Reading in the Content Areas Presented by: Justine Braatz Extra Hitter – Beverly Schewe

1. Reading in the Content AreasPresented by: Justine Braatz Extra Hitter – Beverly Schewe Franklin Summer Academy June 16 - June 19, 2009

2. Brain Rules Rule # 1: Exercise boosts brain power

3. Are your students way out in left field when reading content area text?!? If so, this class will hopefully help you bring them back to the playing field!

4. At the end of this presentation teachers should be able to help students: • Connect what they already know about a subject to what they are reading. • Make predictions about what they will learn from the reading. • Ask questions about what they don’t understand. • Identify important ideas from the reading and summarize those ideas. • Use strategies when encountering text they don’t understand. • Process the information they read in an organized fashion

5. What’s the Game Plan? To do this, teachers will need to… • Review the critical skills needed to become competent, strategic readers • Become familiar with new before, duringand after reading strategies • Become familiar with available resources to develop better comprehension and vocabulary skills • Learn what current research says about best practices for content area reading instruction

6. Brain Rules Brain Rule # 2: Every brain is wired differently

7. Left Brain, Right Brain

8. Content Area Reading …refers to the challenge of reading in the academic areas such as science, social studies, mathematics, literature, and the arts.

9. Reading Is… “…more than personally reacting to a text; it is, instead, interactingwith the text, reasoning with it to develop a hypothesis and justify it. By using accurate facts and inferences from the text, readers can transform interpretations into valid and reasonablethought.” ---- Louise Rosenblatt, 1978; 1983

10. We Are All Reading Teachers • Even today, the mantra “Every teacher is a teacher of reading,” is met with resistance. • “Many content area teachers see their primary responsibility as preparing young adolescent and teenagers in their subject area for high school and college, and they have difficulty accepting that they should have some responsibility for adolescents’ reading development. (Vacca, 2002).

11. Brain Rules Brain Rule #3: We don’t pay attention to boring things

12. Let’s Reason Together… • What challenges do teachers and students face when reading in the content areas? Take a time out to: • Brainstorm the possibilities with your table group.

13. Challenges to Reading in the Content Areas • Reading Traditions • Classroom/Curriculum priorities • Students avoid reading the textbook • Students can’t read the textbook

14. Content Area Reading – Navigating through the text! Elements of Textbooks: • Chapter Previews • Charts, Graphs, Timelines • Footnotes • Glossaries, Indexes • Photos, Illustrations, Maps • Table of Contents • Questions, Reviews • Unit, Chapter, and Section Headings • Special Features • Expository Text • Structures: • Description • Sequence • Compare/Contrast • Cause/Effect • Problem/Solution • Question/Answer

15. From Challenges to Solutions Integrating reading strategies into the teaching of science, social studies and math prepares students to study new information, helps them learn new vocabulary, improves students’ comprehension of textbooks and trade books, and enables students to learn and think with new ideas, concepts, and facts. Laura Robb, 2003

16. Brain Rules Brain Rule # 4: Repeat to remember Repeat to remember Repeat to remember Repeat to remember Repeat to remember

17. Classroom Support: Six Coaching Strategies

18. #1 - Modeling of Strategies Show me The teacher models and thinks aloud Help me The teacher provides time for students to practice and apply Let me The teacher releases control gradually and moves students toward independence Laura Robb

19. #2 - Before/During/After Practices • Students set a purpose for reading and build their prior knowledge before learning • Students develop ways to monitor and improve their comprehension while learning • Students apply new information to meaningful experiences after learning

20. Before Reading Strategies • Before reading a selection, students preview the text. Readers think about the title of the selection. They make predictions and ponder questions. They set expectations about what information may be revealed in the text. They skim for text structure (headings, bold print, italicized words, illustrations and other visual presentations) that may reveal clues about the text. Readers think about the author’s purpose for writing the selection. They set their own purpose for reading. They scan their background knowledge for relevant information that may help them understand the text. Before reading strategies focus on setting the stage for reading comprehension.

21. During Reading Strategies • During reading strategiesfocus on problem-solving skills readers use to monitor their understanding of the text. The strategies include word attack skills, vocabulary work, visualizing details, rereading for clarification, and adjusting the pace of reading in order to construct meaning. Readers develop a repertoire of strategies in order to extract meaning from text.

22. After Reading Strategies • Afterreading strategies help students read between and beyond the lines. They respond to what was read. Readers revisit a selection to closely examine elements of the text to achieve deeper levels of understanding. For example, readers revisit the selection to determine the essential details and themes of the text. Revisit strategies help readers respond to text, make connections, and evaluate various aspects of the selection.

