Reading Comprehension and Science Texts

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Reading Comprehension and

Science TextsJean F. Andrews, Ph.D.Supported by NSF Grant

#043567: Project ACE

Sept. 17, 2004

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

[email protected]


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Yesterdays Topics ASL/English bilingual strategies

used in reading lessons Fingerspelling Translation

Codeswitching (using signs andfingerpelling) Chaining (Padden, 1998) Sandwiching (Padden, 1998)

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


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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


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Benefits of fingerspelling andsigning 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 childrens literacy . Westport, CT:Bergin & Harvey.


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Todays Topics

1. Reading Levels for deaf students2. Why are reading science texts so difficult

for deaf students: Some factors3. Are deaf readers like other English L2

reading learners?

4. Reading comprehension strategies forscience texts5. Writing strategies


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What is reading?

Getting meaning from text

Types of reading Silent reading Oral reading Signed reading

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


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

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

30% of deaf students leave school functionallyilliterate reading at 2.8 or below.

Only 10% of deaf 18 year older students reach10th grade or better.

While in school, the average deaf child gainsonly eight months in reading achievement fromage 11 to age 16, and plateau or level off atgrade 4.

Gains are about .3 grade levels per yearcompared to hearing children who progress onegrade level
http://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacyhttp://gri.gallaudet.edu/Literacy


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Reading levels and ELL students

Edcouch, Texas teachers What are the reading levels of your

students Compare with deaf students


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Why is written language in science textsso 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 meaningis lost in science text Many science terms do not have ASL signs DO NOT invent science signs! Ask a deaf

person for help.


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Reading Problems of DeafReaders..have been well

documented Vocabulary (Paul) Multiple meaning words (Paul)

Syntactic structures (Quigley) Inference (Wilson) Higher comprehension skills (Kelly)

Comprehending variety of texts (Schirmer)


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Why is reading science textbooksso difficult?

3 Considerations

1. Linguistic2. Cognitive3. Textual


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Linguistic considerations

English has a massive vocabulary (500,000 to600,000 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 oldhearing child and will not improve significantly Even when fingerspelled, deaf person may

not get the meaning of the words


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Linguistic considerations (cont)

Idioms (on edge, over the top, out of the box, belowthe radar screen) double verbs and verb particles (puta 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.


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Cognitive considerations

1. Lack of science background knowledge andinformation

2. Lack science incidental learning (e.g.

discussions about weather3. Inability of adults to communicate and teach

children about science

4. Being an outsider to information


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Textual considerations

1. Science texts have specific kinds ofstructures

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

h. The science term paper


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How are deaf readers like other EnglishL2 reading learners?

1. struggle to learn to read English thelanguage of the majority culture with its

vast science vocabulary and complexgrammar of textbooks

2. must learn social English (conversational

English) as well as academic English toread their science textbooks.


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How are deaf readers UNLIKE hearing English L2 readers

deaf readers are seldom fluent in a firstlanguage (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 ofbackground knowledge in their L1 to use


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ELL: Deaf and hearing

conversational English languageexposure to hearing L2 English learnersis greater (due to overhearing

conversations, radio, TV, sport eventsetc.) deaf students use conversational English

in different ways (e.g. email, TTY, notewriting) and this involves essentiallyreading and writing.


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ELL: Deaf and hearing

deaf students must learn English throughtwo modes: reading and writing whilehearing English L2 readers can use their

spoken English knowledge to assist withdeveloping reading. it takes 3 to 5 years for a hearing bilingual

to learn conversational English and 5 to 10years to master academic English inreading and writing.


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ELL: deaf and hearing

many deaf readers never obtainconversational or academic levels ofEnglish as hearing English L2 learnersdo.


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Reading comp (cont.)

Demonstrate how a text is constructed Challenging science reading materials

Teacher shows strategies


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Instructional strategies BEFOREreading science texts

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


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Instructional strategies DURINGreading science texts

Have a positive attitude and interest in sciencereading

Determine which information is important Self-questioning Summarizing Inferring Predicting

Imaging Skimming Decoding unfamilar words Deriving meaning from context clues

Using prior knowledge


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Research with deaf high schoolstudents

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 hearingteachers only)

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


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Punctuation: Importance in readingand writing

Comma, period, question mark,exclamation mark, underlining, italicizedprint.

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.


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Writing in the science classroom

Drawing to get ideas down Dialogue journals about science topics

(written conversations between teacherand students)

Talk-write (sign-write) students can talkabout science prior to writing it down.

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


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Writing with ELL students

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


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Deaf writing: language transferand language mixing

I not know much about Earth. Ihave no feel about Earth, but I

finish learn about Earthcolorsmany different. Earth need nicely.Earth not need mess.


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Activity

Using the class handouts, demonstrateseveral reading comprehension strategiesthat you can use in the science textreading lesson: BEFORE DURING

AFTER

Reading Comprehension and Science Texts

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