predictions of what they will read. Making prediction before the reading activity stimulates them to use their background knowledge as their guidance in adjusting
their predictions to figure out the new information. It can be concluded that the key terms of DR-TA are predicting, reading,
and proving. Questions are asked and answered, and predictions are made and tested throughout the reading. Additionally, new questions and predictions are
formulated as the student progresses through the text. Moreover, in DR-TA, all students can be actively involved and everyone has the opportunity to express and
share their predictions, expectations or ideas to others about the text.
2. The Purposes of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
Directed Reading-Thinking Activity strategy engages students in a step- by-step process that guides them through informational text. The students are able
to think even they should be stimulated to think.
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It means that the use of DR-TA strategy helps students develop their critical thinking and logical predictions based
on the information they read. Other purposes of using DR-TA are to elicit students’ prior knowledge of
the topic of the text, to encourage students to monitor their comprehension while they are reading, and to set a purpose for reading in which the students read to
confirm and revise predictions they are making.
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Furthermore, Farris, Fuhler and Walther quoted Beck’s statement who said that “points out that making predictions based upon clues in text helps students to
see how helpful text information can be when making inferences.”
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It means that the purpose of DR-TA is to help learners to comprehend the text and make
inferences thorough clues in the text. Here, teacher is able to give picture, chart or sentence’s clue in which helping the students to comprehend the text. So, students
would be able to make prediction about the story. Then after making prediction,
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Robert Karlin, Teaching Elementary Reading Third Edition: Principles and Strategies, San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980, p. 231.
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Directed Reading - Thinking Activity, Retrieved on September 21, 2015 from http:www.nea.orgtoolsdirected-reading-thinking-activity.html
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Farris, Fuhler and Walther, op.cit., p. 338.
teacher confirms the prediction by giving the next sentences. Those are done repeatedly throughout the story in order to ease the students to find the conclusion
of the story. In summing up, the purpose of directed reading-thinking activity is to
assist the students to comprehend the text or the story using clues of the text such as some sentence clues, pictures and charts. Furthermore, this strategy helps the
students in activating their prior knowledge to develop their critical thinking, logical predictions and their comprehension and to make inferences related to
what are printed in the text.
3. The Procedures of Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
In one source on internet, the main procedure of using Directed Reading- Thinking Activity is divided into 3 steps:
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a. Direct Teachers direct and stimulate students thinking prior to reading a passage
by scanning the title, chapter headings, illustrations, and other explanatory materials. Then teachers should use open-ended questions to direct students as
they make predictions about the content or perspective of the text e.g., “Given this title, what do you think the passage will be about?”. Students should be
encouraged to justify their responses and activate prior knowledge. b. Reading
Teachers should have students read up to the first pre-selected stopping point in the text. The teacher then prompts the students with questions about
specific information and asks them to evaluate their predictions and refine them if necessary. This process should be continued until students have read
each section of the passage. c. Thinking
At the end of the reading, teachers should have students go back through the text and think about their predictions. Students should verify or modify the
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Directed Reading-Thinking Activities: Classroom Strategies, 2011, Retrieved on September 21, 2015 from http:www.adlit.orgstrategies23356
