Transcript Document 7200061

Teaching Students to
Comprehend More Deeply
How can we help our students
become more strategic readers to
enhance their comprehension?
Help ME! A Reading Biography
A Reflection on Entering High School
Fifth through eight grade came and went by,
And I came to hate reading and they didn’t know why.
I expected high school to be the same,
To me, reading books is simply lame.
I did enough reading to just get by.
But I hated to read and they didn’t know why.
Teachers assigned me stuff day after day
“We’ll get him to read, We’ll find a way
Not a day went by without a real try,
But I hated to read and they didn’t know why.
Phonics, Textbooks, Grammar, Spelling.
Sometimes my teachers would end up yelling.
And look like they were about to cry
But I still hated reading and they didn’t know why.
You see, no one helps me how to do it
And so I am frustrated all the way through it
I just want to know the secret things
that readers do that make books sing.
And helps people love stories
And learn from them too.
But no one has helped me,
So sad and so true
No one has taught me
What I need to do
And that is why I just don’t get it
So if you can’t help me I’ll just have to forget it.
And give up interest in ever reading. . .and
Believe me I’d rather be lying here bleeding.
-Jack
Jack
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Do you have “Jack” in your classroom?
Is the frustration evident daily?
Imagine yourself in a situation where
you don’t know the rules and can’t play
the game.
How can you assist “Jack” ?
Research
Meta analysis of several international
studies shows the following:
 2nd grade American students rank second in
the world in reading
 They fall to a middle ranking by the end of 8th
grade
 They are 29th out of 29 by the end of high
school
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-Wilhelm, citing Dick Allington
Current practice
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Reviews of American education show we
spend our time:
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Teaching students information - the declarative
knowledge (the what)
Instead we should be assisting students in better
ways of reading, problem solving, and making
meaning (the how)
Research shows that good readers employ certain
strategies to enhance their comprehension. Our
Grade Level Expectations in reading identify those
strategies. (the why)
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When students are asked to learn information
without actively using procedures to construct
meaning, they usually end up forgetting the
content.
How do we support students in understanding
and learning the information they read?
International Reading Association’s
statement on Adolescent Literacy says:
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Students need direct reading instruction
throughout adolescence as they
struggle to meet the demands of more
sophisticated kinds of literary texts, a
variety of informational text and genres,
and more substantial and complex
content.
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The statement goes on to say that we
need to actively instruct adolescents at
their current state of development.
What does this active teaching of
reading look like?
Active Teaching of Reading
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Find resources at the appropriate reading level for
your students. You may want to bookmark Internet
sites on the same topic but at different readability
levels. Teach in the Zone of Proximal Development.
(download Vygotsky’s Zone for more information.)
Examine the Reading Grade Level Expectations for
one or two areas that may give your students
difficulty when reading the text. (Download the CA
Reading GLEs)
Choose one or two strategies to model that will link to
the GLEs.
Explicit Instruction
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Explain the strategy
Explain why the strategy is important
Explain when to use the strategy
Model how to perform the strategy in the
actual context of a reading.
After students have had sufficient opportunity
to see the strategy modeled and they have
discussed it, move to the next phase.
Explicit Instruction
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Teacher then guides learner practice.
See handout sent to you for more
information about the steps of Gradual
Release of Responsibility.
Goal is for students to independently
use the strategy in the appropriate
context.
One Strategy:
Reciprocal Teaching
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This strategy provides instruction and practice of the
four main comprehension strategies - predicting,
questioning, clarifying, and summarizing.
The purpose of this strategy is to gradually release
responsibility to the individual to make meaning from
the text.
Reciprocal teaching involves a high degree of social
interaction and collaboration as students take on the
role of the teacher in working together to construct
meaning.
Steps in Reciprocal Teaching
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Teacher chooses text(s) according to
students zone of proximal development.
Teacher explicitly models each of the four
basic strategies: predict, question, connect,
and summarize.
Students must understand that skilled
readers do this each time they read and it is
imperative to good comprehension.
First this should be modeled with the entire
class by brainstorming examples of each of
the categories.
Steps in Reciprocal Teaching
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Next, students work in groups of four to
answer questions for each category and
share with the class.
When students first work independently,
they may annotate a short text or
complete a graphic organizer to record
their application of the strategy.
Steps in Reciprocal Teaching
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Students then work in a small groups to share
their annotations and construct meaning of
the text. One student is chosen as “teacher”
to facilitate the group’s task, progress, and
time management.
Students must cite text references during
discussion that focus the questions, what
needs to be clarified, the accuracy of their
predictions, or their comments in
summarization.
Steps in Reciprocal Teaching
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All students add comments to their
sheet to add to depth of understanding
of text.
Bring closure to the lesson through
whole group discussion or comments by
groups about what was discovered.
A single text or multiple texts may be
used to meet individual needs.
Reciprocol Teaching Handout
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Download one or both of the student
handouts for reciprocal teaching.
Caution:
Reading strategies are important only in so far as they assist
readers to construct meaningful understandings of texts.
Teaching strategies is only important only when they
assist readers to comprehend and respond to text.
