chapter 9 reading/study techniques - wikispaces areas... · • reading/study technique • scale...

Reading/Study Techniques

Dr. Kristen Pennycuff Trent

Key Vocabulary • Bar graphs

• Circle or pie graphs

• Database

• Guide words

• Legend

• Line graphs

• metacognition

• Picture graphs

• Reading rate

• Reading/study technique

• Scale

• SQRQCQ

• SQ3R

Study Methods • Purpose to teach these in the

classroom: – To help students study written

material in a way that enhances comprehension and retention

– Student-directed, not teacher-directed

SQ3R • Survey—provides framework for organizing facts

– notice the chapter title and main headings – Read the introductory and summary paragraphs – Inspect any visual aids such as maps, graphs, or

illustrations • Question—formulate questions you expect to be answered

in the reading – Headings may give you clues

• Read—answering questions you formulated – Purposeful reading, make brief notes

• Recite—answer each question without looking at material • Review—reread to verify or correct answers recited

– Identify main idea – Understand relationships

SQRQCQ Mathematics Method

• Survey—read problem quickly to gain idea of what about

• Question— “What is being asked in the problem?” • Read—read problem carefully, looking at

details/relationships • Question—make a decision about what

mathematical operation to use • Compute—do the computations • Question—decide whether or not the answer is

correct, “Is this a reasonable answer?” “Have I performed the computations accurately?”

Other Techniques to Improve Retention

– Conduct discussions

– Read critically

– Apply ideas

– Purpose for reading

– Use audiovisuals

– Study guides

Test Taking Strategies

• Essay Tests:

– Understand meanings of words: compare, contrast, describe, explain

• Objective tests:

– Learning important terms and definitions

– Studying for types of questions that have been asked in the past

– Mnemonic devices to help memorize lists

– True-False Questions: • Consider words such as always, never, not

• Understand that if one part of the statement is false it is false statement

– Multiple-choice questions: • Caution students to read and consider all answers

Test Taking Strategies for Standardized Tests

• Standardized tests: – Discuss purpose of test and special rules that

apply during testing – Provide practice in completing test items within

specified time limits • Provide practice test using same format as actual test

– Following directions • Answer questions know first • Check answers if have time left • Importance of reading all answers before choosing best

one • Should guess rather than leave an answer blank if there is

no penalty for guessing

Flexibility of Reading Habits • Adjustment of approach:

– Flexible reader adjusts for two reasons: • Purpose for reading • Type of material reading

– Informational reading: • Goal of separating the important facts from the

unimportant ones • Paying careful attention to retain what they need

from the material – Rereading material that contain high density

facts or difficult concepts and interrelationships

– Greater concentration spent on material not familiar

Flexibility of Reading Habits

• Skimming—reading selectively to pick up main ideas and general impressions about the material (survey part of SQ3R)

• Scanning—moving the eyes rapidly over the selection to locate a specific bit of information, such as a name or date

Flexibility of Reading Habits • Adjustment of rate:

– Optimum rate for reading a particular piece is the fastest rate at which the reader maintains an acceptable level of comprehension

– Vary rates to fit the reading purposes and materials

– Increasing reading speed is implemented after children have developed basic word recognition and comprehension skills (intermediate grades)

• Encourage students to try consciously to increase their reading rates

• Use marker when moving down the page

• Use easy material for practice in building their reading rates

Locating Information

• Preface/Introduction

• Table of contents

• Indexes

• Appendices

• Glossaries

• Footnotes and bibliographies

Locating Information • Reference books:

– Responsibility of intermediate-grade teachers – Important skills for effective use include: – General:

• Knowledge of alphabetical order • Ability to use guide words • Ability to determine key words

– Encyclopedias: • Ability to cross-reference • Ability to determine which volume will contain the information

– Dictionaries: • Ability to use pronunciation keys • Ability to choose from several possible word meanings

– Atlases: • Ability to interpret the legend of a map • Ability to interpret the scale of a map • Ability to locate directions on maps

– Avoid forcing students to struggle with material that is too difficult for them

Locating Information

• Other reference materials: – Using newspapers:

• Function of headlines and use of index • Get familiar with journalistic terms

– Catalogues: • Be able to use indexes • Ability to read charts

– Variety of transportation schedules, pamphlets, and brochures

– Computer databases: • Locate and retrieve information from computer

databases • Create own databases • Use existing databases

Locating information • Librarians/Media

Specialists: • Show students

locations of books and journals,card catalogs, and reference material

• Explain procedures to check in and out books

• Describe rules and regulations about behavior in library

• Demonstration of use of card catalog, etc.

