Some teachers in Hawaiian classrooms, in cooperation with researchers such as Katherine Au, have developed a way to teach elementary reading, Experience-Text-Relationship (ETR), that focuses on comprehension and draws on the strengths of the Hawaiian culture. The basic element of the ETR method is discussion of a text and topics related to the text, especially students' own experiences.
Teachers conduct discussion of stories in three phases. First, they guide students to activate what they know that will help them understand what they read, make predictions, and set purposes. This is the Experience phase. Next, they read the story with the students, stopping at appropriate points to discuss the story, determine whether their predictions were confirmed, and so on. This is the Text phase. After they have finished the story, teachers guide students to relate ideas from a text to their own experiences. This is the Relationship phase. Teachers facilitate comprehension, model processes, and may coach students as they engage in reading and comprehension activities.
Hawaiians engage in "talk story" as a favored way to narrate stories. While some cultures expect only one person to relate a story, Hawaiians cooperate by taking turns relating small parts of a story. Encouraging such strategies in reading lessons promotes collaboration among students and the teacher and involves, indirectly, the community as well. (Cooperation among family and group members is also important in other aspects of the culture.) As a result, the ETR method not only attends to students' experiences related to the content of a text, but also honors communication strategies students have learned in their own cultures.