1. ESL Teaching and Reading Strategies Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model of Teaching and Learning Kate McAll – August 2011

2. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model of Teaching and Learning (GRR) Pearson P.D., & Gallagher, M.C. (1983). ‘The Instruction of Reading Comprehension’ Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 317-344 Duke, N. and Pearson, P.D. 2002. 'Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension' (Chapter 10) in A.E. Farstup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Kirmes, J. 2009 ‘Independence Is the Greatest Gift I Can Give: Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility Framework’. In Plaut, S. (Ed) The Right to Literacy in Secondary Schools Teachers College Press, New York

3. Using the GRR: helps our students become more independent learners provides a framework that helps with planning helps us develop effective literacy teaching practise provides opportunities for explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies is relevant to any key learning area

4. GRR I do it We do it You do it

5. 1.Demonstration1.I do, you watch. 2. Guided practice2. I do, you help. 3. Independent practice 3. You do, I help. 4. Application4. You do, I watch. Lessons using GRR follow this sequence :

6. Reading Comprehension Strategies Predicting / Using Prior Knowledge Thinking aloud Using text structures and features Visualising Summarising Questions and Questioning

7. Predicting / Using Prior Knowledge Thinking aloud Visualising Summarising Questions and Questioning Thinking about what will happen in a text Saying what you think, what you do as you read Creating a mental image / hearing a voice as you read / ‘like a movie in my head’ Understanding the main ideas and being able to paraphrase them My favourite...

8. We can think in terms of three different levels of questions Literal questions (right there) - the students can find the answer in the words on the page Who is…? Where is …? etc Inferential questions (think and search) -students need to think. What caused…? Explain…. Find two examples... Evaluative questions where students make a judgment. These questions require students to form an opinion Students make questions You see the answer on the page You use what you know and what is in the text You decide what you think

9. GRR for ESL students Language is comprehensible Tasks are achievable Thinking skills and readings strategies are modelled, tried and then practised independently We don’t take the complexity out - we scaffold in order to help students move them forward

10. SkillsStrategies  Skills are things we do automatically and unconsciously when reading.  We usually don’t know it when we are using reading skills  Strategies are things we do deliberately and consciously to understand the meaning of a text.  We usually know when we are using reading strategies Examples of reading skills:Examples of reading strategies: o letter recognition o awareness of sound/symbol relationships o reading initial/middle/final sounds in words o recognising and understanding words o pausing for full-stops o predicting o questioning o summarising o creating mental images o making inferences o monitoring comprehension o using text structures and features

11. Skills and strategies work together and are both necessary when reading. when it becomes conscious Skill Strategy when it becomes unconscious

12. Following are examples of how the stages of how GRR works when teaching the skill of predicting. GRR works for many different skills. There are examples of lesson plans on the wiki. http://wels-literacy.wikispaces.com/

13. Direct Instruction The teacher says: ‘Guess what is in my hand?' ‘When you guess you don’t know. (You say but you can’t see.)'‘ ‘This is the new word/skill we are learning today‘ Teachers writes ‘prediction’ and a brief definition where students can see it Predict – guess what will happen in the story.

14. Modelling The teacher demonstrates what is it she wants the students to do: 'When I read I make predictions: I see a picture of a cow. I think this story will be about cows. I think this story will have a problem in it. Maybe something bad will happen to a cow. I am going to write my prediction here. Predictions help me understand the story.’ Prediction Correct or Incorrect Evidence Cows  Something bad will happen to a cow x This table can be used on the white or interactive board and give as a worksheet to students Think Aloud

15. Guided Practise The teachers asks the students for help: 'Can anyone make a prediction?' The students and teacher practise the skill together. The teacher notes down some of the students predictions. PredictionCorrect or IncorrectEvidence Cows  Something bad will happen to a cow x The farmer will milk the cows The cow will help the farmer

16. Collaborative Work Students work in groups. The Teachers says and shows: 'I’m going to give one person the books. Don’t open them – look at the cover and make some predictions. Write your predictions down.' 'When you have made two or three predictions read some pages together and then stop and help each other make some predictions. Write your new predictions down.' 'Are your predictions correct? How do you know?' The teachers helps and guides where necessary Prediction Correct or Incorrect Evidence Something bad will happen xThe cow is okay at the end Using the table to write their predictions helps students stay focused.

