Reading Strategies to Improve Comprehension

1. Reading Strategies to Improve Comprehension @ The High School Level Group Pink Team Members: Amy Donnellon Thomas Korth Gary Scheff Rob Girvin

2. The problem we identified was consistently low ACT reading scores. • The Goal: To raise the reading scores of students at the high school level. • To accomplish this we created a 3 step plan to be implemented immediately. The Problem…

3. The group decided on reading scores because they were consistently lower than state averages and better reading skills will help our students on all other portions of the ACT and other standardized assessments. • To help us create our action plan we took a look at the ACT reading scores of Roseville High School. THE DATA….

4. ROSEVILLE ACT READING SCORES

5. Evidence Of Success (How will you know that you are making progress? What are your benchmarks?) • Students will have a higher proficiency than the state average on reading (using proficient/not proficient scoring), this will take place within one year. • Evaluation Process (How will you determine that your goal has been reached? What are your measures?) • ACT/MME Test Scores to evaluate if our goal has been reached, and Plan & Explore Tests to determine need areas. ACTION PLAN EVALUATION:

6. Q : What is it? • A: An ACT style, timed activity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Q: How Often? • A: 3 times a trimester for each department. The entire department can choose to do one activity for all, OR you may choose to split it up by subject area based on what you are already covering in class. As long as it’s done 3 times per trimester, we will leave it to departments to determine how it’s done. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Q: How do we document the activity? • A: Class average as a percent put into Google Docs, Data Director, and assignment as a grade in PowerTeacher. This will allow for NCA data and can be yours to use as evidence of student growth for teacher evaluations. “R Squared”--Roseville Reads

7. Q : What kinds of selections should we use? • A: Selections can be a ACT style article or reading selection, story problem, graph, map, political cartoon, etc. Think about what types of questions are asked in YOUR subject area and give them experience in those areas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Q: Where can I find examples? • A: ACT test prep books, www.mel.org, previous CCR’s, released test questions, news articles, excerpts from books, etc. PDF samples will be sent via e-mail to give you more ideas of what your selections can look like. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- • Q: When do I have to have it entered in Google docs? • A: By September 21st, October 19th, and November 9th first Trimester. “R Squared”--Roseville Reads

8. STEP 1: The Reading Minute • STEP 2: CCR- Close & Critical Reading • STEP 3: T-4 Talking to the Text ACTION PLAN

9. 1) THE READING MINUTE • Technique first developed by the Macomb Intermediate School District – Clinton Township, MI • Part of the Reading Apprenticeship initiative to improve Student Literacy • This initiative was developed, practiced and distributed by MISD in 2005-2007 *WHO? Teachers & Students*WHEN? On-going throughout the year.*RESOURCES:1) MISD- reading apprenticeship http://www.misd.net/MacombSchools/2) Collier Schools Website- The Reading Minutehttp://www.collierschools.com/english/la/docs/Lit%20Tip%2021The%20Reading%20Minute.pdf

10. For the student – WE ALL KNOW that reading is exciting!!! • The PURPOSE of the Reading Minute is to create an interest for the student • To READ about a topic of interest - currently in the news • Or something interesting pertaining to the age of the student • Articles, parts of books, that are short – about a minute in length • Then the student WRITES – no more than two sentences about the point and purpose of the read • Designed to be a CLASSROOM ACTIVITY – teacher will begin • Then EACH STUDENT will have a turn to read to the class • TIMELINE – the entire school year at the start of each school day TIME FOR OUR CLASSROOM ACTIVITY

11. ARE YOU LISTENING??? Today – you are the students 1. Get a piece of paper and a Pen or pencil ready 2. Listen as I read 3. READING MINUTE TODAY’S TOPIC: DRINKING COFFEE IS GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH

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13. Reading Minute Strategy: • Begins at the start of the first class of the school day • On the board write: • Author, title, type of text, source (properly formatted by APA standards) • RESOURCES / DATA USED • Read from an article, portion of a newspaper, book or magazine – for one minute – while the entire class LISTENS (no talking, texting, writing, laughing) • Student reader – following the read - instructs class they have two minutes to write their summary on what was read • Classroom summaries are collected & recorded Student reader responsibility: turn in reading minute work – instead of two sentence summary – copy of text that was read with notes / notations

14. Variations to this strategy as practiced by some teachers who used the READING MINUTE technique include: • Reading logs created by each student in elementary and middle schools • After the classroom student summaries were collected, the student reader of the day would explain why the reading was chosen by them and worthy of hearing it • Students would be given incentives (ie. pass coupons, snacks) if they sign up to do more than the required amount of Reading Minutes assigned by the teacher Student choices:

15. Potential Barriers by individuals or organizations • Teachers who may not consider this strategy valuable or necessary • Teachers who may have other strategies they deem as successful from past use and experience • Students who may have “stage fright” may be apprehensive to participate • Students who would be embarrassed because they know they are not good readers – especially in front of their peers • Parents – who are too “over-protective” of their student having to do something they may not consider necessary or other reasons – yes even at the high school level • Districts – who may not consider the strategy valuable Maybe consider parental incentives? Only kidding!

