Posted by:
Carol Sue Harless
Building admin/coordinator
Stone Mountain, GA

Topic:
Reading Skills Necessary to Comprehend Text

Message:
In mentoring another teacher, I would start out making sure that they define reading for themselves and for their students.

The teaching of reading at the high school level across content areas has the potential for teachers to provide their students with a meaningful curriculum. The first step would be to make sure that the students, in his or her content area class, have the reading skills necessary to comprehend the text. Students must be taught both comprehension and critical thinking skills focusing on how the student came up with an answer versus whether the answer is right or wrong.

Teachers need to emphasize and teach a variety of strategies that students can use to tackle the difficult text whether it be outlining, semantic mapping or Venn diagrams. All students do not come to class with the same knowledge base, therefore, the teacher needs to ascertain what is known and who knows it and put that information to use as part of the learning process. Collaborative research in the classroom (group learning) benefits all levels of students without focusing on the low achiever.

Overall, you need to look at promoting literacy in the content areas by a variety of ways to engage students in the learning process. That engagement, through various grouping procedures, skill techniques and comprehension skill strategies will trigger a desire to learn more.

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