This paper describes a five-step technique for secondary and postsecondary reading instruction, compatible with reader response theory, and addressing the need for academically underprepared students to experience the validation of their personal responses to texts. The first step involves identifying prior knowledge and opinions before reading the text and listing remembered information and reactions after reading the text. The second step involves the organization and synthesis of the lists generated in the identification stage. Students corroborate their individual reactions in small peer groups, outlining or mapping key issues and supporting ideas. The third step involves expressing, in which students consolidate the views of their peers with their own views by sharing their maps or outlines, or exchanging for critique two-page response papers. The fourth step involves analyzing, as the teacher fills in the "gaps" of information or logic by providing, for example, the socio-historical context in which the text was written, or providing similar works by other authors for comparison and contrast. In the final step, evaluating, students react to the global issues and hypothetical situations originally discussed in prereading activities in light of their experience with the text. They evaluate their previous beliefs and opinions, and infer how the author and others in differing interpretive communities would react to these issues and situations. (HTH)