Comprehension Strategy Instruction

A Good Choice Much of the comprehension strategy instruction (CSI) today is based on a review of the research reported in “Developing Expertise in Reading Comprehension: What Should Be Taught? How Should It Be Taught?” by P. David Pearson and colleagues There has been multiple research studies since that time supporting CSI for students struggling in the area of reading as well as a part of the total reading program. Harvard University’s suggested reading strategies for freshmen. (handout)

Comprehension Strategy Instruction Comprehension strategies are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Comprehension strategies are tools readers employ in order to make meaning from text. Comprehension means that readers think about what they are learning as they read. As they build their store of knowledge, they must also develop understanding. They must go beyond literal understanding in order to develop insight and to think more deeply and critically. Strategies – means to an end, not an end in themselves, rather a tool for readers to employ Thinking > understanding > insight

The goal is for students to be able to use the reading strategies flexibly and independently, applying them if and when they enhance learning. Learning how to drive a stick shift step by step Practicing the process with prompts Driving with minimal attention Driving under adverse conditions with increased attention Learning to comprehend strategy by strategy Practicing the process with verbal and written prompts Orchestrating strategies with minimal attention Reading more challenging texts with increased attention Analogy – moving from being very metacognitive/aware to seamless orchestration of strategies unless approaching a particularly challenging text

Teaching requires careful listening Teaching requires careful listening. Being a sensitive observer helps answer the questions: How do I know what my students know and are able to do? How will I use what I learned about students today to help them learn more tomorrow? No scripted program can take the place of an observant, analytical teacher One thing that you may want to consider building into your PD is the opportunity to work together to analyze and discuss students’ reading behaviors through the use of audio or video tape or running records. Joint analysis of student work and instructional planning based on that analysis has proven to have a positive impact on student achievement.

Developing a Common Language Ex.: background knowledge, prior knowledge and schema all refer to a very similar concept. Teachers need to decide together which term will make more sense to them and their students. This way we won’t confuse kids with ever changing language. Each year teachers build on strategies students already understand. We can all teach the strategies in developmentally appropriate ways at all grade levels. It is helpful to readers if we settle on a common language across grade levels within a school.

Tools for Active Literacy Think-Alouds Read-Alouds Interactive Read-Alouds Lifting Text Guided Discussion Anchor Lessons with Anchor Charts Rereading for Deeper Meaning Sharing Our Own Literacy by Modeling With Adult Literature Strategies That Work, second edition

Thinking Aloud makes our thinking public by showing how we construct meaning demonstrates how proficient readers think is central to CSI remains focused and focuses student attention includes identifying the purpose of the demonstration ends with students sharing what they noticed

Choosing a Think-Aloud Text Short selection or excerpt with several natural stopping points to pause and think aloud Interesting/provocative text which is relevant, compelling or intriguing More challenging than a text that most of the children could read independently Should come from a variety of genres May be new, or familiar and well-loved Mosaic of Thought, second edition

Practice – Approx. 20 min. Groups of three Find one book that you think all or a portion of would be a good selection for a think-aloud and one book that you think would be a poor selection. Share with your small group the reasoning behind each of your selections. Share opposing view points. (We need to become more accustomed to having our thinking challenged.)

Reading Aloud If the only reading aloud we do is for the purpose of instruction, we will be losing the opportunity of demonstrating reading for pleasure. We need to read aloud every day for the sheer joy of it. We need to lift language into the air, savoring its beauty and power as well as its ability to provoke laughter and tears.