Think alouds are not appropriate when students already know
how to use a featured reading strategy, when they do not have
a need to use the strategy, or when the strategy is so complex
that it lies beyond their zone of proximal development.
The What: Strategies for
constructing deeper meaning
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Ask Questions
Connect
Predicting
Summarizing
Synthesizing
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Visualizing
Analyzing
Critiquing
Inferring
How do good readers use these strategies to
extend their meaning of the text?
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The following pages contain some of the
strategies good readers use to comprehend
what they read and are taken from the GLEs.
Each gives examples of how the expert
reader uses the strategy.
Following that are ways teachers can model
for students the use of the strategy.
Ask questions of themselves, the authors,
and the text before, during, and after reading.
Good readers ask questions to:
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clarify meaning
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wonder about what is to come in the text
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determine the author’s intent, style, content, or format
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to help interpret what they read
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to focus attention on important ideas in the text
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to deepen their understanding
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listen to others questions to help understand the text
Asking questions strategies
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Have a question marathon with your students. Record their
questions based on the text. Evaluate which questions will
actually make a difference in their understanding of a reading.
Introduce QAR - question answer relationships - provides
teachers and students with a common vocabulary for discussing
different types of questions and sources of
information for
answering these questions. There are four levels of questioning
in this strategy: “right there” (LITERAL), “think and search”
(interpretive), “author and you” (evaluative), and “on my own”
(application).
For more information about this strategy, go to
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/reading
strategies/QAR.htm
Connect:
Activate relevant, prior knowledge
before, during, and after reading text
Good readers make connections by:
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relating unfamiliar text to their prior world knowledge and experience
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text-to-self - things you have experienced
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text-to-text - things you have read about
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text-to-world - things you have heard about
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use what they know about an author and his or her style to predict and better
understand a text
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identify potentially difficult or unfamiliar text structures or formats
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recognize inadequate background information and learn how to build the
information before reading
Strategy for connecting:
Read aloud a short text and think aloud your comments. Show students
connections. Challenge them to define and create new connections that go beyond
the connections originally suggested.
Summarize:
Track down the most important ideas and themes.
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Good readers make decisions about what is important in the text by:
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Word level -pick out the words that carry the meaning of the sentence
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Sentence level - pick out the key sentences that carry the weight of
meaning for a passage or section. Often these sentences begin or end a
paragraph, or in nonfiction, refer to a table or graph
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Text Level - pick out the key ideas, concepts, and themes in the text.
Opinion may change about what is most important as a passage is read.
Final conclusions about what is most important are made after reading the
passage.
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Decisions about what is most important are based on prior knowledge and
beliefs, opinions, and personal experiences.
It helps to point out what is unimportant to help students distinguish what is most
important
Students need to work toward defending their positions, while realizing that
there is often more than one true set of most important ideas
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Track down important information or summarize
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Give students a 3x3 sticky note and fringe it into
3-4 pieces. As they read challenge them to tear
off a piece of fringe and use it to mark what they
think is an important piece of information. This
will mimic highlighting but allow the student to
change their mind as read a passage and will limit
how much they think is important.
Making Inferences
Inferences
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Good readers use their prior knowledge and information from the text to
draw conclusion, make judgments and predictions, and form interpretations
about what they are reading.
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Good readers draw inferences by:
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creating personal meaning from the text - It involves a mental process of
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combining what is read with relevant prior knowledge. The reader’s unique
interpretation of text is the product of this blending.
creating a meaning that is not necessarily stated explicitly in the text. The
process implies that readers actively search for, or are aware of, implicit meaning.
revise based on the inferences and interpretations of other readers
Making Inferences
When good readers infer, they:
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draw conclusions from text
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make reasonable predictions as they read and revise those predictions as they
read further
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create dynamic interpretations of text that are adapted asthey continue to read
and after they read
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make connections between conclusions they draw and other beliefs or
knowledge
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make critical or analytical judgments about what they read
When good readers infer, they are more able to:
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remember and reapply what they have read
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create new background knowledge for themselves
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discriminate and critically analyze text and authors
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engage in conversation and/or other analytical or reflective responses to what
they read
Making Inferences
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At least once a day, read aloud a short passage and think aloud your
inferences. Have students decide what types of inferences you are
making. Try Two Minute Mysteries by Donald Sobol. These short text
offers lots of opportunities for inferencing.
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See this website for more examples and ideas.
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/readingliterature/readingstrateg
ies/inferences.htm
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What does this mean for our
classroom today?
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Reading today views readers as active participants in
the reading process and invites them to move from
passively accepting the text’s message to question,
examine, or dispute the message from the author.
In order for us to engage in explicit instruction of
cognitive strategies, we must become more
metacognitive of our own thinking when reading and
share it with our students.
After modeling the use of the strategy, students must
become active participants in their reading of the text
using the strategy.
Think about your classroom
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What behaviors do you see that are cries for help
with reading?
Choose one student you will follow through this
course. Write a one page reflection of what you see
(i.e., reading level, specific grade level expectations
that are needs of the child, etc.) and what you have
tried to support this child. Send the reflection to each
member of the group.
Choose one or two strategies to support this student
and explain how you would teach it based on the
information you have learned. Send this information
to each member of the group.