Characteristics of the Reading Block

The Reading Block: Instruction and Environment

(Take 2)

Marcia L. Kosanovich, Ph.D.Director of Curriculum & Instructional Projects

The Florida Center for Reading Researchwww.fcrr.org

Reading First PrincipalsMiami, September 21, 2006

“We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully teach all children to read. We already have reams of research, hundreds of successful programs, and thousands of effective schools to show us the way. Whether or not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the fact that we haven’t so far” (McEwan, 1998).

Characteristics of the Reading Block

• High Quality Instruction• Minimum of 90 minutes of

uninterrupted instruction– Whole Group Instruction– Small Group Instruction and Practice

• Teacher-Led Instruction– Flexible– Differentiated– homogeneous

• Independent Student Centers– Differentiated

The Reading Block

Whole Group Instruction

Teacher-Led Instruction Independent Student Centers

Homogeneous

Flexible

Differentiated

Differentiated (Cooperative, Independent, Pairs)

“When Stars Read”

Struggling readers share their experiences of becoming

independent readers with the people who can help them the

most…us—Principals and Teachers!

Skilled Readers• Identify words accurately and

fluently• Understand the meaning of words• Develop meaningful ideas from

groups of words• Draw inferences• Relate what he or she already

knows to the text being read

Potential Stumbling Blocks

• Difficulty learning to read words accurately and fluently

• Poor vocabulary and knowledge of comprehension strategies

• Absence or loss of the motivation to read

Answers to Questions• What reading components

constitute the reading block?• How are the reading components

taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction

look like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality

resources?

What What reading components reading components constitute the reading constitute the reading

block?block?

““The Fab Five”The Fab Five”

• Phonemic Awareness• Phonics• Fluency• Vocabulary• Comprehension

What is Phonological Awareness?

Most commonly defined as one’s sensitivity to, or explicit awareness of, the phonological structure of words in one’s language (Torgesen, 1998).

Phonological Awareness

• The ability to examine language independent of meaning

• To think about the linguistic characteristics of a word rather than focusing on the meaning of a word


• A broad term that includes both understanding about sounds and abilities related to sounds.

• About sounds-not about letters. A student can be phonemically aware and not know any letters or even that letters are used to represent sounds.


• Phonological awareness & phonemic awareness are often used interchangeably.

• Phonological awareness is a more general term than phonemic awareness.


Words

Syllables

Phonemes (phonemic awareness)


1. At the most basic level, phonological awareness involves the ability to identify the individual words within spoken sentences.

2. Next, children become aware of the syllable structure of words like “base-ball” or “fan-tas-tic”.

3. Then children begin to become aware of the individual sounds within syllables, starting first with awareness of the onset-rime structure of all syllables (i.e., c-at, m-an), and ending with awareness of the individual phonemes in words (i.e., c-a-t, m-a-n).

Rhyming & Alliteration

Sentence Segmenting

Syllable Blending & Segmenting

Onset-Rime Blending & Segmenting

Phoneme Blending & Segmenting

Levels of Phonological Levels of Phonological AwarenessAwareness

Phonemic Awareness•Activity

•Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words (Torgesen, 1998).

•When phonemes are combined, they form syllables and words.

Phonemic Awareness

By changing one phoneme, we can change the meaning of a word:

bigdigbogbin

Why so Critical?• Enables students to use letter

sound correspondences (phonics) to read and spell words

• Without PA, a child is unlikely to benefit from phonics instruction

• Poor readers who enter first grade w/ weak PA are most likely to be the poor readers in fourth grade

Low PA 5.7

3.5

2

4

6

1

3

5

K

Ave. PA

Grade level corresponding to age

1 2 3 4 5

Growth in word reading ability of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness (Wagner, Torgesen, Rashotte, et al., 1997)

Read

ing

gra

de level

Growth in phonetic reading ability of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness (Wagner, Torgesen, Rashotte, et al., 1997)

2

4

6

1 2 3 4 5

1

3

5

5.9

2.3

Low PA

K

Ave. PA


Read

ing

Gra

de L

evel

1 2 3 4 5

Low PA

3.4

2

4

6

1

3

5

K Ave. PA

6.9

Growth in reading comprehension of children who begin first grade in the bottom 20% in Phoneme Awareness (Wagner, Torgesen, Rashotte, et al., 1997)


Read

ing

Gra

de L

evel

Why Teach PA?

The reading growth of all children may be accelerated by effective instruction in phonological awareness, and at least 20-30% of children may remain poor readers without it.