17. Independent Practise The teacher says: 'Now it’s time for quiet reading. Read and make predictions. Remember one thing about your book to share with the class. Practise predicting while you are reading.'

18. Intensive ReadingExtensive Reading Intensive reading is what teachers often do with students in class. It involves looking closely at a text for a specific purpose. During Intensive Reading the teacher usually chooses the text. Intensive Reading is usually reading done with a specific purpose in mind. Students answer questions or complete exercise or assignments about the text they have read. Extensive reading is what we do when we read for pleasure. We read novels, newspapers and magazines etc as part of our extensive reading. An important skill for extensive reading is the ability to choose your own texts. Another feature of extensive reading is that there are no tasks set. Ideally students do not have to answer questions or write book reports on books they read as part of their extensive reading.

19. Independent Reading at WELS

20. Sharing and reflecting Students will sometimes share in groups, sometimes with the whole class - and sometimes both. The teacher says: – 'Can anyone tell me what does “predict” mean?’ – ‘Does predicting help us when we read? How?’ – ‘Did predicting help you. Can you tell us about your book and your predictions?'

21. Name the skill and explain (briefly) why it is useful. Demonstrate – use the skill and show students what you are doing. Get the students to help you use the skill – at this stage you are leading the students in the use of the skill. The students begin to use the skill. They help each other and you help them when they need it. Students have seen the skill being used and practised in groups and now they try it on their own. The class thinks and talks about what they did, how it helped them and what they might do next. Direct Instruction Modelling Guided practice Collaborative work Independent work Sharing and refection

22. What the student can do independently What the student can do with guidance Teachers and students work together stage 1 stage 2 stage 3 What the student can do independently after guidance Teachers and students work together in the zone of proximal development The Zone of Proximal Development

23. Thinking Skills/Metacognitive Skills Learning comes from within – a reader creates meaning as they read Students who focus on the end product or the right answer may not do as well as students who problem solve and think The ‘one answer’ / ‘getting it right’ way of thinking Encourage students to think and talk about what they read – including reading and thinking about their own writing.

24. Students thoughts about reading strategies link

25. ESL TeachingReading Strategies Elicit what the students know Build on their previous knowledge Make connections to what students already know Build on previous knowledge What it might look like in class: ‘What did we learn yesterday?’ ‘What can you see in this picture.’ ‘What do you know about the Solar System?’ ‘Look at the picture (graph, diagram) and talk with the person next to you about what you see.’ Schema Theory – Activating prior knowledge

26. ESL TeachingReading Strategy  Comprehensible input  Language at the right level  ESL modified texts Five finger Rule o too hard (5 words not understood on one page ) o just right (2-3 words not understood on one page ) o too easy (0-1 words not understood on one page) What it might look like in class: Speech and text usually at a level students can understand Students understand most of the words they read and hear Some speech and text just above the students level where the teacher supports understanding Speech and text supported by visuals Written, spoken and visuals all work together to help student understanding Students read books they can understand

27. Five Finger Rule

28. x x x x x That book is too hard

29.      That book is too easy.

30. x x x That book is just right.

31. ESL TeachingReading Strategy Provide opportunities for students to practise new language Students work cooperatively in groups Help students become independent readers What it might look like in class: Make Predictions: In groups of three look at the cover of the book and write down three predictions – what will happen in this story? Read the text and write three questions. Ask the person next to you your three questions. Listen to their questions. Try to ask and answer questions that will help you understand the text. Jigsaw activity: 1.Move into groups of four. 2. Read about one of the oceans. 3. Write down three important things. 4. Go back to your home-group and tell the group about your ocean.

