Teaching Reading in Content Area

1. Teaching Reading in Content Area

2. Purpose • CTE stresses teaching practical application of academic skills • Reading is basic life and career skill • Reading comprehension skills help students become independent, life-long learners

3. Experiences Leading to Higher Reading Scores • Reading assigned books outside of class • Reading 3+ hours per week outside of class • Writing one or two major research papers • Completing short writing assignments frequently • Making several oral presentations • Reading technical materials frequently

4. Your Role • Create appropriate environment • Be sensitive • Make students aware of need • Motivate students through interests • Assess students’ reading needs • Know what is required for entry level jobs • Identify students with possible problems • Know whether students can handle your materials

5. Your Role (cont.) • Extend • Adapt reading skills to more difficult, technical material • Develop • Teaching new, unique skills required in your area • Diagrams

6. Fusing Reading with Content • Incorporate instruction into lessons • More effective if can apply right away • Learn content and how to learn the content

7. Individual Assessment • Observe performance in classroom • Inability or reluctance to read aloud • Failure to complete assignments that require reading • Inability to spell or write • Inability to follow directions • Inability to read chalkboard, bulletin board, posters • Inability to locate information in manual or catalog

8. Ability to Handle Instructional Materials • Compare student reading level to those of materials • Cloze procedure • Select samples from your materials • Delete every fifth word • Evaluate scores • 70% and above – independent reader • 40% to 70% - instructional level • 40% and below – frustration level

9. Components • Pre-reading activities • Create interest and motivate students • During-reading activities • Guide reading and comprehension process • Post-reading activities • Aid in comprehension • Review what was read

10. Pre-Reading Tactic • Anticipation Guides • Select reading material & determine major ideas • Write ideas in short, clear statements • Put in format that will make students anticipate and predict what will be read (e.g., True/False) • Include brainstorming section • Discuss predictions • Assign reading • Compare and contrast predictions with reading

11. During-Reading Tactic • SQ3R • Survey – look at title, headings, graphs, summaries • Question – turn headings into questions • Read – read text following a heading • Recite – recite answer to question • Review – review entire chapter by outlining main points (come from headings, main ideas, key words)

12. Post-Reading Tactic • Graphic Organizers • Create several together until students get the hang of it • Several forms to choose from • Venn Diagram • Spider Map • Web • Chain • Mind Map • Sequential Thinking Model

13. Improvement Strategies • Teach technical vocabulary • Provide practical reading knowledge & tips • Use reading games • Introduce reading assignments • Supplement reading assignments • Individualize reading help • Provide practice and reinforcement

14. Teach Technical Vocabulary(new, essential, and specialized) • Definitions – oral or written; glossary • Context – need to be taught how to use this • Examples – provide examples of how used • Common equivalents – common terms • Real objects, models, pictures – show the object • Demonstrations – show the action or procedure

15. Rules for Introducing Vocabulary • Present word orally and in writing • Helps fix sound and spelling in mind • Teach the meaning • Ensure everyone understands • Use the word as often as possible • Ask questions requiring its use • Devise some permanent, visible reminder • Label objects, post vocabulary list, create posters

16. Context Clues Exercises • Select sample sentences from reading • Copy sentences and highlight word to define • Design procedure to guide students • Identify any signal words • Point out clue section of sentence • Analyze clue section to identify possible meanings • List possible meanings from which students can select

17. Structural Analysis Exercise • Provide a list of prefixes, roots, and suffixes along with their definitions • Provide a list of terms using the prefixes, roots, and suffixes provided • Have students write literal translations • Have students look up word and write dictionary definition • Compare literal and actual definitions

18. Practical Reading Knowledge & Tips • Point out clues about what is important • New vocabulary may be underlined or in bold • New vocabulary may be found in margin • List of new vocabulary may be found at beginning or end of chapter • Mention other devices for highlighting key points • Introduction or summary sections • Chapter titles and subheadings

19. Practical Reading Knowledge & Tips • Reading process • Point to what they read as they read • Underline important points in materials • Preview skimming • Provides framework for organizing information • Rapid reading of material to pick out important points • Read carefully, absorbing the information

20. Use Reading Games • Crossword puzzle - practice vocabulary • Word search - word recognition and spelling • Can have students match terms with definitions first • Word maze – no list provided, find words on own • Word scramble – word recognition and spelling • Can have puzzle using numbers to go with it • Directions game – begin with one word and follow directions to end with another word • Analogies – two pairs of words with similar relationships

21. Introduce Reading Assignments • What they are reading • Broad, general picture of particular topic or detailed treatment of one point • Retain main points and important details or lots of minor details • Why they are reading the assignment • How does it fit into what they are learning • How does it fit into the world of work

22. Supplement Reading Assignments • Audiotapes – listen while reading • Videotape process described in reading • Illustrations of what they are reading • Vocabulary sections – present definitions and illustrations of new and important vocabulary • Flash cards – vocabulary, vocabulary plus pictures, pictures on front and vocabulary on back • Peer teaching – pair stronger & weaker readers

23. Individualize Reading Help • Do not require students to perform additional activities that are not needed • Group students with similar abilities together and provide them with supplemental materials • Make sure it doesn’t seem like more work

24. Provide Practice & Reinforcement • Provide reading materials on students’ interests • Encourage students to use comprehension activities at end of chapter • Add written notes or questions to end of reading assignment to help students focus

25. Resources • Beers, S., & Howell, L. (2003). Reading strategies for the content areas. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Beers, S., & Howell, L. (2005). Reading strategies for the content areas: Volume II. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. • Canary, A. J. (2001). The importance of reading in family and consumer sciences. Ellensburg, WA: Family and Consumer Sciences Education Association. • Roe, B. D., Stoodt, B. D., & Burns, P. C. (1983). Secondary school reading instruction: The content areas. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.