Phonological Humor in School

“My son is under the doctor’s care and should not take fizical ed. Please execute him.”

“Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels.”

“Please excuse Dianne from being absent yesterday. She was in bed with gramps.”

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness

InstructionInstructionGUIDING PRINCIPLE• Systematically deliver explicit instruction

HOW• Establish instructional routines in blending, segmenting, and

manipulating sound. • Scaffold introduction of new phonemic skills from simple to

more complex• Provide ample practice opportunities that directly align with the

phonemic awareness instruction• Link phonemic awareness instruction to phonics


InstructionInstruction

Elkonin Elkonin BoxBox







Word Type:

Example:

VC

am

CVC-continuous

mat

CVCC-continuous

mist

CVC-stop cat

CVCC-stop cats

CCVC-continuous/blend snap, frog, slip

CCVC-stop/blend

club, grab

GRADE DIBELS MEASURE READING COMPONENT

ASSESSED

Kindergarten Initial Sounds, Phoneme Segmentation

Letter Naming, Nonsense Words

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

First Phoneme Segmentation

Letter Naming, Nonsense Words

Oral Reading

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

Reading Fluency

Second Nonsense Words

Oral Reading

Phonics

Reading Fluency

Third Oral Reading Reading Fluency

SY0607 Risk Level Cut Scores

Overview of DIBELS MeasureLetter Naming Fluency (LNF)

– Intended for students in kindergarten through the fall of first grade

– Provides a measure of a student’s proficiency in naming upper and lower case letters

– Primarily an indicator of risk

– Students identified at risk should be instructed in phonological awareness and alphabetic principle

Probe 1

c c N u Q M u h S i

n b e N F f o a K k

g p k p a H C e G D

b w F i h O x j I K

x t Y q L d f T g v

T V Q o w P J t B X

Z v U P R l V C l W

R J m O z D G y U Y

Z y A m X z H S M E

q n j s W r d s B I

r A E L c c N u Q MTotal: ____/110

– This measure assesses

a student’s ability to recognize and produce the beginning sound(s) in an orally presented word

– Students performing below expectations in this measure will benefit from instruction in phonological awareness

Overview of DIBELS Measure

Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF)

Overview of DIBELS MeasurePhoneme Segmentation

Fluency (PSF)– Measures a student’s ability to

segment three- and four-phoneme words into their individual phonemes

– The student must produce verbally the individual sounds in words that are presented by the examiner

– It is administered in kindergarten and first grades

– It is a good predictor of later reading achievement

– Strengthened by phonological awareness activities

Becoming sensitive to phonemes is only part of the challenge when learning to

read…

Phonics

An understanding of the alphabetic principle—the relationship between phonemes and graphemes.

The Connection Between Phonemic Awareness and

Phonics• English is an alphabetic language. Words are represented in print roughly at the phoneme level.

• Children need to be aware that words have sound segments that can be represented by individual letters

• Without at least emergent levels of phonemic awareness, the rationale for learning individual letter sounds and “sounding out” words is not understandable


Phonics• If a child can “hear” four sounds in the word clap,it helps them to notice the way the letters correspond to the sounds.

• The ability to notice the correspondence between the sounds in a word and the way it is spelled reinforces children’s learning of letter-sound correspondences.

• Letters represent phonemes. PA is a pre-curser to phonics instruction.


Phonics• In order to understand the way print represents words, students must understand that words are made up of phonemes.

• Many students acquire phonemic awareness from only a small amount of exposure to letters and word games. However, many other students require careful and explicit instruction in order to become aware of individual phonemes in words.

Phonics Instruction

• Systematic• pre-specified sequence of letter–sound

correspondences taught in a logical order (e.g., high utility sounds taught first; progresses from simple to more complex; once a few letter sounds are learned, students are taught a decoding strategy; students apply recently learned phonics to reading connected text)

• Explicit• taught directly (teacher modeling, providing

guided practice, and independent practice)

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Phonics InstructionPhonics Instruction

GUIDING PRINCIPLE• Systematically deliver explicit instruction

HOW• Carefully scaffold introduction of new phonics skills from simple to more

complex letter-sound correspondences • Provide ample practice opportunities that directly align with the phonics

instruction• Link phonics instruction to word recognition and spelling activities• Explicitly address patterns in irregular words and provide ample practice to

build sight word recognition of irregular words• Relate phonetic elements to all types of text• Establish instructional routines for development of phonetic decoding efficiency• By third grade, continue instruction in complex sound-symbol relationships and

morphemes from words that appear in academic texts at third grade text and the intermediate grades


c a t


c

c a t


c a

c a t


c a t

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonemic Awareness vs.

Phonics InstructionPhonics Instruction

c a t

Is Phonological Awareness the same thing as

Phonics?NO!

Phonological Awareness is an oral language skill--

Phonics always involves the use of letters

and letter-sound relationships.

Overview of DIBELS MeasureNonsense Word Fluency (NWF)

– It taps the student’s knowledge of letter-sound correspondence and ability to blend letters into words (test of the alphabetic principle)

– This measure is provided in kindergarten, first and second grades

– Students performing below expectations will benefit from activities focusing on decoding

kik woj sig faj yis kaj fek av zin zez lan nul zem og nom yuf pos vok viv feg bub dij sij vus tos wuv nij pik nok mot nif vec al boj nen suv yig dit tum joj yaj zof um vim vel tig mak sog wot sav

Skilled Readers• Read a word letter by letter

• Process words automatically and rapidly

• Look for known word parts in unfamiliar words

• Use context to confirm pronunciation and meaning

Less skilled Readers

• Rely heavily on context and guessing• Read slowly and with great effort• Focus on decoding rather than

comprehending• Skip challenging words and sections of

text• Do not monitor their reading to make

sure it makes sense• - TEA & CARS

Decoding - Learning to read words

When students learn to read, they identify words in text using at least three different strategies.

1. Sound them out using phonemic decoding skills (letter-sound and combination-sound relationships, variant vowel spellings, multisyllabic words, syllable types, morphographs)

2. Use the context of the passage3. Recognize words “by sight”

Phonics • Phonics – the relationship between sounds

and their spellings• All students benefit from phonics instruction• Early instruction is correlated with success

in comprehension– 26 letters of the alphabet– 44 phonemes or sounds in English– Many ways to write these sounds (e.g., Long a =

a_e, ai, ay,) (/j/ = j, ge, gi, dge)– Practice most common sounds of letter and

letter combinations

Knowing the Language• To teach reading, a teacher must understand

the language.• Lower levels of language

– Units smaller than the word: sounds, letters, syllables, morphemes

• Higher levels of language– Units larger than the word:

phrases, sentences, paragraphs

• Help students to learn that the written symbols of our language represent the sounds of speech — the alphabetic principle.

Terms• Phonics - the relationship between the sound

system and the written language• Grapheme - the written representation of a

sound• Morphograph - the smallest meaningful units of

a language (prefixes and suffixes)• Consonant Digraphs - two consonants together

that stand for one sound—ch, sh• Vowel Digraphs - two vowels together that

stand for one sound— ea, oa, ai, ou• Blends - two or more consonants appearing in a

word and each retains its sound—st, pl, br

Terms • Diphthong - vowel sounds caused by

a gliding action in the mouth oi, oy, ou• Schwa - variant of a particular sound

as a result of less stress on that sound - happen, about, gallop

• Regular Word - A word making its most common sound.

• Irregular Word - A word that contains letters that stray from the most common sound pronunciation.

Phonics Knowledge

• 1. Phoneme Matching:

1. push although sugar duty pump

2. weigh pie height raid friend 3. does miss nose votes rice 4. intend this whistle asked batch 5. ring sink handle signal pinpoint

Phonics Knowledge 2. Consonant Blends first pumpkin squawk scratch 3. Consonant Digraphs thought smash shrink thrown

patchwork 4. g pronounced /j/ = i, e, y 5. Long a = a, ai, a_e, ey, ay, eigh

Phonemic Decoding• Sounding out -- a strategy to attack new

words.• Opportunity to practice letter-sound

correspondences• Attention to the internal structure of the word• practice sounding out leads to automatic

word recognition• Sounding out words (process)

– Students identify each sound--segmenting– Say the word—blending– /mmmaaat/ /baaat/

Progression of Word Difficulty

• VC and CVC at, am, mop, man• VCC and CVCC end, its, sack, fill• CVC dog, tan• CVCC tent, jump• CCVC frog, slap• CCVC crab, stop• CCVCC,CCCVC,CCCVCC clamp, scrap,

scrimp

Decodable Text• Decodable text

– A necessary step in explicit phonics instruction

– Students practice what they are learning– Helps develop automaticity and fluency

• Decodable text consists of – Completely decodable words– Sight words

Decoding units of sound

• After individual letter-sounds, teach combinations, or units of sound

– Digraphs ch, sh, ea, oa– Silent e words a_e, i_e– R-controlled combinations ar, ir, er

