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Helping Students Through the Reading Process

Pre-Reading/Through the reading/Reflecting on Reading

Helping Students with Pre-Reading

 1. Choose a portion of text. Identify key vocabulary and concepts students will need to understand the reading. Identify the main concept of the text.

2. Divide class into groups of three or four. In groups, students

3. As students share, list ideas on board, overhead, or graphic organizing software like Inspiration. Try to group ideas as they’re shared.

4. Lead a discussion about the words and phrases produced. Ask students to reflect on their associations with the concept, using prompts such as

4. Guide the students to reformulate their knowledge about the topic, using prompts like

  5. Use students’ responses to determine how much help they’ll need through the text:

Langor breaks students’ responses into three levels:

·         Some prior knowledge.  Students give examples or attributes or define characteristics.  This level indicates that students can make inferences about the topic and can comprehend the text with some teacher guidance.

·         Little prior knowledge.  Students respond with words that sound like the stimulus word or provide firsthand but not quite relevant experiences. This level of response indicates that students will not be able to form inferences or read with comprehension until they receive direct instruction about the concept.

Formulate the Central Search Question | Identifying Resources | Developing Search Strategies | Search & Gather |
 Evaluate, Select, & Organize | Analyze, Interpret, Synthesize, & Apply | Communicate Findings |
Reflect on Product & Process

(from Langer, J. (1981). From theory to practice: A prereading plan. Journal of Reading, 25, 152-156.)  

 

 

Helping Students Through the Reading Process

As students begin to engage in the text, there are a whole assortment of strategies that may be useful in building their reading skills. We've looked at many "Into" or Pre-Reading strategies. These are "Through" strategies. Search and Gather skills focus on the basics: skimming and scanning, using text structure as an aid, finding the main idea, and summarizing key points.

In Matching Books to Readers, Gay Sue Pinnell offers some suggestions for helping determine appropriate levels of book by looking at the following criteria:
  • length
  • layout
  • structure and organization
  • illustrations
  • words
  • phrases and sentences
  • literary features
  • content and theme

 

Teaching Students to Choose Books at the Right Level

The goal for teachers and library media teachers is to help students in their selections, not restrict their choices. UNLV Reading Education specialist Frank Serafini, in "Levels or Labels: The Precarious Role of Leveled (Leveling) Texts," offers this warning:

When librarians, reading specialists and classroom teachers determine what readers are able to read, readers no longer have to decide whether they can understand a particular text...While I am not naïve enough to believe that all readers can make appropriate choices all of the time, it seems we are trying to shortcut the arduous task of helping young readers understand what constitutes an appropriate selection of text by making it for them.

Making a Variety of Resources Available

Remember that we all read a variety of materials--at a variety of reading levels--to gather information. Good readers will take advantage of information sources in a variety of formats and genres:
Formats: Have You Considered...
  • trade books
  • reference books
  • magazines and newspapers
  • online databases
  • encyclopedias
  • atlases
  • audio recordings
  • videos
  • picture books
  • web sites
Genres: Have You Considered...
  • biographies
  • articles
  • short stories
  • plays
  • poetry
  • historical fiction
  • songs
  • screenplays
  • radio interviews/features

Making Use of Primary Source Documents

  • Teaching and Learning with Primary Source Documents: From the National Archives and Records Administration's Digital Classroom
    http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html
  • Learning to Use Primary Sources:
    From the American Memory collection, "this lesson introduces students to primary sources -- what they are, their great variety, and how they can be analyzed. The lesson begins with an activity that helps students understand the historical record. Students then learn techniques for analyzing primary sources."
    http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/psources/pshome.html

Practice in Ranking Sources:
Good readers consider the best sources available and prioritize their time accordingly. Joyce Valenza has a fabulous
Practice guide to ranking sources.
http://mciu.org/%7Espjvweb/ranking.html

 

Text Structure

Janet Allen’s students “saw everything in the textbook as equally important (or unimportant) and therefore viewed the textbook not as a reference with predictable reference tools but as a long, long novel without any interesting characters or action. They were stymied even before they began” (Yellow Brick Roads, Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12, p. 139).

These activities all help students become consciously aware of how text aides can help them navigate difficult text.

