READING and STUDY STRATEGIES:
for grade 9

DEFINITION OF TERMS

What is a Successful Reader?

Successful readers understand what they read. Successful readers make sense of text by combining the information in the text with their background knowledge and with other information sources such as letter/sound relationships, word meanings, and sentence and text structure. Successful readers use all of the language arts--listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing help them make sense of what they read. Successful readers use study strategies to understand and remember what they read.

What are Study Strategies?

Study strategies are deliberate actions successful readers use to understand and remember what they have read; for example, varying their reading rate depending on the difficulty of the materials, note taking, using mnemonic devices, using pre-reading activities, re-reading difficult parts, asking questions, using reference materials, summarizing, using context clues to self-correct, outlining, mapping, reading aloud, and many others. Each of the strategies discussed in this course of study needs to become part of a student's repertoire if he or she is to read successfully. He/she not only needs to know what to do (the strategy) but also why, how, and when to do it. Study strategies help students become independent readers who can cope with the kinds of comprehension problems they are asked to solve throughout their lives--not just in school.

What is Effective Teaching of Reading?

To be effective, reading teachers need to make what they teach about reading relevant to their students. They should show students how ability in reading and writing can help students understand information presented in content area classes. Students will then understand how they can readily apply the reading strategies they are learning to their specific content area materials and circumstances.

Reading instruction should also equip students with the skills, dispositions, and confidence needed to be successful in their literacy activities beyond high school. Students need to leave high school with the ability and determination to be independent learners in all settings. They should not only have the ability to read, but they should also have the desire to read. Thus, students should be given opportunities to read widely for enjoyment as well as for information.

POSITION STATEMENTS
ASSESSMENT

Assessment should be aligned with curriculum and instruction and incorporate a variety of methods suited to the purpose of the assessment. Standardized tests, especially in content reading, rarely reflect individual student progress. Therefore, portfolios of students' work, anecdotal records, performance based and criterion-referenced tests should all be part of the assessment program in reading.

CONTENT AND READING TEACHER COLLABORATION

To assist students in achieving success in all subject areas, reading teachers should collaborate with content area teachers, librarians, and other relevant school personnel. It is appropriate for the reading teacher to gather information about the reading and study needs of students from content area teachers. The reading teacher can then design and relate instruction that will enable students to be successful in their content area subjects. (A sample teacher survey can be found in Appendix A.)

DIVERSITY

Secondary reading teachers need to be aware of the different multicultural backgrounds and ability levels of the students within the classroom as well as their broad range of needs and interests. Since Reading and Study Strategies is a required course for all students, the teacher will need to provide meaningful learning opportunities for these students. Instruction should provide opportunities which challenge all students in their academic subjects while encouraging them to become independent learners.

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

A primary focus of Reading and Study Strategies is to teach the student to interact with text. The student needs to employ personal experiences and background knowledge, ask questions, and make predictions while engaging with the author in the meaning-making process. Although the focus of this class is reading, the instruction should provide an integrated language arts experience, combining listening, speaking, reading, writing, and viewing. Thus, students will have opportunities to improve their reading, as well as develop an appreciation of and enjoyment for reading. It is important, therefore, that the instructional materials reflect these purposes.

Materials for Reading and Study Strategies should be relevant. That is, they should either be texts currently in use in content area classes or resources which will help the students become independent learners. Instructors should use a variety of sources, providing many experiences and strategies. Such materials could include but not be limited to newspapers, magazines, trade books, content area textbooks, student writings, and electronic media. Students should use the library on a regular basis for recreational reading as well as to learn research techniques.

LISTENING

Listening is an integral part of the language arts and an essential study strategy. Active listening is an important communication skill especially in lecture classes and in group decision making.

Effective listening provides background information that makes effective speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and thinking possible. Therefore, it is vital that students learn how to listen effectively.

PARENT/COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

The school day represents only a small part 9f a student's world and the school year is only a small part of a student's life. Therefore, parents-the first and most continuous teachers--need to maintain their interest and involvement with their student's education. At the 9th grade level this could take various forms: support, encouragement, modeling of adult reading, and high expectations. The school must make every effort to invite and involve parents.

That same interest and involvement needs to come from the community as well. Teachers, students, and community members need to maintain a dialogue about the skill expectations and needs required in the world of work. Business leaders can help students identify critical reading and writing competencies and attitudes which will help students succeed beyond high school. The involvement of both parents and community is essential to encourage long term student learning.

SPEAKING

The developmental process of speaking is basic to language, although instruction in formal speaking is not a required part of this course. However, speaking is interactive with the processes of listening, reading, writing, viewing, and thinking. It is a means of communicating, expressing, and understanding information. Thus, sharing information, discussing concepts, and working in study groups are effective study strategies and should be taught as such.

VIEWING

Viewing, an important aspect of receptive language, is the process through which students are able to interpret, organize, and evaluate visual presentations such as videos, films, charts, art, diagrams, photographs, maps, signs, and advertisements. Critical viewing skills will provide the student with the ability to distinguish between fact and fiction in all forms of visual materials, to understand the differences between electronic and print media, and to enrich their language skills. Thus, viewing with discrimination is an essential study strategy.

