Continuing Comprehension Teaching and Learning Loddon/Mallee October 2009

Agenda Revision comprehension strategies reading curriculum gradual release of responsibility independent reading (see checklist) classroom/area library (see checklist) conferring with students/appropriate assessment Responsibility of teaching years 5-7 (What is definitely known about comprehension instruction?) Planning/differentiated instruction/all domains Comprehension routines – RT, QAR, SQ3R Vocabulary Fluency Decoding Where to next?

Effective teachers of comprehension Understand the comprehension strategies Plan teaching with a variety of text types Plan teaching and learning using a gradual release of responsibility model Know that comprehension teaching does not stand alone (fluency, decoding, vocabulary & world knowledge influence comprehension)

Comprehension Strategies Prediction/Prior Knowledge Questions and Questioning Think- aloud Text Structure and Features Visualising and Visual Representations Summarising AT ALL YEAR LEVELS and for life

The Reading Curriculum Using a range of “texts” (a variety of fiction and factual genres), within the context of authentic reading situations in all domains, the reading curriculum includes the teaching and learning about: The reading process – sampling the text, predicting the content and continually confirming or self-correcting and using syntactic, semantic, graphophonic cues to construct meaning; Comprehension strategies – predicting/prior knowledge, questioning, thinking-aloud, using text structures and features, visualising, summarising Vocabulary (affected by world knowledge) Fluency – expression, phrasing, rate Decoding (not just “sounding out”) Response to reading How to select appropriate (“just right”) texts for independent reading and about the selection of easy or challenging texts for a range of purposes

WHAT IS INDEPENDENT READING? Reading with 95% or higher accuracy rate and understanding what is being read. SMART readers know how to select just right books. In your schools: How often are students reading independently in all domains? Are teachers conferring with students at this time to learn about students’ strengths and needs?

RESEARCH “Several studies have produced consistent findings showing positive correlations between the volume of independent reading and reading comprehension and vocabulary development.” (Allington, Richard. 2006)

Teaching model: Gradual release of responsibility Read aloud –TO students, with explicit demonstration of strategies and purposes Shared reading – WITH students, collaboratively working on strategies – using an enlarged text Guided reading – WITH & BY students (supported with scaffolds – needs and strengths assessed during the independent reading time; reinforcing effective strategies) Plus other small group tasks Independent reading – BY students (teacher confers with students – this is the real data that informs teaching)

Planning of teaching and learning During reading block or in English classes PLUS Across all domains

Focuses for teaching and learning Selection of texts (level, range, genres, type of text) Stamina Comprehension (each strategy plus combination of strategies/metacognition) Fluency Vocabulary Decoding Response

Teaching and assessment cycle – always for authentic reading purposes Whole class: Read aloud – explicit demonstration Whole class: Shared reading – teachers and students collaboratively using strategy Independent reading – students using strategy while reading; teacher confers with students to assess strengths and needs/teaches “on-the-spot”; students articulate what they are doing; recorded for student and teacher; teacher plans further teaching Additional scaffolded assistance for small groups based on needs – eg. Guided Reading; routines such as SQ3R, DRTA, Reciprocal Teaching, QAR, SAIL; Vocab, fluency, decoding work; how to select texts to read; etc Whole class ……

Conferring When – whenever students are reading, in all domains Who with – all students over time, more often with some What to find out – refer to Reading Curriculum How to find out – what assessment is suitable for each aspect of reading? How to record for students and for planning What teaching is then required? Selecting suitable work depending on the need; planning.

APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENT (data) How is each component of the Reading Curriculum being assessed (to inform teaching)? What level of difficulty is the text and is this increasing over time? - listen to student read and discuss comprehension/refer to student log of reading Reading process – analysis of Running Records of oral reading Comprehension – discussion/comprehension checklists (not just questions to answer) Fluency – student reading aloud Vocabulary–discussion about meaning of words/phrases Decoding – analysis of Running Records of oral reading and analysing strategies used for spelling Range of reading – student log of reading Response to text – conversations with others, ideas presented in reading journals

Responsibilities of teaching years 5-7 Ensuring students see that reading is enjoyable – establishing a reading habit through sustained independent reading Teaching for now (what are students’ strengths and needs? – learned through conferring) PLUS Teaching for the future years of school and for life (what will the expectations of students be in years 7-12?) What information should be passed on to the next teachers and how can this be done so that it’s useful? What is known about what you should be doing? (read article: Comprehension Instruction in Action)

RECIPROCAL TEACHING – one routine using multiple strategies Involves using: Predicting Clarifying meaning (questioning) Questioning Summarising Research: 20 sessions will assist struggling readers to improve reading by at least 1.5 years

SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recall/Recite, Review) Especially useful for learning how to deal with formal assessments which have questions the student has to provide answers for (a test is a genre that students need to learn about) Main strategies used – Survey – predicting, using prior knowledge plus text features such as structure, headings, labels, art/photos, maps, footnotes, etc. Question – what questions arise during survey? (what are test questions?) Read – actively able to use comprehension strategies, thinking about predictions, using text structures, visualising, summarising, (thinking about test questions) Recall/Recite – summarising, using text structure knowledge Review – reviewing total understanding (checking that questions are answered)

Question-Answer-Relationship (QAR) Assists students to figure out how to go about answering questions being asked about a given text. Focuses on the relationship that exists between the question, the text, and the background knowledge of the reader. Students are taught to use four question/answer relationships (QARs) to find the information needed to answer a question – Right There (in the text - literal – detail) Think and Search (in the text - some searching and cross text connections required) Author and me (comes from student’s background knowledge, but students need to have read and understood the text – inferential) On My Own (relates to text, but the student could answer even if they had never read the text - ideas and information come from student’s background knowledge)

VOCABULARY Wide reading Establishment of an environment that promotes word consciousness Explicit instruction of word learning strategies: selection of words, context clues, meaning of word parts, multiple resources, discussion with others, realisation that words have multiple meanings – which is most suitable?

FLUENCY (rate, phrasing, expression) Repeated readings by student, firstly listening, then reading with, then independently Authentic oral reading experiences – radio reading/webcasts, Shared Reading, choral reading, Readers Theatre, poetry club, rehearsed Read Aloud to an audience, paired reading, read along with CDs/DVDs/ipods

DECODING What is the most appropriate way to use knowledge of phonics for the following words? lay disenfranchised specialisation (When reading, should students be taught that using of phonetic strategies means “sounding out” from the beginning of the word? How does this link to teaching spelling? How important is onset/rime work and learning about prefixes, suffixes, compound words?) Which words should students automatically be able to read? How does this link to teaching spelling? How are these words best learned?