16. Guided Highlighted Reading STRATEGY #2- CCR

17. This strategy is part of the MISD Mission Literacy website, and has been used by most districts for some time now. • The part of CCR we are going to employ in our action plan is the Guided Highlighted Reading strategy. • This strategy was developed by Dr. Elaine Weber. 2) Close & Critical Reading

18. *WHO? Teachers & Students*WHEN? On-going throughout the year. The goal should be to do this once every week in core classes. *RESOURCES: 1) MISD- reading apprenticeship http://www.misd.net/MacombSchools/2) Salisbury University http://www.salisbury.edu/counseling/new/7_critical_reading_strategies.html ACTION PLAN QUESTIONS….

19. 1. Teacher selects an article or piece of text that is accessible to all the students. • 2. Teacher identifies the vocabulary that needs to be taught in advance. • 3. Teacher determines a context for the information that could frame it for the students’ prior knowledge. • 4. Teacher considers what kind of discussion you want to come out of the reading of the text. HOW DO I CREATE ONE?

20. 5. Teacher selects the appropriate information to be highlighted based on the goal for the discussion. • 6. Teacher maps out the text paragraph by paragraph with prompts to highlight the information. • 7. Students use a highlighter and follow directions to highlight the text that is requested by the prompt. • 8. Students compare their highlighted text with one another • 9. Students can use the highlighted portion of the text to answer questions or complete an objective. Following the steps….

21. Teachers/Staff: staff has to be trained correctly on how to select and create these readings. If the staff is not correctly trained or motivated then they may not understand the purpose of this strategy and may not use it at all or use it correctly. • Students: students need to know WHY they are doing these activities and how it will help them in the future to dissect complex texts. POTENTIAL BARRIERS

22. 3) T-4, Talk to the Text

23. WHO? All teachers & studentsWHEN? On-Going throughout the school year. RESOURCES:

24. NEW VOCABULARY • Don’t know a word? Circle it and look it up or use context clues to guess the definition. • ?= QUESTION • What questions come to mind as you are reading? Look for answers to your questions. (For example, why do the characters act the way they do? What causes events to happen? Why does the writer include certain information?) State any confusion in the form of mundane (closed) questions and your heavy, more philosophical thoughts in the form of profound (open or “deep”) questions. Both are important for attaining a full understanding of the text. • A= AH-HA • Note when something suddenly makes sense, especially if it is an answer to one of your previous questions. • T= THEORIZE • What theories about the author or main character’s motivations and actions do you have? Why does the author include certain information? Why didn’t he or she write it another way? Use specific details to INFER the main idea, topic, and THEME of the reading. Take some risks by doing some good “detective work” as you read. Revise your theories as needed. • S= SUMMARIZE • After you read a chunk of text (such as a paragraph or section), it is often a good idea to briefly summarize the text with a phrase or short sentence.

25. C= CONNECT • Write down a similar experience you have had, read about, or seen. Consider connections to music, poems, discussions, plays, television shows, films, etc. • P= PATTERNS • Look for repetition of words, phrases, imagery or ideas. Look for similarities or contradictions in the text. • V= VISUALIZE • Use descriptions and details from the reading to create a mental portrait of the reading. As you read, change your mental picture as the reading unfolds and your understanding grows. Practice picturing what the writer is describing. SKETCH in your notes anything, including the setting, that might help you better understand what you are reading. • EG= EDUCATED GUESS (PREDICTION) • What will you think will happen next? Using information you already know, make an EDUCATED GUESS or prediction. Look for hints in the reading that seem to lead to a certain outcome. Be sure to note later when your predictions are correct. • R= RESPOND • How have your beliefs been challenged, changed or strengthened by what you have read? • LL= LITERARY LANGUAGE • Thinking about what an author means is important and so is noticing HOW he or she says it. This is the author’s style. Note particularly elegant or interestingly crafted phrases as you read. • CR= CLOSE READING • Conduct a close, deep analysis of an important image or motif in the reading. Jot down the CONNOTATIONS/CONNECTIONS you associate with the word or phrase and use those as a springboard for investigating its deeper meaning and theme.

27. 1. What does the text say? (Briefly summarize the article at a literal level) • 2. How does it say it? In other words, how does the author develop the text to convey his/her purpose? (What are the genre, format, organization, features, etc.?) -Establish purpose first: inform, persuade, entertain, etc. -Then explain how they achieved their purpose through their writing • 3. What does the text mean? (What message/theme/concept is the author trying to get across?) • 4. So what? (What does the message/theme/concept mean in your life and/or in the lives of others? Why is it worth sharing/telling? What significance does it have to your life and/or the lives of others?) READING QUESTIONS TO ASK….

28. POTENTIAL BARRIERS: 1. Students may resist the extra effort/work involved in the learning process; i.e. instead of reading through skipping over what they don’t know, they will need to slow down and give attention2. Teachers may resist the change in teaching strategies.