Ana McDonald's Academic English I & II
San Marcos High School
Language Arts Classroom Building, Room 214
Active Reading:
Research Based Strategies
© 2004, Ana McDonald, All Rights Reserved.
You are always welcome to link to this page or make one copy for your personal use.
For permission to reprint and distribute, email anamcdonald@corridor.net. Please mention the page title and how you intend to use it.
Different parts of the brain develop at different times, and continue to develop even in adults! Ms. Mac couldn't understand geometry until sometime in her 30s, and she still can't catch a ball. That part of her brain hasn't developed very well, and she doesn't care enough to work at it.
This is important because some people pick up books at age three and start reading. They just figure it out on their own. But other people's brains aren't ready to make the connection between the letters on a page and words in their minds until they're 8 or even 10 or more.
Sadly, the school system has decided that by Kindergarten, kids need to be able to read simple words, by 1st Grade, to read simple sentences, and by 3rd grade, be ready for the TAKS test.
What happens to the kids whose brains aren't ready to make the connection between letters on a page and words in their minds? They're labeled "learning disabled" or "stupid" or "lazy," when the real situation is that that part of their brain hasn't developed yet. And these people tend to grow into teenagers and adults who won't read if they can possibly avoid it.
In the 1970s, people started getting interested in what goes on in the minds of people who read well. They found that good readers do certain things, like ask questions and make connections. But it happens so fast - your brain moves in billionths of a second - that good readers usually aren't aware that they're doing these things.
Now that we know what good readers do, anyone can learn to do it too. They just have to care enough to put some energy and effort into it.
One more thing!
Some people can read one kind of text but not another. Ms. Mac can't read the sports page - the vocab and sentence structures don't make sense to her, and she doesn't like sports enough to figure it out. Ms Mac can't read a graphic novel (comic book) either. The vocab is too technical and the pictures too complicated - and she doesn't care enough to learn. The point is that if she cared enough to learn, she could by using the strategies on this page.
So even if you're a good reader of one kind of text, once you know what you're doing right, you can apply those skills to other types of reading. A person who reads the sports page can learn to read a novel. And a person who reads novels can learn to read a textbook. It's all a matter of effort.
Remember:
Reading is Understanding. If you don't understand it, you haven't read it!
Questions - A good reader knows when they don't understand, asks questions about what they don't understand, and looks for the answers. Somtimes the answers are in the text, sometimes they're already in your head. Most of the time, they're in both places. And every once in a while, the answers are in another text.
To start reading actively, pay attention to yourself!
Where the Answers Are
Fix-It Strategies - How to Find the Answers
Levels of Questions
Question-Starters
Connections - Good readers are constantly making connections, whether they know it or not. Connections are ideas, thoughts, and memories you have as you read.
Often those connections are made when you zone. When you realize you have made a connection, write down a few words in the margin of the book to help you remember the idea, then go back to reading.
You can make connections to
Connection Starters
Visualize
Predicting & Revising Predictions - Predicting means guessing what's going to happen next. Good readers are constantly predicting. Half the fun of reading is seeing if you guessed (predicted) right, then changing (revising) your guesses (predictions) and reading on to find out if you're right this time.
Predictions can be based on
Prediction Starters
Clarify
Summarizing
Conclude - A conclusion (noun) is an idea that you come up with based on the evidence in the text. It's the "idea" from the TAKS-Style Paragraph.
Conclusion Starters
Evaluate
Love it! - Good readers know what they like.
Love it! Starters
Hate it! - Good readers also know what they don't like.
Hate it! Starters
References
Barry, Arlene L. "Reading Strategies Teachers Say They Use." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. 46:2, 132 - 141.
Beers, Kylene. Holt Literature & Language Arts Introductory Course (California Edition).
Billmeyer, Rachel & Mary Lee Barton. Teaching Reading in the Content Areas: If Not Me, Then Who? 2nd ed. Aurora, CA: McREL, 1998.
Duke, Nell K. Building Comprehension through Explicit Teaching of Comprehension Strategies: Presentation to the Second Annual MRA/CIERA Conference, September 22, 2001. <www.ciera.org/library/presos/ 2001/2001MRACIERA/nduke/01cmndk.pdf>
Implementing the Reading TEKS in Ninth Grade Instruction (Revised). Austin: University of Texas System/Texas Education Agency: 2003.
Meeting the Needs of Struggling Readers: A Resource for Secondary English Language Arts Teachers. Austin: University of Texas System/Texas Education Agency. <http://www.texasreading.org/utcrla/materials/secondary_ela_resource.asp>
Meltzer, Julie, Nancy Cook Smith, & Holly Clark. Adolescent Literacy Resources: Linking the REsearch and Practice. Providence: LAB at Brown University & South Hampton, New Hampshire: Center for Resource Management. <www.alliance.brown.edu/pubs/adlit/alr_lrp.pdf>
Ruddell, Martha Rapp. Teaching Content Reading and Writing. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001.
Schoenbach, Ruth, Cynthia Greenleaf, Christine Cziko, & Lori Hurwitz. Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999.
Struggling Reader's Workshop & Materials, Region XIII, Summer 2003.
Sturtevant, Elizabeth G. The Literacy Coach: A Key to Improving Teaching and Learning in Secondary Schools. Alliance for Excellent Education.
White, Suzanne. Materials developed by a Reading Specialist. Unpublished.
Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Tanya N. Baker, & Julie Dube. Strategic Reading: Guiding Students to Lifelong Literacy, 6-12. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook (Heinemann), 2001.