Supporting Reading in the Middle/Upper Stages

Helping Children to become strategic readers

Purpose of This Presentation

To suggest how teachers can help pupils move from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’To suggest how, as classroom teachers, we can help pupils to become more purposeful in their active engagement with textTo put these practical ideas in a theoretical context

The Molrog approach to reading development

Molrogs are brocklesome freggi. They have foll, greb rashklings and bratch moodgrobs. Their neshes are frebbi rittle and their broaki are gretta grack. They yeg and trill if cramvled; they groush and vrachle if noomphed. Nobody schmettles them when they are groushed because their their grot is so kraddlesome.

1) What sort of freggi are molrogs?2) How would you describe their rashklings?3) What are their moodgrobs like?4) How rittle are their neshes? How grack are their broaki?5) How would molrogs react if you cramvle them?6) Why do you think no-one schmettles molrogs?

Some problems with this approach

Absence of contextLack of explicit purpose for readingNo attempt made to connect with pupils or their livesReading conceptualised as passive absorption of someone else’s meaningActivities constructed as ‘school stuff’ rather than authentic tasksLack of challenge, stimulation; children not encouraged to exercise cognitive muscles

Alternative approaches

Contextualising readingWhere does this passage fit in to a coherent, on-going, meaningful sequence of learning experiences?How can it be introduced to pupils in a way that will ensure a clear sense of purpose?How can we ensure that activities associated with the text will enable pupils to be active, interested participants in the making of meaning?How can we make children’s reading fun, stimulating and worthwhile, helping them to become more effective readers?

Alternative approaches: making emotional connections

The importance of pre-readingSetting the passage up, preparing the ground, getting children fired up

Visual imagery and associated discussionMaking use of film/video/DVD + discussionSharing personal anecdotesUsing KWL framesGenerating debate

Creating a sense of purpose‘What kind of information are we looking for (to meet our purposes for reading)?’‘What do we already know about this kind of text?’‘How should we go about reading the text?’‘How will we use what we already know about the topic?’

Pre-Reading Strategies

Skimming – going for a walk around the text to gain familiarity with key aspects

Checking out structural guiders – headings, sub-headings, signalling devices

Using visual images to build understanding

Reminding oneself about reason for reading, purposes etc

Identify significant portions of text in order to adjust reading strategies

Identify key terms, terminology, concepts, subject specific vocabulary in order to clarify significant subject matter

Questioning – using text clues (typeface, headings, captions, graphs etc) to generate meaningful questions that relate to reading purposes

During Reading Strategies

During Reading, we can help children to…

Monitor their own understanding – clarifying how reader is getting on with text (understanding main ideas, craft features)Develop comprehension strategies – using context clues to figure out unknown words, imaging, inferencing, predictingIntegrate new concepts with existing knowledge and revising purposes for reading; making connections within text and between textsBecome more aware – of text purpose, genre and how language and structures help text expectations to be realised (eg focus on topic sentences where most important information often comes)Activate fix-up strategies

Ignore and read onSuspend judgment (wait and see)Form a tentative hypothesis and keep revising itUse background knowledgeRe-read current sentenceUse contextual informationGo to an expert source

After Reading Strategies: genuine discussion about content (K and U)

What did you find most interesting in the passage? Why?Was there anything you read that surprised you? What was it and why were you surprised?How did you react when the passage said …? Why did you respond this way?Was there anything in the passage that you might wish to disagree with? Explain why.Was there anything in the passage that you particularly liked/disliked? Give reasons.What kind of view comes across about Molrogs in the passage? Do you agree with it? Explain.What is the most important point made in the passage? Why do you think this?

After reading strategies: genuine discussion about writer’s craft

Is this a piece of fiction or non-fiction? How do you know?What style of writing does the writer employ (formal or informal)? Give examples. Why does he do it like that?How did you react when the passage said … How did the text make you feel this way?Are there any obvious tricks that the writer uses to get his point across even more forcefully or clearly? What are they and how do they work?Why does the writer say … What is his intention in saying it like this? How else might he have said it; how would this have changed the effect?What did you notice about the length of sentences used by the writer in lines … Why do you think he wrote the text like this? Did it work? Explain why/why not. How could he have done it differently? How would this have changed the meaning of the text?Did you notice anything about the writer’s use of punctuation? Was there anything unusual or unexpected? Explain.Did you notice where in the paragraph the most important information comes? Why is this, do you think?Did you notice that the writer uses a lot of examples? Why does he do this?

