Reading Comprehension:The Key to Academic Achievement

Presenter: Amy Benjamin

You may access today’s visuals at www.amybenjamin.com (Recent Presentations)

Today’s Presentation:

1. About domain-specific reading comprehension

2. Anyone can be a challenged reader

3. Two classic strategies

4. The relationship between background knowledge strategies

5. The effects of free voluntary reading

6. Academic Reading Fitness: A vision for schoolwide reading fitness

The visuals in today’s presentation are available at:

www.AmyBenjamin.com/media.html

Information processing (reading comprehension) is domain-specific:

Domain-Specific Reading

Period Three:

To subtract a polynomial from another polynomial, the opposite of each term of the polynomial that is being subtracted is added.

Period Four:Once upon a midnight dreary, while I

pondered, weak and wearyOver many a quaint and curious volume

of forgotten lore…

Domain-Specific Reading

Period Six:

Which of the following phenomena best

represents a cyclical event?

Period Seven:Liberty and Slavery—opposite as Heaven

and Hell—are both in the Constitution; and the oathto support the latter, is an oath to perform that whichGod has made impossible.

Anyone can be a challenged reader:

The amount of distributions from net investment income and net realized capital gains is determined in accordance with federal income tax regulations, which may differ from generally accepted accounting principles. These “book/tax” differences are either considered temporary or permanent in nature. Key differences are the treatment of short-term capital gains, foreign currency transactions, organization costs and other temporary differences. To the extent that these differences are permanent in nature, such amounts are reclassified within the capital accounts based on their federal tax-basis treatment; temporary differences do not require reclassifications. To the extent distributions exceed net investment income and/or/net realized capital gains for tax purposes, they are reported as distributions of paid-in capital.

Semi-Annual Report for a Mutual Fund

Golden Oldies: Volume I

SQ3RSurveyQuestion

ReadReciteReview

Golden Oldies: Volume II

KWL1.Summoning prior knowledge2.Establishing a purpose; asking questions prior to reading3.Summarizing how the new learning relates to existing knowledge

Reading Comprehension= Background + Strategies

Background Knowledge Vocabulary Words in context

PhrasesAllusionsReferences

Strategies/SkillsBEFORE:

PreviewSet a purpose

DURING:VisualizeMonitor, adjust,

reread Anticipate & predict Be aware of dominant patterns Connect to known info

AFTER: Make meaning: Talk, write, draw,

summarize, outline

RFV (Reading for Fun)

aka: SSR (sustained silent reading) DEAR (“Drop everything and read”)

from the National Center for Educational Statistics:

Increases in vocabulary, background knowledge, interest in reading, speedImprovements in writing, spelling, overall knowledge

50% of American students read for four minutes or less perday in their spare time

10% of American students do not read at all in their spare time

RFV (Reading for Fun)DO THE MATH:

One hour of reading: 150 words per minute; 9,000 words per hour, encountering approx. 100 words for first time

We tend to learn 5%-10% of previously unknown words per reading.

5-10 words learned per hour of reading.25 new words per week100 new words per month1000 new words per school year

Strength

Flexibility

Endurance

Enjoyment

Strength: Vocabulary andBackground Knowledge

Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training

Today, we will train for strength. By strength, we mean having sufficientvocabulary to make meaning from text. Vocabulary is closely related tobackground knowledge, and background knowledge is the most importantfactor in reading comprehension.

Here are a few things you can do that will take just a few minute of class time tobuild your students’ vocabulary:

1. Analyze word prefixes and roots of key words to show how they are relatedto words that students may already know.

2. Embed the target word in a cluster of words related to the topic. 3. Introduce key words that the students will meet in their upcoming readings.4. Repeat new words in various contexts.5. Show the word. Emphasize its spelling and how it looks like related words. 6. Give students opportunities to use new words in conversation.7. If you can, make connections between new words and words in other languages.8. Give students opportunities to use new words in informal writing.9. Indulge in word games and crossword puzzles to reinforce new word.10. Give students opportunities to use non-verbal ways to express meanings

(drawing, gestures, skits, charades).

Tier I Words:

Everyday Language:

AskDeadNameFind out; figure outAnswerRainUseSharp GetTake apart and put togetherbalance

Tier II Words

Language of academics, business, government“Vocab List” words

InterrogateDeceasedDesignate; designation; identify, identificationAscertain; determinePrecipitate, precipitationUtilize; employAcuteAcquireAnalyze; synthesizeequilibrium

Tier III Words

Domain-specific terminology;“Glossary” wordsOn-the-job words

PhotosynthesisCytoplasmMetamorphosisAsymmetricalBathysphereRhetoricDeoxyribonucleic acidArtifactHabeas corpusDiasporaPolysyndetonAdjective

Code-switchingph__y_____sis

xchr______ic

Prefix/root/suffix

Flexibility: Different paces for different purposes

Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training

Today, we will train for flexibility. By flexibility, we mean theability to adjust pace and focus to get the desired level of information from text.Flexibility is important for readers because not everything demands the samelevel of concentration. The flexible reader has the skills to skim, scan, read closely,read between the lines, and study to memorize targeted information.

Here are a few things that you can do to help your students develop flexibilityas readers:1. Provide all kinds of reading material in your classroom related to what youwant students to know: magazines, paperbacks, fiction, Internet, lists, etc.2. Give students guided practice in skimming, scanning, reading closely,reading between the lines, and studying. Increase their awareness of how theyshift gears to derive information from text.

Skim it Scan it Read it (Read between the lines of it) Study it

Four Gears of Reading:

Skim it: Scan it: Read it: Study it:

Glance over it; (30 secsper page); getthe gist; be able tostate what it is aboutin a complete sentence

Look it over with an eagle’s eye, scanningfor specific information,such as information thathas key words to answerquestions

Now that you’ve let thetext wash over you, readit thoroughly: every word,every sentence, everygraphic.

Go back, as necessary,getting a more useful andpermanent understanding. This may involve workingwith a partner, takingnotes, creating graphic organizers, and othermeaning-making activities.

Endurance: The ability toconcentrate on a text over a period of time

Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training

Today, we will train for endurance. By endurance, wemean the ability to concentrate on reading for a sustainedamount of time.

Here are some things you can do to help your students build endurance:

1. Start with short intervals of sustained silent reading and/or listening toyou read aloud while they follow along in the text. Begin with alternatingone-minute intervals, if necessary. Systematically increase the intervalsof sustained silent reading.2. Remind students that it is necessary that they visualize as they read.3. Give students the opportunity to see the extent to which their concentrationis impaired by environmental conditions such as noise or lighting.

Enjoyment: Reading anything we want, just for fun!

Enjoyment: Reading anything we want, just for fun!

stories, newspapers, comics, magazines, graphic novels, teen romances, sci-fi, adventure, humor….

Components of successful free reading programs in schools:

1.Lavish access to all kinds of appealing reading material2.No accountability (ie, tests)3.Teacher modeling4.Regular time set aside for reading 5.Sustained over time (multiple years)6.Comfortable environment, conducive to reading7.Opportunities for discussion8.Staff training on the benefits and management of SSR

What the research tells me [about SSR] is that when children …start reading for pleasure… good things will happen. Their reading comprehension will improve, and they will find difficult, academic-style texts easier to read. Their writing style will improve, and they will be better able to write prose in a style that is acceptable to schools, business, and the scientific community. Their vocabulary will improve, and their spelling and control of grammar will improve.

Stephen Krashen, The Power of Reading