As part of our year long focus on teaching strategies, I am going
to focus my attention this month on reading. Of course, it is not an
extensive examination of good reading strategies to use in your class. However, they are the strategies that I have
more recently been using with students in response to data trends and things
that I have noticed within classes. Before getting into the strategies,
let me start with some things that reading research has established as good
practice.
First,
engagement and motivation matter with reading. Since we are asking
students to do something that is cognitively demanding and rigorous, we have to
do what we can to engage them as best we can. There are numerous ways to
do this like giving more choice to readings, having really good pre-reading
activities, and using powerful and
interesting texts. Second, students need to have access to texts that are
within their reading range. In some cases, we are using texts that are higher
than a student’s frustration level. For them, it is just easier to shut down
and avoid the reading all together than it is for them to try to get through
the text. Third, students get better at
reading when they do it on a regular basis. Sometimes we-- as teachers-- get
into this feedback loop where we see that students are not reading because we
don’t think they can, so they don’t read, in which case they don’t get any
better. Building environments where students are given choice of texts
within their reading levels along with suitable amounts of time (including in
class), we can increase the likelihood that our students will see growth.
With that said, none of
these tasks are easy. Finding books that are engaging when your content
area might have very limited options available, is not easy. Getting a
rowdy class to be quiet long enough to read a text is not easy. These steps simply take time and sustained
commitment.
Here are some strategies
that you might find helpful in assigning, assessing, and working with texts in
your classroom.
Three Thoughts Before
Starting: I use this at the start of a major work, but it can easily be done
before any given assigned chapter or article. Simply have them do some
pre-reading writing by responding to the following prompts: I think this text will be about. . . One
prediction I have is. . . One connection I have is. . .
Introductory Think Alouds: An
introductory think aloud is starting the class off with a teacher modeled think
aloud. It works like this. You get
everyone on the same page and tell them that you will be reading aloud the
first part of the text for them. Tell them that you will also model the
types of thinking (or marking up) as you read that first part. Plan to stop at least three times to model
questioning, predicting, summarizing, connecting or evaluating. Then,
hand over the reading to the rest of the class.
Anticipation Guides: Develop a
list of about 6-8 statements related to the topic of the given reading.
Ask students to read each statement and either “agree” or “disagree”. Again, the purpose is to activate and
generate background knowledge. It works especially well, if each statement
corresponds with specific details or ideas that you want them to focus on as
they read. At the end of the reading,
ask students to return to their anticipation guide, review the items, and
identify those where their thoughts have changed.
Paired Reading: While
asking students to read aloud is generally not a good practice (especially cold
readings for struggling readers), here is one activity that allows students the
chance to do it in a low risk environment. For paired readings, students
are given a partner. Spread them out a
little so that each pair has a little space.
(I usually move four or five pairs into the hall.) Step one, each pair must find a common
starting point (for a novel or book). If it is an article, obviously,
this is not necessary. Step two, Person
A reads aloud while Person B listens.
Step three, at the end of a page or section, Person B must think aloud
(predict, question, connect, summarize, or evaluate). Then Person B reads the next page / section,
while Person A listens and thinks aloud. Repeat the process through the
entire article or for about 20-25 minutes.
I walk around with a clipboard, and document students reading and think
alouds.
Silent Discussions: Hand-out
a sheet with five to six boxes on it. Place students in groups of
four. Tell them that they will
participate in a silent discussion based around the assigned text. Give
the class a prompt related to the text and ask them to respond (in box 1) to
that prompt. After two minutes, students
initial their writing, and pass the sheet clockwise. In box 2, students
must respond to the thoughts in box 1 (agree, disagree, extend, question). After two minutes, students initial their
entry, pass the sheet clockwise again and you can either ask them to respond to
the first two boxes in box three, or you can give everyone a new prompt.
After the sheet is full, send the sheet back to the original author, have them
read the sheet and identify the most important idea or concept they can
find.
Audio Texts: Kindle
(Amazon) and Audible now have compatible systems. If you buy a text in
Kindle, you will see an option to add the audio version for a small additional
cost. Once you do that, you can actually open Kindle and find a play
button at the bottom. This allows you to
project your iPad on the screen and play the section of a novel or book AND see
the text at the same time. It even highlights the text as the reader
reads. This is especially meaningful
since many of these books are recorded by professional readers / actors.
Jump Aheads:
Assigning books is important. In order to help our students develop their
reading muscles, they need to have the opportunity to read extended texts
(something more than just textoids or short articles). However, sometimes
entire books are just too overwhelming.
Therefore, I will assign a book, recommend they read the entire piece,
but give them opportunities to jump ahead when they fall behind. The jump
aheads tell them what they are missing, but allows them to “catch up” and to be
part of the discussion. If the
alternative is that they never pick up the book and they give up easily, I
would much rather drag them ahead then to simply NOT assign a challenging text
to begin with. I’m not as concerned about catching them when they don’t
read as I am setting a high bar for them and hoping that they feel comfortable
enough to take some chances with reading a difficult text.
