IMPROVING UNDERSTANDING: READING STRATEGY INSTRUCTION Jenna Zwiebel Towson University Fall 2011

Objectives Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011 Participants will…  gain knowledge of important research that demonstrates the effectiveness of teaching comprehension strategies.  identify strategies that can be used to improve reading comprehension.  reflect on their comprehension instruction and identify ways to refine their practice.

Why Do We Read? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Turn and Talk: Why do you read?  What do our student’s think?  “because you tell me to”  “to become better readers”  “to get good grades”  “because we have to”  “to learn more words”

Why Do We Read? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. (Ness, 2011)  How does this compare with what our students said?  What can we do to align our students thinking with what the research indicates?

Your Experiences Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  How were you taught comprehension?  Let’s play Four Corners!  Corner A: What was the teacher doing?  Corner B: What were the students doing?  Corner C: What materials were being used?  Corner D: What did the classroom look like/sound like?

Minute Reflection Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Take a minute to reflect on how you teach comprehension…

A Startling Statistic Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  “Nearly 9 million of today’s 4 th through 12 th graders struggle to read their textbooks.” (Ness, 2011)  “Many students progress to college without learning the reading comprehension strategies employed by proficient readers.” (Ness, 2011)

Why Teach Comprehension Strategies? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Readers who actively engage in strategy use while reading are more likely to understand what they have read. (Stahl, 2004)  A reader’s understanding of text can be improved by teaching them to use specific cognitive strategies to overcome barriers with their comprehension of text. (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008)

Why Teach Strategies? (continued) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  70% of students who were provided explicit instruction in comprehension strategies made growth with their reading comprehension. (Prado & Plourde, 2011)  Students who were taught using metacognitive strategy instruction scored higher on reading comprehension assessments than student receiving traditional comprehension even a year after instruction was provided. (Houtveen & van de Grift, 2007)  Students who received direct instruction of comprehension strategies performed better on standardized assessments that peers who received no such instruction. (Ness, 2011)

As An Expert Reader… Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  What strategies do you use while you read?  Do you teach your student’s to use any of these strategies?

Comprehension Strategies Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011 Current research identifies the following seven comprehension strategies utilized by readers to gain meaning from text. – Monitor understanding/Metacognition – Make connections using prior knowledge/Schema – Determine Importance – Synthesizing – Ask questions – Visualize/construct mental images – Make inferences (Prado & Plourde, 2011)

Metacognition Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Thinking about your thinking  Metacognition helps a reader identify tasks, monitor performance, choose appropriate strategies, and solve problems. (Wilson, 2011)  Thinking while we read, is REAL reading! lancastercfa.wikispaces.com

Schema Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Children rely heavily on their background knowledge to interact with text. Instruction must help them utilize this knowledge to make connections to the text. (Stahl, 2004)

Determine Importance Jenna Zwiebel Fall  “Thoughtful readers sift out relevant and useful information.” (McGregor, 2007)

Synthesize Jenna Zwiebel Fall  “Thoughtful readers continually change their thinking in response to text.” (McGregor, 2007)

Ask Questions Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Learning to generate questions about a text will help to improve the readers general understanding of the text. (Duke & Pearson, 2008/2009)

Visualize Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011 debbiediller.wordpress.com  Using visual imagery will help students with poor comprehension store and retrieve what they have read. (Stahl, 2004)

Make Inferences Jenna Zwiebel Fall  “Thoughtful readers draw conclusions, make predictions, and form interpretations.” (McGregor, 2007)

Which strategies do we use? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Let’s take a deeper look at the strategies you use while reading.  Select a dot to place on each of the seven strategies listed  Blue: all the time  Green: most of the time  Yellow: some of the time  Red: never

Which strategies do we use? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Which strategies are used most often?  Least often?  How does this reflect in the classroom?  Is there a correlation between your use of a strategy and your comfort level for teaching it?

