Informational texts can be difficult for any student to comprehend. I believe this is because they are usually "boring" books with a lot of information to remember. Comprehension of such texts is bound to improve when the book is at an appropriate reading level, looks appealing, and isn't overwhelming to the student. I'd like to add to this list, that sometimes time is a factor. Many students don't have the available memory to dedicate to a complex book that only yields convergent thinking. By reading only a small section a day, or possible re-reading the text over multiple days, gives the students time to digest and analyze what they are reading. When introducing a new topic to me, that is what I need - to step away and return to the information repeatedly. Showing the information in different ways would also help - such as reading multiple books on the subject or completing a small project. Anything that ties what is being read to a concrete experience or even other vicarious experiences is a good thing!
You are right - reading informational texts is often boring for students! So I liked the ides that were given here to help us find ways to make it more interesting and exciting for students. I liked the idea of using trade books to help get the same information across to students. I also appreciated the mention of struggling students. Dyslexic students have immense trouble with reading their textbooks. Why not find a book (even a trade book) on a lower reading level that has the same information in it, and allow the student to read that? It would give them the information they need, yet keep them reading and not make them frustrated.
Sara, I agree with the types of books and the difficulty of learning from these types of text that you discussed. I also feel that in today's world we have so many other avenues to be able to teach informational text, which is a huge plus. I remember having to read the books, basically memorize the information long enough to take the test and then the concept was lost to me. Today, with digital tools and collaboration within the classroom, I feel that we have so many ways that we can assist the students that we are going to have more success then our predecessors. We get to think out of the box and find avenues that will help our students by using their prior knowledge and hands-on experiences to give them the depth of understanding they need to be successful. I can't wait!
Saying that informational texts is often boring to students is correct. Sometimes as a teacher you do not have any choice what text you have available. I think that having them read and re-read the text would be a great way to have them gain a deeper understanding, but I just worry that this might bore the students further and thus turning them completely off of the text and causing them to disrupt the rest of the class.
While I agree that the book's structure may not be inspiring, I believe the strategies presented in chapter 9 can make a world of a difference for our students to not find the text "boring." I've always been told that boring people find things boring. If we can use pre-reading strategies to engage our students and help them decipher difficult vocabulary, and make it fun, than the stigma associated with expository texts may be eliminated,at least in our classrooms. Not all students are going to find the information interesting, but if we can use multiple strategies to deliver the content, we may be able to develop an interest where currently one does not exist. By using things like read alouds, think alouds, K W L charts, graphic organizers, tactile devices, realia, and other strategies, students may not have a deep desire for the topic, but I feel they will at least be engaged in the topic, enough for learning and productiveness to be evident.
I agree with you that informative text can sometimes be boring but it is our jobs as educators to add extension to the text so that students can retain the information by relating it to real world learning and past content knowledge. The book does provide a great variety of activities presented in this chapter that are great tools too. I believe it is important to present the new text with enthusiasm as well as letting the students know why it is important that they learn about the subject.
This chapter talked about comprehending and teaching expository, or informational, texts. It was interesting to read that of the three factors affecting comprehension, the home affects it the most. The environment, and the school were the other two factors. Expository texts have a variety of organizational structures: chronology or sequence, description, listing, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. It was suggested to use informational texts as read alouds, as they are great ways to teach the students information about a topic and allows for questions and discussions to aid in the comprehending of the text. For these texts, the authors gave ideas for ESOL students in acting out words, putting them into small groups, using graphic organizers, and letting them role play in order to help them understand.
I found this chapter a little harder to get excited about because it seems a little more complex than working with narrative text. Yet, at the same time, I see great potential in the ideas listed. They had some wonderful graphic organizers, and I can see where using these would be helpful for students to write down and organize their thoughts about what they just read, making it stick with them better and longer. I also wrote down the National Geographic site for kids, as I think this is the same site Mrs. Stoppel has referred to in the lectures. What a fabulous way to present factual information to students in a way that is exciting and interesting! I am hoping to incorporate this site into my last lesson plans in order to integrate expository text, but also technology. I have three boys in my group, and this is something I think they would find personally interesting, and then as Mrs. Stoppel suggested, we could also do some writing about it.
Jenny, I really like the idea of using fun informational texts during read alouds. It is a great way to excite the students and get them interested in the content. I was impressed by how much information was given about ELL's in the chapter. This is an area I am always interested to learn more about since I am seeing more and more of these students in our classrooms. I watched a video on accommodating English Language Learners just the other day and it is incredible how fast that population is growing. I love to use graphic organizers and am always glad to see some new ideas for them. What a great idea to use that site in your lessons, I am sure your students will love it! Kara
I too liked the National Geographic site for kids and feel that technology is something that take a normal expository text and make it interesting. Online texts will give more features and benefits such as graphic tools, images, games and more to make the content more interesting and fun. I feel that anytime we can incorporate technology into our lesson, the kids are going to enjoy it more. I too like the graphic organizers and those are always a great tool.
Something I learned about in another class was creating a Jeopardy type of smart board game. I had created one and the kids really enjoyed. It would be a wonderful way to help the students comprehend what they have read as well as creating interest in learning the information if prizes were awarded. They wouldn't have to be big prizes, anything would do, including a certificate of award!
Chapter 9 discusses comprehension of informational text. I have been learning about this via the recorded sessions for this class but was very excited to gain more knowledge about this subject. This seems to be one area that is not covered in depth in the other classes I have taken. I like that the scenario at the beginning of the chapter covers how ELL’s are affected by testing. The 3 factors that affect the comprehension process are: within the reader, within reader’s environment and within the text. The same basic reading skills are needed for comprehension of all text. These have been covered in previous chapters. Something this chapter covers that I have thought a lot about this semester is how some students lack the background knowledge and experiences that enhance comprehension. As a future educator I must remember that not all students have been afforded the luxury of experiences in life that allow them to develop a broader view of the world. So much knowledge that many of us take for granite these children have never had the opportunity to learn about or experience. This chapter discusses the importance of teachers counteracting negative attitudes and giving students the opportunity to succeed. I have thought in depth about how the child’s home affects their learning but had not though a lot about how much the community affects their learning also. The author states that the most important aspect of school is the teachers. For some children their teacher is the only positive influence they may encounter on a daily basis. This chapter also discusses the different organizational structure of expository text. The recording for this week had some information about many of the features of textbooks. These features should be useful to readers and enhance their learning. I really like some of the electronic text features mentioned in this chapter. It would make comprehension easier for many students if they could just click on the unknown words for definitions. I think the instructional recommendations give us a good guideline to follow when working with ELL’s. I also like the discussion questions for literacy focus that are recommended for after reading expository texts. They lead the discussion in a direction I had not thought about. There are some neat strategies and activities given in this chapter that I look forward to using. I have had the opportunity to use several of the ideas listed including the textmasters which was fun and worked very well with the group I was working with. One I would like to try is the collaborative approach.
Chapter 9 is more comprehension strategies, but this time for informational text. There are so many factors that assist a reader to comprehend all types of text, including their ability to recognize sight words, decode unknown words, reading fluency and their ability to connect prior knowledge to what they are reading. When reading informational text the student also needs to possess background knowledge on the topic they are reading, recognize specific terminology for that topic, analyze the authors purpose, and understand organizational patterns for expository writing to be successful in comprehending what they are reading. I really liked the hands-on activity listed on page 239 to help bring the knowledge to the struggling reader. Science experiments, crafts, and math games is a great way for the student to red and compute the information to a useful activity through trial and error. I also like the vast number of graphic organizers that are readily available for you to utilize in all instruction. This way the students can utilize ways to put the information in chronological order, complete a compare and contrast, put in definitions and descriptions, classifications or persuasive information for them to understand the items by seeing them visually. The book stated that struggling readers are most often tactile and kinesthetic learners. By utilizing these strategies will be beneficial to their reading comprehension.
I completely agree, this chapter has some great ideas and activities. The hands on acivities is a great way for any learning in building background and understanding expository concepts. The graphic organizer examples were great for expanding ways in which we can use them to help all students.
Reading informational text, like you said, is not just textbooks but recipes, directions, and experiment information. I'm guessing that the average adult reads more informational text on a daily basis than narrative. I think a great activity to stress this, is doing a collage of advertising and have students read them. I know I see lots of stop smoking advertising, directions for how to find a local business, etc. This would be another way to show students the importance of reading in "real life."
Informational texts are often found as “boring” by students. I agree with our book, if you link the information they are learning to something they already have prior experience with they might be more likely to be interested in the text when you introduce it. If your students do not all have prior experience with the topic, as the teacher you need to find some fun facts about the subject that they might not know, or maybe pull up something online that they can see and will make them interested in the book. I think that the graphic organizers that are found in the activity section are great tools that you can use to keep the students interested in the text. If they know what they need to learn they will learn it so they can finish reading the “boring” text
I think you touched on the most important aspect of informational texts. Finding something interesting that correlates with the information. We have to figure out a way to make learning fun, even when it is boring. We live in a society where you can find just about anything on the internet, and no matter how uninterested a student may be in a subject, I would bet we could find something online that will make a student say "cool".
Informational text is boring for most students. I think for the most part we can find some kind of connection to the kids to get them interested in it. Like the reading passages on state assessments - the kids just hate them. They view them as pointless and boring and because it's a state test, I can't make any connections for them prior to reading so by modeling that connection process all along, hopefully they will be able to make their own connections when having to read those passages for state assessments.
Again, I found this chapter very informative along with chapter 8 because my tutoring class content focus is comprehension. I enjoyed reading this chapter because I, like many others, found expository texts to be boring in the past. The section on "Factors affecting the comprehension process" really shed some light about why students do or don't comprehend. This section described three areas: Factors within the reader such as prior knowledge and their interests, Factors within the reader's environment which is the home, community, and the school, and factors within the text. Expository texts are set up different than narrative texts and in that there aren't necessarily settings, plot, characters, etc. Most of these texts have organizational structures to them such as chronological order/sequence, problem/solution, description, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and many more. If readers can't identify with a certain structure, than they may struggle to comprehend the passage. Other factors that affect comprehension of narrative and expository text include: word analysis,decoding skills, fluency, ability to visualize/predict/summarize/infer/and connect prior knowledge to text, among others. I found many of the assessments to be similar to what we would use for narrative passages too. I enjoyed reading the "Active Learning" Vignettes 1 and 2 that showed a few perspectives on how to motivate a student through interests. As always, the text had great intervention ideas that will be great for the classroom. All of these seem great tools to develop the skills needed for good comprehension. I specifically like graphic organizers, the literature circle idea, using read alouds but also with modeling of think aloud strategies. I think the K W L charts are better suited for expository than for narrative but can be great tools for either. And lastly, I really like the learning logs because it incorporates writing which is directly linked to effective reading.
