Reading as a Process

1. Reading as a Process

2. Portrait of an Adolescent Reader Before Reading…… • Setting a Purpose for reading • Establishing conceptual frameworks to recall text over time • Activating background knowledge of the topic • Using knowledge of text structure to understand text • Understands the features of narrative text such as plot, setting, characters, problem, and resolution • Understands the features of expository text such as compare/contrast, problem/solution, cause/effect, main idea/details, and sequence

3. A Portrait of an Adolescent Reader During Reading… • Reading actively for a purpose • Monitoring comprehension • Discriminating between important and less important ideas • Using a arsenal of “fix-up” strategies • Making connections to text/world/self • Clarifying unfamiliar vocabulary, using context clues and word-attack skills • Reading flexibly by using a variety of strategies such as pacing, adjustment, skimming, and scanning • Interacting with text by questioning, predicting, and extending • Utilizing critical reading skills, such as evaluating, interpreting and analyzing, recognizing the difference between fact and opinion, and recognizing logic

4. A Portrait of an Adolescent Reader After Reading… • Synthesizing information from a variety of sources to develop an understanding and thinking about next steps such as “What else do I need to know?” • Summarizing what has been read by recalling the plot or main idea • Evaluating the ideas in the text • Interpreting information • Interacting with others about reading • Developing oral and written responses to reading • Reading more about the same topic • Using reading to solve problems in life

5. What should Teachers Do To Improve Students’ Reading Comprehension? Teachers Model a Strategy or Skill Students should Apply the Strategy or Skill Students take Responsibility for the Strategy or Skill

6. Show students how to grasp and set purposes. • Different purposes require different plans • Purpose can be determined by student (prediction) • Purpose can be determined by teacher (focus question) • Purpose set before reading • Purpose: Why am I going to read this? • Purpose: What do I expect to learn by reading this?

7. Demonstrate frequently by modeling the checking of one’s own degree of comprehension = Monitoring Asking questions of self while reading: • “Does this make sense?” • “Am I understanding what I’m reading?” • “Are my predictions correct?” • “Do I need to read ahead to understand the meaning of a difficult term?” • “Do I need to stop and summarize to myself?”

8. Demonstrate specific comprehension strategies. • Teachers need to model how to use a strategy • Teachers need to share their own thinking aloud as they apply a strategy • Teachers need to model the strategy in a variety of texts • Teachers need to model strategies as an on-going event (students learn and develop different levels of understanding over a period of time)

9. Give students guided experiences with different types of text.

10. Help students activate prior knowledge and apply it. • Prior knowledge is the basis upon which further understanding of information can occur. • Activate prior knowledge by: brainstorming, mapping, webbing, clustering, discussion, and listing • The “activated” prior knowledge must be applied to the written material by having students compare what they thought they knew to the text

11. Help students learn to make reasonable, useful inferences. • To comprehend written material one must make inferences • To make an inference, the reader needs to do two things: (1) Use key words in the text and information already known about the topic and then (2) brings these two types of information together to make an inference that goes beyond the information presented

12. Build prior understanding of key vocabulary. • Model words for students and share your thinking • Identify key concepts students need to know • Relate the new information to something they already know and understand • Vocabulary is best learned and understood in written context • Pre-teach only those words essential to understanding • Have students participate in group activities to practice vocabulary

13. Demonstrate vocabulary comprehension strategies. • Students need several exposures to a new word • Students need to experience the word in varied contexts • Teachers need to model for students how to explain vocabulary in their own words • Students need time to practice these strategies

14. Demonstrate ways to identify key ideas (main ideas) in textbooks. • Headings • Subheadings • Boldface type • Graphic organizers (maps, webs, and clusters)

15. Emphasize the use of knowledge gained from reading. • Teachers need to demonstrate for students the before, during, and after parts of the process • Equal emphasis needs to be given to each stage so students see the significance to each • By using charts, diagrams, and other organizers students can see how knowledge changes • By modeling the use of knowledge in a product such as a poster, story, poem, report, or play, teachers can emphasize to students how important it is to “say it in my own words”

16. Activities that Support a Reading Process

17. An Example: Take a moment to read this piece from Wish you Well by David Baldacci and think about it: Jack’s eyes were silver dollars of panic, his breath no longer coming up. As the car raced across the slick road and onto the dirt shoulder on the other side, Amanda lunged into the backseat.