Teaching Reading in Content Area

1. Metacognition is a skill that should be developed

1.1. Metacognition is that ability to think while thinking

1.2. Effective readers have already developed this skill

1.2.1. They are constantly planning how they will read, can adapt to new readings, and have strategies on how to understand the material if they do not

1.3. Teachers should be helping increase those metacognitive skills

2. Reading and writing go hand in hand

2.1. Reading and writing share the same mental process

2.2. Teachers should be giving non-graded assignments to help foster those writing skills

2.2.1. Remember to stay on focus-it does not matter how they write but what they write

2.3. Writing allows students to generate ideas, organize thoughts, and make sense of the information being presented

3. Collaboration increases learning

3.1. Learning becomes a socially interactive process because students want to talk to one another

3.2. Dialogue between students can foster skills students should possess

3.2.1. Those skills would be the ability to spark new ideas, deepen the understanding of a topic, allows students to teach each other, and give students the responsibility of their learning

4. Students need to make connections to their schema

4.1. Schema-the way knowledge is stored in the brain/memory

4.2. Students will have different understanding of reading and that is completely fine

4.2.1. first thoughts come from background knowledge and personal experiences

4.3. The more students know the easier it will be to make those connections

5. Prior Knowledge is vital

5.1. Prior Knowledge-is what a student knows about a certain subject

5.2. When students are able to connect new knowledge to prior knowledge it increase their ability to learn

5.3. First it is important to determine the prior knowledge of the student and how to activate that prior knowledge

5.3.1. Example would be to use pretest or KWL charts