• Help with thematic unit planning

• Teachers: • Reasons for using

library • Use of aids such as

card catalogs • Use of library as an

extension to classroom

Organizational Techniques

• Note Taking – Children taught to do the following:

• Include key words and phrases • Include enough context to make

understandable • Include bibliographic reference • Copy direct quotations exactly • Indicate carefully notes that are direct

quotes and ones paraphrased – Modeling by teacher


• Outlining – Writing down information from the material

they read in a way that shows the relationships among the main ideas and supporting details

– Two types: • Sentence outline: present first • Topic outline

– Partially filled out outlines – Free form or story web outlines (p. 352-353) – Practice using material placed on computer


• Summarizing

– Restate what the author has said in more concise format

– Delete trivial and redundant material

– Use of subordinate terms (people for men, women, and children)

– Topic sentence and implied main idea sentence

– Teacher modeling

Metacognition

• Metacognitive strategies important in reading:

– For meaning:

• Monitor own comprehension: rereading, self-questioning, retelling, predicting, verifying, reading further while withholding judgement

– For retention:

• Recognizing important ideas, checking mastery of information read, developing effective strategies for study

Metacognition • Teacher must convince students:

– Be active learners – Learn to set goals for their reading

tasks – Plan how they will meet their goals – Monitor success in meeting their goals – Remedy the situation when they do not

meet their goals

Metacognition • Teachers:

– Teach specific strategies – Think aloud modeling – Explain their function – Model their use – Provide students with

supervised practice – Provide students

opportunity to make own graphic aids

• Children : – Relating new information

to their background knowledge

– Preview material to be read

– Paraphrase ideas presented

– Identify organizational pattern/s of text

– Value of questioning themselves

– Ask if information they have read makes sense

– Decision if they have a problem with decoding and understanding words and understanding sentences

Graphic Aids Maps

– How to teach:

1. Examine title

2. Determine directions

3. Interpreting legends

4. Learning to apply scale of map

• Upper-elementary children:

• Latitude, longitude, Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, north,south poles, equator, etc

• Always teach map of an area and relate to larger area

• Critical thinking of map information

Graphic Aids • Graphs

– Used to clarify written explanations

– Types:

• Picture graphs

• Circle or pie graphs

• Bar graphs

• Line graphs

– Teach the following:

• Title of graph

• Interpret the legend of picture graph

• Derive needed information accurately from a graph

• Students construct own graphs for meaningful purposes

Graphic Aids

• Tables – can be difficult because of the large amount of

information in small amount of space – Teach titles, headings, location of intersections – Model with think alouds

• Illustrations – Teach children to pay attention to illustrations, which

provide information – ELL students and special need students benefit from

labeling illustrations

Reading in the Content Areas

Dr. Kristen Pennycuff Trent

General Techniques for Content Area Reading

• Motivating students to read

– Analogies to help give new ideas familiar connections – Telling personal anecdotes that can help personalize reading

material

• Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) (chapter 7) – Predict, read, and prove predictions as the teacher asks them

what they think, why they think that, and how they can prove their points.


• Study Guides – Content-process guides

– Pattern guides • Cause and effect pattern guides

– Anticipation guides


• Guided Reading Procedure (GRP)

– Used to improve reader’s organizational skills, comprehension, and recall

1. Set purpose for reading 500 word passage and tell students to remember all they can

2. Have students tell everything they can remember and record on board

3. Have students look at selection to correct or add information

4. Students organize information in an outline, semantic web, or other arrangement

5. Ask synthesizing questions to integrate new material with old

6. Give test immediately to check student’s short-term recall

7. Give another form of test later to check medium- or long-term recall


• Creative mapping

– Semantic mapping with pictures to display material in a way the helps students see relationships and helps them recall it

• Pictures of main idea surrounded by pictures of supporting details

• Structured overviews

– Learning vocabulary

• Initially present overview on overhead or sentence strips, students answer questions about how vocabulary is related to concepts in the assignment

• Students later can work in small groups to form overviews or individual overviews


• Every-Pupil-Response Activities

– Purpose is to facilitate participation in discussion about the text

• Engaging in written responses to text in partner or group supporting positions with evidence from text using real-life problems

