"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." Joseph Addison's quote captures the rigorous workout our mind goes through when comprehending complex texts. This alone may be reason enough for our students to be reluctant readers. However, athletes and even casual exercisers can attest to the good feeling or "runner's high" that is a byproduct of a challenging workout. We can help students tap into the joy of reading by borrowing some of the principles and mindsets we use when we approach a tough workout.
Warming Up
Just like stretching and warming up are essential before a workout, reading preparation is essential to setting a purpose for reading and identifying necessary supports. Before you assign a complex text, first assign a text that stretches the reader and requires explicit instruction, and then determine what makes the text rigorous or complex. Although quantitative tools will help you identify the text's grade band, be sure to use a qualitative tool to determine a text's specific grade level and what features make it challenging for students. Qualitative measures will drive your objective for how students work with and make meaning of the text. Fisher, Frey, and Lapp (2016) include a qualitative scale for assessing both literary and informational texts in their book Text Complexity: Stretching Readers with Texts and Tasks (Figure 3.2, p. 47, Literacy; Figure 4.1, p. 72, Informational). Achieve the Core also hosts several qualitative and quantitative tools for determining text complexity.
Similar to stretching before a workout regimen, readers also need to "warm up" to the reading task at hand. Boyles (2014) calls this frontloading reading strategies. Frontloading reading strategies to tackle complex texts helps readers support themselves during an initial read and allows the teacher to scaffold instruction for students who may need more support. Determine which strategies you want to frontload for students, then plan rigorous text-dependent questions that require students to revisit the text and refine their thinking. Finally, you need to plan the sequence of lessons for reading this text.
Feeling the Burn
You're sweating, your heart is racing, you're full of self-doubt, and you're thinking about giving up. Students reading complex texts may go through the same emotions and experiences as an athlete during a tough workout. We recommend using five teacher-modeled strategies when readers get stuck in the thick of a reading task:
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- Explicit use of teacher modeling. Frey and Fisher (2013) advise teachers to model difficult tasks, ways to resolve problems, and how to interact with a text. Teacher modeling can take place during interactive, shared readings or through teachers thinking aloud as they approach complexities within texts.
- Deliberate use of close reading strategies. For example, ask students to number each paragraph of a reading. On the first read-through, have students circle difficult or powerful words, underline confusing or important phrases, and annotate in the margins. On the second reading, read the passage together and have students ask and answer text-dependent questions, provide evidence from the text during discourse, and synthesize new understandings through a written task.
- Systematic use of scaffolding. Fisher and Frey (2010) recommend choosing strategies to scaffold reading with intentionality by selecting ones that are appropriate for the student and task, are structured, are differentiated to meet varying student needs, and can be gradually withdrawn as the strategy is internalized by students. See Figure 1 for some examples of reading scaffolds.
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Figure 1: Examples of Reading Scaffolds
Reading Can Be a Real Workout-TABLE
Anchor Charts | Charts that showcase a process or procedure with outlined steps that "anchor" the new learning |
|---|---|
| Cue Cards | Prepared cards given to individuals or groups of students to assist in their discussion |
| Graphic Organizers | Organizational charts to help support new content, thinking, and tasks (e.g., smarter charts, thinking maps, advance organizers, concept maps, mind maps) |
| Grouping Strategies | Intentional partnering or grouping more experienced students with less experienced students to model strategies |
| Paraphrasing | Restating a student's response to model correct vocabulary and grammar |
| Preteaching | Preteaching a process or vocabulary that will be used in the lesson to help students access the content during the lesson |
| Prompts | A physical or verbal cue to remind or to aid in recall of a memory or knowledge |
| Question Cards | Prepared cards with content- and task-specific questions sequenced appropriately for individuals or groups |
| Question Stems | Incomplete sentences that students complete, starting with phrases such as what is, what if, when would, and how might |
| Sentence Stems/Starters | The start of a sentence with specific words used to frame a comment, or thought |
| Visual Scaffolds | Pointing or other gestures to illustrate a concept |
Sustaining the Burn
There are times during a rigorous workout when it becomes challenging and our muscles burn. To sustain the burn, we have to push through and develop stamina for longer periods of endurance. This is also true for independent readers. When tackling a complex text, students need to build stamina to persevere and understand the text's meaning. Students can develop this endurance over time with practice, self-reflection, and teacher modeling. Try asking students these three self-reflection questions:
- What did I learn about myself as a reader while reading this text?
- What was the purpose of reading this text?
- How might the strategies I used while reading this text help me understand other texts?
When a teacher facilitates and a student uses the three stages of warming-up, feeling the burn, and sustaining the burn, reading complex texts will become a rewarding workout.