A Dependent Cycle

• Poor decoding skills = reading without fluency

• Lack of fluency = poor or no comprehension

• Lack of comprehension = low motivation

• Low motivation = less reading on own which means lower vocabulary

Phonograms• Phonogram - a letter or series of letters that

stands for a sound, syllable, syllable part, or series of sounds.– Word Families - ay as in say and play, face, space, place– Rime - linguistic term referring to the phonogram.– Onset and rime: sat s=onset at=rime

chip ch=onset ip=rime

• Useful for generating words– Use only after having taught individual letters– Phonogram knowledge should build on systematic,

explicit phonics instruction

High Frequency Words• Words that appear most frequently in

text.– Small number– Contains both regular and irregular words– Important for understanding, yet abstract

• Function words: a, and, for, he, is, in, it, of, that, the, to, was, you

– These stand for 25% of the words in print

– Sight word

• Necessary for fluent reading– Facilitates a quick move into decodable text.

Multisyllabic Words• Students need to know:

– What a syllable is– That a syllable contains one vowel sound– That recognizable word parts are also in

multisyllabic words– How to divide the word in parts, read each

part, and then read the word by combining the parts

– How to be flexible with word parts that are irregular

Syllable Types

• Closed (CVC) (mat, pic-nic)• Open (CV) (he, ve-to)• Silent e (VCe) (cape, stripe, cue)• Vowel team (pain, head, toy)• R-controlled (fer-ment, tar) • Consonant+le (ap-ple, can-dle)• Other (a-bout)

Fluency

• The ability to read text –quickly –accurately–with proper expression (prosody)

Fluency Instruction• Repeated and monitored oral

reading improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement.

• Oral reading with feedback• Provide modeling• Determine Reading Levels• Monitor fluency progress

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Fluency InstructionFluency Instruction


HOW• Carefully scaffold student fluency practice from the sub-word level, word

level, sentence level, and to the text level.• Provide daily opportunities for student fluency practice with text at the

student’s independent reading level. By the end of:– 1st grade: 40 WCPM – 2nd grade: 90 WCPM– 3rd grade: 110 WCPM

• Promote wide fluency practice with a variety of different types of texts.• Establish a variety of instructional routines for student fluency

development such as:– Repeated reading– Choral reading– Partner reading– Reader’s Theatre

Overview of DIBELS MeasureOral Reading Fluency (ORF)

– measure of fluency in

oral reading of connected text.

– Students in grades one, two and three will be administered three passages from grade-level text

– Students who are weak in reading fluency will often experience difficulty in comprehending what they read

There was a robin’s nest outside our kitchen window. The

nest was in a tall bush. The mother robin sat in the nest all day

long. One day when I was watching, the mother bird flew

away. I saw the eggs she was sitting on. There were four blue

eggs.

I watched and watched. The eggs moved. I watched some

more. The eggs started to crack. Finally, the eggs hatched. I

saw four baby birds. The baby birds opened their beaks wide.

I heard them peeping. Soon the mother bird came back. Then

the mother robin put worms in their mouths.

Every day I watched the baby birds and their mother.

Pretty soon the babies were so fat there was no room for the

mother. Then one morning the nest was gone from the bush.

Fluency & Comprehension

• Emphasis should be placed on the meaning of what is being read from the very beginning of reading instruction.

• There is a positive correlation between fluency and comprehension.

Why is Fluency Important?

• It is the cornerstone of the more advanced stages of literacy

• It is a good measure of overall reading health.

(TEA & CARS, 2002)

Rawoha felf worze. Zhe ifcheb wore ahb

zcrafcheb harber. Zhe zwalloweb offeh fo zee

how her zore fhroaf waz cowihq alohq. Zhe

peekeb bowh fhe heck of her blouze fo zee if

zhe wiqhf have a razh ahb waz zurprizeb fhaf

zhe bib hof. Zhe zhiffeb frow fiwe fo fiwe fo

zee if zhe hab a ruhhy hoze. (TEA & CARS, 2002)

Who Felt Like This?

Ramona felt worse. She itched more and

scratched harder. She swallowed often to

see how her sore throat was coming along.

She peeked down the neck of her blouse to

see if she might have a rash and was

surprised that she did not. She sniffed from

time to time to see if she had a runny nose. (Ramona Forever, Harcourt, Inc., 2000, p. 343)

2 Components of Fluent Reading

(TEA & CARS, 2002; NRP, 2000)

Fluency

Automaticity Prosody

Accuracy & SpeedExpression, Intonation,

& Phrasing

True or False?(adapted from TEA & CARS, 2000)

• The teacher reads one paragraph at a time and the students read that same paragraph before moving on to the next paragraph.

