Increasing Explicitness in Fluency, Vocabulary & Comprehension Instruction

1. Increasing Explicitness in Fluency, Vocabulary & Comprehension Instruction Sharon Walpole University of Delaware Sara McCraw University of Delaware

2. Today’s Agenda Presentation on correlation between DIBELS data and DSTP scores Spring 2006 Paired jigsaw activity with our reading Application of these ideas to first-grade planning Small-group planning of school follow-up Business meeting

3. Speed test . . . ready?

4. The Herdmans were absolutely the

5. worst kids in the history of the

6. world. They lied and stole and

7. smoked cigars (even the girls) and

8. talked dirty and hit little kids and

9. cussed their teachers and took the

10. name of the Lord in vain and set

11. fire to Fred Shoemaker’s old

12. broken-down toolhouse.

13. Rate = 265 words per minute

14. Is speed reading real? Take a minute to read about Mike McKenna’s experience with a speed-reading course.

15. “In its beginnings, reading fluency is the product of the initial development of accuracy and the subsequent development of automaticity in underlying sublexical processes, lexical processes, and their integration in single word reading and connected text.

16. These include perceptual [letter recognition?] phonological [segmentation and blending?] orthographic [graphemes and spelling patterns?] and morphological [grammatical morphemes? prefixes and suffixes?] Processes at the letter, letter-pattern, and word levels, as well as semantic and syntactic processes at the word level and connected-text level.

17. After it is fully developed, reading fluency refers to a level of accuracy and rate where decoding is relatively effortless; where oral reading is smooth and accurate with correct prosody; and where attention can be allocated to comprehension.” (Wolf & Katzir-Cohen, 2001)

18. Fluency requires the child to use phonics and spelling knowledge automatically

19. Fluency requires the child to automatically integrate phonics and spelling knowledge to recognize entire words

20. Fluency requires the child to link recognized words into natural phases, with appropriate enunciation and emphasis

21. Fluency in Connected Text (textual) Fluency at the Word Level (lexical) Fluency within Words (sublexical)

22. Coaches’ Corner What does that complex definition of fluency actually mean? Can you think of examples of children in your school who get stuck at the first, second, or third level in the pyramid?

23. “A definition is the enclosing of a wilderness of ideas within a wall of words” Samuel Butler (1912) Notebooks

24. Vocabulary Instruction • Many children learn vocabulary words indirectly from the adults in their life • Those who come to school with limited vocabulary can build their vocabulary through explicit instruction • Research on vocabulary instruction strongly suggests a positive correlation between vocabulary knowledge and comprehension

25. Instructional Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary • Modeling • Synonyms • Definitions and Opposite Definitions • Semantic Maps • Word Continuum: ranking words • Morphology • Context Clues

26. Not all words are equal • Tier 1—Most basic words. Table, baby, run • Tier 2—High frequency for mature language users. Span a range of domains. Coincidence, absurd, fortunate • Tier 3—Low frequency, limited to a single domain. Isotope, refinery, lathe

27. Identifying Tier 2 Words • Importance & utility: words characteristic of mature speakers • Instructional potential: words can be incorporated into various activities • Conceptual understanding: students may understand the general concept, but need more clarity Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002)

28. How to teach vocabulary • Introduce target words (before/after) • Contextualized introduction • Explanation of meaning • Provide multiple opportunities to interact with the word • Use graphic organizers when needed • Encourage future use

29. Coaches’ Corner When and how should we introduce new vocabulary terms to children? Can you think of examples of children in your school who struggle with comprehension because they skip words or infer the wrong meaning?

30. Comprehension Instruction • Proficient readers use a variety of strategies to monitor and repair their understanding while reading • Teachers must teach students how to use each of these strategies through the gradual release of responsibility model (explicit instruction-modeling-scaffolded practice-independence)

31. Instructional Practices • Begin with the most concrete: literal comprehension at the sentence level • Increase level of difficulty: literal comprehension at the passage/full text level (teacher supports by reading aloud more complex text) • Move to inferential level: sentence level first followed by passage/full text level

32. Some DERF Assumptions • Phonemic awareness, decoding, and fluency are necessary but insufficient to guarantee reading comprehension • Teachers tend to assess vocabulary and comprehension (by asking children to demonstrate it) rather than actually teach it • Differentiated instruction can move from lower-level skills and tasks to higher-level ones

33. Remember direct instruction? • Tasks, even complex tasks, can be decomposed into specific components. • Each component can be taught and practiced to mastery. • Components can then be coordinated to accomplish higher-order tasks.

