STRATEGY INSTRUCTION FROM A SOCIOCOGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

One of the characteristics of proficient readers and writers is their flexible use of reading and writing strategies. Students experiencing difficulties with reading and writing frequently do not use as many strategies as they read and write. Strategies are the cognitive tools that readers use as they construct meaning from text and that writers use as they produce texts. Many of the strategies that proficient readers and writers use are acquired and some are learned. Reading and writing strategies are frequently learned by purposeful instruction in meaningful social situations. This paper describes the nature of strategy use and instruction from a sociocognitive perspective, discusses the need for purposeful strategy instruction for struggling readers and writers, discusses factors that influence strategy instruction, describes current classroom practices that are congruent with sociocognitive theory, and suggests that strategy instruction should be grounded in classroom routines and situated within beliefs about teaching and learning.