  • Bull's Eye Graphic Organizer
    Teach students to use the headings, subheadings, and graphics in expository text to locate support for the main idea, using a graphic organizer.
    http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/downloads/pdf/bullseye%20graphic%20organizer.pdf
  • Predicting Text Structure:
    Instructions and sample lesson for recognizing key features of a text.
    http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reading/textstructure.htm
  • Sample Lesson Using on Online Text Structure
    From Reading Trail, a Mt. Everest learning site.
    http://www.everestquest.com/reading.htm
  • Strengthening Reading and Writing Skills Using the Internet
    Focuses on text organizing strategies including sequencing, compare-contrast, cause and effect, previewing, and main ideas.
    http://teacher.scholastic.com/professional/teachtech/internetreadwrite.htm
  • The Textmapping Project:
     Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content.
     http://www.textmapping.org/overview.html
  • Understanding Text Implementation Guide
    Good general instructions for teaching text structure.
    http://go.hrw.com/secure/ss/general/strategies/STRAT02U.PDF

Table of Contents and Index

Skimming and Scanning
These sites offer simple explanations and instructions for these important skills.

  • Skimming and scanning (Prentice Hall)
    • http://www.phschool.com/science/biosurf/superread/unit4/4strategy1.html
  • Scanning (BBC)
    • http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/techniques/scanning/factsheet1.shtml
  • Skimming (BBC)
    • http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/techniques/skimming/factsheet1.shtml

Schema and Organizers
One of the most common--and helpful--scaffolds to help readers through a text is to provide an organizational guide that provides a context for meaning. Here are several:

PACA:
Predicting and Confirming Activity asks students to chart their predictions against what they read.

Explanation and Sample Activity
p. 49 of this document (p.57 using Adobe Reader).

Question and Answer Relationships (QAR):
QAR classifies questions into types in a way that helps students become more strategic readers.

  • Explanation of QAR
    http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/strat/qar.html
    QAR Chart
    http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/pdf/qar.pdf
    QAR Concept Map
    http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/readquest/pdf/qar_map.pdf

SQ3R:
SQ3R is a five-step study plan to help students construct meaning while reading. It uses the elements of questioning, predicting, setting a purpose for reading, and monitoring for confusion.

Textbook Activity Guide:
This activity asks students to sequence, organize, and show relationships. It labels specific skills so that students develop an awareness of them as important aides in reading comprehension.

Explanation and Sample Textbook Activity Guide
http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/tnl/langarts/pdf/determine.PDF (p.11 of guide)

 

Summarizing:

Note-Taking

Electronic Note-taking
Many students have difficulty reading much text at all when viewing sources online. One way get students to slow down and cure their click-click-click disease is to create a template into which students can cut and paste their notes.

 

Schema and Organizers
One of the most common--and helpful--scaffolds to help readers through a text is to provide an organizational guide that provides a context for meaning. Here are several:

History Frame:
Applies the traditional story structure of language arts to the social sciences. Includes suggestions for sciences, too.

Inquiry Chart:
An organizing grid for creating questions on a topic after reviewing what has already been learned from a variety of sources. Includes reflection and summary skills.

Mind Mapping (Concept Mapping):
Students focus on key ideas written in their own words and diagram connections among key ideas, helping comprehension.

Semantic Feature Analysis
Students examine related concepts within a matrix to make distinctions between and among concepts according to pre-established criteria. compared.

Analyze, Interpret, Synthesize, and Apply Information

Once students have gathered information about a topic, they need to do something to make it their own. Skills here include

  • analyzing
  • interpreting
  • comparing
  • viewing facts from another perspective
  • synthesizing


Reading support here consists of applying higher-order thinking strategies to texts. Some strategies:

  • Cube It:
    Students take a six-sided approach to problem-solving.
    http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reading/cubeit.pdf
  • Decision Making:
    This graphic organizer helps students make a decision while considering sources.
    http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reading/decision.pdf
  • Discussion Web:
    This technique, by Vacca and Vacca, describes a process for reaching group consensus after examining collected data.
    http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reading/discussionweb.htm
  • From Another Point of View:
    Graphic organizer helps separate facts, opinions, and relevant perspectives before drawing a conclusion.
    http://www.sbhsd.k12.ca.us/sbhslib/reading/perspectives.pdf
  • Questions That Help Students Synthesize Information
    Guided questions that help students create new meaning from the information they've collected.
    http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/ReadStrat18.html

 

Helping Students Reflect on Product and Process

 

This stage involves reflection on both the content and the manner in which students learn. It might include

 

 

Reading Support

Support for this stage of the process includes all the activities that help students become aware of their reading skills and reading process.

 

 

Thanks to San Benito  High School for ideas and information