Clicking with Comprehension & Visiting with Vocabulary

1. Clicking with Comprehension &Visiting with Vocabulary Sonja Perkins Reading Coach July 29, 2005

2. Objectives • Increase literacy knowledge about vocabulary and comprehension • Practice various teaching strategies to use with students • Reflect on teaching practices and student needs for future instructional planning • Select various strategies to apply in your classrooms

3. Activating Prior Knowledge • List items related to vocabulary instruction and reading comprehension that begin with each letter of the alphabet.

4. What is Comprehension? • In your group develop a definition for “comprehension”. Write it on a piece of paper to share.

5. Comprehension Definitions • Comprehension is constructing meaning from text or making meaning from print. • “The click of comprehension occurs only when the reader evolves a schema that explains the whole message” (Harris & Hodges, 1995). • “Comprehension is the process in which the reader constructs meaning (in) interacting with text…through a combination of prior knowledge and previous experience; information available in text; the stance (taken) in relationship to the text; and immediate, remembered or anticipated social interaction and communications” (Ruddell et al., 1994). • Helping students increase comprehension of content area text involves teaching them how to connect new information to what is already known, read between the lines, and apply learning to new situations. “Teaching reading in the content areas, therefore, is not so much about teaching students basic reading skills as it is about teaching students how to use reading as a tool for thinking and learning” (Billmeyer & Barton, 1998).

6. Comprehension Research • Only 20 minutes of comprehension instruction was observed in 4,469 minutes of reading instruction (Durkin). • “Reading comprehension improvement occurs when teachers demonstrate, explain, model and implement interaction with students in teaching them how to comprehend a text” (Langenberg et al., 2000, 4. 4-47).

7. Steps of Explicit Instruction • Direct Explanation- teacher describes the strategy, explains how it aides comprehension, and suggests when to apply the strategy. • Modeling- teacher demonstrates how to apply the strategy while reading aloud the text and thinking aloud to model thought processes used. • Guided Practice- teacher guides and assists students as they learn how to apply the strategy. • Application- students practice the strategy with teacher’s help until they can apply it independently.

8. Strategic Teaching and Learning • “Strategic reading refers to thinking about reading in ways that enhance learning and understanding. Researchers who explicitly taught students strategies for determining important ideas (Gallagher1986), drawing inferences, (Hansen 1981), and asking questions (Gavelek and Raphael 1985) found that teaching these thinking/reading strategies improved students’ overall comprehensions of text.” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000, p. 16)

9. Teacher’s Role • Teach a few strategies through modeling and guided practice. • Teach them in depth. • Teach them over a long period of time. • Teach using a variety of text-genre and difficulty. • Monitor student understanding to adjust instruction accordingly, providing additional modeling/support to scaffold student learning. • Teach for independence.

10. Student’s Role • Uses existing knowledge to make sense of new information • Asks questions about the text before, during and after reading • Draws inferences from text • Monitors his/her own comprehension • Uses strategies to repair comprehension breakdown • Determines what is important

11. Research on Questioning • “The research shows that children who struggle as readers tend not to ask questions at any time as they read -before, during, or after. It confirms what I’ve seen so many times in classrooms, particularly with upper-elementary and middle school kids. They’re inert as they read.” (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997, p.99) • “There is strong empirical and scientific evidence that instruction of question generation during reading benefits reading comprehension in terms of memory and answering questions based on text as well as integrating and identifying main ideas through summarization.” (Langenberg et al.m 2000, p. 4 – 88)

12. Questioning Before, During & After Reading Questions I Have Before Reading Questions I Have During Reading Questions That Linger After Reading Adapted from I Read It But I Don’t Get It (Tovani, p. 94)

13. Questioning Activity • Choose an article at your table. • Complete the first column after reading the article’s title and previewing the text (look at pictures, captions and headings) . • Read the article while completing the middle column. • After reading the article complete the last column.

14. Comprehending ContentReading Across the Curriculum by C. Tovani • Series Introduction • Synthesizing for New Thinking • Questioning World Events

15. Reflection • What are some of the benefits for students when using this strategy?

16. Visualizing Research • When readers construct an image to represent text content, the image serves as a memory representation of the readers’ interpretation of the text, thus improving memory and comprehension of text. (National Reading Panel Report, p. 4 – 76). • “Readers take the words from the page and stretch and sculpt them until the richness of the story becomes the richness of a memory replete with senses and emotions. Words on the page become recollections anchored in an unforgettable image of one’s own making.” (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997)

17. Visualizing with Vivid Text • Passage will be read aloud. Practice visualizing the text as it is read to you. • Draw what you visualized. • Read the same passage that was read to you. • Make any additions/changes to your drawing. • Share your pictures looking for a unique detail.