32. Read about one ocean Write down three important things Indian Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic Ocean Antarctic Ocean

33. Listen to other student talk about the oceans. Share your 3 important ideas Antarctic Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic OceanPacific Ocean Antarctic Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic OceanPacific Ocean Antarctic Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic OceanPacific Ocean Antarctic Ocean Pacific Ocean Atlantic OceanPacific Ocean Antarctic Ocean

34. Back to your home-groups and write down what you remember about the 4 oceans 4 oceans Providing a purpose for the activity – a reason to listen

35. ESL TeachingReading Strategies Checking for understandingReading is more than looking at the words on the page. Good readers make meaning as they read What it might look like in class: ‘What do I want you to do now?’ ‘What is that book about?’ ‘What will this lesson be about?’ / ‘What was that lesson about?’ ‘What will this story (text) be about? / ‘What was that story (text) about?’ ‘What question could you ask that would help you understand this text (story, video, diagram.)’

36. Connect Explicit Teaching Quick Try Working together Independent Practise Sharing ESL methodology says we learn by doing / We learn language by using language. ‘With ESL students you might stay at this level’ An underlying theory that ESL students can do/learn less?

37. Demonstration of reading skills by the teacher – students follow the model Reading Comprehension Strategies and parallels with ESL Teaching 1.Predicting / Using Prior Knowledge / Eliciting what the students already know 2.Thinking aloud 3.Using text structures and features 4.Visualising 5.Summarising 6.Questions and Questioning 1. Eliciting what the students already know 2. Explicit teaching of language and skills 3. Teaching through genre (narrative, report, procedural, persuasive, etc) 4. Using pictures, diagrams and graphics to support meaning 5. Students practise new language and talk about what they have learned 6. Explicit teaching and practise of question forms Not too much new language at a time, repetition, visual aids, multiple examples Focus on one reading skill at a time Language input before output

38. When teacher initiations lead to only single-word or single clause response there is little opportunity for the learners language to be stretched, for students to focus on how they are saying something or for giving them practice in using the language for themselves. Pauline Gibbons Scaffolding Language, Scaffolding Learning, 2002 There is ample evidence that one of the major differences between poor and good readers is the difference in the quantity of total time they spend reading. National Reading Panel, 2000 (U.S. Department of Education)

39. Boiling it all down... Reading Comprehension Strategies: -Students won’t learn to read unless they read. -They won’t understand unless they think. ESL Methodology: -Students won’t learn English unless they have many opportunities to speak (and to practise listening, reading and writing). Both: -Create opportunities for students to interact in meaningful ways to practise and process what they know and what they are learning. -Group work is good. Purposeful group work is good. -(over simplification alert)

40. Language Narrative Opening words capture reader’s interest May use the first person Most often in the past tense, but may be in the immediate present for effect Procedure Use command words (Cut, Pour, Mix) Most sentences start with a verb Use correct technical terms Sequence: first, then, next, finally Exact details or information Description Use of adjectives Present tense Includes details and comparisons Describes what things look, feel, sound smell like Contains subjective language and opinions Text Structures Narrative orientation problem Solution Procedure A lead-in sentence to state the goal Start with a list of materials Series of sequential sentences which may be numbered Order of the sentences is important Concluding sentence expresses success Description Statement of the topic being described A series of paragraphs each giving details of different aspects of topic Does not contain opinion or evaluation

41. Text Features: index illustrations and photographs tables of contents headings and subheading diagrams, maps, tables print: bold, italics, underlined help readers locate and understand information

42. Information Report Text Structure Opening statement – to states the topic and capture interest Paragraphs – each paragraph is about a different aspect of the subject. – begin with a topic or a preview sentence – focus is on facts not opinion Conclusion – Summarises the information presented – Does not include any new information Text Features Title Headings Diagrams, Pictures, Maps Language Features Generalisation Description Comparison/ Contrast Impersonal, third person

43. Listening Speaking Reading Writing We talk about what we read We write about what we read We read our writing We converse We talk about our writing and how to write We listen (and speak) in order to understand

44. Students talk about what they have read Listen to information about what they will read They read their writing Reading They listen to teacher talking about reading - Thought processes when reading, ‘Think Aloud’ They read texts aloud They listen to texts read aloud to them Write about texts Talk about what helps them with reading (skills and strategies) Reading

45. Students talk about what they have read Listen to informatio n about what they will read They read their writing They listen to teacher talking about reading -How she reads They read texts aloud They listen to texts read aloud to them Write about texts Talk about what helps them with reading (skills and strategies) Reading Individual lessons may focus on one macro-skill. But a whole program needs all four skills. The four macro-skills all support learning and support each other.

