Coaching literacy, which is the current education buzz word for
teaching reading comprehension in the content areas, is
an essential part of teaching writing. Most students won't be
able to identify writing elements to copy in their own writing
without literacy training.
The easiest introduction to coaching literacy is in material
on how to study.
You’ll find you must approach nonfiction reading material
two different ways. One is through structural reading, and
the other is through close reading.
Structural reading finds clues
Like
bad detectives, poor readers don’t recognize clues when they
see them. Many can’t read because they aren’t able to
pick out the elements to which they need to pay attention. You teach
structural reading (also called surveying or previewing
reading) so students know what is likely to be important.
The easiest way for students to learn how to find clues to the
meaning of expository prose is for you to teach them to write persuasive
essays. The thesis-and-support organizational pattern found
in persuasive essays is the basis for most expository writing in
students’ texts.
If you teach this way, students will know from personal experience
with their own writing . . . . .
Close reading finds the meat
Close reading is an investigation of what a text says
paragraph-by-paragraph.
In the close reading part
of coaching literacy, look for the topic sentence of
a body paragraph and identify the evidence that explains
and supports the main idea of the paragraph.
Also in close reading, you help students see that transitions
and linking devices show how an idea is related to the ideas
before and after it.
By learning to read closely, students get a better idea what you
mean by developing an idea in their own writing. They see
examples of how the pattern of thesis-and-support can be adapted
and modified to fit different needs.
Summarizing makes it personal
After students read a paragraph, have them summarize
in their own words what they read. If they can’t put the gist into
a sentence, they need to read the material again.
Students shouldn’t go on to the next paragraph until they understand
what they read — as proven by their ability to summarize it— especially
if they are reading directions.
Once you get the hang of literacy coaching, you’ll find it’s easier
to teach all aspects of your English language arts curriculum as
integrated activities rather than as a series of isolated topics.
created 26-May-2008; updated: 27-Dec-2008
