Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades Reading with Meaning Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades

Chapter 1: Guiding Principles Establishing a Framework: Readers’ Workshop (90 mins daily) Mini-Lesson (15-20 min): Teachers model strategy and think aloud Read,respond,confer (45-50 min): Students practice strategy in small groups (also allows time for teacher to modify instruction based on student needs) Sharing (15-20 min): Students share work and reflect includes both strategy instruction and gradual release of responsibility Gradual Release of Responsibility: Model of explicit Reading Instruction Teacher models and explains strategy--->guided practice-->independent practice- ->application of strategy in real reading situations

Chapter 2: In Creating a Culture and Climate for Thinking It is essential to create a classroom community to “bring together the voices, hearts, and souls of the people who inhabit them” (Miller, 2002) rigor, inquiry, and intimacy: build trusting relationships and a working literacy environment (between teacher and student as well as between students themselves) Make use of *teachable moments* Allow students to challenge themselves by providing appropriate support Hold high expectations Trust your students...AND trust yourself!

Chapter 3: Readers’ Workshop Book Selection: In the Beginning Teachers can provide students with books outside their instructional level in order to set procedure rules, reading behaviors and the “tone of the workshop” Provide a variety of literature: songbooks, fairy tales, ABC books, picture books, poetry and well-illustrated nonfiction Reading Aloud Use songbooks to help students gain fluency through predictable text, rhythm and rhyme Engages and motivates students. Easy to learn increases phonemic awareness and builds upon sight words

Readers’ Workshop Process Mini-Lesson Initial Mini-Lesson for Readers’ Workshop should focus on modeling and identifying reading behaviors, expectations and procedures Model strategies and think aloud explain the “what, how, and why” (Vacca, Vacca, & Mraz, 2011) Reading and Conferring After the mini-lesson: be explicit in what students are to do, how to do it, and why it is important (Set a purpose!) While students are reading: confer with students, take notes, gather information about students as readers to drive instruction Sharing Students share what they’ve learned and reflect on process and content choose students eager to share as well as those who have ideas related to the mini-lesson

Chapter 4: Settling In *Book Selection Content Schema Motivation Variety *Teacher’s active role: strategies *Evaluation *Phonics and Word Identification

Choosing “Just-Right” Books It is essential to teach students how to choose books at their instructional level. - What’s most important? giving children choice early mini-lessons on ways readers make good choices teaching children to focus on: Content: asking “what do I know about this topic or story?” Schema: using prior knowledge and combining what they know about themselves and what they know about the books in the classroom to make good decisions. Motivation: student’s willingness to learn to read a book. Teachers modeling their love for reading and inviting children to join in and love reading too. Variety: teaching children how to thoughtfully select a variety of text types that meet their needs.

Teachers Take an Active Role Book talks: teacher reads the title, first few pages and then browses through the book out loud, then suggests it to a student Sticky notes: teacher writes a personal message on a sticky note, puts it on the cover of a book and then places the book in a child’s cubby telling the student why she suggested it Read-aloud: read aloud some of the titles children are reading which raises the status of the book and give children a preview of the text

Teachers Take an Active Role Recommending charts: allow children to recommend books to one another and model by creating charts saying “To and From,” “I Recommend,” and “Why?” Go looking together: browse through books with the child thinking out loud the choosing process you want them to do independently Pick one: teacher offers three just right books and asks the child to choose one Conferring: One-on-one conversations with students about their books and book selections

Evaluation DRA - measures a child’s reading level through running records and retellings But how do we measure other areas of reading comprehension? documenting how children acquire new knowledge and construct meaning conferencing with students and writing down what you have learned about them as readers, writers and learners in a notebook providing small groups that give students the opportunity to teach and learn from each other apply and practice strategies for comprehension, decoding, and meaning of words chart and share their new insights

Phonics and Word Identification *Decoding and comprehension strategies should be taught side-by-side throughout the primary grades- how? explicit instruction modeling reading high-quality literature and children’s writing giving children time to practice real reading and writing *Teachers can practice different skills through: the morning message singing small-group meetings independent reading and writing charting and posting evidence of side-by-side teaching

Chapter 5: Schema Thinking Aloud Making Connections Schema at a Glance

Thinking Aloud Explicit modeling requires thoughtful planning and prevents poor performance Authenticity matters! Whatever the strategy focus is, it must be genuine Use precise language when sharing your thinking To enhance understanding and construct meaning try thinking through the text together “My goal is to give them a framework for thinking, as well as to help them build a common language for talking about books.”

