“One of the most useful questioning techniques to teach comprehension of content or expository material is the directed reading/thinking activity (DRTA).” Discuss

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Comprehension requires connecting what is read with prior knowledge of the topic. Directed reading and thinking activity (DRTA) teach students to make predictions about what they are going to read before they begin reading the text. While reading, the students test and refine the predictions they made in advance. These predictions generate divergent questions and stimulate expanded thinking. DRTA teaches students to verify and defend their predictions and gives them guidelines for reading to learn. DRTA can be used to teach comprehension of narrative and expository text.
The DRTA technique involves: (i) students examine the story title, pictures, and subheadings; (ii) individually or in a group, students list information they anticipate finding in the selection; (iii) students read the selection; (iv) students then look at each prediction on their list and decide whether it was correct or incorrect; (v) when uncertainty or disagreement occurs, students defend their positions by locating validating information in the text.
DRTA is one of the powerful methods to teach comprehension because it stimulates students to generate their own questions. Their predictions become questions when they search the text for supportive information. Traditionally, many teachers have taught comprehension solely by asking students questions after they have read a specific passage. However, DRTA includes students asking questions throughout the text and modeling think-alouds. It teaches skills that are applicable at the three phases of reading- before, during and after. It equips students with a strategy that may be applied to any type of text.