Text Comprehension Practices for Students
who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: Part 2
Susan R. Easterbrooks
Georgia State University
Part 2 of 2 presentations on text
comprehension for the “Join Together”
recommended practices series.
Strategies to Use Prior to Reading
1. Preteaching/Prelearning Vocabulary and Grammar
a. Old standby – requires teacher’s assessment of student’s skills
relative to difficulty of the text, specific learning objective, and
teacher’s awareness of student’s prior knowledge. Sources today
suggest semantic webs and maps instead.
b. Graphic organizers such as story maps and thinking skills maps
c. Semantic webs and maps
d. Semantic feature analysis
e. Students need to learn to skim for unfamiliar words and to search out
meanings.
f. Use Bridge, Winograd, and Haley’s (1983) program for teaching basic
sight words to beginning readers using predictable books and language
experience stories.
g. Also read the following for up-to-date information on how children
learn vocabulary.
Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (Eds.) (in press). Action meets word:
How children learn verbs. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Akhtar, N., Bloom, L., Hollich, G.,
Smith, L., Tomasello, M., & Woodward, A. (2000). Becoming a word
learner: A debate on lexical acquisition . New York City, NY: Oxford
University Press.
2.
Activating Prior Knowledge (or Building Background
Knowledge in the absence of prior knowledge)
a. Build background ideas, concepts, & principles
b. Show, don't tell. Use…
-
Demonstrations
Multi-media
Graphics
c. Teach students to ask questions to connect topic to their own
experiences K-W-L (What I Know. What I Want to Know.
What I Learned)
d. Use anticipation guides.
e. Teach students to use firsthand and hands-on activities
to activate prior knowledge (e.g., what a video, ask an
expert)
f. Read related materials (e.g., trade books, reference
books, maps, CDs, other library sources, etc.)
g. Use outside resources, trips and speakers
h. Tell about topic from your experience
i. Use any combination of the above!
3. Understanding Your Purpose for Reading
a. Who asked me to read this?
b. Did this person tell me why?
c. Did I ask why?
d. What kind of material is it? (textbook, narrative story,
rules and regulations, instructional manual, etc.)
e. What am I supposed to know about when I have finished
reading?
4. Asking any Questions Printed at the End of
the Chapter, if Applicable
a. Are there questions at the end of the chapter?
b. Do I have any written questions from the teacher?
5. Observing, Reviewing, Discussing Pictures,
Titles, Captions, etc. to Aid in Comprehension
a. What does the title tell me about the book?
b. Do I know anything about the author? What does this tell
me?
c. What is the structure of the piece? Chapters? Lots of
pictures?
d. What can I figure out from looking at the pictures?
e. Are there any captions, and what are they about?
f. What do my friends know about the pictures, captions, etc?
g. What can I do to find out more about the title, pictures,
captions, etc.
6. Using Prediction and Inference Based
on Activation of Prior Knowledge.

Teach students the difference between predicting and
guessing.
Prediction
Guessing
Based on cues or clues in the
story.
Guess can be related to cue or
clue but not logically.
(Goldilocks is hungry, so she’ll try
the porridge.)
(Goldilocks has been walking and
wants to call her mother, so she
goes inside to use the phone.)
Based on a logical order or
sequence (what should come
next).
(Likely that next she will sit in Baby
Bear’s chair because she has
already tried the other two.)
Misses pattern or logical order.
(Goldilocks doesn’t like porridge so
she will go to the refrigerator.)

Use the following deafed.net resources to
help your students learn prediction skills
http://www.deafed.net/diversity/video_class.htm
http://www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/Titanic%2012.doc
7. Using Summarization Skills (what do you think
the story is going to be “about”)
a.
Brainstorm as many things as you can guess about
the story. Put these on 3 X 5 cards or on sentence
strips.
b.
Sort the cards that seem to go together.

Re-sort these piles into big ideas and little ideas

Look at the cards and decide the main topic of
the big ideas.

Decide the sequence of the big ideas.

