The WICOR of Reading: Reading and Collaboration

Many of us think of reading as an isolated activity. We hole up in our comfiest chair on a cold and drizzly Saturday afternoon and immerse ourselves in a good book. Or we confine ourselves to a study carrel in a library and focus our concentration on a textbook or research article. Sometimes, we gather in groups to talk about our reading--as in a book club--but the reading itself is done by ourselves away from others.

The idea of collaboration and reading sharing the same sentence seems antithetical to most teachers; however, to reach the learners who struggle with reading rigorous texts, we have to allow them to tap into the collective brainpower of more than just themselves.

The next time you're tempted to have a full-class discussion over a reading, try to prevent having the "discussion" turn into a dialogue between you (the "expert" teacher) and a handful of your participating students. Allow every student to contribute by incorporating some pair-share or trio-share time prior to (or instead of) full-class discussion. Sharing thoughts and ideas with a partner is safer than talking in front of the entire class. Also, a student who has the support of a partner or group is more likely to feel comfortable sharing an idea of her own (or of a groupmate) when called upon to do so.

Jigsawing is a collaborative strategy you can use with a lengthy text or one that can easily be broken up into smaller parts. Teachers break up a text into parts, assign parts for students to read, and then allow students who read different sections summarize what they read in a group of students who did not read their section. Once all group members have reported on their reading, the entire group should have an overall understanding of the text. I've seen this done with magazine or newspaper articles, parts of a textbook chapter, and even chapters in a novel.

Reciprocal Teaching is a strategy that requires a group to collaborate to make sense of a text by practicing the skills that accomplished readers do automatically. In the full version of the Reciprocal Teaching process, students form groups of five and are each given a role to play while reading the text.

1. Predict:  Make predictions about the text and back that up with evidence. 
2. Visualize:  Create a drawing or other visual representation of important information from the passage. 
3. Clarify: Identify and explain unfamiliar vocabulary words or other difficult-to-understand concepts. 
4. Question: Prepare several higher-level questions for the group to discuss.
5. Summarize: Explain the meaning of the text; give the big picture. 

When the group meets after reading the text, each member of the group shares his or her work in reviewing the text from the assigned perspective. Switch roles each time the students meet to discuss. With time, students will begin to incorporate these strategies automatically as they read. 

As I have often mentioned, when students struggle with a text, they need to learn to stop, troubleshoot, question, and summarize. A variation of the Reciprocal Teaching strategy asks paired students to read together a piece of challenging text that has been chosen and "chunked" into parts (a paragraph or a few paragraphs per chunk) by the teacher. One member of the pair is partner A; the other is B.  Partner A reads the first chunk aloud. Both students may mark the text for some teacher- or student-selected elements as they read. They may also add their own thoughts and questions in annotations. Partners A and B share their text markings and questions. Then, Partner B summarizes the chunk of text.  Partners switch roles and continue reading, annotating, discussing, and summarizing the next chunk. Proceed until pairs have finished reading the text.

Teenagers are social creatures. They enjoy sharing with one another, and they learn when they discuss information together. Often, a peer can explain something more effectively than an adult can because they speak the same "language" and--because they share a relatively equal level of expertise--can communicate their learning to one another in a way that makes sense. 

Consider ways you can add incorporate collaborative components into your classroom reading activities. You'll increase student engagement, and your students will practice skills that will help them when they someday have to go it alone. 

Thanks for reading my four-part series on Reading and WICOR.  I hope I've given you something to think about as you design experiences that enthrall, challenge, and support your students for reading success.