We can learn how. We can learn.

I am grateful for the amount of research that exists about strategies/routines that have been shown (backed by scientific evidence) to help improve reading skills in adolescent learners.  Several authors have taken advantage of the research to write guidebooks that teach the teachers how to employ these strategies/routines in their classrooms.

A few years ago, as SBP teachers prepared to transition to block scheduling, we sat through an in-service presentation where certain strategies were demonstrated by a public school administrator who had helped other schools make the successful transition to block.  The presentation involved the strategy called 'jigsaw', where groups of students were asked to read different articles written about the general topic being discussed; each student within a group read a different article.  After reading, the group members shared what they had learned with the rest of the students in the group.

I wrote in my notes that day: "where did these articles come from?" since I was amazed with the positive feedback that the students offered about their participation in the demonstration.  This week, I found a book that describes the process of finding appropriate articles for such a learning routine.  It even goes one step further: the book contains reproducible articles that can be used as 'starters' for classrooms looking to improve reading and writing skills.  Learn more about the book after the jump.


"Jigsaw" is not the only strategy discussed and used in the book.  Apart from the articles that are already in the book, I was drawn to buy this guide because several comprehension strategy lessons are included.  Some of my favorite strategies (although I haven't yet put them to use, they intrigued me) were 'Read with a Question in Mind,' 'Think Aloud,' 'Written Discussion,' 'Collaborative Annotation,' 'Arguing Both Sides,' and 'Quotation Mingle/Tea Party'.  Yes, there is a comprehension strategy called "Tea Party."

In the book's introduction, the authors explain that one of their aims was to provide "quick and engaging activities that add to, rather than steal from, subject-matter learning."  The authors hope to help a teacher to "dig deeper into the issues of teaching comprehension and collaboration as a content-area specialist."  The ideas and research about reading and learning as a collaborative activity is expanded into what the authors call "Social Strategy," explaining how proficient collaborators (students/readers/learners) think and act.

So what is this book called?  It is Texts and Lessons for Content-Area Reading.  Since I am a science teacher, you can understand why the title alone was attractive enough for me to browse through and then eventually buy this guide book.  And as a guide book, it contains lists of the suggested materials (apart from the text/articles themselves), the teacher-guided procedure, and even some suggestions about grading.  The authors then suggest that once a teacher has used these lessons, "you'll quickly internalize their structure and want to plug in your own articles."

The book is supported by a useful website that contains important diagrams and classroom manipulatives that can be printed and used in classrooms.  I am very impressed by the content and structure of this guide book, and I would like to let my other colleagues know about the strategies that are described in it.  I think many of our fellow teachers will be interested in trying these "canned" lessons, if just to learn the technique first, and then use these lessons to be able to teach reading in the content areas.