This is an article that I wrote for today's American School Newsletter on Active reading. There are a good number of grammatical errors, great, included that I thought would have been edited out by the person I gave this too. However, the content is good and if you are into teaching those with dyslexcia or written language difficulties, there are some good ideas included.
First off, this is not an article on the cardiovascular
merits of “active reading.” It is a brief introduction
into basic active reading strategies and how they can
be used in conjunction with a reading scanner called
Kurzweil that we in the Resource Center are currently
learning to implement. Most of the strategies that I
will cover can also be done, to some degree, in a manual
method and all of these strategies are applicable to
students with and without learning difficulties.
My discussions centers on the concept of active reading.
Of course the opposite of “active reading” is
“passive reading.” From my perspective, and truly this
has not been documented in research in any manner or
form, “passive reading” is what we all generally do
when we read a novel, magazine, or newspaper. There
is certainly nothing wrong with curling up with a novel
on the couch, or sitting down to breakfast with the paper.
We take in what is important to us, and leave it
at that.
On the other hand, “active reading” is highly structured,
demanding and requires a higher level of involvement
and commitment. There is the element of
highlighting, note taking and paraphrasing. These require
greater cognitive commitment (my term) and
effort compared to the passive reading practices one is
generally accustomed to. It is certainly not a practice
that students engage in all the time as it time and attention
intensive. However, the ability to read in an
active manner and follow the steps which will be outlined
in this article, have been shown to dramatically
impact the learning of some individuals who take the
time to learn and implement them.
Though not all students with learning difficulties have
problems with reading, many do. The problems that
are commonly seen deal with decoding skills, reading
speed, and lack of comprehension strategies. Though
many students have received specific reading instruction
in their schools at one point or another, specific
reading instruction in the classroom for more basic
issues stops once a student enters middle school.
Though students may continue to receive academic
support during the school hours, systematic instruction
for reading disabilities does not usually occur.
To receive such instruction, students either need to
get after school tutorial help or enroll in a school
such as Eagle Hill school http://
www.eaglehillschool.org/home.htm) in Connecticut
or Landmark School (http://
www.landmarkschool.org/index_flash.htm) in Massachusetts
where classes are given in reading strategies
and 1:1 instructional sessions are also available.
Though AIS does not provide 1:1 tutorial assistance
in the Resource Center, we have all been trained in
areas that allow us to model and teach more active
reading skills. Teachers commonly break the reading
process down into their component pieces so that
students can address them individually. Using computer
software like Inspiration during both reading
and writing has proven effective with some students,
and as mentioned, we now have a text to speech
reading scanner which we think will mean a world of
difference to those students who require such intervention.
But before discussing this specific piece of
technological wizardry, let’s look a bit closer at how
one behaves when they are reading “actively.”
When a student comes to my class, I regularly ask
them what work they have to complete from their
other classes. Frequently they tell me that they have
to read pages A to Z in their textbook. When I ask
them what they have to do with this material, a common
refrain is “Just read it.” Convincing them that
their retort is not an acceptable variation of the wellused
Nike commercial phrase “Just Do It” takes a bit
of time. It is my goal to help them discover how active
reading will improve their ability to comprehend
Active Reading and Assistive Technology
the text they are reading. First, to truly read actively,
you need to engage in pre-reading. Students need to
read over the titles, topic headings, diagrams (and text
beneath) as well as any other visuals on the pages.
Next, quickly read through of the entire piece. Most
assignments in high school are short and can generally
be read over quickly. After this comes the highlighting.
Research has shown that the simple act of
using a highlighter increases your attention to the text
significantly. Using multiple colored highlighters to
color code various aspects of information in the chapter
(say yellow for vocabulary and green for main
points) helps not only to demarcate the chapter for
later use, but gets a student involved on a higher cognitive
level. Following this are margin notes and at
the end of the piece, a short summary in the student’s
own words. During the reading, students should also
respond to text in their own words, “chunking” information
along the way. They can write in the book if it
is theirs, use sticky notes if it is not, or use the Kurzweil
reader to do any and all of these things which actually
leads me to this tool-finally!
Using Kurzweil
The Kurzweil reader is a text-to-speech software program.
If the book is online (see list of URL’s that I am
beginning to find which have digital text material)
then students can go directly to the site and read it
there or cut and paste it in order to save it for later
use. Digital text can be read directly from any website
and students can use the scanner in our room to scan
text books or handouts which will then be readable. In
addition, students can upload tests from instructors
(specific notes and questions by the way can be embedded
in these documents to cue students), and can have
their papers read back to them too. However, the focus
of this article is on the active reading elements
discussed above and how Kurzweil can assist in this
process.
Students who do not read accurately or fluently may
profit from the Kurzweil program. Though the quality
of the voices one can choose from are still not perfect,
they are pretty darn good. Students can adjust the
rate in which words are read to fit the content they are
reading, and the combination of both visual and auditory
input is beneficial for many. Built into this program
are four different colored highlighters. Students
can highlight text and then extract only their highlighted
material. They can then have this read back to
them to support these essential concepts or print only
this material for later use. A built-in dictionary and
other language features make this a very inclusive
program. As far as the more active components of active
reading such as margin notes, students can add
computerized sticky notes to their text or include
voice notes (I have not tried this yet) of their
“chunked” ideas. In fact, every component of active
reading can be addressed using this system as well
as having the text read to you. In addition it appears
to me (very unscientific I know), that this system
might benefit those students who have AD/HD as it
focuses their attention to the text as each word being
read is highlighted and only higher level comprehension
skills are being tapped.
Conclusion:
Learning how to read actively will improve the comprehension
of all students. Teaching this study skill
in the Resource Center and for that matter at home,
will ensure that students are more involved with
their assignments. An additional benefit is that their
comprehension will also improve. Using the Kurzweil
program in the Resource Center allows students to
work independently as they address some of their
individual reading goals. It is not a cure all and most
of the tools in this sophisticated program can replicated
with highlighters, pens, pencils and sticky
notes. However, those students who are in the upper
grades who continue to have difficulties with reading
will benefit greatly from this program as they will
have greater access to text that heretofore was too
difficult for them to read. Engaging in the active
reading practices delineated in this article will serve
to improve their understanding of the material as
well.
Please feel free to discuss any aspect of this article
with me.
Text to Reading URL’s:
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/
childrenindex.html
http://www.starfall.com/
http://legacy.netlibrary.com/titleselect/
home.asp
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Jardin/1630/
http://www.ldresources.org/index.php?cat=22
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
http://www.accessiblebookcollection.org/
http://www.bookshare.org/web/Welcome.html
http://www.californiadigitallibrary.org/
http://www.digitalbookindex.com/
http://www.ipl.org/
http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/
works.html
Jamie Margolis
Resource Center
Page 13 Walworth Barbour American International School, Inc.