34. A Closer Look at Direct Instruction During the 1970s and 80s, researchers worked to identify the characteristics of effective teaching. They asked two key questions: What do more-effective teachers do that less-effective teachers don’t? If less-effective teachers learn and apply these techniques, will the learning of their students increase? In 1986, a now-classic article by Barak Rosenshine appeared in Educational Leadership. In it, he summarized the findings of the huge body of effectiveness research. The result is a teaching model called “explicit instruction,” or sometimes “direct instruction.”

35. The explicit teaching model is sometimes divided into three phases: 1 2 3 Guided Practice Independent Practice Introduction of new material, organized into clear objectives, tied to previous learning, and accom-panied by modeling and monitoring by the teacher

36. Keep in mind that most of the researchers who studied effective teachers were not specifically interested in reading instruction. This is why the model sounds generic. It can be applied to nearly any content subject! When reading researchers, such as the National Reading Panel, say that research favors “explicit, systematic” instruction, this is the model they mean. Now let’s look more closely at the characteristics Rosenshine extracted from the research.

37. For your teaching to be explicit, you should … • Begin the lesson with a short statement of goals. • Begin the lesson with a short review of previous, prerequisite learning. • Present new material in small steps, with student practice after each step. • Give clear and detailed instructions and explanations. • Provide active practice for all students. • Ask many questions, check for student understanding, and obtain responses from all students. • Guide students during initial practice. • Provide systematic feedback and corrections. • Provide explicit instruction and practice for seatwork exercises and, where necessary, monitor students during seatwork. • Continue practice until students are independent and confident. – Rosenshine (1986), pp. 60, 62

38. Direct Explicit Some confusion can occur when the phrase, “direct instruction” is used interchangeably with “explicit instruction.” This is because a publishing company has long used “Direct Instruction” in the name of its commercial products. One way to avoid confusion is to say “Little d-i” when referring to explicit teaching and “Big D-I” when referring to the product. Of course, you can also avoid confusion by using the phrase “explicit instruction.”

39. Our book study today is designed for teachers who want teachers to apply specific procedures from “little d-i” to their own core scope and sequence. Some of the authors have been associated with “Big D-I” curriculum design, but they have written this book specifically for an audience not using DI.

40. Jigsaw Procedure • Break into three groups of 6-8 members (thematic groups: fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) • Each group will split into two sub groups and will be assigned one chapter from the Carnine book (12,13, 15,16,18, or 19) • Plan 30 minutes in your subgroup and 20 minutes in thematic group to read and prepare the chapter presentation and demonstration • Presentation and demonstration will last 30 minutes for each thematic group. During the share time, the paired groups will be working together to share what they’ve learned

41. Fluency: Beginning Reading Groups • Read chapter 12, pp. 145-161. • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction including both word reading in isolation and reading of decodable text. You can use procedures in the chapter to make up your own decodable text.

42. Fluency:Primary Reading Groups • Read chapter 13, pp. 163-179 . • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction that includes reading for accuracy, for comprehension, and for fluency. Consider whether you can accomplish this without round-robin reading.

43. Vocabulary: Beginning Reading Groups • Read chapter 15, pp. 183-191. • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction including a variety of ways to introduce new vocabulary.

44. Vocabulary:Primary Reading Groups • Read chapter 16, pp. 193-208 . • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction that includes a variety of ways to introduce vocabulary.

45. Comprehension: Beginning Reading Groups • Read chapter 18, pp. 211-220. • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction including literal comprehension at both the sentence and passage level.

46. Comprehension:Primary Reading Groups • Read chapter 19, pp. 221-235 . • Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and prepare a chart paper summary to share. • Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based instruction including inferential comprehension monitoring at both the sentence and passage level.

47. Let’s Plan . . .

48. Back in School Apply concepts from today’s work to plan needs-based instruction focused on developing fluency (at word, sentence or text level as needed), vocabulary, or comprehension. Test your plan for three days. Consider strategies to share what you learned with the rest of your instructional team; be prepared to share at our next meeting.

49. References Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kame’enui, E. J., Tarver, S. G., & Jungjohann, K. (2006). Teaching struggling and at-risk readers: A direct instruction approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Rosenshine, B. V. (1986). Synthesis of research on explicit teaching. Educational Leadership, 43(7), 60-69. Wolf, M., & Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5, 211-239.