass. The sky was blue, and there wasn't a single cloud visible in the sky. Now you probably get that Charlie is happy and relaxed! Is that how you feel on the first day of the summer vacation?

If you think about how you would feel in that same situation you connect the text to your own experiences and emotions. Now you are using the strategy: Text connections - Text to self That is when I saw the girl! She had a white dress and long dark hair that surrounded her serious looking face. She looked a bit like a ghost. - I'll be right back, I told my mother, and stood up. I was wondering if the girl would like to become my summer friend.

Are you beginning to understand that Charlie is feeling a bit lonely? The clues in the text tell you that Charlie wants the girl to become her summer friend. When you read more deeply and really think about Charlie's emotions you use the strategy: Read between or beyond the lines. When you read between the lines you understand that Charlie feels something, even though it doesn't say so in the text. And if you read beyond the lines you understand why she feels that way.

Your experience is heightened, when you can understand Charlie's emotions. Suddenly the girl ran away, very quickly, as if she were frightened. I shuddered! Dark clouds had gathered in the sky and I felt cold drops on my cheek. Maybe that was why the girl had run away?

Before I knew it, the heavens opened up. The dry, warm grass was soon transformed into a cold wet goo. The grass became slippery and I fell. With a wet behind and water dripping from my hair I hurried back. Despite the fact that the text doesn't say so literally, you now know that it is raining heavily and that Charlie is getting very wet.

You can tell this from clues like "cold drops", "wet goo", and "the grass became slippery". You are again using the strategy: read between the lines. Your reading experience becomes fuller when you read between the lines, because it makes you understand things that aren't spelled out in the text. It rained cats and dogs for hours. Bored, I sat by the window and looked at it.

It might be difficult to understand an expression like "it rained cats and dogs". But as an active reader you then stop and use the strategy: Understand difficult words Reread the text -- this time a bit slower. "It rained cats and dogs for hours. Bored, I sat by the window and looked at it." When you reread the text, you probably can guess that this expression means that it's raining a lot. Suddenly, I felt shivers down my spine! The girl that I had seen standing in the meadow now was standing outside the cabin!

She had the same white dress on, her hair was dark as before, but I also noticed something I hadn't seen before. She had blood on her face! Can you feel the story and see the girl in the meadow before you? Does the environment remind you of anything? Your family's cabin in Dalarna?

Wouldn't it be very frightening with a ghost there? Before you continue reading: imagine the story as a film in your head. You are using the strategy Visualise - create inner images. The reading experience and the suspense increases. It almost feels like a film.

Isn't that cool? Watch out for the ghost. Moahahaha!