According to Guthrie and Klauda (2012) most textbooks are narrowly geared toward twenty percent of students in the middle of the ability spectrum. Students at the high end may already know the information in the text; students at the low end may have trouble even decoding the words and recognizing the vocabulary. Middle school teachers, as subject-area experts, understandably prefer to focus on teaching students the content in their discipline rather than teaching them literacy skills. Guthrie and Klauda’s (2012) research found that “nearly one-half of middle school students find science textbooks intimidating” (p.66). As educators we need to teach students reading strategies that will engage them in the text. Furthermore such reading
…show more content…
The during-reading strategy that should be integrated into science instruction is inquiry charts. When using inquiry charts, the students create questions about the topic they will be reading. The students will then refer back to this chart of questions during the reading of the text. Inquiry charts utilize the comprehension strategy of question-answer relationships. “Inquiry questions are intended to encourage readers to ask themselves questions as they read and learn” (Unrau, 2008, p. 248). The asking of questions will require analysis and reasoning, which are used during higher order thinking. Students in an inquiry-based curriculum actively and collaboratively engage in the science cycle of recognizing a problem, proposing a hypothesis, designing an experiment, collecting data, analyzing data, and drawing a conclusion (Fang and Wei, 2010). When looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy, integrating inquiry questions in to instruction will help students reach higher orders of thinking. The K-W-L chart can also be utilized as a during-reading strategy. In the second column of the chart, the W is what the student wants to learn about the topic. Before beginning to read the text, the student would write down anything they wanted to learn in the second column. While reading the text, the student would look at their chart …show more content…
The after reading strategy that should be integrated into science instruction is exit slips. After students finish reading the text, the exit slip strategy could be used two different ways. First the students could write a summary of what they learned in class. They could also write a question they may have about the lesson, that would be addressed the next class. The second way to use exit slips is to have the students answer several questions that the teacher created about the text they read. Exit slips are an effective activity that connects students to the reading a second time by requiring them to go beyond comprehension as they process what they have derived from the text. The repetition serves as a reinforcement to increase retention and engage cooperatively in higher levels of thinking (Gallavan and Kottler, 2002). Exit slips can also serve as an assessment for teachers. It enables the teacher to see how much learning the student has gotten from the lesson. Finally, the K-W-L chart is also considered an after reading strategy. The last column, the L is what the student has learned. Once the student has finished reading the text, they would write what they learned in the last column. This will require the students to think about the readings and summarize what they have learned. It also serves as an
The during-reading strategy that should be integrated into science instruction is inquiry charts. When using inquiry charts, the students create questions about the topic they will be reading. The students will then refer back to this chart of questions during the reading of the text. Inquiry charts utilize the comprehension strategy of question-answer relationships. “Inquiry questions are intended to encourage readers to ask themselves questions as they read and learn” (Unrau, 2008, p. 248). The asking of questions will require analysis and reasoning, which are used during higher order thinking. Students in an inquiry-based curriculum actively and collaboratively engage in the science cycle of recognizing a problem, proposing a hypothesis, designing an experiment, collecting data, analyzing data, and drawing a conclusion (Fang and Wei, 2010). When looking at Bloom’s Taxonomy, integrating inquiry questions in to instruction will help students reach higher orders of thinking. The K-W-L chart can also be utilized as a during-reading strategy. In the second column of the chart, the W is what the student wants to learn about the topic. Before beginning to read the text, the student would write down anything they wanted to learn in the second column. While reading the text, the student would look at their chart …show more content…
The after reading strategy that should be integrated into science instruction is exit slips. After students finish reading the text, the exit slip strategy could be used two different ways. First the students could write a summary of what they learned in class. They could also write a question they may have about the lesson, that would be addressed the next class. The second way to use exit slips is to have the students answer several questions that the teacher created about the text they read. Exit slips are an effective activity that connects students to the reading a second time by requiring them to go beyond comprehension as they process what they have derived from the text. The repetition serves as a reinforcement to increase retention and engage cooperatively in higher levels of thinking (Gallavan and Kottler, 2002). Exit slips can also serve as an assessment for teachers. It enables the teacher to see how much learning the student has gotten from the lesson. Finally, the K-W-L chart is also considered an after reading strategy. The last column, the L is what the student has learned. Once the student has finished reading the text, they would write what they learned in the last column. This will require the students to think about the readings and summarize what they have learned. It also serves as an