– TRUE!

– Echo Reading-provides students modeling & read aloud practice


• The Teacher and students read chorally. Students must keep up with the teacher.

– TRUE!

– Choral Reading-provides students modeling & read aloud practice


• Students read books or content area texts in pairs. This can be in a whole group setting or during group work time.

– TRUE!

– Partner Reading-provides students read aloud practice and ensures that they are reading assigned material


• In a whole group format, the teacher calls on one student to read a section of a text at a time and then calls on another student to read the next section.

– FALSE!

– Round Robin Reading-provides students very little practice reading


• Each student chooses something to read and sits at his/her desk to read silently and independently.

– FALSE!

– Sustained Silent Reading-has not been supported by research to increase fluency or aid in comprehension


• During independent work time, a student reads along to a book she is listening to on tape and then records herself reading the same selection.

– TRUE!

– Tape Recorded Reading-provides students practice in reading aloud and listen to how they sound while reading


• The teacher reads aloud from a book as students sit and listen attentively.

– FALSE!

– Teacher Read Aloud-provides a model of fluent reading but does not allow students to practice reading


• A student has instructional level reading material, a stop watch, and a chart. He times himself reading the same passage 3 times.

– TRUE!

– Timed Repeated Reading-provides a repetition of text & read aloud practice

Academic Engagement

• Students cannot increase fluency if they are not actually reading the text themselves or if they cannot get feedback on their reading errors.

Understanding Fluency

• Consider the novice pianist, practicing the same piece over and over again until a certain level of expertise is reached.

• Think how frustrating it would be to have to sight read a new piece every day - yet that is what we sometimes expect of students, especially beginning readers.

• Educators can help students increase fluency through many other repeated and guided oral reading activities.

Reading Levels

• Independent

• Instructional

• Frustration

Fluency Strategies

Echo Reading Choral Reading Partner Reading

Echo Reading Procedure

• Implemented with whole group, small group or individually

1. Teacher reads a paragraph orally2. In unison, students read the same

paragraph orally trying to read just as the teacher read.

Echo Reading

• Benefits all readers--especially struggling and average readers

• Echo Reading provides students with a good model of fluent reading and opportunity to immediately emulate

Choral Reading Procedure

• Implemented with whole group, small group or individually

1.Teacher reads a paragraph or selection orally

2.In unison, teacher AND students read the same paragraph or selection orally. The students keep up with the pace of the teacher.

Choral Reading

• Especially benefits average and advanced readers

• Choral Reading provides students with a good model of fluent reading, opportunity to immediately emulate a fluent reader, and prosody practice.

Partner Reading

Pairing Students forPartner Reading

• Rank order students by reading ability (20 students in a class)

• Pair #1 with #11; #2 with #12; #3 with #13

• Adjust as needed according to personality & behavior

Partner Reading Procedure

• Pair Students• Students take turns

orally reading a passage – By paragraph– By page– By time (e.g. 5

minutes)– Or other criteria

Partner Reading Procedure

1. Each student is paired with a peer2. Student 1 (the higher level reader)

reads first while reader 2 (the lower level reader) follows along

3. Students switch roles after reading a section and read the same section again

4. Reader 1 asks reader 2 to retell the important ideas

Timed Readings

• A form of repeated readings (for one minute)1. Read text2. Record number of words read correctly3. Set goal4. Read same text again5. Record number of words read correctly6. Set Goal7. Read same text again8. Record number of words read correctly

Timed Readings

• Helps all students if text is at independent level

• Very motivating!• Can be conducted by teacher, pairs,

volunteers etc.

How does a reader become more fluent?

• Reading, reading, and more reading!• Studies show that students who read well,

read more. The more these students read, the better they get at reading. Readers who don’t read well, don’t read often; therefore, they don’t have the opportunity to practice and improve.

• The increasing gap between the good readers and the poor readers creates the Matthew Effect.

Fluency, In Sum…

• Many children acquire basic reading but get stuck in the “Fluency Hump.”

• Fluency=Speed + Accuracy + Expression

• Have to read fluently to comprehend what is read.

• Fluency frees up cognitive space for processing meaning.

Vocabulary

• The knowledge of the meanings and pronunciation of words that are used in oral and written language.

