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Supporting Children's Reading of Expository Text in the Geography Classroom
Author(s) -
Gregg Madeleine,
Sekeres Diane Carver
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1598/rt.60.2.1
Subject(s) - fluency , realia , reading (process) , vocabulary , mathematics education , reading comprehension , context (archaeology) , psychology , comprehension , vocabulary development , literacy , teaching method , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy , paleontology , biology
If children are to read to learn, they must acquire skill in processing and comprehending expository texts. However, teaching children to read and comprehend informational texts takes time, because there are so many complex skills associated with this reading. Building children's knowledge of the content to be studied and introducing new vocabulary in the context of demonstrations and conversations about realia prepares them to read informational text. Scaffolding their comprehension through activities to promote fluency and direct instruction in reading strategies teaches children how to read to learn. This article reports one teacher's approach to supporting her students' reading of expository text in a third‐grade geography classroom and describes the activities and texts used at the beginning of the school year to teach about how the Earth–Sun relationship affects life on Earth.