Igniting Understanding through Reading Comprehension Strategies Instructions DO NOW: Please take a sheet and complete the first two columns of the K-W-L chart If you would like this PowerPoint now, please email me and I will forward it to you before we begin. aitkene@freyberg.ac.nz Igniting Understanding through Reading Comprehension Strategies Instructions Skimming Scanning Asking Questions Clarifying Vocabulary Visualising Making Inferences/ Inferring Making Connections Determining Important Ideas Synthesising Repairing Comprehension What is reading comprehension? MOVING FROM DECODING TO COMPREHENDING Simple View of Reading Reading Comprehension = Decoding + Language Comprehension (aural) But proficient Whenreading a baby giraffe isisborn comprehension a it is already six feet “complex tall. process involving knowledge, experience, thinking, and teaching” (Durkin, 1994, cited in Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 14) What are reading disabilities? Types of Reading Disability DYSLEXIA MIXED RD PROFICIENT READER SPECIFIC COMPREHENSION DEFICIT How do reading disabilities develop? (Spear-Swerling & Sternberg, 1996) Spear-Swerling, L., & Sternberg, R. L. (1996). Roads to reading disability. In Off track: When poor readers become "learning disabled" (pp. 113-152). Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Roads to reading disability Reading is not just ACTIVE but INTERACTIVE Reading is “an act of composition” “stimulate their own thinking” “Readers construct and maintain understanding by merging their thinking with the text. “ongoing inner conversation with the author… a dialogue of sorts” A book “…is a printed circuit for your own life to flow through”. “You’re imagining the words, the sounds of the words, and you are thinking of the various characters in terms of people you’ve known – not in terms of the writer’s experience, but your own”. (E. L. Doctorow, in Plimpton, 1998, cited in Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 13) (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p.21) Am I not already teaching reading comprehension? “Comprehension strategies are a means to Common an end,problem not anwith end RC “instruction” in in themselves. schools Teaching strategies for Assessing vs. Teaching strategies sake is simply not the point.” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 14, emphasis added)c AIMS of teaching reading comprehension strategies To get readers to: • think when they read • develop an awareness of their thinking • use actively the knowledge they glean What are reading comprehension strategies? Reading Comprehension Strategies Pearson, Dole, Duffy & Roehler (1992): A repertoire of strategies that “active, thoughtful readers use when constructing meaning from text” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 17). Searching for Connections (e.g. using schema - Dr Moira Sweetnam Evans) Asking Questions Drawing Inferences Determining Important Ideas Synthesising Monitoring & Repairing Comprehension Presley (1976) & Keene & Zimmerman (1997) added: Sensory imaging/ Visualising Other important skills: Skimming How should I teach RCS? Scanning Clarifying Vocabulary BEST PRACTICE Metacognitive Approach: teaching students to be conscious of their inner conversation Gradual Release of Responsibility 1. Introduce the strategies explicitly 2. Model their use 3. Guide students to use the strategies 4. Allow students to use them on their own and provide opportunities to practice! (repeated reading) STRATEGIES LEARNING ACTIVITIES Skimming Memory party game Quick-fire quiz (beep) Sticky-notes Dictionary races Drawing pictures Matching meanings or single-statement competitions Scanning Asking Questions Clarifying Vocabulary Visualising Making Inferences/ Inferring Making Connections Determining Important Ideas Synthesising Repairing Comprehension T-S T-T T-W Y-chart Acetate sheets (OHTs) & w/b pens Character-limit summaries (420characters.net) Repeated reading Activities to help students become aware of reading strategies • The woman swore as the piece of lego punctured her heel. • He slammed his fist on the table. • Her face flushed red and she hurriedly looked away. • He tiptoed down the passage stifling the need to laugh. Inference • Repeated reading • School Journals • Don’t shy away from challenging your students and use real texts (e.g. http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/peace/nukenviro.html#tests ; Reading of nuclear testing article) • Literacy@Freyberg • What can you do in your class in the next term/month? Final thoughts Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement – Harvey & Goudvis, 2007. (book) Teaching Reading Comprehension – Alison Davis (book) CSI: Comprehension Strategies Instruction (box) RESOURCES