Murphy & Maas-Feary Connecting the Real World to Texts and Developmental Readers

23/Th 1:00 PM Allen

Type_Presentation:         60-minute Concurrent Session

PresentationTitle:         Connecting the Real World to Texts and Developmental Readers

ProgramStrand_Primary:     College Reading

ProgramStrand_Secondary:   None

Presentation_description:

The presenters, both full-time instructors of developmental reading and writing at a community college, will offer research that supports the value of using authentic texts in the developmental reading classroom. They will then show specific build-as-you-go assignments along with student responses to this instructional approach.

Session_summary:

Our purpose in this presentation is to offer a research-based methodology and models for using authentic texts to improve teaching and learning in college reading classes. To accomplish this, we will review research in support of the practice of using authentic texts; offer examples of assignments that utilize authentic texts; list benefits and drawbacks of this approach; and allow attendees time to brainstorm and reflect on how they could create build-as-you-go assignments.

Several learning objectives are at the core of this presentation, including:

1.  Given examples of research that support the use of authentic texts in the teaching of developmental reading, participants will understand the advantages of this approach.

2.  Having been shown examples of the presenters’ build-as-you-go assignments, participants will understand the process involved in creating said assignments.

3.  After learning about teaching using authentic texts, participants will have concrete models to follow to ease their potential adoption of this teaching method.

3.  After hearing the benefits and drawbacks of this approach, participants will consider whether such an approach is worth the time investment.

4.  Having listened to the results of student surveys, the participants will begin to brainstorm ideas for their own assignments.

We believe the information we will present is significant to the field of college reading for several reasons. Instructors in courses across all disciplines are actively using texts beyond the traditional college textbook. It is thus imperative that reading instructors teach developmental students strategies for learning from a variety of texts; our presentation will offer concrete ways of approaching this challenge. Building "curriculum streams" on a foundation of authentic texts has the added benefit of addressing all sectors of the reading process. Our presentation will illustrate how we activate background knowledge in pre-reading, teach students to understand the purposes for reading, help students acquire comprehension and vocabulary skills, and lead students to reflect and extend upon what they have learned after reading. The dynamic approach we will model is part of an evolving conversation in our field about how to best meet our students' needs as we help them to learn from multiple sources of text.

Our presentation is highly relevant to CRLA members and conference attendees who seek the best ways to prepare our students to succeed both in the developmental classroom and with the reading demands of their content area courses. We have also found that using authentic literacy assignments is a fulfilling and exciting way to teach, which is a benefit for instructors and students alike. Time will be allotted for those attending the session to brainstorm ideas for integrating authentic texts into their own classrooms.

Attendees will leave our session with handouts that show examples of how we have used authentic literacy activities in our developmental courses. Using flow charts, these visuals illustrate ways we expanded on an initial use of both a student-engaging text and a video as a way to address students’ reading skills deficiencies. The charts will give those attending the session a glimpse at how flexible and exciting teaching can be using real-world materials. We will also provide a bibliography listing recent research that supports the benefits of using authentic texts in improving students’ reading comprehension and attitude toward reading.

Both presenters have extensive experience in using authentic texts to teach college reading and have shared aspects of their work in several presentations at regional, state, and national conferences.

PresenterBio: Barbara Murphy has taught developmental reading, writing, and student success courses for nearly 20 years. She is also a fiction writer, poet, and puppeteer.

Presenter2_Bio: Maureen Maas-Feary has taught developmental reading and writing courses at Finger Lakes Community College since 1994 after an earlier career as a newspaper reporter.