National Reading Panel (2000)

Researched & Approved Reading Comprehension Strategies

http://www.rti2.org/rti2/oralReadings

Text Comprehension Instruction

The National Reading Panel’s synthesis (NICHD, 2000) of comprehension research studies indicates explicit or formal instruction in the application of a multiple-strategy method has been shown to be highly effective in enhancing understanding. The seven techniques below appear to provide a scientifically based foundation for the improvement of comprehension.

Comprehension Monitoring: where readers learn how to be aware of their understanding of the material;

Cooperative Learning: where students learn reading strategies together;

Use of graphic and semantic organizers: where readers make graphic representations of the material to assist comprehension;

Question answering: where readers answer questions posed by the teacher and receive immediate feedback;

Question generation: where readers ask themselves questions about various aspects of the story;

Story structure: where students are taught to use the structure of the story as a means for helping them recall the story content in order to answer questions about what they have read;

Text Comprehension Instruction

Summarization: where readers are taught to integrate ideas , infer, and generalize from text information.

The evidence suggest that teaching a combination of reading comprehension techniques is most effective. When students use them appropriately, they assist in recall, question answering, question generation, and summarization of text.

COMPREHENSION MONITORING

AND COOPERATIVE LEARNING

What is Comprehension Monitoring

The ability of a reader to be aware, while reading, whether a text is making sense or not.

Questions to Help Assess Reading

• Does the reader understand the purposes for reading a particular text?

• Does the reader understand (or attempt to understand) the purposes and goals of the author?

• Does the reader bring personal background knowledge to bring an understanding to the text?

• How well does the reading bring knowledge forward from one part of the text to another, from another text or activity to another text or activity?

• How well does the reader employ other general processes of reading?

Questions to Help Assess Reading

• How independent is the reader with a particular text or kind of text?

• How well does the student understand global structures of organizing text?

• How often does the reader encounter unfamiliar words?

• How well does the student recognize codes and conventions?

• How well does the student learn information from the text?

• Does the student recognize text as a construction of an author?

How to Monitor & Repair Comprehension

Direct Instruction:• Teaching• Modeling – Think Alouds• Guided Practice• Collaboration• Application

• Inconsistent Element

• Multiple-Strategy Instruction

Comprehension Monitoring Strategies

1. Identify where the difficulty is.2. Identify what is difficult.3. Restate the passage in their own

words.4. Look back through the text.5. Look forward in the text.

Assessing Comprehension Monitoring

• Retell or Summary• Strategy Assessment• Teacher Observation• Cloze Passages

It is an instructional arrangement that allows two to six students the opportunity to work together on a shared task in order to jointly construct their knowledge and understanding of the content.

Fisher, Frey, & Everlove 2009

LEARNING PYRAMIDNational Training Laboratories, Bethel Maine

Average

RetentionRate

Lecture

Reading

Audio-Visual

Demonstration

Discussion Group

Practice By Doing

Teach Others/Immediate Use of Learning

5%

10%

20%

30%

50%

75%

90%

Greater Efforts to Achieve

More Positive Relationships

Greater Psychological Health

Group goal of maximizing all

members learning providing

a purposeLinked with each other in a way that one cannot succeed unless everyone succeedsClear tasksRoles

Hold themselves and each

other accountable for doing high quality work to achieve their mutual goals

Each member must be accountable for contributing his or her share of the work

E Work face-to-face to produce joint work products

E Provide both academic and personal support

E Do real work together and promote each other’s

success

Read and Say Something - DrawRead and RetellSticky Note Discussion Picture NotesContent FramesReflective Double Entry Journals

Taught social skills are expected to be seen as students coordinate their efforts and achieve their goals.

Both task work and teamwork are emphasized

All members are responsible for providing leadership

Questions???

Q&A Period…

QUESTIONING STRATEGIES

AND GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS

What are Questioning Strategies?

Teachers pose questions to students in order to engage them in explicit, deeper-level thinking about the subject under discussion.

Through the art of thoughtful questioning, teachers cannot only extract factual information but, ◦ aid learners in connecting concepts, ◦ making inferences, ◦ increasing awareness, ◦ encouraging creative and imaginative thought,◦ aiding critical thinking processes, ◦ and generally helping learners explore deeper levels of

knowing, thinking, and understanding.

Question Types(based on blooms level of

complexity)#1- Recall-Knowledge (cognitive

memory, factual, input)Questions used to determine students’

knowledge about factual information. Also used to reinforce learning as well as to

check on student retention.

Examples: ◦ Name 3 states of water in the water cycle.◦ How many times did you visit the ocean

station?◦ What is (the definition of) transpiration?

Question Types(based on blooms level of

complexity)#2- Comprehension (deeper

understanding, interpretation, processing, inferring)

Questions used to determine the student’s understanding of a subject.

Examples:◦ What processes occur when water molecules move

from the ocean to plants?◦ Compare your journey with another person’s

journey.◦ Explain why your journey was different than your

partner’s.

Question Types(based on blooms level of

complexity)#3 –Analysis/Synthesis (break down, put

together, hypothesis/prediction, output) Questions that require students to take their knowledge and apply it

to new situations. They are also used to determine whether students are making generalizations, examining and breaking down information into parts, and putting the parts back together.

Examples:

◦ What might be affected in the water cycle if there was a source of pollution next to the river?

◦ Create a story about what you experienced during your journey.

◦ If the average temperature of the earth increased by 5 degrees Celsius, where might activity in the water cycle change, and why?