Vocabulary Instruction

• Selection of words to teach – Unknown, critical to understanding the

text, likely to encounter in the future

• Teach word learning strategies– How to use word parts to determine

meaning of words• Provide multiple exposures to words • Encourage independent wide reading

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Vocabulary InstructionVocabulary Instruction


HOW• Provide robust vocabulary instruction:

– oral language and reading vocabulary • Promote dialogue in various contexts using robust words already taught• Promote wide reading of a variety of texts for student reading vocabulary

development.• Read aloud everyday for oral language development• Establish instructional routines for:

– Before reading– During reading– After reading

• Establish instructional routines using graphic organizers to expand vocabulary development

Vocabulary ResourceVocabulary Resource

TITLE:

Bringing Words to Life

AUTHOR:

Isabel Beck

What words should be taught?

• Important words

• Useful words

• Difficult words

Vocabulary Instruction

Don’t• Use arbitrary word

lists• Rely on

dictionaries • Rely on context

too heavily• Use words out of

context

Do• Connect words to

prior knowledge• Use words in context• Connect words to

concept development

• Read to students• Encourage wide

reading

Effective Vocabulary StrategiesWhen to use each strategy Before During After

1. Concept Definition Mapping X X X

2. Frayer Model X X X

3. Semantic Feature Analysis X X X

4. Semantic Mapping X X X

5. Synonym Web X X

6. Linear Arrays X

Concept Definition Mapping

• What is it? What broader category does it fit into?

• What is it like? What are the essential characteristics? What qualities does it possess that make it different from other things in the same category?

• What are some examples of it?

What is it? What is it like?

The Word

What are some examples?

Adapted from Schwartz & Raphael, 1985

Category

Frayer Model

• Assign concept or word.

• Explain the attributes of the Frayer model being used.

• Model an easy word with the class first.

• Have students pair up to complete activity.

• Have students share completed model.

Definition Characteristics

Examples Non-examples

WORD

D.A. Frayer, W.C. Frederick, and H.G. Klausmeier, 1969

Semantic Feature Analysis

• Select a category of study. • Create a matrix: along the left side, list key vocabulary

terms/concepts. Across the top choose features that the words might share.

• Student place an “X “ in the box if the feature applies to the vocabulary word.

• Students explain their rationale for their “X’s”. • As the unit progresses terms and features can be added to the matrix.

Polygons Opposite Sides Parallel

Equilateral Equiangular 4-sided 3-sided

square X X X X

rectangle X X X

triangle X

Semantic Mapping• Write the subject of the lesson in the middle of a transparency or on

the board.• Ask students to think of as many words as possible that relate to the

term. • Have students write the words. On their own, or in small groups they

are to group the words in categories by mapping or webbing.• Students share their maps and discuss with their groupings with the

class.

Weather

Forecasters

MeteorologistNational Weather service

Measurement

ToolsTerms

BarometerThermometerHydrometer

IsobarsMillibarsCentigradeTemperature Relative humidity

Disaster Phenomenon Hurricanes

TornadoesBlizzardsCyclonesHailstorms

Factors That Affect Our Weather

Jet streamCold frontHigh pressureEl Nino

Synonym Web• Choose a word that has many synonyms, e.g. “said”.• Place the word in the center of a chart of piece of paper.• Have students brainstorm as many synonyms for the word

as possible. Encourage them to use dictionaries and thesauruses.

• Create a web with all the words they come up with.

Said

shouted

whispered

spoke

yelled

exclaimed

murmured

mumbled

slurredreplied

responded

Linear Arrays• Linear Arrays are visual representations of degrees

between two related words.

icy cool

tepid

hot boiling

eager motivated

ambivalent idle lazy

transparent translucent opaque

cloudy obscure

Janet Allen, Words, Words, Words, 1999

Comprehension

• The ability to make sense of text and to monitor for understanding.

The Reading Block:The Reading Block: Comprehension Comprehension

InstructionInstructionGUIDING PRINCIPLE• Systematically deliver explicit instruction

HOW• Establish instructional routines for:

– Before reading– During reading– After reading

• Establish instructional routines using graphic organizers• Scaffold from lower to higher level questions to promote higher

order thinking skills• Promote dialogue with critical thinking skills• Promote wide reading of a variety of texts for student reading

for a variety of purposes• Use text at appropriate student independent reading level• Read aloud everyday

The Reading Block: The Reading Block: Comprehension InstructionComprehension Instruction

Knowledge(RELEVANCE:

who, what, when, where, why, how)

Analysis

Application

Comprehension

Synthesis

Evaluation

Venn Diagram

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching

Reciprocal Teaching; KWL

Semantic Feature Analysis

Instructional ExamplesInstructional ExamplesDialogue; interactive reading; organizersDialogue; interactive reading; organizers

Evaluate; judgment

Blo

om

’s T

axo

no

my

Task LevelsTask Levels

Text Structure

• Awareness of text structure is linked to reading comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000)

• Generally taught during grade 3 or later• Early grades may be an ideal time to

teach story elements because of children’s interest in and informal understanding regarding stories

Two Kinds of Organizational Text Structure:

•Narrative•Information (Expository)

Critical Features of Narrative Text Structure

• Main Character – Something About the Character;

Character Clues

• What Happened First• What Happened Next, Next, etc.• How Did the Story End?

– Discuss Change in Character

Informational Text Structure

• Chronological Sequence

• Comparison & Contrast

• Concept Definition

• Process/cause-effect

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even

t

even

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different different

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e

Concept

attribute

att

ribu

te

attribute

attribute

attribute

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cause cause cause cause effect

K-W-L Chart

– What you think you KNOW– What you WANT to Learn– What you LEARNED

K-W-L

What You Think You

Know

What You Want to

Know

What You Learned

Metacognitive Strategies

• Effective readers engage in metacognitive strategies before, during, and after reading to improve comprehension

• During reading, teach students to self-

monitor their comprehension by asking themselves periodically whether what they are reading makes sense (Paris et al., 1986;Schunk et al., 1985)

Metacognitive Strategies• Effective readers remember more if they

ask themselves questions during reading (Wong & Jones). – Teach students to ask themselves why they

are reading the material, find the main idea, think of questions about the content and search for answers, and then look back on both the questions and answers to decide how each provided more information about the content.

Scaffold Instruction• Model• Lead/Guide

– Work collaboratively with students and the strategy, giving and taking as much as necessary to create meaning

– Eventually, students take on more and more responsibility

• Students use strategies independently

(Pardo, 2004)

Before Reading

• Identifying the purpose for reading– Informational text or story

• Previewing– title, author, illustrator

• Strategic predicting/priming background knowledge

• Defining critical vocabulary

During Reading• Using consistent framework (e.g., story

elements, info. headings, info. text focus questions)

• Question-asking strategies– Literal– Organizational– Inferential

• Making connections • Active Thinking (Predict-Proof)• Self-monitoring (What do you do when you

don’t understand something?)• Vocabulary

Teachers Ask Effective Questions

• Questions progress from literal (or explicit) to more complex (or implicit)– Always remember your instructional

purpose and learners’ skill levels!

• Questions should elicit more than a simple yes or no response

• Ask students’ opinion or feelings

After Reading

• Structured Retelling (Fuchs et al., 1994)– Retell of storybooks– Retell of information text (review with

KWL chart and tell with information retell sheet)

• Summarizing• Vocabulary Review and Extension

Activities• Vocabulary Introduction and Preview

Answers to Questions• What reading components constitute

the reading block?• How are the reading components

taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction

look like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality

resources?

How are the reading components taught?

• All five components should be taught using:– explicit instructional strategies– coordinated instructional sequences– ample practice opportunities– aligned student materials

Explicit Instruction1. Teacher Models and Explains2. Teacher provides Guided Practice

• Students practice what the teacher modeled and the teacher provides prompts and feedback

3. Teacher provides Supported Application

• Students apply the skill as the teacher scaffolds instruction

4. Independent Practice

Coordinated Instructional Sequences

Phonological Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension Strategies

Coordinated Instructional Sequences

• Phonemic Awareness: – Students practice orally segmenting and blending words

with /m/

• Phonics: – Students learn to connect /m/ with the letter m

• Fluency & Comprehension:– reading word lists that include words that have /m/ and

other previously learned letter sounds– reading decodable passages (using repeated readings)

that include many words with /m/

• Spelling– spelling words that include /m/ and other letter sounds

previously learned

Ample Practice Opportunities

• Practice should follow in a logical relationship with what has just been taught in the program.

• Once skills are internalized, students

are provided with opportunities to independently apply previously learned information (e.g., at student learning centers).

Aligned Student Materials

• The content of student materials (texts, activities, homework, manipulatives, etc.) work coherently with classroom instruction to reinforce the acquisition of specific skills in reading.

• Student aligned materials include a rich selection of coordinated student materials at various readability levels to help build skills through practice.

Example of Aligned Student Materials

– If students are taught specific vocabulary words, they should have the opportunity to engage in activities using those words• Reading materials • Discussions• Writing activities to apply the words in

sentences or paragraphs

– Phonemic Awareness– Phonics– Fluency– Vocabulary– Comprehension

– Explicit Instructional Strategies

– Coordinated Instructional Sequences

– Ample Practice Opportunities

– Aligned Student Materials

What reading What reading components components constitute the constitute the reading block?reading block?

