Strategies to Build Comprehension for Struggling Readers

Andrew Ordover, Ed.D. Diane Rymer

STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS

Agenda

How expectations around literacy are changing

Why some students struggle with reading

The explicit skills of comprehension

Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction

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CHANGING EXPECTATIONS

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Balancing Types of Literacy

Content-area teachers are not being asked to be English teachers

Each discipline requires unique forms of reading and writing

The way knowledge is acquired, developed, and shared in a given field often requires discipline-specific skills

Literature

Science

History/

Social Studies

Mathematics

Visual/

Performing Arts

Technical Arts

Literacy Skills

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Increasing Text Complexity We are expected to expose students to increasingly complex texts.

Text Complexity Grade Band in the Standards

Old Lexile Ranges Lexile Ranges Aligned to CCR

Expectations

K-1 N/A N/A

2-3 450-725 450-790

4-5 645-845 770-980

6-8 860-1010 955-1155

9-10 960-1115 1080-1305

11-CCR 1070-1220 1215-1355

Figure 3: Text Complexity Grade Bands and Associated Lexile Ranges (in Lexiles)

The Common Core State Standards require students to meet more rigorous expectations regarding text complexity.

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Williamson, Gary L. "A Text Readability Continuum for Postsecondary Readiness." Journal of Advanced Academics19.4 (2008): 602-632. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.

The Gap

© 2013 CATAPULT LEARNING, LLC – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6

WHY SOME STUDENTS STRUGGLE

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Learning to Read Means

Learning how to decode written language: – Phonemic Awareness

– Phonics

– Vocabulary

– Fluency

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Reading to Learn Means…

Reading to gain knowledge: – Learn specific content in math, science and social

studies

– Utilize academic and content specific vocabulary

– Understand and solve problems

– Think critically about information presented

– Access information and develop understanding from multiple sources

– Create and innovate

– Communicate to a global audience through 21st century tools

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Why Do Struggling Readers Struggle?

For some, it’s a lack of basic decoding skills

But for many others, it’s an inability to learn efficiently from what is being read

Why?

• Lack of background knowledge

• Lack of academic vocabulary

• Lack of practice

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Lack of Background Knowledge

“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)

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Lack of Background Knowledge

“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)

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Tier 3 Words

Tier 2 Words

Tier 1 Words

Domain-specific words

General academic words

Words of everyday speech

Lack of Academic Vocabulary

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Lack of Background Knowledge

“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)

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Lack of Background Knowledge

“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)

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Lack of Background Knowledge

“It was the best men’s tennis match I’ve seen in a long time, certainly at Wimbledon, where serve-and-volley is so dominant when the men play. There was a lot of play form the back court. The match went back and forth in terms of who was in control. It looked as if Roddick was going to take command just before there was the inevitable rain delay in third set, and then Federer stormed back to take over again.” (NPR)

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Lack of Practice

What kinds of “practice” do students need?

1. Being read to regularly at home

2. Having many books and magazines at home

3. Seeing their parents and siblings reading as a regular part of their life

4. Having exposure to a variety of types and genres of text

5. Engaging in sustained reading during the school day

6. Engaging in conversation with adults who have rich vocabularies

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Where They Come From Matters

Professional Families

Working Class Families

Welfare Families

Parent Utterances Per Hour 487 301 176

Child’s Recorded Vocabulary Size

1,116 749 525

IQ at Age 3 117 107 79

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From Vocabulary for the Common Core (2013) by Robert J. Marzano & Julia A. Simms

COMPREHENSION SKILLS

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The Essentials

Essentials skills of reading comprehension: Main Idea and Details

Predicting and Inferring

Questioning

Clarifying

Retelling

Summarizing

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Summarizing is the most important comprehension skill because it leads

to a deeper understanding and retention of the information.

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Summarizing

1 • Identify the main idea from the topic sentence

or from the use of basic signal words.

2 • Identify details that support the main idea.

3 • Delete less important information.

Summarizing

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Summarizing

4 • Analyze redundant information to determine

importance.

5 • Categorize, collapse, and label important

information.

6 • Create a summary.

Summarizing

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Cla

rify

ing Clarifying is the

awareness that the text being read is not

making sense.

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Clarifying

• Does this make sense?

• What does not make sense?

• Do I know what is going on in the text?

• Am I getting the main idea?

• Is there anything that I don’t understand—

vocabulary, sentence, paragraph, page, concept?

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Pre

dic

tin

g Predicting is the use of prior knowledge and

information in the text to suggest or make an

educated guess about what might come next.

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Predicting

• Prior knowledge - Predicting requires you to use your prior knowledge about the topic.

• Patterns - Predicting is based on noticing patterns in text.

• Pictures - Important information revealed in pictures and other text features can be utilized for predictions.

• Proving - Confirm or change a prediction by returning to text.

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TEACHING STRATEGIES

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Use but confuse

Scaffolding

Correct level of difficulty

Established

ACQUAINTED

Unknown

Enough knowledge to be dangerous

Can do on

my own Can’t do

Frustration

Level Independent

Level

Instructional

Level

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Systematic & explicit instruction based on formative assessment data.

Small group instruction at their zone of proximal development.

Lessons / activities that are engaging / motivating.

Repetition.

Instruction that is presented in a variety of ways.

Activities that rely heavily on the use of prior learning and make connections to new skills.

What Struggling Readers Need

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Gradual Release of Responsibility

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e

Teac

her

Co

ntr

ol

Stu

den

t C

on

tro

l

Show

Model

Guide

Think Aloud Scaffold

Support

Collaborate

Partner Work Independent

Transfer

Application

Modeled (I do, you watch)

Shared (I do, you help)

Guided (You do, I help)

Independent (You do, I watch)

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A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

TWO

A Dance . . . Gradual Release of Responsibility

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Scaffold for Struggling Students

Designed specifically for students who need the material to be presented in a

more concrete format in order for mastery to occur

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Scaffold for Struggling Students

Each activity focuses on providing the content of the lesson in a format where the skill is taught in a more explicit and systematic manner. The activities rely heavily on the use of prior learning to help make connections to the new skill. Scaffolds include: Pictures Props Manipulatives Graphic organizers

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Agenda

How expectations around literacy are changing

Why some students struggle with reading

The explicit skills of comprehension

Strategies to help provide scaffolded, effective instruction

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Andrew Ordover, Ed.D. Diane Rymer

STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS