Session 4

1. Session 4 Reading Comprehension

2. Reading Comprehension • Reading comprehension is defined as the ability to understand written text • Proficient reading depends on the ability to recognize words quickly and effortlessly. If word recognition is difficult, students use too much of brain decoding and they cannot extract meaning from the text

3. Reading Comprehension • Reading comprehension can be broken down into two sections • Inside-out components • Outside-in components

4. Reading Comprehension • Inside-out components are the topics we discussed last week. They deal with skills related to decoding- • Phonological awareness • Alphabetic understanding • Automaticity with code • Outside-in components- relate to comprehending text- the ability • to draw on their understanding of language • Word meaning • Prior knowledge • Strategies for extracting and constructing meaning

5. Reading Comprehension • There has been a great deal of research on improving and teaching reading, however, most of it has been on Inside-out components • Phonological awareness • Alphabetic understanding • Automaticity with code • Not much research has been done on the Outside-in components

6. Reading Comprehension • This was recognized and more research is being done on issues such as • strategies to build vocabulary

7. Reading Comprehension • Some research has been done (1996) and found that there are Two major factors that contribute to reading comprehension • Process- involves • Decoding • Working memory • Inference making • Comprehension monitoring • Knowledge • Word meanings • Domain knowledge related to the text being read

8. Reading Comprehension • In your groups, discuss what each of these mean • Process- involves • Decoding • Working memory • Inference making • Comprehension monitoring • Knowledge • Word meanings • Domain knowledge related to the text being read

9. Reading Comprehension • When do you teach Comprehension • Often people feel that they cannot work on comprehension until the students can begin to decode- This is very logical, how can a students understand and comprehend a story until they can decode and read the words?

10. Reading Comprehension • You should begin working on reading comprehension at the same time you begin ore even before ( if you are a parent) you start to teach the process for decoding • Use Oral reading

12. Reading Comprehension for Young Children • Picture walks • Make predictions • Retell the story

13. Reading Comprehension • Listening Comprehension • Younger children have stronger listen comprehension skills • By Fifth grade their reading comprehension and listening comprehension skills even out at the same level

14. Reading Comprehension • Good readers are strategic learners • They used multiple strategies before, during and after they read • Research has found that US readers in fourth grade are good with Narrative texts, but are not as good ( compared to other countries) with Expository text

15. Types of Texts • Comprehending and Learning from the Various Types of Texts-Being literate in the content areas requires that readers understand the demands of various types of texts. The types of texts are: Narrative, Expository, Technical and Persuasive. Narrative Text

16. Types of Texts • The first type is the narrative text.  This text tells a story, and it is what most students are familiar with when they enter school. They handle this text material with relative ease, without thinking too much about the process. Most children do well in handling simple narratives, and because of this, simple narratives are used in early reading instruction. Even though this type of text is used regularly, readers still have a great deal to learn about the nature of the narrative form of writing. It is used often

17. Types of Texts • Expository texts do not tell a story with the usual beginning, middle, and end. Most subject matter texts are expository in nature. Most children do not enter school with an understanding of how expository texts work. In the lower elementary grades students do not get much exposure to expository reading, and they get very little instruction on how to read and use expository materials (Duke, 2000).  This is not helpful to students, in that much of the information that students need to learn appears in expository materials.  One important fact that students need to learn about expository text is that it usually presents new material to them and that to learn this material requires a purposeful effort on their part.

18. Types of Texts • Technical Writing Technical text materials are different from expository and narrative texts. Technical writing is recognized as an important writing form in our technological age. Although this form of writing is not often used in the lower elementary levels, it is used in the upper grades of elementary school, middle school, and high school levels. Comprehension of this type of text is important for the literacy development of all students.

19. Types of Texts • Persuasive texts the author’s purpose is to convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or to implement a certain behavior or action.  Persuasive texts can best be described as: having an emotional appeal where the author resorts to endorsements from influential persons. The bandwagon effect and testimonials are often associated with this type of texts. having a central focus that may rely on propaganda and/or sarcasm. trying to convince the reader to adopt the writer’s point of view. attempting to solve a problem by calling for a change in an established procedure or method of doing things. having a purpose that requires taking an informed stand on an issue. The author will use persuasive reasons and elaborate on those reasons. Examples of this type of text are advertisements, brochures, commercials, charitable campaign appeals, and political campaign literature.

20. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Students must know understand the meaning of words • Have Strategic processing-use different strategies for different texts • Needs to be fluent

21. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Fluency- Being able to decode words in a manner that the process of decoding does not interfere with understanding what you read • There is a significant positive relation ship with fluency and comprehension • Lets look at Read Naturally

22. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Vocabulary- Knowing the meaning of the word in the proper context • It does not help you to decode the word, if you do not know the meaning- this is a word caller • There is level of understanding It may not be important to know what the word means if you can understand its effect on the sentence- The rich man was not respected by the community because he acted ins such a miserly fashion. Might know miserly is a negative

23. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Readers must work hard to answering meaning from text by applying a variety of cognitive strategies • Summarizing, finding the main idea, generating and answering questions, developing concept maps

24. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Indentifying important information- • Use a highlighter- helps them focus on what parts of a paragraph are important • Inferring /predicting- judging, concluding and predicting, then examine if you were right. This helps students read between the lines and determine was in not directly stated- be the detective

25. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Monitoring/clarifying- as you read, ask yourself is this making sense, do I understand it? How do I clear it up? • Generating and answering questions- pose questions before you read the answer them as you read • Visualizing- form mental pictures • Summarizing- pull together essential elements

26. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Synthesizing- puling together information from several sources • Evaluating- making judgments about what has been read

27. Reading Comprehension Big Ideas • Before Ben reads, he thinks about the task, sets a purpose for reading and activates prior knowledge. During reading he actively applies a variety of strategies, know when comprehension sis occurring, and more importantly, know when he is becoming confused. When comprehension breaks down, he rereads and adjusts his strategy • When Bob Reds, he does so without setting a plan, as reading he does not reflect on what he is doing and does not know what to do when he does not understand

28. Vocabulary Definition • “…knowing a word is not an all-or-nothing proposition; it is not the case that one either knows or does not know a word. Rather, knowledge of a word should be viewed in terms of the extent or degree of knowledge that people can possess.”Beck & McKeown, 1991

29. Vocabulary Definition “…vocabulary is the glue thatholds stories, ideas, and content together…making comprehension accessible for children.” Rupley, Logan, & Nichols, 1998/99, p. 339

30. Vocabulary Definition (cont.) • “Words are the starting point. Without words, children can’t talk about people, places, or things, about actions, relations, or states.” Clark, 1993

31. Vocabulary Definition (cont.) • Vocabulary, or lexicon, refers to information stored in memory concerning the pronunciation and meanings of words. Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998

32. Effective VocabularyInstructional Program ResearchBase

33. Research Base for Vocabulary • First graders from high SES populations have access to twice as many word meanings as children from lower SES groups Graves, Brunetti, & Slater, 1982; Graves & Slater, 1987

34. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Once vocabulary differences are firmly established in children, they are very difficult to reverse Biemiller, 1999; Hart & Risley, 1995 • There is currently little emphasis on the acquisition of vocabulary in school Biemiller, 2001; Scott, Jamieson, & Asselin, 1998; Watts, 1995

35. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Word knowledge is essential for comprehension Davis, 1944 • Oral interactions and wide reading in a variety of text types is to be encouraged and supported Nagy & Herman, 1987

36. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Learning newconcepts requires active involvement rather than passive definition memorization Stahl, 1986

37. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Multiple exposures to a word is necessary to learn it well –conceptual, contextual, & definitional Miller, 1996 • Writing definitions from dictionaries is not a recommended practice Miller, 1996

38. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Relate new words to students’ prior knowledge and to other related words when possible U.S. Dept of Education, 1987

39. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Students need to develop the ability to learn new words from the multiple contexts of reading Johnson & Baumann, 1984

40. Research Base for Vocabulary (cont.) • Use direct instruction to teach Tier 2 and passage or selection of critical words Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998

41. Teaching Vocabulary Is There a Set of Vocabulary Words Elementary Students Should Have? • Children learn about 1,000 (conservative) to 3,000 (liberal) words per year (Stahl & Nagy, 2006). Most scholars agree with an estimate of 2,000 – 3,000 words learned per year.

42. Teaching Vocabulary Is There a Set of Vocabulary Words Elementary Students Should Have? • Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002) do not believe in teaching Tier I words (high frequency). This recommendation clearly assumes these words are already knownor will be learned incidentally through conversation and social interactions.

43. What Does it Take to Teach a Word Well? Teaching Vocabulary • Vocabulary should be taught both explicitly and incidentally. • Repetition and multiple exposure are important for learning new vocabulary. • Learning how to construct vocabulary from rich (directive) contexts is valuable. • Vocabulary learning tasks should be restructured when necessary. • Vocabulary tasks should entail active engagement. • Explicit vocabulary instruction should address the use of definitions, context, and concept learning.

44. What Words Should I Teach? Teaching Vocabulary • First, examine the type of text the children will be reading. Is it narrative or informational? Teach Tier II words if the children will be reading narrative, literary texts. Teach Tier III words if children will be reading informational, expository texts (point of contact). • Next, examine the text to develop a list of 10 Tier II or Tier III words to be taught during the week, 2 per day.

45. Teaching Vocabulary What Words Should I Teach? • Read the text to determine the nature of the context in which each of the selected Tier II or Tier III words appear. • Directive Context • Gives clues, hints, synonyms to determine an approximate word meaning in the context. • Non-Directive Context • Mentions the word without giving any clues to determine word meaning. • Mis-Directive Context • Gives clues that lead readers to false word meaning construction.

46. Teaching Vocabulary What Words Should I Teach? • If a word appears in a directive context, then teach children how to use context to determine an approximate word meaning. • If a word appears in a non-directive or mis-directive context, then these are good candidates for your 10 word teaching list.

47. Teaching Vocabulary What Words Should I Teach? • If you have ELL students in your classroom, be sure to determine if there is a Spanish-English cognate that may help them make the translation. For example - Information (English) Información (Spanish) • Here is a good source for finding English Spanish Cognates -

48. Three Qualities of an Effective Vocabulary Instructional Program • Strategies for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction

49. Thinking About Vocabulary Instruction: Three Tiers • Tier One Words- Consists of basic words and rarely require instructional attention in school and highly frequent in life: clock, baby, ball, happy, walk, run, etc. • Tier Two Words - High frequency use for mature language users and found across a variety of knowledge domains: coincidence, absurd, industrious, fortunate, etc. • Tier Three Words - Low frequency use and limited to specific knowledge domains: isotope, lathe, peninsula, refinery, etc. Best learned when teaching specific content lessons such as geography, science, etc.Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. NY: Guilford Press.

50. Can You Find a Tier II Word?