Reading Comprehension and Science Texts

Jean F. Andrews, Ph.D.Supported by NSF Grant

#043567: Project ACE

Sept. 17, 2004

To contact author for permission to use this PowerPoint, please e-mail

jandrews47@aol.com

Yesterday’s TopicsASL/English bilingual strategies

used in reading lessons• Fingerspelling• Translation• Codeswitching (using signs and

fingerpelling)– Chaining (Padden, 1998) – Sandwiching (Padden, 1998)

• Preview in L1, view in L2, review in L1• Translanguaging• ASL summary

Benefits of fingerspelling

• Matches fingerspelling with orthographic print• Assists in learning spelling• Not sounding out, but helps with memory• Expands vocabulary for words no sign exists• Proper nouns, places, science words, etc.• Deaf children as young as 3 begin to fingerspell• First fingerspell as “gestault hole” but later use it

for word analyses.• Deaf teachers use it more than hearing teachers• Should be used often in literacy classroom to

build vocabulary

Benefits of fingerspelling and signing for ELL students

• Multisensory• Helps hearing children with spelling• Its fun to do!• Can learn it quickly• Matching print with 26 handshapes• Learn basic signs

Daniels, M. (2001). Dancing with words: Signing for hearing children’s literacy. Westport, CT: Bergin & Harvey.

Today’s Topics

1. Reading Levels for deaf students

2. Why are reading science texts so difficult for deaf students: Some factors

3. Are deaf readers like other English L2 reading learners?

4. Reading comprehension strategies for science texts

5. Writing strategies

What is reading?

• Getting meaning from text

• Types of reading– Silent reading– Oral reading– Signed reading

A complex set of behaviors including linguistic, psycholinguistic, graphic, social, and pragmatic skills

Reading facts: Deaf students(http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacy

• For prelingually deaf/hh, the median reading level for 17 and 18 year olders is grade four.

• 30% of deaf students leave school functionally illiterate reading at 2.8 or below.

• Only 10% of deaf 18 year older students reach 10th grade or better.

• While in school, the average deaf child gains only eight months in reading achievement from age 11 to age 16, and plateau or “level off” at grade 4.

• Gains are about .3 grade levels per year compared to hearing children who progress one grade level

Reading levels and ELL students

• Edcouch, Texas teachers

• What are the reading levels of your students

• Compare with deaf students

Why is written language in science texts

so difficult for deaf students to decifer?:

• Reading levels of science texts• Lack of knowledge of science concepts• Lack of science literacy• Act of reading is based on familiarity with spoken

language• Signed word for word does not work as meaning

is lost in science text• Many science terms do not have ASL signs• DO NOT invent science signs! Ask a deaf

person for help.

Reading Problems of Deaf Readers..have been well

documented• Vocabulary (Paul)

• Multiple meaning words (Paul)

• Syntactic structures (Quigley)

• Inference (Wilson)

• Higher comprehension skills (Kelly)

• Comprehending variety of texts (Schirmer)

Why is reading science textbooks so difficult?

3 Considerations

1. Linguistic

2. Cognitive

3. Textual

Linguistic considerations

– English has a massive vocabulary (500,000 to 600,000 words)

– Take a word like “angry”….can take on different meanings in words as furious, enraged, annoyed, miffed, ticked-off, irritated, seeing red

– English vocabulary of average 15 year old deaf student is about the size of a 9 year old hearing child and will not improve significantly

– Even when fingerspelled, deaf person may not get the meaning of the words

Linguistic considerations (con’t)

– Idioms (on edge, over the top, out of the box, below the radar screen) double verbs and verb particles (put a show on, get up on)

– Concept of time (at least a month, six months ago, what happened next)

– Syntax (grammar) is complex– Deaf readers impose a subject-verb-object order on

all sentence– Hypotheticals using subjunctive “if”…– The word “have”….I have a dog, I have been

playing….show different meanings.

Cognitive considerations

1. Lack of science background knowledge and information

2. Lack science incidental learning (e.g. discussions about weather

3. Inability of adults to communicate and teach children about science

4. Being an “outsider” to information

Textual considerations

1. Science texts have specific kinds of structures

a. The textbookb. Science magazinec. Science captioned moviesd. Fiction books with science themese. Non-fiction trade booksf. Professional journalsg. The science fair projecth. The science term paper

How are deaf readers like other English

L2 reading learners?

