INFORMATIONAL READING

Megan Miller

Informational, or expository, text communicates facts about the natural or social world (Duke 2006)

Informational texts tend to be more complex, diverse and challenging than narrative texts and understanding them requires more abstract thinking (Sadler 2001; Alvermann and Eakle 2003; Fisher and Frey 2004)

It is important to integrate comprehension instruction into content-area teaching, particularly for adolescents

WHAT?

Torgeson et al. (2007) make the following recommendations for improving adolescent literacy instruction in content areas Provide explicit comprehension strategies instruction

throughout the day Include plenty of open, sustained discussion of reading

content Hold high standards for text, conversation, questions, and

vocabulary Build motivation and engagement with reading Teach essential content knowledge

WHAT?

Informational Text Structure Information texts use a limited number of organizational

structures, including description, compare-contrast, cause-effect, problem/solution, and time order

See Information Text Structures and Signal Words chart on page 683

WHAT?

Graphic Organizers – see pgs 684 & 685 Because they are concrete representations, graphic

organizers provide a means for students to Record information about underlying text structures See how concepts fit within text structures Focus on the most important ideas in the text Examine relationships among text concepts Recall key text information Write well-organized summaries

(Armbruster et al. 2001; Trabasso and Bouchard 2002)

WHAT?

Considerate Texts Facilitate comprehension and learning Three overlapping features characterize and help define

considerate text (Armbruster 1996) Structural cues: aspects of text that suggest, indicate or

emphasize its structure Coherence: main ideas are explicitly stated, information limited

to that which supports the development of a main idea, a logical ordering of events and ideas, the use of signal words to clarify relationships between events and ideas, and smooth transitions between topics

Audience appropriateness: the extent to which the text matches world knowledge that readers are likely to have

WHAT?

Strategy Application When comprehension instruction is tied to content are

learning, it is important to read with a purpose in mind (Neufeld 2005)

Informational reading instruction be done in meaningful contexts and for authentic purposes

When comprehension strategies are closely linked with knowledge in a content are, students are more likely to learn the strategies fully, perceive strategies as valuable tools and use them in new learning situations

WHAT?

Connecting to World Knowledge Students learn new information from text by linking it with

knowledge that stems from their pervious experiences When reader’s world knowledge matches what is present in

the text, they assimilate the new information, connecting it readily into their existing schema for the topic

When their world knowledge conflicts with information presented in the text, either readers accommodate by modifying their schema to fit the new information or they reject the information and maintain their pervious understanding (Prado 2004)

WHAT?

Connecting World Knowledge Strategies KWL charts Pre-reading and predicting Asking questions Answering questions Constructing mental images Summarizing

WHAT?

Multiple-Strategy Instruction Program: CSR Encourages students to self-monitor their comprehension by

using a set of four comprehension strategies Preview Click and clunk Get the gist Wrap up

WHAT?

Reader Response Enhance reader interactions with informational texts

Discussion oriented instruction: Questioning the Author teaches students to question what they read, to think, to probe, to associate, and to critique

Writing for content-area learning: important for students to make reading/writing connections with informational text by studying the authors’ writing styles, writing reviews of texts, making improvements to existing texts and producing their own informational texts (Duke 2006)

WHAT?

Motivation and Engagement with Reading Engaged readers are knowledge driven, socially interactive,

and strategic Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI): primary aim is

to increase students’ reading engagement Relevance Choice Collaboration Success Conceptual theme

WHAT?

Web-Based Text When a student lacks world knowledge it is easier for them

to use web-based text as long as options for navigation and browsing are limited

Can be more engaging than traditional text WebQuest: poses open-ended problems that students solve

using internet resources Organizes the learning task and prevents endless searching for

informationSee strategy applications in web-based text chart on page 697

WHAT?

Builds content knowledge and vocabularyCapitalizes on students’ interests, curiosities, and

experiencesPresents opportunities for students to develop areas of

expertisePrepares students for the types of texts they will read

most frequently as adultsSupports students in both answering and raising

questionsServes as a tool for both solving and posing problems Duke 2004, 2006

WHY?

Primary grade students need increased instructional time with informational text

Use age appropriate texts that appeal to students’ natural curiosity

After grade 3 it is important to help students expand their knowledge in content areas such as science and math

No single test captures the complexity of comprehension, the best idea is to use a variety of methods See the Comprehension Assessment: Response Formats

chart on page 701

WHEN?

Questions-Answer Relationships (QAR) Research based method and language framework to

enhance student’s ability to talk about answer comprehension questions

Analyze differences between questions with answers in the text and those with answers in student’s background knowledge or experiences

Four categories: Right there Think and search On my own Author and me

HOW - QAR

Summarizing Paragraph shrinking

Identify who or what a paragraph is mostly about Identify the most important information about the who or what Shrink all the information into one main-idea statement of 10

words or less

HOW-SUMMARIZING

Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) Before Reading: Preview, scan, brainstorm what you want to

know, predict what you will learn During Reading: click and clunk, get the gist After Reading: Wrap up, ask and answer questions, review

what you learned Click and clunk: words or concepts whose meanings are

understood “click”, words or concepts they don’t understand “clunk”

Get the gist: Identify the most important ideas in the reading

HOW-CSR

Questioning the Author (QtA) 3 goals for QtA lesson planning

Identify the major understandings and potential obstacles in the text

To segment the text or determine where to stop reading and initiate discussion

Develop initiating queries and potential follow up queries

See QtA queries and discussion moves charts on pages 734 and 735 as well as lesson scrip on 736-738

HOW-QTA

Concept Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) Activating background knowledge Questioning Organizing graphically Structuring story Summarizing

Goal is to increase engagement and motivation to read through interest, ownership, social interaction, confidence, and content mastery

See charts for goals and motivational practices on pages 740 and 741

HOW-CORI

Students’ success or failure in school is closely tied to their ability to comprehend informational text

Students need to develop skills to read, interpret and understand informational text that is often associated with content area learning in relation to their currently held background knowledge

“Middle and high-school students spend most of their time in content-area classes and must learn to read expository, informational, content-area texts with greater proficiency” (Torgensen et al. , 2007)

CONCLUSION