Content Area Reading Chapter 10 The ability to read well in a basal does not guarantee comprehension in content areas.

Why? Content area reading has more specific and more difficult vocabulary. Narrative reading (stories) are easier to read that expository text. Students may lack background knowledge. Teachers should supply a number of books on different levels dealing with a topic.

Summary writing of content material is helpful. Writing everything you know about the topic and any questions you have about the topic helps to “establish set.” Turn each heading into a question. Then read to find the answer to that question and write it also. Write about inferences to be drawn from the text and creative reactions to the text.

Teaching reading during social studies, science, or math: Reading comprehension, studying strategies and specific reading study skills also must be taught. Graphic aids such as timelines, maps, flowcharts, graphs, and Venn diagrams help build and review difficult concepts.

Teaching content reading in primary grades: Use concrete manipulatives, require retellings, develop summaries, use visual imagery. Reflect the stages of reading defined by Jeanne Chall

Readability Approximate reading difficulty of material. Should match child with text readability. Sentence structure, organizational pattern, interest level, background knowledge of the students all determines readability. It is measured based on number of words in a sentence and number of syllables in a word.

Informal readability checklist: Teachers should use the formula, personal knowledge of the child, and informal check of the text: –understandability –learnability –reinforcement –motivation

More about predicting text difficulty. Collect outside the head information: word difficulty, sentence length, chapter headings and questions. Collect in the head information: word recognition ability and background knowledge.

Goal: Make students more independent readers Content reading is one skill needed to become an independent learner. –Specific skills and strategies –study skill instruction –knowing how to collect, organize and criticize facts

5 Components to content reading: Vocabulary development studying strategies reading and study skills location skills critical reading skills

Vocabulary Crucial for comprehension (usually unfamiliar) Content area words are interrelated. If you don’t understand the primary words, the secondary words are impossible. Idiomatic and figurative expressions increase the difficulty. Understanding requires planned systematic instruction.

Making vocabulary stick: 1. Must be connected to known words. 2. Must be repeated. 6xs 3. Meaningful use. Visual aids: diagrams, flowcharts, outlines, maps and timelines. Examples of familiar words used in more difficult connotation: “A belt of irrigated land stretches almost all the way around the coast.”

Studying strategies Metacognition: knowing when it doesn’t make sense and making adjustments. Poor readers do not skim, scan, reread, plan ahead, take notes, or make inferences. Pre-reading strategies: review prior knowledge, relate it to the last chapter, discuss key vocabulary, predict what the chapter is about, see the patterns, set a purpose.

Know...Want to Know... Learned (Ogle, 1986) Keep in reading journal. Have students write individual responses and compare. Turn bold face heading into questions, read and answer these questions. If you can’t remember, reread that part. Find the author’s pattern

After reading: Check comprehension with questions at chapter’s end. Summarize key points. Study guides with key points. DRA After silent reading, answer the purpose questions. Semantic mapping Reciprocal teaching.

Reciprocal teaching Students focus on –summarizing –use different levels of thinking –clarify answers to questions –predict what comes next. –KWL: write what you learned and still need to know. –Cooperative groups. End of the chapter activities together.

Writing to learn: Writing helps the student to understand ideas better and enlarge schemata. (Holbrook, 1984) (Anderson, 1987) Model this activity with student dictated ideas that the teacher writes on the board. Use compare and contrast assignments for student to do independently.

Smith and Bean Students write 2 paragraphs after pre- reading discussion. 2. After silent reading, make revisions. Have student interview historical figures in social studies.

How to reach the extremes in reading ability: Use multi-level text. Provide taped oral reading of text. Use videos, audio tapes, and computer programs with content information, assign different level library books, incorporate the arts in instruction.

SQ3R Read the introduction Survey all visual aids Read the summary Study the questions Return to the beginning and read the text.

New basal readers: Include content area reading with –strategies –skills –content knowledge –Practice materials with both narrative and expository writing.

Meaningful practice Teachers must provide practice time to promote transfer of a particular skill. Interesting, varied practice is need for transfer of a skill to content materials. Location skills: Index, contents, glossary, and appendix. Use a book mining exercise to quickly get information.

Library Research techniques are taught here. Reference materials: –Encyclopedia: ABC order, cross listings and key words. –Map reading skills are necessary.

Critical reading skills: Analyzing and evaluating information is necessary after you have found the information. Interpreting and evaluating requires systematic practice.

Critical reading involves: 1. Knowing what the author said. 2. Knowing when and how to verify the information. 3. Deciding facts from opinions. 4. Identifying Inferences 5. Detect author bias; satire, humor, irony. 6. Understanding your own bias. 7. Criteria for judging author’s competence.

Instructional activities: Identifying propaganda techniques Analyzing editorials, political cartoons, Distinguishing between fact and opinion.