Informational Reading

JoyLynn Gleave

What?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 should 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 previous 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

Why?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)

When?Primary grade students need increased

instructional time with informational textUse age appropriate texts that appeal to

students’ natural curiosityAfter grade 3 it is important to help

students expand their knowledge in content areas such as science, math, and Social Studies.

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

How?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?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?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?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?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

ConclusionStudents’ 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)