Teaching Reading in the Content Areas

Learning to read does not end in the elementary grades. Teachers need to help students understand difficult text in middle school and high school. Teachers need to teach students how to remember and reuse the information we ask them to read. We need to help kids get the skills they need to understand and learn the content. Students must learn to be more thoughtful about their reading and make sure they are purposefully engaged in thinking while reading. There are practical ways to weave comprehension strategies into content area teaching. With a variety of strategies before reading, during reading, and after reading, students can gain confidence and independence in reading textbooks and informational materials. Teaching vocabulary is key and modeling strategies is key.

The first step is to increase their prior knowledge before learning. Preparing students to read before the reading takes place improves their comprehension because learners link new information and experiences to prior knowledge and events. The following activities can build prior knowledge:

• Brainstorm and Categorize- Organize students into pairs or small groups. Ask students to talk about what they think they know about the topic for four to five minutes. Give two to three minutes for students to write in their journals everything they recall about the topic and any new ideas they learned from their group members. Record all of the students’ ideas on chart paper. Reread the list, then model how you categorize. Ask students to help you place items under the category. Allow pairs or groups to create their own categories in their journals and organize items under the headings. Adjust incorrect ideas as you study and add new ideas.
• Preview/Analyze/Connect- Organize students into pairs or groups. Ask students to preview a section of a textbook or trade book by examining the text features and graphic sources. Have students silently think about ideas and connections they make from their preview, then share with the group. You may have to prompt students who are having trouble making connections.
• Fast-Write- Explain to students that during a fast-write you write about a topic for several minutes without stopping. Model a fast-write, showing what to do when you get stuck. After students’ fast-writes, call on volunteers to read them to expand everyone’s knowledge.
• Anticipation Guide- Identify the concepts you want students to understand and create several opinionated statements that can support or challenge students’ current opinions about a topic. Students will read each statement and put a check if they agree or x if they disagree. Give students an opportunity to share reactions and reasons for them. At the end of the lesson or unit, return to the anticipation guide to reread statements and mark responses again. Students should write reasons for changes.

The next step is to develop ways to monitor and improve their comprehension while learning. Good readers use metacognition—monitoring what is read to know what is understood and what is confusing, calling forth strategies to keep reading on track. These self-monitoring strategies help students to recognize when they are struggling with understanding, to identify what in the text is confusing, and to choose the approach that will help them make sense of the passage. When you teach self-monitoring strategies, you provide students with tools that enable them to solve reading problems throughout life. The following activities can be used during reading:

• Using Context Clues to Figure out New Words- Choose three to four sentences from students’ reading. Think aloud and model how you use clues in the text to figure out a word’s meaning. Continue the process with each difficult word. Ask students to study a sample and write the context clues that enabled them to determine the word’s meaning. Share and continue practicing with texts students are using. (Sometimes context clues aren’t there. You will also need to preteach concepts and vocabulary and teach the meanings of prefixes, suffixes, and roots or word parts.)
• Read/Pause/Retell/Reread or Read On- Print the passage on a blank transparency or chart paper. Read the passage to students. Think aloud and express your feelings. Recap everything you remember from the first reading without looking at the passage. Reread the passage out loud to students, then silently read it to yourself. Retell again, and don’t look at the text. Point out how much more you remembered by rereading the passage. Explain how sometimes you have to reread a difficult passage three times. Tell students that if you recall enough information, then you can continue to read. Have students practice in pairs.
• Paired Reading and Questions- Ask a proficient reader to be the questioner while you answer the questions during the modeling. Both should read the first sentence silently. The questioner asks a question or questions about the sentence. The responder rereads the sentence and answers the question(s). Switch roles for the second sentence. Continue one sentence at a time reading, asking questions, responding, and switching roles.
• Highlighters, sticky notes, and different forms such as double-entry diaries- Any of these tools for marking text help students hold their thinking so they when they are reading difficult text, they can remember and reuse what they’ve read.

After reading students need to apply the new information to meaningful experiences. Engaging students in after reading activities help them learn and recall information. The activities offer teachers many assessment opportunities to determine those who can move on or extend their knowledge and those who continue to need extra help. The activities allow students to process new information and build new understandings. Examples of such activities include:

• Graphic Organizers- Allow students to create a visual of essential ideas, details, or concepts from their reading. Examples include concept webs, the five w’s web, and t-charts.
• Connect and Apply-Offer prompts and questions to enable students to connect information to their own lives, to other texts, or to the world.
• Visualizing- Ask students to visualize information as you read aloud sections from the text. Have students draw information in a sequence and use their drawings to discuss the information with a partner, group, or the class.
• Summarize Through Journal Writing- Read the passage several times. Have students think about the main points in the piece and list four to five of the main points on paper. Write a topic sentence. Put the main points in a logical order and turn each main point into a complete sentence. Write a wrap-up sentence or conclusion that ties all the points together.

Students will need a lot of modeling and practice for each strategy. If you really focus on a couple of the strategies at each step, students will become very successful at thinking purposefully about what they are learning before reading, while reading, and after reading. Students will have a plan to take them through all reading endeavors in life.