I enjoyed the scenario at the beginning of the chapter, and I liked how the principal was the person who noticed the difference in behavior. The only question I have for this would be with all the cuts in the school districts, I wonder how many people can be hired to help individual situations such as this? I know in the district I work, they are cutting back on Para’s and we need them badly. It is sad when not every child is getting what they need. Comprehension is something upper level students tend to struggle with. Factors that contribute would be having prior knowledge of a situation or event. If a student has not been exposed to a variety of situations and/or places, they may struggle with the informational text being taught. Those who have background knowledge will become interested and want to participate. All year, we have been telling our reading students the number one thing to have to pass the State Assessments is a positive attitude, I can, I will, instead of this is too hard, and who really cares. I was so glad to read it in the text, it makes a huge difference. Home, school, and community are environmental factors students inhabit. Expository text is the type of text our students have struggled with, however the teacher I work with is amazing. She has shown them step by step how to break the text down and work through it. The eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository text are sequencing, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. There are key words that will help students figure out which type of text structure the author used. The text also needs to be at the reader’s ability, or they will spend their time sounding out words and not comprehending. The information needs to be credible. There are several places to get information and many times the information may be different depending on where it was gathered. Students need to be made aware of this and explained why this happens. At the end of the chapter, I thought the graphic organizers 9.14-9.21 were great for any grade level.
I completely agree about the scenario. I think it is so accurate. I remember when we first moved to the small town we currently live in and a teacher told me how "worldly" my children are and how well they do in class. Our children have been to most of the states (two of them have been to Maui)and we have been to other countries. Even in the classroom now I know that not all students will have the same experiences as my kids so I try to bring the subject to them even if it is with technology.
Informational texts in my opinion are much more difficult the younger you are, because your sight words are not as advanced as your later years in school. Having said that, the terms are much more difficult the older you get. The text discusses the factors which affect the comprehension process for students. These factors include prior knowledge, interest, and attitude. With prior knowledge students draw this information from previous lessons in school and from home. It is difficult for students to understand what is going on within informational texts if they have no prior knowledge to draw from. We also look at interest and attitude in the same context because if a student is interested in a subject they are more likely to be successful, and the same goes for attitude. When a student has a poor attitude toward a subject, they are less likely to have success. The text went on to explain the structure of expository texts including the sequence, description, listing, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. There is a reason that students think that informational texts are boring, it’s because they are. Reading an informational text about informational texts is just as bad. While I agree that the information is valuable for us as future teachers, it doesn’t change the fact that finding fun in informational texts is difficult and we as educators need to find something that is entertaining for our students when working with informational texts.
I would agree that informational text are more difficult when younger, but I think it is good for them to look at the illustrations. A student who has a poor attitude does struggle to succeed that is why as teachers we have to work to make are students have a good attitude towards school. To make informational text not boring and exciting for students I think you have to know your students and their interests so they can read about things they like.
Chapter nine of the text covered comprehension of instructional text. Factors that affect comprehension are within the reader such as prior knowledge and experience and interests and attitudes, within the reader's environment including home, community, and school; within the text. The text also explained the eight organizational structures of expository text, what to look for when analyzing informational texts, instructional recommendations for ESOL, and developing critical literacy skills, along with assessment, intervention, and technology links. There are many reasons why students are not interested in reading and lack skills, home life is a huge influence on students' attitudes and oral skills. Without reading and having conversations with students outside of school, students will lack in important factors that they need in school, such as prior knowledge, large vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. I like how the text listed all the organizational patterns of expository text with ways to help readers identify them, a script to teach those patterns. While reading the text, it stressed the importance of hands on activities. I think this is very important to do with students in helping to build the background knowledge for all students on informational topics. Even if a student is not a kinesthetic learner, I feel it would benefit all types of learners to have those visual, hands on experiences. The experience could also help build student interest on the topic prior to reading. Like always, this chapter will be a great resource for teaching this information to students, as this is included in standards. The internet links will be helpful for future lessons. One idea under the assessments that I will definitely use is the Talking Drawings where students will be given a topic to draw about and then share what they know before reading about the topic, and then modify or draw a new picture of what they know now that they will share again.
Building background knowledge is important, good point. It's definitely necessary to continue building is as the student's progress from grade to grade. So many things, even outside of reading, relate back to a student's background knowledge! Good information!
Samantha, By now we know that building the background knowledge is so significant in a student's reading progress. Personally, this is something I've read about in several texts and heard instructors discuss in multiple education courses. It definitely impacts the comprehension area. A reader's prior knowledge can provide a very beneficial connection or lack thereof. We are going to have students with limited background knowledge, so providing a variety of expository/informational material is essential to our students. Technology, through the Internet, can certainly compliment informational text that we present to our students.
Chapter 9 covers informational text and three distinct sources that affect the comprehension process of informational text. These sources are: factors within the reader, factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. There are many skills necessary to comprehend all types of text but to comprehend informational text you also need some of the following: knowledge of organizational patterns of expository text, ability to analyze the author's purpose and credentials, and adequate background knowledge of the topic being read. Life experiences like trips to the park or zoo help give them a broader view of the world they live in. The knowledge that they gain from these experiences help aid reading comprehension. Out of the three environments that the students inhabit themselves in the home most affects reading comprehension and provides the attitude that helps build good readers. The most important aspect of the school is the teacher who can model a love of reading, and expect all students to succeed. When selecting informational text a teacher should consider quality literature, accurate information, define technical terms, and feature illustrations that complement the text. Also the text needs to be age appropriate and the students comprehension level. One question that I had from reading this text was about the readers environment. What if a student has a poor structured home and doesn't get the help with reading he needs, then what becomes the most important factor for a child? I look the the issue of informational text as an important one and think that students need to read these texts or even look at pictures. I think that they are great for helping students know about the world they live in because not all students get to experience things outside their home. In my own experience I can remember always checking out books about animals and writing papers over them. I also work with many kids who like to check out informational text so they can look at illustrations. I think this is good for them because I do think it helps them learn factual information.
I have also seen a lot of students checking out these types of books as well. They do like to look at the pictures and learn about these different topics. I have always found it entertaining when one of them will run over to tell you about a certain animal or whatever topic they are reading about at that time and how much it excited them. Of course not all students are like this, I wasn't one, but I wish I could be as excited as they are for some of these topics.
There are always individual factors that can affect a reader: prior knowledge, interests and attitudes, their environment (home, community, school), and factors within the text itself. Expository texts are structured in way that require students to develop new schema to process the information. Key words can help readers interpret the text. Graphic organizer can also assist with comprehension. Chronological texts structure events in a logical order but descriptive text is where the author explains an event or object and can be detailed in a way that almost paints a picture with it’s description. Compare/contrast texts explain an event as related to another and direct the reader to focus on similarities or differences. Cause/effect are usually scientific so the reader really has to picture what the author is describing and some students have difficulty doing this but there are signal words that help the reader understand the relationship between the cause and effect. I have seen the difficulty students have with cause and effect relationships with the students I work with. They have a hard time seeing or determining the relationship in these texts. Problem/solution it is helpful to list all of the problems that occurred in a text and then move onto the solution, which is what helped fix those problems. If they can picture it in this way, they will be more successful in identifying this type of text. The book provides instructional recommendations for teaching ELLs how to navigate informational texts. One way is for them to receive small group instruction where they can build and extend their vocabulary, listening and comprehension. These texts can be assessed in various ways. Informal assessments include reading inventories, rubrics, running records, miscue analysis, cloze/maze procedures, and vocab assessment. Formal assessments include norm and criterion referenced tests, critical literacy assessments. Again, there are strategies and activities provided in the book. I wish I could use some of these in the re-teach portion of our lesson plans because I think they would be good opportunities for reteach or even enrichment. Read alouds was one of the activities listed so we already do that and I feel that is so important for teaching fluency so they can hear how good reading should sound. Some of the activities are listed in 99 Ideas too: KWL and think alouds. I originally just rented this book but I think I’m going to go ahead and buy it because it is so full of stuff I know I will use as a teacher.
There are so many strategies to use in this chapter. I wish there was a way we could have read it before we taught (for those of us whose focus is comprehension).
I agree that there were numerous strategies within this chapter that would be exceptionally helpful during tutoring sessions if doing comprehension! I loved that the ending of this chapter provided so many graphic organizers and activities, one for basically each of the specific organizations of expository texts! Definitely great information to note and use for future reference!
Chapter nine gives a look at the importance of comprehension of informational text. It tells us some of the factors affecting comprehension come from the reader’s prior knowledge, interests, attitudes, home, community, school, and text. This chapter also tells us the structure of expository text. This helps the student understand this type of text. Some examples of the organizational structures are sequence, enumeration, listing, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/ solution just to name a few. The chapter gives a variety of assessments to test the comprehension level of the individual student. The strategies within this chapter will be especially helpful.
I don’t have any questions regarding this chapter.
The chapter allowed me to see that I can help students comprehend informational texts. I have wondered in the past how I was going to be able to do this but the chapter outlined everything very well for me.
In my experience, this type of text is difficult to teach the students. Finding the type of books to interest students and also the way to teach it is important. I have looked at these chapters while flipping through the text to find strategies but after reading it I wish I had read it earlier so I could use more of the strategies. I hope to use these in my classroom.
My daughter has checked out many informational texts from the library this year. I found out that it was because most of the books that are pulled out in their school library for AR choices are actually expository texts. I don't know that she really enjoys them but she doesn't really seem to complain about them either. I also found this chapter to be very informative. There is a lot of information for sure.
I will openly admit that I do not enjoy most informational text. I have to be very interested in the topic or I really struggle with reading these types of passages and books. That being said, I also don't have very many informational books in my own personal library. I have hundreds of books, but only a handful are informational. I really need to add some to my collection. I find that reading informational text to be too similar to a text book. I have to say that as I gain more experience I have found many new ways to use them in my teaching though. I think it is really important for students to learn about text structures and that they develop the skill necessary for successful research using books, not just the internet. This chapter was jammed packed with information. I almost felt like I was on information overload. I think that one of the most helpful sections was that of the graphic organizers. There were a couple there that I have never seen before so it was nice to see something new, especially since graphic organizers are so popular these days.
Chapter 9 focused on the comprehension of informational texts. I was anxious to read this chapter because I always felt as a child that textbooks were much more difficult to comprehend than a chosen library book. Some of that I always just believed was if I actually liked the subject content or not - however, I now know there are numerous aspects that play a role in the comprehension of books such as these.