How are the How are the reading reading components components taught?taught?

Answers to Questions• What reading components constitute

the reading block?• How are the reading components

taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction look

like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality

resources?

How is the reading block How is the reading block organized?organized?

CLASSROOM CHARACTERISTICS• Academically engaged• Accountability

ELEMENTS• Whole Group Instruction• Differentiated Instruction with Learning Centers

– Small group Teacher-Led instruction• Flexible

• Differentiated

• homogeneous

– Several Student Centers (group, pair, cooperative, individual)

What are examples of reading centers and

activities?

How is the reading block How is the reading block organized? organized? (Teacher-Led Group)(Teacher-Led Group)

• It is critical to analyze group size (from 3-8 students)• Keep high-risk group sizes small (3-5 students)• It is important to work with each small group differently based on

instructional need as determined by results of the various reading assessments.

• Monitor progress of those most at-risk students more frequently for making instructional changes to accelerate learning:– Size of the small group– Group members– Level of explicitness– Amount of scaffolding– Length of time for targeted instruction

Organize the Classroom

Answers to Questions• What reading components constitute the

reading block?• How are the reading components taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction

look like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality resources?

What does differentiated

instruction look like?• Differentiation is instruction planned and delivered with

precision in small, flexible groups of students.

Which students receive differentiated instruction?

• All students in the classroom

What does differentiated instruction look like?

When is differentiated instruction delivered?

• Every day during the reading block

How can a teacher plan in order to differentiate?

• Identify the target reading components• Identify the target resources• Implement a classroom management system

What is differentiated instruction?

The Class Status Reports from the Progress Monitoring & Reporting Network (PMRN) will help answer three important questions:

1. Who needs extra support?

2. How should groups be formed?

3. Which skills need to be emphasized?

Class Status Report

• Uninterrupted 90 minute block

• No other personnel to assist during Learning Center time

• Core Reading Program

Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten Class

• 40 minutes will be devoted to whole class ii using core curriculum

• 50 minutes will be devoted to small group instruction:

Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten Class: Teacher Led-

Center

M T W TH F

G1HR 25minutes

25 25 25 25

G2MR 15 10 15 10 15

G3LR 10 15 10 15 10

Small group instruction for 50 minutes:• Group 1: Implement an intervention program --25

min. daily• Group 2: Implement phonemic awareness and

phonics activities that will provide students extra practice with the content that was previously taught--10-15 min. daily

• Group 3: Use the decodable & leveled books from my core reading program to practice the decoding process and fluency--10-15 min. daily

Classroom Organization for this Kindergarten Class: Teacher-Led Center

Form Flexible Groups Based on Assessment


reading block?• How are the reading components taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction look

like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality resources?

Implementing and Managing Student Centers in the Classroom

I. Form Flexible Groups Based on AssessmentII. Identify Appropriate Center Activities Based

on AssessmentIII. Design Center Management SystemIV. Implement a Behavior Management SystemV. Give Explicit Center DirectionsVI. Organize the ClassroomVII. Manage TransitionsVIII.Establish Accountability

Implement a Behavior Management System

How is the reading block How is the reading block managedmanaged??• Room Arrangement

– large group area– small group areas

• Procedures – plan procedures– teach procedures – consistently enforce procedures

• Academic Tasks to Consider– Whole Group Activities– Small Group Teacher-Led Activities– Independent Student Centers– Transitions

Managing Transitions


reading block?• How are the reading components taught?• How is the reading block organized?• What does differentiated instruction look

like?• How is the reading block managed?• How can I access high quality

resources?

Resources for Principals

• www.fcrr.org– For Administrators

• FAQs about Reading Instruction• Differentiating Reading Instruction: Small Group

Alternative Lesson Structures for All Students• Principal Walkthrough Checklists • Student Center Activities

– Teacher Resource Guide & Professional Development DVD

– Over 400 Activities for K-3

http://www.fcrr.org/

Principal Walkthrough Checklists

• K, 1, 2, & 3• Classroom Environment• Materials• Teacher Instruction• Whole Class Instruction• Small Group, Differentiated Instruction• Student Reading Centers• Fab 5

Introduction to 2-3 Student Center Activities

DVD

Interpretation of Activity Plan

Glossary

Book One

Book Two

Thank You!Thank You!

www.fcrr.orgwww.fcrr.org

Documents

Characteristics of the Reading Block