Blog # 18 - Reading skills, help or hinder content learning?

My Artifact is the following ..taken from K12 Content Area Reading Literacy. 

 Students need to be able to read because they won't get far in the other areas if they struggle with reading. I once heard someone say, "who needs to know how to read in Math class.?" It is very important to know how to read before math class because you have to read how and why  the math is solved a certain way. Crazy how you have to have a good foundation of reading before performing Math operations. Math also includes many complex terms such as dividend, divisor, radicand, sum, product, associative property and much more. History is nothing but reading. Sorry, you can not even begin to study the subject at a poor reading level. You must first get a grasp on the alphabet before you can sound out the letters, then you move into phonics, phonemes, segmentation and vocabulary. Reading is like any other subject because it runs in succession. Meaning you must first master beginning skill level reading before tackling the difficulty of content learning.

I chose this artifact because it seemed to almost match the same ideas expressed in the Prezi that we saw on April 17th. I enjoyed looking at all of the Science/Space books that could be incorporated into the theme on Space. One time I made a huge rocket ship for the students in my class out of a refrigerator box. The week we talked about and explored Space, we read lots and lots of books on planets, clouds, the Earth, sun, stars and moon. Who knew there were so many books out there on Space.

How to improve content area reading

Text Structure Analysis

Helping students understand how particular content area texts are constructed helps them unlock the information inside them. Teachers should spend time demonstrating how texts are physically structured on the page and how the layout can aid students in understanding the piece. Text features such as illustrations, captions, bold print, footnotes and text boxes should be explored and discussed. In addition, students should become familiar and comfortable with the rhetorical modes used in content area texts. Generally most expository texts are written in the cause-effect, compare-contrast or sequencing formats.

Textbook Walk-throughs

Before students can “tackle” the information in their textbooks they have to understand how they work. This may seem like common sense to a seasoned reader, but many adolescents do not know how to use their textbooks. Teachers should spend time talking with students about how their content area textbook is laid out and where to find information. At the beginning of each unit it is worthwhile for teachers to give students opportunities to preview the chapter(s) they will be reading so that they become familiar with how information is presented and where to locate certain types of information.

Before-During and After Reading Activities

Because content area studies rely so heavily on connecting prior knowledge to new information, a good deal of time should be spent preparing students to read specific content area texts. During the “before reading” portion of a lesson students should be given opportunities to active prior knowledge, develop or understand the questions they will be expected to answer through their reading, make predictions about the text and/or set a purpose for reading. While reading a content area text, students should be encouraged to ask and answer questions and to monitor their reading comprehension. After reading they should make connections and extend their understanding of the topic that they read about.

Questioning

Often times students get so used to teachers asking questions about content after they have finished reading a text that they forget that asking one’s own questions during a reading task is one of the best strategies for ensuring comprehension. Students should be given opportunities to ask and answer their own questions about content area texts. They can generate inquiry questions before reading which they will answer while reading or can ask and answer clarifying questions as they move through a text. The goal of this activity is for students to integrate spontaneous “silent” questioning into their independent reading experiences.

Vocabulary Strategies

Vocabulary is essential for understanding content area texts. Think about all of the subject specific vocabulary words that are necessary to understand a content area textbook. For example, you could not possibly comprehend a social studies chapter on the geography of Africa if you do not know the meanings of the words “desert”, “savannah” and “rainforest”. Each content area expects its practitioners to not only have strong general vocabularies, but also an understanding subject specific words. Students should be encouraged and assisted in learning content area vocabulary words. Strategies such as word maps, collaborative glossaries (content specific dictionaries created by the class) and classification and categorization activities help students develop strong content area vocabularies.