Question Types(based on blooms level of

complexity)#4- Evaluation (evaluative, critical

analysis, opinion) Questions used to give students an opportunity to make a

value judgment, express opinions, provide criticisms, or raise their own questions. There are no right or wrong answers. The use of these types of questions is to get a feel for what students are thinking and, how they are balancing their new learning with prior beliefs and values.

Examples: ◦ What are the advantages and disadvantages of

“cloud seeding”?◦ What part do humans (you) play in the water

cycle?

Questioning Strategies

Socratic Questions Socratic questioning is the basis for developing questions that can

be used to develop critical thinking skills.These are used to evaluate, process, and store relevant information.

Using Socratic questioning effectively is a learned skill that parents and teachers can use when guiding the thought process in their children.

6 types of Socratic Questions◦ Questions for clarification

◦ Questions that probe assumptions

◦ Questions that probe reasons and evidence

◦ Questions about viewpoints and perspectives

◦ Questions that probe implications and consequences

◦ Questions about the question

Graphic Organizers Graphic organizers give students a visual representation of

concepts being studied and their relationships to other concepts.

Graphic organizers help students:

◦ Gather information in an organized manner

◦ Comprehend how the pieces of information are related

◦ Organize opinions, information, and reflection

◦ Synthesize information

◦ Solve problems by integrating their thinking, reading, and writing processes

◦ Practice high-level thinking skills and apply them to real life situations

Graphic organizers help teachers:

◦ Explain and illustrate abstract concepts

◦ Help students understand sequence and interrelationships

◦ Provide second language learners with a visual image for new vocabulary and concepts

◦ Review materials as a post-reading activity

◦ Evaluate student understanding

Spider Map Used to describe a central idea: a thing (a geographic region), process

(meiosis), concept (altruism), or proposition with support (experimental drugs should be available to AIDS victims). Key frame questions: What is the central idea? What are its attributes? What are its functions?

Problem/Solution OutlineUsed to represent a problem, attempted solutions, and results.

Key frame questions:

What was the problem?

Who had the problem?

Why was it a problem?

What attempts were made to solve the problem?

Did those attempts succeed?

Resources for Graphic Organizers

Resource Website for Graphic Organizers◦ http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ - ◦ http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp

?id=2983 – ◦ http://www.teachervision.fen.com/graphic-org

anizers/printable/6293.html

Questions???

Q&A Period…

STORY STRUCTURE

AND

SUMMARIZATION

Story StructureExplicit teaching of story structure helps

students to:

Improve comprehension of text Make meaning as they read Improve memory retention of the events in the story Complete assignments successfully and compose

stories of their own Transfer that knowledge to different and more

complicated texts

Story Structure (cont’d)The elements of story structure are as

follows:

PlotSettingCharacterThemePoint of View

PlotEvents in the story, including the

conflict.

Ways to teach plot:◦ Explicitly teach elements of plot – list elements,

define and discuss using a familiar story◦ Have students create advertisement for book/movie

using elements of plot as guide◦ View a short film and have students identify parts

of plot in groups◦ Graphic Organizers –students fill in organizers

during or after reading (See College Board Springboard Plot Organizer)

SettingLocation, time, and time period in

which the story takes place.

Ways to teach setting:Questioning/discussing effect of setting on text as

you readQuestioning/discussing how text would change (if at

all) if setting was different after story has been readSetting Bookmark – See Handout

CharacterThe people or personified animals in

the text.

Ways to teach character:Explicitly teach different types of characters – list

different types and have students identify them in a common text

Body BiographyCreative writing – Create a Character, Tell the Story

ThemeCentral message or idea in a story; not

always a moral, sometimes just a comment on life.

Ways to teach theme:Begin with familiar storyPlay a song with a clear theme and discuss with

studentsClass Theme Wheel using poetry/music – use as

classroom anchor chart

Point of ViewThe position by which the narrator views

the subject of the text.

Ways to teach point of view:◦ Explicitly discuss with students the four types of point

of view◦ Compare/contrast text with different points of view

and discuss the affect each has on the text◦ Creative Writing – Same Story, Different Point of View

SummarizationSummarizing is…

◦ Taking larger texts and breaking them down into only the necessary and important components

◦ Difficult task, even for some adults◦ Once students can summarize, it shows that they

have ownership of the material and can prepare themselves to use the information elsewhere.

Summarization (cont’d)When writing summaries remind

students to:◦ Delete things that are not essential to the text◦ Refrain from repetition◦ Use specific rather than general terms◦ Locate a topic sentence within the text or create

one to focus summary

Summarization (cont’d)Ways to teach summarization:

◦ Somebody Wanted But So ◦ Don’t Look Back◦ Journalist Questions◦ Magnet Summaries◦ Model, Model, Model! (Think Aloud)

Questions???

Q&A Period…

Contact Information Taryn Ortiz

Secondary Curriculum

Reading 6-12 Resource Teacher

PX: 43806 ; Direct line: (561) 963-3806

ortizt@palmbeach.k12.fl.us

Crystal Young

Secondary Curriculum

Language Arts/English 6-12 Resource Teacher

PX: 43869; Direct line: (561) 963-3869

Crystal.young@palmbeach.k12.fl.us

Sandee Fleming

Secondary Curriculum

Content Literacy Specialist 6-12

PX: 76315 (Gold Coast), 48454 (FHESC)

flemings@palmbeach.k12.fl.us