subject: What Reading Strategies Do Teachers Use And Why? [print this page] At the time of the interview, participants were asked to rate their level of knowledge of 20 reading strategies, ranging from no knowledge to having used the strategy in the classroom. The list for the initial strategies was generated from the curriculum and materials from the participants' content area reading course. Answers indicating strategy use were then cross-checked against the submitted lesson plans for accuracy and clarified during the interview process.
Thirteen of the 20 possible strategies were used by at least one of the participants. The number of strategies used by the biology and English teachers was similar, ranging from 7 to 10. All participants used Cornell Notes, graphic organizers, K-W-L charts, concept maps, and writing-to-learn strategies. In Discontinued MBT Shoes addition, none of the participants surveyed their students regarding their reading habits, likes and dislikes, or administered a cloze procedure to determine the fit between the text and the students' reading abilities, all of which were included in the curriculum of their reading course.
Cornell Notes implemented by all four teachers and was the most frequently discussed strategy during the interviews. In two of the schools, Cornell Notes had been adopted school wide as part of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (known is AVID) program. In Ed's class, students were expected to read for homework from 1A to Vz pages of the text three nights a week and take notes using the Cornell Notes format. When asked if students completed the Cornell Notes, Ed said,
Yes, whether (the students) can read or not. What happens a lot is they look for the definitions (of the key terms) in the back...I wish they didn't have definitions in the back of the book cause they don't know what those definitions mean at all...sometimes the kids write good summaries, but sometimes they write the summary and you can tell that there's little comprehension.
Jackie used a similar format to Cornell Notes. Students used a two-column system with one column representing evidence they gleaned from the text and a second column representing the students' interpretation of the evidence.
The participants understood the value of sparking prior knowledge, as evidenced through their use of what they interpreted as anticipation guides and K-W-L, both strategies they claimed to have learned in their Teaching Reading course. For example, Charles had students create K-W-L charts on MBT Shoes controversial topics as part of a unit on persuasive essays. In an analysis of the lesson plans, however, I found no evidence of the use of anticipation guides. What I did find were examples of the teachers using anticipatory sets to begin their lessons.
When originally identifying their strategy knowledge base, a couple of the participants did not indicate that they used concept maps or graphic organizers. However, after analyzing the lesson plans, it was clear that all four used some form of both. In most cases, the handouts originated from supplemental materials associated with the text or from the Internet. For example, Jackie used graphic organizers to help students understand the oxygen cycle and the heart. John used a Venn diagram to compare character traits.
All four of the teachers asked their students to write not only to learn but also to show what they know. They indicated that they learned some of these strategies in their credential courses and from colleagues, and some they developed themselves. For example, Ed had students create a travel brochure for a tour of the human body system. Jackie often had a short provocative science reading on the board when her students came in and asked them to respond in writing to the reading.
Three of the participants used interactive reading guides and concept definition mapping. Interactive reading guides were often developed by the teacher rather than from supplemental materials associated with the textbook publisher. Ed had his students develop concept definition maps of words associated with cells (e.g., mitochondria) by having them develop the definition, characteristics, examples, and no examples