Interactive Reading Aloud Focuses on listening comprehension Students do not have a copy of the text Teacher reads and guides the discussion while students listen and talk to each other Teacher jots down student thinking Decoding doesn’t interfere with understanding Not a strategy for teaching fluency, but when students take what they learn and apply it to independent reading, it can impact both comprehension and fluency (decoding doesn’t interfere) Students are free to listen, think, talk and use the strategy

Steps for Interactive Reading Aloud Activating background knowledge Modeling Guided practice Sharing thinking Activating background knowledge: Ask students to turn and talk or go knee to knee to discuss what they already know about the topic at hand. Allow a minute or so to share some of this information. This engages students and prepares them to listen. Modeling: Read through the text and model thinking. Record your thinking on sticky notes, chart, graphic organizer (plug Teamboard), journal, etc… Ask students to share what they noticed, recording their thinking on a notepad to later be transferred to a chart. Guided Practice: Read a bit more and have students turn and talk about their thinking. Jot down student thinking. Give students time to write their responses and talk to each other. Sharing Thinking: Wrap up the lesson by bringing students together and return to the lesson focus. Discuss how the strategy helped build understanding as well as the bigger ideas in the text that were discussed and any new insights.

Lifting Text Overhead transparency of the lifted piece of text, charts, big books Copy for each student Gather students close with copies and clipboards Read, stopping to point out how the strategy is used and to allow students to share Newspaper articles, portions of textbooks, excerpts from longer fiction and non-fiction texts Reason through the text together Anaphora Dealing with inconsiderate text

Guided Discussion Show your thinking first, give students clear, explicit language for talking about their reading before they join in Move quickly from thinking aloud to guided practice Not a free-for-all discussion, focused conversation Develop a line of thinking by listening to each other and building on one another’s comments Clear up misconceptions We want to facilitate a discussion that weaves together the students’ ideas into a coherent conversation. We must help shape the conversation into a line of thinking that moves the discussion forward. To do this we need to teach students to actively listen, to piggyback off of one another’s comments, to ask follow-up questions, to politely disagree and to accept opposing points of view. Students can benefit from one another’s schema and the sharing of how others thought through something.

Anchor Charts Identify and choose your most effective mini-lessons as anchors Refer back to that lesson Co-construct anchor charts to record student thinking so that you can return to it to remember processes Elaborate and add to previously constructed anchor charts It is cumbersome to create a full-fledged anchor chart in the middle of a lesson. There is a difference between an anchor chart and a lesson chart (quickly capture student thinking) Later, to hold thinking over time, construct a more carefully composed and elaborated anchor chart that students can refer to again and again.

Types of Anchor Charts Strategy Charts Content Charts Genre Charts Strategy Charts – capture the language that demonstrates strategic thinking so that students know when, how and why to use a strategy. The can refer to the chart later for support. Context Charts – record interesting and important information that readers glean while reading; sometimes record new thinking and how thinking changed Genre charts – features/elements

Rereading for Deeper Meaning The more the children hear or read a story, the better they comprehend it, and the more they love it. Also works on fluency if they are rereading familiar material. This is different than rereading over and over for the purpose of speed.

Sharing Our Own Literature Don Graves: “Those of us who teach reading must be readers ourselves.” Bring in magazines, novels, newspaper articles, essays, poetry, etc… to share with students and to model your own reading processes. Share reading material you are passionate about, demonstrating the importance of reading in your daily life. Thinking about how we use strategies ourselves provides the best foundation for understanding how to teach comprehension. We need to understand the reading comprehension strategies ourselves and notice how they play out in our own reading in order to successfully teach them to our students. One thing you can model is staying focused when your interest in a text is minimal.

Know your tools and match them to the task

Provide ample time for text reading Let’s Not Forget: Provide ample time for text reading Opportunity to orchestrate all of the skills and strategies that are important to proficient reading Results in the acquisition of new knowledge which fuels the comprehension process Teachers must assure students are actively engaged in actual reading, not reading related activities P. David Pearson (Michigan State Univ.) and Linda Fielding (Univ. of Iowa) recommend that of the total block of time set aside for reading, students should be given more time to read than the combined total time allocated for learning about reading and talking or writing about what has been read Avoid the Matthew effect The more one knows, the more one comprehends; and the more one comprehends, the more one learns new knowledge to enable greater and broader comprehension. A positive statistical relationship between amount of time spent reading and reading comprehension has been documented. Balancing Authenticity and Strategy Awareness in Comprehension Instruction” Pearson and Fielding

