Joey Wiseman
Social Studies Coordinator
Office of Instruction
WVDE



SEE
THINK
WONDER


What do you think good readers do when they
read?
What do you think most students do when
they read?



How can secondary teachers be expected to
teach reading when they have so much content
to cover?
How many times have you heard teachers say
if students cannot read well by fifth or sixth
grade then it is too late?
Chris Tovani became a good reader in her
thirties. She is the author of the book “I Read It,
but I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for
Adolescent Readers”.




Many students are afraid to admit they cannot
read.
They are participating in fake reading –
pretending to understand what they are
reading
They do not know how to decipher what they
are reading to help them understand the
content information.
They are faking it.

Struggling readers:
Rarely finish a book
 Do not understand their text book reading
assignments
 Do not experience the fun of escaping into a good
story for pleasure
 Feel defeated by test scores
 Are embarrassed by the group they are assigned to
and the label they are given
 Perceive reading as drudgery and therefore
procrastinate when faced with it.
 See no purpose or pleasure in reading


Recall a book that had an impact on your life
It may be positive or negative impact
 It may be from childhood
 Maybe you read it last year
 How did it impact your life, decisions, the way you
read and write today, etc.?






Reading is a complex process, therefore it
requires a complex answer
Large amounts of material are covered in
middle and high school
Students who have not been shown how to
develop their reading skills are left behind
Some students can read, but choose not to –
content is not made relevant to them
Others cannot read and so give up





Content area teachers do not feel equipped to
teach reading.
Depth of information to teach seems endless
Expectation to “cover” material and standards
is high
When would they have time to teach reading?
When would they have time to learn to teach
reading?

By the time they reach middle and high school,
students are expected to be able to read. They
are expected to:
Know how to read
 Read large volumes of text in shorter amounts of
time
 Read faster
 Gain information by reading alone
 Read and understand increasingly difficult material.







Avoid pressure to “cover” content. Help
students “uncover” the content themselves.
Do not “feed” the information to your students.
Do not reduce the opportunities your students
have to read because they are having difficulty
Do teach them the strategies they need to help
them read
Do assign interesting text.
Do have confidence in your ability to teach
them to read


Why do you read what you read?
Your purpose effects everything about what
you are reading.
What is remembered
 What is skipped
 Strategy you use to comprehend new meaning


When you read without purpose:
You cannot stay focused
 You may not care about the topic
 You do not relate to the information
 You read through the words so you can be finished
 You become bored very quickly


Students rely on the teacher to tell them the
purpose for their reading
Test on Friday
 Complete the questions
 Write an essay when reading is finished
 Students have no real purpose of their own and
these three are too general to be helpful
 Students need to learn how to establish purpose





Make invisible mental processes visible
Think out loud to take the mystery out of
comprehension and make it more concrete
Show students how to engage in mental
processes before, during and after reading
Demonstrate out loud the comprehension
strategies that you are using to construct
meaning in the reading assignment.




When you are using these strategies and
practicing them with your students, do not
“add-on” anything that is not part of the
course.
Use the actual course material that you are
requiring them to read, whether
supplementary, primary, or text.
Help them uncover the meaning of material
they need to read.
They will feel less isolated and more
comfortable

Narrative


Expository


tells a personal or fictional experience or tells a story
based on a real or imagined event.
conveys information or explains what is difficult to
understand.
Persuasive

attempts to convince the reader to accept a particular
point of view or to take a specific action


Our choice for today
Why Not Narrative or Expository?

Persuasive thought requires creativity, critical
thinking and problem solving skills – 21st Century
skills needed by every citizen.



Start with your students’ natural talent of
persuasion
We all learn by doing, and they have been
doing this since they were born – in one way or
another.
Are you good at persuasion?

Freewrite – 6 minutes


Debrief



Methods
Generalizations


Experience with persuasion
Observing, persuading, nagging
Rules of persuasion
Comparison



Share an example
Reasonable vs. Unreasonable Methods
Bullying, Bribing, Badgering or Blackmail


Debriefing



Unreasonable
Patterns for success
What works on paper?
Practice
Start a persuasive list about an historical event or decision
you are covering in class
 Have students persuade an audience that a particular
change would yield a different outcome in the event, then
have them describe how to go about making the change
and what the outcome would be.
