Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level: A Guide to Resources

What is it? How does it work?

Background:
Students respond to a written guide of teacher-created prompts as they read assigned text. The prompts elicit literal, interpretive, and applied levels of comprehension.

Overview:
Reading guides are adjunct aids that prompt readers to comprehend as they read assigned text. They are designed to help students develop comprehension abilities at three levels: literal (the recognition of ideas directly stated in the text), interpretive or inferential (ideas implied by the author), and applied (ideas that have application beyond the text). They can also help students to recognize major concepts, supporting details and organizational patterns within text. Guides help students comprehend text that is more difficult than they could comprehend through independent reading. Reading guides were first identified in 1969 as aids to mathematics comprehension by Richard Earl; Harold Herber described the three-level guide in 1970. Some specific reading guides described in the professional literature are: Three-Level Guides, QARs, Pattern Guides, Concept Guides, Selective Reading Guides and Reading Road Maps.

Reading guides are teacher-created. Teachers analyze their texts for major concepts, their lessons for purposes, and the needs and knowledge of their students related to these concepts and purposes. They then write questions and/or statements that guide students to read for and respond to concepts both in and beyond the text.

Teachers should introduce guides by modeling their use and supporting students as they work. Teachers continue guidance on subsequent study guides by overseeing small groups or pairs of students. Finally, students complete these guides independently.

Research into the success of reading guides has been conducted in mathematics, social studies, and science classrooms where teachers used them as an adjunct to their content area instruction. Results indicate significant improvements in developing general reading comprehension and in gaining specific content knowledge (Berget, 1977; Riley, 1979; Maxon, 1979; Estes, 1973). One more recent study reported significant improvements among regular, remedial, and learning disabled students (Horton & Lovitt, 1989).