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c. The Advantages of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
There are some advantages of using the DR-TA technique. 1
It encourages students to be active and thoughtful readers. 2
It activates students prior knowledge. 3
It teaches students to monitor their understanding of the text as theyre reading.
4 It helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills Reading Rockets,
2009. Furthermore, A DR-TA may be used with an individual, a small group, or
a whole class. This activity can be easily adapted for a variety of subjects and reading levels. This technique helps strengthen reading and critical thinking skills.
As the teacher guides the process, the DR-TA teaches students to determine the purpose for reading and make adjustments to what they think will come next
based on the text Adolescent Literacy, 2011. It is also stated that DR-TA is a motivating teaching strategy. Students
enjoy making predictions and then finding out whether or not their predictions were correct. DR-TA is also a very flexible technique in that it can be used
individually, with a small group, or with an entire class. It can also be used in any subject and can meet the needs of any leveled reader Literacy Strategies, 2011.
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d. The Disadvantages of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
According to Manzo and Manzo 1990: 104, the disadvantages of DR-TA are:
1 The technique is relatively imprecise regarding how to achieve the described
objectives. 2
The technique needs has prompted the development of many parallel and complementary techniques.
Others disadvantages of DR-TA technique are as follows: 1
Depends on a teacher, teacher who prepares students to reach a deeper level of understanding in the reading process
2 Retention of how to solve the problems is low, because the students have not
struggled with the problem themselves. This disadvantage can be overcome by having the students do many complex problems on their own. However, this
means that one of the advantages time efficiency is lost 3
DR-TA technique works for only a small percentage of students, not for a great variety. The students who have other than verbal “intelligence”, or who
come from different cultural world views will fail.
4. Teaching Reading Using Note-Taking Pairs Technique Compared to
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