Let’s Give it a Try Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  As you read this short piece of text, identify which strategies you are using, by drawing the corresponding symbol in the place of the text that strategy was used. ? Question ! Clarify & Connection ^ Infer $ Visualize # Synthesize % Determine Importance

What do you teach? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Are you currently incorporating any of these strategies in your instruction?  Take a moment to rank these strategies according to your comfort level with teaching them… Nice and Calm I Have Some Questions Feeling Anxious

Strategy versus Skills Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Harcourt Storytown identifies both reading strategies and skills for each lesson.  How do we know what to teach?  What should we focus on?  What’s the difference?  Strategies are the techniques a reader uses to process the text. (Pressley & Beard-Dinary, 1992)

Condensing What we Teach Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Skills should be able to fit into the processes required for several different strategies.  Take the list of skills Harcourt suggests we teach our students throughout the school year.  Work with your team, determine which strategy each of these skills could be taught with and record in your chart.

How do We Teach it? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011 Match Up  In your envelope are researched based steps to be utilized during strategy instruction, there is also a description of each step.  Work in groups of 2-3  Match the step to its description  Place the steps in the order you feel would be most appropriate for instruction

Steps for Strategy Instruction Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Explicit Instruction  Modeling  Shared Practice  Guided Practice  Independent Practice (Houtveen & van de Grift, 2007), (Duke & Pearson, 2008/2009)

Research about Instructional Practices Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  A key to success in comprehension strategy instruction is the use of the gradual release of responsibility. (Ness, 2011)  Instruction should follow a cycle of the gradual release model  Teacher explanation and modeling  Shared and guided practice  Independent practice & application (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008), (Prado & Plourde, 2011)

Transactional Strategy Instruction Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Transactional Strategy Instruction  Students work in groups to construct an understanding of the text while the teacher proves prompts and reminders regarding which strategies can be used while reading Lesson beings with the teacher or a student sharing their a question about the text, several students response and provide feedback (Pressley & Beard-Dinary, 1992)

Reciprocal Teaching Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Reciprocal Teaching  Students work in small groups with guidance from the teacher to utilize four strategies (predicting, questioning, clarfying, and summarizing) to develop an understanding of the text. The lesson begins with the discaloge leader modelsthe use of strategies explaining how, when, and why the strategy was used, then the dialouge leaders will ask a question about the text and group members work together to clarify this and other questions they may have. After discsuion the dialogue leader summarizes the selection and makes a prediction about what will happen next. (Stahl, 2004) (Sporer, Brunstein, & Kieschke, 2009)

What Resources Can We Use? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor (Heinemann, 2007)  Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis (Stenhouse Publishers, 2007)  Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller (Stenhouse Publishers, 2002)

Next Steps Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Book Study  Classroom Demonstration Lessons  Small Group Planning  Lesson Study  Observations and Feedback  Individual or Group Planning Sessions

Begin with the End in Mind Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  What goals do we have for our students?  What will our strategic readers…  look like?  sound like?  be able to do?  Complete the picture of a strategic reader to show what your student’s will do at the end of the school year.

Reflect Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Minute Reflection: What would you like to see modeled in your classroom?  This can be a specific strategy or a component of a lesson you are unsure how to implement!

Evaluate Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Please take a few minutes to complete the workshop evaluation  Please be honest with your feedback as it will be used to help plan future professional development sessions/activities!

References Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011  Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P.D., & Paris, S.G. (2008). Clarifying differences between reading skills and reading strategies. Reading Teacher, 61(5),  Dewitz, P., Jones, J., Leahy, S. (2009) Comprehension strategy instruction in core reading programs. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(2),  Duke, N.K., and Pearson, P.D. (2008/2009). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. Journal of Education, 182 (1/2),  Houtveen, A. A. M., & van de Grift, W. J. C. M. (2007). Effects of metacognitive strategy instruction and instruction time on reading comprehension. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(2),  McGregor, T. (2007). Comprehension connections: Bridges to strategic reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.  Ness, M. (2011). Explicit reading comprehension instruction in elementary classrooms: Teacher use of reading comprehension strategies. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(1),  Prado, L., & Plourde, L. A. (2011). Increasing reading comprehension through explicit teaching of reading strategies: Is there a difference among the genders? Reading Improvement, 48(1),  Pressley, M., & Beard-Dinary, P. (1992). Beyond direct explanation: Transactional instruction of reading comprehension. The Elementary School Journal, 92 (5),  Sporer, N., Brunstein, J.C., & Kieschke, U. (2009). Improving students’ reading comprehension skills: Effects of strategy instruction and reciprocal teaching. Learning and Instruction, 19(3),  Stahl, K.A.D. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 57(7),  Wilson, N. (2011). The heart of reading instruction: Metagcognition. California Reader, 44(3),