As we are quickly approaching toward the end of our journey together, I would like to continue to give you the tools necessary to be an effective and a better learner.  Do you remember the first step of the Study Cycle is to preview the materials before lecture?  Many students said they read the chapters in the textbook, but they often did not recall what they read.  Thus, it did not improve their learning. Professors assume and expect you to read the chapters and texts in their classes on your own, especially in upper division classes.  Are you reading the text the right way?  What are some reading strategies that you can try?    

We are going to explore a few reading strategies this week and next week.  Another reading strategy is “Think Aloud“, which I use in solving sample problems in lecture because we often need to read, decode, and organize information given from the problems.  Again, we must actively engage in the text while reading so that we do not miss any meaning and/or information to solve problems.        

Reading Apprenticeship (RA) Framework

What is Reading Apprenticeship?

We first have to come to an understanding about what reading is?

• Reading is a complex process.
• Reading is problem solving.
• Student who read well take a code-breaking stance.
• Fluency in reading is not the same thing as decoding.
• Speed and approach which make up reading proficiency vary with the reading text.
• Proficient readers share some of the same key attributes.

Support Reading with the Four Dimensions of RA

The dimensions of the Reading Apprenticeship® (RA) Framework include the personal, social, cognitive, and the knowledge-building dimensions.  These four dimensions are necessary to support reading development at all levels in your classroom.  Let’s review the four dimensions:

Personal:  Who are you as a reader?  

The personal dimension deals with helping the students develop their reader identities and become self-aware of their purposes and goals of reading.  This also has to do the ability to take on a wide variety of disciplinary texts with confidence, in a fluent manner, and with the ability to handle the rigor and demands of the text.

Social:  How will the group support your reading skill development?  

The social dimension builds the community of readers by recognizing the reading resources and contributions that each class member brings to the text.  The social setting must offer a supportive, safe classroom where students can discuss their misunderstandings and challenges with the readings.

Cognitive:  What techniques will make the task of approaching text easier?   

The cognitive dimension works to give the readers the tools to develop their mental strategies, monitor comprehension, apply problem solving strategies, and adjust reading processes for various texts.

Knowledge- Building:   How can we build schema together and learn the reading skills of our technical professional fields?   

The knowledge-building dimension is the key to identifying and increasing the kinds of knowledge that readers use to approach text and persevere when reading is a challenge.  

Initial Post

1. Watch Think Aloud – Part 1: Introduction (6:37) to learn about this reading technique.  You may also learn how the presenter prepared her “notes”.  Feel free to watch Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 of the video series for additional demonstrations.  
2.  
3. In addition to Kami, I would like to recommend Hypothes.is (free) (Links to an external site.) for annotation as well because it can help you organize your annotation (website, pdf files, etc.) and do collaborative annotation with friends and teachers.  If you have read my assigned reading list on Canvas (under Modules), you would see that I had created a group annotation in the Chem LibreText site that we can see each other annotation (ask and questions in the text).  I did use the Chrome add-on as well.       
4. Watch Introduction to Web Annotation with Hypothesis (7:17) so that you know how to sign up and use it for your classes.  You and your classmates can form your own group asking each other questions.
5.  

Respond to this discussion prompt by Tuesday 11:59 pm. Select the Reply box and write a paragraph for each of the following questions:

1. You will report on something good that happened to you, or an accomplishment of yours from the last 5-7 days. It doesn’t have to be chemistry or science or even school-related. Please keep it appropriate!
2. Another 30-minutes self-care (walk, jog, gym, yoga, mediate, etc.) break before Tuesday.  
3. Did you think-aloud while you are reading?  If so, what questions (see examples below) do you ask while you are reading?  If not, will you try to implement this technique? And how?
4. The set of questions to support thinking aloud.
• What do I know about this topic?
• What do I think I will learn about this topic?
• Do I understand what I just read?
• Do I have a clear picture in my head about this information?
• What more can I do to understand this?
• What were the most important points in this reading?
• What new information did I learn?
• How does it fit in with what I already know?

Reply

By Friday night at 11:59 pm, please reply to at least two of our classmates’ posts with ideas or suggestions as feedback by doing two of the following: 

1. You will share your reaction / emotional response to the poster’s good news, and/or ask follow-up question(s)
2. Provide specific feedback about your classmates’ plans to implement the techniques in this discussion.
3. Ask a probing or clarifying question in response to one (or more) of your colleagues’ posts, or
4. Describe a different reading technique that you have used.