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Teachers College Literacy Beliefs Article

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Teachers College Literacy Beliefs Article

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Reading & Writing Strategies Across Content Areas

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area
Reading is reading. By understanding that letters make sounds, we can blend those sounds together to make whole sounds that symbolize meaning we can all exchange with one another.

Without getting too Platonic about it all, reading doesn't change simply because you're reading a text from another content area. Only sometimes it does.

Science content can often by full of jargon, research citations, and odd text features.

Social Studies content can be an interesting mix of itemized information, and traditional paragraphs/imagery.

Literature? Well, that depends on if you mean the flexible form of poetry, the enduring structure of a novel, or emerging digital literature that combines multiple modalities to tell a story. (Inanimate Alice, for example.)

This all makes reading strategies somewhat content area specific. Stopping (maybe the most undervalued strategy ever) and Rereading might make more sense in science, while Visualization and Text Connections may make more sense reading literary works. Questioning the Text may make equal sense in both.

But if you'd like to start with a basic set of strategies, you could do worse than the elegant graphic above from wiki-teacher.com. (Useful site, by the way.) It lists 12 basic reading comprehension strategies, to which we've added 13 for a full fourth of a hundred.

Looking for related curricula ideas? Check out our Reading Comprehension Strategy Resources
25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area
1. Reread

2. Activate Prior Knowledge

3. Use Context Clues

4. Infer

5. Think Aloud

6. Summarize

7. Locate Key Words

8. Make Predictions

9. Use Word Attack Strategies

10. Visualize

11. Use Graphic Organizers

12. Evaluate Understanding
To the above list, we'd add:
13. Question the Text

14. Stop!

15. Monitor & Repair Understanding (While Reading)

16. Paraphrase

17. Annotate the Text

18. Adjust Reading Rate

19. Prioritize Information

20. Use Graphic Notetaking

21. Predict

22. Set a Reader Purpose

23. Text-connections (text-to-self, text-to-text, text-to-world)

24. Skim

25. SSQ (Stop, Summarize, Question)

We'll gather these and put them in a Before Reading, During Reading, and After Reading matrix soon. Only because we like you.

See Also: 25 Self-Guided Reading Responses For Fiction And Non-Fiction
25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area

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25 Reading Strategies That Work In Every Content Area Reading is reading. By understanding that letters make sounds, we can blend those sounds together to make whole sounds that symbolize meaning we can all exchange with one another. Without getting too Platonic about it all, reading doesn't change simply because you're reading a text from another content area.

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A place to find poems, invitations to write, and resources for the teaching of writing.

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Hi, I'm Kiesha Shepard. I am a teacher, writer, painter, and day dream believer! To learn more about me or the things near and dear to my heart, click on the menu above.

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NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

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NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

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Poetry & More!

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Poetry and lessons for children of all ages by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater for classrooms or homeschools to teach literacy and writing workshop instruction

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Prezi by Kiesha Shepard

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Writing Workshop Curriculum
"To Choose, or not to choose" a genre of study
The Core of any unit includes:
Students as decision makers
inquiry
work time supported by teaching
process of writing as a cycle
As teachers of young writers, that's a question we must consider carefully. While it is important to immerse our students in inquiry of specific kinds of texts they will encounter in their ordinary literate life, our students need at times to be responsible for their own decisions about the genres in which they will write.
Types of Units of Study
When choosing a genre:
Reading in a genre:

Writers' Notebooks in a genre:
Studying the craft of a genre:
Beginnings
Genres
Practices
Text Features
Process Elements
There is a reasonable expectation
that an audience, beyond the
teacher will read student writing
with the same relationship that
they bring to a "professional"
piece of writing.