Habits of Mind

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit."

Aristotle

The Habits of Mind are sixteen behaviors that intelligent people do when facing a difficult problem or challenge. The Habits were created by Art Costa and Bena Kallick to give students the tools to perform under challenging conditions. These behaviors help students know what to do when they face a problem where the solution is not easily resolved. Not only are we interested in how many answers students know, but also in knowing how students behave when they DON'T know. These behaviors are not performed in isolation. Several behaviors can be used at the same time to solve problems.

What are these sixteen behaviors?

1. Persisting- Stick to a task until it is completed. Don't give up.
2. Managing impulsivity- Take your time. Think before you act.
3. Listening to others with understanding and empathy- Be open to different ways of thinking. Understand others and different points of view.
4. Thinking flexibly- Look at it another way. You can change your mind when you get more information.
5. Thinking about our thinking- What do you know and how do you know it?
6. Striving for accuracy and precision- Do it, then review it. Take your time.
7. Questioning and posing problems- If you don't know, ask questions.
8. Applying past knowledge to new situations- Use what you already know. Draw from past experiences.
9. Thinking and communicating with clarity and precision- Be clear. Choose your words carefully. Support statements with explanations and evidence.

10. Gathering data through all senses- Hear it, see it, taste it, feel it. Use your natural pathways.
11. Creating, imagining, and innovating- Think outside the box. Try a different way.
12. Responding with wonderment and awe- Get excited about trying something new. Be enthusiastic and passionate about learning. Have fun figuring it out.
13. Taking responsible risks- Be brave enough to risk failure. Venture out.
14. Finding humor- Look at life with a sense of humor. Laugh a little.
15. Thinking interdependently- Two heads are better than one. Learn to work cooperatively.
16. Learning continuously- Be a lifelong learner! Learn from experiences.

I teach my fifth graders the Habits of Mind. I begin by introducing the behaviors. I give students examples and non-examples of each one. I display posters with each Habit, a brief explanation, and a picture to represent it. I also give my students a bookmark with each Habit listed. Once students are familiar with each Habit of Mind, I provide direct instruction. Each lesson focuses on one Habit at a time to teach the behavior more completely. We have discussions. We discuss situations in which Habits of Mind are needed. We discuss situations in which we have seen the Habits being used. Next, I give students a self-assessment to determine which Habits are strengths and which Habits students will need to work on. Students set goals to improve the weak behaviors.

It takes practice! Learners must continually practice, modify, and then refine the behaviors. Once the Habits are taught, they are applied to other contexts. For example, when we read the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, we discuss how the character, Brian, demonstrates persistence. When we read biographies, we find examples of when the person used a Habit of Mind. I provide challenging learning activities that require students to use the Habits.

It is important to assess students. Students need to reflect, self-assess, and engage in the process of ongoing improvement. Students collect artifacts to demonstrate the application of one or more of the Habits of Mind. Students reflect on their performance. Students set goals to show improvement in the areas that need it. Students can reflect and self-assess using surveys, continuums, journaling, rubrics, and portfolios.

It is also important to recognize students' efforts at developing the Habits of Mind. Students earn certificates and other forms of recognition when they are observed using one or more of the Habits. Parents can also watch for the behaviors at home.

The Institute for Habits of Mind has a vision to "create a more thoughtful, cooperative, compassionate generation of people who skillfully work to resolve social, environmental, economic, and political problems." I have a vision to prepare my fifth graders to behave intelligently when faced with difficult problems and become more thoughtful in their learning and in their lives.

Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are assessments for learning. They support learning during the learning process rather than assessing how much was learned by a particular point in time.

Formative assessments provide feedback used to set learning goals. Students are able to make decisions to improve their learning and teachers make decisions to adjust their instruction. The focus is teaching and learning. Formative assessments help differentiate instruction.

The feedback provided should be descriptive not evaluative. Direct, constructive feedback is needed and should provide learners with the next steps that should be taken. Feedback should be prompt to provide motivation and meaning. It should be student-friendly.

There are a variety of formative assessment techniques.

• Ticket out the door: students respond to one or two questions on a piece of paper at the end of class and give you the paper on the way out the door
• 3-2-1: one example is for students to write 3 things they learned, two questions they still have, and one opinion
• Learning logs: students write reflections of what they have learned
• K-W-L: a graphic organizer to assess what students "know," "wish to know," and "have learned" about a particular topic
• Rubrics
• Think-Pair-Share: Students think about a question or topic in pairs or a small group and then share the thinking with a larger group
• One sentence summary: students summarize what they learned in a single sentence that answers the questions
• Self and peer assessment
• Minute paper: give students an open-ended question and three to five minutes to write an answer
•  Oral Questioning: question students throughout the lesson to check for understanding
• Application Cards: students write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned

Waiting until the end of teaching to find out how well students have learned is too late. Ongoing assessments and continuous adjustments are the way to achieve the best performance.