Reading in the Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools, Spring, 2010

Source: Gillet, and Temple. (1990). Understanding Reading Problems.

The DRTA is a group discussion in which the students make predictions about what they will be reading. The purpose of this activity is to increase interest and understanding in a text. The DRTA consists of a predict-read-prove/disprove cycle. In a fiction reading, the teacher asks open ended questions about the book before they even begin reading it. The teacher and the students may look through the text and look at pictures but they don’t read it. Then the teacher will ask things about what the students think will happen in the story and what things mean. The teacher will also ask questions about why the student thinks what they do. After the theacher gets some good ideas from the students and has got their interest in the story he or she tells the students to read a set, predetermined by the teacher amount to see if any of the predictions were right and then make new predictions. They continue this process until the whole text is read. After the story is read, the students and can have a discussion about what they learned and any controversial questions that the text brings up or they can answer some questions created by the teacher. This process is meant to teach the students to use predictions to increase comprehension while they are reading. This process is nearly the same for nonfiction texts except that the students start by discussing what they already know about a subject. They find out what they know and often it is more than they thought they did. The students then know what they are looking for when they are reading. They are looking to prove or disprove what they thought that they knew. Through the discussion, the teacher can find out where the students have gaps in information. They can see what they need to teach in order for the students to understand and get the most out of a reading. I think that this will be a great way to help my students learn.