The beginning of the chapter discussed the factors that play a role in comprehending informational texts. This was very interesting to me because of the reason mentioned above. It started out discussing the three distinct sources which include factors within the reader, factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. The first section, factors within the reader related to one's prior knowledge and experience which makes perfect sense. This includes all of one's experiences thus far in their life, thus making the relationships they can draw within an informational text more likely to be understood if relative. It also talked about interests and attitudes which helped me to better understand why it was possibly much more difficult for me to read informational texts in school. Possibly because I wasn't interested in the specific species of whales that were breeding in a specific part of the ocean, or I wasn't concerned with how our country became our country. As I grew up, I certainly realized the vast amount of importance in all subjects; however, as a young child - it made these informational texts much more difficult to understand because I wasn't interested. There was no focus for me. Factors within the environment relate to the community I learned. The way a community impacts its children - clearly has a relationship to what students become interested in thus leading them to the comprehension of these educational and informational topics.
The middle of the chapter discussed the organization of expository texts. This section was also interesting to me because there was a lot of organizational strategies that I knew of but wasn't aware were considered "Organization of expository texts." For example, the text talked about compare and contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, persuasion, etc. which to me were just all types of writing. I never viewed it as the organization of a book. I liked that towards the end of the chapter they discussed writing because all of the components in reading and writing do go together in some way! As always, I love the activities at the end of the chapter before the intervention discussion. The book provided activities and graphic organizers for nearly each type of organization of expository texts which would be exceptionally helpful in the future while planning. Great chapter!!
Ladonna- Great post. I also agree that I wasn't interested in too many informal text as well. I just couldn't get my brain wrapped around the information. It just felt like a textbook to me. I guess if I found a topic I was interested in, it might not be so bad.
Chapter nine continues with comprehension, but this time it is about comprehension of informational texts. I was very surprised to read in this chapter about the different factors within the reader that are considered basic skills that you need to have in order to comprehend all different kinds of texts. There is also the part about a students prior knowledge and experience that is needed for students to comprehend these types of texts. The final one was the students interests and attitudes towards what they are reading. This one kind of hits home for me. I love reading, but not informational texts. I'm sure if I were to find a topic that would interest me I would be able to read them, but I tend to view these types of texts like a text book from school and my mind shuts off. This chapter also mentioned the factors in the student's environment that can affect their comprehension. These include their home, the community, and their school. Each of these places can have a different meaning to the students and effect their learning. This chapter provides a lot of different figures that contain a lot of great information. One in particular that I enjoyed reading through was the "characteristics of skilled and unskilled readers of information texts", each of these columns contain a lot of information that would help a teacher understand the different factors that contribute to each student and their comprehension and learning styles for this particular text.
I also love to read, but when it comes to informal text I am like you I see them as textbooks and shut my mind off. I also think that if I found a topic that I am interested in I would enjoy it better. My son, he is the total opposite. He loves to read, but he loves to read all types of books. His favorite are the non-fiction books. He brings home at least 2 non-fiction books home a week from school. He always is finding new things to learn about. I wish I was more like him, because I only like to read pleasure books!
I think the trick of being a great teacher is being able to find those things that students are not interested in and getting them interested in it. They may not find the topic of Presidents interesting for example, but if you come up with a great way to teach taht topic, then you may be able to engage all the students and jump start that interest. I think it is our job to figure out ways to entice all the students and get them excited about whatever the topic is. If we do not, then why are we there? Anybody can simply read out of the books.
Chapter nine goes in more depth with Comprehension. It's main focus was on informal and expository texts. I personally don't like informal texts. It just feels like another textbook to me and I shut my brain off. My son is one who likes both informal and expository texts. But his favorite are the informal texts. He is always wanting new books so he can learn. Each week he brings home at least 2 non-fiction books. This week it was presidents and dinosaurs. I think if I would find a topic that I am interested in I would maybe consider reading them more.
I am the same way; I really don’t love reading information texts personally. They are really hard to get through at times, especially if you just aren’t very interested in the topic being discussed. I also thing that you are right on with the fact that finding a topic you are interested in will help you open your mind to reading more expository texts. I have found that I don’t care for books, per say, but I love reading articles. Reading about articles on crime and motives, is absolutely fascinating to me. I always tried really hard to be interested in informational texts, but it didn’t work until I discovered the articles that grab my attention.
I also am not a big fan of informational texts. For me, they are hard to get through unless it is information about something that I really want to know about. This chapter was really helpful for me in seeing how I can teach informational texts and the different graphic organizers that I can have go with it. Thanks for sharing!
Informational texts can be very interesting however; on the other hand, we can pass out from utter boredom. But I really, like this chapters idea's on activities for before the reading, during, and after the reading, such as graphic organizers. When I saw this, my first thought was, students do not like these. I always hear a lot of groans and moans when graphic organizers are mentioned. However, as I looked closer I saw some really cool ideas. The author tells us that the graphic organizers (or maps as we call them here) "can be used as a pre-reading strategy to see what a student already knows about the topic. During reading, the information can be filled in as the reader learns new facts. After reading, the child can use it for recalling the information." (Pg 242) She also states that the graphic organizers should not be cluttered. If the student is left to draw the organizers themselves, you will probably see a totally cluttered mess that no one can understand let alone, read. I have found a few web sites that you can print off blank organizers of various types and with these, the students have an organized way to organize their information. (No pun intended) I really like introducing the text through activities like these, especially in the younger grades. For so many years, we simply dug right into the textbook and were then expected to know the information. I was terrible at that when I was in school and actually failed history a number of times because I could not memorize names and dates! One of the teachers in the school I am at lectures, lectures, lectures, and then told to make 16 gazillion graphic organizers, and if you finish them all, you can use them on the test, tomorrow. Ahh, visions of yester-year (Yawn~)
Chapter 9 is about the comprehension of informational texts can be hard for anyone to comprehend because the vocabulary can be very difficult to understand. As the chapter said there are three sources that affect the reader: factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. As it is with any type of text the more prior knowledge about a subject a person has the more they will be able to connect to the reading and be able to comprehend what is being talked about. This chapter also outlined English Linguae learners and expository texts. This section was really helpful, as this was a question that I had before I started reading this chapter. It also gave ways that you can assess the comprehension of expository tests, which was quite extensive with the amount there is. At the end it gave some activities that were really interesting and could become very useful since this is something that a lot of students struggle with.
I thought that it was interesting that eye appeal is one way that students analyze informational texts. I still catch myself to this day doing the same thing. It is really amazing how an opinion can be formed so rapidly just by looking at the physical features of the book or passage. As I read through the different ways that an expository text can be organized and structured it made me realize why his can be so confusing for some students. There are so many ways it can be outline that it is hard to get use to the structure of it to be comfortable when reading the text. Though some seem easier than others I can see how it would be hard to make the association for some students.
I used some National geographic young explorer magazines that were virtual with my students in my tutoring sessions. The part on electronic text features was very familiar to me because of this. This was one of my favorite things for my students to read as well as listen to. They liked being able to click on things to find out what they are rather than me just telling them. it was almost like a scavenger hunt to discover new things, which was a lot of fun.
I too am a reader by eye appeal! If a book looks boring, I will put it right back on the shelf, but if the cover looks interesting and maybe even a little fascinating, I'll pick it up and read the summary of the book. Then I will make my judgement from there. If I try and read a book I thought looked boring by the cover, I usually have really hard time focusing on the book and usually don't get very far in it before I give up.
This chapter of our DeVries text elaborates on the comprehension of informational text. There are numerous factors that affect a reader's comprehension, such as ability to connect prior knowledge to the reading, ability to summarize, ability to decode words accurately, among other factors. Personal experiences and attitudes, as well as knowledge of the topic in the informational text play a role in comprehension. The environment of the reader affects comprehension, as well, especially one's home environment. Unfortunately, we will have numerous children in our classrooms who have not been read to by their parents, and they have not had exposure to a library or access to materials which would expand their reading skills and knowledge of the world. Another challenge in the classroom associated with informational text is its organizational structure, which is different than the narrative structure. The organizational patterns used in expository text are sequence, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. Graphic organizers can help with these challenges, along with knowing key words that are used. This chapter also provides some guidelines to teachers in choosing informational text. We also read how critical literacy is equally important with expository texts, just as with narratives. Something I definitely drew from this chapter was the significance of prior knowledge to comprehension. As a parent myself and as a student, I've learned through the years how vital it is for parents to read to their children and introduce them to the world through literature. Some parents will not have had the resources or knowledge to do this, which will affect some of our students' capabilities in the classroom with their reading skills. We will have to draw from these tools and strategies within this chapter and others to provide the background knowledge they may not have had and provide an example of strong interest and love of literature. The focus of my tutoring sessions has been comprehension. I have used several graphic organizers with the students to work on comprehension, we've used predictions frequently, and I do feel like I have made a concerted effort to draw on their prior knowledge. What a challenge it will be for a full school year with 20+ students though!
My unit focus is comprehension as well. I also use a lot of graphic organizers during tutoring. Both of my students have been identified and take medication for ADHD. I have found that when we use the graphic organizers they are able to focus better on what they are doing.
The chapter starts out by introducing us to the three factors that affect a reader. Those are factors within the reader, within their environment, and factors within a text. When it comes to the factors within a reader, they can range from if the reader is able to recognize sight words to whether or not they can summarize what they read. Factors within the environment include a child's life at home, the type of community they live in, and their school. One thing that really caught my attention in this section of the chapter was the quality of libraries within a town or city. See, I grew up in two different small towns. The town that I lived in until I was about 12 years old was very small town with a very good library system. I'm talking about a library who had tons of books, movies, newspapers, computers, story time, after school programs, and summertime activities. To be honest, that library played a major role in my childhood. Then when I moved to the second town we lived in where I graduated high school from, their library had books, a few movies, and a couple computers. I think there were story times here and there, but never really that constant. I hardly ever stepped foot into that library. Now after reading this chapter, I can see just how much libraries do make a difference. The town I lived in until I was twelve had schools where children were not struggling to meet the state test standards, while the other town I lived in was. Actually my class was always getting rewards for reaching and doing very well on the tests. I do know that I have to take into consideration that the second town I lived in had a lot more English learners or English as as second language learners, but our community lacked some of the interaction young children need to improve their skills.
Anyway, the chapter goes on to discuss the different types of organizational structure of expository texts, which I really liked reading about also because I never really noticed before how many different types of structures there actually were. Different ways of a books appeal to students was also discussed in the chapter, from being something digital to making sure the material is also eye catching to students. Which I can definitely relate to the eye catching part. To this day I will hardly even look at a narrative book if it looks boring. I have no desire to read something that doesn't attract my interests, and if I try to I never really get very far with it. So really think it's little things like this us teachers need to take into consideration when we are teaching our students. We have to remember how we have different interests and learning styles, so we have to keep in mind that every single one of our students will also and we need to do everything we can to make sure we give them an equal opportunity to learn.
