DARSI E BOWDEN, WRD DEPARTMENT

SEPTEMBER 25, 2009

TEACHI NG, LEARNI NG & ASSESSMENT







Reading Strategies:
Helping Students Read Effectively

Todays Plan
! Learn more about the difference between a good
reader and a poor reader
! Acquire tips and strategies for helping students get
the most out of class reading assignments
! Develop ideas for making reading an integral part of
students' experience and learning in your courses
Why are you here?
If youre here, youre probably troubled by the how
students read in your classes.
Or by the fact that they dont seem to read at all.
Whats the problem?
! Students read their assignments but dont seem to
get it
! Students dont remember what theyve read
! Students cant answer questions on assignments
! Students are bored by reading
! Students dont read carefully
! Students cant read critically
! Students dont read at all
How We Read
! Strategically and selectively
! Purposefully
! Quickly
! How we read depends on what we already know
and what we want to learn.
Rules for reading that students may be using:
! Read every word.
! When you dont understand a word or passage, give
up.
! Reading is sometimes boring; academic reading is
really boring.
! No need to read; Ill just listen in class to what I was
supposed to learn
! Read and try to memorize what you think the
professor thinks is important even though you have
no way of knowing what that might be
What all readers do
! We read to make meaning.
! We read to answer questions we already have.
! We read to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses.
! We do not read to bore ourselves or get through
something. Unless we have to.
Types of Reading
! Aesthetic
! To find pleasure in language and ideas, especially how they are
expressed
! Efferent
! For information
! To problem-solve
! For enlightenment
! To make connections with your own ideas, beliefs, and life
experiences

How we read: What all readers do
! We bring world knowledge (and our theory
of the world) to the act of reading
! Linguistic
! Genre
! Socio-cultural-historical
! Personal/affective
! Reading strategies

How we read: What all readers do
! We make predictions
! We predict whats coming in a text
" Word-sentence-paragraph level
" Structurally (how the piece is organized)
" In terms of meaning (whats coming)
! Prediction also means asking questions; comprehension
means getting those questions answered
How we read: What all readers do
! We chunk information or meaning from the text into
existing schema in our minds.
! We use what we read to build upon knowledge we already have
! We often use that new information to do things
Once upon a time, there was a lovely young princess who lived
in a castle in a far off mythical kingdom. The castle was
designed by her uncle Hernando who was an architect in a
nearby city. He was also a fine family man and was once an
excellent swimmer. He competed against Johnny Weismuller
many times during the late 1920s. This was the time of the
great depression during which many huge fortunes were lost.
Fortunes that occasionally equaled the amount of treasure
brought back form the orient many centuries ago by Marco
Polo. Or perhaps the total salaries, operating expenses, and
advertising budgets of the Kansas City Chiefs, Radio City Music
Hall and Darlenes Dancing Dalmatians. Next door to
Hernandos office was a tattoo parlour. Many of our countrys
brave young fighting men went there for tattoos of their
mothers, Barney Google and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was these
same young men who displayed such courage on Bataan and
Iwo Jima. The courage that made this country safe for you,
me, our children, zoo animals and restoring old Hudsons as a
hobby.
abstract
We present a morphological study of the 2004 August 18
solar eruption that occurred in the active region NOAA
10656 near the west limb using the extreme-ultaviolet
(EUV) data from the Transition Region and Coronal
Explorer (MLS), hard X-ray (HXR) data of the Reuven
Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager
(RHESSI), and microwave data of the Owens Valley Solar
Array. In this event, we have an excellent set of
observations for tracing the early evolution of the coronal
mass ejection (CME) from a flux rope emergence to its
propagation into space as a well-connected series of
events thanks to the coronameters field of view
How can we help students become better readers?
! Help them with world knowledge
! Help them make predictions
! Help them remember what theyve read
Strategies
! Pre-read (before reading)
! Ask students to write about what they already know about the topic
and how it relates to their lives (informal)
! Provide students with background knowledge (vocabulary, typical
expressions, context, purpose) that will facilitate familiarity with
what they are about to read
! Provide a list of discussion questions that they try to answer as they
read
! Post-write
! Ask students to keep reading journals
! Ask students to write a response to the material; have them swap this
with others in class for additional responses
! Use Entry tickets
Strategies
! Show them how to read within your discipline

Reading Philosophy with Background Knowledge and
Metacognition by David Concepcin
(available on TLA website)
Concepcin
! Advice for readers:
! Take care of yourself
! Interact with material
! Keep reasonable expectations
! Be able to state the authors conclusion before you come to
class (BC)
! Evaluate gist of authors argument (BC)
! Flag and take notes
Concepcin Three Part Process
! Facet One Stage Setting
! Pre-Read
" Quickly getting a sense of the features of the text
" Skim first and last paragraph to see where its going
" Check headings
! Fast-Read
" Read entire piece quickly
" Look up definitions of key terms you dont know
" Flag the structure
" Dont get bogged down
Concepcin Three Part Process
Facet Two Understanding
Re-read entire article VERY CAREFULLY
Correct or add to previous flagging
Take lots of notes
To rephrase
To understand authors point of view
To diagram major moves
To work out/create/write a summary

Concepcin Three Part Process
! Facet Three Evaluating
! Fix any mistaken flagging or notes
! Write down anything new that you discover
! Enter the debate
" Is every conclusion well-defended
" Are there alternate conclusions
" Are there counter-examples?
" Is there a conflict between what I believe and what the author
says?
" Are there points the author did not consider?
Concepcin Three Part Process
! How am I doing
! At each stage, reflect on the reading/thinking process you are
going through and assess how it is working.
" What kind of a text is this? (primary or secondary)
" Who is the author?
" What can I learn from the section headings, title, conclusion?
" Have I identified the main thesis or argument?
" Have I reread (again) the confusing passages? Can I determine
why the passages are confusing?
" How might the author respond to my criticism?

Reading Journals
For essays, prose fiction, or poetry--although the kind of response to each should vary.

" Reading Affectively
! How does this material make me feel?
! What do I think about this material?
! What do I believe about this material?
! What do I know about this material?
" Reading Paraphrastically
" What is the most important passage in the material I've just read? And why? How can I put it in my own words?
" What is the next most important passage? How can I put it in my own words?
" Reading dialectically:
" In a notebook, make three columns. At the top of the left column, write "What question is the text responding to?"
At the top of the middle column, write "How does the text address the question?" At the top of the right column,
write "How does the text's response to the question match with my own personal thinking and experience?
Three days a week for twenty minutes each. Due at beginning of class.

(borrowing from Jolliffe, Inquiry and Genre)
General Strategies - Summary
! Model the act of reading in your subject area or discipline
and explain why.
! Have students pre-read (e.g., look at topic headings ,
intros, conclusions, etc. before studying the chapter)
! Have students write down questions they would like
answered
! Show them how you take notes and explain why
! Show them how you underline or highlight important
concepts
! Encourage them to carry on an active dialog with the
author
! Other ideas and strategies?
! Questions?
! Discussion
Sources
! Concepcin, David. Reading Philosophy with Background
Information and Metacognition Teaching Philosophy, 27:4, 351-368
! Smith, Frank. Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of
Reading and Learning to Read. Mahway, NJ: LEA, 2004
! Adams, Marilyn Jager. Theoretical Approaches to Reading
Instruction. in Cushman et al., Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook.
Bedford/St. Martins, 2001
! Jolliffe, David. Inquiry and Genre. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.