Summarize what might be in the story, telling
the big ideas in order with supporting
information from the little ideas.
8. Using Card Arrangement
This is a teacher-directed activity in which the teacher
does #7 and gives the student the summary cards as a
tool for guiding the reading.
9. Using Anticipation Guides (usually used with
expository text)
a. Teacher give students short true/false assessment of their
knowledge of the topic about which they will read.
b. Students fill out the “quiz”
c. Class discusses answers. Why did one person say true and
another say false?
d. Have students re-read the questions that were in dispute and
to be ready to discuss whether their opinion changed after
reading the material, and why or why not.
10. Storytelling
a. Make up a story based on what you already know.
Make revisions as you go along.
11. Predicting the main idea
a.
Using summarization cards from a known story, compare
and contrast information in big ideas pile and little ideas
pile.
b.
Explain that a main idea is a big idea.
c.
Read through the information on each card. Ask if the
story would make sense if you did not know the
information on the card. Set cards into piles based on
students’ yes/no answers.
d. Organize the cards in the “no” pile, showing what a
nonsensical story it would make.
e. Organize the cards in the “yes” pile, showing that they
form a reasonable story.
f. Have students brainstorm what might be in the story.
g. Sort as in c.
h. Ask them to decide what some of the big ideas (main
ideas) in the story might be about.
12. Use self-assessment
inventories.

Before reading
 To discover the needs, interests, and previous
experiences of students
 To find out what students already know and
can do
 To determine a particular approach or strategy
13. Remembering your “Do Nots”
a. Do not start reading without thinking about the subject
b. Do not start reading without knowing why you are
reading
c. Do not ignore pictures, titles, captions, and any other
visual indicators on the pages that will help you

Note:

