Textbook Reading Assignments

Question: Does this finding apply to you?

Reality: “Teachers use reading as a major source of learning by assigning textbooks, articles and library research, yet some students manage to get by in their courses reading little or nothing beyond their assignments, if that. Some instructors, frustrated in their efforts to get students to read, may resort to telling them what they need to know. Rieck (1977) has found teachers who inadvertently sabotage reading:

Out loud, these teachers are saying: ‘I require reading in the course. All students are to read the assignments. Students are to read X number of pages from the textbook.’ However, their non-verbal attitude said to the students: ‘You really don’t have to read the assignments because you aren’t tested on them and probably won’t have to discuss them. You should read X number of pages but there is no real reason to do so. Reading really isn’t important. Outside reading is of little value in this class. ‘ (p. 647).”

 Comment: I have been guilty of telling students, unintentionally, that all they need to know without reading the required assignments I will tell them. And I have experienced teachers at the college level who have done the same. Mea Culpa.

How to combat this tendency? Prepare students for the assignment. Give them a purpose for reading, a question to answer. Demonstrate how to survey chapters (title, sub-title, first paragraph, first sentence of middle paragraphs, last paragraph) and have them find their own purposes by raising their own questions to answer from reading the chapter. RayS.

Title: “Turtles, Blue-Footed Boobies, and a Community of Readers.” SR Clark. Journal of Reading (February 1991), pp. 380-383.

Reading and Writing

Question: What are the latest theories on reading and writing instruction?

Answer/Quote: “…reading and writing should be seen as complex, interactive processes, not as an accumulation of discrete skills. Students should push up against whole texts and not be limited to abridged selections or short paragraphs [in assessment]. They should be encouraged to take risks, construct their own meaning, and learn to integrate prior knowledge with the demands of the reading/writing task.” P. 354.

Title: “Alternative  Integrated Reading/Writing Assessment and Curriculum Design.” Journal of Reading (February 1991), 354-359.

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Question: What are some techniques to help students improve their reading comprehension?

Answer:

SQ3R (Robinson, 1961): “A study strategy in which readers survey a text before reading and devise questions to answer, generally using the heading to guide question writing. They read to find answers to their questions; after reading, readers recite their answers. Finally, they review by going over their answers and rereading where necessary. The emphasis Is on using questions to guide study reading.”

DR-TA (Stauffer, 1969): “A comprehensions strategy in which readers speculate on what will occur in a text (e.g., what the topic is, what content a selection will cover, what a story is about, what will happen in a story). While reading, readers stop to check on predictions and predict what will happen next. The emphasis is on predictions.”

K-W-L (Ogle, 1986): A study strategy in which readers think about what they already know about the topic of a selection and predict categories of information they expect to learn from reading it, and also decide what they want to learn. After reading, they think about what they have learned. In this scheme, K stands for what I know; W for what I want to learn, and L for what I have learned.”

Comment: Excellent techniques for improving students’ comprehension. RayS.

Title: “Essential Reading: Targeting, Tracking, and Thinking about Main Ideas.” DG Hennings. Journal of Reading (February 1991), 346-353.

Teen-Age Reading, or Lack of It

Question: How can we increase the amount of students’ voluntary reading?

Answer:
Quote: “An excerpt from an old Journal of Reading article sums up a real concern for many of today’s middle and secondary school teachers. The article begins: ‘One of the more disconcerting problems facing teachers is not their students’ inability to read but students’ general lack of interest, indifference, or sheer rejection of reading. These pupils are asking, ‘Why read at all?’ “ (Gentile & McMillan, 1977, p. 649).

The author goes on to provide a survey for teachers about their practices involving voluntary reading. Only a few of these survey items struck me as interesting and I am listing them below.

. Do you provide a wide collection of books in the classroom that range from easy to difficult?

 . Do you conduct private conferences with students about their self-selected reading?

. Do you provide students with an efficient record system for keeping a personal account of self-selected reading? [Do you provide reading response logs? RayS.]

. Are your students given an opportunity for creative reporting on favorite books?

. Do you invite resource persons to your classroom to discuss literature?

. Do your students share their reading through varied media?

. Do you read aloud to students regularly?

. Do you use book talks regularly?

. Do you study adolescents’ books and reviews of adolescents’ books regularly?

 .Do  you discuss with students the parts of a book…?

. Do you have organized parental involvement in the literature program?

. Do you help select books for the school library and do you have a voice in determining library policy?

Comment: And one question that the author did not include: Do you, the teacher, read books?

No question about it. People are spending less time reading books. It’s self-evident. This article was written in 1991 and the uses of people’s time are increasingly taken up with Tweets and other social media, electronic games, cable, Fios, and satellite TV, the Internet, etc. On the plus side we now have E-books. Are students reading E-books?

I think a whole host of ideas needs to be brought to bear on students’ increasing failure to read books on their own, including how to read a book or article efficiently. If students do not feel trapped in reading books, can learn to read parts of books, can learn to abandon particular books when the books lose their interest or, at least, learn how to skim and scan in order to find the essential ideas of the books, students will be more likely to read them. RayS.

 Title: “Getting Adolescents to Read.” L M Clary. Journal of Reading (February 1991), 340-346.

Reading Science Textbooks

Question: How should one read a science textbook?

Answer/Quote: “The procedure for reading a science text is…the same as [scientists] used when they were first learning science: read slowly and more than once with pencil and paper in hand, chewing over each new idea. Ideally a chapter should be read at least three times: before a topic is covered in a class, while it’s being covered, and after it has been covered.” Pp. 331-332.

Comment: Even with the science text, I think students should use the survey/question approach first, before reading everything. The survey is reading the title, sub-titles, the first sentence of each paragraph and the last paragraph, noting charts and graphs, and then raising questions about what needs to be learned from the chapter.

I understand reading the chapter at least two times, before the topic is covered in class and after class, but I have some difficulty understanding how one can read the chapter during the lecture, unless the instructor makes reference to the chapter. And I also agree with reading with pencil and paper in hand. RayS.

Title: “Reading Science.” JV Mallow. Journal of Reading (February 1991), 324-338.

Novels

Question: Why do we read novels?

Answer/Quote: “The ways all of us interact and get through life are illustrated in stories. Adolescents are preoccupied with themselves and their relationships with others. They are ready to study human nature as shown in novels.” P. 523.

Comment: Do we ever address the question of why we read novels when we assign them in class? Or do we just assume that students understand the reasons for reading novels? Try asking your classes, “Why do we read noels?” What’s the point? RayS.

Title: Review of Novel Strategies for Young Adults.  Donita Covey. 1992. Englewood CO., Teachers Ideas Press. Reviewed by JA Williams and DW Sandmann. Journal of Reading (March 1994), 522-523.

Using Textbooks

Question: How do teacher use textbooks in their classes [not just in English, but in all disciplines]?

Here is the survey:

. How are your text materials selected?

. How do you typically use your textbook?

. What things keep you from the most effective use of your textbooks?

. What do you like about your textbook?

. What do you dislike about your textbook?

Quote: “This survey did not find much evidence of reading strategy instruction occurring in the secondary classroom, and overall it appeared that text reading is not heavily promoted in the U.S. content area classrooms regardless of teacher experience level.” P. 470.

 Comment: At the very least students should be taught SQ3R—especially the survey, question part. The survey provides background information on the topic and the questions provide the purposes for reading. RayS.

Title: “Teachers’ Views of Textbooks and Text Reading Instruction: Experience Matters.” D Menke and B Davey. Journal of Reading (March 1994), 464-470.