The teacher is a co-learner about the genre and might consider reading his/her own adult examples of the genre to inform his/her own thinking
*Example
In a Beginnings Unit you might study:
how to be in workshop
how to grow your writing lives
getting the notebook going
*Tip
Don't require content, it's about the writer making decisions within the form of these genres.
The teacher selects a few touchstone texts (usually around 3) as the primary examples, to which the class will return to again and again
The students choose mentor texts that are close to what they will be making
Immersion
*Definitions
Touchstone Text-a text chosen by the teacher for the class to study
Mentor Text-a text chosen by the student or writer that emulates what they are trying to write
Students learn to use writers' notebooks like a maker of this kind of text
Students revisit and use entries in their notebooks from before they began studying the present genre
*Tip
Teach students that topics are never used up
A classroom community develops a language for discussing textual features in examples of the genre
The study of craft in writing involves learning and noticing what the author is doing
Students use craft strategies they have newly learned during revision
Assessment
Criteria for assessment in a genre study are identical to the teacher's purpose in choosing the genre
Ways to assess:
Look across drafts to see if kids have tried the criteria
Pay attention to evidence across time versus looking at the final draft
Create rubrics for finished pieces based on teach points
Take multiple grades for a piece (process, self-reflection, hidden gems)

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Writing Workshop Curriculum "To Choose, or not to choose" a genre of study The Core of any unit includes:Students as decision makersinquirywork time supported by teachingprocess of writing as a cycleAs teachers of young writers, that's a question we must consider carefully.

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Prezi by Kiesha Shepard

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Return to the Notebook

Publication makes the process meaningful

&

Reflection helps the writer think about their unique process of writing and about how texts work

Publication & Reflection

Support revision work through invitations to try

Teach purposeful revision

Revision can happen early (developing content, arrangement of piece, etc.)

Revision can happen late (attending to meaning and purpose for audience, line by line)

Revision is Freedom!

Memories of the topic in your life

Ideas and thoughts about what's important about the topic

The history or science of the topic

Objects that would be in a museum

How other people might view the topic

Reflections and feelings about the topic

Concrete facts and information and then reflect

Collecting Around a Topic

Listing & Revisiting lists
Rereading
Finding Connections & Themes
Reading around your thoughts
Bouncing ideas around through talk

Growing Possibilities into Topics

Respond initially to what the text says to you
Point to a place where you think the writing is good
Describe-don't label-what the writer is doing
Speculate about what might have been in the writer's notebook
Speculate on the sorts of revision the writer might have done

Reading for Craft

Pay attention to talk
Value talk in itself
Allow collaborative talk such as pair talking and small group talking
The
most
productive time for talk is throughout the process as the writing is emerging
The
least
productive time for talk is after the draft

Environment & Quality Talk

Conferences (RNCTL)
Research (stand back, observe, open-ended question, listen, look at page-refer to it)
Name
Compliment
Teach (explain, demonstrate, get them doing it)
Link

Key Structures of Writing Workshop

Sharpen attention to the surface
Consider the expectations of the reader
Limit attention to absolute correctness

Editing the Surface

Drafts exist outside the notebook

Writers do whatever it takes to keep the writing flowing!

Writers choose their own materials and procedures

Drafting up a Storm

Intended audience
Intended purpose
Feeling or mood
Sound or language
Organization of the text
Sequencing for meaning
Visual Elements
Creating a project plan

Designing for Readers

Memories
Overheard conversations
Lists
Questions
Reflections
Analyzing
Noticing things that change
Quotes from our reading life
Research
Capturing thoughts while learning
Venting
Epic plans
Dreams
Thinking about social justices
Realizations

A Notebook Full of Possibilities

Writing a Life: Living inside the art
The Teaching of Writing

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Return to the Notebook Publication makes the process meaningful & Reflection helps the writer think about their unique process of writing and about how texts work Publication & Reflection Support revision work through invitations to try Teach purposeful revision Revision can happen early (developing content, arrangement of piece, etc.)

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Amy VanDerwater's Padlet Ideas

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Fictional Books Where Characters Keep Notebooks and Live Writerly Lives 

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Fictional Books Where Characters Keep Notebooks and Live Writerly Lives 

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Amy VanDerwater's Padlet Ideas

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Amy VanDerwater's Padlet Ideas

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Venette Bradham's First Grade Class

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Beth Newingham Post

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My November Top Ten List: Word Study in Action | Scholastic

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READ ON to find out how students are introduced to new spelling patterns each week, take part in literacy activities in which they gain more exposure to the patterns, and

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Blog

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*This post contains affiliate links. To read more, please see my full disclosure policy.

