Reading Reflection on Selected Journal Articles: - Essay Example

Reading In the Content Area According to Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005), reading comprehension skills promote the achievement of learning objectives in Science, and further research indicates that learners are more likely to be well adjusted in school and in later life if they can be able to read properly. Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) note a number of similarities between Science and reading that are indicative of the fact that effective reading and comprehension skills influence achievement in Science.

Firstly, whereas Science entails investigating a problem and collecting data, reading entails asking questions and taking notes. Secondly, Science involves interpreting data and communicating results while in reading, students think inductively and deductively and thereafter arrange information logically; thirdly, students draw a conclusion for their experiment in Science while in reading, students analyze critically and identify main ideas. In view of the above, Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) contend that teachers must possess relevant content knowledge and pedagogical skills to help students comprehend texts, which can be implemented before, during, and after an exercise.

Additionally, Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) go on to say that, pre-reading strategies entail assessing the students’ entry behaviors targeting their misconceptions about Science, and teachers conduct them before teaching any new knowledge because the students’ prior knowledge serves as the foundation for new knowledge. Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) identify one major effective pre-reading strategy for science as the Pre-reading Plan (PREP) that consists of three phases, which involve brainstorming known facts about the concept or topic at hand, reflecting upon the responses yielded, and clarifying the knowledge respectively.

In the first phase, the teacher presents a concept such as photosynthesis to the whole group of learners and asks them to say what they already know about it orally as the teacher lists the answers on the board. In the second phase, the students explain their responses while the teacher embarks on identifying and clarifying the arising misconceptions concerning the concept. In the third and final phase, students take part in large group discussions concerning the science topic explaining the new facts and clarifying information.

Moving further, Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) state that the effective strategy to use during reading is comprehension monitoring, the act of understanding the comprehension content or being aware that one is not understanding, and invoking the necessary readjustments as the individual may deem appropriate. This process entails adjusting and adapting reading strategies to achieve meaning from the text as much as possible; the interactive reading guide is used to monitor students’ comprehension during reading.

This guide incorporates several grouping strategies such as individual, pairs, triads, small groups, and whole class, to complete varied categories of reading tasks that are appropriate challenges for the size of the groups. Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) also reveal a second useful strategy to monitor reading comprehension, the guide-o-rama, which provides the reading selections, directions on how to read them, and a task to be completed afterwards. These two guides focus the students’ energies on a specific purpose for reading rather than overwhelming them with too much material at ago, they are motivational because they can be applied in cooperative learning groups, and they guide learners reading and comprehension.

Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) lastly discuss the comprehension strategies after reading, which entail asking students’ questions using effective questioning strategies after reading a selection, to assess their reading comprehension; for instance, teachers may assist students to think at higher levels of reasoning by asking open-ended questions. Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) propose that an effective strategy that can be used to assess the level of comprehension of the learners after interacting with the text is science jeopardy, a way for making reading fun for the students so they can enjoy more.

The second strategy is to use a shape poem by asking students to draw an outline of a shape that represents the topic in the text selection they read and writing words or phrases on that outline and sharing the work amongst themselves. The students may also use the KWL chart that incorporates what they know, the purpose for their reading, and what they learnt from comprehension of the content in the selection. Overall, Belk, Seed and Abdi (2005) conclude by reiterating research findings that underscore the importance of using reading strategies in science, to help students in the comprehension of content areas because they help students to not only learn to read, but also read to learn.

In this respect, the close relation between science skills and reading skills, in addition to the similarities between science process skills and reading process skills could be utilized by practitioners in the education of children to promote learning outcomes from reading comprehensions. Reference Belk, E., Seed, A. H., & Abdi, W. (2005). Content reading strategies. Science Scope, 28(6), 44-45.