Framing Our Reading | Part 1: Engagement

  

	Text Citation or Link	Rationale for Choosing	Text Frame(s)	Strategies Used and Resource
Engagement Example	BBC Future::‘I see colours you cannot perceive or imagine’	Uses a lot of technical information that requires advanced knowledge of visual systems. Challenges reader to imagine an experience of seeing that is different from his or her own.	Concept/Definition	Brainstorming Prior Knowledge and Mind Mapping (Buehl, 2014)

   

Literacy is an important component of all subjects, not just English. In science classes, students must learn how to deconstruct and analyze a technical text in order to derive meaning from it. However, a successful reading activity is made up of much more than just providing students with a text and asking them to read it. Many students would have trouble deriving meaning from a selection when this approach is used. The most effective learning from a text occurs when students are provided with activities that activate and engage their prior knowledge, guide them through the reading process, and then help them to extend their thinking to outside of the classroom following the reading (Buehl, 2014). For this activity, my partner, Jennie, and I focused on strategies to activate prior knowledge on a subject, a process called “frontloading” (Buehl, 2014). In fact, McLaughlin (2010) states that one of the characteristics of a good reader is to use prior knowledge to help develop meaning in a text. We chose different strategies to determine how each strategy improved the experience of reading a piece of science writing.

To test our strategies, Jennie and I used the BBC Future article titled ‘I see colours you cannot perceive or imagine.’ This article discussed the phenomenon of tetrachromacy found in some women that allows them to see more colors than the typical human being (Robinson, 2016). This article is difficult for a few reasons. First, it assumes that the reader already has a basic understanding of how light works, how the eye senses light, and how the brain processes signals from the eye. There are also references to genetics concepts like X chromosomes and mutations. Second, the article challenges the reader to imagine a perception of the world that is different from his or her own. It is difficult to imagine what it would be like to see more colors than you can already see, just as it would be difficult for a colorblind person to imagine seeing the way a typical human does.

When choosing my reading strategy, I decided that this complex article would be more accessible if I activated my prior knowledge through making a map of prior knowledge that I had learned on the topic. I brainstormed facts that I knew about vision and light and drew out a map to link the concepts together. This can be seen in the image at the end of this blog. I found that, through creating the concept map, I was able to make connections between ideas that I hadn’t thought about before and identify areas where I was still missing information. This prepared me to use the article to fill in the blanks. As you can see on the concept map, I wrote out a question that I came up with during this activity. Once I started reading the article, I was able to refer back to my concept map to note where the new information fit into the diagram. I also was able to identify other areas that I should have explored when activating prior knowledge, such as genetics concepts.

Jennie took a different approach to preparing for reading. She used a strategy called “Science Connection Overview” (Buehl, 2014) where she previewed the article to look for familiar terms and skimmed the article to get a feel for the structure of the reading she was about to do. After discussing our approaches, we determined that the science connection overview strategy lends itself to longer texts with summaries or abstracts, such as a scientific journal article. However, she was still able to prepare for the reading by picking out words like “tetrachromat” and “X chromosome” that she recognized from previous learning. In our discussion, we discussed the process of choosing an engagement strategy that fits with the type of text. As a teacher, we will read a text previous to creating a lesson and activities around it. Once we are familiar with the text, we will have a better idea of which reading strategies lend themselves to the selection. For example, if I had read the article previous to creating the concept map, I could have outlined specific areas in which to activate my prior knowledge. If I were to give a concept mapping assignment to my students as a frontloading activity, I would be able to provide a prompt for the students so they knew which concepts to map out.

Ultimately, using a frontloading strategy helped me to feel confident about and engaged with the material covered in the BBC Future article. My mind was prepared to consolidate new information into the existing map that I had created in my mind and on paper. While using this strategy, I came up with many ideas about how to use this strategy in a future classroom. It was also good to compare with my partner to see how different strategies affected the way that we approached the article. I would like to spend more time researching strategies so that I can determine which strategies work best with different types of texts.

Concept Map:

References

Buehl, D. (2014).  Classroom strategies for Interactive Learning.  International Reading Association.

McLaughlin, M. (2010).   Content Area Reading:  Teaching and Learning for College and Career Readiness .  Boston:  Pearson.

Robinson, D. (2016). 'I see colours you cannot perceive or imagine' Retrieved April 9, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160316-i-can-see-colours-you-cannot-perceive-or-imagine