California Department of Education
Taking Center Stage – Act II

Reading across the curriculum

Researcher Michael Schmoker talks about the importance of "deep reading" and re-reading as cornerstones for "authentic literacy" that goes beyond teaching students to decode and recognize words.1 Schmoker advocates, on the basis of research, devoting time for reading and meaningful discussion about the passages throughout the day. In fact, he states that an additional 15 minutes of reading each day will increase academic growth by three months.2

In her book Deeper Reading, Kelly Gallagher states that too often students are taught to answer surface questions about passages before they develop a real connection to or understanding of the deeper meaning. She argues that students cannot become successful until teachers help them develop the interest, skills, and confidence to dig deep and uncover important ideas about life.3 The State Board of Education has adopted instructional materials for reading. (See Reading/Language Arts and English Language Development adopted materials list [PDF; 356KB; 59pp.] )

The following sections cover reciprocal teaching and oral reading strategies that help middle grades students to improve their ability to read the increasingly difficult materials required at these grade levels. For more on teaching reading, view the following sections in Chapter 2, "Instruction, Assessment, and Interventions":

Reciprocal teaching

In studies of reciprocal teaching as a strategy for helping struggling students, researchers found that reciprocal teaching resulted in greater gains and maintenance over time.4 Reciprocal teaching helps students understand expository texts by calling on the teacher and the students to take turns leading a dialogue about sections of a text by using four main strategies: prediction, questioning, summarizing, and clarifying misleading or complex sections of the text.5 Teachers often assign roles during a reciprocal teaching exercise. Students act as presenter, reader, or note-taker so that they learn a collaborative strategy for understanding material.

According to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (Outside Source), reciprocal teaching strategies serve the following purposes:

  • Summarizing provides students with the opportunity to identify and apply the most important information in the text (either by writing sentences or across paragraphs and across the passage as a whole.)
  • Asking questions reinforces the summarizing strategy. When students generate questions, they first identify the kind of information that is significant enough to provide the substance for a question. They then pose this information in question form and self-test to see if they can answer their own question. In some cases, the questions focus on the ability to master supporting detail information; others require that the students be able to infer or apply new information from text.
  • Clarifying takes students beyond merely saying the words to understanding the meaning. When the students clarify, they uncover many reasons why text is difficult to understand (e.g., new vocabulary, unclear reference words, and unfamiliar and perhaps difficult concepts).
  • Predicting challenges students to hypothesize what the author will discuss next. This activity builds a purpose for reading: to confirm or disprove their hypotheses. The predicting strategy also facilitates use of text structure as students learn that headings, subheadings, and questions imbedded in the text are useful means of anticipating what might occur next.6

Several sites provide helpful information about reciprocal teaching:

Oral reading strategies

In spite of a common perception that oral reading is an elementary school strategy, it has many benefits for middle grades students—especially those who have not developed strong academic literacy. However, oral reading may be daunting to many young adolescents who are going through an awkward phase in their physical development. They shy away from anything that draws attention to them. As a result, oral reading strategies must be fun, and teachers must ensure that students are safe from taunting or heckling if they do not pronounce words correctly.

The following oral reading strategies capitalize on adolescent needs for relationship building and fun. These strategies also increase oral speaking skills, which are a part of academic literacy.

  • Readers' theater encourages students to create plays about material they are learning and to present the play in class. Students get to hear how others use inflection and pacing to convey emotion. The teacher uses the presentation to clarify misconceptions and to make connections between the play and the standards-based lesson.

  • Think-pair-share usually pairs a fluent reader with one who needs help. Students take turns reading to each other and share what they have read so they reinforce comprehension.

  • Popcorn reading keeps students focused since they do not know when their turn will "pop." In this strategy, one student reads part of a selection. Another "pops in" to continue until the next name is called. This strategy helps content area teachers cover text material in class but does not ensure that the student comprehends the material. It is still the teacher’s responsibility to develop metacognitive thinking and comprehension. Through pondering, discussion, and re-reading, students develop comprehension.

  • Literature circles are groups of four to six students who read and discuss a novel or article. Each member of a circle takes a turn guiding the group discussion and receiving practice in leadership, group interaction, "argumentative literacy," and responsibility. The circles also allow students to control their own learning and to discuss ideas and concerns about issues raised by the passage. The University of Seattle Web page on Literature Circles (Outside Source) provides many resources to help teachers and includes a link to specific strategies for middle schools.

  • Guided reading typically involves the whole class in reading a passage together. It allows the teacher to expose children to a wide range of literature while teaching vocabulary and comprehension strategies

In the Spotlight

Two California middle schools serve as California Department of Education secondary literacy demonstration sites: Monroe Clark Middle School and Newark Junior High School. Each of these school communities has created a systemwide literacy model as recommended in Strategic Teaching and Learning: Standards-Based Instruction to Promote Content Literacy in Grades Four Through Twelve (published by the California Department of Education in 2000. It may be obtained by linking to the CDE Publications page). The two schools received recognition for their focus on reading and writing across the curriculum, high-quality reading interventions, well-staffed and well-stocked libraries, evidence of success, and other components of the literacy model. See the Design Template (DOC; 34KB; 3pp.) for a Schoolwide Literacy Model for more details about this model.

Researchers suggest that cross-curricular connections help to give students the background knowledge they need to make reading meaningful. Researchers caution against narrowing the curriculum when teachers try to help students improve their reading skills. "Although necessary, being able to read all of the words may not be sufficient because comprehending a text requires other abilities such as knowing the meanings of words, possessing relevant world knowledge, and being able to remember the text already read. Thus, word-reading skill is one of several factors influencing comprehension."7

Previous
Critical thinking

Next
Writing across the curriculum

Footnotes
1Mike Schmoker, Results Now: How We Can Achieve Unprecedented Improvements in Teaching and Learning, Alexandria, Va.: Association for Curriculum Development, 2006, pp. 58–60.
2Ibid., 97.
3Kelly Gallagher, Deeper Reading, Portland Maine: Stenhouse, 2004.
4A.S. Palincsar, and A. Brown, "Reciprocal Teaching of Comprehension-Fostering and Comprehension Monitoring Activities." Cognition and Instruction, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1984) 117–175.
5"Reciprocal-Teaching: A Reading Strategy" (Outside Source), San Diego: Language Arts Cadre 95, San Diego County Office of Education, 1995.
6"Reciprocal Teaching" (Outside Source), North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
7L. C. Ehri, "Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics: An Explanation of the National Reading Panel Meta-Analysis," in The Voice of Evidence in Reading Research. Edited by P. McCardle and V. Chhabra. Baltimore: Brooks Publishing, p. 155.

Back to Top