Comprehension

Think~ Pair~ Share  Think for one minute what good readers do.  Turn to the person on your left and share

Things Good Readers Do  Ask questions  Make inferences  Make connections and activate prior knowledge  Determine most important ideas  Create visual images (Have a movie in their heads)  Synthesize and summarize  Use fix up strategies  Monitor their comprehension Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop by E. Keene and S. Zimmerman

 “Teachers love to spend time assessing their students’ comprehension of a text. However, very few teachers actually spend time teaching their students HOW to comprehend that text.: When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers

National Reading Panel’s Set of Research-Validated Strategies 2002  Mental Imagery  Comprehension Monitoring  Cooperative Learning  Graphic Organizers  Story Structure  Question Generation and Answering  Summarization

Marzano, Pickering and Pollock 2001  Identifying similarities and differences  Constructing nonlinguistic representations  Generating and testing hypotheses

Comprehension Grades K-5  Reading comprehension is best facilitated by systematically teaching students a variety of techniques and systematic strategies to assist in the following:  Recall information  Question generation  Answer questions  Summarize information  Sequence events  Learn new vocabulary  Monitor their comprehension  Recognize story structure  Organize information using graphic organizers

Research Says…  Monitor as they are reading  Create mental images  Determine what is important  Infer while reading  Synthesize  Make connections  Text to self  Text to text  Text to world

Pressley and Wharton- McDonald 2002  Transactional strategies  Responding to text based on prior knowledge  Interpreting text

Imagery  Read aloud-easiest strategy  When reading to students ask them to make a movie in their heads while listening. Pictures, smells, sounds and feelings. From time to time stop and share your images.  If reading a picture book don’t show the illustrations. Then talk about it.  Sketch to Stretch- Hoyt  Share with small group, asks students to interpret, question and comment on their picture.

 Compare and Contrast  Good readers compare and contrast all the time. We use it often without thinking about it. We use analogy or metaphorical relationships with something we want others to learn and then through comparing and contrasting what is new and what they already know. It leads to deeper understanding.

Making Connections Harvey and Goudvis 2000 Strategies That Work  Text-to-Self (TS)  Something that reminds you of some personal experience or memory. When a student reflects on how this experience relates to something in their own lives they are then moving to a deeper level of understanding.  The best way to teach this is to model it in a read aloud. Then after several modeling events ask students to share their connections until they can do it on their own.

Text-to-Text (TT)  This is when reading and a character, setting, event or problem reminds you of another book you have read.  Model and practice what makes a good connection. Compare and Contrast using graphic organizers Venn Diagram works well here. Any comparison chart works.

Text-to-World (TW)  Often this strategy is something students have not personally experienced or read but something they know through and very dependent on background and prior knowledge.  Sometimes more general in nature based on other readings or other people sharing experiences.  If students do not have many background experiences this can be very difficult and this really limits students to compare and contrast.

Read Aloud Tips  Teach Listening Skills  Practice, reading aloud it does not come naturally to everyone. Use inflections, expression and volume to create mood. Most common mistake is reading too fast and students do not have time to run that movies in their heads.  Select both fiction and nonfiction books keeping students interests in mind. Keep it exciting.

Comprehension Framework  Before Reading:  Set a purpose for reading.  Preview the text to:  Activate and build background knowledge  Introduce vocabulary  Make predictions

Comprehension Framework (continued)  During Reading:  Stop for reactions, comments, and predictions.  After Reading:  Help your students:  Determine important ideas and summarize.  Draw conclusions and make inferences.  Focus on story structure and themes.

Comprehension Strategies  Think Aloud  Begin reading a passage aloud while your children listen or follow along. When you come to a trouble spot, stop and think through it aloud while they listen to what you have to offer.

Comprehension Strategies  Listening Thinking Activity  Preview the text and make predictions based on the title. As you read aloud stop and think out loud making connections or changing predictions.

Just Right Books  The availability of appropriate reading materials greatly impacts children’s literacy development. The more books the better the reading achievement. (Routman 2002)  Students need texts that they can read accurately, fluently, and with good comprehension (Allington 2005 & 2007)

What Do I Want To Learn?  Our last meeting - October- What Date?  What do you want to learn more about?  More from one of the “Big Five” Pillars  Guided Reading  Independent Reading  ???????