Reading in the Content Areas Facilitated by: Lisa D. Menges, LIU #12 Staff Developer, Division of Instructional Services

Today’s Objectives: To create an awareness of the need for content area reading instruction. To recognize there are strategies used before, during, and after reading. To leave today with strategies you can implement in your classrooms tomorrow.

Cause for Concern According to the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 37 percent of fourth graders and 26 percent of eighth graders cannot read at the basic level; and on the 2002 NAEP 26 percent of twelfth graders cannot read at the basic level. That is, when reading grade appropriate text these students cannot extract the general meaning or make obvious connections between the text and their own experiences or make simple inferences from the text. In other words, they cannot understand what they have read.

Sixty percent of America's prison inmates are illiterate and 85% of all juvenile offenders have reading problems.

Graduates and dropouts with poor reading and literacy skills are statistically: Less likely to find employment, even low paying jobs; More likely to have jobs that do not pay well enough to allow the wage earner to support a family; More likely to require public assistance; More likely to serve time in a correctional facility. International Center for Leadership in Education

To participate fully in society and the workplace in 2020, citizens will need powerful literacy abilities that until now have been achieved by only a small percentage of the population.

Reading is the key enabler of learning for academic proficiency across all subject areas and over all grades. Hasselbring and Daggett, 2007

Think – Pair – Share What is the role of a content area teacher regarding reading instruction?

Content Area Teachers Are …expert readers of the texts in their disciplines. They have a responsibility to explicitly teach their students the skills needed to understand their subject area texts in addition to teaching the content of the text itself.

In a study done by the International Center for Leadership in Education of the top performing high schools and most improving high schools, reading is being taught in the content area in all of these schools.

Content Area Reading Instruction Is: Providing students with instruction that: familiarizes them with the structure of expository text; promotes content area vocabulary development; promotes word identification skills; builds reading fluency; and emphasizes and directly teaches how, why, when, and where to use a repertoire of comprehension strategies. Texas Education Agency

“I don’t have time to teach reading.” Employing the use of content area reading strategies can result in more instructional time to focus on content.

Good Readers Are actively engaged before during and after interacting with the text.

Struggling Readers: The main difficulties that confront struggling readers fall into two categories: A lack of reading fluency A lack of comprehension skills

Reading Fluency Is: Expression Accuracy Reading Rate Smoothness

Choral Reading Makes all students active participants in the reading process. Helps develop fluency in reading. Better readers and fluency makes for better comprehension of the text being read.

Choral Reading Patriots and Loyalists

Struggling Readers: The main difficulties that confront struggling readers fall into two categories: A lack of reading fluency A lack of comprehension skills

Comprehension Skills Include: Schema Vocabulary knowledge Listening comprehension skills A repertoire of reading strategies Visualization skills

Good Readers …Are better able to learn, may learn more content, and become independent learners, Preview text and activate schema before reading, Monitor comprehension during reading, & Synthesize and summarize after reading.

What do you read?

Narrative vs. Expository Text 90% of what we read is nonfiction, expository text. The majority of texts that students are expected to read in content area classes are expository texts. Expository text exposes readers to complex concepts through a variety of text structures.

Three Interactive Elements of Reading Reader Climate Text Features Teaching Reading in the Content Areas, Barton & Billmeyer 1998

Monitoring Comprehension through Text Structure: While most pieces of fiction (narrative text) follow the same or similar general organizational patterns, different expository texts can have very different text structures. Therefore, it is important to teach students to recognize common text structures found in expository texts.

Types of Text Structures: Description Cause/Effect Time/Order Directions Problem/Solution Compare/Contrast

Text Structure One difficulty to resolve in crocodile watching is transportation. How can an observer get close enough to watch without scaring it away or being attacked? Problem/Solution

Text Structure The crocodile is a master of deception in the water. It stalks its prey and then swiftly closes in for the kill. Description

Text Structure When observing a crocodile, first you must… Directions

Text Structure The power of the crocodile is like that of a monstrous machine. With one lunge it can destroy its prey and protect the kill from other predators. Comparison/Contrast

Text Structure We observed the crocodile as it stalked a raccoon moving through the moonlight toward the edge of the water. As a result of a noise we made, the raccoon bolted… Cause/Effect

Text Structure Archaeologists have helped us to understand that the evolution of the crocodile began with… Time/Order

Modeling Text Structures with Math

Before Reading Strategies Activate schema Determine purpose Pique interest in reading

Read Aloud A strategy used before reading to determine background knowledge and stimulate interest in an upcoming unit; Provides mental representations of content learning; Builds reading fluency: expression, accuracy, rate, and smoothness

Modeling A Read Aloud

Other Before Reading Strategies Brainstorming Anticipation Guides K-W-L Graphic Organizers

During Reading Strategies Evaluate predictions Identify main ideas Make connections Monitor comprehension

INSERT A strategy used to monitor your thoughts and understanding of information during reading. ! = Wow! That surprised me. + = This is new information * = I already knew that ? = I don’t understand. I wonder…

Developing Questions for Reading Concept Ladder

After Reading Strategies Summarize Analyze and Synthesize New Information Make Generalizations Draw Conclusions

Good Readers Reflect on the content while reading and reflect on what they have read after they close the text. Good readers: Process information in relation to their reading purpose; Analyze information in relation to their pre- existing schema, revising schema as needed; & Make inferences and draw conclusions.

Summarization Training students to identify text structure leads to students being able to create a macrostructure and create better summaries of the text. Synthesis lends itself toward the achievement of creating a new perspective or thought out of what one is reading, summarizing provides more of an opportunity to understand and restate the text. Ambruster, Anderson, and Ostertag

Exclusion Brainstorming Dirigible Survivor Tranquil Subtle Mooring Mundane Adventure Anticipation Transatlantic Ocean Greed Trained Lavish Breathless Mediocre Timely Empty Televised Gentle incredulous

Questioning the Author QtA Application of a reading strategy before, during, and after reading Uses queries, rather than traditional questions to engage readers and build understanding while reading Facilitates a query-driven discussion after reading

Contact Information Lisa D. Menges, LIU #12