TEACHING STUDENTS TO READ INFORMATIONAL TEXT

1. TEACHING STUDENTS TO READ INFORMATIONAL TEXT Reference: What Research Has To Say About Reading Instruction, by Alan E. Farstrup (2002)

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 student’s learning.

5. 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???

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

7. Literacy for Adolescence • Highly engaging electronic print is readily available. • There is a proliferation of both fiction andnon-fiction print materials available on every topic imaginable.

8. 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.

9. 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

10. 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).

11. 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

12. 1.The Reading and Study Skills Paradigm • Focus from 1900’s to 1960’s 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.

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

14. 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

15. Studies Show… • Teaching reading skills in conjunctionwithcontent helps students to increase their facility with the skills. • In the late 1960’s, strategies started to change to reflect our increasing awareness of cognitive development.

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

17. 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.

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

19. A “Good” Schema Match • When the text and the reader’s schema match: - text information is organized more efficiently SO STUDENTS CAN: - make inferences - fill in knowledge gaps - elaborate on the material

20. 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”

21. 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

22. 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

23. Strategic Reading Ability • Is related to the reader’s age. • Reflects the reader’s 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.

24. 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

25. 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.

26. STUDENTS LEARN WITH TEXT, NOT NECESSARILY FROM TEXT. Throughdiscussion and writing, students negotiate the meaning of text.

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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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.

33. 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 author’s intent - to challenge what doesn’t 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 author’s ideas ( e.g., “go public”)

34. 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.

35. 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 thoughtfuldiscussions. • Students engage in reasoning, predicting, projecting and imagining.

36. Socratic Seminar Approach General Guidelinesfor 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.

37. 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 author’s meaning and to construct their own meaning of a central issue.

38. What Students Do During a Socratic Seminar • Focus on the content of the text selection. • Listen to one another. • Outer circle students take notes about the discussion. • Inner circle students speak clearly to one another.

39. 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.

40. 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.