After Reading Strategies: opening up critical literacy

Who wrote the text? What do we know about him/her? Is s/he reliable?For what purpose was the text written?Who is target audience? How do we know?What are key messages? What point of view comes across? Is this a balanced view? What does this tell you about the text?What beliefs/attitudes/values underpin the messages?What kind of reality is presented?Whose interests have been served by the text?What assumptions have been made?What are the implications of all of this?What is missing in the text?Is there information in the text that is contradicted by information in other texts we know about?How has the reader been positioned in the text? (are there issues of gender/race/class?)

After Reading Strategies: having a meta-cognitive conversation

How did you go about reading this text? (visual imagery, headings, subheadings, columns, double page spread)Why did you read it like this?Is there any other way to read it? Who read it differently?What were you thinking when the writer said …?How were you feeling while you read the passage? Why did you feel this way? Did your feelings change? What caused this to happen?Did you get stuck at all? What was difficult? What did you do to solve your problem? What other strategies could you have used?What did you learn about reading this kind of passage? How might you be able to use what you’ve learned elsewhere in your class work?

Practical approaches: using DARTs (Directed Activities Relating to Texts)

Reconstruction Activities

Text Completion (cloze)Word completionPhrase completionSentence completion

SequencingTime baseOther base

PredictionPupils predict next part orallyPupils write next part

Table completionPupils fill in cellsPupils devise headings

Diagram completionLabel completionDiagram completion

Analysis Activities

Text markingUnderlining certain partsAnnotating textQuestioning text

LabellingText Diagrams

SegmentingFinding the breaks (paras)

Table ConstructionPupils construct headings and fill in cells

Diagram ConstructionFlow chart, mind map, Venn diagram

Practical approaches: reciprocal reading

Reciprocal Teaching: teacher models 4 comprehension strategies:

summarising, questioning, clarification, prediction.

and invites pupils to assume teacherrole with partner, thinking aloud as s/hereads passage to partner and imitatesteacher’s use of strategies

An example of Reciprocal Reading

Now, let’s look at the heading. This is where the main topic will be introduced to the reader (clarification). Yes, it’s about ‘Molrogs’. Now what do I already know about them? (questioning) Yes, I think I remember reading somewhere that they were very blocklesome. Let’s read the opening sentences to find out if that’s correct. The start of sentences usually give us the main information. (clarification) Molrogs are brocklesome freggi.They have foll, greb rashklings and bratch moodgrobs. Ah, that’s interesting, I was right about them being ‘brocklesome’, but I didn’t know about their rashklings and I’d forgotten about their moodgrobs. The writer seems to be painting a very negative picture of Molrogs (summarising). I wonder if the rest of the passage is the same. I’ve a funny feeling it might be. Let’s read on to see if my prediction is right. (prediction) Their neshes are frebbi rittle and their broaki are gretta grack. They yeg and trill if cramvled; they groush and vrachle if noomphed. Just as I thought, it’s all negative, although I’m not sure about the meaning of the word ‘cramvled’ (clarification). I wonder how I can work out what it means. It can’t be good, as the rest is so negative …

To sum up: Conceptualising the Reading Process – some theoretical ideas to support the practical strategies

Reading is a constructive process involving transactions between reader, text and contextReaders are active participants in the creation of individual textsTeacher’s role is to help pupils construct richer text readings (gp discussion and sharing, modelling, open agendas)

The emphasis is on teaching strategies within social support systems

Reading purpose and text form are crucial determinants of potential text meanings

It is important to help pupils develop awareness of their own mental processes while reading

Evaluating Classroom Reading Activities

PURPOSE

RELATIONSHIPS

IDENTITY

MEANING-MAKING

ENGAGEMENT

DISPOSITIONS

A Model of Effective Literacy Learning

Literacy is practised in contexts that enable children to experience it as personally worthwhile in some way (PURPOSE)Through literate activity, children forge relationships with others, often coming together to form supportive communities (RELATIONSHIPS)Doing meaningful things with literacy enables pupils to bring in their identities and to develop a positive sense of themselves in relation to others (IDENTITY)Literacy is a personally significant meaning-making activity (MEANING-MAKING), involving the strategic use of a range of reading, writing, talking, listening, thinking skillsChildren participate fully in literacy experiences - with interest, with others and in anticipation of success (ENGAGEMENT)Through literacy activity, children develop a range of worthwhile learning dispositions – eg resilience, empathy, creativity, curiosity, criticality (DISPOSITIONS)