Transcript Reading Strategies for Students and Teachers

Text Comprehension Practices for Students
who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Part 1
Susan R. Easterbrooks
Georgia State University
Part 1 of 2 presentations on text
comprehension for the “Join Together”
recommended practices series.
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Part 1- We look at what text
comprehension is and how we teach
it to students.
Part 2- We look at the different
strategies to teach students to use
before, during, and after reading.
What do we mean by “text comprehension?”
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Effective text comprehension is "intentional
thinking during which meaning is constructed
through interactions between text and reader".
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Research suggests that text comprehension is enhanced
when readers actively relate the ideas represented in
print to their own knowledge and experiences and
construct mental pictures in their memory.
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Source: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/readingfirst/components/text/
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The National Reading Panel recommends that
beginning reading instruction include the following
strategies.
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How to read both narrative and expository texts.
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How to understand and remember what they read.
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How to relate their own knowledge or experiences to text.
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How to use comprehension strategies to improve their
comprehension.
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How to communicate with others about what they read.
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How do we do this?
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Explicitly explain, model and teach comprehension
strategies
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Examples: monitoring, use of graphic and semantic
organizers, asking and answering questions,
previewing, summarizing, and using multiple strategies
(e.g., cooperative learning and reciprocal teaching).
Provide opportunities for students to practice
using strategies when reading connected narrative
and expository text.
Include pre-reading, reading, and post-reading
comprehension activities during instruction.
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Promote thinking and extend discourse by
asking questions and encouraging student
questions and discussions.
Provide extended opportunities for English
language learners to participate.
Use screening and progress monitoring
assessment to track the progress of individual
students. Follow up with diagnostic assessment
to target specific strategies with which
students may need additional intervention.
Memory
What do we mean by “narrative”
and “expository” text?
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“Narrative” refers to any way we provide an account of a real or
imagined events, in other words, how we tell a story.
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Students need to learn the different narrative strategies a writer uses.
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Narrative strategies are the techniques writers use to tell stories, such
as:
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Point of View, Narrator, Voice
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Sequence
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What is the order of the important events?
Audience
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Who is telling the story?
For whom is the story written?
Characterization
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What are the traits of the main character and supporting characters, and
how do these traits influence one another?
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Plot (events of a story)
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Setting (time & place)
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What kind of story is this? Science fiction? Biography?
Diction
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When does it happen? Is it in the past, the future? Is time
telescoped in any way?
Genre
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What happens?
How do the characters speak? Formally, informally, in a
foreign accent, like an old-timer, etc?
Literary Motifs & Figurative Language
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What literary devices does the author use? Simile,
metaphor, personification, allegory, etc.?
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“Expository text” is written for the purpose of exposing,
informing, explaining, or describing information to the
reader.
Expository text should be factual, unbiased, and written in
third voice, that is, the author should way “He drives…She
finds…They have…” rather than “I” or “You.”
There are several types of expository text:
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Sequence
Descriptive essay
Classification
Comparison
Cause and effect
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The most commonly used and basic forms
of expository writing is the five-paragraph
essay, which contains an introduction with
a clear thesis statement, three main body
paragraphs and a conclusion.
The organizer on the next page is a good
way to help students visualize the 5paragraph essay.
We read for different purposes when we read narrative versus
expository text.
When students understand the structure of
the text, they are better able to look for
important features.
Why do we want students to understand and
remember what they read?
Main idea and
supporting details
Memory
Application
Analysis and Synthesis
In order to use reading skills for learning information in content
areas, we must remember what we read, think about it, and apply it.
What do we mean by “relating
our own knowledge and experiences
to the text?”
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Students read better when they have a
frame of reference for what they are
reading.
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There are many ways we can help students
relate their experiences to the text.
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The most well-known of these is “activating
prior knowledge.”
You will see several options for activating prior
knowledge in part two.
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When activating prior knowledge, we...
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teach vocabulary as a prereading step;
tap the student’s prior experiences or provide
background experiences; and
introduce a visually organizing framework that
will help students build appropriate
background for themselves.
Primary challenge when teaching
students with hearing loss…
…we cannot assume they have the
background knowledge or the language
skills that most students bring to the
reading process.
Text comprehension strategies allow us
to help students bridge between
language they understand and
language they do not understand.
What do we mean by “communicating with others
about what we have read?”
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Communicating with others assists
the student in engaging in such
practices as…
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Summarizing
Clarifying
Asking and answering questions
Checking their own comprehension
What do we mean by “using comprehension
strategies to teach comprehension?”
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Comprehension strategies are the way in which we promote
“intentional thinking” about a story.
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Examples of strategies are:
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Predict
Monitor/clarify
Question
Summarize
Visualize
Making use of prior knowledge
Making inferences
Reading comprehension strategies are metacognitive tools.
Metacognitive tools (intentional thinking) provide students the steps they
can go through to construct meaning from print. (Teaching a child to fish.)
Some of the strategies are for teachers to use when instructing
students in the use of strategies.
Some of the strategies are for students to use when they are
reading.
What is the Process for Teaching a Strategy?
1.
a. strategies taught should be those used by successful
readers: both deaf and hearing
b. strategies taught should be related to the child’s
present levels of performance based on an
assessment of student’s available repertoire of
strategies
c. teach only one strategy at a time
2.
a. materials chosen should be appropriate to support the
strategy
b. materials chosen should be appropriate for the individual
learner
c. materials chosen should come from a variety of types:
narratives, documents, instructions, notes, etc.
3.
a. Orient student to the tool (strategy) and its purpose (in
what context to apply the tool)
b. Answer questions about the tool (strategy): What is it?
How do we apply it? When do we use it? Why do we
use it rather than another strategy?
c. Provide a list of the steps involved in using the tool
(strategy)
d.
e.
Using a self-talk or think aloud strategy, demonstrate
your thought processes as you apply the tool
(strategy)
Explain why you made the decisions you made
f.
Review how you applied the tool (strategy)
4. Guide Its Use (Move from Direct Instruction to Guidance
to Independent Use)
a. Follow a collaborative, team, or cooperative
learning model
b. Give students appropriate materials that will allow
them to apply the strategy with ease
c. Guide student through the steps one at a time
d. Provide for immediate success
e. Explain, answer questions, reinforce
f. Give students a second opportunity to apply the
strategy with direct assistance
g. Give student new material that provides a good fit with
the strategy and have students talk themselves through
the steps (one student is the “leader” for each step; other
students are active participants) with the teacher
providing feedback
h. Ask each student to demonstrate to you how s/he has
applied the strategy to a novel piece of material
i. Assist student in determining which strategies to apply
where
j. Help students apply strategies across the curriculum
5. Reinforce Its Use (Move from Best Fit to Worst Fit)
a. Provide a variety of materials that have a good fit
with the strategy for student to develop the strategy
to an automatic level
b. Provide other materials where the fit might not be as
good
c. Provide materials where the strategy might not be
effective and discuss why you might choose a
different strategy for this material
Pulling it all together helps student read!
Narrative
Memory
Known Unkown
Sharing