It is important to have an idea of what
strategies students are already capable
of using. You will begin working on
them in the elementary grades and will
continue through high school, if
necessary, until strategies are
mastered.
Strategies to Use During Reading (For Comprehension and
Reading “Out Loud”) MAIN PURPOSE: READING MUST
MAKE SENSE
1. Revising prediction and inference (DRTA, QAR,
ReQuest) as you proceed. What will happen next?
Was your prediction right or wrong?
a. Steps for Directed Reading-Thinking Activity
a.
http://www.career-connection.org/pdf/FCATConnection/ProjDevResources/ReadingActivities/DirectedReading.doc
b. Steps for Question Answer Relationships
a.
http://www.pwcs.edu/curriculum/sol/qar.htm
c. Steps for Reciprocal Questioning
a.
http://www.justreadnow.com/strategies/request.htm
2. Relating what you are reading to what you already know
a.
Obtain a copy of the ideas that were generated during your Activation of
Prior Knowledge activity. This can be a list, a story map, an outline, a
graphic organizer, a semantic web, or any other visual tool the teacher
used or had students use to record activated prior knowledge.
b.
Read one segment of the text at a time
c.
Have students scan their Prior Knowledge source, locating information
that relates to the segment.
d.
Have student discuss how the information in the text and the information
on the Prior Knowledge source relate to one another
e.
Have other students explain how that information or connection is
important their lives
3. Asking questions that will need to be answered (SQ3R)
This is done initially with the whole class, then collaboratively
in reading teams, then individually as the students’ skills
progress.
•
Survey – Skim the pages noticing the title, pictures,
captions, headings, bold-faced or italicized words and any
other indicators that give you clues to the text.
•
Question – If there are questions in the back, read them. If
not, brainstorm questions that you might want to answer
based on the information you have.
c.
Read – Read one section at a time, reflecting on the questions and
relating what you have learned to the information you gathered before
reading
d. Recite – Answer the questions that you generated. Get group input if
you are unable to answer the questions. If possible, generate some
new questions based on the information you have gathered.
(Repeat c and d with each new section.)
e.
Review – After completing the text, review questions and answers for
the entire text.
4. Searching for information segments
that match questions asked.
a.
Note connections between words on your
brainstorm list and words in the text.
b.
Think of synonyms for words on your brainstorm list. Match
where possible.
c.
If you think you have found a connection but are not sure, read
from several sentences before the sentence containing the
information to several sentences after.
d.
Reread
e.
Collaborate with a study buddy.
f.
Discuss why you think the information is connected.
g.
Ask what additional information you would need to be sure you
have an answer. What is still missing? Can you find the
information elsewhere in the passage?
5. Using knowledge of story structure and themes
For a dozen different printable story and theme maps, visit
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/storymap/
Honeycomb Map
5 Division Story Wheel
Story Star
6. Activating mental imagery based on prior knowledge, visual
cues, and information accumulated from the text.
a. Learn the techniques in Visualizing and Verbalizing by
Nanci Bell.
a. Be sure to encourage student to invoke mental imagery
routinely throughout reading.
7. Making Inferences
a.
Choose a passage in a text at or just above the student’s ability to
read independently that contains the requirement to draw an
inference.
b.
Point out the problem to the students and tell them that you are going
to show them some steps they can use to “Make an Inference”.
c.
Discuss what is meant by an inference. Compare it to the word
“literal”.
d.
Use examples in the physical world of the students experiences. For
example, It is cold is a literal statement. Sam wants to put on a
sweater may be an inference he drew because it is cold. Maybe it is
true. Maybe it is not.
e.
Using selected passages, brainstorm to activate prior knowledge.
e.
Use a Think Aloud process to demonstrate how you drew your
inference.
e.
Discuss the difference between an inference and a guess. Make a T
chart with inferences on one side and guesses on the other.
e.
Give the student other passages requiring an inference.
f.
Brainstorm to activate prior knowledge.
g.
Ask each student to draw an inference.
h.
Engage class in discussion of whether each student’s response is
literal, a good/wild guess, or an inference.
i.
Guide students through the process until they are comfortably
making inferences.
8. Using Summarization Skills (what the story is “about”)
a. Write “Summary” on the board. Discuss what it means.
Tell students you are going to teach them how to summarize
a story because summarizing skills help in reading
comprehension.
b. Brainstorm a well-known, short story. Ask students to tell
you everything they remember about the story. Put each
statement on a 3 X 5 notecard. Be sure students include
information about character, setting, problem, sequence,
attempts at resolution, and resolution.
c. Have students sort cards into logical piles.
d. Further sort each pile into main ideas and supporting ideas.
e. Set aside the supporting ideas. Tell students that when you
summarize, you must eliminate unimportant information.
Yes, it might be interesting, but you can still tell the story
without it.
f. Further sort the main idea pile by collapsing several cards
into one statement.
g. After you have each of the piles into one statement, be sure
they are in correct sequence.
h. Read across the statements to relay the story. Tell them that
this is a summary.
i. Give students sets of cards you have prepared so they can try
the process themselves.
j. Go through the process again yourself with another simple
story with which students are not familiar.
k. Leave out a critical piece of information to demonstrate that
it is possible to leave out too much.
l. Give students plenty of practice.
m. Remember, there are levels of difficulty of materials to
summarize. Start at the level students can summarize.
These levels are:
1. Summarizing explicit information
2. Summarizing implicit information
3. Summarizing metaphoric narrative
4. Summarizing and drawing conclusions about main
ideas of an outline
9. Using Self-Monitoring of Comprehension (clarifying
misunderstandings)
a.
Develop self-monitoring checklists for
students to use while they are reading.

Purposes:

