TEACHING STUDENTS TO READ INFORMATIONAL TEXT

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TEACHING STUDENTS TO READ INFORMATIONAL TEXT

• Reference
• What Research Has To Say About Reading
  Instruction, by Alan E. Farstrup (2002)

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• Advocate for the explicit development of reading
  strategies that enable students to think and
  learn with texts
• Explicit teaching of informational text
  strategies will result in students metacognition
  and self-regulated use.

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Visible or Invisible?

• Explicit instruction in reading informational
  text is referred to as the visible aspects of
  teaching reading.
• Strategies that typify good teaching are referred
  to as the invisible aspects of teaching reading.

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What does good teaching add?

• When good teaching strategies are used
  continuously in the classroom, reading and
  subject matter learning are seamless.
• Language and literacy scaffold students learning.

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Assumption Underlying Early Literacy Policies

• once children learn to read, they will be able
  to use reading to learn for the rest of their
  lives
• Problem with this assumption???

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• Early levels of literacy and advanced literacy
  skills require different levels of intervention.
• Continual instruction in reading beyond the early
  grades is crucial.

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Literacy for Adolescence

• Highly engaging electronic print is readily
  available.
• There is a proliferation of both fiction and
  non-fiction print materials available on every
  topic imaginable.

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Reading in content areas

• Depends in a large degree on students ability to
  read independently and intelligently.
• Good teaching must provide for the improvement
  and refinement of the reading, attitudes, habits,
  and skills that are needed in all school
  activities involving reading.

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Every Teacher Is A Teacher of Reading!!

• But recent research shows us that
• - content area teachers generally
  value the role that reading plays in learning
• - yet, they fail to attend to
  reading in their own practices

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Sharing the Task

• The responsibility for teaching reading is a
  shared one, belonging to all teachers.
• Schools must provide teachers with reading
  specialist services ( resource support, current
  research, study time and support, teacher
  research support/ action research).

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Three Instructional Paradigms

• During the past century, three paradigms have
  contributed to our current approach to teaching
  reading in content areas
• 1. Reading and Study Skills Paradigm
• 2. Cognition and Learning Paradigm
• 3. Social Constructivist Paradigm

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1.The Reading and Study Skills Paradigm

• Focus from 1900s to 1960s was skills based.
• Research focused on
• 1. the identification of reading and
  study skills associated with each content area
• 2. the effects of various
  instructional variables on the acquisition of
  reading and study skills and learning in content
  areas.

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Research Conclusions

• Some reading skills are common across subject
  areas.
• BUT
• Some reading skills are specific to the
  content of the subject.

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Two Approaches to Teaching Reading of
Informational Text

• 1. Direct instructional approach
• - teaching the reading is separate
  from the content and assumes that transfer to
  content areas will happen naturally
• 2. Functional instructional approach
• - the teaching of reading is
  embedded in the context of content, using course
  materials

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Studies Show

• Teaching reading skills in conjunction with
  content helps students to increase their facility
  with the skills.
• In the late 1960s, strategies started to change
  to reflect our increasing awareness of cognitive
  development.

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2.The Cognition and Learning Paradigm

• Studies in the 1970s and 1980s, focused on the
  role of metacognition in reading.
• Research related to
• - schema theory ( using prior knowledge
  to construct meaning)
• - text structure
• - metacognition
• - strategic learning

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SCHEMA THEORY

• Readers are in a better position to understand
  what they are reading when they use prior
  knowledge to construct meaning.
• Schemata reflect the experiences, attitudes,
  values, and skills a reader brings to the text.
• Schema activation requires readers to activate
  what they know and apply it to make sense of new
  text.

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Activated Schemata

• Comprehension occurs when the reader
• 1. activates
• OR 2. builds new
• schema for connecting to the new text
  information.

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A Good Schema Match

• When the text and the readers schema match
• - text information is organized more
  efficiently
• SO STUDENTS CAN
• - make inferences
• - fill in knowledge gaps
• - elaborate on the material

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Text Structure

• Skilled readers actively search for the text
  structure that relates ideas hierarchically to
  differentiate between important and less
  important ideas in text.
• Termed strategic reading

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Good Readers

• Good readers are strategic
• - metacognitively aware ( regulate
  their comprehension strategies)
• - knowledgeable about their own
  reading processes
• - in control of reading activities (
  have reading strategies to use)
• - know what, how, when and why it is
  important to monitor what they are reading

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The Strategic Reader

• Displays
• 1. Self-knowledge what they know about
  themselves as readers and learners
• 2. Task knowledge what knowledge they have
  about reading tasks and the task at hand
• 3. Self-Monitoring and Regulation ability
  to keep track of how well they are comprehending
  and to use new strategies when comprehension
  problems arise

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Strategic Reading Ability

• Is related to the readers age.
• Reflects the readers experience with reading.
• OLDER STUDENTS ARE MORE STRATEGIC IN THEIR
  READING THAN YOUNGER STUDENTS.
• GOOD READERS ARE MORE LIKELY TO USE METACOGNITIVE
  PROCESSES TO SELF-REGULATE COMPREHENSION
  STRATEGIES TO MAKE SENSE OF TEXT.

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Comprehension Strategies That Relate to Cognitive
Theory

• Prior knowledge activation
• Question generation
• Cognitive mapping
• Graphic organizers
• Guided imagery
• Reciprocal teaching
• K-W-L
• Guided reading

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3. Social Constructivist Paradigm

• Learners construct knowledge from their minds
  through interaction with their environment.
• Knowledge is not passively received from the
  teacher or text but is always under construction.
• The social context of the classroom affects the
  way students interact with the teacher, the text,
  and one another.

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• STUDENTS LEARN WITH TEXT, NOT NECESSARILY FROM
  TEXT.
• Through discussion and writing, students
  negotiate the meaning of text.

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The Visible and Invisible

• Both implicit (in context) and explicit (strategy
  taught separately) strategies for teaching
  reading skills have value in constructing meaning.

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Visible Teaching of Informational Text Reading

• A direct instructional approach
• Skills and strategies are explicitly taught.
• Either taught by a reading teacher or by a
  content area teacher

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When instruction is visible and explicit

• Students develop
• - strategies for self-regulation
• - greater independence
• Teachers
• - use mini-lessons to teach reading
  strategies
• - explain, model, provide practice and
  application

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Steps in Direct, Visible, and Explicit Reading
Instruction

• Direct Instruction of the Strategy
• - what the strategy is
• - how to use it
• - why it is important to use
• - when it should be used
• Demonstration of the Strategy
• - model the strategy
• - stop at key points to question,
  prompt, and mirror the thinking required to use
  the strategy

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• 3. Strategy Practice
• - use easy text to practice the strategy
• - discuss use of the strategy
• 4. Strategy Application
• - apply the strategy in regular class
  assignments
• - the teacher frames the assignment so
  that the new strategy will have to be used

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Invisible Aspects of Content Area Reading

• Has appeal for teachers because they do not
  lose time teaching reading, then having to
  address the subject content.
• Teaching of reading happens incidentally while
  addressing content.

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Students can use reading strategies for
comprehension

• Before reading
• - to circumvent bad habits previously
  used
• - to analyze the reading task ( e.g.,
  purpose)
• During reading
• - to make sense of the text
• - to question the authors intent
• - to challenge what doesnt make sense to
  them
• - to look for organization of the
  information ( e.g., cause/effect, comparison/
  contrast, problem/ solution, sequence, main idea,
  detail)
• After reading
• - to extend and elaborate ideas read
• - to share their thinking about the
  authors ideas ( e.g., go public)

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Nature of a READING Classroom

• Talking and writing to learn can be a
  springboard into reading.
• Reading can be the basis for talking and writing.
• Talk can be spontaneous.
• Provides opportunities for students to respond
  personally and critically to ideas they encounter
  in text, through Socratic seminars.

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SOCRATIC SEMINARS

• Purpose is to use talk as a way to construct
  meaning.
• The teacher guides students learning through the
  artful use of questions.
• Core questions lead to thoughtful discussions.
• Students engage in reasoning, predicting,
  projecting and imagining.

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Socratic Seminar Approach

• General Guidelines for Teachers
• 1. Analyze the content of the text to be
  discussed ( e.g., major concept, insights,
  vocabulary, text cues, features)
• 2. Prepare a set of discussion questions that
  raise issues, probe, apply, and synthesize
  information.

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• 3. Arrange the room for a seminar by creating an
  inner circle ( for discussion) and an outer
  circle ( for the note takers).
• 4. Set 15 -30 minutes for the discussion start
  with a core question.
• 5. End the discussion with a summary statement.
• 6. Conduct a 5 -10 minute debriefing session
  focus on metacognitive questions.
• 7. Teacher leads the discussion to help students
  reconstruct the authors meaning and to construct
  their own meaning of a central issue.

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What Students Do During a Socratic Seminar

1. Focus on the content of the text selection.
2. Listen to one another.
3. Outer circle students take notes about the
   discussion.
4. Inner circle students speak clearly to one
   another.

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What Results Can Happen in a Socratic Seminar
Classroom?

• A response-centered classroom
• Values and fosters personal reactions to ideas
  found in texts
• Students respond to and explore ideas.
• Students write more and think more because the
  stakes are low ( no evaluation).
• Writing can take the form of learning logs,
  double-entry journals, or response journals.
• Quickwrite strategy is used to get ideas beyond
  recall on paper.
• Point-of-view prompts require students to write
  from different perspectives.

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CONCLUSIONS

• Teaching reading in the content area classroom
  does not require specialized teacher training.
• Teaching reading does not diminish the role of
  the specialist subject teacher.
• Teachers need to reflect on the strategies their
  students need to be successful in academic
  subjects.