Reading in-depth 3-6

1. Reading in-depth 3-6

2. Where Are We Headed? • A model for teaching comprehension within our classrooms that is based on current research. • Teaching strategies and resources that complement the model. (Fostering improvements in vocabulary knowledge and Fluent Reading) • Assessment strategies that complement the model. • Setting Future Directions for Comprehension in your classroom.

3. Goal Setting • What are you hoping to achieve today?

4. What is comprehension? • Comprehension involves responding to, interpreting, analysing and evaluating texts. (NSW Department of Education and Training Literacy Continuum) • Comprehension is an active process between the reader and a text, a process that is both ‘intentional and thoughtful’ (The National Reading Panel 2000)

5. What is the research telling us?

6. The goal of reading is for readers to transact with text in order to comprehend. (Rosenblatt 1978) • Transaction implies that a reader’s personal experiences shape his or her understanding of narrative and expository text, indicating that response is personal and may vary. • Reading can be defined as a thinking process. (Smith 1997) • Suggesting that reading is about cognition indicates that the focus of instruction should not be on the print, but rather on how readers connect with the print. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Booklet originally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

7. Good learners use a variety of comprehension strategies simultaneously. They know how to deliberately apply specific strategies to aid their comprehension, particularly with regard to challenging texts. (Pressley 2002)

8. It has been found that less able ‘comprehenders’ usually focus more on word accuracy rather than comprehension monitoring and generally have weak metacognition skills. (Cain and Oakhill, 1999; Nation et al., 2005) • Students with poor comprehension generally are poor at making inferences and integrating information. (Nation et al, 2005) • They tend to read superficially, are less likely to participate in constructive processes and are unsure of when to apply their prior knowledge during reading. (Cain and Oakhill, 1999)

9. Research has shown that there are sources of comprehension problems that are independent of decoding . (Williams, 2005) • Researchers have also identified students who can not comprehend text effectively in spite of successful decoding. (Caccamise &Snyder, 2005; Duke and Pressley &Hilden 2004)

10. Providing students with explicit instruction in comprehension strategies can be an effective way in helping them overcome difficulties in understanding texts. (Grahame &Bellert, 2004) • The more explicit the comprehension strategy and self-regulatory instruction, the higher the likelihood that the learner will make significant gains in comprehension. (Manset-Williamson & Nelson, 2005) • As learners become more competent and confident of their comprehension, the less support they require from the teacher. (Duke and Pearson 2002)

11. Reflection • What are the skills and strategies that my students need in order to comprehend text? • How do I currently teach these comprehension skills and strategies in my classroom?

12. “Teachers must create the environments in which students are challenged to read a wide range of texts deeply and thoughtfully. With the goal of deep thinking, teachers in this kind of learning environment invite responses and reactions, and stretch students’ thinking to levels of reflection they might not reach on their own.” (Linda Hoyt 2009)

13. Efferent: (Here/Hidden)The information (facts) readers extract from the text • Aesthetic: (Heart)Expressive responses that invite learners to share their thinking • Critical / Analytical: (Head)Readers interrogate the text, the author, the issue and the purpose (Linda Hoyt 2009)

14. In setting the stage for comprehension, teachers explicitly model how good readers reach into a text, cracking open the thinking process of an expert reader in a way that students can replicate. • Teachers explicitly demonstrate strategies and tools readers use to record their thinking, exposing their thinking and their written responses in a highly visual way that students can follow as a model for their own thinking and writing. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt

15. It is vital that, “Teachers support their students’ strategic reading through lessons that attend explicitly to how to think while reading.” (Hiebert, Pearson, Taylor, Richardson, and Paris 1998)

16. Comprehension – Cognition and Metacognition • Comprehension strategies are the cognitive and metacognitive strategies readers use to accomplish the goal of comprehension. • Comprehension strategies are interrelated and rarely used in isolation. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

17. Comprehension – Cognition and Metacognition • Cognitive strategies are mental processes involved in achieving something. (For example, making a cake) • Metacognitive strategies are the mental processes that help us to think about and check how we are going in completing the task. (For example, ‘Is there something that I have left out?) Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

18. Cognitive strategies, such as predicting, assist in understanding what is being read. • Metacognitive strategies allow individuals to monitor and assess their ongoing performance in understanding what is being read. (For Example, as a text is being read the reader might think: I don’t understand this. I might need to re-read this part.) Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

19. Comprehension – The ‘SUPER SIX’ Strategies

20. STRATEGY 1. Making Connections • Learners make personal connections from the text with: • -something in their own life (text to self) • -another text (text to text) • -something occurring in the world Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

21. STRATEGY 1. Making Connections -Example Questions / Statements: -This story reminds me of... -This character has the same problem as a character that I read / saw / heard about in another text. -I saw a program on television that presented things described in this text. -Does this remind me /you of something? -Has something like this ever happened to me / you? Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

22. STRATEGY 1. Making Connections • The Character and Me: • Invite students to select a character from a story and then compare the character to themselves. In what ways are they alike or different? Do they have similar interests or ways of doing things? If the student had the character’s role in the story, would he or she have made different choices? A Venn diagram works well for this activity. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt

24. STRATEGY 1. Making Connections • Coding the Text: • Using a read-aloud and thinking aloud, model for the students, examples of making connections. These may include text-self, text-text, or text-world connections. While reading aloud, demonstrate how to code a section of the text that elicits a connection by using a sticky note, a code (T-S = text-self, T-T = text, text, T-W = text-world), and a few words to describe the connection. Have the students work in small groups to read a short text and code the text. Have them share their ideas with the class. Encourage students to code the text using sticky notes to record their ideas and use these as the basis of small and large group discussions. Guided Comprehension: A Teaching Model for Grades 3-8 (Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen) P121

