Igniting Understanding through Reading Comprehension Strategies Instructions

DO NOW:Please take a sheet and complete the first two

columns of the K-W-L chart

If you would like this PowerPoint now, please email me and I will forward it to you before we begin.

aitkene@freyberg.ac.nz

POP QUIZ

Igniting Understanding through Reading Comprehension Strategies Instructions

Skimming Scanning Asking Questions Clarifying Vocabulary Visualising Making Inferences/

Inferring

Making Connections Determining Important

Ideas Synthesising Repairing Comprehension

What is reading comprehension?

MOVING FROM DECODING TO

COMPREHENDINGSimple View of

ReadingReading

Comprehension=

Decoding +

Language Comprehension

(aural)

What are reading disabilities?

But proficient reading comprehension is a “complex process involving knowledge, experience, thinking, and teaching”

(Durkin, 1994, cited in Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 14)

AlverroWhen a baby giraffe is born it is already six feet tall.

DYSLEXIA

MIXED RD SPECIFIC COMPREHENSION DEFICIT

PROFICIENT READER

How do reading disabilities develop?

Types of Reading Disability

Spea

r-Sw

erlin

g, L

., &

Ste

rnbe

rg, R

. L. (

1996

). R

oads

to re

adin

g di

sabi

lity.

In O

ff tra

ck: W

hen

poor

read

ers

beco

me

"lea

rnin

g di

sabl

ed"

(pp.

113

-152

). B

ould

er,

CO

: Wes

tvie

w P

ress

.

Roads to reading disability(Spear-Swerling & Sternberg, 1996)

Reading is not just ACTIVE but

INTERACTIVEReading is “an act of composition”“stimulate their own thinking”“Readers construct and maintain understanding by merging their thinking with the text. “ongoing inner conversation with the author… a dialogue of sorts”

(Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p.21)

A book “…is a printed circuit for your own life to flow through”.

“You’re imagining the words, the sounds of the words, and you are thinking of the various characters in terms of people you’ve known – not in terms of the writer’s experience, but your own”.

(E. L. Doctorow, in Plimpton, 1998, cited in Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 13)

Am I not already teaching reading comprehension?

AIMS of teaching reading comprehension strategies

Common problem with RC “instruction” in schoolsAssessing vs. Teaching

To get readers to:• think when they

read• develop an

awareness of their thinking

• use actively the knowledge they glean

“Comprehension strategies are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. Teaching strategies for strategies sake is simply not the point.”

(Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 14, emphasis added)c

What are reading comprehension strategies?

Pearson, Dole, Duffy & Roehler (1992):

Searching for Connections (e.g. using schema - Dr Moira Sweetnam Evans)

Asking Questions Drawing Inferences Determining Important Ideas Synthesising Monitoring & Repairing

Comprehension Presley (1976) & Keene & Zimmerman (1997) added:

Sensory imaging/ VisualisingOther important skills:

Skimming Scanning Clarifying Vocabulary

A repertoire of strategies that “active, thoughtful readers use when constructing meaning from text” (Harvey & Goudvis, 2007, p. 17).

Reading Comprehension Strategies

How should I teach RCS?

Metacognitive Approach:

teaching students to be conscious of

their inner conversation

BEST PRACTICE Gradual Release of

Responsibility1. Introduce the

strategies explicitly2. Model their use3. Guide students to use

the strategies4. Allow students to use

them on their own and provide opportunities to practice! (repeated reading)

DEMONSTRATION

Activities to help students become aware of reading strategies

STRATEGIES Skimming Scanning Asking Questions Clarifying Vocabulary Visualising Making Inferences/ Inferring Making Connections Determining Important Ideas Synthesising Repairing Comprehension

LEARNING ACTIVITIES Memory party game Quick-fire quiz (beep) Sticky-notes Dictionary races Drawing pictures Matching meanings or single-st

atement competitions

T-S T-T T-W Y-chart Acetate sheets (OHTs) & w/b

pens

Character-limit summaries(420characters.net)

Repeated reading

Inference

• The woman swore as the piece of lego punctured her heel.

• He slammed his fist on the table.

• Her face flushed red and she hurriedly looked away.

• He tiptoed down the passage stifling the need to laugh.

Final thoughts

• Repeated reading• School Journals• Don’t shy away from challenging your students and use real texts

(e.g. http://canterbury.cyberplace.org.nz/peace/nukenviro.html#tests ; Reading of nuclear testing article)

• Literacy@Freyberg

• What can you do in your class in the next term/month?

RESOURCES

Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement – Harvey & Goudvis, 2007. (book)

Teaching Reading Comprehension – Alison Davis(book)

CSI: Comprehension Strategies Instruction (box)