1. struggle to learn to read English the language of the majority culture with its vast science vocabulary and complex grammar of textbooks

2. must learn social English (conversational English) as well as academic English to read their science textbooks.

How are deaf readers UNLIKE hearing English L2 readers

• deaf readers are seldom fluent in a first language (ASL)

• ASL and English are fundamentally different structurally

• quality and quantity of exposure to English for deaf is less than hearing English L2 learner

• hearing L2 English learners have a fund of background knowledge in their L1 to use

ELL: Deaf and hearing

• conversational English language exposure to hearing L2 English learners is greater (due to overhearing conversations, radio, TV, sport events etc.)

• deaf students use conversational English in different ways (e.g. email, TTY, note writing) and this involves essentially reading and writing.

ELL: Deaf and hearing

• deaf students must learn English through two modes: reading and writing while hearing English L2 readers can use their spoken English knowledge to assist with developing reading.

• it takes 3 to 5 years for a hearing bilingual to learn conversational English and 5 to 10 years to master academic English in reading and writing.

ELL: deaf and hearing

• many deaf readers never obtain conversational or academic levels of English as hearing English L2 learners do.

Reading comprehension strategies for ELLs• Use L1 to build background knowledge in science• Relate prior experience with science to print• Use of read alouds of science texts in L1 • Rich discussions of ideas about science• Explicit instruction through guided reading

lessonsUse of L2 socially• Involve community (Hispanic, Deaf)• Importance of decoding, phonemic awareness,

phonological awareness for hearing ELL• Importance of bridging strategies (codeswitching,

translation) for hearing and deaf ELLs

Reading comp (cont.)

• Use of L2 socially• Involve community (Hispanic, Deaf)• Importance of decoding, phonemic

awareness, phonological awareness for hearing ELL

• Importance of bridging strategies (codeswitching, translation) for hearing and deaf ELLs

Reading comp (cont.)

• Demonstrate how a text is constructed

• Challenging science reading materials

• Teacher shows strategies

Instructional strategies BEFORE reading science texts

• Motivating• Activating prior knowledge• Building specific text structure• Preteaching some vocabulary• Prequestioning• Predicting• Set a purpose for reading science• Suggest comprehension strategies

Instructional strategies DURING reading science texts

• Have a positive attitude and interest in science reading

• Determine which information is important• Self-questioning• Summarizing• Inferring• Predicting• Imaging• Skimming• Decoding unfamilar words• Deriving meaning from context clues• Using prior knowledge

Research with deaf high school students

– Study using cloze procedure– Asked high school students how they read

• Use background knowledge• Reread text• Lookback in text• Lookahead in text• use context clues• Ask an expert• Use the title of the passage (used by hearing

teachers only)

Source: Andrews, J. & Mason, J. (1993). Strategy Usage Among Deaf and Hearing Readers. Exceptional Children

Punctuation: Importance in reading and writing

• Comma, period, question mark, exclamation mark, underlining, italicized print.

• Regulates the “traffic” of words in reading• Important for reading fluency • Important in comprehending whole

science text passage• Many deaf ELLs skip over punctuation

when reading aloud.

Writing in the science classroom

• Drawing to get ideas down• Dialogue journals about science topics

(written conversations between teacher and students)

• Talk-write (sign-write) students can talk about science prior to writing it down.

• Writing process steps (brainstorming, outline, draft, edit, peer review, presentation)

Writing with ELL students

• Writing process steps (brainstorming, outline, draft, edit, peer review, presentation)

Deaf writing: language transfer and language mixing

I not know much about Earth. I have no feel about Earth, but I finish learn about Earth…colors many different. Earth need nicely. Earth not need mess.

Dr. Harry Lang work in science education (K-12)

• Books about deaf scientistsLang, H. & Meath-Lang, B. (1995) Deaf persons in

the arts and sciences. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press

• comets@ritvax.isc.rit.edu • http://www.rit.edu/%7Ecomets/pages/feature

spages/newsletters/comets12.html

Activity

• Using the class handouts, demonstrate several reading comprehension strategies that you can use in the science text reading lesson:– BEFORE– DURING– AFTER