Differentiating Instruction for Vocabulary and Comprehension Michael C. McKenna Sharon Walpole Agenda  Who needs this type of instruction?  What data must be gathered? 

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Transcript Differentiating Instruction for Vocabulary and Comprehension Michael C. McKenna Sharon Walpole Agenda  Who needs this type of instruction?  What data must be gathered? 

Differentiating Instruction for
Vocabulary and Comprehension
Michael C. McKenna
Sharon Walpole
Agenda
 Who needs this type of instruction?
 What data must be gathered?
 What planning decisions must be
made?
 What are some tricks of the trade?
We are combining
ideas from
Chapters 6 and 7
Remember our plan
What are we trying to teach?



These children are performing at benchmark.
They will work to build their vocabularies and
comprehension proficiency.
The texts may include core selections used in
FORI, the day’s read-aloud, or sets of trade
books that are not phonics-controlled.
How will we know when we’ve
accomplished our goal?


Our goal will never be achieved. We must continue to build
vocabulary and comprehension.
Temporary and targeted instruction in the other areas
allows new children to enter this group.
In our tiered system,
who is likely to need
this type of
differentiated
instruction?
What data can we use
to identify the children?
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
In Kindergarten, all DIBELS subtests at low risk
In First Grade, all DIBELS subtests at low risk


We KNOW: These children are at
benchmark in alphabet skills, but can still
build their vocabulary and comprehension.
We NEED to know: What specific texts,
when read aloud to them, will best advance
their vocabulary and comprehension.
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
DIBELS Second-Grade ORF low risk or
DIBELS Third-Grade ORF is low risk

We KNOW: These children are fluent.

We NEED to know: What specific texts will
best advance their vocabulary and
comprehension.
Qui ckTi me™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this pictur e.
Let’s find out
 Even though all are at benchmark, it is still
important to consider text difficulty; think about
texts that provide a reasonable challenge and
maximize interest and engagement.
 This is true both for texts that your second and
third graders will read in small groups and that
your kindergartners and first graders will hear.
 Optimal text selection for this group will require
some trial and error; be flexible.
What about comprehension?

 Do not attempt to identify comprehension
deficits.
 Using multiple challenging texts will provide
many opportunities to reinforce strategy
instruction.
 Children will differ in their ability to apply
these strategies, but assessing this ability
is not necessary.
What about vocabulary?