Your point about libraries is very good. I also grew up in a small town, and we have a great library. It is located in the old train depot, and the Martin and Osa Johnson Museum is also in that building. The library has a lot of programs for children, including a summer reading program with tons of activities planned. Another thing that is important in regard libraries is that they are free. This gives many children opportunities to read books, see movies, play computer games, etc… that their families may not be able to afford otherwise.
I agree with both of you...I think that public libraries are one of the greatest resources for teachers, parents and students alike. Fortunately, we now live in a community where I am thrilled and take full advantage of the programming, resources and role the library plays in our community. Plus, I think it is key in developing an overall attitude towards reading for my son...hence influencing his own environmental characteristics.
Chapter 9 is a lot like chapter 8, but is about comprehension of informational texts instead of narrative texts. Until I took this class, I did not really understand how or why these would be taught that much differently. This chapter really did help me understand why and how they are so different. There are three factors that affect comprehension of informational text. They include factors within the reader, the reader’s environments, and within the text. Another factor is prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is something that plays a role in every subject we teach, not just reading. I have seen this in all my internship classes. The chapter goes on to talk about the structure of informational texts and how to analyze these texts. On page 230 they discuss the expository texts and ways to assist in teaching ELL students. They mention graphic organizers, which I use a lot in my guided reading. My focus is comprehension, and I have found the students do better when there is a graphic organizer used in the lesson. The text also discusses assessments and the different options for informal and formal assessments. My favorite part of all the chapters we have been reading lately is the activity section. I love all the different ideas they give and the fact that they reach a variety of different learners.
Julia, I completely agree that utilizing a graphic organizer is a great tool in emphasizing comprehension, especially when it comes to organizational texts. Informative/Expository text are different than narrative text, however they play a key role in teaching and broadening the background of students. Personally, I feel that informative texts are key and great tools in building background knowledge for students.
This chapter focused on informational text and how they appeal (or don’t appeal) to young readers. Informational texts can pose a challenge for a number of young readers, especially struggling readers. Typically informational texts have a more subject specific vocabulary and often times may require previous background knowledge to fully comprehend the text. Therefore, informational texts can often times be extremely challenging for students, especially with regards to comprehension. Just like any other type of text background knowledge and personal experiences play a key role in comprehension. However, because informational text are specific to a subject, they play an even more important role. Student interest is another important factor to consider when selecting informational texts.
Attitude and student interest are two other important factors to consider and recognize when evaluating informative texts. Students with a poor attitude and little interest in a given subject or informative text, most likely will not be successful with regards to the text. However, students with a positive attitude and a given interest in a text, are much more likely in reading and comprehending the text. This was something that came to life in my tutoring sections. With a boy and a girl in my tutoring group, there interests were extremely different and being that they were kindergarten students their attention and patience challenging as well. Therefore, it became quite clear early on that I had to select texts that students had interest in, one example of selecting informative texts for these students was I selected informative books about the places they were visiting over spring break. Those students that are initially interested and excited about a specific informational text are more likely to engage,
This chapter also looks in-depth at expository text and the eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository text are sequencing, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. When selecting texts, it’s imperative to select text at the reader’s instructional level/ability level, so that the focus is on comprehension, rather than phonics and word recognition.
I think that attitude and student interest are probably the two most important factors in the classroom. I think that a student's interest should be taken into consideration as much as possible. I think that if you can find something that the excites the child, then half of your work is already done. It is so easy to just teach what is in the book or lesson plan and not make it personal for any children, but that is what is different between a normal teacher and a great teacher!
Margaret, I agree with you that attitude and interest can strongly affect whether a student likes an informational text or not. Some students read informational texts a lot because they are really interested in a subject. Other students only read them if they have to for class. Sometimes I think that students do not realize the variety of information out there in informational texts. One time when I was subbing for the librarian, a group of students said they had never been to the nonfiction section and had no idea what books may be over there. It is hard when working with a group of students and their interests are different like in your tutoring. I hope when we have a classroom of twenty five students that if we change topics and books throughout the year that all students find something that interests them.
I know that many adults and students possibly find that informative text is boring and dry and just filled with facts. I believe that it is first important to inform the student of why it is important that we read and learn from the chosen text. I also believe that if we as educators present the text in a possitive and exciting way that students will be more excited about learning from what they read. I also think that it is important to activate prior knowledge for students as well as presenting them with real life situations where this subject would matter to them. The book also gives a lot of wonderful tools to use when teaching informative text. I know that when I was doing my science internship and I was introducing students to levers, pullies, pedulums that they looked at the raw information about it and kinda glazed over. I stopped what we were doing and I asked questions to activate prior knowledge and also gave them examples that were relevant to them and the point they were at in their lives and it really made a difference. They were then able to understand why the experiment was important as well as understanding what they could take away from it and use later in their life and education.
I agree so much with this statement. If we, as educators, are excited about the information we are presenting, then the excitment will pass onto the kids. Also, if we coorelate what we are reading to the students' prior knowledge, they will also take more interest.
Chapter 9 is titled Comprehension of Informational Text. The chapter began with a good portion abotu the factors affectign the comprehension process. There were many factors taht were covered with the reader, but one that I did not really think about before were factors within the reader's environment, at home, in the community, and in school. The chapter then went in to factors within the text. It covered things like listing, comparison/ contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuassion. The chapter then covered cloze and maze procedures, formal assessments, and informal assessments. Like all the other chapters, this one closed with many activities we could use in our classrooms. I like the graphic organizer: proble/solutin. The activity showed the dust bowl and laid out the cause and effect in a way that students woulc clearly understand. I really like graphic organizers and think they are so helpful in class.
In ed pysch this week, we had to take notes with graphic organizers. I don't think I had ever done that before. If I were told which ones would work best for each little video, it would have helped. Once, I knew the direction.. I did like it. I am glad I got the experience before I instructed my students to use them.
Informational text is becoming increasingly important for students to comprehend. With the new changes in standards, there is a new emphasis on informational text within reading. In order to better prepare students for the real world, they need to have the skills that are listed under skilled readers in figure 9.1 on page 219. They need to know how to access the information that they need from books, databases, and the internet, for example.
I found the environmental factors of home, community, and school and their affect on readers interesting. I have seen these affects on my tutoring students. I have used informational texts with them throughout the tutoring sessions and one of the books was a biography on Cesar Chavez. The students were engaged in the lessons, but were not as excited as they had been during the previous book. Then on March 31, Google had a special tribute to Cesar Chavez and one of my students and her mom spent quite a bit of time taking a quiz on him and learning other items about him on the internet. From then on, that student was excited and always had something to add to the lesson from what she had learned. The experience really showed me how much home and school can influence each other and make a huge difference in background knowledge and success in learning.
I also used many of the organizational structures of the expository text listed in the book to teach my tutoring lessons. During the Cesar Chavez book, the students learned about the chronology of his life, cause and effect, and problem and solution. The lessons helped the students understand why he started a farm worker union. They were also able to compare and contrast nonviolent and violent methods of protesting. During a book on rocks, students were able to list, classify, and also use comparing and contrasting skills to learn about the topic. These are all important skills that students use while reading informational text so that they comprehend the material.
I also used the activities like the graphic organizers and the KWL chart from the back of the chapter when working with the students. By using these tools, the students have a visual representation of the information and a way of grouping and analyzing the information. As the authors stated in the chapter, reading informational text requires the ability to synthesize information in order to learn about and comprehend a topic. Students need to be taught how to use all these skills with informational texts so that they learn how to effectively develop the skill of synthesizing information.
I agree with you that informational text is becoming more important. We just adopted a new basal reading series and it has a lot of informational text. In fact, I think it's 50/50. There is so much we can do with informational text in terms of graphic organizers etc..
Informational text is becoming so important and is now a prominent part of our reading program. Our district adopted LEAD 21 this year and it has a 50/50 split of narrative and informative text. my students love the informative text. Right now, they are creating power point presentations to accompany their reading. It is amazing to see what my second graders can create using the information from their non fiction reading. I think the vocabulary development and text features that are taught with informative text are real life skills that were often overlooked before our switch to common core.
I have also seen informational text more, and the students seem to enjoy it. They make the information relate to the students and they are able to understand it.
Informational text can be hard for students to comprehend. The vocabulary is more extensive, and some students loose interest in this form of reading because it does not appeal to them. That is how I felt growing up, I did not like informative text. In the schools now, I see a lot of informational text that students are excited to read because it is on their level.
With technology emerging, there are different programs and ideas students do to better understand informational text and be able to remember the information. During tutoring I made sure to have informational text, and the students enjoyed it and liked learning the information.
I liked the different ideas for organizational structure that would help a student with expository text.
There was a section in this chapter that discussed two different towns that would help/not help a student. It came down to a good library. Our town just shut down the library. The town voted, and closed it down. I was shocked. The teachers were shocked. There is no public library in our town. It is crazy.
I also really like the idea of drawing in personal experience. I think that helps a student really connect with the story.
One of the activities was a read-aloud. I once worked in a fifth grade classroom that still did daily read alouds, and the kids loved it.
There were many different graphic oragnizers that were listed. I loved seeing the examples, and understanding how they would all work.
I loved the different options for graphic organizers at the end of this chapter, I can see how each of them would be beneficial. I love read alouds and plan on teaching 5/6th graders and I will most definitely do read alouds!!
This chapter shows us some ways on how to introduce assessments and reading strategies that will help students comprehend expository text. We learn that it is our job as educators to use these tools regularly to help readers based on their different assessment levels and results.
We learn that reflective teachers must also analyze which strategies work best for each student. This is something that I think is extremely important. I think we should always be trying new strategies in our classroom to find what works best for every student in our class. It is important to find strategies that work both on a personal level for each students and strategies that work to improve the learning in your entire class.
I always like the different activities and resources that this book offers at the end of each chapter, I love all of the tools that this chapter offers us.
Informational texts can be difficult for any student to comprehend. I believe this is because they are usually "boring" books with a lot of information to remember. Comprehension of such texts is bound to improve when the book is at an appropriate reading level, looks appealing, and isn't overwhelming to the student. I'd like to add to this list, that sometimes time is a factor. Many students don't have the available memory to dedicate to a complex book that only yields convergent thinking. By reading only a small section a day, or possible re-reading the text over multiple days, gives the students time to digest and analyze what they are reading. When introducing a new topic to me, that is what I need - to step away and return to the information repeatedly. Showing the information in different ways would also help - such as reading multiple books on the subject or completing a small project. Anything that ties what is being read to a concrete experience or even other vicarious experiences is a good thing!
