In this post you will find ....

• Reading for the Rest of Us: A non-expert guide to reading for other non-experts (part one)
• What's in the May edition of EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP: Supporting New Teachers

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READING FOR THE REST OF US:
A non-expert guide to reading skills for other non-experts
Part One

For years, teachers of language-rich subjects have been deliberately teaching literacy strategies and strengthening reading comprehension, but in other subjects many of us take reading for granted (often falsely) in our students and the thought of teaching skills for reading leaves us mystified.

From a quick tour through the Ministry of Education's publication "Effective Literacy Strategies in Years 9 to 13" it seems effective reading has at least four stages - three of which I personally haven't been giving adequate attention.

How many others out there are simply assigning a reading, sometimes with a few questions, and then hoping for the best?

This week's post is an overview of the four stages. More detailed explorations of each stage with lesson activities and references for further reading will follow in subsequent posts- hope it's useful!

Effective Reading - Four Stages:
• mastering vocabulary
• preparing for reading
• actively reading
• information processing

MASTERING VOCABULARY:

Unless the purpose of the reading is to introduce vocabulary, the vocabulary should be firmly in place before jumping into a reading. When students come across unknown words it interrupts and conflicts with reading for meaning. Secondly, if cognitive load theory is correct then each new vocabulary word requires a "chunk" of cognitive capacity thus reducing the number of "chunks" available for creating meaning out of the text.

Students need to be deliberately taught both:
• Specialised academic vocabulary - the jargon of your subject.
And also
• General academic vocabulary - words like "define", "evaluate", "function" etc that are used on assignments and assessments.

Particularly troublesome for students are words that have a specific meaning in academic or subject-specific language but have a different "everyday" meaning.

Students need to be introduced to new vocabulary, have time to explore meanings, and be given ample opportunities to practice using the newly acquired vocabulary.
(Strategies for Vocabulary Building will be coming next post in part 2).

PREPARING FOR READING:

This crucial stage often gets missed but has significant impact when included.

Preparing to read a text involves:
• activating prior knowledge
• establishing a purpose
• identifying type, structure and features
• pre-reading and predicting

Exploring prior knowledge helps teachers assess student interest, readiness and uncover pre-conceptions, but it also clarifies for the students what they know and don't know. Reminding students of their previous learning provides important mental "hooks" to "hang" new relevant knowledge.

A clear purpose for reading motivates and focusses the reader. It changes how the reader interacts with the text, prompting the reader to look for particular information and structures. Without a clear purpose, it becomes difficult to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information in the text.

The type of text and the associated features and structures vary widely from subject to subject. Each learning area must recognise and teach the particular text types and structures used widely in their field. With our high levels of experience, teachers switch from type to type almost subconsciously, but for less-experienced readers the differences between types are not obvious and research confirms that students benefit from learning to notice and distinguish text types.

Pre-reading and predicting can help students frame what they are about to read, activate their prior learning, establish a purpose for reading the text, and identify what structures will be most helpful when searching for information. Once the students have a clear idea of what they want to find and where it is most likely to be, they will be able to read for deeper understanding.

ACTIVELY READING:

The four strategies used to read for deeper understanding:
• predicting
• asking questions
• clarifying
• summarizing
have been built into the highly successful "Reciprocal Teaching" approach developed by Palincsar and Brown in 1984.

In this model, the teacher leads students through a reading and discussion while "thinking aloud" to model the four strategies in a structured way. Then students work in groups reading and discussing similar texts, each taking turns leading the discussion and internalizing the four strategies with the support of their peers. Finally, students practice using the strategies independently with feedback and guidance offered by the teacher.

More recently, Pressley (1998, 2001) added "imaging" to the list of strategies finding success with the construction of mental images, similes and metaphors to represent the concepts of a text.

Identifying the key aspects of a reading and summarizing effectively are skills that students struggle with and need to be deliberately modeled and practised.

PROCESSING THE INFORMATION:

So what was the reading for? What purpose did it serve? Has that purpose been fulfilled? How can the information extracted from the reading be organized and recorded?

Hyerle's thinking maps, Graphic organizers, note-taking formats are all useful strategies to help students monitor the understanding they have gained from the text. Students must process, organise, summarise, and condense the information as they complete these activities, clarifying relationships between concepts as they go.

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PROFESSIONAL READING:

This Month's edition of Educational Leadership has not yet arrived - but here's what we can expect to find inside. (Remember if any article sounds particularly interesting, flick me an email and I'll pop a copy into your pigeon-hole. Fresh articles will be entering the staff room green folders too!)

May 2012 | Volume 69 | Number 8

Supporting Beginning Teachers

Feature Articles

Perspectives / Rewriting Survivor

Marge Scherer

Beyond Solo Teaching

Collaboration is the key variable in shaping what teachers do and learn.

Sharon Feiman-Nemser

The Challenges of Supporting New Teachers

A Conversation with Linda Darling-HammondLinda Darling-Hammond reflects on the promising practices and the significant obstacles that face beginning teachers.

Marge Scherer

Now That I Know What I Know

What one teacher learned from his power struggle with a student.

Dan Brown

Retaining Teachers
How Preparation Matters: A research study shows that science and math teachers who receive more pedagogical training are far more likely to stay in teaching.

Richard Ingersoll, Lisa Merrill and Henry May

Preparing Teachers for the Early Grades

Disparate preparation of early grade teachers often means that a given candidate has either content knowledge or skills to engage young children, but not both.

Laura Bornfreund

What's Missing from Teacher Prep

Teachers critique their university prep programs and list improvements needed.

Gary M. Chesley and Janice Jordan

What New Teachers Want from Colleagues

Five teachers share how their more seasoned coworkers might have helped them.

Deborah Bieler

The Don'ts and Don'ts of Teaching

Rookie teachers, here's a clear list of behaviors to actively avoid.

Gary Rubinstein

Mentoring That Fits

How to make sure that supports suit needs.