Cross-Content Literacy Strategies
Exchange Day 1.2.19 & Lit Lead 2.28.19
(2) Comprehension: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing using Multiple Texts.
Students use metacognitive skills to comprehend text with increasing depth and complexity.
The student is expected to:
(B) generate questions about text before, during, and after reading to deepen understanding and gain information;
(C) create mental images to deepen understanding;
(D) make connections to personal experiences, to ideas in other texts, and to the larger community to activate prior knowledge;
(E) make inferences and use evidence to support understanding;
(F) prioritize information read to determine what is most important;
(G) synthesize information to create new understanding;
(H) establish purpose for reading assigned and self-selected texts; and
(I) monitor comprehension and make corrections and adjustments when understanding breaks down.
Students need to read more non-fiction texts!
Since other content areas read and study ONLY nonfiction/informational texts, let's look at some ways to break those texts down and better support students reading those challenging texts.
Students need support at each step - before, during, and after reading.
Before Reading Strategies
- Pre-teach vocabulary (use visuals, cognates, and TPR for ELL students)
- Allow students to interact with vocabulary (list/group/label - don't give categories before hand: let students circle to group words on a page, draw lines to make connections, use images, etc)
- Hook/Engage students with Talk #1 about a quote from the article, graph/table, fact, video, or question using structure of TRTW, etc.
- Give students a purpose/rationale for reading (ex: "You will read this article/text to figure out the difference between a reflection and a refraction.")
- Make predictions with Possible Sentences
- Activate background knowledge & make connections to prior learning/content using KWL 2.0 (last slide)
- Model reading strategies & expectations, when appropriate (how to figure out vocabulary when reading, think aloud to show when you stop to think/infer, "fix up strategies" when you get stuck or confused)
During Reading Strategies
- Use text codes (symbols) to help monitor comprehension (when they don't understand, have a question, etc)
- Use a strategy like Highlight Plus (from TRTW: Reading Strategies)
- Teach students to Notice & Note (annotate) important signposts in nonfiction texts (Contrast & Contradiction, Word Gaps, Quoted Words, Numbers & Stats, Extreme Language)
- Offer an organizer for note-taking like Cornell Notes, Venn Diagram, visual mapping, text structures like cause & effect, etc. This site also has a bunch of great ideas!
- Assign reading partners/study buddies (especially for ELLs)
- Chunk the text (stopping at different points to do different things - draw illustration that represents what you read, summarize in 5 words, ask a question, turn/talk and write down a partner's comment, etc)
- Have fix-up strategies at each table or on wall for reference. Try these for secondary: Fix Up Strategies or these for Elementary: Reading Strategies!
After Reading Strategies
- Use sentence stems for accountable talk using academic terms
- Use three big questions from Notice & Note in group conversations: (1) What surprised me? (2) What confused me? (3) What challenged/changed/confirmed my thinking?
- Try Talk #2 strategies from TRTW
- Summarize with SWBST
- Pose different levels of questions to students (& call on random students with a randomizer app - not hand raisers!)
- Evaluate importance of content (have students choose the 7 most important statements/ideas individually, then just 5 with a partner, then 3 with a table group, then 1 as a class, etc)
- Make connections between different articles/texts using a Venn Diagram
- WRITE: Try writing strategies from TRTW
- WRITE: Use the 11 Min Essay
- WRITE: Make connections and have fun with RAFT Writing
Who to contact for additional support
Erika San Miguel, M. Ed
English Language Arts Curriculum & Instructional Specialist,
AISD Teaching and Learning Community
Presenter Notes *
Email: erika.sanmiguel@austinisd.org
Website: teachermaterials.weebly.com
Location: 1111 East 6th Street, Austin, TX, USA
Phone: (512)554-8687
Twitter: @GeckaSanMiguel