To assess students' understanding and progress

To identify successes or difficulties and
confidence levels

To assess students' abilities to verbalize their
understanding and insights

To assess students' abilities to work together
while sharing ideas and completing tasks
10. Always stopping to use “fix-up” strategies when
needed
a. Do I understand the vocabulary? Use decoding strategies.
b. Do I understand the phrase? Consider if phrase might be
figurative.
c. Re-read.
d. Deciding whether to “fix-up” now or wait for more
information.
e. Read from several sentences before to several sentences
after the location in question.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
Employ visualization strategy.
Re-activate prior knowledge.
Question your predictions.
Use buddy system.
Ask your teacher.
11. Using Decoding Skills
a. Use phonics strategies. Sound out the word. Think about
words it might be. Check to see if these words fit in the
context of the sentence.
b. Use syntactic strategies. Skip the word you don’t know.
Keep reading, then re-read to see if words make sense. Use
the -1/Sentence/+1strategy. Read the sentence before, the
sentence containing the word, and the sentence after.
c. Use visual strategies. Look at the pictures, diagrams,
advance organizers (maps, outlines, etc.) and all visual
information available.
d.
Use structural analysis strategies and morphographemic strategies.
Break word into parts you know. Look for smaller words within the
word. Search for Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
(See presentation under “Recommended Literacy Practices”
section of www.deafed.net for discussion of morphographemic
instruction.)
d.
Use context cues. Combine phonics, syntactic, visual , and
morphographemic information. Re-activate prior knowledge.
Compare misunderstood word to Prior Knowledge list.
e.
Go to the dictionary.
f.
Ask a buddy. Ask your teacher.
12. Use prediction logs

