Content Area Reading
Instruction
What is the content area
teacher’s role in teaching
reading?

Who is the content area teacher?
– Any teacher who uses reading as an
instructional tool.
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What are the three levels of reading?
– Mastery level - above 95%
comprehension
– Instructional level - around 95% or
slightly below - needs help to read
– Frustration level – reading is to difficult –
learning is blocked
Direct and Functional
Reading Instruction

Direct – teaching someone to read
– Phonemes
– Graphemes
– Skills

Functional – teaching reading
strategies to gain access to more
written materials.
– Comprehension
– Construction of Knowledge
Content Area Teachers
Need to Do Both
A shift takes place toward functional
instruction. (hopefully)
 Knowing why leads to knowing how
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– We will study both theory and practice.
A group of English, science, social
studies, mathematics, physical
education, art, and home economics
teachers were asked a series of
questions about their actions in
relation to reading. On two of the
questions asked, here is how they
responded:*
1. Do you require reading in your
course? 97% yes, 3% no.
 2. Do most of your students read their
assignments? 58% yes,42% no.
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Approximately three hundred students of
the teachers who responded “no” to the
second question were then asked these
questions:
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1. Do you like to read? 52% yes, 38% no,
10% no response.
2. Do you read your assignments in this
class? 15% yes, 81% no, 4% no response.
3. Do your tests cover mainly lecture and
discussion or reading assignments? 98%
lecture and discussion, 2% reading.
4. Are you required to discuss your reading
assignments? 23% yes, 70% no, 7% no
response.
5. Does your teacher give you
purpose for reading or are you only
given the number of pages to read?
95% pages, 5% purpose.
 6. Does your teacher bring in outside
material for you to read and
recommend books of interest for you
to read? 5% yes, 95% no.
 7. Does your teacher like to read?
20% yes, 33% no, 47% don’t know.

The Timeframe of
Content Area Reading
Activities
Pre-reading Strategies
 Reading/Text Interaction Strategies
 Post-reading Strategies

Overall Strategies and
Activities
K-W-L – Know-Want to Know-Learn
 Dr-TA – Directed Reading-Thinking
Activity
 GRP – Guided Reading Procedure
 Intra Act
 Discussion Web

K-W-L
Introduce the Strategy
 Model the Strategy Through
Brainstorming
 Have students use KWL sheets
 Read text to answer Questions

DR-TA
Prediction
 Verification
 Judgement
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GRP
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Prepare Students for Reading
Assign a Reading Selection
Turn Books Face Down Tell what you remember
Help students recognize that there is Much
they have not remembered.
Redirect students to the passage for corrections
Create an outline based on remembrances
Extend Questioning for analysis and synthesis
Provide immediate feedback and or
assessment
Intra Act
A game that lays the groundwork for
reflective discussion
 Steps

– 1.Prediction - pre-reading strategies
– 2.Relating – personal reactions to the topic
– 3.Valuation – game sheet
– 4. Reflection – How did your ideas stand up
Discussion Web
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Activate Prior Knowledge
Assign selection and introduce discussion
web Students work in pairs
Combine into groups of four to compare
responses
Give three minutes for groups to prepare a
defense for their answers. Spokesperson
Whole Class discussion
Students write final responses – display
them
Prereading Strategies
Curiosity Arousal
Creating Story Impressions
 Story Chain

Establishing
Problematic
Perspectives
Anticipation Guides
Student Generated
Questions

ReQuest
– Designed for one-on one
– Teacher and student (s) read a section at a
time pose questions to each other
– Shift to predictions before reading
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Expectation Outlines
– Students read the beginning of a selection
– Five to ten questions they think will be
answered
– Discuss questions
– Read and discuss whether they were answered
Reading Guides
Three Level Guides
 Pattern Guides
 Selective Guides
 Outlining
 Jot Chart
 Network Trees
 Chains
 Semantic Maps

Selective Reading
Guides
How to think with print.
 Eliminate all sections irrelevant to the
lesson purpose.
 Teacher must know how to process
info. from our own subject area and
according to the curriculum.
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Three Level Guides
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Based on Levels of Comprehension
– Literal
– Interpretive
– Applied
Create a set of questions as a study
guide in these three areas.
 Remember that these levels are not
completely discreet,
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Text Pattern Guides
Examine a reading selection
 Make students aware of the pattern
 Provide Guidance
 Provide Assistance

Text Patterns
Description
 Sequence
 Comparison and Contrast
 Cause and Effect
 Problem and Solution

Pattern Signals
Graphic
Representations

Graphic or visual representations help
learners comprehend and retain textually
important information. When students learn
how to use and construct graphic
representations, they are in control of a
study strategy that allows them to identify
what parts of a text are important, how the
ideas and concepts encountered in the text
are related, and where they can find specific
information to support more important ideas.
Outlining – The Classic
Approach
Venn Diagram
Semantic Maps
Comparison and
Contrast Matrices
Problem and Solution Chart
Network Trees
Events Chains
Writing Summaries
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GRASP
– Guided Reading and Summarizing Procedure
– Based on GRP – Read – Turn Book Down - Summarize
Summary Polishing
 Note Taking
 SQ3R
 Other Study Strategies
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– e.g. graphic representations