• Press Conferences

• Readers’ Theatre

• Silent sustained reading (SSR) for Expository Materials


Learning text structure – Six types

• Cause/effect • Comparison/contrast • Problem/solution • Sequence • Description • Collection

– Use graphic organizers • Venn Diagrams • Webs • Timelines • Flow charts • Maps • Expository paragraph frames

– paragraph using cue words


• Writing techniques

– LEA

– Feature Analysis Plus Writing

– Webs Plus Writing

– Keeping Learning Logs or Journals

• Using content material with reading of fiction and writing

– Poems

– Encyclopedia Articles

– Travel Magazines

– Brochures


• Manipulative materials

– Puzzles

– Matching

– Following directions to produce an art product

• Integrating approaches

• Creating instructional units (p. 386-389)

– Literature-based and thematic

Specific Content Areas – English

• A Chocolate Moose for Dinner by Fred Gwynne

– Social studies

• Encounter by Jane Yolen

– Mathematics

• How Much is a Million by David M. Schwartz

– Science and health

• The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Other Strategies

For Content Area Reading

ReQuest • Both students and the teacher silently read material. • The teacher closes the book and is questioned about

the passage by the students. • Next, the teacher questions the students. • Repeat for remaining segments of the text. • When students have enough information, stop

questioning and begin predicting. • Students read remainder of text silently. • Teacher conducts follow up discussion.

The Cornell System of Notes

• 1. First Step - PREPARATION – Use a large, loose-leaf notebook. Use only one side of the paper. (you

then can lay your notes out to see the direction of a lecture.) Draw a vertical line 2 1/2 inches from the left side of you paper. This is the recall column. Notes will be taken to the right of this margin. Later key words or phrases can be written in the recall column.

• 2. Second Step - DURING THE LECTURE – Record notes in paragraph form. Capture general ideas, not illustrative

ideas. Skip lines to show end of ideas or thoughts. Using abbreviations will save time. Write legibly.

• 3. Third Step - AFTER THE LECTURE – Read through your notes and make it more legible if necessary. Now

use the column. Jot down ideas or key words which give you the idea of the lecture. (REDUCE) You will have to reread the lecturer's ideas and reflect in your own words. Cover up the right-hand portion of your notes and recite the general ideas and concepts of the lecture. Overlap your notes showing only recall columns and you have your review.

Interactive Notes • Before Reading

– List text features, ask questions, make predictions

• During Reading – Question and comment

• After Reading – Summarize and synthesize

Q Notes • Combines Cornell notes and SQ3R

– Questions in left hand margin

– Quiz answers in right hand margin

– Review, reflect, reflect

Story Frames • Somebody Wanted But So

– Somebody________________

– Wanted___________________

– But_______________________

– So________________________

Story Frames • The Important Thing

– The important thing about ___________ is ____________. It’s true that __________ and ___________. But, the important thing about ____________ is that _________.

Story Frames • 321 Review

– 3 Facts

– 2 Questions

– 1 Opinion

Story Frames • Compare/Contrast

– ____________ are different from ________ in several ways. First of all, _________________, while _________________. In addition, ___________________, while __________. So, it should be evident that ________________________________.

Time Frames • At the end of _________________ what

happened was that _______________. Previous to this _________________. Before this _____________________. The entire chain of events had begun for a number of reasons including _____________________. Some prominent incidents which helped to trigger the conflict were _____________.

Hierarchal Summary Writing

• Students read first section of the text and write the most important ideas in one to three sentences under the headings.

• Repeat for all sections.

• Students review and recite in own words.

Hierarchal Summary Writing

• Chapter 7: Protecting Yourself Against Communicable Diseases – Microorganisms in Our World

• We’re never alone. Millions of microscopic living creatures are everywhere. Most are harmless.

– Two Kinds of Diseases • Communicable diseases are caused by microorganisms and

can pass quickly from one person to another. Non-communicable diseases are not caused by microorganisms, are not passed from person to person, and usually come from unhealthy living. They usually form slowly.

– Microorganisms in Trash and Garbage • Microorganisms need food, water, and a warm, dark place

to multiply. That’s why they are often in trash cans.

Magnet Summaries • Read a section to find 3-4 key words or

concepts (magnet words) that represent what the author is describing.

• Write details about the magnet words in phrases around the words on index cards, then write a summary statement.

• Repeat with all sections of the text.

• Use all cards to write a summary paragraph.

