1. Teaching comprehension strategies Jan Turbill University of Wollongong 2008

2. Reading strategies & metacognition Comprehension strategies need to be taught Knowing what, how and when to use these strategies is known as metacognition Students need opportunities to learn, practise, reflect and discuss these strategies Thus metacognition needs to be taught

3. Broad comprehension strategies Knowing how texts work Knowing how reading works Knowing that reading is about making sense - often referred to as ‘active reading’ Knowing that different texts require different strategies for reading - reading a narrative, reading a recipe, reading to find specific information

4. Let’s examine our comprehension strategies Work in pairs to read and respond to the Reading Texts in your handout. Start wherever you wish.

5. Specific comprehension strategies Skimming text to get a general sense Predicting meaning Rereading when meaning is lost Sounding out words, using first letter to predict, reading on to confirm Using other clues such as illustrations, photos Reading ahead Reading aloud Matching what I read to what I already know And what else did you do?

6. Teaching strategies that work Model read Think aloud - let them into your strategies Building the field Teach how to find - contents page, indexes, glossary, circle unknown words, phrases Graphic organisers - model how and when to use Asking questions of the text

7. Asking quality questions Literal- reading the lines Inferential - reading between the lines Application - reading beyond the lines

8. Explicit instruction about questions and answers (Raphael & Au 2005) Question answer relationships (QAR) See article in your handouts for details

9. QAR Core Categories In the Book In My Head

10. In the Book Right There: A “detail” type of question, where words used to form the question and words that answer the question are often “right there” in the same sentence. Think & Search: The answer is in the text, but readers have to “think & search” to find the answer; sometimes within a paragraph, across paragraphs, or even chapters.

11. In My Head On My Own: The question relates to the text, but I could probably answer this one even if I had never read the text. All the ideas and information come from my background knowledge. Author and Me: The information to answer the question comes from my background knowledge, but to even make sense of the question, I’d need to have read and understood the text.

12. Why Use QAR? 1. A language for ALL to use in talking about strategies and their use in context 2. A developmental progression that is visible to students and teachers across grade levels 3. A logical way to organize comprehension strategies 4. A valuable approach to test preparation

13. Final comment Reading, making sense of text, is invisible Make it and all the strategies we use VISIBLE

14. Your turn (if time) Share in your group useful strategies you use in your teaching