With the creation of Common Core Standards, students are required to move beyond simple literal comprehension. They are expected to "dig deeper" when reading, to interpret the text and think about how it is situated in the world around them; one of the best ways to accomplish this is through the reading of primary sources. In Morgan and Rasinski's 2012 article, The Power and Potential of Primary Sources," a number of benefits are noted. Primary sources provide insight into a particular time period through letters, journal entries, poetry, and photographs etc... but the information is not "spoon-fed" as it would be in a social studies or history textbook for example. Students have to become investigators, utilizing many of the strategies they are taught in order to glean the information a primary source contains beyond the first reading--they learn to read between the lines. As Morgan and Rasinski quote "Students are unable to gain a sense of how people in the past experienced their lives through textbooks and lectures alone, but rather, they need to construct a more complete understanding that comes from the specificity and detail that primary sources provide (Barton, 2005)." Primary sources provide a more detailed and multifaceted view of the topic under investigation while having the added benefit of requiring deeper thinking in order to truly interpret the text.
The reading of primary sources ties in nicely with Cummins discussion of comprehension in chapters four and five of her 2012 book, Close Reading of Informational Texts: Assessment Driven Instruction in Grades 3-8, as she explains the importance of moving beyond the general comprehension of a text. In chapter four, she suggests ways to teach close reading strategies to enable students to glean additional details from a text that support the main idea, for example, noting important signal words or phrases that may indicate other areas where related information can be found. In chapter five Cummins introduces strategies for previewing informational texts to activate a student's schema or determine their purpose for reading a particular text; she notes that different purposes create different meanings, and the students should be aware of this.
Similarly, Harvey and Goudvis offer tips and lesson ideas for helping a reader learn to construct meaning from a text, as well as how to choose the best text for the intended lesson. Chapter fourteen specifically focuses on teaching students to read textbooks. Similar to presenting a primary source, students benefit from front-loading content, making predictions based on text features and headings, as well as modeling the ability to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Text selection is imperative to reading comprehension--it is a balancing act to find a text that communicates clearly, provides opportunities for deeper thinking, and is accurate all while engaging the reader and maintaining their interest. I believe primary sources are an excellent choice for this, and can be supplemented or enhanced by traditional texts.
The reading of primary sources ties in nicely with Cummins discussion of comprehension in chapters four and five of her 2012 book, Close Reading of Informational Texts: Assessment Driven Instruction in Grades 3-8, as she explains the importance of moving beyond the general comprehension of a text. In chapter four, she suggests ways to teach close reading strategies to enable students to glean additional details from a text that support the main idea, for example, noting important signal words or phrases that may indicate other areas where related information can be found. In chapter five Cummins introduces strategies for previewing informational texts to activate a student's schema or determine their purpose for reading a particular text; she notes that different purposes create different meanings, and the students should be aware of this.
Similarly, Harvey and Goudvis offer tips and lesson ideas for helping a reader learn to construct meaning from a text, as well as how to choose the best text for the intended lesson. Chapter fourteen specifically focuses on teaching students to read textbooks. Similar to presenting a primary source, students benefit from front-loading content, making predictions based on text features and headings, as well as modeling the ability to infer the meaning of unfamiliar words.
Text selection is imperative to reading comprehension--it is a balancing act to find a text that communicates clearly, provides opportunities for deeper thinking, and is accurate all while engaging the reader and maintaining their interest. I believe primary sources are an excellent choice for this, and can be supplemented or enhanced by traditional texts.