Good Strategies to Know • Before Reading

– Anticipation Guides

– Background Knowledge Backpack

– Catapult

– Give One Get One

• During Reading – THIEVES

– Inference Machines

– Sorry, I Lost My Headings

• After Reading – Main Idea Formula

Main Idea Formula • Topic + What is Said About the Topic + Purpose = Main Idea

– Topic • Discovery of North America by Chinese

– What is Said About the Topic • Historical Chinese maps and documents show the arrival of Chinese

people on the West Coast at least 70 years before Columbus – Purpose

• To challenge people to consider evidence of early Chinese contact with Native Americans and to show how history is up for continual debate

– Main Idea • Based on evidence from accurate Chinese maps and documents, the

Chinese may have landed on North American soil before Columbus did. This should cause us to rethink our traditional accounts of history and even question how history is written.

Important Website • http://www.state.tn.us/education/ci/

standards/la/content_read_middle.pdf

http://www.state.tn.us/education/ci/standards/la/content_read_middle.pdf



Biographies: People Who Change Lives

LSCI 4500/5500 Dr. Kristen R. Pennycuff

Changing Ideas About Biographies for Children

• 17th-19th Centuries • Tools for religious, political, or social

education – Puritanical, Victorian, and frontier values – Emulation of heroes – Save the souls

• This time produced “biographies of good little children who died early and went to Heaven and of bad little children who died early and went to Hell”. (Stott, 1979)


• Mid-1800’s – American Dream

• Acquisition of power, wealth, and fame

– Shift from religious to political tool


• Changes from 19th to 20th centuries – “In the 19th century, principles of economic liberty were

instrumental in creating a society in which the right to own property, to hire workers, and to manufacture and dispose of goods was accepted as the most productive way for a society to create and distribute wealth. This was followed, in the 20th century, by the spread of political freedom. BY the century’s end, the idea that people had a right to vote and to run for office- and that such a right could not be denied them on the basis of ownership of property, race, or gender- had become so widely accepted that no society could be considered good unless its political system was organized along democratic lines.” (Wolfe, 2001)


• Early 20th Century – New ideas about child

development and psychology

– Moral development and responsibility toward others

• Bios avoided • Private lives and

sensitive political beliefs

• Infamous people

• Unsavory or undistinguished actions

• Controversial subjects

• Females and non-whites


• Thru 1960’s – Role models for political and social instruction – Omissions and distortions – Motives were explored – “State supported American education is more

or less a product of middle class values and aspirations, and has always been an ally of the dominant structures of authority.” (Epstein, 1987)

– Childhood was glorified


• Late 1960’s and 1970’s – Changing social, family, and personal values

– New openness in children’s literature

– Idealized bios of past could hinder development

– Greater variety in choice of subjects • Ordinary people, antiheroes

– Fuller, more honest treatment


• Russell Freedman – “The hero worship of the past has given way to

a more realistic approach, which recognizes the warts and weaknesses that humanize the great. And fictionalization has become a naughty word. Many current biographies for children adhere as closely to documented evidence as any scholarly work. And the best of them manage to do so without becoming tedious or abstract or any less exciting than the most imaginative fictionalization.”


• Jean Fritz – “…The idea of emulation has been a powerful factor in

determining the nature of biography for children: you see the word over and over again in textbooks and courses of study. And I think it has done great harm in distorting history and breeding cynicism; the great men are all gone, the implication is. Because history is old, educators are often guilty of repeating it instead of taking a fresh look at it. Because it is complicated, they tend to simplify by watering it down material for children, whereas children need more meat than less, but selected for their own interests. This, of course, involves original research, a great deal of it, which 20 years ago, I think was rare in children’s biographies.”


• Fritz’s book And Then What Happened Paul Revere listed on “One Hundred Books that Shaped the Century”

• Cooperative Children’s Book Center – “…give children and teenagers opportunities to

connect with the past in meaningful ways that will deepen their understanding of who we are as a nation today”

Evaluating Biographies • Does the biography meet the criteria for good literature? • Is the subject of the biography worth reading about? • Is the biography factually accurate in relation to characters, plots, and

settings? • Does the biographer distinguish between fact and judgment and fact

and fiction? • Does the biographer use primary sources when conducting research for

the text? Are these sources identified in the bibliographies or other notes to the reader?

• Does the biographer include photographs and other documents to increase the credibility of the text?

• If the biographer uses illustrations other than photographs, are the illustrations accurate according to the life and time of the person?

• Does the writing style appeal to readers?

chapter 9 reading/study techniques - wikispaces areas... · • reading/study technique • scale...

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