Teachers across the curriculum ,experienced and inexperienced use broad generalisations when referring to students ability to read. If a child is unable to participate meaningfully in the classroom setting, the child is branded as 'unable to read'or 'uninterested in learning'. There is no diagnosing of the students,individually or group wise, and it is apparently left to the English Language teachers to 'fix' these students.The 'blame game' is heard too often.
I am sharing with you some instructional strategies for content area reading from an article by Dr.Hyacinth McDowall entitled,"Every secondary school teacher-A Teacher of Reading".
1. DIRECTED READING-THINKING ACTIVITY (DR-TA)'fosters critical awarenessby moving students through a process that involves prediction,verification,judgement and ultimately extension of thought".
2.DIRECTED INQUIRY ACTIVITY (DIA)'helps direct students through reading assignments with content materials containing an abundance of factual information and details..'. It utilizes a framework of conjecture regarding six points of enquiry: who? what? when? where? why? how?
3.DIALOGUE JOURNALS is a 'reciprocal activity carried on by teacher and student.It is an effective means of integrating reading and writing ..capitalizing on the advantages of functional experiences.
These strategies are a few of the many that can be implemented to improve reading in content areas.
Wendy,
ReplyDeleteI want every Content Area Teacher to know that in order for the students to be recipients of the information in their content area, they must use strategies that you listed, in addition to strategies which will help students develop as strategic readers(Vacca&Vacca,2009). These strategies involve Think Alouds and Question Answer Relationships (QARs), which help students develop text Comprehension strategies and help them to construct meaning.
As you rightly said, 'every teacher is a Reading Teacher.'
When we take the view that all teachers are teachers of reading, we recognise that collectively we are responsible for the reading gains of the children before us who are unable to read.
ReplyDeleteA knowledge of how different children read and how some read differently, will help us to effectively plan for instruction.
Children in today's classrooms demonstrate the need for instructions to be different,they show that they are thinkers but are not very critical. A variety of strategies as shared in your posting will ensure that students' differences will be catered for.
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ReplyDeleteHi Wendy,
ReplyDeleteWe have a responsibility to help change the mind-set of content area teachers who feel they are not teachers of reading. We have to remember that many teachers feel they have a responsibility to fulfill the requirements of the curriculum to the T. Sometimes administrators contribute to this dogmatic and myopic curriculum centered focus. They question teachers when they do not complete the syllabus on time. They behave as if education is a production line process.
Many content area teachers feel they are already struggling with trying to finish the syllabus, while students are not understanding basic concepts. What these teachers fail to realize, is if they change their attitude and position about not being a teacher of reading, their delivery and students' understanding would improve. We therefore, need to bring these teachers and administrators on board, and let them know every teacher as Jennifer stated is a Reading Teacher.
So, lets share the knowledge and strategies we have learnt with our colleagues and administrators. and let our staff development workshops at our school be conducted by us.