Lesson on Schema Teacher will say: “Thinking about what you already know is called using your schema, or using your background knowledge.” “It helps you to use what you know to better understand and interact with the text.” “Using schema helps us to make different types of connections- it’s kind of like having a conversation in your head.” Types of Connections Text-to-self: when we make connections between what we read and our own lives Text-to-text: when children make connections from one text to another Text-to-world: teacher listens to what they have to say and being aware of what’s going on in the world

Schema at a Glance What’s Key for Students? *Readers should... activate their prior knowledge before, during, and after reading use schema to make connections with themselves, other texts, and the world distinguish between connections that are meaningful and relevant and those that are not build, change, and revise their schema when they encounter new information in the text, engage with others, and gain personal experience use their schema to enhance understanding

Chapter 6: Creating Mental Images * In the Beginning: Thinking Aloud * Anchor Lessons- what children should know

Thinking Aloud about Mental Images creating mental images helps the reader to engage with the text in a personal and memorable way images come from the emotions of all 5 senses enhances understanding and immerses the reader in rich details makes the text come alive each child reading the book will have different images because each child’s schema is different makes personal connections in the child’s mind that will be remembered

Anchor Lessons *Through anchor lessons, children explore how... Images are created from reader’s schema and words in the text Readers create images to form unique interpretations, clarify thinking, draw conclusions, and enhance understanding Reader’s images are influenced by the shared images of others Images are fluid; readers adapt them to incorporate new information as they read Evoking vivid mental images helps readers create vivid mental images in their writing

Chapter 7: Digging Deeper *Children need to make the transition to start to: listen actively and respond thoughtfully to others in order to understand another’s point of view talk about books and ideas independently and in meaningful ways discuss their connections, images, questions, and inferences integrate their learning into their play and making the materials another means for creating understanding and constructing meaning Responses should focus and engage young readers and enhance understanding. Suggestions for teachers: sticky notes notebook entries two-column notes venn diagrams webs story maps

Chapter 8: Inferring Inferring is “the heart of meaning construction” (Miller, 2002) Students will (Anchor lessons): determine meanings of unknown words using semantic and syntactic clues, pictures, prior knowledge make predictions using schemas use prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions/make interpretations provide students with opportunities for dramatic expression--deepens understanding infer when information is not explicit in text choose stories that provoke questions, record questions and seek out to answer them create interpretations to enrich and deepen their experience in a text provides opportunities to read books that expand their perspectives on a wide range of issues

Chapter 9: Asking Questions Anchor Lessons Readers purposefully and spontaneously ask questions before, during, and after reading Record and code questions as they are asked B for questions asked before reading D for questions asked during reading A for questions asked after reading

Chapter 9: Asking Questions Readers ask questions to: Clarify meaning Speculate about text yet to be read Determine an author’s style, intent, content, or format Focus attention on specific components of the text Locate a specific answer in the text or consider rhetorical questions inspired in the text Finding Answers: Record where and how students found answers: T for answers found in the text I for answers found by inferring OS for answers found with an outside source

Chapter 10: Determining Importance in Nonfiction You can introduce nonfiction by: Asking children to bring a nonfiction book they haven’t read to the meeting area, get eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee with a partner, and make predictions about what they expect to learn Spreading fiction and nonfiction materials out in the meeting area, asking children to get a partner, choose two or three items, and ask themselves, “Is this fiction or nonfiction? How do we know?” Asking children to bring a nonfiction book and a fiction book to the meeting area, get into pairs, and create a Venn diagram that shows the two books’ difference and similarities. The create one large diagram that combines everyone’s thinking.

Chapter 10: Determining Importance in Nonfiction Convention Notebooks: Contain 12 sheets of blank white paper and a construction paper cover and back. Each day for two weeks focus on a different convention Find the convention in nonfiction books and flag with sticky notes Share with the class and think aloud about how they help us as readers and what the purpose is of that convention Children then find examples of that convention in nonfiction books and record one example in their notebook and come up with one example of their own. Think Aloud Questions: What do I already know about the topic? What type of book or other source will help me best? Where will I find the information? How is the information organized in the source? How will I go about locating what I need? What did I learn? How can I synthesize my learning for myself and others?

Chapter 11: Synthesizing Information Framework for thinking about retelling as students synthesize: Tell what’s important In a way that makes sense Without telling too much Fiction Synthesis: Model the activity using familiar picture books and fairy tales Organization of the story: setting, characters, problems, an event or two, and the problem’s resolution, help focus and support their understanding Nonfiction Synthesis: Focus on what they have learned, rather than the elements of the story Have students take notes by writing down only a few important words to help them remember what they’ve learn and ask them to share their learning orally or written, in their own words.

Chapter 11: Synthesizing Information Give students more independence by: Stopping now and then while reading a story aloud and ask students to get eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee in order to synthesize the text so far, then collaborate and talk about their thoughts with the group Ask children to read independently for five or ten minutes, stopping them to find a partner and retell the story or what they have learned in their own words Asking children who are reading the same text to synthesize it when they finish, then get together and compare their thinking

References Miller, D. (2002). Reading with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. L., & Mraz, M.E. (2011). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum (Tenth Edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.