27. STRATEGY 1. Making Connections • Connection Stems: • After reading a text aloud, show students a sentence stem and think aloud about the process you use for completing it. Use text support and personal experiences to explain the connection. Read another text aloud and guide the students to complete the stem orally with a partner. Have students read a short text and work together to complete a stem. Share the completed stem through discussion or journal responses. Guided Comprehension: A Teaching Model for Grades 3-8 (Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen)

29. STRATEGY 2. Predicting • Learners use information from graphics, text and experiences to anticipate what will be read / viewed / heard and to actively adjust comprehension while reading / viewing / listening. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

30. STRATEGY 2. Predicting -Example Questions / Statements: -What do I / you think will happen next? -What words / images do I / you expect to see or hear in this text? -What might happen next? Why do I / you think that? What helped me / you make that prediction? -Were my / your predictions accurate? How did I / you confirm my / your predictions? -Have I / you read / seen / heard about this topic anywhere else? Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

31. STRATEGY 2. Predicting • Before and After Chart: • Students list predictions before and during reading. As they read, students either confirm or reject their predictions. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

32. STRATEGY 2. Predicting • Partner Read and Think: • Partner read and think is based on the research that so effectively supports reciprocal teaching, but it requires fewer social skills as it is completed by partners instead of teams of four. The process engages partners in applying six distinct steps to each segment of text that is read. The combination of steps helps students engage at several levels of comprehension and encourages language use as partners navigate a selection. Partner Read, Think guides partner pairs in: a) Placing a stop sign b) Predicting words they think are likely to appear c) Reading the section d) Identifying words they find confusing or interesting e) Summarising the learning. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

33. Partner Read and Think

34. STRATEGY 2. Predicting • Predict – O – Gram: • Select vocabulary from the story to stimulate predictions. Vocabulary should represent the story elements: characters, setting, problem, action and solution. Have students decide which story element the word tells about and write each word on the Predict-O-Gram in the appropriate place. Have students read the story. Revisit the original predictions with students and make changes as necessary. Use the resulting information to summarise or retell the story. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt

36. STRATEGY 2. Predicting • Anticipation / Reaction Guide: • Select a text for the students to read. Create three to five general statements for the students to respond to with agree or disagree. Create statements that are intuitively sound but may be disconfirmed by reading the text or appear intuitively incorrect but may be proven true by reading the text. Have the students indicate agreement or disagreement. Have students read the text to confirm or disconfirm their original responses. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt

38. STRATEGY 3. Questioning • Learners pose and answer questions that clarify meaning and promote deeper understanding of the text. Questions can be generated by the learner, a peer or the teacher. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

39. STRATEGY 3. Questioning -Example Questions / Statements: -What in the text helped me / you know that? -How is this text making me / you feel? Why is that? -When you read / viewed / listened to the text, did it remind me you of anything I / you know about? -Why did it remind me / you of that? -What did the composer of the text mean by...? -Whose point of view is this? What points of view are missing? Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

40. STRATEGY 3. Questioning • Wonderings: • Using sticky notes, students list all the questions they have about the text. As they read, students continue to write questions. When an answer is found for the ‘wondering’ students remove the sticky note. Modelling the creation of surface vs. Deep questions sets the stage for improved comprehension. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

42. STRATEGY 3. Questioning • Paired Questioning: • When students learn to ask questions of themselves and their conversation partners, they remember more and become more fully engages with the text selection. The personal questions readers generate about a text stimulate connections, represent inferences, activate prior knowledge, and help them to clarify understanding. As you guide students in generating questions, remember to assist them in generating questions and responses that are aesthetic, efferent and critical / analytical. These levels of questioning support broad ranges of understanding, stimulate language use, and are powerful supports to partner conversations. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt (p47)

44. STRATEGY 4. Monitoring • Learners stop and think about the text and know what to do when meaning is disrupted. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

45. STRATEGY 4. Monitoring -Example Questions / Statements: -Is this making sense? -What have I / you learned? -Should I / you slow down? Speed up? -Do I need to re-read / view / listen? -What can help me / you fill in missing information? -What does this word mean? -What can I use to help me understand what I’m / you’re reading? Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program

46. STRATEGY 4. Monitoring • Coding: • As they read, students code the text with sticky notes. A tick could represent, ‘I Understand’. A question mark could indicate, ‘I don’t understand’ and an exclamation mark could show that the student has either solved a problem that they encountered or that they have come across something that they deem to be astounding. Teaching Comprehension Strategies Bookletoriginally developed as part of the Focus on Reading 3-6 program.

48. STRATEGY 4. Monitoring • Read, Cover, Remember, Retell: • This strategy is designed to help readers slow down and read for meaning. They begin by reading a fairly small amount of text, then covering the print with their hand. While their hands are over the page, readers take a moment to wonder: • “What did I learn?” • “What is important?” • “What key words and ideas should I remember?” • Students quickly learn that if they are unsure and need to recheck the content, they follow the strategy used by good readers and reread the section to give themselves another chance to absorb the content. This pause in reading, followed by self-questioning, generates a mid-stream retell and solidifies content understanding. The deliberate steps form a routine in which pausing, thinking, self questioning, and summarising become naturally integrated into reading. Revisit Reflect Retell Time – Tested Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension Linda Hoyt

50. STRATEGY 4. Monitoring • Patterned Partner Reading: • Students work in pairs and select a text to read. Before reading, students choose a pattern to use as they engage in reading: • Read – Pause – Ask Questions • Predict – Read – Discuss • Read, Pause, Retell • Patterned Partner Reading provides a structure for reading interactively with another and promotes strategic reading. Guided Comprehension: A Teaching Model for Grades 3-8 (Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen)