* A Niche for Library Media Specialists: Teaching Students How to Read Informational Texts With all the high-stakes testing required by state mandates and No Child Left Behind (NCLB), improving reading scores is a top priority for many K–12 educators. What is the role of the library media specialist? We teach students how to read informational texts. Recently I was given the opportunity to serve on the Planning Committee for the 2009 revision of the National Assessment of Educational Progress <http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/> in reading, part of “the Nation’s report card.” I helped to draft the test framework and specifications. One of the questions the committee discussed was “Who is responsible for teaching students how to read informational texts at the middle and high school level?” English courses tend to emphasize reading literature. Moreover, teaching students how to read science, social studies, and math belongs in those content area classrooms. But teachers in those fields frequently lack the background in reading instruction to accomplish this task. Here is the perfect niche for library media specialists. We teach skills for reading informational texts as part of the research process, and we do it by collaborating with teachers. How can we build the case that library media specialists teach students how to read informational texts? We need to “talk the talk and walk the walk.” We can n adopt and use the vocabulary of reading specialists, n study the scientifically-based research on reading, and select the best practices in reading to integrate into our instruction. n By Marilyn Z. Joyce With this knowledge, we can design 36 LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION APRIL/MAY 2006 and implement collaborative research units with strong reading components and demonstrate our role in teaching students how to read informational texts. Scientifically-Based Research NCLB legislation calls for using teaching practices supported by scientifically-based research or “research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs” (2001). This is also known as evidencebased research. The Partnership for Education <www.nifl.gov/ partnershipforreading> is an excellent place for accessing publications for teachers and parents on the current, evidence-based research and practice on reading. It is a collaborative effort of the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the U.S. Department of Education. Much of the scientifically-based research on this Web site comes from the findings of the National Reading Panel <www.nationalreadingpanel.org/>, a committee convened by Congress to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches of teaching reading. I highly recommend the readerfriendly pamphlet, Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read <www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/ publications/k-3.html>. Although earmarked for grades K–3, Put Reading First reviews effective areas of reading instruction that apply to a range of grade levels. The five essential areas of instruction are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. Text comprehension has the greatest connection to the research process. Instruction in effective comprehension strategies helps students understand and remember what they read. It contributes to their ability to apply information as they solve problems and make decisions. In the age of high-stakes testing, it also leads to improvement in test scores. Strategies for Reading Informational Texts The scientifically-based research reveals a number of effective strategies for improving reading comprehension. As teachers of information literacy, we already incorporate many of these strategies into our instruction. A review of the research supports our case that we teach students how to read informational texts and gives us a common vocabulary for discussing reading instruction with other educators. The scientifically-based research confirms five major strategies for improving text comprehension: monitoring comprehension, using graphic and semantic organizers, answering and generating questions, recognizing story structure, and summarizing. Integrating these strategies into research-process instruction strengthens students’ reading and information literacy skills. The first strategy, monitoring comprehension, tracks understanding of text. Students who monitor their comprehension are aware of what they understand and do not understand. When they have trouble making meaning of text, they know how to apply a number of “fix-up” strategies. For example, successful readers reread confusing text, consult a dictionary when confronted with an unfamiliar word, and try to restate difficult passages in their own words. The second strategy, using graphic organizers and semantic organizers, helps students visualize the relationships among key concepts and terms in informational texts. Webbing diagrams, concept maps, flowcharts, matrices, and other visual aids assist students in K-5 6-8 9-12 Of special interest to grades... * understanding the content and structure of informational texts. The use of graphic organizers and semantic maps increases students’ ability to learn when reading science, social studies, and other content area texts. The third strategy focuses on answering and generating questions. A teacher or library media specialist asks students questions to monitor their understanding. These questions also provide students with a purpose for reading and help them focus on what they need to learn. In addition, students can generate their own questions using a variety of questioning strategies that range from 5W+H (who, what, when, where, why, and how) to Bloom’s Taxonomy to McTighe and Wiggins’ Six Facets of Understanding. (For an excellent review of questioning strategy models, see Jill B. Slack, Questioning Strategies to Improve Student Thinking and Comprehension <www.sedl.org/ secac/rsn/quest.pdf>.) The fourth strategy is recognizing story structure. This strategy applies to reading fiction, but comparable strategies exist for informational texts. Students need to recognize the structure of informational texts. This includes understanding different organizational patterns (e.g., compare and contrast, cause and effect, problem and solution) and using graphic features (e.g., headings and subheadings, italics and bold type, photos and illustrations, charts and tables) to locate information within texts. The final strategy is summarizing. Summarizing is an effective strategy because it requires the synthesis of information. In order to condense information, students must understand main ideas, determine the supporting details, and state them in their own words. The Reading-Research Connection Search library literature or the Internet and