 Do not attempt to pretest word meanings.
 Stick to Tier 2 words (and content area
words for nonfiction texts) that are useful
for comprehending the text. Do not worry
that you may be introducing a word for
some and reviewing it for others.
Now you’re ready!
We recommend that there be only one
group, even though their reading levels
may vary slightly.
This will allow you to spend more time with
strugglers in other groups.
Find your texts
 Do not use phonics-controlled texts.
 You could use core selections, class readalouds, or sets of trade books.
 In any case, you are looking for texts that
 are interesting and engaging,
 are rich in content, and
 represent both fiction and nonfiction.
Now choose your strategies
 For this group, word recognition needs are not an
issue. (The second and third graders can read the
the texts you will be using, and you will read them
to the kindergartners and first graders.)
 Planning should focus entirely on vocabulary and
comprehension.
 You will need to strike a balance between these
areas and vary the instructional techniques you
use.
Think about vocabulary methods
 Read pages 91-102. You will need to be
selective since you will not have time to
apply all of these approaches in a single
session. Vary them across the three weeks.
 Remember that your choices will depend in
part on the text you will use and whether it
will be read aloud to the children. Some
methods will be more appropriate than
others for certain texts.
Key SBRR Approaches
Tier Two
Words
Texts
Words
Script
Concept of
Definition
Texts
Words
Word Maps
Semantic
Feature
Analysis
Texts
Related
Words
Feature
Chart
Concept
Sorting
Texts
Word Cards
Technique
Target Words
When
Tier Two Words
High utility
After reading
Concept of
Definition
One central
concept
Before or after
reading
Feature Analysis
Compare and
contrast
After reading
Concept Sorting
Compare and
contrast
After reading
Teaching Tier Two Words
1. We are going to learn the word _____.
Say the word _____.
2. In our story, the author used the word
______ to mean ______.
3. The word _____ means ______.
4. (Provide other examples.)
5. (Children provide examples.)
6. Remember that our word is _____.
Concept of Definition
Category
Description
Description
Concept
Example
Example
Example
Feature Analysis
Category
Member
1
Member
2
Member
3
Feature
1
Feature
2
Feature
3
Feature
4
Now think about comprehension
methods
 Read pages 110-123. You will need to be
selective since you will not have time to
apply all of these approaches in a single
session. Vary them across the three weeks.
 Remember that your texts provide
opportunities to build comprehension skills
and strategies. This means that many of
the instructional approaches should work.
Key SBRR Approaches
QARs
Story
Mapping
Texts
Stories
QAR Chart Map
Questions
Text
Structure
Info Texts
Graphic
organizers
Direct
Explanation
Summarization
Texts
Texts
Strategy
Summary
descriptions procedure
QAR Chart
Right There
The answer to the question
can be found in one
sentence in the text.
Author and You
The answer to the question
combines information from
the text and from your
experience.
Think and Search
The answer to the question
can be found by combining
information across
sentences.
On Your Own
The theme is in the text, but
the answer comes from your
experience.
Story Mapping
Setting
Characters
Problem
Resolution
Theme
Text Structure Instruction
Contrast
Compare
Contrast
Text Structure Instruction
Text Structure Instruction
Event 1
Cause
Problem
Event 2
Effect
Solution
Direct Explanation
Predicting
Good readers predict before and during
reading. Here I see a picture of a ____. I
know that _____. Because of both what I
see and what I know, I predict that this
story will be about _____.
Monitoring,
questioning,
and
repredicting
I predicted that ____. So far, that might be
right because the text says _____.
I predicted that _____. That must not be
true because the text says _____. My new
prediction is _____.
Direct Explanation
Visualizing Good readers make pictures in their minds
Inferring
to help them understand. I know that this
story takes place _____. I know that
setting would have _____. The author uses
the words _____ and _____. In my mind, I
am visualizing _____.
The author tells us that this character is
_____. Because of my own experience, I
know that _____. Therefore, I think the
character is _____.
Direct Explanation
Using fix-up Wait. I thought that the text said _____.
strategies Here it says that _____. That doesn’t make
sense to me. I need to read ahead and
see if the author tells me how both _____
and _____ could be true.
Finding the The author has given me a whole lot of
main idea facts about _____ and about _____.
Some of them are the same and some are
different. I think that the main idea here is
that ____ are similar to ____ in some
ways, and different in other ways.
Direct Explanation
Retelling a
story
I can use what I know about stories to retell this one
very simply. I don’t tell everything. I think about
what the author usually does in the beginning, the
middle, and the end. This story is set ____. The
main characters are _____. The problem in the
story is _____. The characters solved the problem
by _____.
Synthesizing
When I want to think about two stories at once, I
have to decide how they were alike and different. I
first think about how they were alike. Our stories
are alike because _____. Then I think about how
they were different. Our stories were different
because _____. Together, then, I can put
information from the stories together to say _____.
Summarization
1.
2.
3.
4.
Make sure you understand.
Reread to check your understanding, marking
important parts.
Rethink, making sure that you can say the main idea
of each paragraph. Write the main idea as a note to
yourself.
Write your summary, checking to make sure that you
have avoided lists, included or created topic
sentences, gotten rid of unnecessary details, and
combined paragraphs. Check your summary, and edit
it so that it sounds natural.
Gather or make all of your
materials
 Texts, pictures, word cards, blank story maps,
graphic organizers, QAR chart, questions,
notebooks – everything you need.
 Texts could be selections from the previous year’s
core anthology if multiple copies are available.
 They could also include texts used in recent
whole-class read-alouds.
 Remember that our goal is that you plan for three
weeks at a time.
A typical group*
2 minutes
2 minutes
7 minutes
4 minutes
Introduce text (preteach content area
words if the text is nonfiction)
Review a comprehension strategy
Grades 2-3: Whisper read
Grades K-1: Read aloud to them
Introduce/review vocabulary words.
Return to key points in text to focus on
comprehension strategy
*Minute allocations are simply an example based on a 15-minute session.
Try it out!
 Remember that we are hoping for a cycle, with
teacher reflection. Your goal is to move these
children into more challenging texts.
 You may need to repeat a particular lesson for
two days. That’s fine. You also may need to step
in with echo or choral reading in grades two and
three. That’s fine too.
 At the end of the three weeks, you can use data
collected as part of the instruction to inform your
next moves.