What is DR-TA?

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Talking to Learn Strategies?

DR-TA is categorized under talking-to-learn strategies. Talking-to-learn strategies involve using verbal communication as a primary tool to help “students explore, clarify, and think about ideas they encounter in reading and writing, listening and speaking, and viewing and representing” (Vacca, Vacca, & Begoray, 2005). They are very relevant to classroom learning, as teachers and students spend a long part of the day communicating with their voices.

DR-TA Definition

This strategy can be defined as a teacher guided exercise in which students will use “predication, verification, judgment, and ultimately extension of thought” (Vacca et al., 2005). Students read passages of text and the teacher helps to facilitate learning by stopping at sequential parts, and then having the classroom participate through questioning, dialogue, and critical thinking (Vacca et al., 2005).

Successful Application of Strategy

In order for this strategy to be used effectively in the classroom, certain measures must be followed. Firstly, key to the success of DR-TA, is the classroom climate. By this I mean that students must feel encouraged and able to participate, or else this defeats the purpose of the strategy (Vacca et al, 2005). There must also be ample time for students to answer the prompted questions. The author’s Vacca et al (2005) suggest that teachers delay their questioning interventions, as they can fall prone to intervening too quickly, often students are simply thinking and desire more time to get a answer.

Other Literacy Experts Research

DR-TA is a strategy that helps increase the level of “active and thoughtful readers”, this is integral to improving comprehension (Washington Educational Television Association [WETA], 2011). Through the reading process, students can see if their predications turned out to be true (WETA, 2011). The West Virginia Department of Education [WVDE] (2011) stresses that this strategy is a way for students to think critically about what they are reading, and focuses them to think in this way. They also argue that this is a strategy that can be used effectively to engage students in any subject area and with both fiction and non-fiction texts (WVDE, 2011).

Use of Prescribed Learning Outcomes with DR-TA

Specific PLO’s from the History 12 IRP would be beneficial to use with the DR-TA literacy strategy. A relevant PLO to use would be that students will “assess significant historical events in relation to social, political, economic, technological, cultural, and geographic factors” (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006). Students would pause at portions of a text or even a movie, and would have to make predications. When students read about corruption in the Afghan government during the war, they could then predict how this would impact the government in the future, using evidence they found to support their claims. Another PLO I would employ in this strategy when learning about the Soviet war in Afghanistan, would be for students to “analyze the late stages of the Cold War with reference to the US/USSR relationship” (British Columbia Ministry of Education, 2006). As this event was one of the last examples of the US and USSR fighting proxy wars, I would use DR-TA to ask students whether they thought this event would lead to the end of the Cold War. Why or why not? Based on their reading of a text and their previous knowledge base they would have validity and supporting evidence to answer these questions.