Academic journal articles can be tough to read. From the challenging vocabulary to the format, students often struggle synthesizing information from such articles. For several years, I have struggled with the best way to guide students. Finally, this year, I have a consistent approach.
Additional Strategies
- Encourage students to read the article out of order.
- Practice the process together with an example article.
- Provide a graphic organizer.
- List questions to help guide reading.
- Instruct students through the process of searching for an academic journal in a database.
- Teach students to use Control/Command + F. Search the document for a keyword.
- Access the dictionary feature available on most devices.
- Let your students know that you understand these articles are challenging and take time to read.
In Practice
Each year, the freshmen honor biology classes, 9th-grade students, require an academic journal article from an online database. We begin by providing an example of an article to discuss the format, vocabulary, headings, and other details.
Next, we instruct the process of locating academic journals in the online databases. We focus on using the abstract to determine if the article meets the needs.
Once students locate an article, they read using the sequence in the document provided above: abstract, introduction, results, and discussion. As students read, they can highlight needed information, use the graphic organizer with self-generated questions and use the dictionary feature on their devices. We schedule a time to read the article into the lesson planning.
These strategies have impacted how well students read and synthesize the articles. What strategies do you utilize to help students read an academic journal? Please share in the comments.
Author: Becca Munson
Becca Munson, Librarian, is a National Board Certified Teacher with over 23 years of experience in education. She is currently a school librarian at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, KS. Becca continues to find ways to positively impact student learning with literacy initiatives, technology integration, and building rapport with students and staff. Follow her on Twitter to view the library in action @bvwlibrary and @beccamunson .
Categories: Blog Topics, Student Engagement/ Teaching Models
I really enjoed your aricle and your graphic on how to read an aricle from an academic journel was excellent. I wanted to share it with my students. Can you send a link to the graphic.
Thank you
Caroline Barkaszi
Media Specialist for the Freehold Regional High School district