Nonfiction Reading Strategies Gone Wild

New expectations and standards in education (the sea of which I know we often feel we are drowning in) demand that our masterful numeracy, scientific methods, and social sciences teachers also provide meaningful, differentiated instruction in literacy. Yes-we use reading, writing, listening, and speaking to help students acquire and retain new information.  True, too, we are engaged in a world of new “media” literacies that us adults struggle to navigate and use effectively (omg, right? lol).  And, we should recognize that by incorporating literacy-related instructional strategies in content area instruction we can support greater achievement and learning across all content areas. But, alas, where do we begin?

Be creative, and make it authentic.

Great strategies that will support learning does not necessarily mean you need to buy more books or additional instructional supplies.  Start with before-, during-, and after- reading conversations and activities that will give you insight towards students’ comprehension.  Align your “literacy” instruction to meet the needs of your content area, and not the other way around (no square pegs in round holes here). 

Variety is the spice of life.

Students need support in more than one area of literacy, and not every student needs help in all areas.  What tools and scaffolds have you used to comprehension, vocabulary and word choice, reading and writing fluency, organization, or spelling and mechanics?

Practice what you preach.

Model strategies that you want students to use through explicit instruction, and continue reinforcing these strategies through your own work and work with students.

So today, I have included a few ideas for these before-, during-, and after- reading strategies.  These will certainly come up again and I am going to be hunting these down as I make my classroom visits this week.

Before Reading:

Anticipation Guides

An anticipation guide is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text; they're often structured as a series of statements with which the students can choose to agree or disagree. Anticipation guides stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading.

Here is an example of a simple anticipation guide.  They can include spaces for reflection as well.

Before		Statement	After
TRUE	FALSE	Birds are mammals.	TRUE	FALSE
TRUE	FALSE	All mammals have fur.	TRUE	FALSE
TRUE	FALSE	Mammals are carnivores.	TRUE	FALSE
TRUE	FALSE	Some mammals can fly.	TRUE	FALSE

KWL(H)

The K-W-L-H teaching technique is another method to help students activate prior knowledge.

K - Stands for helping students recall what they KNOW about the subject.
W - Stands for helping students determine what they WANT to learn.

L - Stands for helping students identify what they LEARN as they read.

H - Stands for HOW we can learn more (other sources where additional information on the topic can be found).

Here is a link to a pdf you can use: KWHL

Read Around the Text

Reading around the text will help you preview material before reading. Here is a link with suggested questions: Read Around the Text.  I would also recommend using videos and audio to set the stage for reading :)

Semantic/ Concept Map

As part of a brainstorming activity, place your central idea in the center of chart paper, on a board, or on a device that can be projected.  have students come up with sub categories that are relevant to the big idea. Try to support students' initial comprehension by guiding the organization through questioning. You can do the same thing with key vocabulary- highlighting meaning, origin, context, synonyms/antonyms, and examples. 

During Reading:

Question-Answer- Relationship

QAR is a strategy that helps students understand“Where is the answer?” by having both teachers and students develop questions across four different levels. These level of refer to use explicit and implicit information in the text...

• First level: “Right There!” answers. Literal questions with answers that are directly answered in the text. 
• Second level: “Think and Search.” This requires putting together information from more than one areasin the text and making an inference. 
• Third level: “You and the Author.” The answer might be found in the student’s background knowledge, but also requires that the student read the text (inferences...)
• Fourth level: “On Your Own.” Poses a question for which the answer must come from the student’s own experiences and don't really require a student to have read the text. 

QAR Support and Resource Guide

QAR Question Prompts

Visualization

Readers create visual images or pictures in their minds as they are reading. Visualizing helps 

enhance a student’s comprehension and memory of the text. 

I find that it is helpful for students to create visual interpretations of texts to support their understanding, especially new and difficult informational text.

I love PowToons and Comic Life to help students create graphic interpretations of what they visualize!

Think Aloud

Kids don't know how you are making sense of what you read and what you are presenting.  Deliberately thinking out your own meta-cognitive process will be helpful for your students to see.  It is also a good strategy to model for them because we want them to "think about their thinking" too!

1. Set the purpose for reading.

2. Stop and monitor

        a. Highlight words: Tier 2/3 Vocabulary

        b. Ask and answer questions.

Vocabulary Word Walls

I am just going to describe this now.  I promise to share some awesome Content Area Word Walls soon!

Use visuals, context, examples, synonyms, antonyms, sentences, and other elements to help students understand key words in your unit.  Make the space for vocabulary interactive, kinesthetic, attractive. Students should participate by adding words, or adding to definitions.  These can be incredibly powerful!

Walk-Talk-Look This Way

Use media literacy strategies so students will begin to identify media messages that promote different messages, give students the tools to analyze the messages, and help them determine whether the messages are explicit or hidden, and where they can find  reliable sources. 

To counter some of the negative media, students can create their own media that promotes positive behaviors — magazine, TV or radio ad, videos, bulletin board message, webpage, blog, pamphlet, or newsletter — making a clear statement to inform/persuade others about content in your class while using reliable resources. 

Media Literacy Activities

50 Media Literacy Ideas

After Reading:

Reading Response Notebooks/ Charts

Ongoing written dialogue is a great way for students (and you) to monitor their learning.  Pose reading questions.  Take it a step further by having students pass their notebooks to partners and have their peers respond to their initial thoughts. 

Graphic Organizers

Instead of writing long, open-ended responses, it is often useful to provide organizers for students to start placing their information.  This will help students organize their thinking and help you determine where they may need more support.

We will continue to post graphic organizers in our organizers and resource page.  Stay tuned :)

Comparison Matrix

In order for students to see similarities and differences across topics it may be useful for them to create comparison matrices.

Here is a link to a variety of files that will support comparing and contrasting. In math students may compare operation in a table by comparing their symbols, key words, relationships, and methods. 

WEBSITES/ OTHER RESOURCES:

 Nonfiction Reading Strategies from Journey North
Instructional Strategies that Support Learning Across Content Areas- CT SDE