Why are reading and writing strategies important?
- Of over 125,000 eleventh-grade students tested in the 2012 PSSA tests, 32.2% of students scored Basic or Below basic in reading, and 17.1% scored Basic or Below Basic in writing. With effective reading and writing strategy instruction, student comprehension increases and standardized test scores increase.
- 8.7 million fourth- through twelfth graders struggle to read their textbooks. English is not the only content area that requires large amounts of reading. Students who struggle with reading and writing will struggle with these skills in all subjects, not just English.
- Nearly one third of students who graduate from high school are not prepared for college-level reading. One of the most important steps in preparing students to encounter difficult texts is providing them with the tools to work through the material, which can be achieved through teaching reading and writing strategies.
References: PA Department of Education, 2012; Ness, 2008; Cantrell & Carter, 2009
How are they useful?
- Good readers are able to effectively use strategies to help develop their own reading comprehension. When struggling readers are taught these same strategies, their reading comprehension has been shown to improve. Enforcing the habits of good readers with struggling readers helps those who are struggling to develop the same type of comprehension processes as those who are already effective readers.
- The reading achievement of middle and secondary students can be greatly increased though the explicit instruction of strategies to approach reading and writing that provide students with the opportunity to become more aware of their own comprehension processes.
References: Cantrell & Carter, 2009
Why should they matter in the high school English classroom?
- English teachers are the backbone of student reading in the high school setting. English teachers are often not teaching or placing enough emphasis on strategies, which is one of the reasons why proficiencies in reading are not evident across the content areas. Students expect to develop reading skills in the English classroom, and these skills follow through to all of the other content areas. If English teachers focus more on directly teaching these strategies, it can benefit the students in other areas as well.
- Many teachers were skilled readers and writers as students-- that is why they became teachers. However, they must consider the perspective of their students who may not be as apt to pick up strategies to help develop reading and writing skills. Teachers can even use strategies that benefit them as readers and writers to help their students better understand the material.
- Students look first to English teachers to help provide adequate reading instruction. If English teachers focus on explicitly teaching reading and writing strategies to their students, the students will see the importance of utilizing strategies for comprehension, which will transfer to other content areas.
References: Lawrence, Rabinowitz, & Perna, 2009; Fritz, Cooner, & Stevenson, 2009
How do these strategies benefit students?
- Explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, including reading and writing strategies, has a significant impact on learning outcomes for students in the secondary classroom. Those who received strategy instruction performed better on tests measuring comprehension than their peers who did not receive any strategy instruction. Learning how to use reading and writing strategies in the classroom can help students to perform better during testing as well as when approaching texts of varying difficulty outside of school.
- Students who can effectively use reading and writing strategies are better able to activate prior knowledge in order to make texts more applicable to their own lives. Along with this, they can better develop a sense of metacognition; if students are able to learn numerous strategies for different situations or scenarios, they can decide what will best help them as individuals so they can effectively advance their own learning.
References: Lawrence, Rabinowitz, & Perna, 2009
What can we do to help?
- Teachers should give extensive and direct explanations to describe how a strategy works, why it is useful, when it is best used, how to execute the strategy, and how to monitor effectiveness during reading or writing. In doing this, teachers can ensure that they are providing students with the tools to continue the use of these strategies on their own, outside of the classroom. If teachers can adequately demonstrate the important aspects of each strategy, students will be better able to determine what strategies are most beneficial for a given situation.
- Using instructional strategies that help students learn subject matter can help contribute to their future independent learning of the subject matter in any given content area. Students should learn to think beyond the information and ideas required for the immediate lesson. If they are able to see how the content information can be learned through the use of these strategies, students can more effectively pick up on the information through independently using reading and writing strategies. This is most easily achieved when the material can be presented with real-world applications for the students.
- Comprehension can be improved by teaching students to use specific strategies when encountering barriers to their understanding. This happens most often during reading, when students are unable to understand a particular component of the text. If armed with numerous reading and writing strategies, students are likely to overcome any reading barriers faced.
References: Bimmel, 2001; Misulis, 2009; National Reading Panel, 2000