4. Students set purposes for reading (for example to find answers to focus questions).
5. The students predict what the next part of the text will be about, and consider the accuracy of earlier predictions.
6. When used with text books or similar material, the example below will help students focus discussion at each evaluation point.
The teacher’s role during D.R.T.A.
• ACTIVATE
What do you think? What will happen? • AGITATE
Why do you think so? • REQUIRE EVIDENCE
Prove it! Read the part that supports you.
The students’ role during D.R.T.A.
• PREDICT Set purposes • READ
Process ideas silently Skim
Scan
Reread to justify predictions
Read orally, to substantiate beliefs or proposals.
• QUESTION others in the group • SUBSTANTIATE
from evidence in text or own experience.
know you know? think you know? think you’ll learn? know you learned?
Example
What do you …
Purpose
Students learn the content of a short text in order to teach it to other students. This technique enables students of varying ability levels to participate in understanding content. See also Collaborative strategic reading, page 83.
Description
Students work in groups, which can be selected on ability or of mixed ability, to learn one part of the whole topic and provide their part of the “jigsaw”.
Preparation
Select four or five short passages which stand alone as complete units and are related to the topic under discussion. Class groupings: usually four or five, vary depending on the number of passages used, class size, etc., ‘scribe’ for each home group. The passages can vary in reading level and be matched to the reading ability of the expert groups.
Materials
Chosen passages; chart paper or OHT to record findings and present to class.
Helpful hints:
• Each expert group attends to a different aspect of the topic.
Example: in music, one group might study the woodwind section, another the brass, another the string section and another percussion. The whole class should already have some sense of where their topic fits into the topic “The orchestra”.
Variation: The percussion section may be the easiest to read. The readers needing additional support could be in the percussion “expert” group.
See also Jigsaw activity p. 35, Teaching literacy in PDHPE in Year 7, as well as Jigsaw activity in Choosing
Literacy Strategies that Work, Stage 2 p. 151.
Jigsaw reading
Implementation
(There are a number of variations on this technique. The following is a fairly straightforward version).
1. Divide students into groups of four. Tell students these are their “home” groups. 2. Within these groups number students 1, 2,
3, 4.
3. Group all the 1s, 2s, 3s and 4s together as “expert” groups: (halve if too big). 4. Students in “expert” groups study their
extract – they read, highlight key points, discuss and clarify so that each member of the group understands content.
5. Students now return to their “home” groups, which should contain members from each of the different “expert” groups. 6. Students take turns sharing the
information from their passage with the home group.
7. The home group “scribe” makes a list of the important points learned from each “expert”.
8. The whole class discusses the issues raised and how the jigsaw parts fit into the whole topic.
9. The teacher can model expanding these notes into a summary of all the passages.
Section 4
Purpose
To highlight the importance of using graphics for comprehension of text and concepts.
Description
This technique presents another way of responding to text; it can be used to monitor students’ understanding and demonstrates that reading includes non-text and other graphic information.
Materials
Pen, paper, text
Diagramming
Implementation
1. The teacher models the skill by using Think aloud strategies (see page 80) with text at an independent level, constructing a graphic to fit the text.
2. Present students with a parallel text that easily translates into the same type of graphic, such as: description of a person or scene to produce a sketch; the process of washing dishes to produce a flow chart; or representing the age of four people in a family to produce a bar graph.
3. Students jointly contribute to drawing a graphic to fit the text.
4. Students then work in pairs with a similar text to produce a third graphic of the same type.
5. When students have mastered this type of graphic, move on to another type.
Example
Create a diagram or concept map for the following information:
Milk and butter are an important source of Vitamin A. Other sources include fish-liver oils and certain vegetables: carrots, tomatoes and dark leafy green vegetables are particularly valuable sources. Vitamin D is also found in fish-liver oil, butter, cheese, milk and eggs. Vitamin C is found in fresh fruit and vegetables. Wholemeal bread, yeast, liver and dairy foods contain Vitamin B.
Sources of Vitamins
Vitamin A Vitamin C Vitamin D Vitamin B
milk fresh fruit fish-liver oil wholemeal bread
butter fresh vegetables butter yeast
fish liver oil cheese liver
carrots milk dairy foods
tomatoes eggs
dark green vegetables
Science Draw a flow chart to represent the water cycle, based on a text; or write the text to fill a water
cycle graphic. See Teaching literacy in science in Year 7, pages 108-109.
Maths Draw a bar graph of the height of students in the group or of favourite colours.
History Draw a time line of a biographical recount. See Teaching literacy in history in Year 7, pages 62-63.
English Draw a sociogram for a literary character. See Teaching literacy in English in Year 7, page 94.
Helpful hints:
• ESL students may find this activity difficult. Give them a partially filled in diagram before they are asked to do the whole task independently.
Purpose
To support comprehension of sequence by ordering segments of text into one coherent piece of writing. Learners reflect on and thereby identify the processes which they used to reach the end product.
Description
The students rearrange jumbled sentences or paragraphs in order.
Preparation
Prepare a text: cut into paragraphs or
sentences. Glue these into jumbled order and photocopy for each student or pair of students.
Materials
Prepared jumbled text, scissors, paste and blank sheet for each pair.
Implementation
Students cut up their copy of jumbled text into pieces.
They arrange the pieces into a well-ordered text.
Learners must justify each placement of the pieces by verbalising the reading strategies which they used.
Miller. T. and Player. S. (1998) Secondary Literacy Across Curricula (SLAC)