Preparing To Read....

Continuing with the topic from my last post, there are several other subject areas that the author delves into as far as what type of reading is expected.  Reading for computer education is largely metaphorical.  The meanings of some words are very obvious, like the word mouse for the finger-operated cursor-control that looks a little bit like the rodent.  Others, such as cookie, are more obscure.  In science text, we see a great deal of graphic information, such as tables and charts, as well as photos and illustrations.  However because the text is inauthentic, it can be bland.  Inauthentic text refers to text that has been written to explain the subject to students in a particular grade level and not to advance the field.  A good thing about this type of text is that it has been tailored to meet the reading needs of school-aged kids.  But a bad thing is that it’s difficult to get students interested in straightforward facts devoid of a point of view.  Authentic text is a primary source document. A primary research study in the medical field would be an example of authentic text.   Social studies tends to be like science in the way that it uses mostly inauthentic text in secondary education although some primary source articles have also been known to be used from time to time. 

Benjamin breaks down the reading process even further in the next few chapters.  The first topic she describes is, “Before reading strategies”.  To be a successful reader, one must establish a purpose for reading.  We can divide reading into three categories based on purpose.  These include, skimming, scanning and close reading.  Skimming gives you an overview or a general idea of what the text is about.  Any kind of informational text can be skimmed but fiction and poetry are not meant for this type of reading.  The purpose for scanning is to look up or locate specific information in order to answer a question.  Close reading is what we do for reading comprehension and it usually begins with skimming.  Skilled readers are used to knowing, before they begin, what they are looking for in a text.  Benjamin put together a reader’s guide to prepare for reading, that includes these questions:

1.       What am I about to read?

2.       Approximately how long do I plan to spend reading today?

3.       Approximately how many pages will I read today?

4.       What is my purpose?  What am I looking for?

5.       What are my expectations?

She gives a great example of a mini-lesson to establish a purpose for reading.  A 10^th grade Biology class is supposed to read a passage about how the heart pumps blood.  The teacher in this case divided the class up into three groups who each had a different purpose when reading the passage.  To achieve their goal, group 1 had to read the whole passage carefully, group 2 had to scan for the key words and group 3 had to scan for some specific words.  She describes this as a worthwhile expenditure of class time.  I would have to agree.  I think group assignments really help the students to comprehend the material. 

References

Benjamin, Amy.  But I’m Not A Reading Teacher: Strategies for Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas.  Larchmont, NY.  Eye on Education, 2007

Subject Area Reading...

In continuing my reading, I came across a chapter on academic genres or subject area reading.  The author pointed out that it used to be thought that reading is reading.  That if you can read one kind of text, you can read anything.  Most elementary age children are taught to read by using story text.   However there is a colossal difference between comprehending and retaining story text and informational text.  Furthermore, comprehension of informational text in each individual content field can be very different as well.  In the book, Benjamin goes through the kind of text and language a student is likely to see in each subject area. 

Math language is very domain-specific.  The terminology cannot be figured out through context.  The student must know mathematical definitions before reading them in the context of a mathematical expression or problem.  In math reading, the student will need to read a lot of definitions.  Most math writers use a passive voice structure.  For example, “the ball was thrown” rather than “the pitcher threw the ball”.  This is one reason why some students may struggle when reading math.  The active voice construction is much more accessible: Its meaning is more direct.  As teachers we need to understand how to flip passive voice into active voice in order to effectively teach math.  People tend to say, “You don’t read math text, you work math text”.  But it’s important to read math definitions in order to be able to effectively work math problems.  It’s also important to make sure the students understand the definitions before they are expected to use them.  It may be a good idea to look at the homework that is going to be assigned that day to make sure the class understands the terminology being used.  They need to know what the text is asking them to do. 

Reading for business is sort of a cross between reading form math and reading for social studies.  Business language uses a lot of words that take on a specific meaning, apart from their vernacular meaning.  Benjamin says that getting used to the jargon is part of domain-specific learning.  As novices, we’re tongue-tied, and need a lot of exposure and examples to acclimate to jargon.  I have had two very recent experiences with this.  Firstly, this class has required learning a lot of new terminology and giving new meanings to many of the words I had known to have other meanings.  Secondly, I just bought my first house and I struggled a lot with trying to learn all of the terms that come along with purchasing real estate.  Although eventually after hearing the words multiple times and having to understand the documents I was signing, I finally felt somewhat literate in real estate terminology. 