Simply allocating time for text reading is not enough. Things teachers can do to increase the likelihood that text reading translates into improved comprehension: Choice Optimal difficulty Multiple readings Negotiating meaning socially Choice: Give children the opportunity to select much of their own reading material and guide them in making selections. Choice is related to interest and motivation, both of which are directly related to learning. Optimal Difficulty: Monitor students’ book selections and your own selections for students to ensure that all students spend most of their time reading just-right-books. This is especially important for early or less able readers. Multiple Readings: Honor and encourage rereading of texts. Research suggests that rereading leads to greater fluency and that fluency is associated with comprehension. Negotiating Meaning Socially: Allow at least part of the time to be used for reading in pairs, including pairs of different abilities and ages. Reading comprehension is a social as well as a cognitive process. Reading should be accompanied by regular opportunities for readers to discuss this reading with the teacher and with each other. Conversation also raises the status of independent reading from a time filler to an important part of the reading program. Balancing Authenticity and Strategy Awareness in Comprehension Instruction” Pearson and Fielding

Responding to Reading Purposeful Authentic Open-ended responses tell us the most about what children understand or don’t understand when they read Create a safe, respectful environment in order to increase risk taking Teach active listening and conversation skills A place to differentiate instruction Handout

Activity Discuss the handout about how children can record their thinking about text. Clarify terms Add other ideas

Gradual Release of Responsibility STUDENT TEACHER

Gradual Release of Responsibility Explicitly Taught Shared and Guided Collaborative Demonstrated Independent www.rememberit.org

Gradual Release: Explicitly Taught Naming and explaining the strategy gives students knowledge of the strategy. May be interwoven with the demonstration www.rememberit.org

Gradual Release: Demonstrating Demonstrating explicitly gives students comprehension of what the strategy looks like. Think Aloud It has been suggested that the term demonstrating is preferable to the word modeling only because modeling might have the connotation of showing someone the one way or the right way, where demonstrating might be seen more related to process than product. Explicit teaching while Demonstrating: Teacher explains the strategy and how it helps understanding Teacher demonstrates how to effectively use the strategy to understand text Teacher thinks aloud when reading to show thinking and strategy use. www.rememberit.org

Gradual Release: Shared and Guided Practice Shared and guided reading and discussing give the students the opportunity to do part of the work of using the strategy with support from teachers and peers. Shared and Guided Practice: Teacher purposely guides a large- or small-group conversation that engages students in a focused discussion Teacher and students practice the strategy together in a shared reading context, reasoning through the text and co-constructing meaning through discussion Teacher scaffolds students’ attempts and supports thinking Teacher gives specific feedback Students share their thinking processes with each other www.rememberit.org

Gradual Release: Collaborative Practice Collaborative reading and discussions give students the chance to do more of the work of using the strategy with peer and teacher feedback. Shared and Guided Practice: Teacher purposely guides a large- or small-group conversation that engages students in a focused discussion Teacher and students practice the strategy together in a shared reading context, reasoning through the text and co-constructing meaning through discussion Teacher scaffolds students’ attempts and supports thinking Teacher gives specific feedback Students share their thinking processes with each other www.rememberit.org

Gradual Release: Independent Independent reading and reflecting gives students the chance to practice it by themselves with new or familiar text. Students use the strategy in authentic reading situations Students continue to receive feedback from the teacher and possibly other students Students use the strategy in a variety of genres, settings, contexts and disciplines www.rememberit.org

Activity Using the handouts “Optimal Learning Model Across the Curriculum” and “Planning for Gradual Release”, discuss the following talking points: Where along the gradual release continuum do I tend to spend too much or too little time and effort? Why is that the case? How does my instruction need to change in order to adequately move myself and my students across the continuum? How might things look different in my classroom if I implemented the gradual release model?