46. Functional GrammarScaffoldingGradual Release of Responsibility Grouping Genre / Register What ? Content/ Topic (Field) Who is talking to whom? (Tenor) How is the text constructed? (Mode) Continuum Spoken Written Tasks at the right level Moving students beyond what they can do with help so that they can do those things independently Importance of talking first and of thinking things through by talking Builds in a chance to talk first 1. Talk – Connect with students prior knowledge Listening, Speaking I do Teacher shows Whole class 2. Model - Demonstrate, Explicit Teaching Listening, Spoken 3. Use - Quick Try Talking as a class Spoken moving towards written We do Students help the teacher Whole class 4. Try - Working together Talking in groups and writing Spoken moving towards written You do Teacher helps the students – if necessary Groups 5. Work - Independent Practise Could be written work. More formal use of language. More ‘written-like’ language Individual 6. Reflection - Sharing Spoken but more formal – showing greater understanding of unfamiliar language TalkingWhole class

47. ‘Staying with known language is a strategy which is very limiting for the second language learner in school’ ‘A bilingual learner’s difficulties in English cannot be defined simply in terms of ‘error’. It needs also to be defined in terms of what the learner chooses not to do or never attempts. Many children remain with what they know, and avoid using more complex language or certain genres of writing.’ -Pauline Gibbons 1992 ‘Identifying the language needs of bilingual learners ’ in Assessment in Primary Classrooms, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

48. Links between the potential of students and the necessity of – ‘building technical language/subject specific / content instruction and – Teaching metalanguage and thinking strategies ESL students can use metalanguage and can learn thinking strategies but they often need to be taught explicitly

49. Do learners avoid using unfamiliar language because they don’t know it or because we don’t teach it? (Or because we don’t teach how to learn?) From Language School (NAP)reports:  ‘Understands meanings at the literal level, e.g. understands main ideas or order of events’  ‘Understands more complex meanings, e.g. character motivation, implication, inference or opinion’

50. Finding ways to teach – Metalanguage – Thinking skills – Reading strategies Thinking about thinking – (Metacognitive skills) Do we underestimate what ESL students are capable of ? (teenagers and maybe younger students also). Comprehensible input / Achievable tasks – have we taken it too far so that language and concepts we deal with don’t ‘stretch’ our students enough? Students like it when we do things that show our faith in them as learners and thinkers.

51. Reading Strategies Reciprocal Teaching (Palinscar and Brown, 1984) Questioning Clarifying Predicting Summarising

52. I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander. Isaac Asimov Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. B. F. Skinner, New Scientist, May 21, 1964 (Albert Einstein)

56. Social English and Academic English Students with strong oral skills in social English BICS -Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (2 years) CALP- Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (quite a bit more)

57. Problem solving – developing the student’s ability to ‘think things through’ can give them more confidence Many ESL students come from an environment where there was ‘one right answer’ (Is this becoming less true?) Reading strategies can be applied to questions set – Make questions about questions – What is this questions asking me to do? – What are the different parts of this question? – What do I know that can help me answer this question? – What kind of question is this? Literal – (I need to find the answer) Inferential – ( I need to use what I know plus what is in the text) Evaluative – (I need to make a judgment – what do I think)

58. Reference chains ESL students can have trouble with reference when reading Practise – What is ‘it’? ‘A thing’ – What is ‘it’ referring to? – – What can we put in place of ‘it’? – What does ‘it’ stand for? Reference within a sentence / reference across a whole text As we read we update what ‘it’ (or ‘they’ refers to. (-and who ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’ etc refer to)