you can find numerous examples of research units that feature effective strategies for helping students make meaning of informational texts. Here are some of my favorite tools recommended by reading specialists for improving students’ reading comprehension and research skills. Students need a purpose for reading and research. That is why prereading and pre-search are critical phases of their related processes; they prepare students for the work that lies ahead. An effective tool for facilitating both pre-writing and pre-search is a variation of the KW-L chart. K-W-L, when applied to reading an informational text, is a chart with three columns: “What I Know, What I Want to Learn, and What I Learned.” When used for research, a variation has the following columns: “What I Know, What I Don’t Know, What I Want to Learn through My Research.” K-W-L incorporates effective strategies for monitoring comprehension and developing questions. The “What I Know” component asks students to activate their prior knowledge, and the “What I Don’t Know” component helps them recognize gaps in that knowledge. Activating prior knowledge helps students connect new information to past learning and facilitates memory of new material. Identifying gaps in prior knowledge is a valuable “fix-up” strategy. Students understand that they need to do some background reading or find the definitions of unfamiliar vocabulary words to better understand a challenging text. K-W-L also facilitates question generation. When combined with background reading, students can use a variety of questioning strategies to brainstorm a list of questions for the “What I Don’t Know” column. Then students can select three or four related questions for the “What I Want to Learn through My Research” column. These focus questions guide their research and provide a purpose for reading. “Think-aloud” is an excellent tool for modeling how a good reader uses text structure and features to make LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION APRIL/MAY 2006 37 * meaning of text. During a “thinkaloud,” library media specialists and partner teachers can verbalize how they use text structure and features to preview a text, determine key words and concepts, and predict main ideas and supporting details. Then they can ask students to verbalize their thinking through conferences or a “pair-share” activity with another student. partner teacher monitor students’ comprehension and content learning. During conferences with students, teachers can reinforce valid interpretations of text and intervene when the students encounter problems. Learning logs are powerful tools for reflecting on both content and process. Reading specialists frequently use learning logs as library literature or the Internet and we “Search find numerous examples of research units that feature effective strategies for helping students make meaning of informational texts. ” Double-entry journals are effective tools for improving comprehension and taking notes. Students create a chart with two columns: one for content and one for response. In the content column, students can summarize important parts of the text, note answers to their questions, and pinpoint unfamiliar words and confusing passages. In the response column, they can discuss the significance of information in the content column. This might include n a paraphrase of a complex segment of text, n a possible explanation of confusing material, n a main idea from the resource and why it is important, n a strong positive or negative reaction and an explanation of that reaction, n a reason for agreeing or disagreeing with the author, n a comparison or contrast of a passage with another resource or with prior knowledge, n a prediction based on evidence from the resource, or n a question generated as a result of reading. Double-entry journals help the library media specialist and 38 LIBRARY MEDIA CONNECTION APRIL/MAY 2006 a metacognitive tool to help students think about their thinking throughout the reading process. They use learning logs to monitor comprehension, a critical part of metacognition. In their learning logs, students can summarize text, compare and contrast text from different resources, and discuss their “fix-up” strategies. Library media specialists and partner teachers can use learning logs, as well as doubleentry journals, to track students’ understanding of both reading and content learning and can intervene when students need assistance. Moreover, double-entry journals and learning logs serve as deterrents to plagiarism. When students make their own meaning of text, they do not resort to cutting and pasting from resources. Students learn content when they write in their own words. K-W-L charts, “think-alouds,” double-entry journals, and learning logs are only a few examples of tools that connect the scientifically-based research to the research process. Teaching students how to read informational texts is not an addition to our curriculum but an integral part of what we already teach. Components of Reading Instruction According to the scientificallybased research, effective reading instruction is “explicit” or direct. It includes four key components to incorporate into our research units. nP rovide direct explanations of how a strategy works and why the strategy helps readers understand. nU se “think-alouds” to explain the process or model how we, as good readers, make meaning of informational texts. nA llow for guided practice where students have the opportunity to practice effective reading strategies with our support. nG ive students the opportunity to apply the strategy until they have mastered how to use it. Library media specialists have the unique opportunity, through their collaboration with content area teachers, to provide the explicit instruction that leads to reading achievement. The Next Steps So many times reading instruction in the content areas is done in a hit-and-miss fashion. Content area teachers, when they do incorporate reading instruction into their lessons, tend to use different strategies. Frequently there is no common vision within a school. With little consistency and reinforcement across the disciplines, students receive mixed messages about how to read informational texts. Library media specialists can solve that problem by consistently applying the best practices as we collaborate with teachers. Imagine a school where students have the opportunity to learn, practice, and perfect their reading skills in a consistent, focused fashion through all subject areas. Think of the improvement in reading achievement. Library media specialists have the power to create such a school. n Marilyn Z. Joyce is a library media specialist at Brewer (Maine) High School and can be reached at [email protected]. K-5 6-8 9-12 Of special interest to grades...