ReplyDeleteYou are right - reading informational texts is often boring for students! So I liked the ides that were given here to help us find ways to make it more interesting and exciting for students. I liked the idea of using trade books to help get the same information across to students. I also appreciated the mention of struggling students. Dyslexic students have immense trouble with reading their textbooks. Why not find a book (even a trade book) on a lower reading level that has the same information in it, and allow the student to read that? It would give them the information they need, yet keep them reading and not make them frustrated.
DeleteSara, I agree with the types of books and the difficulty of learning from these types of text that you discussed. I also feel that in today's world we have so many other avenues to be able to teach informational text, which is a huge plus. I remember having to read the books, basically memorize the information long enough to take the test and then the concept was lost to me. Today, with digital tools and collaboration within the classroom, I feel that we have so many ways that we can assist the students that we are going to have more success then our predecessors. We get to think out of the box and find avenues that will help our students by using their prior knowledge and hands-on experiences to give them the depth of understanding they need to be successful. I can't wait!
DeleteSaying that informational texts is often boring to students is correct. Sometimes as a teacher you do not have any choice what text you have available. I think that having them read and re-read the text would be a great way to have them gain a deeper understanding, but I just worry that this might bore the students further and thus turning them completely off of the text and causing them to disrupt the rest of the class.
DeleteWhile I agree that the book's structure may not be inspiring, I believe the strategies presented in chapter 9 can make a world of a difference for our students to not find the text "boring." I've always been told that boring people find things boring. If we can use pre-reading strategies to engage our students and help them decipher difficult vocabulary, and make it fun, than the stigma associated with expository texts may be eliminated,at least in our classrooms. Not all students are going to find the information interesting, but if we can use multiple strategies to deliver the content, we may be able to develop an interest where currently one does not exist. By using things like read alouds, think alouds, K W L charts, graphic organizers, tactile devices, realia, and other strategies, students may not have a deep desire for the topic, but I feel they will at least be engaged in the topic, enough for learning and productiveness to be evident.
DeleteI agree with you that informative text can sometimes be boring but it is our jobs as educators to add extension to the text so that students can retain the information by relating it to real world learning and past content knowledge. The book does provide a great variety of activities presented in this chapter that are great tools too. I believe it is important to present the new text with enthusiasm as well as letting the students know why it is important that they learn about the subject.
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DeleteThis chapter talked about comprehending and teaching expository, or informational, texts. It was interesting to read that of the three factors affecting comprehension, the home affects it the most. The environment, and the school were the other two factors. Expository texts have a variety of organizational structures: chronology or sequence, description, listing, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. It was suggested to use informational texts as read alouds, as they are great ways to teach the students information about a topic and allows for questions and discussions to aid in the comprehending of the text. For these texts, the authors gave ideas for ESOL students in acting out words, putting them into small groups, using graphic organizers, and letting them role play in order to help them understand.
ReplyDeleteI found this chapter a little harder to get excited about because it seems a little more complex than working with narrative text. Yet, at the same time, I see great potential in the ideas listed. They had some wonderful graphic organizers, and I can see where using these would be helpful for students to write down and organize their thoughts about what they just read, making it stick with them better and longer. I also wrote down the National Geographic site for kids, as I think this is the same site Mrs. Stoppel has referred to in the lectures. What a fabulous way to present factual information to students in a way that is exciting and interesting! I am hoping to incorporate this site into my last lesson plans in order to integrate expository text, but also technology. I have three boys in my group, and this is something I think they would find personally interesting, and then as Mrs. Stoppel suggested, we could also do some writing about it.
Jenny,
DeleteI really like the idea of using fun informational texts during read alouds. It is a great way to excite the students and get them interested in the content. I was impressed by how much information was given about ELL's in the chapter. This is an area I am always interested to learn more about since I am seeing more and more of these students in our classrooms. I watched a video on accommodating English Language Learners just the other day and it is incredible how fast that population is growing. I love to use graphic organizers and am always glad to see some new ideas for them. What a great idea to use that site in your lessons, I am sure your students will love it! Kara
I too liked the National Geographic site for kids and feel that technology is something that take a normal expository text and make it interesting. Online texts will give more features and benefits such as graphic tools, images, games and more to make the content more interesting and fun. I feel that anytime we can incorporate technology into our lesson, the kids are going to enjoy it more. I too like the graphic organizers and those are always a great tool.
DeleteSomething I learned about in another class was creating a Jeopardy type of smart board game. I had created one and the kids really enjoyed. It would be a wonderful way to help the students comprehend what they have read as well as creating interest in learning the information if prizes were awarded. They wouldn't have to be big prizes, anything would do, including a certificate of award!
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DeleteChapter 9 discusses comprehension of informational text. I have been learning about this via the recorded sessions for this class but was very excited to gain more knowledge about this subject. This seems to be one area that is not covered in depth in the other classes I have taken. I like that the scenario at the beginning of the chapter covers how ELL’s are affected by testing. The 3 factors that affect the comprehension process are: within the reader, within reader’s environment and within the text. The same basic reading skills are needed for comprehension of all text. These have been covered in previous chapters. Something this chapter covers that I have thought a lot about this semester is how some students lack the background knowledge and experiences that enhance comprehension. As a future educator I must remember that not all students have been afforded the luxury of experiences in life that allow them to develop a broader view of the world. So much knowledge that many of us take for granite these children have never had the opportunity to learn about or experience. This chapter discusses the importance of teachers counteracting negative attitudes and giving students the opportunity to succeed. I have thought in depth about how the child’s home affects their learning but had not though a lot about how much the community affects their learning also. The author states that the most important aspect of school is the teachers. For some children their teacher is the only positive influence they may encounter on a daily basis. This chapter also discusses the different organizational structure of expository text. The recording for this week had some information about many of the features of textbooks. These features should be useful to readers and enhance their learning. I really like some of the electronic text features mentioned in this chapter. It would make comprehension easier for many students if they could just click on the unknown words for definitions. I think the instructional recommendations give us a good guideline to follow when working with ELL’s. I also like the discussion questions for literacy focus that are recommended for after reading expository texts. They lead the discussion in a direction I had not thought about. There are some neat strategies and activities given in this chapter that I look forward to using. I have had the opportunity to use several of the ideas listed including the textmasters which was fun and worked very well with the group I was working with. One I would like to try is the collaborative approach.
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 is more comprehension strategies, but this time for informational text. There are so many factors that assist a reader to comprehend all types of text, including their ability to recognize sight words, decode unknown words, reading fluency and their ability to connect prior knowledge to what they are reading. When reading informational text the student also needs to possess background knowledge on the topic they are reading, recognize specific terminology for that topic, analyze the authors purpose, and understand organizational patterns for expository writing to be successful in comprehending what they are reading. I really liked the hands-on activity listed on page 239 to help bring the knowledge to the struggling reader. Science experiments, crafts, and math games is a great way for the student to red and compute the information to a useful activity through trial and error. I also like the vast number of graphic organizers that are readily available for you to utilize in all instruction. This way the students can utilize ways to put the information in chronological order, complete a compare and contrast, put in definitions and descriptions, classifications or persuasive information for them to understand the items by seeing them visually. The book stated that struggling readers are most often tactile and kinesthetic learners. By utilizing these strategies will be beneficial to their reading comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree, this chapter has some great ideas and activities. The hands on acivities is a great way for any learning in building background and understanding expository concepts. The graphic organizer examples were great for expanding ways in which we can use them to help all students.
DeleteReading informational text, like you said, is not just textbooks but recipes, directions, and experiment information. I'm guessing that the average adult reads more informational text on a daily basis than narrative. I think a great activity to stress this, is doing a collage of advertising and have students read them. I know I see lots of stop smoking advertising, directions for how to find a local business, etc. This would be another way to show students the importance of reading in "real life."
DeleteInformational texts are often found as “boring” by students. I agree with our book, if you link the information they are learning to something they already have prior experience with they might be more likely to be interested in the text when you introduce it. If your students do not all have prior experience with the topic, as the teacher you need to find some fun facts about the subject that they might not know, or maybe pull up something online that they can see and will make them interested in the book. I think that the graphic organizers that are found in the activity section are great tools that you can use to keep the students interested in the text. If they know what they need to learn they will learn it so they can finish reading the “boring” text
ReplyDeleteI think you touched on the most important aspect of informational texts. Finding something interesting that correlates with the information. We have to figure out a way to make learning fun, even when it is boring. We live in a society where you can find just about anything on the internet, and no matter how uninterested a student may be in a subject, I would bet we could find something online that will make a student say "cool".
DeleteInformational text is boring for most students. I think for the most part we can find some kind of connection to the kids to get them interested in it. Like the reading passages on state assessments - the kids just hate them. They view them as pointless and boring and because it's a state test, I can't make any connections for them prior to reading so by modeling that connection process all along, hopefully they will be able to make their own connections when having to read those passages for state assessments.
DeleteAgain, I found this chapter very informative along with chapter 8 because my tutoring class content focus is comprehension. I enjoyed reading this chapter because I, like many others, found expository texts to be boring in the past. The section on "Factors affecting the comprehension process" really shed some light about why students do or don't comprehend. This section described three areas: Factors within the reader such as prior knowledge and their interests, Factors within the reader's environment which is the home, community, and the school, and factors within the text. Expository texts are set up different than narrative texts and in that there aren't necessarily settings, plot, characters, etc. Most of these texts have organizational structures to them such as chronological order/sequence, problem/solution, description, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and many more. If readers can't identify with a certain structure, than they may struggle to comprehend the passage. Other factors that affect comprehension of narrative and expository text include: word analysis,decoding skills, fluency, ability to visualize/predict/summarize/infer/and connect prior knowledge to text, among others. I found many of the assessments to be similar to what we would use for narrative passages too. I enjoyed reading the "Active Learning" Vignettes 1 and 2 that showed a few perspectives on how to motivate a student through interests. As always, the text had great intervention ideas that will be great for the classroom. All of these seem great tools to develop the skills needed for good comprehension. I specifically like graphic organizers, the literature circle idea, using read alouds but also with modeling of think aloud strategies. I think the K W L charts are better suited for expository than for narrative but can be great tools for either. And lastly, I really like the learning logs because it incorporates writing which is directly linked to effective reading.
