Creating Learning Partners: A facilitator’s guide for training effective adult literacy tutors

Facilitation tip

To tie the experience of making predictions into topics and experiences that will be meaningful to the learner, you can guide tutors to use personal stories provided by other learners as the content for the exercise. Tutors can find learner stories in the English Express newspaper for adult learners or in books written by other learners.

Activity G

DRTA (Directed Reading Thinking Activity)

Tutors can use this activity to help learners use their experience and knowledge of the world to understand what they read.

Use of overhead, discussion
Materials and equipment Overhead 6.8: Freeze up on the Yellowhead Overhead projector and screen Flip charts and markers Preparation Prepare overhead. STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS Write the words Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) on the flip chart. Explain to tutors that this activity will help learners learn two things. First, learners will recognize that the purpose of reading is to make sense of what they read. Second, they will learn to ask good questions. When using DRTA, a learner makes predictions and then reads to check those predictions, asking and answering a series of questions. Put up the overhead Freeze up on the Yellowhead with only the title showing. Ask tutors to make predictions about the story based on the title. Uncover the first paragraph and ask which guesses were true and which were false. What guesses still haven’t been verified? Have tutors make a few more predictions and then read on to see if they are right. Point out to tutors that we don’t always make correct predictions but, as good readers, we know that incorrect predictions are just part of reading. Poor readers believe good readers never make mistakes in reading. DRTA can help tutors show learners the process we use when we read: we predict, we read and check, and we either change our prediction or verify it. Keep on making predictions and reading through the rest of the story.

Use of overhead, discussion

Materials and equipment

Overhead 6.8: Freeze up on the Yellowhead
Overhead projector and screen
Flip charts and markers

Preparation

Prepare overhead.

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

Write the words Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) on the flip chart.
Explain to tutors that this activity will help learners learn two things. First, learners will recognize that the purpose of reading is to make sense of what they read. Second, they will learn to ask good questions. When using DRTA, a learner makes predictions and then reads to check those predictions, asking and answering a series of questions.
Put up the overhead Freeze up on the Yellowhead with only the title showing.
Ask tutors to make predictions about the story based on the title.
Uncover the first paragraph and ask which guesses were true and which were false. What guesses still haven’t been verified?
Have tutors make a few more predictions and then read on to see if they are right. Point out to tutors that we don’t always make correct predictions but, as good readers, we know that incorrect predictions are just part of reading. Poor readers believe good readers never make mistakes in reading. DRTA can help tutors show learners the process we use when we read: we predict, we read and check, and we either change our prediction or verify it.
Keep on making predictions and reading through the rest of the story.

The focus should be on reading to learn not learning to read.