Teaching Reading Strategies

By V. EblinLiteracy Coach

Highlights from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 2006 Adolescent Literacy Report:

The American Institutes for Research (AIR) reports that only 13% of American adults are capable of performing complex literacy tasks.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress shows that secondary school students are reading significantly below expected levels.

NCTE report continued…

The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) finds that literacy scores of high school graduates have dropped between 1992-2003.

The National Center of Educational Statistics reports a continuing and significant achievement gap between certain racial/ethnic/SES groups.

The Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) points to 8.7 million secondary school students – that is one in four – who are unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks.

The 2005 ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading found that only about half of the students tested were ready for college level reading, and the 2005 scores were the lowest in a decade.

Recommendations for high school English and other content area teachers from NCTE:

Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction

Explicitly model reading strategies for students.

Encourage students to monitor their own literacy practices.

Explicitly model “fix-it” strategies for students when their understanding fails.

Examples of Reading Strategies to Model

Explicitly tell students what you are doing before you read – remind them that good readers:

Think about the form of the novel, short story, or essay. We consider how it is organized.

Think about the title. What might the piece be about based on the title.

Think about the purpose. What information are we trying to gather as we read?

As we are reading we:

Think about the personal connections we have with the text. Can we relate personally to what is taking place in the piece?

Think about how the piece compares to other things we have read on the subject. Is there a dissonance or convergence?

Cont.

Connect the piece to what is taking place in the world. Are the themes in the piece still relevant?

Ask questions. We ask questions to help us make inferences about the text.

Ways for students to monitor their thinking while they read:

Marking text – students use sticky notes or write directly on the text. Some of the codes that can be used are t-s (text-self connections), t-w (text-world connections) and t-t (text to text connections). Go to Docushare (“Reading Strategies 9-12”) for more ideas.

Give students reading process analysis sheets. Copies of this can also be found on Docushare.

Fix It Strategies:Remind students to

Stop and think about what you have read.

Make a prediction. Ask yourself a question and try to

answer it. Reflect in writing on what you have

read. Visualize Use Print Conventions

Retell what you’ve read. Reread. That doesn’t always mean

the entire text – it could also be a sentence or paragraph.

Notice patterns in text structure. Adjust your reading rate: slow down

or speed up.

Works Cited

Tovani, Chris. I READ IT BUT I DON’T GET IT. Colorado: Stenhouse, 2000.

“Overview of Adolescent Literacy.” NCTE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. April 2006. 1-7.