18. The Collision • High Street was relatively busy on this dark and cool winter’s night. There were a few pedestrians out and a steady stream of cars. Suddenly, every pedestrian’s attention turned to the road. A Ford slammed on his brakes-its bright lights shining suddenly as the driver of the next car (a Chevy) hit its brakes. At first, nobody noticed that the brake lights of the Chevy did not shine. Instead they watched as an old BMW went slamming into the back of the Chevy which then slid into the Ford. Taken from Harvey, 2000, p. 100-101

19. Reflection • Think and write about a specific text that you use in your class for which visualizing would greatly enhance student understanding.

20. Text Connection Research • The thoughts students have during reading must be captured and addressed in their thinking (inner voice and conversation) to help make meaning based on their own knowledge and experiences. In Mosaic of Thought (1997), Keene and Zimmerman list three types of connections: Text-Self: Relating events, ideas or information from text to the reader’s life experience. Text-Text: Relating events, ideas or information from text to other text read. Text-World: Relating events, ideas or information from text to those things in the world.

21. More Research • “Students possess considerable knowledge of the world that they can use to comprehend what they are being taught and what they read.” (Langenberg et al., 2000) • One challenge with teaching the connecting strategy is that students might need to be taught how to make meaningful connections. (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000)

22. Before Reading Connections • Explain that good readers preview text to identify the topic and think about what they already know about the topic. Share as a class. Activating prior knowledge is crucial when connecting to text. • Examples…KWL, brainstorming, mindstreaming, A-Z lists, anticipation guides

23. During Reading Connections • Explain to students that good readers continue to access prior knowledge and think about how the text connects to their lives while they read. Making personal connections while reading enhances comprehension. • Examples: model using think alouds; sticky notes; listing the connections (T-S,T-T,T-W) with explanations; double entry diaries

24. After Reading Connections • Explain that good readers reflect on what they have read and how it relates and applies to their lives. Again, model this for students and then encourage them to share and/or write their final thoughts on how the text relates to their lives. • Examples: KWL; writing activities.

25. Comprehending ContentReading Across the Curriculum by C. Tovani • Modeling and Practice with Short Text

26. Reflection • Think about your own personal reading experiences (in or out of the educational setting). How did your personal connections with the text affect your comprehension? Write about a specific text if you can.

27. Vocabulary Facts • Research demonstrates that children learn most words indirectly, through reading, writing, listening, and talking (Stahl, 1986). • We have 2 mental vocabularies: phonological (listening and talking) and orthographic (reading and writing). • Until 30, we learn about 3,500 new words a year, for a total of about 100,000 new words (Gleitman, 1988). • Johnson (2001) suggests that the fact that an individual’s vocabulary may increase from 14,000 words at age 6 to 100,000 words as an adult means many words are learned through active language use rather than explicit instruction. • Children who do not think about or use a word after initial instruction are unlikely to add it to their vocabulary repertoire. (Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, 1982).

28. Active Word Study • “Word learning must be active- not passive dictionary definition learning” (Stahl, 1986). • “Having students write definitions of words is not recommended (Miller, 1996). Word study activities can help students enhance the acquisition of learning strategies”.

29. Active Word Study Activity • In groups of 4 to 5 people brainstorm alternatives to having students look-up words up in the dictionary (lexicon) on chart paper. • Record possible ideas to use in your classroom as we share as a group.

30. Multiple Exposures • “Students must have multiple exposures to a word to learn it well (NRP, 2000). Repeated exposure to vocabulary in a variety of contexts improves word learning”.

31. Making Connections • “Strategies to help students relate new words to their background experience as well as other words are desired (Graves and Graves, 1994; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson 1985). • Have students activate prior knowledge, predict and self-assess their knowledge of words they will be reading.

32. Independent Reading • Teachers should encourage and facilitate independent reading. (Nagy, 1988) Amount of Time Spent Reading and Reading Achievement of 5th graders % Rank Min. of Text Reading Daily Est. # of Words Read/Yr. 98 90.7 4,733,000 90 40.4 2,357,000 70 21.7 1,168,000 50 12.9 601,000 20 3.1 134,000 10 1.6 51,000

33. Importance of Reading and Vocabulary • You can’t build a vocabulary without reading. You can’t make friends if you never meet anybody, but stay with yourself all of the time. In the same way, you can’t build up a vocabulary if you never meet any new words. And to meet them, you must read. The more you read, the better. A book a week is good, a book every other day is better, a book a day is still better. There is no upper limit. Keep on reading. Keep on meeting unfamiliar words on printed pages. Keep on getting acquainted with the faces of words. Read (Flesch & Lass, 1996, p.105).

34. Exit Pass • List three things you learned today about comprehension and vocabulary instruction. • What activity or strategy will you MOST likely use in your classroom? Why? • What activity or strategy would you LEAST likely use? Why? Adapted from FLaRE “Linking Literacy to Learners”