Boosting Achievement through Content Area Reading Comprehension Strategies Jim Miles Senior Associate International Center for Leadership in Education

Reading Instruction K Learn to Read Read to Learn Reading in the Content Area

 College vs. Workplace  Entry-level vs. Management-level  High-stakes State Tests  NCLB Legislation  Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)  Academic Rigor  Reading Comprehension Strategies  Best taught in the content area Reading Research

 Process for managing reader progress and reading comprehension  Measures text readability and student reading ability; can match text with student reading level  Determines difficulty of reading by word frequency and sentence structure/length  Most widely used reading measure Lexile Framework for Reading

 Lexile measure reported in increments from 200L to 2000L  Can be used in any curriculum content  Tens of thousands of books, tens of millions of articles, hundreds of publishers, and all major standardized tests have Lexile measures

 Teaching reading comprehension strategies  Matching text to student’s reading level  Using collaborative activities  Using technology  Writing before, during, and after reading READING COMPREHENSION CAN BE INCREASED BY

Literature / Text Lexile Grisham, The Firm 680L Word 2003; Glencoe/McGraw-Hill 800L Brown, The DaVinci Code 850L Harry Potter Series 940L World Cultures: A Global Mosaic ; PH 900L Pride and Prejudice1100L War and Peace1200L Psychology: An Introduction 1300L The Scarlet Letter1400L

Personal Reading Aetna Health Care Discount Form 1360L Medical Insurance Benefit Package 1280L Application for Student Loan 1270L Federal Tax Form W L Installing Your Child Safety Seat 1170L Microsoft Windows User Manual 1150L G.M. Protection Plan 1150L CD DVD Player Instructions 1080L

Newspapers NY Times 1380L Washington Post 1350L Wall Street Journal 1320L Chicago Tribune 1310L Associated Press 1310L USA Today 1200L

16 Career Clusters Department of Education

 Agriculture / Natural Resources L  Architecture / Construction L  Business & Administration L  Health Science L  Hospitality / Tourism L  Human Services L  Law & Public Safety L  Retail / Wholesale Sales L  Transportation, Distribution L Entry-Level Occupational Reading Materials

Health Services

Business and Administration

Architecture and Construction

Government & Public Administration

Reading Comparison

Lexile Framework ® for Reading Study Summary of Text Lexile Measures Text Lexile Measure (L) High School Literature College Literature High School Textbooks College Textbooks Military Personal Use Entry-Level Occupations SAT 1, ACT, AP* * Source of National Test Data: MetaMetrics Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% - 75%)

Reading Comprehension Strategies  increase student’s comprehension and retention of information  activate student’s prior knowledge to connect with new information  teach / reinforce skills that all good readers normally use

Teaching key reading comprehension strategies for only 15 minutes a week can significantly increase student achievement.

Increase Reading Comprehension by  Instruction in and support for strategies  Engaging discussion of reading content  Set rigorous level for text, conversation, questions, and vocabulary  Use practices to increase motivation and engagement with reading  Use specific instructional strategies for learning and retention of content

Reading Comprehension Strategies  Affinity  Anticipation Guide  Cloze  Concept Definition Map  Cornell Graphic Organizer  DR/TA  Fishbone  K-W-L-S  Learning Logs  Minute Paper  Pairs-Read  Paraphrasing  QAR  RAFT  Reciprocal Teaching  Rock Around the Clock  SQ3R  Structured Note-taking  Summarizing  Venn Diagram  Vocabulary in Context

Essential ELA Skills  Preview text to anticipate content  Identify, collect, select pertinent information while reading  Discriminate important ideas from unimportant ideas while reading  Apply, extend, and expand on information while reading

Tips for Reading Specific Text  Brochures  Classified Advertisements  Editorials  Electronic Mail  Employee Handbooks  Forms and Applications  Graphs and Charts  Instructions  New Stories  Operational Manuals  Illustrations and Captions  Primary Sources  Reference Books  Research Reports  Secondary Sources  Tables  Textbooks  Timelines  Web Sites

Direct Reading Thinking Activity Reading Comprehension Strategy

DIRECTED READING / THINKING ACTIVITY (DR/TA) What I know I know: FOCUS FACTS SURE ABOUT What I think I know: FACTS AND ASSUMPTIONS I THINK I KNOW REVEALS MISINFORMATION UNCLEAR THINKING What I think I’ll learn: PREDICT FORECAST AROUSES INTEREST What I know I learned: FACTS LEARNED FROM: READING DISCUSSION

Concept Definition Map Reading Comprehension Strategy

VENN DIAGRAM Reading Comprehension Strategy

Venn Diagram

Virus Bacteria Common to Both Unique to Virus Unique to Bacteria Venn Diagram

Vocabulary is the Gateway to Inferential Thinking Most of us learned to teach vocabulary by having students:  Write the word several times  Find the definition  Write it in a sentence Meta-research from William Nagy, Teaching Vocabulary to Improve Comprehension, ERIC, 2000 reports that…

Verbal Rehearsal  Connect with prior learning  Association method  Think-Pair-Share

Visual Clueing  Post key words  Color code or place with pictures, clip art

Larry Bell’s 12 Powerful Words 1. Trace List in steps 2. Analyze Break apart 3. Infer Read between the lines 4. Evaluate Judge 5. Formulate Create 6. Describe Tell all about 7. Support Back up with details 8. Explain Tell how 9. Summarize Give me the short version 10. Compare All the ways they are alike 11. Contrast All the ways they are different 12. Predict What will happen next

Graphic Organizers  Brain friendly  Creates patterns for the brain  Supports concept development  Multi-purpose  Cross content application with little modification (101 Uses)  Motivating to reluctant writers – small spaces

Frayer Method ExamplesNon-examples Non-linguistic Representation Use or Application – put in context Now write your own definition: Concept

Vocabulary Strategies, Writing Strategies and Graphic Organizers Combine for High Payoff Add some cooperative grouping and you have instant results based learning

Writing Strategies

When Students Write They are obliged to organize concepts,  to place concepts in their own language,  and to connect concepts with their own analogies. Writing often, several times a week, provides constant reinforcement of the content.

Writing to Learn  1 to 3 minutes at the beginning, during, or at the end of class  Several times a week - Daily  Writing to Learn becomes a habit in the classroom.

Writing in response to course content helps students  Think independently  Develop insight  Explore thoughts and feelings  Develop intellectual courage

Examples of Quick Writes  Learning Logs  Entry and Exit Slips

Prompts for Exit / Entry Slips  What one idea from today’s lesson most interested you? Why?  What was the clearest point? The foggiest point?  What are the main points we made today in class?  If you had to restate the concept in your own terms, how would you do that?  How does today’s discussion build on yesterday’s?

Advantages of Exit / Entry Slips  Check for Student Understanding  Judge if Lesson Needs Re-teaching  Students Gain Confidence  Chance to “Listen” to Students  Develop a Dialogue with Students

Quick Write Prompt Unit: Topic: Question / Prompt: Key Points:

I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized." Haim Ginott