Guided Reading Strategies to Improve Students - Dr. Stirling ...

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After a teacher explanation and modeling of a thinking and reading comprehensionstrategy, students selected children’s literature from eight genres (fiction, nonfiction,poetry, autobiographies, biographies, folk literature, periodicals, and sciencefiction) in order to read and apply the strategy. Students were given one-pagethinking guides to put on their desks as they read. The guides had a chart and adiagram of a thinking strategy. Students discussed how to use the thinking guidewhile reading and in their own lives. Finally, students set their own readingobjectives and self-assessed their use of the strategy, and how they could apply itoutside school.The 178 students involved in the study did better than the 174 controls on readingcomprehension standardized tests, on transferring thinking strategies outside ofschool, as well as on self-esteem, and on critical and creative thinking measures.Block recommended concentrating on 4 or 5 strategies so students could becomemasters of them, teaching a strategy in a Language Arts block, and thencontinuing strategy instruction with a Science or Social Studies text later in the day.Making predictions was the strategy, promoted in an article by Blevins (1990),to enhance students’ reading comprehension. He recommended:• providing explicit instruction about how, when, and why the strategy canbe used,• modeling by using a think-aloud, allowing for practice, and havingstudents articulate their use of the strategy,• asking probing questions, before reading,• using story maps for fiction, and• using lists of main ideas so students can fill in supporting details for nonfiction.One source discussed the use of specific anchor lessons and teacher modelingto teach young children to infer, based on the work of Keene and Zimmerman(1997) in Mosaic of thought: Teaching comprehension in a reader’s workshop,published by Heinemann. The source was Reading with meaning: Teachingcomprehension in the primary grades by Miller (2002). Through direct instruction,students were taught how to:• infer meanings of unknown words,• make predictions, confirm or contradict them by reading on,• use prior knowledge, text, and picture clues to draw conclusions,• infer the meaning of poetry,• know when to infer (when the answers they need are not stated in thetext),• ask questions as they read,• create interpretations to enrich and deepen their experience in a text, and• make connections to their own lives to enhance understanding.Specific examples were given of multi-column charts, which were frequentlyused in the classroom:• a word – what we infer – what helped us,• our predictions – and the thinking behind them,10 RESEARCH REPORT: Guided Reading Strategies to Improve Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Grades Three, Four and Five
• a poem, on one side – what the words mean, on the other side – I’minferring. . ., below, as well as• questions we have – answers to these questions.Many student writing and drawing samples were used effectively to demonstratehow primary students could be taught to infer.COMMON THEMES IN THE LITERATUREAs researchers, we asked ourselves:• What common themes appeared in the literature on comprehension andcritical thinking instruction?• Which strategies were the most effective?According to Bird (1989), who was concerned about the ability of university andcommunity college students to think critically, “In the area of critical thinking andcomprehension, there exists no single approach to student mastery” (p. 745).However, a lot of common themes were evident in this literature review. Many ofthe approaches involved the use of before reading, during reading, and after readingactivities. Instruction was explicit. The teacher modeled the strategy. Students weretaught when and how to use the strategy, and were also given opportunities topractice and reflect on their use of the strategy. Instruction was also studentcentered.Reading materials were at the students’ reading levels and based onstudents’ interests. Critical thinking skills were used to engage students inreading, writing, listening, and discussions about their ideas.As far as the teaching of specific strategies is concerned, several strategies cameup repeatedly in the literature. The most effective ones that improved students’reading comprehension and critical thinking skills appeared to be:• visualizing or making a movie in one’s mind,• teaching background vocabulary,• using graphic organizers (story maps, in particular),• using Literature Circles,• questioning when reading,• making connections with the characters,• retelling, and• teaching inferring.From a practical point of view, the frequency and duration of the instruction variedconsiderably. The length of instruction varied from 30 minutes at a time up to a76 minute block, from two to five days a week, and from four months to all year.RESEARCH REPORT: Guided Reading Strategies to Improve Students’ Critical Thinking Skills in Grades Three, Four and Five11
Page 7: IntroductionTHE RESEARCHERSFour tea
Page 10: Research QuestionHow can Guided Rea
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Page 37 and 38: ReferencesAssessment ToolsAlberta E
Page 39 and 40: Ketch, A. (2005). Conversation the
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