Teaching Reading Comprehension: That Was Then, This Is Now

In the realm of literacy education, helping students connect with literature requires more than just decoding words. It requires the ability to track character development, shifts in perspective, and the maturation of ideas over time. The "That Was Then, This Is Now" strategy is a highly effective instructional tool designed to help students analyze how characters change from the beginning of a narrative to its conclusion.

Understanding the Strategy

At its core, this strategy functions as a comparative analysis framework. It asks students to take a specific character, setting, or theme and examine it at two distinct points in a story. By creating a visual or written contrast, students are forced to move beyond superficial reading and engage in deep analytical thinking. This method is particularly useful for novels, short stories, and even biographical accounts where personal growth is a central element.

How to Implement the Strategy

To use this strategy in the classroom, educators typically provide students with a simple chart divided into two columns: "That Was Then" (the past state) and "This Is Now" (the current state). The process follows these steps:

• Selection: Teachers identify a central character or thematic focus.
• Initial Analysis: Students identify the character's traits, beliefs, or circumstances at the start of the text.
• Tracking Progression: As students continue reading, they look for events or interactions that trigger change.
• Final Synthesis: Upon completing the text, students identify the character's final state and, most importantly, explain the "why"what specific factors caused this transformation?

Benefits for Comprehension

Using "That Was Then, This Is Now" offers several cognitive benefits for learners:

• Active Engagement: It transforms reading from a passive activity into an investigative one.
• Cause and Effect Mapping: It highlights the relationship between plot developments and psychological changes in characters.
• Structural Awareness: It helps students understand the arc of a narrative, making it easier to summarize the text effectively.
• Critical Thinking: It challenges students to support their observations with specific evidence from the text.

Differentiating for Student Needs

This strategy is highly adaptable. For younger students, the focus can be on simple physical changes or external circumstances, such as how a characters home life or appearance changed. For more advanced learners, the strategy can be used to track complex shifts in internal morality, philosophical viewpoints, or the reliability of a narrator. By layering the complexity of the "Then vs. Now" prompts, teachers can accommodate diverse reading levels within the same classroom.

Conclusion

The "That Was Then, This Is Now" strategy serves as a bridge between mere recall and true comprehension. By encouraging students to visualize and articulate the evolution of a storys elements, educators provide a clear path toward deeper literacy. It empowers students to see the literature they read not as a static set of events, but as a dynamic process of growth and change, ultimately leading to more insightful and meaningful reading experiences.