How to Effectively Read and Respond to an Article

I came up with these when I first started teaching. Some of my students weren't ready to choose a book for reading workshop. They were very low-level readers. My solution was to have them read a high interest magazine either in the classroom or in the tutoring area. Their assignment was to write a reaction to the article. I don't know if this kind of assignment was good or not, but these guys (mostly) would profess to hate reading, but you'd have to pry Dirt Bike magazine or Field and Stream from their cold, dead hands. After a while I wondered why I was fighting it.