Transcript Chapter 15 Informational Reading

Chapter 15:
Informational Reading
Teaching Reading Sourcebook
2nd edition
Informational Text
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Informational or expository text tends to
be more complex, diverse, and challenging
than narrative text.
It is important to integrate expository texts in
language arts instruction and integrate
comprehension into content-area teaching.
Types of informational texts include
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instructions, brochures, catalogues
directions, recipes, manuals, signs
magazine and news articles, websites, textbooks
Informational Text Structure
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Informational text structures include
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Description: explains or defines topic or concept
Compare-Contrast: presents similarities and
differences
Cause-Effect: presents reasons an event
happened and its results
Problem/Solution: poses a problem and suggests
possible solutions
Time Order (Sequence): groups ideas by order or
time
Graphic Organizers
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Concrete representations of informational
text structure provide students a means to
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record information about underlying text structure;
see how concepts fit within the structures;
focus on the most important ideas;
examine relationships among concepts;
recall key text information;
write well-organized summaries.
Considerate Texts
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Three overlapping features characterize
and help to define considerate texts.
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Structural cues: introductions, summaries, titles,
headings, charts, tables, type font, bullets etc.
Coherence: clarity of writing in explicitly stated
main ideas, information supports development of
main idea, logical order of events and ideas, use
of signal words, precise language, smooth
transitions
Audience appropriateness: conceptual density or
the number of new concepts introduced
Strategy Application
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Recognizing informational text structure
can be developed through
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detecting signal words;
noting graphic features (e.g. headings, tables, etc.);
creating graphic organizers to lay out or organize
information.
Monitoring comprehension when reading to
learn new information requires metacognitive
awareness
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knowledge about ourselves as learners
knowledge of the tasks we face
knowledge of the strategies we use
Strategy Application
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Connecting to World Knowledge
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Students learn new information by connecting it to
knowledge from their prior experience.
Readers’ world knowledge shapes the way they
perceive information in text.
The K-W-L procedure can be used to tap prior
knowledge.
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K- assessing what students know
W- assessing what students want to learn
L- noting what students have learned from the text
Strategy Application
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Predicting
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Students make predictions about informational
text by scanning structural cues that indicate its
organization.
Students make predictions about the purpose of
the text as a whole, as well as the functions of
various parts of the text.
Previewing the text in this way organizes
students’ thinking, preparing them to learn new
information presented in the text.
Strategy Application
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Asking Questions
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Students need instruction in how to ask higher-level
questions to help them learn from informational text.
In the strategy elaborative interrogation, students ask
why a fact makes sense, which helps them explain or
expand text information and better remember it.
Answering Questions
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The QAR framework is a type of question-answering
instruction that focuses on a three-way relationship
among question types: 1.Right There 2.Think and
Search 3. On My Own 4. Author and Me.
Strategy Application
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Constructing Mental Images
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Readers can create pictures in their minds, which depict
the content of the text.
Think aloud models help students to learn the thinking
processes needed to visualize.
Summarizing strategies
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Paragraph shrinking: identify main ideas: shrink it into one
sentence 10 words or less
Collaborative Strategic Reading: substitute a more general
term for a list of terms; delete redundant information; delete
information that is not central to overall meaning; select or
create a topic sentence
Reader Response
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Even when reading informational text,
students use their existing knowledge to
respond to the author’s point of view and
bias.
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Discussion-Oriented Instruction such as
Questioning the Author (QtA) teaches students to
question what they read, to think, to probe, to
associate, and to critique.
Writing for Content-Area Learning provides
opportunities for response to informational text by
writing reviews of texts, making improvements to
texts, and creating their own informational texts.
Motivation and Engagement
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Engaged Readers
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are motivated;
are knowledge driven;
are socially interactive;
believe in their reading skills;
persist in the face of difficulty;
possess a variety of cognitive comprehension
strategies.
Web-Based Text
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The benefits of Web-based text
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Readers can follow links to definitions, background,
and more detailed explanations to support
comprehension.
Readers learn more easily from Web-based than
printed text as long as options for navigation and
browsing are limited.
Electronic text can be more motivating especially for
struggling readers.
Reading on the Web requires additional demands
on the reader in specialized strategy application.
When to Teach
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Primary grade students need increased
instructional time with informational text.
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Young children often prefer age-appropriate
informational text, which builds world knowledge.
After grade 3, reading content-area texts
becomes increasingly important to expand
their knowledge.
It is critical to balance and integrate explicit
comprehension strategies instruction with
emphasis on the content of the text.
When to Assess and Intervene
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It is necessary to assess comprehension processes
as well as outcomes
When assessment reveals that students are
misusing or not using a specific strategy, additional
instructional support is required
Comprehension Assessment Response Formats
include
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cloze: maze CBM
open ended/ multiple choice questions
retelling
think aloud protocol