CSI – Comprehension Strategies Instruction Help students learn and apply comprehension strategies, academic vocabulary, and fluency in the content areas

Comprehension is critically important to the development of children’s reading skills… Indeed, reading comprehension has come to be the ‘essence of reading’ (Durkin, 1993)… Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000

What is CSI? CSI is a program of whole-group, cooperative, and independent learning materials developed to help students learn and apply comprehension strategies, vocabulary, and fluency in the content areas.

Lessons combine interactive texts or OHTs, cooperative activity books, journals, and audio texts. Each program box is color-coded and numbered with a CSI level number. These numbers correspond to grade levels. Included with each program, but packaged separately, are 30 student reflection journals.

PROGRAM COMPONENTS Whole-group activities Cooperative activities Independent activities

In each 3-5 kit, there are two file boxes A whole-group box and a cooperative box

The 3-5 whole-group boxes contain 45 lesson plan folders with overhead transparencies and interactive digital texts (includes 5 introductory, 8 fiction, 8 nonfiction, 8 math, 8 science, and 8 social studies lessons comprehension strategy base) 1 Teachers’ guide 2 Interactive CD-ROMs containing whole-group texts for the interactive whiteboard

The National Reading Panel summarized the scientific research and concluded: “…explicit or formal instruction in the application of comprehension strategies has been shown to be highly effective…” Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000

The 3-5 cooperative boxes contain 15 copies of a student cooperative activity book featuring 40 texts across fiction, nonfiction, math, science, and social studies. Also included: marker pens and blank transparencies for responding to the text. 1 reflection journal for students to record and reflect on their use of comprehension strategies (note: 30 of these are packaged separately) 2 audio CDs featuring fluent reading models of all cooperative texts

USING THE PROGRAM

Who should teach CSI? CSI is developed for use by any educator interested in improving comprehension and content area literacy.

The importance of content-area literacy “…students of all ages, from elementary school to high school, have difficulty comprehending the structure of informational text…” McGee, 1982; Meyer, Brandt, and Bluth, 1980; Taylor, 1980; in Block, Gambrell, and Pressley, 2002, p. 9

Scheduling Options and Management CSI is developed to be flexible Detailed scheduling options can be found in the teachers’ guides

Whole-Group Instruction From a file box, you will need: The teachers guide Lesson plan folders The interactive CD-Rom You also need an overhead transparency projector or a digital projector.

Select a Strategy Lesson Each lesson supports the teacher to teach a particular comprehension strategy using the text provided. In CSI there are lesson plan folders for each of these strategies:

Why These Strategies? CSI is based on research evidence about the benefits of learning comprehension strategies. Harvey and Goudvis, and Zimmermann and Hutchins recommend these strategies.

Preparing the Lesson Read the front of the lesson plan folder.

Preparing the Lesson Read through the lesson on the inside cover of the folder. Teacher action prompt Teacher speech prompt Student writing prompt

Prepare the text according to the note near the top of the inside cover You can show the text piece on an overhead projector or an interactive whiteboard: Note that if you only have a digital projector, you can project the text onto any surface and still use the interactive features via your computer and mouse

Sequence Follow the whole-group lesson with the student cooperative activity as shown the back of the lesson plan folder.

Cooperative Learning You will need: The teachers’ guide or interactive CD-ROM (to photocopy or print the graphic organizers) 15 cooperative activities books (to be given out to pairs or small groups of students) The marker pens and transparencies (if using Grades 3-5 kits) The audio CD for struggling readers or ELLs

The National Reading Panel found that repeated reading with audio support leads “to marked improvements in student reading performance…” Blum et al., cited in Report of the National Reading Panel, 2000

Preparing the Cooperative Student Activity Carefully pair or group your students so that peer interaction is maximized Photocopy (from the teachers’ guide) or print out (from the interactive CD-ROM) copies of the corresponding graphic organizer for each student.

Supporting the Cooperative Student Activity Give each pair/group a cooperative activities book, and each student a copy of the graphic organizer. Support them as they read, talk, and think their way through the activities in the margin beside the text. The writing activity using the graphic organizer is the final step of the cooperative student activity.

Independent Reflection A student reflection journal is provided for independent use during the school year. These journals are for students to record and reflect on their use of comprehension strategies outside of the whole-group instruction and cooperative practice. These can be used in class or at home.

The student reflection journal contains: Information on each comprehension strategy written in student-friendly language Templates for students to record using the strategies Information on using combinations of strategies A strategy use graph

Using the Journal

USING THE INTERACTIVE CD-ROM

Select the content area, then choose a text within that area. We are going to open Shark.

The text will open into a viewer like this

Hypertext Glossary Definitions The bolded words in the text have interactive glossary definitions – click on the bolded word and the glossary definition will appear in a text box. Click on the bolded word to see a word definition.

Picture Glossaries Click on the bolded word to see a word definition and a picture definition Where words lend themselves well to picture definitions, you will find picture glossaries.

Video Content Click on the green play button to start the video and click it again to stop. About a quarter of CSI digital texts contain embedded video. The video is included as extra support for students, particularly struggling readers.

The icons at the bottom of the screen allow teachers and students to interact with the text in different ways. Home: takes you to the main menu screen Play: Shows the text full-screen Sticky Note: Creates a sticky note over the text for you to write on Drawing Mode: This mode allows you to write and draw over the text Highlight Mode: This mode allows you to highlight parts of the text Delete Mode: This allows you to delete selected objects Mask Mode: This mode lets you show only part of the screen, hiding the rest Selection Mode: This mode allows you to click on glossary words, and select objects (like sticky notes or drawings) and move them around the screen. ZoomScroll bar

Mask Mode Move: While clicking and holding down on this icon, you can move the mask box around the screen. Zoom: You can make the mask box fill the screen Mask Mode: While you have part of the text masked, clicking on mask mode will unmask the text You can also change the size of the mask box using the arrows in each corner.

Some lesson plans have the teacher set up the interactive text showing only the title first.

Draw and Highlight Mode You can select different thicknesses and colors for your highlighter or pen

Virtual Sticky Note Model how to annotate a text by selecting the Note function

Move: While clicking and holding down on this icon, you can move the sticky note around the screen Edit: This mode lets you type text into the sticky note Rotate: While clicking and holding down on this icon, you can rotate the sticky note Object Menu: This menu allows you to delete the note You can also change the size of the sticky note using the arrows in each corner

Virtual Sticky Note If you are at the whiteboard, you can use the onscreen keyboard to type into your note

Delete Mode After clicking on delete mode, click onto an object or group to delete that object or group.

Clicking the Home button will take you back to the home menu. The home button

In short, they [middle years students] must be taught how to comprehend. (2004, p.1) Furthermore,… children who are reading up to grade level in the primary grades do not automatically become proficient readers in later grades. Biancarosa and Snow, cited in International Reading Association, 2006, p.1

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