Reading Strategies

Introduction and History of Content Area Literacy College Students

Content Area Teacher and Text Selection Assessment Reading Strategies

Writing Strategies Summary References Research Design

Reading is a sociopsycholinguistic process that actively involves the reader. Dowhower (1999) describes three interactive phrases of reading comprehension.

o Pre-reading Stage - the reader activates prior knowledge

o Active Reading Stage - the readers set a purpose for reading, read silently and self monitors

o Post reading stage -the reader recalls information, responds to reading, and

extends knowledge.

Most of the common study strategy programs incorporate these phrases in the process of comprehension. Finding, Observing, Reading, Connecting and Embracing (F.O.R.C.E.); Predict, Locate, Add, and Note (PLAN); and Know, Want to Know, and Learn (KWL) are strategies that incorporate activating prior knowledge, generating purpose for reading and questioning, monitoring comprehension, and extending information to new knowledge (Andrews, 1997; Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995; Hurst, 2001; Mitchell, 1993; Ward & Traweek, 1993).

Questioning is a strategy students need to learn to increase critical thinking, comprehension, and metacognitive skills (Allington, 2001; Andrews, 1997; Ciardiello, 1998; Dowhower, 1999; Hurst, 2001; Lapp, Flood, & Farnan, 1996; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Readence, Bean, & Baldwin, 1992; Ward & Traweek, 1993).

F.O.R.C.E

Teacher models strategies and then student take responsibility for understanding, remembering and applying when they use F.O.R.C.E. (Mitchell, 1993). During the Finding stage, the teachers assist students in activating prior knowledge by brainstorming. Next the teacher models how students need to observe how to clarify directions, predict connections, and turn headings into questions (Mitchell, 1993). The teacher demonstrates predicting by creating written responses and oral discussions about the questions formed in the previous stage (Mitchell, 1993). The students connect what they read to the questions and then they embrace the meaning to value and appreciate reading (Mitchell, 1993).

PLAN

Predict, Locate, Add, and Note (PLAN) is a reading strategy that students use before, during, and after content area reading. This strategy incorporates metacognitive strategies to assist middle school through college level students in selecting the appropriate strategies for a particular task in comprehension. First students predict the content, structure, reading task, and purpose for reading and develop a map or diagram (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995). The map is the students’ concept of important and related ideas in the chapter (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995). The next “step is to locate known and unknown information on the map by placing a checkmark next to familiar concepts and question mark by unfamiliar concepts” (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995, p. 192). Students during this stage activate prior knowledge (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995). In the next step, as students read the chapter, “they add words or short phrases to their map to explain the concepts marked with question marks, or they confirm and extend known concepts marked with checks (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995, p.192). This step is important for metacomprehension and content recall and application (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995). In the final step, students completed reading the passages, they may need to reconstruct their maps based on new knowledge (Caverly, Manderville, & Nicholson, 1995).

KWL

What I Know, What I Want to Know, and What I Learned (KWL) is a reading strategy that uses questioning to activate prior knowledge, to understand metacognition, and to write to learn. In the first step students, alone or with others, brainstorm what they know about the reading topic. Next students write what they want to learn about the topic Then students read the passage and write with they have learned about the topic (Andrews, 1997; Dowhower, 1999; Lapp, Flood, & Farnan, 1996; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Ogle, 1986; Readence, Bean, & Baldwin, 1992).

Questioning

Students use monitoring and metacognitive strategies during questioning activities (Ciardiello, 1998; Simpson, 1996). Students need to know when, how, and why to use reading and writing strategies and questioning is one way to check understanding. Reciprocal questioning (ReQuest) and Direct-Reading-Thinking-Activity (DR-TA) uses questioning to help students in comprehending text (Ciardiello, 1998; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Tonjes & Zintz, 1992).

ReQuest

ReQuest refers to reciprocal questioning (Ciardiello, 1998; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Tonjes & Zintz, 1992). During reciprocal questioning, teachers and students alternate asking questions about the content reading (Ciardiello, 1998; Dowhower, 1999; Hurst, 2001; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Tonjes & Zintz, 1992). Ciardiello (1998) stresses that students need direct instruction on how to ask questions and teachers need to model and scaffold the procedures.

DR-TA

Direct-Reading-Thinking-Activity (DR-TA) is a critical thinking strategy that is used before, during, and after content area reading. (Dowhower, 1999; Hurst, 2001; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Tonjes & Zintz, 1992). DR-TA “allows students to predict oncoming information in expository text and set purposes for reading that are personally interesting” (Readence, Bean, & Baldwin, 1992, p. 171). Before reading, students preview the chapter. Students predict what will happen by asking question or turning headings into questions, activate prior knowledge, and create a purpose for reading. During reading, students search for answers to their question. After reading, students reflect, apply, and extend what they have read (Dowhower, 1999; Hurst, 2001; Manzo & Manzo, 1990; Readence, Bean, & Baldwin, 1992; Tonjes & Zintz, 1992).

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers are a visual representation of related ideas and concepts. For content area reading, graphic organizers assist students in connecting prior knowledge to new concepts (Merkely, 2000; Moore, Moore, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1998; Friend, 2000). A visual representation “offers a systematic means for teaching students how to collect, sort, and organize information” (Manzo & Manzo, 1990, p. 107). Graphic organizers assist students with understanding and relating important text ideas (Dowhower, 1999). Graphic organizers assist students in looking at text structures, such as, cause/effect, compare/contrast, sequential process and take different shapes as flow charts, Venn diagrams (Ellis, 1994; Lapp, Flood, & Farnan, 1996; Moore, Moore, Cunningham, & Cunningham, 1998; Sinatra, 2000).

Introduction and History of Content Area Literacy

College Students

Content Area Teacher and Text Selection