Reading Workshop to teach effective reading strategies .ppt

Helping students to explore complex texts

1. TEACHING EFFECTIVE READING
STRATEGIES: HELPING STUDENTS
EXPLORE COMPLEX TEXTS

2. How do you define the reading
process?
•Ten-minute free-write. Quickly jot down your
thoughts on what you think about the reading
process. Attempt to define what reading is in
relation to your teaching experiences in the
classroom.

3. So! What do we talk about when we
talk about reading?
•While seemingly a simplistic question, we almost never actually
question the reading process. We often take it for granted that our
students can “read” in the same way that we faculty members do.
Also, what will become of reading? As Maryanne Wolf has argued in
her book Proust and the Squid: “The unique aspect of reading has
begun to trouble me considerably as I consider the Google universe…
Will the constructive component at the heart of reading begin to
change and potentially atrophy as we shift to computer-presented
text… In other words, when seemingly complete visual information is
given almost simultaneously, as it is in many digital presentations, is
there sufficient time or sufficient motivation to process the
information more inferentially, analytically, and critically? Is the act of
reading dramatically different in such contexts?”

4. What is, therefore the future of
reading? What is its present?
•Different contexts creates different readers.
•Today, more than ever, we need to teach our
students how to read in different ways. As
Wolf suggests, things are changing rapidly and
we need to keep up with these new literacies.
•Reading has never been a historically static
concept.

5. Other things to consider; or, more
Wolf quotes
•“We were never born to read.” Writing, and
therefore reading, are rather new
technologies.
•“Reading can be learned only because of the
brain’s plastic design, and when reading takes
place, that individual brain is forever changed,
both physiologically and intellectually.”
Reading can change how we think, and,
therefore, who we are.

6. Pyramid of Reading Behaviors
Wolf, 2007
Genetic Foundation
Neurons and circuits
Neural structures
Cognitive
Perceptual/
Motor
Behavioral

7. The reading pyramid
•Maryanne Wolf : “This pyramid functions like a three-dimensional
map for understanding how any genetically programmed behavior,
such as vision, happens. It does not explain, however, how it can be
applied to a reading circuit, because there are no genes specific
only to reading in the bottom layer. Unlike its component parts
such as vision and speech, which are genetically organized, reading
has no direct genetic program passing it on to future generations.
Thus the next four layers involved must learn how to form the
necessary pathways anew every time reading is acquired by an
individual brain. This is part of what makes reading—and any
cultural invention—different from other processes, and why it does
not come naturally to our children as vision or spoken language,
which are preprogrammed.”

8. Reading thoughts
•Students must be taught how to read in an
“academic” manner.
•Students must be taught how to read in context
specific and (inter)disciplinary ways.
•Reading is never a passive act.
•As faculty, we must do our best to facilitate the
reading process.
•Reading is not a solitary process. Nothing is,
really. How can we turn the reading process into
a collaborative effort?

9. The best reading practices arise form
the best assignments
•The first and best way to prepare students in
becoming critical and analytical readers is to
develop clear and concise assignments. Students
will bring more to the reading process when they
are reading with goals in mind.
•Develop reading and grading rubrics: tell the
students to look for specific things. Be as
concrete and as concise as possible.
•Develop learning goals! Tell the students why
they are reading and what goals you hope they
should achieve in each reading assignment.

10. Critical reading leads to critical
thinking

11. Where reading can lead to
•Consider Bloom’s taxonomy. While not the
only way to consider the process of learning,
Bloom’s taxonomy can be a helpful rubric to
better understanding how we want our
students to progress as learners and readers.
Reading should be a process that leads to
specific goals.

12. Reading method # 1: Double-Entry
Begin by taking a piece of paper and folding it
directly down the middle to create two columns.
Title the left-side column “Says,” and the right
side column “Means.” The purpose is to
differentiate between two modes of reading:
Says is meant to suggest surface-level
understanding, the ability to comprehend what
the text is attempting to communicate, whereas
the Means column will be used for more
analytical and critical engagement with the ideas
being considered.

13. Reading method # 2: Annotation
•You are to read the selection with a pen in
hand and annotate while reading. Students
should be given different annotation
directions. For example, underline concepts,
lines, phrases that are understood or useful.
Circle words that are confusing or not
understood. Write thoughts on the margins of
a text in order to create a dialogue between
reader and text.

14. Reading method # 3: Free-Write
•Do not write or annotate the text while you
are reading it. Read it in full first and then
begin writing down your thoughts about what
you just read. Try not to think too much about
what it is you are writing, and just let go. The
purpose here is to allow the process of writing
to do the “thinking” for you, and to let the
reading sink in.

15. Reading method # 4: Scanning
• After reading the text, students will be
expected to sit down and carefully and
thoughtfully go over what it is they just read.
They will be told to look for the following:
thesis statements, topic sentences, and
important ideas that relate to the assignment.