ReplyDeletemb
DeleteI enjoyed the scenario at the beginning of the chapter, and I liked how the principal was the person who noticed the difference in behavior. The only question I have for this would be with all the cuts in the school districts, I wonder how many people can be hired to help individual situations such as this? I know in the district I work, they are cutting back on Para’s and we need them badly. It is sad when not every child is getting what they need. Comprehension is something upper level students tend to struggle with. Factors that contribute would be having prior knowledge of a situation or event. If a student has not been exposed to a variety of situations and/or places, they may struggle with the informational text being taught. Those who have background knowledge will become interested and want to participate. All year, we have been telling our reading students the number one thing to have to pass the State Assessments is a positive attitude, I can, I will, instead of this is too hard, and who really cares. I was so glad to read it in the text, it makes a huge difference. Home, school, and community are environmental factors students inhabit. Expository text is the type of text our students have struggled with, however the teacher I work with is amazing. She has shown them step by step how to break the text down and work through it. The eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository text are sequencing, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. There are key words that will help students figure out which type of text structure the author used. The text also needs to be at the reader’s ability, or they will spend their time sounding out words and not comprehending. The information needs to be credible. There are several places to get information and many times the information may be different depending on where it was gathered. Students need to be made aware of this and explained why this happens. At the end of the chapter, I thought the graphic organizers 9.14-9.21 were great for any grade level.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about the scenario. I think it is so accurate. I remember when we first moved to the small town we currently live in and a teacher told me how "worldly" my children are and how well they do in class. Our children have been to most of the states (two of them have been to Maui)and we have been to other countries. Even in the classroom now I know that not all students will have the same experiences as my kids so I try to bring the subject to them even if it is with technology.
DeleteInformational texts in my opinion are much more difficult the younger you are, because your sight words are not as advanced as your later years in school. Having said that, the terms are much more difficult the older you get. The text discusses the factors which affect the comprehension process for students. These factors include prior knowledge, interest, and attitude. With prior knowledge students draw this information from previous lessons in school and from home. It is difficult for students to understand what is going on within informational texts if they have no prior knowledge to draw from. We also look at interest and attitude in the same context because if a student is interested in a subject they are more likely to be successful, and the same goes for attitude. When a student has a poor attitude toward a subject, they are less likely to have success. The text went on to explain the structure of expository texts including the sequence, description, listing, classification, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion.
ReplyDeleteThere is a reason that students think that informational texts are boring, it’s because they are. Reading an informational text about informational texts is just as bad. While I agree that the information is valuable for us as future teachers, it doesn’t change the fact that finding fun in informational texts is difficult and we as educators need to find something that is entertaining for our students when working with informational texts.
I would agree that informational text are more difficult when younger, but I think it is good for them to look at the illustrations. A student who has a poor attitude does struggle to succeed that is why as teachers we have to work to make are students have a good attitude towards school. To make informational text not boring and exciting for students I think you have to know your students and their interests so they can read about things they like.
DeleteChapter nine of the text covered comprehension of instructional text. Factors that affect comprehension are within the reader such as prior knowledge and experience and interests and attitudes, within the reader's environment including home, community, and school; within the text. The text also explained the eight organizational structures of expository text, what to look for when analyzing informational texts, instructional recommendations for ESOL, and developing critical literacy skills, along with assessment, intervention, and technology links.
ReplyDeleteThere are many reasons why students are not interested in reading and lack skills, home life is a huge influence on students' attitudes and oral skills. Without reading and having conversations with students outside of school, students will lack in important factors that they need in school, such as prior knowledge, large vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. I like how the text listed all the organizational patterns of expository text with ways to help readers identify them, a script to teach those patterns. While reading the text, it stressed the importance of hands on activities. I think this is very important to do with students in helping to build the background knowledge for all students on informational topics. Even if a student is not a kinesthetic learner, I feel it would benefit all types of learners to have those visual, hands on experiences. The experience could also help build student interest on the topic prior to reading.
Like always, this chapter will be a great resource for teaching this information to students, as this is included in standards. The internet links will be helpful for future lessons. One idea under the assessments that I will definitely use is the Talking Drawings where students will be given a topic to draw about and then share what they know before reading about the topic, and then modify or draw a new picture of what they know now that they will share again.
Building background knowledge is important, good point. It's definitely necessary to continue building is as the student's progress from grade to grade. So many things, even outside of reading, relate back to a student's background knowledge! Good information!
DeleteSamantha,
DeleteBy now we know that building the background knowledge is so significant in a student's reading progress. Personally, this is something I've read about in several texts and heard instructors discuss in multiple education courses. It definitely impacts the comprehension area. A reader's prior knowledge can provide a very beneficial connection or lack thereof. We are going to have students with limited background knowledge, so providing a variety of expository/informational material is essential to our students. Technology, through the Internet, can certainly compliment informational text that we present to our students.
Chapter 9 covers informational text and three distinct sources that affect the comprehension process of informational text. These sources are: factors within the reader, factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. There are many skills necessary to comprehend all types of text but to comprehend informational text you also need some of the following: knowledge of organizational patterns of expository text, ability to analyze the author's purpose and credentials, and adequate background knowledge of the topic being read. Life experiences like trips to the park or zoo help give them a broader view of the world they live in. The knowledge that they gain from these experiences help aid reading comprehension. Out of the three environments that the students inhabit themselves in the home most affects reading comprehension and provides the attitude that helps build good readers. The most important aspect of the school is the teacher who can model a love of reading, and expect all students to succeed. When selecting informational text a teacher should consider quality literature, accurate information, define technical terms, and feature illustrations that complement the text. Also the text needs to be age appropriate and the students comprehension level.
ReplyDeleteOne question that I had from reading this text was about the readers environment. What if a student has a poor structured home and doesn't get the help with reading he needs, then what becomes the most important factor for a child?
I look the the issue of informational text as an important one and think that students need to read these texts or even look at pictures. I think that they are great for helping students know about the world they live in because not all students get to experience things outside their home.
In my own experience I can remember always checking out books about animals and writing papers over them. I also work with many kids who like to check out informational text so they can look at illustrations. I think this is good for them because I do think it helps them learn factual information.
I have also seen a lot of students checking out these types of books as well. They do like to look at the pictures and learn about these different topics. I have always found it entertaining when one of them will run over to tell you about a certain animal or whatever topic they are reading about at that time and how much it excited them. Of course not all students are like this, I wasn't one, but I wish I could be as excited as they are for some of these topics.
DeleteThere are always individual factors that can affect a reader: prior knowledge, interests and attitudes, their environment (home, community, school), and factors within the text itself. Expository texts are structured in way that require students to develop new schema to process the information. Key words can help readers interpret the text. Graphic organizer can also assist with comprehension. Chronological texts structure events in a logical order but descriptive text is where the author explains an event or object and can be detailed in a way that almost paints a picture with it’s description. Compare/contrast texts explain an event as related to another and direct the reader to focus on similarities or differences. Cause/effect are usually scientific so the reader really has to picture what the author is describing and some students have difficulty doing this but there are signal words that help the reader understand the relationship between the cause and effect. I have seen the difficulty students have with cause and effect relationships with the students I work with. They have a hard time seeing or determining the relationship in these texts. Problem/solution it is helpful to list all of the problems that occurred in a text and then move onto the solution, which is what helped fix those problems. If they can picture it in this way, they will be more successful in identifying this type of text. The book provides instructional recommendations for teaching ELLs how to navigate informational texts. One way is for them to receive small group instruction where they can build and extend their vocabulary, listening and comprehension. These texts can be assessed in various ways. Informal assessments include reading inventories, rubrics, running records, miscue analysis, cloze/maze procedures, and vocab assessment. Formal assessments include norm and criterion referenced tests, critical literacy assessments. Again, there are strategies and activities provided in the book. I wish I could use some of these in the re-teach portion of our lesson plans because I think they would be good opportunities for reteach or even enrichment. Read alouds was one of the activities listed so we already do that and I feel that is so important for teaching fluency so they can hear how good reading should sound. Some of the activities are listed in 99 Ideas too: KWL and think alouds. I originally just rented this book but I think I’m going to go ahead and buy it because it is so full of stuff I know I will use as a teacher.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many strategies to use in this chapter. I wish there was a way we could have read it before we taught (for those of us whose focus is comprehension).
DeleteI agree that there were numerous strategies within this chapter that would be exceptionally helpful during tutoring sessions if doing comprehension! I loved that the ending of this chapter provided so many graphic organizers and activities, one for basically each of the specific organizations of expository texts! Definitely great information to note and use for future reference!
DeleteChapter nine gives a look at the importance of comprehension of informational text. It tells us some of the factors affecting comprehension come from the reader’s prior knowledge, interests, attitudes, home, community, school, and text. This chapter also tells us the structure of expository text. This helps the student understand this type of text. Some examples of the organizational structures are sequence, enumeration, listing, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, and problem/ solution just to name a few. The chapter gives a variety of assessments to test the comprehension level of the individual student. The strategies within this chapter will be especially helpful.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have any questions regarding this chapter.
The chapter allowed me to see that I can help students comprehend informational texts. I have wondered in the past how I was going to be able to do this but the chapter outlined everything very well for me.
In my experience, this type of text is difficult to teach the students. Finding the type of books to interest students and also the way to teach it is important. I have looked at these chapters while flipping through the text to find strategies but after reading it I wish I had read it earlier so I could use more of the strategies. I hope to use these in my classroom.
My daughter has checked out many informational texts from the library this year. I found out that it was because most of the books that are pulled out in their school library for AR choices are actually expository texts. I don't know that she really enjoys them but she doesn't really seem to complain about them either. I also found this chapter to be very informative. There is a lot of information for sure.
DeleteI will openly admit that I do not enjoy most informational text. I have to be very interested in the topic or I really struggle with reading these types of passages and books. That being said, I also don't have very many informational books in my own personal library. I have hundreds of books, but only a handful are informational. I really need to add some to my collection. I find that reading informational text to be too similar to a text book. I have to say that as I gain more experience I have found many new ways to use them in my teaching though. I think it is really important for students to learn about text structures and that they develop the skill necessary for successful research using books, not just the internet. This chapter was jammed packed with information. I almost felt like I was on information overload. I think that one of the most helpful sections was that of the graphic organizers. There were a couple there that I have never seen before so it was nice to see something new, especially since graphic organizers are so popular these days.
ReplyDeletemb
DeleteChapter 9 focused on the comprehension of informational texts. I was anxious to read this chapter because I always felt as a child that textbooks were much more difficult to comprehend than a chosen library book. Some of that I always just believed was if I actually liked the subject content or not - however, I now know there are numerous aspects that play a role in the comprehension of books such as these.
