Description: The DR-TA fosters critical awareness by moving students through a process that involves prediction, verification, judgment, and ultimately extension of thought. It improves reading and supports readers at all levels. The method works well for readers at all grade levels and ability levels as well as with a range of texts. It also allows readers to self-assess their level of understanding prior to continuing or, should the results prove unsatisfactory, returning to the confusing parts for further clarification. Teachers guide reading and stimulate questions through the judicious use of questions.
Step-by-Step
- The atmosphere created during a DR-TA is paramount in the strategy’s success. Be supportive and encouraging so as not to inhibit students’ free participation. When posing open-ended questions, allow for think time instead of breaking the silence by splitting the question up.
- After allowing students to skim the text, make some predictions about its meaning, main ideas/concepts or other information. Review the title – ask for a prediction and explanation; continue through headings, graphs, maps, even pull out quotes to activate schema and provide an orientation to the text. Never refute any predictions that students make; to do so is comparable to pulling the rug out from under them.
- For informational text, analyze the material for its main and subordinate concepts. What are the relevant concepts, ideas, relationships, and information in the assignment? This content analysis will help determine logical stopping points while directing students through the text. For narrative text, determine the key elements of the story: the setting and the events in the plot. Once these elements are identified, decide on logical stopping points within the story. In fiction, logical stopping points come at key junctures in a causal chain of events in the story line because the reader should have enough information from at least one preceding event to predict a future happening or event. The division of text in this manner is known as “chunking the text.”
- Have students take notes or use post-it notes to mark information, examples, or evidence in the text that verifies or refutes their predictions.
- Use questions such as the following:
- What do you think a story/reading with this title might be about?
- What do you expect will happen?
- Why do you expect this to happen?
- Could it happen in any other way?
- Which predictions do you agree/disagree with and why?
- Discuss with students their predictions, answers, speculations, assumptions and have them reference the text for support and proof. This also serves as a way to promote the value of rereading.
- Have students read the chunked text, stop as directed, and interact with them, in order to model the behavior of good reading.
Extensions
- Vary reading practices by including silent reading, paired reading, choral reading and listening to a recording.
- Try this strategy with non-print text like film, art, posters, and/or web pages.
- Poll the class to determine the accuracy of their predictions.