23. Brain Rules Brain Rule # 5: Remember to Repeat Remember to Repeat Remember to Repeat Remember to Repeat Remember to Repeat

24. Preview/Scan Think Aloud Brainstorm Categorize Text Structures Graphic Organizers Pose Questions Read Aloud Shared Reading Build Vocabulary Concepts Assess/Activate/Build Prior Knowledge

25. Visualize Experiment Analyze Infer Draw Conclusions Take Notes Outline Self-monitor Textbook Cues Make Connections Summarize Question Predict Clarify Improve Comprehension

26. Framing a Text to Help With Comprehension When teaching difficult literature to adolescents, “framing a text” to help with comprehension is very important. Please read the handout titled, “Framing a Text” And score yourself on a scale of 1 to 10

27. Content Area Reading Strategies: Twenty Thinking Strategies Readers Use to ComprehendNonfiction Texts(Please take 5 minutes to navigate around this web site)

28. Reread Skim Discuss Write Question Synthesize Evaluate Paraphrase Role Play Reflect Debate Simulation Oral presentation Project Connect and Apply New Knowledge

29. Reading Tools to Support InstructionalPractices

30. # 3 – Higher-Order Thinking Skills In what ways might we support teachers to ensure students move beyond recall to application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of information?

31. Brain Rules Brain Rule #6: Sleep well,think well (Take 5 minutes to get in a quick cat nap! – Sorry just kidding!)

32. # 4 - Differentiated Instruction • Whole group; Small group; One on one • Scaffolding • Leveled texts • Multiple texts • Student choice

33. # 5 - Leveled, Supported Independent Reading • Provides all students with access to text at their independent reading levels • Supports student learning through differentiated instruction • Supports student learning through scaffolding of instruction • Supports student motivation through content aligned topics

34. # 6 - Print/Information Rich Environment • Multiple texts • Content word walls/charts • Reference materials/resources • Graphic Organizers • Current displays of student work • Primary source documents • Models and manipulatives

35. Brain Rules Brain Rule #7: Stressed brains don’t learn the same way

36. Analyzes Teacher Text Pre-game Warm-up -- Prior to Lesson • Assesses Readability • Modifies text if necessary • Identifies Key Vocabulary& Concepts • Identifies ExpositoryText Structures • Identifies Relation to Prior Knowledge

37. Science problem-solving classification experimental cause and effect definition/explanation Social Studies chronological events definition/ explanation cause and effect compare/contrast question & answer Teacher Text: Text Structures

38. Math key words graphic relationships evidence & reasoning symbolic relationships & operations Literature character development settings plot moral & message symbolism genre Teacher Text: Text Structures

39. Literacy Matters This useful web site is a great link to Literacy Web sites (Click on the Content Literacy tab and browse for a few minutes)

40. Strategies of Effective Readers • Good readers are active readers. • From the outset they have clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly evaluate whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals. • Good readers typically look over the text before they read, noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections that might be most relevant to their reading goals • As they read, good readers frequently make predictions about their reading—what to read carefully, what to read quickly, what not to read, what to reread and so on.

41. Strategies of Effective Readers • Good readers construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read. • Good readers try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and concepts in the text, and they deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed. • They draw from, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with material in the text.

42. Strategies of Effective Readers • They think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs, and intentions, historical milieu, and so on. • They monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments in their reading as necessary. • They evaluate the text’s quality and value, and react to the text in a range of ways, both intellectually and emotionally. • Good readers read different kinds of text differently.

43. Strategies of Effective Readers • When reading narrative, good readers attend closely to the setting and characters. • When reading expository text, these readers frequently constructandrevise summaries of what they have read. • For good readers, text processing occurs not only during “reading” as we have traditionally defined it, but also during short breaks taken during reading, even after the “reading” itself has ceased. • Comprehension is a consuming, continuous, and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is both satisfying and productive. • Duke and Pearson, (2002).

44. Brain Rules Brain Rule #8: Stimulate more of the senses

45. Best Practice Instruction of Reading Strategies Informational texts permeate our everyday lives. To become reflective readers and writers, students need extensive and intensive experience with engaging, high-interest selections. Strategies need to be modeled through many examples. Students need guided practice with authentic reading materials as they are learning how to use each strategy. They also need opportunities for independent application of the strategies.

46. Brain Rules Brain Rule #9: Vision trumpsall other senses

47. Literacy in the 21st Century Adolescents entering the adult world in the 21st century will read and write more than at any other time in human history. They will need advanced levels of literacy to perform their jobs, run their households, act as citizens, and conduct their personal lives. They will need literacy to cope with the flood of information they will find everywhere they turn. They will need literacy to feed their imaginations so they can create the world of the future. In a complex and sometimes even dangerous world, their ability to read will be crucial. Continual instruction beyond the early grades is needed. ----Moore, Bean, Birdyshaw, & Rycik, 1999

48. Current Research - • Because of our nation’s testing mania, students are suffering under “instruction that is overly thin and broad” (Pianta et al. 2007). • Our edge – our creativity – is slipping away! • While our competitors are making concerted efforts to expand the thinking of their students, American Educational Reform is mandating thinner and broader thinking. • We are intentionally surrendering our “secret weapon,” and in doing so, we are killing readers along the way. ---Readicide, Kelly Gallagher, 2009

49. Brain Rules Brain Rule #10: Maleandfemale brains aredifferent

50. The Female Brain