The Three-Level Guide is a reading strategy which supports students to read the text closely by providing a clear purpose and direction for reading. It is used to develop comprehension skills. The guide is a series of statements written by the teacher about a text, some are true and some false. Students/readers are asked to agree or disagree with these statements and justify their responses.
These statements are divided into three levels:
Level One: Literal Statements (at the surface level of the text) where students simply search for the information within the text.
Level Two: Inferential/Interpretive Statements (at a “between-the-lines” level) where students use the literal information and combine it with other information, either from the text or from their previous knowledge and experience, to find whether a statement is true or false.
Level Three: Applied Statements (at a “beyond-the-text” level) where students use the literal and inferential information and combine it with other information from their previous knowledge and experience in making generalisations, hypothesising, being creative and discussing points of view. Information from the text is extended beyond the limits of the text to find whether a statement is true or false.
The reader is directed to focus on the relevant information and to develop an informed opinion on the issues explored in the text. Once everyone has decided whether the statements are true or false they then share their answers and discuss any that they disagree on in order to form an agreement.
Watch this video to see year 13 students using three level guides in the classroom
Teaching and learning sequence planning example:
Primary level:
Secondary level:
Published on: 19 Jan 2018