Welcome to day 1 of Teaching Spelling through Word Study. To see all of the posts in this series, please click HERE or on the image above. If you've read many of my posts, you know I love the word study approach. It's very much a part of the two FREE reading curricula that I write: Reading the Alphabet and Phonics by The Book. So what exactly is Word Study? Put on your seat belts and buckle up, because here we go...

Traditional Spelling

First, I wanted to drudge up what you probably already know about spelling. Maybe it's how you experienced spelling as a child. Rote memorization. The equation looks something like this:

SEE Word + WRITE Word = MEMORIZE Word

If we see the word a lot + write (or copy) the word a lot, then the string of letters will stick in our brain. The typical spelling list will look something like this: made, years, know, please, etc. The words chosen for these lists are mostly high frequency words that are unrelated to one another in any way.

We also have our lists of rules: "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking" or "the silent e makes the vowel say its name". But, it doesn't take much time before we discover that these rules have many, many exceptions.

With traditional spelling, spelling can become rather dull and boring for the student (and teacher). Students are mostly passive learners; simply empty containers to fill. Students often memorize the words for the test, but forget them after they've scored their 100's.

Rote memorization * Unrelated word lists * Lists of rules * Many exceptions * Dull and boring * Passive * Forgettable

Now, contrast traditional spelling with...

The Word Study Approach

Word Study operates under a different paradigm. It is "based on the belief that most words do follow spelling generalizations" or patterns. (Johnston) As a matter of fact, studies show 84 percent of English words are mostly predictable! (Moats) Instead of memorizing lists of unrelated words, students are given word lists that are centered around a specific pattern, like word families. Through studying these patterns, students can begin to " understand how words are built and apply this knowledge" in their reading and spellings. (www.spellingscholar.com)

Students are given word sorts and asked to be active learners as they compare, contrast, sort/manipulate, and classify the words. They are also encouraged to use and apply the word generalizations when they read and write. (Templeton & Pikulski) Peter Johnston says is best in his book Choice Words, "...there are hidden costs in telling people things. If students can figure something out for themselves, explicitly providing the information preempts the students' opportunity to build a sense of agency and independence."

Based on the patterned word lists, students begin to form generalizations that sound something like: "Almost every time I see a and i together, it makes the long a sound. And I notice that the a-i is either at the beginning or in the middle of the word." This generalization can help the student read and spell unknown words that share the same ai pattern.

And a very important difference between traditional spelling and word study: word patterns are chosen specific to the spelling development of the child. This means if the child is ready for long vowel patterns, these are the patterns he studies.

Generalizations * Patterns * Active Learners * Compare * Contrast * Sort * Classify * Apply * Specific for Child

A Little Theory Behind Word Study

Why are Word Patterns Important for Learning to Spell (and Read)?

I love how Pat Cunningham puts it in her book Phonics They Use. "The brain...is not a rule applier but a pattern decoder. While we look at single letters, we are looking at them and considering all the letter patterns we know. Successfully decoding (or encoding) a word occurs when the brain recognizes a familiar spelling pattern...or searches through its store of words with similar patterns." (pg. 186, 188)

Applied Knowledge of Words

"Word study teaches children to focus on patterns and meaning chunks. In a word study program, children learn to apply their knowledge to a greater number of words than they could learn by memorizing traditional spelling lists." (Mattmann & Cowan)

How many more words? Well, let's say that a child has 20 spelling words a week. Now multiply that by 36 weeks for 10 years. Hmmm, 7200 words...that is, if he can memorize them all perfectly. But, the average vocabulary of a high school student is around 75,000 words! 7200 is only 10%! (Johnston) Let's take the word study approach. The study of the a_e pattern alone can help students learn to spell and read over 100 words (off the top of my head)!

Word Study Resources:

I could go on and on and on...really...there are whole entire books written on this one subject. If you're a " literacy nerd" like me, you may enjoy these books, websites, and articles.

And don't forget to hop around on the hopscotch board and visit the other amazing bloggers at iHomeschool Network and enter the Pin to Win Giveaway!

~Becky

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This post contains affiliate links. To read more, please see my full disclosure policy. Welcome to day 1 of Teaching Spelling through Word Study. To see all of the posts in this series, please click HERE or on the image above. If you've read many of my posts, you know I love the word study ...