VOCABULARY

To be successful learners, students must develop an adequate vocabulary assisted by appropriate instruction. However, this instruction should focus on strategies which will enable the students to become independent learners, rather than focus on lists of words out of a meaningful context. The point of vocabulary instruction is to help students use vocabulary as they become strategic readers engaged in relevant tasks.

The study of vocabulary lists apart from a meaningful context is most strongly discouraged.

WRITING

Writing is a tool for learning, discovering, communicating, recording, and understanding in all curriculum areas. While writing focuses thinking and assists intellectual growth, it is also a way to practice the conventions of written language. In addition, writing is an expressive activity. Its form and function depend upon its purpose and audience. The teaching of writing should be fully integrated with listening, speaking, reading, and viewing according to the needs of content area subjects. To be successful readers, students should use writing as a study strategy; for example, to predict, take notes, summarize, review, outline, reflect, explain ideas, etc.

GOALS

FOR READING AND STUDY STRATEGIES

There are five goals for the Reading and Study Strategies Course. Trained reading teachers understand that the concepts these goals address must be taught in differing contexts and levels of complexity depending on a student's needs. The objectives by which these goals are attained cannot be isolated. They are best learned when they are taught in relationship to content areas and to each other.

 1. The student will use strategies for comprehending the oral, visual, and written text of content area courses as well as texts encountered in daily life.
2. The student will appreciate and enjoy reading a variety of materials.
3. The student will develop strategies for writing in a variety of content areas and daily situations.
4. The student will develop and use effective study habits in order to be successful within and  out of school.
5.The student will select appropriate reading, writing, and study strategies to use, monitor, and adjust as necessary to complete a given task.

READING AND STUDY STRATEGIES

FOR GRADE 9

Goal 1. The student will use strategies for comprehending the oral, visual, and written text of content area courses as well as texts encountered In daily life.

Objectives:
The student will

A. understand:

1. text structures (e.g. enumeration, time order, comparison and contrast, and cause and effect relationships).
2. differences between main ideas and details, facts and opinions in text.
3. interpret graphs, maps, schedules, charts, and other visual information.

B. apply:

1. questions in order to make predictions about text.
2. prior knowledge, word analysis and context clue processes to increase vocabulary.
3. strategies to read for explicit and implicit information (e.g., apply Question Answer Relationships (QAR), Bloom's Taxonomy, and inference strategies).
4. a method of guided reading (e.g., Survey. Question. Read. Recite. Review (SQR); Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA).
5. various graphic organizers appropriate for content area needs (e.g., semantic maps, outlines, structured overviews) to understand text.
6. listening techniques (e.g., Directed Listening Activity (DIA); Guided Listening Procedure (GLP).

NOTE: Activities for promoting comprehension can occur before, during, and/or after reading passages. The objectives listed above could be used at any of these three times.

Goal 2: The student will appreciate and enjoy reading a variety of materials.

Objectives:
The student will:

A. Appreciate written language by:

1. listening to a variety of reading materials read to them by their teacher, peers, or others.

B. Enjoy written language by:

1. self-selecting materials to read in class.
2. using time provided in class to engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR).
3. share what they have read with others in various situations.

Goal 3: The student will develop strategies for writing in a variety of content areas and daily situations.

Objectives:
The student will:

1. write summaries applicable to content area texts.
2. take notes from oral, written, and visual materials.
3. use semantic mapping, outlining, and graphic organizers to produce writing structures such as: comparison/contrast writing. research writing. creative writing. technical writing.
4. use effective strategies for answering essay questions.
5. write for personal needs, such as letters, resumes, work applications, etc.
6. practice other forms of writing which deal with relevant content area needs.

Goal 4. The student will develop and use effective study habits in order to be successful within and out of school.

Objectives:
The student will:

1. develop strategies to edit/proofread his/her own and other students' writing.
2. demonstrate good organization skills such as

a. organizing notebooks.
b. maintaining an organized locker,
c. coming to class prepared,
d. handing in assignments that are neat and on time.

3. demonstrate the ability to

a. plan a task.
b. form a strategy.
c. monitor.
d. evaluate the process to complete a task.

4. develop flexibility in selecting reading rates appropriate to the complexity of the material, the purpose of the reading his/her background knowledge of the material being read.
5. develop the ability to follow oral and/or written directions.
6. demonstrate library skills that include

a. locating specific information.
b. using reference materials.
c. using magazines and newspapers.
d. using electronic media (e.g., INFOTRAC, LASERCAT, CATALYST).

7. demonstrate listening skills related to study strategies, (e.g., note-taking, following teacher directions, participating in class discussions, etc.)

Goal 5: The student will select appropriate reading, writing, and study strategies to use, monitor, and adjust as necessary to complete a given task.

Objectives:
The student will:

A. Identify and describe appropriate strategies to use on a reading or writing assignment.
B. Assess and monitor his/her performance of that strategy.

NOTE: Goal 5 deals with metacognition, "the knowledge learners have about reading strategies and the ability to capitalize upon such knowledge to monitor their own reading" (Vacca and Vacca, 1989). Each of the strategies discussed under the other goals needs to become part of a student's repertoire. He/she not only needs to know what to do (the strategy), but also why, how, and when to use it. Instruction in metacognition helps students become independent readers who can cope with the kinds of comprehension problems they are asked to solve throughout their lives--not just in school.