Reading Instruction and Assessment Appendix 4

Supports and Assessment Tools Used in the Inquiry

Reading Comprehension Strategies Self-Assessment

Strategy YES NOI’MNOT SURE

I looked over the reading task and used the title and subtitles to help me predict what the reading was about.

I thought about what I already knew about this topic before I began to read.

I noticed that I wasn’t really “getting it” and I re-read and thought about what I didn’t get the first time.

I created questions in my head and / or on paper about what I was reading while I was reading.

I made sketches or notes to help me visualize and summarize the ideas as I read.

I figured out the meaning of a difficult word by rereading the sentences before it and after it.

I connected what I read to something I have experienced, to something else I read or to something I have heard about.

I think one of the most important ideas in the reading is:

I think one of the most important reading strategies for this reading is:

Classroom Observations- Reading Behaviours

Student

Name P (p

ersis

ted)

SS (s

low

st

art)

RR (r

equi

red

redi

recti

on)

TC (t

ask

clar

ifica

tion)

LR (l

eft ro

om— S(

extr

emel

y slo

w o

r R

(rus

hed)

AQ (a

sked

qu

estio

ns)

MT

(mar

ked

text

in

OT

(off

task

)

Anecdotal Comments

It Says—I Say—And So Graphic Organizer

Question It Says I Say And So

Read the question carefully.

Find information from the text that will help you answer the question. Try to use a direct quotation whenever possible.

Think about what you know about the question and/or the information in the text.

Combine what the text says with what you know to come up with the answer.

Adapted from the strategy found in Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003). More details about the strategy, examples of its use and deconstruction can be found on pages 165-171.

It Says-I Say-And So Strategy

Purpose of the Strategy

This strategy from Kylene Beers provides a visual scaffold to help students organize their thoughts as they connect what is in the text to their prior knowledge. The structure of the organizer helps students to see the steps required in making an inference.

Using the Strategy

The teacher provides three or four critical questions which require students to make inferences from a text.

Model for students how to identify and use specific details from the text to complete the “It Says” column. This will help students to understand how important it is to identify a clear purpose in their own reading.

Demonstrate how to use what is stated explicitly in the text to answer the critical question and then proceed to show students how to connect what is stated explicitly to their own knowledge and background experiences. This information is used to complete the second column – “I Say”.

Finally, show students how the information in the first two columns of the organizer is put together (synthesized) to produce a rich, evidence-based answer to the question. We are helping students to see that we put together what is stated directly in the text with our own ideas to generate a fully developed and thoughtful response.

Benefits of the Strategy

The modelling of this strategy and the use of the organizer benefit students in a variety of ways. - the thinking processes required to infer are made visible for students- the organizer provides a visual scaffold and supports the development of metacognition- teachers can “see” student thinking and determine strengths and next steps

For More on this Strategy

The “It Says-I Say-And So” strategy comes from Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t Read, What Teachers Can Do (Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003). More details about the strategy, examples of its use and deconstruction can be found on pages 165-171.

Inference- the ability to connect what is in a text with what is in the mind to make an educated guess about meaning and importance. Readers make “text-based inferences” from information supplied by the author and “knowledge-based inferences” from knowledge about the world.

Text - a means of communication that uses words, graphics, sounds, and/or images, in print, oral, visual, or electronic form, to present information and ideas to an audience (The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10. English. 2007. p.4)