Northern Adelaide RegionComprehension Strategy

Mak

ing

Conn

ectio

ns Debbie D

raper & Julie Fullgrabe, 2012

Acknowledgement of CountryAcknowledgement of Country

The Northern Adelaide Region acknowledges that we are meeting on the traditional

country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect

their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge

that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

We recognise Kaurna people and their landWe recognise Kaurna people and their land

NAR Facilitator Support Model – Team NormsNAR Facilitator Support Model – Team Norms• Be prepared for meetings and respect punctuality• Be open to new learning• Respect others opinions, interact with integrity• Stay on topic, maintain professional conversation • Allow one person to speak at a time and listen actively • Enable everyone to have a voice • Discuss and respect diversity and differing views in a professional manner

and don’t take it personally• Accept that change, although sometimes difficult, is necessary for

improvement• Be considerate in your use of phones/technology• Be clear and clarify acronyms and unfamiliar terms. Ask if you don’t

understand. • Commit to follow through on agreed action• Respect the space and clean up your area before leaving

OutcomesParticipants will:• consolidate understandings about the

comprehension strategy “Making Connections” • consider a logical sequence of instruction

linking NAPLaN & Australian Curriculum • consider pedagogical and assessment

strategies for implementing making connections in the classroom

• be provided with a range of resources and ideas to support their work in sites

How?What?

http://dww.ed.gov/Adolescent-Literacy/topic/index.cfm?T_ID=23

What? How?

What the experts say about reading comprehension strategies

• Comprehension strategies are not ends in themselves; they are means of helping your students understand what they are reading. ~ National Reading Panel

• Great books are central to teaching comprehension. ~ Stephanie Harvey

• Reading is not just about what is going on in the book - it's about what's going on in your head! ~ Adrienne Gear

OverviewOverviewHowHow – Gradual Release of

Responsibility

WhatWhat – Making Connections

WhatWhat + + HowHow

Independent Use of Strategies• Routines are settings where students can apply

the strategies that have “become so ingrained that they can be used successfully on a regular basis.” (McLaughlin, 2003)

• Before students get to this level they must clearly understand the purpose of the routines, why they are taking part in them and exactly how they are to be conducted.

• These routines and their implementation should be fully scaffolded by the teacher.

Nell Duke Gradual Release of Responsibility 03:59

Making Making ConnectionsConnections

Before Before ReadingReading

Before You Start to Read…• You can activate your

background knowledge.• Ask yourself: What do I already

know about this subject?• Think about what you know

about they type of text you’ll be reading.

Make Connections• Realise that your background

knowledge is a storehouse of information with memories, experiences, and facts. It sees a larger picture.

Activate Background Knowledge

....ready to share and report back

Record ONE idea

per post-it note

Activating Background Knowledge

Some ideas….

Making ConnectionsAnticipation Guide• An anticipation guide is a comprehension

strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading, students listen to or read several statements about key concepts presented in the text; they're often structured as a series of statements with which the students can choose to agree or disagree. Anticipation guides stimulate students' interest in a topic and set a purpose for reading.

Graphic Organisers

Mystery Webbing

In this example "planets" has been circled as the topic word, or heading. Blue has been used for connections the writer believes to be true. Red has been used for connections about which the writer is doubtful.

http://schools.hsd.k12.or.us/hilhi/Academics/ContentLiteracy/TeacherSupportGuide/tabid/3242/Default.aspx

Other ideas?

Why?• Builds field• Creates relevance• Pre-assessment• Constructivist• Alerts the brain to make connections

What is the intended

learning & why is it

important?

What do they bring?

What could the

intended learning

look like at this level?

What evidence will enable us to assess the intended learning?

What do I want

them to learn?

How will we know ifthey got

it?

So what will we

doto get there?

Aligning what and how of teaching and learning in the Australian Curriculum

How will we engage,

challenge and support them

in their learning?

Design the teaching and

learning plan.

Teaching Comprehension

• Students do not have to be able to decode to be taught comprehension strategies

• The development of oral language is an essential precursor to reading and writing

• Picture books and pictures can be used to teach comprehension strategies

• Non-fiction books also convey an enormous amount of information through photographs, maps, diagrams etc.

We make connections all the time..

• Connecting the text to our own experience enables us to make sense of it.

• When you deliberately ask yourself “What does this remind me of” you are activating a mental file or schema.

Making Text to Self Connections: Sentence Starters 02:27

Text to Self Connections 01:29

Book Video

Using Anchor Charts to Make Connections 0:51

You Tube Guardian 02:01

You Tube Guardian 02:01

• Cant stand it, i havent trusted pigs since i read Animal Farm.

• It's a good advert, but it's somehow... creepy, and disturbing. It's a mix of that 'horror your left to imagine', mixed with the V for Vendetta style theme of civil unrest, and with such a familiar and seemingly innocent little child's story in the middle of it all.

• that's pretty good should do one for Jack and the Beanstalk too, the dirty, little thief!

• Sorry but doesn't the wolf eat the first 2 pigs in the story?• If this was an ad for the Daily Mail the pigs would have been

benefits cheats living in free houses and the wolf would have been an immigrant yob youth attempting to claim asylum.

• Fantastic. Sounds just like a bit out of Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crimes though, he tried to try the pigs, and present the Wolf as the victim, but none of the courts believed him.

• Talk about a product placement and a half! Didn't know everyone used Apple products these days....and they managed to get the full line in there nearly! It's like subliminal advertising.

Planning for strategy

instruction

Classroom Level

What will it look like modelled to independent?

Modelling a Think Aloud• Choose a high-interest selection/decide on

connections strategies to highlight.• State purpose for reading. • Inform students that you will be thinking aloud

and stopping to make connections as the selection or passage is read aloud.

• Discuss strategy—ask students to identify other situations (connect to text, world, self) in which they could use these same strategies.

Think Aloud: Reporting out

• Make a connection:– “This reminds me of . . .”– “This part is like . . .”– “This character _____ is like _____ because . . .”– “This is similar to . . .” – “I also (name something in the text that has also

happened personally to student).”– “This character makes me think of . . .”– “The setting reminds me of . . .” – “This is helping me with/to think about . . .”

http://dww.ed.gov/Reading-Comprehension/Teach-Comprehension-Strategies/see/index.cfm?T_ID=36&P_ID=97&c1=2447&c2=2207&c3=2205

Practise

Connections• Some connections are more relevant than

others• THINK: What is the purpose / big idea?• MODEL: Useful and less useful connections

My mum’s friend is called Jean.

Jean reminds me of .......... because they acted like a

bully too.

•How does the connection help us understand the text?

Connection to the text So What?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Consider

• How will you model this strategy during a shared demonstration?

• Will you use the same text or a different one?

• What visual supports will you use / create?

“The only way we can confidently assess our students’ comprehension is when they share their thinking with us.” It is important to keep track of students’ thinking about reading and, more importantly, students need to know about their thinking as well so they can work to improve comprehension.

Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis (2000)

Making Connections

• What will it look like / sound like when your students can independently use this strategy?

Develop the criteriaDevelop the criteria• How will you / they gather evidence?

Develop the assessment tasks / processesDevelop the assessment tasks / processes

http://74.84.219.87/

https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/NAR-Comprehension-Network/347996428544253

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/northernadelaide/pages/comp/

http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/northernadelaide/pages/fsm/facilitatorsupport/