Directed Reading – Thinking ActivityBy: Kendra WaldropTina SmithChandrea Brown

Directed Reading- Thinking Activity Is an adaptation of the guided reading

lesson in which readers use preview and prediction strategies to set their own purposes for reading.

Designed to help students take responsibility of their own learning

DR-TA works best when: students have background knowledge and

vocabulary to bring to the selection. they can attack difficult words independently.

Guided reading is better if: the student lacks background knowledge or

has weak word analysis skills.

Predict-Read strategy: 5 Facets -setting purpose(know how to ask

questions) -obtaining information(know how to sift

and get information needed to answer question)

-keeping goals in mind(know what is important and what is not)

5 Facets continued -Keeping personal feelings in bounds(try

to understand what the author is saying while suspending personal judgment.

Considering options (consider choices, be flexible to change prediction in light of new information)

Steps to DR-TA Step 1: Introducing the text: have the

students examine the title page and then the pictures to make predictions about the story.

Step 2: Reading the text: students read silently until they can evaluate their predictions. If their predictions were not right, they can modify them.

Step 3: Discussion: questions are being asked about the story to further the students thinking and to get them to keep predicting. Example: “What do you think will happen next?”

Step 4: Revisiting the text: review vocabulary and words that the students were stuck on. Revisit any misunderstandings.

Step 5: Extending the text: this can be something hands on that the students will do that relates to the story they read.

Article  “A study determined if the Directed Reading-Thinking

Activity (DR-TA) method would raise levels of critical thinking in students. Subjects, 20 third-grade students, used the DR-TA for 30 minutes each day for a period of approximately 8 weeks. Subjects were pre- and posttested using the Thinking Skills Assessment and the Reading Attitude Inventory. Results indicated that the DR-TA: increased subjects' higher-order thinking skills; and increased positive attitudes toward reading, although the gain was very small. (Two tables of data are included; the Thinking Skills Test, the Reading Attitude Inventory, a letter to parents, and 71 references are attached (Barron,1990)”.

 

Resources Pearson Custom Education: Developing

literacy: LITR 3130(170-172). New York: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Barron, C. (1990, January 1). The Impact of the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity on Critical Thinking Skills in Third Grade

Students. (Barron,1990)