1. Comprehension Strategy Instruction
Carla Meyer
Nora Vines
RE 4030

2. Today’s Agenda Share Vocabulary Activities Blue Read Aloud
Comprehension Strategy Instruction
Reciprocal Teaching
To do

3. Blue Read Aloud
Model
Vocabulary

4. What Do We Teach to Improve Comprehension?*
Accurate decoding
Reading Fluency
Self monitoring of decoding (metacognition)
*Pressley, M. (2000). What should comprehension instruction be the instruction of? In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research: Volume III (pp ). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

5. BUT….
Teaching decoding, fluency, vocabulary, etc. is not enough.

6. Balanced Comprehension Instruction…
Comprehension instruction should be balanced:
Explicit instruction in specific comprehension strategies
AND
A great deal of time and opportunity for actual reading, writing, and discussion of text
Duke, N.K. & Pearson, P.D. (2002)

7. What to Teach? When? What? Why? Before Preparing to Read
Preview the material
Identify the purpose
Select a reading rate
Activate prior knowledge
Ask a question
Make predictions
To make meaning
During
Reading Strategically
Determine importance
Monitor understanding
Make connections
Make inferences
Ask questions
Visualize
Re-read
After
Making Sense of the Material
Summarize the text
Evaluate the text
Check answers to questions
Written Response
Graphically Organize
To make meaing

8. How do we teach comprehension strategies?
Explicit instruction
Modeling
Scaffolded practice
Independent opportunities to practice

9. Explicit instruction (of strategies)
Before reading, provide
Declarative Knowledge: What strategy is to be learned and used
Procedural Knowledge: How is that strategy actually employed
Conditional Knowledge: When and why that strategy should be used

10. Modeling: Making Comprehension Visible
When we teach decoding or fluency, it’s easy to model good techniques and to assess students’ progress. It’s visible.
Teaching students to be expert comprehenders of text isn’t as easy to see.

11. Modeling: Use a Think-Aloud
During a think-aloud, the reader verbalizes the thought process.
The goal is to make the invisible thinking that goes on while reading public.

12. When to use a Think-Aloud?
When you’re modeling reading comprehension strategies.
That way, students can hear how you apply them.
You might only use them for a part of a lesson—the part that you want students to notice.

13. Reciprocal Teaching Important Concepts Graphic organizers Basal series
Gradual release of responsibility
Zone of proximal development
Constructivism

14. Strategies, strategies and more strategies
So the goal is to help our students develop a full ‘toolbox.’ But, they can’t just learn about the tools, they have to learn
how to use them,
when they need to use them and
which tools are most appropriate at a given time dependent on text structure, purpose and the level of difficulty.
How does this relate to the different types of knowledge?
Quick Write

15. Comprehension Under Construction
Roles of participants:
Foreman: Teacher, in charge of background knowledge and introducing roles
Architect: Draws up blueprints of the building through prediction
Job-inspector: “Get-it goggles” help the inspector clarify by attending to words and ideas
Electrician: Questions to keep the group “wired”
Bricklayer: cements understanding by summarizing and connecting main ideas

16. Reciprocal Teaching (RT)
Introduction of the Four Comprehension Strategies ↓
Teacher-Led Stage
Collaborative Stage
Reciprocal Stage
Metacognition Stage

17. Stages
Teacher-Led Stage: During this stage the teacher models the strategies
Collaborative Stage: Guided practice.
Reciprocal Stage: Independent within groups. Roles are rotated on a lesson-to-lesson basis with attention to which strategies were implemented during reading group and/or self- selected reading.
Metacognition: Moving toward independent use of strategies and attention paid to which strategies were most effective.

18. Practical Application
Each group will be assigned a role:
Architect (Predict)
Job-inspector (Clarify)
Electrician (Question)
Bricklayer (Summarize)
As I read ch. 1 of Blue aloud, make notes of predictions, vocabulary or ideas which may need clarification, questions you may have that would spark discussion, and main ideas to help you summarize the chapter.
Share with the group and feedback.

19. Practical Application
Choose a role in your small group (there can be multiple role players)
As you read pages in your small groups, play your part to construct meaning. Make notes as you work together and evaluate which strategies you think are most effective for comprehending Blue.

20. To Do… 2/7 Read: 2/7 Activities: Blue pages 27-85
Kucan Discussion article
2/7 Activities:
Double Entry Journal for Blue reading
Make notes of Tier 2 words as you read
Free write from an image in your notebook
Complete Polio Internet Workshop on your own

21. To Do… 2/12 Read: 2/12 Activities: Blue pages 86-131 Zumbrunn & Kraus
NKH Ch. 5
2/12 Activities:
Blue—Double Entry Journal