麻豆传媒入口

Although many people consider reading to be a passive activity, that involves complex cognitive processes.

In over two decades of teaching, I鈥檝e heard many students say, 鈥淚鈥檓 not a good reader.鈥� While secondary educators often don鈥檛 see themselves as reading teachers, I see our role in the classroom as one whereby we can teach students strategies that strengthen their reading skills and improve their learning outcomes. By teaching active reading and having students map out their reading, educators can engage students with reading so that they are not only learning to read but reading to learn.

Making the Active Reading Process Visible

It was common for me as a secondary teacher to have students read a text and then analyze it after they鈥檇 finished reading. However, when I noticed that students weren鈥檛 able to engage in an analytical discussion about a text until they finished reading the entire text and they couldn鈥檛 recall what they had read, I was forced to confront the idea that I was doing it wrong. Most of the thinking happens during the reading process, but my classroom was designed to engage in thinking after reading. I had to change what I was doing.

I decided to show my students my thinking process during reading, so I read a story out loud to them and then while I was reading. This exercise was an opportunity for students to visualize what happens in the mind of an active reader.

Days later, I discussed the story with my students again, and they still remembered vivid details about it, which revealed that when students engage in the guided active reading process, it can enhance reading recollection. I knew that this process worked during guided reading, so I wanted to build self-efficacy by putting more individual responsibility on students.

Mapping the Active Reading Process

After modeling active reading, I had the students read a story in small groups and map their thinking by using the . It allowed students to collaborate with each other to construct meaning and explore how we all experience texts differently. I also chose this collaborative reading and mapping exercise so that struggling readers could work with their peers who had stronger reading skills, to engage in the reading process together. 

Then, several weeks later, while reading a new story, I asked students to individually map out their thinking. When I assessed their work, it revealed that students were able to engage in the reading process to construct meaning.

Active Reading Creates Good Noise

I鈥檝e had students say, 鈥淩eading makes me sleepy鈥� or 鈥淩eading is boring.鈥� However, I鈥檝e found that teaching students how to be active readers and map their thinking has changed how they read. Instead of students silently reading at their desks, the classroom is filled with noise鈥攑encils on paper, dry-erase markers rolling on desks, and students鈥� voices talking with their classmates about what they鈥檙e reading. This noise demonstrates interest and also sparks engagement within my students who initially said they didn鈥檛 like reading.

with prompts to give students to consider while they read. It provided a starting point for mapping out their thinking process during reading, but they also initiated student conversations. 

Because students paused while they read in order to think, they were engaged in their learning, and the engagement led them to want to talk with their peers to share what they were thinking about. It moved reading from a quiet and solitary activity to a cooperative one with exchanges like this:

鈥淲owie!! Did you read the part with the ultimatum?鈥�

鈥淣o. What page is that on?鈥�

鈥淧age 3. What page are you on?鈥�

鈥淚鈥檓 on page 2.鈥�

鈥淥h. So, what do you think the answer to the riddle is?鈥�

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know. It鈥檚 tricky. What do you think?鈥�

鈥淚 already know because the answer is on page 3.鈥�

鈥淥h. Stop reading and just wait for me to get there. Give me a minute and we can talk.鈥�

鈥淥碍.鈥�

Listening to my students鈥� conversations revealed some interesting things.

First, they used the active reading prompts to launch into mapping their reading and engaging in conversations, but they also moved beyond the prompts to create their own questions. Additionally, they made connections beyond the text to other texts they had read or to their own lived experiences. I heard students say, 鈥淭his is like the movie I saw because no choice is a good choice鈥� and 鈥淭his reminds me of a time when I came home from school and something just didn鈥檛 feel right.鈥�

Second, the visibility of the mapping, coupled with the conversations that were happening in the classroom, allowed me to identify students who were having difficulty with reading.

Identifying Struggling Readers

Often, particularly in high school, struggling readers can go unrecognized. Their lack of participation in class discussions can be seen as shyness. When they don鈥檛 complete reading comprehension tasks, it can look like disengagement, or when they don鈥檛 do their reading homework, it can seem like laziness. However, research shows that these are also signs of an .

The students鈥� maps allowed me to identify those who needed additional support. This visibility allowed me to intervene and support them during the reading process rather than afterward. I sat with these students one-on-one and offered different strategies to help them develop their reading skills. The methods I used included the following:

• Offering reading materials that aligned with student鈥檚 reading level
• Providing access to an audio reading of the text
• Reading out loud with them
• Giving them more time to read so that they could process at their own speed
• Sharing a glossary of difficult words in the text so that they could better understand the reading

When students have difficulty reading, they often choose not to read, which results in their not submitting work or turning in partially completed work. As a result, my intervention takes place after everyone has finished reading and, often, when we鈥檝e moved forward in the class. When students are taught how to map their reading and then encouraged to use it, it allows them to remain engaged during the reading process and acts as a resource for them to use during small group and full class discussions.

Having notes prompts students鈥� ideas and willingness to participate. Further, because they鈥檝e read and understood the text, they are able to complete evaluation tasks that occur after the reading, leading to decreased incidents of nonsubmission or partial submission of work.

When students are illiterate or under-literate, they often feel excluded from reading-centered tasks. Yet, interventions with supportive strategies during the reading process helped my students feel included and confident. This led to their being able to engage with their peers in meaningful conversations about what they read.