Directed Reading Thinking Activity

 

Why use directed reading thinking activity?

• It encourages students to be active and
  thoughtful readers.
• It activates students' prior knowledge.
• It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as they're reading.

How to use ?

Teachers should follow the steps below when creating a DRTA.

1. Choose the text to be used and pre-select points for students to stop at during the reading process.
2. Introduce the text and the purpose of the DRTA.
3. Use the following outline to guide them:

   D = DIRECT. Teachers direct and activate students' thinking prior to reading a passage by scanning the title, chapter headings, illustrations, and other materials. Teachers should use open-ended questions to direct students as they make predictions about the content or perspective of the text (e.g., "Given this title, what do you think the passage will be about?").
   R = READING. Students read up to the first pre-selected stopping point. The teacher then prompts the students with questions about specific information and asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. This process should be continued until students have read each section of the passage.
   T = THINKING. At the end of each section, students go back through the text and think about their predictions. Students should change their predictions by finding supporting evidence in the text.

   
   

   The teacher asks questions such as: 

   • What do you think about your predictions now?
   • What did you find in the text to support your predictions?
   • What did you  read in the text that made you change your predictions?

   Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/drta

Possible Sentence (A pre - reading strategy)

 

Possible Sentences encourage students to draw on their background experiences and knowledge to make predictions for a text. It is a tool to help students to process key words in a text before they begin reading.

Possible Sentences:

• familiarise students with context and concepts.
• encourage prediction about the probable meaning of a text.
• make reading meaning centred
• allow students to be actively engaged in making predictions about the major ideas of a text.
• stimulate curiosity about the text.
• allow students to share what they know about information before they read with other students.
• compare their attempts with the sentences in the text thus providing a purpose for reading.

Procedure for Implementing Possible Sentences

1. Read through the text.
2. Select a list of key words (12-15) from the text, some familiar and some that may cause difficulty.
3. Display the words and discuss meanings with students. Ask students to predict meanings or ways the words will be used in the text.
4. In pairs or small groups, students compose Possible Sentences (that they feel may be in the text) using at least two of the listed words. Underline the key words.
5. The class comes back together to share their developed sentences, making comparisons and relevant comments. Ensure that all words are included in at least one sentence.
6. Post the Possible Sentences in the classroom.

During reading encourage students to watch and listen for the words to determine if their Possible Sentences were accurate. Comment on any similarities or differences in meaning or use.
It is important to address inaccurate predictions in ways that don’t belittle wrong answers and encourage future attempts. They can evaluate each Possible Sentence in terms of whether it is true (the text backs up the prediction), false (the text presents a different use of the word), or don’t know (the sentence can be neither proved or disproved based on the text).


This strategy and more like it can be found at MY READ http://www.myread.org/guide_stages.htm

Assumicide

When your assumptions lead to the potential demise of understanding, you commit assumicide!

Nothing can shut down learning faster than making faulty assumptions about student's knowledge.
Assumicide  kills understanding! It shoots it dead!

Making assumptions about students prior knowledge, their vocabulary and their ability to connect new information with what they already know – destroys comprehension.

Completing  both pre - reading strategies and during reading strategies using the super six, will destroy assumicide and improve comprehension!



 

 

Anticipation Guide (A pre - reading Strategy)

An Anticipation Guide is a strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading a selection, students respond to several statements that challenge or support their preconceived ideas about key concepts in the text. Using this strategy stimulates students' interest in a topic and sets a purpose for reading. Anticipation guides can be revisited after reading to evaluate how well students understood the material and to correct any misconceptions.

Create the strategy

There are several ways to construct an anticipation guide for middle and high school students. Most include the following steps (Duffelmeyer, 1994):

1. Identify the major ideas presented in the reading.
2. Consider what beliefs your students are likely to have about the topic.
3. Write general statements that challenge your students' beliefs.
4. Require students to respond to the statements with either a positive or negative response.

Use the strategy

1. Have students complete the anticipation guide before reading. They may work by themselves, in pairs or small groups. Remind students that they should be prepared to discuss and debate their reactions to the statements on the anticipation guide after they have completed it.
2. After students have finished the guide, encourage a class discussion of students' reactions to the statements. Remember, you want to activate their critical thinking about the topic, so dig deeper than students' answers and get to their justifications.
3. Have students read the text with their anticipation guide responses fresh in their minds so they can react to the text as they read. Encourage students to mark or write down where the text supports their initial reaction to statements, or causes them to rethink those reactions.
4. Have a class discussion after reading. Ask students if any of them changed their position on any of the statements. Encourage students to share how they reacted to the text, given their initial responses captured in the anticipation guide. Make sure students share examples from the text where their initial responses were either supported or challenged.

Examples of Anticipation Guides:

 

References

From -  All about Adolescent Literacy http://www.adlit.org/strategies/19712/

Duffelmeyer, F. (1994). Effective Anticipation Guide statements for learning from expository prose. Journal of Reading, 37, 452-455.

McKenna, M.C. (2002). Help for struggling readers: Strategies for grades 3-8. New York: Guilford.