Research Basis

Content area teachers in middle and high schools face sometimes misguided pressure from
administrators to include more reading in their instructional activities. While its likely that being
asked to read (with reasonable support) in every classroom would improve standardized test
scores, thats a side benefit to the real reasons to make sure that reading is a part of students
content area learning.

Reading is a way to gain exposure to and develop tentative understandings of content.

Teacher talk, even when supported by audiovisual aids, tends to dominate content area
instructionoften at the expense of engaged student learning. Reading diverse and
provocative texts from your content gives students another way to interact with the key
information and ideas about which theyre learning.

Reading is vital means of exposing learners to what thinking in your content area looks
and sounds like. Exposing students to well-chosen readings lets students in on important
conversations in your field and provides models of what it means to think and talk like a
scientist, historian, psychologist, musician, and so forth.

Asking students to read widelybeyond the textbookis a highly regarded strategy of

giving students access to the language and ideas that all students need to be successful in
school and beyond. Teachers dont have enough time to tell student everything they need
to know, and students cant learn it well enough just by listening and writing.

Strategy in Practice
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Students are unlikely to be convinced or adequately motivated by these pedagogical reasons for
reading in every content area classroom. Teachers need to set authentic purposes for reading that
pique students curiosity and prepare them for the information ideas theyre going to read about.

Offer students the chance to read beyond the textbook. Popular content area journals,
newspapers, trade nonfiction, and online resources provide teachers with access to
reading material that can provide depth, authenticity, and timeliness that textbooks simply

cannot. Work with colleagues who teach the same course or in your department to
establish a library of texts that engages students in the key ideas and information of your
content.

Have students participate in setting purposes for reading by using anticipation guides .
After youve selected a text for students to read, go over it carefully and make a list of the
key ideas they will encounter. Provide students with a list of statements based on your list
and have them rate their level of agreement or disagreement before they read. (This guide
then becomes a powerful tool for assessing learning or changed attitudes after reading
and discussion as well).

Focus on surprising facts or information, controversial ideas or points of view, and

content about which students likely have misconceptions. In preparation for a reading on
bacteria and viruses in a biology class, for example, students might be asked to respond
to statements such as A typical square inch of human skin hosts thousands of bacteria,
A population is stronger when there are a number of viral and bacterial diseases present
within it, and Viruses can be killed using antibiotics. Students could then assess their
beliefs after reading the article or chapter, noting the sections in the text that influences
their thinking.

Organize the classroom to motivate reading and discussion. Use a technique such as
jigsawing to create an authentic knowledge gap in your classroom. Have small groups of
students read and discuss a handful of different texts with complementary or contrasting
views on a question or issue from your content area (differing points of view on the
American Revolution; multiple reviews of a book, film, piece of music or art; sections of
a chapter that can be understood independently). Then reshape the groups to include
students who have each read one of the different texts. Students are then challenged to
share an overview of their reading and synthesize the varying content they collectively
read.

Related Resources
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Lesson Plans

Printouts

Other Strategy Guides

Professional Library

Grades 4 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double-Entry Journal

Based on the Guided Comprehension Model by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this
lesson helps students learn three types of connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-toworld) using a double-entry journal.

Grades 3 7 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Strategic Reading and Writing: Summarizing Antislavery Biographies
Antislavery heroes are the focus of this lesson. Students research a historical figure who played a
key role in the abolition of slavery, and then create a three-dimensional biographical mobile.

Grades 4 7 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson

Boars and Baseball: Making Connections
In this lesson, students will make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections after
reading In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. After sharing and discussing connections,
students choose and plan a project that makes a personal connection to the text.

END RIGHT CONTENT

ILA/NCTE 2016. All rights reserved.
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