Before-Reading+09

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=Before-Reading Strategies= media type="custom" key="4722749" = =

The Importance of Prior Knowledge
In chapter 4 of __Deeper Reading__, Kelly Gallagher stresses the importance of prior knowledge."My point is that reading comprehension is tied closely to what the reader brings to the page-to what the reader knows before reading"(26). Gallagher refers to the three types of prior knowledge that are important for students and reading comprehension from //Helping Middle and High School Readers,// '(1) Knowledge about the topic (2) knowledge about the structure and organization of the text and (3) knowledge about vocabulary"(pg 35)'(27). It is the job of the teacher to frame the work for their students before they start reading a text and while they are reading a text, to make sure they can read the text in a confident manner

= = Frontloading a student's knowledge about a text can be a great help to their comprehension. The more a student knows about the text before reading, the easier it will be for the student to make connections between the text and his or her own life, and to get down to the meanings of the text. Kylene Beers, in chapter 6 of When Students Can't Read outlines several stategies for helping students access their prior knowledge and construct meaning from a text. These stategies include Anticipation Guides, K-W-L Charts, Probable Passages, and Tea Parties. -- Anna

How do we connect students to text?
While many teachers help students connect to text by providing them with background knowledge, it may not be the best method at their disposal. Some other ways we can connect students to text: "access their prior knowledge, interact with portions of the text prior to reading, practice sequencing, find cause and effect relationships, draw comparisons, make inferences, and predict, identify vocabulary that might be a problem, and construct meaning before they begin reading the text" (Beers 73-4).--Lindsey

We can also use anticipation guides to help students connect to a text. We write them by determining main ideas or themes present in the text and then making statements out of them that inspire discussion. The students should be able to mark whether they agree or disagree with the statement before and after they read. To introduce the strategy, it is most effective to do one with them. Beer uses "Cinderella" in her example. Successful statements elicit discussion before, and once students read the text, additional discussion after. During reading, student responses may change, or it may strengthen the position they originally took (Beers 74-9). --Lindsey

Another strategy to connect students to a text is a K-W-L chart. This allows students to form a framework that helps them determine their knowledge before they read, determine what they want to learn, and record what they learn after reading. This strategy, when adapted can be used both with narrative fiction and with expository texts (Beers 80). --Lindsey

Students will rarely benefit by cold reading. It is the job of the teacher to pre-assess prior student knowledge of the topic and tap into that knowledge in order to allow students to comprehend texts “at a much deeper level than someone who comes to a text cold” (Gallagher, p. 26). As well, teachers need to consider how Marzano’s Dimension 1 (Positive Attitudes and Perceptions of Learning) is being met in order to help students connect to a text. Kelly Gallagher stresses the important of making students care about the text. The reader does not have to love the book, but he or she must be invested in the text in some way or another. --Stephany As Gallagher puts it, “Students need to care about what they are reading…they must see the relevance of the assignment…if students ask me ‘why are we reading The House on Mango Street?’ I should be able to answer them in terms that strike them as valid and worthwhile” (p. 29). ~Amy

Probable Passage is another strategy that is effective when working with dependent readers. This is because "dependent readers often struggle because they don't predict what the selection might be about, don't think about what they already know about a topic, and don't form images as they read" (Beers 87). --Lindsey Probable Passage is when key words are taken out of a short summary of a text by the teacher. Then, the teacher chooses the key words and presents them to the class. After the class determines the meaning of the words, students arrange them after predicting their function in the story. For example, does that word go with setting, characters, conflicts, solutions, or endings. One way to take part in this strategy is to create a Probable Passage worksheet like the one on page 88 (Beers 87-93). --Lindsey

Tea Party is another prereading strategy. It "allows students to predict what they will predict what they think will happen in the text as they make inferences, see causal relationships, compare and contrast, practice sequencing, and draw on their prior experiences" (Beers 94-5). --Lindsey Tea Party works by giving each student a card with a phrase on it from the reading. The students share their card with as many students as they can, they listen as other students read their cards, discuss how the cards are related to one another, and consider what the cards might be about (Beers 94-5). --Lindsey The strategies given by Beers do seem to provide a link that is so frequently absent between the young reader and the text placed arbitrarily (in their mind) in front of them. If there is nothing connecting the story to them personally, if there is nothing about it that innately sparks their desire to read it, well then what is the point? Anticipation Guides, KWL activities, Probable Passages, and Tea Party all seem like great ways to actually include the most important part of a class reading: the student.

Open House is a great way to engage students with a text. It appears to be the kind of activity that would catch students off guard in a good way. They are rarely asked to read a part of a chapter in isolation before reading the whole. In this context, kids are allowed to ask questions, not understand, make predictions, determine sequence, etc. without feeling alone or singled out. Additionally, it turns the reading process into a literal conversation between the entire class. Students are able to engage in the reading process by reading, moving, and talking at the same time. This seems like a great way to access various learning styles. (Baldacci 15-18). -Jess

What is the reading process?
It "is not a linear sequence of steps; rather, it is a recursive process." Meaning, that students may jump from one stage of the process to another, and then back to the original again. (Introduction to All America Reads). --Lindsey

