Proficient Reader
Research
Lindsey M. Cunningham
EE 526
University of West Alabama
ICE BREAKER:
MAROONED
Are We Collaborating?
Research-Based Best
Practices
“The ultimate beneficiaries of education
research must be children, not the researchers
themselves. Enlightened educators look to
education research for well-founded evidence
to help them do a better job with the children
they serve” (Slavin, 2004).
How Can We Define Reading Ability?
Reading ability can be defined as
the efficiency to draw meaning
from the printed page and
interpret this information
appropriately.
Proficient Readers use the
following strategies:
1. Inferring
2. Questioning
3. Picturing
4. Recalling prior
knowledge
5. Synthesizing
6. Flexing
What do we know about
Reading Proficiency?
Inferring:
How do we teach our students to find
what is missing?
*We give them many chances to interpret material where
they must create an answer by considering the clues or
evidence provided.
*We lead them through the thought process.
*We ask them to practice with pictures, reading passages,
and numbers.
Questioning:
How do we teach our students to be
successful questioners?
*We introduce them to question types.
*We give them practice using each question type.
*We confront them with challenges that require question
combinations.
*We surprise them with challenges they have never seen
before.
Questioning: continued
*We make wonder and surprise a daily event.
*We teach them persistence, resourcefulness, and
inventiveness.
*We give them practice mapping out questions before they
actually gather information or read passages.
Picturing:
How do we teach our students to make powerful
use of their mind’s eye?
*We give them practice describing images.
*We read stories with vivid description aloud and ask students to picture
what they have heard.
*We show students how to map out their own ideas and searches.
*We ask students to convert passages by other writers into mind maps.
*We show students how to view long articles as clusters of ideas.
Synthesizing:
How do we teach our students to mix, match, combine, and
weave ideas into something new?
*Beading
*Puzzling
*Cooking
*Fabricating or Manufacturing
*Inventing
*Weaving
Synthesizing—continued
We can also teach our students strategies for synthesizing by
using the word SCAMPER!
S=substitute
C=combine
A=adjust
M=modify or magnify
P=put to other uses
E=erase or eliminate
R=reverse
Flexing:
How do we teach our students to try lots of different strategies
and approaches when facing a thinking challenge?
*We teach our students that frustration is a natural and common phase
in the creative process.
*We give our students perplexing predicaments and dilemmas as well as
puzzles and mysteries instead of restricting them to one-sided problems.
*We make sure students understand the value of thinking!
How do we make these challenges enjoyable on
a daily basis?
*Make reading for meaning a priority.
*Make time, daily, for these kinds of reading challenges.
*Present challenges in oral and written format.
*Time management
References
(2001) Read Strong: Nurturing Love of Literacy. Retrieved from
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://myweb.stedwards.edu/mikekb/ReadStrong/images/moti
vation.jpg&imgrefurl=http://myweb.stedwards.edu/mikekb/ReadStrong/nutureloveparents.html
Allington, Richard L. (2011). What Really Matter For Struggling Readers: Designing ResearchBased Programs. University of Tennessee, Knoxville: Allyn and Bacon Publishers
Armbruster, B.B., Lehr, F., Osborn. (2001) Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for
Teaching Children to Read. Retrieved from http://www.mifl.gov
Glaeser, Patricia. (2012). Ice Breaker Activities for Teacher Professional Development. Retrieved
from http://www.ehow.com/info_8254687_ice-activities-teacher-professional-development.html
Harvey, Stephanie. (2004). Powerful Questioning, Good Intelligence, and Right Thinking,. Retrieved
from http://questioning.org/tests/beating.html
Miller, D. (2002). Reading with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers