High Attention Reading: Preparing Students for Independent Reading of Informational Text

High Attention Reading (HART) is a new approach to independent reading that uses purposeful, intermittent student talk to heighten engagement and accountability during independent reading. It scaffolds and supports student ownership of background knowledge, content vocabulary, and critical thinking about texts, and can be incorporated into any reading curriculum.

Format: Hardback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 28 October 2022
Publisher: Teachers' College Press

High Attention Reading (HART) is a revolutionary approach to getting students of all reading levels to independently read informational texts with greater effort, attention, and stamina. According to Hale, simply increasing the number of informational texts children read is not enough to achieve this goal. To prepare students for the reading demands of high school, it is essential that we provide strategic scaffolding for the habits of mind required to read this genre at a high level and the motivation to do so.

The author introduces elementary and middle school teachers to a format called HART (High Attention Reading through Talking), which uses purposeful, intermittent student talk to heighten engagement and accountability during independent reading. The book includes easy-to-implement lessons to get started with HART, as well as discussions about the relationships among motivation, engagement, and content area reading.

Chapters describe how HART scaffolds and supports student ownership of background knowledge, content vocabulary, and critical thinking about texts. Teachers will learn how to create conditions that foster motivation and engagement with informational text, while also creating authentic accountability to help students read to their potential.

Book Features:

An approach to independent reading that can be incorporated into any reading curriculum, from reading workshop to more structured comprehensive programs.

Practical information for how to impact a difficult-to-reach aspect of reading—the internal effort students make while reading complex text independently.

Strategies for building students' critical thinking through discussion and writing.

Guidance for how to increase student ownership of attending to background knowledge and content vocabulary.

High Attention Reading (HART) is a powerful tool that empowers students to read informational texts with greater depth, understanding, and engagement. By providing strategic scaffolding and fostering motivation and engagement, HART helps students develop the critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in high school and beyond. Whether used in reading workshop or comprehensive programs, HART is an essential resource for teachers looking to improve their students' reading abilities.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780807767290