Again, I like Lindsey's summation of the reading process here. The comparison of reading to a conversation continues to resonate with me with this week's reading. Thinking about the process in terms of Before, During, and After strategies particularly seems to fit with this comparison. The Before process draws on prior knowledge, asks questions, and makes assumptions- very similar to what we do before we meet someone. The During portion checks for comphrehension, revises assumptions, and begins to think on a deeper level, much like we do in conversations with other people. The After portion reflects, summarizes, and grows from knowledge gained- again, this seems strikingly like a relationship with another person. After meeting, we revise our opinions of others, attempt to summarize our knowledge into an overall idea, and grow from our experiences with others. Very much like Lindsey has already expressed, the wonderful strategies we are reading about, particularly in All America Reads, are not always as linear as they appear. Like a conversation,they can jump back, skip forward, and loop back again. Baldacci seems to be suggesting that instead of perscribing a set of reading strategies for students, the job of a good teacher is to chart the course with as many maps available as possible for a meaningful reading experience. (All America Reads) -Jess

What do proficient adolescent readers do before reading?
Proficient adolescent readers determine a purpose for reading, establish a conceptual framework, or several frameworks to recall text once they begin reading, activate their background knowledge concerning the topic, use knowledge of text structure, understand the features of both narrative and expository text, depending on the one being read (Introduction to All America Reads). --Lindsey

I like Lindsey's listing here and would like to add that it seems like "purpose" is the most important concept before reading a text. Students too often enter Reading classrooms that read- why?- because you are in Reading class! By establishing purpose with reading, not just "look for main conflict" or "make a prediction here"- but using the question "Why do we read?" to establish purpose, students could get alot more out of the reading process (thoughts on the Introduction to All America Reads) -Jess

What are some before-reading strategies to use in the classroom?
Some before-reading strategies are: open house, Probable Passage (Which can be utilized in many different ways, one way is described above in the section, "How do we connect students with text?"), and story impressions (Before-Reading Strategies in All America Reads). --Lindsey

Before-reading strategies must access the "three types of prior knowledge students need in order to comprehend a text: (1) knowledge about the topic, (2) knowledge about the structure and organization of the text, and (3) knowledge about vocabulary"(Gallagher 29). KWLR Charts are the most explicit way of accessing this knowledge. The teacher divides sections on a white board under the headings K(Know), W(Want to know), L(Learned while reading), and R(post-reading Research). As the teacher asks for suggestions of what to put into the K and W columns, she or he is learning how much background knowledge the students are using to engage the text. Gallagher presents other before-reading strategies like Anticipation Guides, Focus Poems, and Web Searches. Anticipation Guides measure the student's opinions on different issues presented in the text. A Focus Poem shares the same themes as the text, but in a more manageable and shorter medium. For a Web Search the teacher will discuss the cover matter, back cover matter with his or her students to brainstorm some ideas, situations, and themes that might come up in the text. The students then search those ideas, situations, and themes on the internet. -Stephany

Gallagher points to some excellent pre-reading strategies for teachers. "If we expect students to find meaning, "we need to be certain that today's curriculum contains connections to their past experiences, not just ours" (Sousa 2001, p.49)" (Gallagher 28). In other words, BEFORE we ask students to read, we should always take into account relevance. This means taking time to push our boundaries- our favorite novels and classics are not always a fair choice for our classroom. It means asking the question "Why should my students care? What does the content mean to them?". -Jess

One idea from “All America Reads: Before Reading Strategies” is called “Story Impressions.” It is similar to the “Probable Passage” strategy but is less structured, and can include “key words, phrases, or concepts” from the text to help students form an impression of the text and make predictions about what they are about to read (p. 24). Students must use the list of words, etc. to write their own paragraph summarizing what they think the text will be about. This can also help students establish a purpose for reading by giving them words and phrases to focus on and look for while reading the text. ~Amy

The Process of Reading
According to //All America Reads: Secondary Reading Strategies//, reading is a process that is made up of three different phases: before-reading, during-reading and after-reading. The before-reading phase is when the student is able to establish their plan/purpose for reading the text, the during-reading phase is when the student thinks about the purpose of the text they are reading, and using their prior knowledge, the after-reading phase is when the student has finished reading and begins to build new knowledge. It is important that as teachers we really help the students to set their purpose for reading and help students to activate prior knowledge. It is also important to build a foundation of key vocab that the students will need to understand in order to push through the reading.

Reading Workshop as the Solution to a Multitude of Reading Problems
If we want students to truly learn to love reading instead of just being able to answer comprehension questions, then reading workshop is the answer. According to the research from Julia Lausé in “Using Reading Workshop to Inspire Lifelong Readers,” having students read 45 minutes a night for the whole year and discuss the “meaning, message, and implications of the text” helps students “see themselves as readers, have a clear sense of their reading taste, and have a list of books they want to read” as well as improve their reading speed and comprehension, and, most importantly, helps them to become lifelong readers (p. 27). ~Amy

The Goal of Reading Instruction?
The Introduction to "All America Reads" states that “the goal of reading instruction is comprehension of reading materials” (p. 4). This seems to be in direct opposition to the reading instruction goal of Julie Lausé to “inspire lifelong readers” (“Using Reading Workshop to Inspire Lifelong Readers” p. 24). Although the reading workshop Lausé advocates also improves reading comprehension, and of course reading comprehension is important both in and out of school, is it not also important to teach students to love reading so that they continue to read even once they are done with school? If students never want to read again once they are done with school, how much will it matter if they can comprehend what they read? ~Amy