Reading comprehension can be difficult for autistic students - with all the words and details on a page, unstated meanings, and figurative language, it’s hard to know what to pay attention to! Organizers can help draw their focus toward text clues that give insights into:

• characters’ thoughts, feelings, and desires

• characters’ intentions

• foreshadowing of later events

• main ideas

• overall message of the story

Character Clues

Students may need cues to notice the salient details. During read-alouds as a class, you can model this before asking students to scour the text for character clues on their own. Teach them what to look for! They can make point form notes based on text clues in an organizer, like this one.

This organizer, from my book, is free to use so long as proper attribution to (c) Kara Dymond 2020 remains visible.

The Plot Thickens!

Have students use this organizer when working through novels. For each chapter, they fill out a column, reflecting on what they’ve learned after reading. think about the main ideas, what they learned about the characters, and making predictions about what might come next.

This organizer, from my book, is free to use so long as proper attribution to (c) Kara Dymond 2020 remains visible.