ReplyDeleteThe beginning of the chapter discussed the factors that play a role in comprehending informational texts. This was very interesting to me because of the reason mentioned above. It started out discussing the three distinct sources which include factors within the reader, factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. The first section, factors within the reader related to one's prior knowledge and experience which makes perfect sense. This includes all of one's experiences thus far in their life, thus making the relationships they can draw within an informational text more likely to be understood if relative. It also talked about interests and attitudes which helped me to better understand why it was possibly much more difficult for me to read informational texts in school. Possibly because I wasn't interested in the specific species of whales that were breeding in a specific part of the ocean, or I wasn't concerned with how our country became our country. As I grew up, I certainly realized the vast amount of importance in all subjects; however, as a young child - it made these informational texts much more difficult to understand because I wasn't interested. There was no focus for me. Factors within the environment relate to the community I learned. The way a community impacts its children - clearly has a relationship to what students become interested in thus leading them to the comprehension of these educational and informational topics.
The middle of the chapter discussed the organization of expository texts. This section was also interesting to me because there was a lot of organizational strategies that I knew of but wasn't aware were considered "Organization of expository texts." For example, the text talked about compare and contrast, problem and solution, cause and effect, persuasion, etc. which to me were just all types of writing. I never viewed it as the organization of a book. I liked that towards the end of the chapter they discussed writing because all of the components in reading and writing do go together in some way! As always, I love the activities at the end of the chapter before the intervention discussion. The book provided activities and graphic organizers for nearly each type of organization of expository texts which would be exceptionally helpful in the future while planning. Great chapter!!
Ladonna-
DeleteGreat post. I also agree that I wasn't interested in too many informal text as well. I just couldn't get my brain wrapped around the information. It just felt like a textbook to me. I guess if I found a topic I was interested in, it might not be so bad.
Chapter nine continues with comprehension, but this time it is about comprehension of informational texts. I was very surprised to read in this chapter about the different factors within the reader that are considered basic skills that you need to have in order to comprehend all different kinds of texts. There is also the part about a students prior knowledge and experience that is needed for students to comprehend these types of texts. The final one was the students interests and attitudes towards what they are reading. This one kind of hits home for me. I love reading, but not informational texts. I'm sure if I were to find a topic that would interest me I would be able to read them, but I tend to view these types of texts like a text book from school and my mind shuts off. This chapter also mentioned the factors in the student's environment that can affect their comprehension. These include their home, the community, and their school. Each of these places can have a different meaning to the students and effect their learning. This chapter provides a lot of different figures that contain a lot of great information. One in particular that I enjoyed reading through was the "characteristics of skilled and unskilled readers of information texts", each of these columns contain a lot of information that would help a teacher understand the different factors that contribute to each student and their comprehension and learning styles for this particular text.
ReplyDeleteMegan-
DeleteI also love to read, but when it comes to informal text I am like you I see them as textbooks and shut my mind off. I also think that if I found a topic that I am interested in I would enjoy it better. My son, he is the total opposite. He loves to read, but he loves to read all types of books. His favorite are the non-fiction books. He brings home at least 2 non-fiction books home a week from school. He always is finding new things to learn about. I wish I was more like him, because I only like to read pleasure books!
I think the trick of being a great teacher is being able to find those things that students are not interested in and getting them interested in it. They may not find the topic of Presidents interesting for example, but if you come up with a great way to teach taht topic, then you may be able to engage all the students and jump start that interest. I think it is our job to figure out ways to entice all the students and get them excited about whatever the topic is. If we do not, then why are we there? Anybody can simply read out of the books.
Deletethanks,
Julie Copeland
Chapter nine goes in more depth with Comprehension. It's main focus was on informal and expository texts. I personally don't like informal texts. It just feels like another textbook to me and I shut my brain off. My son is one who likes both informal and expository texts. But his favorite are the informal texts. He is always wanting new books so he can learn. Each week he brings home at least 2 non-fiction books. This week it was presidents and dinosaurs. I think if I would find a topic that I am interested in I would maybe consider reading them more.
ReplyDeleteI am the same way; I really don’t love reading information texts personally. They are really hard to get through at times, especially if you just aren’t very interested in the topic being discussed. I also thing that you are right on with the fact that finding a topic you are interested in will help you open your mind to reading more expository texts. I have found that I don’t care for books, per say, but I love reading articles. Reading about articles on crime and motives, is absolutely fascinating to me. I always tried really hard to be interested in informational texts, but it didn’t work until I discovered the articles that grab my attention.
DeleteI also am not a big fan of informational texts. For me, they are hard to get through unless it is information about something that I really want to know about. This chapter was really helpful for me in seeing how I can teach informational texts and the different graphic organizers that I can have go with it.
DeleteThanks for sharing!
Informational texts can be very interesting however; on the other hand, we can pass out from utter boredom. But I really, like this chapters idea's on activities for before the reading, during, and after the reading, such as graphic organizers. When I saw this, my first thought was, students do not like these. I always hear a lot of groans and moans when graphic organizers are mentioned. However, as I looked closer I saw some really cool ideas. The author tells us that the graphic organizers (or maps as we call them here) "can be used as a pre-reading strategy to see what a student already knows about the topic. During reading, the information can be filled in as the reader learns new facts. After reading, the child can use it for recalling the information." (Pg 242) She also states that the graphic organizers should not be cluttered. If the student is left to draw the organizers themselves, you will probably see a totally cluttered mess that no one can understand let alone, read.
ReplyDeleteI have found a few web sites that you can print off blank organizers of various types and with these, the students have an organized way to organize their information. (No pun intended)
I really like introducing the text through activities like these, especially in the younger grades. For so many years, we simply dug right into the textbook and were then expected to know the information. I was terrible at that when I was in school and actually failed history a number of times because I could not memorize names and dates!
One of the teachers in the school I am at lectures, lectures, lectures, and then told to make 16 gazillion graphic organizers, and if you finish them all, you can use them on the test, tomorrow. Ahh, visions of yester-year (Yawn~)
Chapter 9 is about the comprehension of informational texts can be hard for anyone to comprehend because the vocabulary can be very difficult to understand. As the chapter said there are three sources that affect the reader: factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. As it is with any type of text the more prior knowledge about a subject a person has the more they will be able to connect to the reading and be able to comprehend what is being talked about. This chapter also outlined English Linguae learners and expository texts. This section was really helpful, as this was a question that I had before I started reading this chapter. It also gave ways that you can assess the comprehension of expository tests, which was quite extensive with the amount there is. At the end it gave some activities that were really interesting and could become very useful since this is something that a lot of students struggle with.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was interesting that eye appeal is one way that students analyze informational texts. I still catch myself to this day doing the same thing. It is really amazing how an opinion can be formed so rapidly just by looking at the physical features of the book or passage. As I read through the different ways that an expository text can be organized and structured it made me realize why his can be so confusing for some students. There are so many ways it can be outline that it is hard to get use to the structure of it to be comfortable when reading the text. Though some seem easier than others I can see how it would be hard to make the association for some students.
I used some National geographic young explorer magazines that were virtual with my students in my tutoring sessions. The part on electronic text features was very familiar to me because of this. This was one of my favorite things for my students to read as well as listen to. They liked being able to click on things to find out what they are rather than me just telling them. it was almost like a scavenger hunt to discover new things, which was a lot of fun.
I too am a reader by eye appeal! If a book looks boring, I will put it right back on the shelf, but if the cover looks interesting and maybe even a little fascinating, I'll pick it up and read the summary of the book. Then I will make my judgement from there. If I try and read a book I thought looked boring by the cover, I usually have really hard time focusing on the book and usually don't get very far in it before I give up.
DeleteThis chapter of our DeVries text elaborates on the comprehension of informational text. There are numerous factors that affect a reader's comprehension, such as ability to connect prior knowledge to the reading, ability to summarize, ability to decode words accurately, among other factors. Personal experiences and attitudes, as well as knowledge of the topic in the informational text play a role in comprehension. The environment of the reader affects comprehension, as well, especially one's home environment. Unfortunately, we will have numerous children in our classrooms who have not been read to by their parents, and they have not had exposure to a library or access to materials which would expand their reading skills and knowledge of the world. Another challenge in the classroom associated with informational text is its organizational structure, which is different than the narrative structure. The organizational patterns used in expository text are sequence, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. Graphic organizers can help with these challenges, along with knowing key words that are used. This chapter also provides some guidelines to teachers in choosing informational text. We also read how critical literacy is equally important with expository texts, just as with narratives.
ReplyDeleteSomething I definitely drew from this chapter was the significance of prior knowledge to comprehension. As a parent myself and as a student, I've learned through the years how vital it is for parents to read to their children and introduce them to the world through literature. Some parents will not have had the resources or knowledge to do this, which will affect some of our students' capabilities in the classroom with their reading skills. We will have to draw from these tools and strategies within this chapter and others to provide the background knowledge they may not have had and provide an example of strong interest and love of literature.
The focus of my tutoring sessions has been comprehension. I have used several graphic organizers with the students to work on comprehension, we've used predictions frequently, and I do feel like I have made a concerted effort to draw on their prior knowledge. What a challenge it will be for a full school year with 20+ students though!
My unit focus is comprehension as well. I also use a lot of graphic organizers during tutoring. Both of my students have been identified and take medication for ADHD. I have found that when we use the graphic organizers they are able to focus better on what they are doing.
DeleteThe chapter starts out by introducing us to the three factors that affect a reader. Those are factors within the reader, within their environment, and factors within a text. When it comes to the factors within a reader, they can range from if the reader is able to recognize sight words to whether or not they can summarize what they read. Factors within the environment include a child's life at home, the type of community they live in, and their school. One thing that really caught my attention in this section of the chapter was the quality of libraries within a town or city. See, I grew up in two different small towns. The town that I lived in until I was about 12 years old was very small town with a very good library system. I'm talking about a library who had tons of books, movies, newspapers, computers, story time, after school programs, and summertime activities. To be honest, that library played a major role in my childhood. Then when I moved to the second town we lived in where I graduated high school from, their library had books, a few movies, and a couple computers. I think there were story times here and there, but never really that constant. I hardly ever stepped foot into that library. Now after reading this chapter, I can see just how much libraries do make a difference. The town I lived in until I was twelve had schools where children were not struggling to meet the state test standards, while the other town I lived in was. Actually my class was always getting rewards for reaching and doing very well on the tests. I do know that I have to take into consideration that the second town I lived in had a lot more English learners or English as as second language learners, but our community lacked some of the interaction young children need to improve their skills.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the chapter goes on to discuss the different types of organizational structure of expository texts, which I really liked reading about also because I never really noticed before how many different types of structures there actually were. Different ways of a books appeal to students was also discussed in the chapter, from being something digital to making sure the material is also eye catching to students. Which I can definitely relate to the eye catching part. To this day I will hardly even look at a narrative book if it looks boring. I have no desire to read something that doesn't attract my interests, and if I try to I never really get very far with it. So really think it's little things like this us teachers need to take into consideration when we are teaching our students. We have to remember how we have different interests and learning styles, so we have to keep in mind that every single one of our students will also and we need to do everything we can to make sure we give them an equal opportunity to learn.
