Go on a Diet with Short Texts
By Doug Buehl,
Madison East High School teacher
Member, Wisconsin State Reading Association
November 2001
Imagine, through the eyes of your students, the regular
regimen of reading that children face in their classrooms during a typical
day of school. What images come to mind? Perhaps textbooks, thick slabs
of information, that weigh down desktops and stretch backpacks. Toss in
a paperback or two, a title from children’s literature, or a “classic”
novel assigned for a language arts class.
Reserve some moments for library reference materials,
the grist for research projects, and factor in electronic texts from CD-ROMs
and Internet sites. Finally, scan your mind past the workbooks and stapled
stacks of photocopied selections.
As you imagine the span of print that encompasses “school
reading,” you are probably noticing that many of these materials
represent extended texts, lengthy sources for learning which may account
for significant portions of the expectations for a course of study.
To counterbalance these regular, often more involved
materials, Harvey and Goudvis (1999) recommend integrating short texts
into the classroom routine. Short texts are just that, more compact pieces
of print that illustrate certain important curriculum principles and are
more manageable for modeling reading comprehension strategies to a group
of students.
The Strategy
Short texts can dovetail into classroom learning in
a variety of ways. Harvey and Goudvis offer these suggestions:
Step 1: Start by developing a library of short
texts germane to key aspects of the curriculum. Ideal short texts exhibit
the following characteristics:
- They are short, which makes them more accessible to every member of
a class.
- They are appropriate for reading out loud, therefore providing a common
base of information or literary experience for all students.
- They are well-written, with vivid and engaging language, and can serve
as inspiring examples of discourse within a discipline.
- They are self-contained, complete entities onto themselves, of thoughts,
ideas, and information.
- They address and enhance significant concepts or goals of the curriculum.
- They are authentic, in the sense that they offer students legitimate
practice in reading texts likely to be encountered outside the classroom.
Sources abound for short texts that contribute to specific content areas.
Newspapers are an obvious rich vein of potentially appropriate short texts
on a wide range of topics. In addition to articles, look for features,
columns, essays, and even letters as short texts that can be used with
students. The vast array of magazine titles today, especially those that
target special interests, are another continually promising outlet for
concise selections.
From National Geographic publications for kids to the free airline magazines
tucked into the seat pouches on planes – surprisingly fine writing
is readily available on topics relevant to science, social studies, math,
music, art, and other disciplines. Other possible short texts include
short stories, poetry, and children’s picture books, which often
communicate sophisticated concepts in remarkably straightforward prose
and are accompanied with frequently striking illustrations.
Step 2: Determine the role various short texts can play in advancing
student learning in your classroom. One powerful use is through teacher
think-alouds, whereby the teacher models thinking through a short selection
to teach and reinforce strategies students will be expected to use with
longer and more challenging materials.
Short texts are especially effective during reading comprehension instruction
within a discipline. For example, visualizing is a comprehension strategy
that escapes many struggling readers who are solely preoccupied with getting
the words on the page. A teacher can provide students copies of a short
text rich in evoking visual images, or display the selection with the
overhead projector, and think aloud about how specific language and phrases
cause her to stop and create her own personal video of what she is reading.
The short text provides the example for a focused mini-lesson of a skill
that students will be expected to use independently when reading additional
selections.
Short texts can also be especially effective when modeling other reading
comprehension strategies, such as asking questions, making inferences,
determining importance, and making connections to personal background
knowledge.
Step 3: Choose short texts to fulfill other curricular goals,
such as:
- Content – augmenting the textbook and other classroom materials
to teach important concepts and deepen understanding of key ideas in
the curriculum.
- Features – displaying features that are typical of texts within
a content discipline (such as literary devices) as a means to teach
students how to use these features.
- Genre – presenting examples of genre that communicates within
a topic area, such as poetry, letters, essays, feature articles, reviews,
appeals, humorous vignettes, and so forth.
- Perspective – prompting students to entertain viewpoints other
than their own within a topic area, and to identify techniques authors
employ to communicate their perspectives.
- Quality of writing – introducing students to accomplished writing
within a field of discourse, such as showing students examples of exceptional
writing in science or art.
Advantages
Short texts can provide an efficient vehicle for a host of classroom
learning objectives. In particular,
- Short texts are perfect for brief, highly focused lessons that emphasize
and reinforce teaching certain strategies or important ideas and concepts.
- Students are given short “bursts” of fine writing as a alternative
to their regular diet of more lengthy ongoing classroom texts.
Posted November 20, 2001