Benjamin talks a lot about tools and mini-lessons to help students learn to comprehend the different types of reading material.  But one of my favorites is the flowchart.  This is such a good assessment to check for comprehension because you have to know the material in order to make a proper flow-chart.  This tool can be used in any subject area and should be taken advantage of.  


References
Benjamin, Amy.  But I’m Not A Reading Teacher: Strategies for Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas.  Larchmont, NY.  Eye on Education, 2007 

Standardized Test Taking...

Chapter three is about standardized test taking and the importance of preparing students for them.  Benjamin suggests we address this by embedding strategic reading lessons in the content area curriculum.  Many teachers overlook standardized test preparation.  They assume students know how to take these tests.  But the wording of the questions proves to be most difficult for students who have never seen these types of questions before.  She delves very deeply into the types of questions one may encounter and how to figure out the answer.  After all, standardized tests can be very much about tricks for answering the questions.  For reading comprehension, Benjamin describes six categories of questions, which include: Main idea questions, the vocabulary in context questions, the author’s intent questions, the internal organization questions, the drawing conclusions questions, and the part-to-whole questions.  The previous one is to see if the test taker can analyze the text. 

Benjamin also discusses the necessary training we need to give our students in order for them to succeed on multiple choice tests.  Large numbers of teachers assume that reading comprehension, specifically for understanding multiple choice questions, is a given skill.  But this is not always the case.  I know there were many times when I was taking a test where I didn’t know what the question was asking because I didn’t understand the way it was worded.  We need to give students the tools, in the form of sample questions so they have the opportunity to do well on their exams if they know the information.  Science teachers are not reading teachers but the language of these tests needs to be taught.  After all, these are very high-stakes tests.  Benjamin lists five ways we can familiarize the students with test-taking language:

1.       Make it a habit to use the language while you’re giving directions and explanations. 

2.       Encourage students to write their own test items and have them use similar word choices. 

3.       Give a lot of test samples and have them write down phrases that are frequently used. 

4.       Give attention to complex sentence styles. 

5.       Give students the first few words of a question and ask them to predict how it will end.  

Another very valuable tool that Benjamin discusses is how we need to teach students phrases as if they were single words so they can learn the context in which it is being used.  They should be thought of as more than just the sum of the parts (words) that produce them. 

References

Benjamin, Amy.  But I’m Not A Reading Teacher: Strategies for Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas.  Larchmont, NY.  Eye on Education, 2007

A Small Reading Deficit Becomes a Big Deal....

I was diagnosed with a learning disability when I was in third grade.  I mainly had a difficult time in the fields of reading and mathematics.  I am much better at math now but I still read much slower than anyone I know.  In addition I have always had a hard time with reading comprehension and the ability to stay focused.  In school, they gave me audiobooks so that I could keep up with the material.  Looking back I see that this was actually a crutch that impeded my learning, which is probably why I continued to have such a difficult time even through college.  The other problem was that I was scared of it.  I was so frustrated that it took me a half hour to read what took most others just a few minutes.  I never wanted to read and I would only do it when it was absolutely necessary.  When I was forced to read for school, I would have a bad experience with it which made me hate reading more and more.  I only recently began reading for pleasure and reading the news.  I received a tablet as a gift awhile back that had the Kindle e-reader app on it.  Interestingly enough, this is what made me enjoy reading.  I could read faster and comprehend more than I ever could before.  The reason for my success is the text sizing feature on this wonderful little device.  I found out that, if there is less text on each page, I can read it and comprehend it much more efficiently.  I began reading books close to ten times faster than I formerly had, which gave me more confidence in my reading ability.  So now I can read and understand regular text better too, but I still do much better with the e-reader.  Most importantly, I don’t hate reading anymore.  I actually kind of enjoy it.  If I had been given the scaffolding when I was a child and adolescent, I don’t think I would have hated it so much or had such a difficult time with it. 

As teachers we need to make sure we are not enabling the students or they will fall further and further behind like I did.  What I have learned from personal experience and from reading this book is that there is always a way to teach a student, no matter if they have a difficult time reading, have a hard time seeing, are dyslexic, are disengaged, etc.  There is always some avenue to get through to them.  We just have to do a little homework ourselves to figure out what it is.