COMPREHENSION Text Comprehension Instruction Developed by Jo Miller King and Kathy Casey

Workshop Goals zTo relate comprehension strategies to the Delaware State Standards and the National Reading Panel zTo review research about proficient reading strategies zTo review and develop activities for teaching good reader strategies

TTAPA Turn To A Partner And... Use this activity often in your classroom to encourage your children to talk to each other. This activity enables you to control the talking while still allowing children to develop thinking/comprehension.

The person doing the talking is doing the learning.

Traditional Comprehension Skills zFinding the Main Idea zIdentifying Details zDetecting the Sequence zDrawing Conclusions zDetermining Cause and Effect zComparing and Contrasting

Skills - Strategies Research suggests that teaching skills in isolation does not transfer to reading comprehension.

Reading is constructing meaning from print.

Historical View of Reading

Vygotskys Zone of Proximal Development Zone of Proximal Development is the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance. Wooten, D. (2000, pp. 19). Valued Voice: An interdisciplinary approach teaching and learning. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

More Ways to Strengthen Reading Comprehension Good readers have several strategies in common. zThey make connections between prior knowledge and the text. zThey ask questions. zThey visualize. zThey draw inferences. z They determine important ideas. zThey synthesize information. zThey repair understanding. These strategies can be taught. The teacher must gradually release the responsibility of the strategy to the student, much in the same way a young child learns to ride a bike from his/her parents.

Pearson, Roehler, Dole and Duffy propose: zThese strategies become the kindergarten through twelfth- grade reading comprehension curriculum zA lengthy list of discrete reading skills does not add up to proficient reading zTeachers understand the cognitive processes used most frequently by proficient readers and they provide explicit, in-depth instruction focused over a long period of time on these strategies zTeachers use authentic and challenging texts (high quality childrens literature and will-written nonfiction) to help students move along the continuum from novice to proficient reader z(Keene, E. & Zimmermann, S. (1997) Mosaic of Thought. Portsmouth: Heinemann.)

Cognitive Strategy Instruction When readers are given cognitive strategy instruction, they make significant gains on measures of reading comprehension over students trained with conventional instructional procedures. (Pressley, et al., 1989) National Reading Panel Full Report, 1999

Five Premises Basic to Reading Comprehension zReader constructs meaning by making connections between new information and what is already known zPrior knowledge plays an important role in learning zreading and writing are connected zlearning is a socially interactive process zcomprehension is dependent on METACOGNITION

Metacognition is thinking about what you are thinking. Reading comprehension is thinking about what you are thinking while you are reading.

The Human Graph What I Know About Schema Theory zNothing zA Little zDont Know What I Know zSome zA Lot

Schema Theory PATTERNS Science Literacy Art Music Nature plants graphics reading writing language

The questions that p___________ face as they raise ch__________ from in________ to adult life are not easy to an__________. Both fa________ and m________ can become concerned when health problems such as co________ arise any time after the e________ stage to later in life. Experts recommend that young ch________ should have plenty of s________ and nutritious food for healthy growth. B________ and g________ should not share the same b________ or even sleep in the same r________. They may be afraid of the d________.

Poultrymen chickens incubation answer

farmers merchants coccidiosis egg chicks sunshine banties geese barnyard roost dark

Comprehension is not something that just happens. Comprehension needs to be taught.

SAIL Article

How to Teach Comprehension Strategies? Teacher Modeling zExplain the strategy zDemonstrate how to apply the strategy successfully zThink aloud to model the mental process when reading Guided Practice zAfter modeling, give students more responsibility for task completion zScaffold students attempts with feedback and support zStudents share their thinking process with each other during paired reading and discussion groups Independent Practice zStudents try to apply strategy on their own zStudents receive regular feedback from teacher and other students Application of the Strategy in Real Reading Situations zStudents apply an understood strategy to a new genre or format zStudents demonstrate the effective use of a strategy in a more difficult text

Students need to practice the strategy at the listening level before applying the strategy at the reading level.

THINK ALOUDS For Teaching Good Reader Comprehension Strategies zConnect This reminds me of... I remember something like this that happened to me when... zPredict/Anticipate I wonder if... I wonder who... I think I know what is coming next... I think we will learn how... zQuestion/Monitor I wonder what is means when... I dont understand... I am going to reread that because it didnt make sense...

THINK ALOUDS (Continued) zImagine/Infer Even though it isnt in the picture I can see that... Mmm, I can almost taste the... I can picture the... zSummarize/Conclude The most important thing I have learned so far is... It didnt say why she did that but I bet... So far I have learned that... zEvaluate/Apply My favorite part in this chapter was... I really like how the author... What I dont like about this part is... It was interesting to learn that...

How to Teach Comprehension Strategies? Teacher Modeling zExplain the strategy zDemonstrate how to apply the strategy successfully zThink aloud to model the mental process when reading Guided Practice zAfter modeling, give students more responsibility for task completion zScaffold students attempts with feedback and support zStudents share their thinking process with each other during paired reading and discussion groups Independent Practice zStudents try to apply strategy on their own zStudents receive regular feedback from teacher and other students Application of the Strategy in Real Reading Situations zStudents apply an understood strategy to a new genre or format zStudents demonstrate the effective use of a strategy in a more difficult text

JIGSAW How to Teach With Comprehension Strategies in Mind? #1 - Lesson: Visualizing From a Vivid Piece of Text #2 - Lesson: Schema - It Reminds Me Of #3 - Lesson: Connections #4 - Lesson: Inferring

Comprehension Instruction in a Balanced Literacy Program Read Aloud Comprehension strategies are explicitly modeled Guided Reading Comprehension strategies are explicitly taught with lots of guided practice Shared Reading/Literature Circles Comprehension strategies are modeled and some guided practice is provided. Independent Reading Comprehension strategies are independently practiced and applied.

The Lesson Research Suggests a New Format Reading assignment given Independent reading Discussion to see if students learned main concepts, what they should have learned. Traditional FormatNew Format Prereading activities Discussion, Predictions, Questioning, Brainstorming, Setting Purpose Guided Reading Activities to clarify, reinforce, extend know- ledge

Guided Reading Instructional Plan

JIGSAW #1 Alphaboxes #2 My Turn Your Turn #3 Read, Cover, Remember, Tell #4 Word Prediction

Methodology of the National Reading Panel Categories of Comprehension and Instruction zComprehension Monitoring zCooperative Learning zGraphic Organizers zActive Listening zMental Imagery zMnemonics zMultiple Strategies zPrior Knowledge zQuestion Answering zQuestion Generation zStory Structure zSummarization zVocabulary-Comprehension Relationship

zA source for reading lessons zHandout contains comprehension strategy lessons from the reading lady zSimple lessons that you can do right away in your classroom zENJOY!!!

THE PEOPLE SEARCH A Post-Strategy for Reading Comprehension