5 Easy Ways to FLIRT With the Text

There are five methods you use to FLIRT with the text. Flirting with the text is the beginning stage when you start to read a book. FLIRT helps you understand the reading and what you want to know. The five stages of FLIRT are find the form, look at the text features, identify connections, reveal the purpose, and transfer to organizer. If you noticed FLIRT stands for the beginning letter in each of the stages.


The fist stage is Find the Form. What does it mean when it says find the form? Finding the form of the text is when you try and determine the genre of the text. You go through the text and look at the title, headings, and anything else that stands out in bold print. This will help you figure out what kind of reading that you will be doing and what kind of p[ace you need to read at.

The second stage is Look at the Text Features. At this step you look at how the text is structured. You look if it is has paragraphs or if it has one paragraph. You also look for bolded words or different headings to see what the text is like. In this step all you are doing is skimming the text for the different text features. Most of the time you are looking for bolded words for this part of the section.

The third stage is Identify Connections. In this stage you are looking at the headings and bolded words and making connections on them. You are using your past knowledge or experiences and connecting them with the words in the text. You can look at the pictures and other things in the text and connect to them. Usually the pictures in a text are easier to connect to because you can visualize them easier by seeing everything.

The fourth stage is Reveal the Purpose. In this stage you are determining what the author wants you to know. The author always will show you in the reading what he wants you to know and what the purpose of the text. There is always a purpose to the reading and the author puts clues in the reading to show you that. He/she puts questions at the end of the reading sometimes to hint you the purpose.

The final step is to Transfer to Organizer. In this stage you determine what the author's purpose is, and then that will tell you what type of organizer you need to use. There are all kinds of different organizers that you can use. some of them are compare contrast, description, etc. the organizers will show you what you are going to be looking for in the text. All of these will help you better understand the passage and get you set up with the reading.

This was a guest blog by colleget student, Alex Leland. I would love to hear your secrets for preparing your mind to read. Share your thoughts below or join the conversation on facebook.com/myreadingsecrets If you liked this post, sign up for my newsletter for more tips to become a better student.