Differentiating Texts for Content Area Teaching

04/21/2013

When I work with teachers all over the country and we discuss the typical readers in their classrooms and they share the following information with me:

More than half of the readers in the class are not at the level we would call “proficient”.

In the non-proficient level, about half of those students are a few years below level and the other half are more than a few years below level.

I have a few students who are above level unless they are in an advanced level class.

I have a handful of students (say 5-6) who are “proficient” readers.

With these staggering numbers, (that are represented by all kinds of school districts: suburban, urban, and rural), meeting the individual needs of a group of diverse readers has never been greater. Middle and high school teachers are especially taxed in meeting these new realities since most have not taken courses in reading and the professional development for the teaching of literacy skills in order to learn and access content has been largely insufficient. The textbook challenge can be summed up as follows:
Textbooks are…

• Often Superficial
• Exceedingly Hard to Read
• Badly Designed
• Authoritarian
• Inaccurate
• Not Written for Students

Many teachers ask me how they can differentiate texts so that they can teach content and develop struggling readers into proficient ones.

Here are some strategies that can be easily implemented:

1. Empathy- Do you remember when you had difficulty in a subject and the text was difficult?
2. Help the students to get started. We need to “front-load” our teaching. Use think alouds, and strategic reading activities. Many of these can be found at www.adlit.org
3. Don’t leave kids alone with their textbooks! Students can work in groups to read and unpack text. Give students roles in the groups (i.e. vocabulary detective, questioner, researcher, or graphic organizer).
4. Choose wisely. Be more selective with textbook reading assignments. Be strategic about what is most important.
5. Supplement richly with materials from other sources: blogs, newspapers, magazines, websites.

Most textbooks are not written at reading levels that are accessible for many of our students and should actually be used as a resource rather than the sole source for content information.

The following are substantial resources for making texts accessible to all readers:

Daniels, H. and Steineke, N. (2011). Texts and lessons for content-area teaching. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Daniels, H. and Zemelman, S. (2004). Subjects matter: Every teacher’s guide to content area reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lattimer, H. (2010). Reading for learning: Using discipline-based texts to build content knowledge. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Tweet

April 2015 : 2 posts
March 2015 : 0 posts
February 2015 : 0 posts
January 2015 : 0 posts
December 2014 : 1 post
November 2014 : 4 posts
October 2014 : 5 posts
April 2015 : 2 posts
March 2015 : 0 posts
February 2015 : 0 posts
January 2015 : 0 posts
December 2014 : 1 post
November 2014 : 4 posts
April 2015 : 2 posts
March 2015 : 0 posts
February 2015 : 0 posts
January 2015 : 0 posts
December 2014 : 1 post
November 2014 : 4 posts
October 2014 : 5 posts
September 2014 : 7 posts
August 2014 : 3 posts
July 2014 : 0 posts
June 2014 : 2 posts
May 2014 : 0 posts
April 2014 : 1 post
March 2014 : 1 post
February 2014 : 0 posts
January 2014 : 2 posts
December 2013 : 0 posts
November 2013 : 6 posts
October 2013 : 0 posts
September 2013 : 1 post
August 2013 : 0 posts
July 2013 : 5 posts
June 2013 : 5 posts
May 2013 : 6 posts
April 2013 : 2 posts
March 2013 : 9 posts
February 2013 : 4 posts
January 2013 : 8 posts
December 2012 : 2 posts
November 2012 : 12 posts
October 2012 : 6 posts
September 2012 : 3 posts
August 2012 : 0 posts
July 2012 : 4 posts
June 2012 : 3 posts
May 2012 : 3 posts
April 2012 : 8 posts
March 2012 : 4 posts
February 2012 : 3 posts
January 2012 : 8 posts
December 2011 : 0 posts
November 2011 : 7 posts
October 2011 : 5 posts
September 2011 : 2 posts
August 2011 : 1 posts
July 2011 : 15 posts
June 2011 : 16 posts
May 2011 : 0 posts
April 2011 : 2 posts
March 2011 : 8 posts
February 2011 : 3 posts
January 2011 : 7 posts
December 2010 : 3 posts
November 2010 : 12 posts
October 2010 : 10 posts
September 2010 : 10 posts
August 2010 : 0 posts