Creating and Teaching Reading Strategies - Research Paper Example

? Reflection Paper - Creating and Teaching Reading Strategies al Affiliation) Introduction Knowing how to set and teach research based reading strategies is among the ways that facilitates learning and reading process within a classroom. Most of the researches conducted prove that using these strategies have indicated positive results. The three major categories of these strategies include pre-reading, guided reading and post reading strategies. Having a variety of these methods at hand enables students to engage in the text and latter process information that eventually transcends to even higher comprehension rates. Although each of the strategy is unique and friendly to the user, a number of difficulties isalso evident while implementing them. Advantages of reading strategies Teachers should design and teach the different strategies to encourage students in the classroom. In most cases, students can become highly frustrated when they fail to understand the content of what they could be reading. This might discourage them but using the correct strategies to counter the problem, the students are able to get back on track before giving up on reading (Buel, 2009). It is critical that teachers be knowledgeable of the students’ progress and the most appropriate tactics to apply in different situations to help students repair their reading comprehension. It is evident that reading strategies, such as DRTA, are quite helpful to struggling readers who make use of prediction for scaffolding. Predicting before reading which makes use of the cover or the title of the book being read, helps students to make verifications after reading subsequent sections. The students focus on the reading since they have a goal identified when they start to read (Buehl, 2009). This helps them to better understand the passage. It has also become clear that reading strategies allow students to use art as one way to improve their comprehension. This is better elaborated by the visual imagery that allows students to visualize a passage as they read. This is an important strategy since teaching students how to develop mental picture while reading also increases recall, predicting of what would come next and making inference. To enhance this, the teacher should draw pictures of what is being read (Buehl, 2009). This helps learners to follow the imagery besides how it represents what is being read. Another benefit of reading strategies on the learning process is that they provide an effective way to activate learners’ prior knowledge of the topic being taught. This helps them to think about some experiences they can easily relate to when reading (Buehl, 2009). This enables the student to better understand everything they read with ease. It also increases the pace of reading, since they do not have to pause now and then, trying to understand the content. The students are also able to expand their knowledge and interest on a particular issue beyond what is learnt in the classroom since they can always make inferences in what they experience in day-to-day activities from what they read. These encourage them to learn and end up being knowledgeable on the subject. When the learners improve their interest on the subject being learnt, the teachers can easily drive instructions, as they are able to focus on what students are curious about. These benefits are realized where KWL chart is highly used. The students also become independent readers when they learn how to apply these strategies. This way the students are able to understand the written word for their own benefits as well as to the teachers. Teaching a highly attentive class with students who easily understand what they are taught becomes easy for the teacher and saves time taken to cover any particular subject. Disadvantages of the Reading strategies As much as the pre-reading, guided reading, and post reading have resulted to increased levels of comprehension among learners, a number of shortcomings is experienced while implementing them. The ultimate challenge experienced by the teachers is to know precisely which strategy to use to realize the objective of various situations (Janet, 2007). Since students are different, the strategies are needed to sort their unique problems. Most of the strategies require a lot of time and effort to perfect, especially on the part of the learners. It is evident that most students are resistant to these plans at first. This could work against the teacher’s effort to teaching the students not only about the strategies but on other subject as well (Janet, 2007). This might also discourage students from participating in class work eventually hurting their general performance. Reading strategies require a lot of effort and well-thought plans to create and implement them. This requires teachers to spend a much time trying to figure out what is best for the students. It becomes even harder where students having different level of reading and understanding capabilities require to implement varying techniques to teach (Janet, 2007). Due to the limited time available to making all these plans and attending to students during class time, this ends up causing a lot of strain on the teacher. Most successful strategies-Post-Reading strategies Post reading strategies, which comprise of Venn diagram, Fact or Opinion, Web, Different Perspective and Summarizing, provide one of the most effective ways of improving the level of understanding on any particular topic. The strategies enhance the leaning process and help the learners to enjoy every topic they cover in classroom. The objectives of these set of strategies grows beyond the classroom activities. Students are able to develop on subject learnt in the classroom enhancing recall rates on the subject. The fact that all activities revolve around what is being learnt makes a solid inference on what students experience after reading and they get to make connection of what is learnt in future reading. The discussions that come after reading have good basis which to draw ideas from. Students in the group do not deviate from the topic. This helps discussing the topic exhaustively and increasing the understanding of everyone. However, for a teacher a number of changes would enhance reading in the classroom. During planning stage, it is more helpful to take into account all the specific learners. The lower learners would require the teacher to break down the reading process into “digestible” chunks (Cecilia, 2006). The students should also be trained to read critically during learning, which is obviously difficult to strong pupils as well. Another issue to include would be to make reading purposeful. Getting at this helps learners having a clear objective in reading. In conclusion, students should be made aware of why they have to read in a structured guided manner so that all of them, including the weaker group, can participate and interact in the norm process of class learning. The learners should be made aware of the benefits of learning and applying reading strategies and their usefulness through school, college and graduate school as well. References Buehl, D. (2009). Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Chicago: International Reading Assoc. Cecilia B. (2006). Applications of reading strategies within the classroom. Virginia: Pearson Allyn and Bacon. Janette K. Klingner. (2007). Teaching Reading Comprehension to Students with Learning Difficulties. New York: Guilford Press. Read More