What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction - International ...

in the field, author Richard Vacca makes a strong case for increased
attention to adolescents’ literacy needs.
Framing the Session
Desired outcomes
• To clarify differences between the visible and invisible
dimensions of content area reading
• To examine the direct, functional role of teachers in adolescents’
literacy development
• To analyze the strategies that adolescent learners need to be
successful in academic subjects
Guiding questions
• Why is it essential for teachers to have an understanding of the
needs of adolescent readers?
• What constitutes visible instruction in the development of
reading strategies?
• Why is it important to make reading an invisible and seamless
part of content area curricula?
Key vocabulary
• “Visible” aspects of content area reading: Those that emphasize the
explicit development of reading strategies
• “Invisible” aspects of content area reading: The dynamic integration
of reading and disciplinary content, in which language and
literacy scaffold students’ learning
• Schema activation: “The mechanism by which readers access
what they know and match it to the information in a text”
(p. 191)
Materials
For each participant:
✓ Chapter 9 of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
✓ Double-Entry Reflection form (see Appendix)
✓ Notepaper and pen
From the Professional Development Edition of What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction
(3rd ed.), © 2009 International Reading Association.
28