Your point about libraries is very good. I also grew up in a small town, and we have a great library. It is located in the old train depot, and the Martin and Osa Johnson Museum is also in that building. The library has a lot of programs for children, including a summer reading program with tons of activities planned. Another thing that is important in regard libraries is that they are free. This gives many children opportunities to read books, see movies, play computer games, etc… that their families may not be able to afford otherwise.
DeleteI agree with both of you...I think that public libraries are one of the greatest resources for teachers, parents and students alike. Fortunately, we now live in a community where I am thrilled and take full advantage of the programming, resources and role the library plays in our community. Plus, I think it is key in developing an overall attitude towards reading for my son...hence influencing his own environmental characteristics.
DeleteChapter 9 is a lot like chapter 8, but is about comprehension of informational texts instead of narrative texts. Until I took this class, I did not really understand how or why these would be taught that much differently. This chapter really did help me understand why and how they are so different. There are three factors that affect comprehension of informational text. They include factors within the reader, the reader’s environments, and within the text. Another factor is prior knowledge. Prior knowledge is something that plays a role in every subject we teach, not just reading. I have seen this in all my internship classes. The chapter goes on to talk about the structure of informational texts and how to analyze these texts. On page 230 they discuss the expository texts and ways to assist in teaching ELL students. They mention graphic organizers, which I use a lot in my guided reading. My focus is comprehension, and I have found the students do better when there is a graphic organizer used in the lesson. The text also discusses assessments and the different options for informal and formal assessments. My favorite part of all the chapters we have been reading lately is the activity section. I love all the different ideas they give and the fact that they reach a variety of different learners.
ReplyDeleteJulia, I completely agree that utilizing a graphic organizer is a great tool in emphasizing comprehension, especially when it comes to organizational texts. Informative/Expository text are different than narrative text, however they play a key role in teaching and broadening the background of students. Personally, I feel that informative texts are key and great tools in building background knowledge for students.
Deletemb
DeleteThis chapter focused on informational text and how they appeal (or don’t appeal) to young readers. Informational texts can pose a challenge for a number of young readers, especially struggling readers. Typically informational texts have a more subject specific vocabulary and often times may require previous background knowledge to fully comprehend the text. Therefore, informational texts can often times be extremely challenging for students, especially with regards to comprehension. Just like any other type of text background knowledge and personal experiences play a key role in comprehension. However, because informational text are specific to a subject, they play an even more important role. Student interest is another important factor to consider when selecting informational texts.
ReplyDeleteAttitude and student interest are two other important factors to consider and recognize when evaluating informative texts. Students with a poor attitude and little interest in a given subject or informative text, most likely will not be successful with regards to the text. However, students with a positive attitude and a given interest in a text, are much more likely in reading and comprehending the text. This was something that came to life in my tutoring sections. With a boy and a girl in my tutoring group, there interests were extremely different and being that they were kindergarten students their attention and patience challenging as well. Therefore, it became quite clear early on that I had to select texts that students had interest in, one example of selecting informative texts for these students was I selected informative books about the places they were visiting over spring break. Those students that are initially interested and excited about a specific informational text are more likely to engage,
This chapter also looks in-depth at expository text and the eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository text are sequencing, description, listing, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. When selecting texts, it’s imperative to select text at the reader’s instructional level/ability level, so that the focus is on comprehension, rather than phonics and word recognition.
I think that attitude and student interest are probably the two most important factors in the classroom. I think that a student's interest should be taken into consideration as much as possible. I think that if you can find something that the excites the child, then half of your work is already done. It is so easy to just teach what is in the book or lesson plan and not make it personal for any children, but that is what is different between a normal teacher and a great teacher!
Deletethanks,
Julie Copeland
Margaret,
DeleteI agree with you that attitude and interest can strongly affect whether a student likes an informational text or not. Some students read informational texts a lot because they are really interested in a subject. Other students only read them if they have to for class. Sometimes I think that students do not realize the variety of information out there in informational texts. One time when I was subbing for the librarian, a group of students said they had never been to the nonfiction section and had no idea what books may be over there. It is hard when working with a group of students and their interests are different like in your tutoring. I hope when we have a classroom of twenty five students that if we change topics and books throughout the year that all students find something that interests them.
I know that many adults and students possibly find that informative text is boring and dry and just filled with facts. I believe that it is first important to inform the student of why it is important that we read and learn from the chosen text. I also believe that if we as educators present the text in a possitive and exciting way that students will be more excited about learning from what they read. I also think that it is important to activate prior knowledge for students as well as presenting them with real life situations where this subject would matter to them. The book also gives a lot of wonderful tools to use when teaching informative text. I know that when I was doing my science internship and I was introducing students to levers, pullies, pedulums that they looked at the raw information about it and kinda glazed over. I stopped what we were doing and I asked questions to activate prior knowledge and also gave them examples that were relevant to them and the point they were at in their lives and it really made a difference. They were then able to understand why the experiment was important as well as understanding what they could take away from it and use later in their life and education.
ReplyDeleteI agree so much with this statement. If we, as educators, are excited about the information we are presenting, then the excitment will pass onto the kids. Also, if we coorelate what we are reading to the students' prior knowledge, they will also take more interest.
Deletemb
DeleteChapter 9 is titled Comprehension of Informational Text. The chapter began with a good portion abotu the factors affectign the comprehension process. There were many factors taht were covered with the reader, but one that I did not really think about before were factors within the reader's environment, at home, in the community, and in school. The chapter then went in to factors within the text. It covered things like listing, comparison/ contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuassion. The chapter then covered cloze and maze procedures, formal assessments, and informal assessments. Like all the other chapters, this one closed with many activities we could use in our classrooms. I like the graphic organizer: proble/solutin. The activity showed the dust bowl and laid out the cause and effect in a way that students woulc clearly understand. I really like graphic organizers and think they are so helpful in class.
ReplyDeletethanks,
Julie Copeland
In ed pysch this week, we had to take notes with graphic organizers. I don't think I had ever done that before. If I were told which ones would work best for each little video, it would have helped. Once, I knew the direction.. I did like it. I am glad I got the experience before I instructed my students to use them.
DeleteInformational text is becoming increasingly important for students to comprehend. With the new changes in standards, there is a new emphasis on informational text within reading. In order to better prepare students for the real world, they need to have the skills that are listed under skilled readers in figure 9.1 on page 219. They need to know how to access the information that they need from books, databases, and the internet, for example.
ReplyDeleteI found the environmental factors of home, community, and school and their affect on readers interesting. I have seen these affects on my tutoring students. I have used informational texts with them throughout the tutoring sessions and one of the books was a biography on Cesar Chavez. The students were engaged in the lessons, but were not as excited as they had been during the previous book. Then on March 31, Google had a special tribute to Cesar Chavez and one of my students and her mom spent quite a bit of time taking a quiz on him and learning other items about him on the internet. From then on, that student was excited and always had something to add to the lesson from what she had learned. The experience really showed me how much home and school can influence each other and make a huge difference in background knowledge and success in learning.
I also used many of the organizational structures of the expository text listed in the book to teach my tutoring lessons. During the Cesar Chavez book, the students learned about the chronology of his life, cause and effect, and problem and solution. The lessons helped the students understand why he started a farm worker union. They were also able to compare and contrast nonviolent and violent methods of protesting. During a book on rocks, students were able to list, classify, and also use comparing and contrasting skills to learn about the topic. These are all important skills that students use while reading informational text so that they comprehend the material.
I also used the activities like the graphic organizers and the KWL chart from the back of the chapter when working with the students. By using these tools, the students have a visual representation of the information and a way of grouping and analyzing the information. As the authors stated in the chapter, reading informational text requires the ability to synthesize information in order to learn about and comprehend a topic. Students need to be taught how to use all these skills with informational texts so that they learn how to effectively develop the skill of synthesizing information.
I agree with you that informational text is becoming more important. We just adopted a new basal reading series and it has a lot of informational text. In fact, I think it's 50/50. There is so much we can do with informational text in terms of graphic organizers etc..
Deletemb
DeleteInformational text is becoming so important and is now a prominent part of our reading program. Our district adopted LEAD 21 this year and it has a 50/50 split of narrative and informative text. my students love the informative text. Right now, they are creating power point presentations to accompany their reading. It is amazing to see what my second graders can create using the information from their non fiction reading. I think the vocabulary development and text features that are taught with informative text are real life skills that were often overlooked before our switch to common core.
ReplyDeleteI have also seen informational text more, and the students seem to enjoy it. They make the information relate to the students and they are able to understand it.
Deletemb
DeleteInformational text can be hard for students to comprehend. The vocabulary is more extensive, and some students loose interest in this form of reading because it does not appeal to them. That is how I felt growing up, I did not like informative text. In the schools now, I see a lot of informational text that students are excited to read because it is on their level.
ReplyDeleteWith technology emerging, there are different programs and ideas students do to better understand informational text and be able to remember the information. During tutoring I made sure to have informational text, and the students enjoyed it and liked learning the information.
I liked the different ideas for organizational structure that would help a student with expository text.
ReplyDeleteThere was a section in this chapter that discussed two different towns that would help/not help a student. It came down to a good library. Our town just shut down the library. The town voted, and closed it down. I was shocked. The teachers were shocked. There is no public library in our town. It is crazy.
I also really like the idea of drawing in personal experience. I think that helps a student really connect with the story.
One of the activities was a read-aloud. I once worked in a fifth grade classroom that still did daily read alouds, and the kids loved it.
There were many different graphic oragnizers that were listed. I loved seeing the examples, and understanding how they would all work.
I loved the different options for graphic organizers at the end of this chapter, I can see how each of them would be beneficial. I love read alouds and plan on teaching 5/6th graders and I will most definitely do read alouds!!
DeleteThis chapter shows us some ways on how to introduce assessments and reading strategies that will help students comprehend expository text. We learn that it is our job as educators to use these tools regularly to help readers based on their different assessment levels and results.
ReplyDeleteWe learn that reflective teachers must also analyze which strategies work best for each student. This is something that I think is extremely important. I think we should always be trying new strategies in our classroom to find what works best for every student in our class. It is important to find strategies that work both on a personal level for each students and strategies that work to improve the learning in your entire class.
I always like the different activities and resources that this book offers at the end of each chapter, I love all of the tools that this chapter offers us.