See discussion under “Before
Reading” strategies.
Prediction
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
Reason for
Prediction
They ate their picnic lunch in the
park.
You usually eat a lunch after you pack it. A
park is a nice place to eat a picnic lunch. That
is why I think they eat their lunch next.
I think Tom will win first place in
the science fair.
Everyone told Tom he did a good job on his
robot. Also if the judges were speechless, I
think that means Tom did a good job. That is
why I think that tom will win first prize.
13. Applying Knowledge of Text Organization (narrative
and expository text have different organizational patterns)
See discussion of narrative and expository texts in part 1 of
this presentation.
Narratives have
a. Beginning – includes the setting and characters
b. Middle – includes the problem, the plan, and the events
leading to a resolution
c. End – resolution and reaction
Expository texts have a variety of organizations
Temporal sequence – describes or lists events in their order of
occurrence
Explanation – explains such things as causes, effects, and
enabling circumstances
Comparison/contrast – compares or contrasts two events or
concepts
Problem/solution – explains the development of a problem and
suggests a solution
Process description – describes the parts of a process
Classification – explains how concepts are classified
Each narrative theme and expository organization has a
corresponding graphic organizer that can visually represent the
theme or organization.
14. Asking for Help
Students often take two stances. Either they give up and
say they don’t know, asking for help with nothing, or
they distrust their skills and ask for help with
everything.
a.
Draw a line on the board showing a continuum from the word
“Never Asks/Gives Up” to “Always Asks First”. Write “Uses
Strategies” in the center. Show student where s/he falls on the
continuum.
b.
Tell student that you are going to teach him a strategy to use before
he asks/gives up.
c.
Write three steps for student to go through before he can give
up/ask. Be sure there are strategies you have actually taught and
the student can actually use.
d.
Tell student to check off the strategies s/he has tried. Give the
answer when student can demonstrate s/he has tried the strategy.
e.
Over time, add another and then another step student must try before
giving up/asking for help.
f.
Do read alouds where you demonstrate your unfolding understanding
of the text by talking through your thought processes. This will
demonstrate to the student that everyone must work to understand a
written passage.
g.
Work on figurative language routinely. Choose a word and discuss it
in depth (book), showing multiple meanings, compound words
(bookcase), noun adjuncts (match book), figurative phrases (make
book, book a prisoner, book it), and expressions (throw the book at
someone). Students need to see that even simple words can have
difficult to understand meanings.
15. Using advance organizers
This is a teacher-initiated strategy. Provide student with
advance organizers.
a. Provide student with an outline of content on notecards
or paper (sequential)
b. Provide student with graphic organizer (spatial)
c. Relate story theme, message, or other components to a
similar story the student has already read
(abstract/metaphoric)
16. Seeking Proof of Fact versus Opinion
Appropriate for students ages 9 and above. Usable with narratives and
expository text. (Source: McAnally, Rose, & Quigley)
a.
Teacher explains the difference between fact and opinion and gives
examples from the physical world of the students.
b.
Starting with an example, teacher asks students what clues are in the
text that can alert the reader to whether it is a fact or an opinion.
c.
After listing the clues from the examples, teacher and students can
elaborate on other clues from their own experiences.
d.
Teacher and students discuss why it is important to distinguish fact
from opinion.
e.
On overhead transparency, teacher shows students a list of statements to
evaluate as fact or opinion. If the statement is fact, student must
indicate the possible source for verification next to that statement (e.g.,
encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, newspapers). They may also be
asked to write their proof by the statement.
f.
Students do several examples as a group.
g.
Teacher asks students to circle the clues in each statement.
h.
Students complete the rest of the statements independently, in small
groups, or in pairs.
i.
Photocopy sections of students’ textbooks and of age-appropriate
narrative texts. Have them highlight facts in one color highlighter and
opinions in another.
17. Monitoring Fluency Envelope when Reading “Out Loud”
See Easterbrooks & Huston (2007). Signed reading fluency in
children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Journal of Deaf
Studies and Deaf Education.
Includes: speed, eye contact, posture, facial expression, body
movement, sign space, bouncy/steady, stiff/relaxed,
jerky/smooth.
See article for assessment rubric.
18. Monitoring Internal Aspects of Fluency when
Reading “Out Loud”
See Easterbrooks & Huston (2007). Signed reading fluency in
children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Journal of Deaf
Studies and Deaf Education.
Includes: topic grammar/spoken inflection, absent referent, role
shift, eye gaze, other use of space, question grammar/spoken
inflection, negation, directionality, classifiers as tags.
See article for assessment rubric.
21. Remembering Your “Do Nots”
a. Do not continue reading if you are unsure about
something.
b. Do not forget to use as many strategies as you need.
c. Do not hesitate to ask for help.
Strategies to Use After Reading
1. Deciding if You Have Achieved Your Goal for Reading.
a.
Obtain list of goals identified prior to reading.
b.
Check ones that were achieved.
c.
Don’t settle for achieving just some.
d.
For goals not achieved, think about what additional information you might
need in order to achieve the goal. Re-read, searching for that information.
e.
Discuss with study buddy or teacher.
f.
Make a plan for acquiring the additional information. Make the plan Simple,
something you can do Independently, that employs your Strategies, that
makes best use of your Time, and that is most likely to help you Achieve your
goal (SISTA).
2. Retelling
There are many different ways to encourage
retelling:
-retell with pictures
-retell without pictures
-retell in ASL, then translate into English
-retell by filling in blank areas on a graphic
organizer that was used to develop the
lesson
3. Using Self-Evaluation of Comprehension
After reading
To find out what the students have learned
To determine the quality of students'
learning
To gauge the effectiveness of the activities
and approach in relation to the objectives
and goals
To reflect on teaching practice
4. Summarizing Main Ideas and Important Points
a. Brainstorm as many things as you can remember
about the story. Put these on 3 X 5 cards or on
sentence strips.
b. Sort the cards that seem to go together.
c. Re-sort these piles into big ideas and little ideas.
d. Look at the cards and decide the main topic of the big
ideas.
e.
Decide the sequence of the big ideas.
f. Summarize the story by telling the big ideas in order
with supporting information from the little ideas.
5. Thinking About What Made Your Prediction Good or Bad
Use prediction logs that were developed before
and during reading. Sort good and bad
predictions. Dialogue with the teacher about what
made one prediction good and another bad.
6. Extending Your Knowledge with Outside Sources
a. Read further books on the topic.
b. Watch a video of the narrative or an instructional video on
information in an expository text.
a. Talk to an expert who is knowledgeable about some
aspect of the text.
b. Discuss what you have learned with peers, family
members.
7. Relating What You Read to Your Real Life
a. Brainstorm ways the information applies to your life.
b. Choose one of the connections.
c. Do a project to demonstrate how the information relates to
your life such as:
1. Interview someone in your life and
discuss how you two relate to the topic
2. Make a videotape of how this piece of information
plays out in your life
3. Take a series of pictures
4. Make a collage
8. Remembering your “Do Nots”
Do not pretend you understood
what you read if you don’t.
Sources


McAnally, P., & Rose, S., (1999). Reading Practices with Deaf Children.
Austin, TX: PRO-Ed
Rose, S., P. McAnally & Quigley, S. P. (2003). Language Development
Practices with Deaf Children 3rd ed. Austin, TX: ProEd