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Reading Comprehensionin a Nutshell

Sara Humphreys & Gail Neff

VANAS, Caracas 2010

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About Us

Sara enjoys finding out how to unlock reading strategies for her grade 4 students.

Gail is constantly on a search to help her grade 2 students naturally do what good readers do.

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Importance of Strategic Reading

“If you read and comprehend what you read, it stays in your brain. But if you read and don’t comprehend what you read, it will just go in one side of your brain and SWOOSH real fast right out the other side.”

Jake Scheffler, Grade 7

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Why Use Strategies?

• To set a purpose • To see how others connect • To understand characters • To have a clearer picture • To be actively involved (keep from being bored) • To better remember what we read• To answer the questions we have• To extend our existing knowledge• To understand complex concepts

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The Reader’s Importance

“Readers usually grossly underestimate their own importance. If a reader cannot create a book along with the writer, the book will never come alive…the author and reader know each other. They meet in the bridge of words.”

Madeleine L’Engle

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Our BIG SIX

1. Making Connections

2. Visualizing

3. Predicting & Inferring

4. Questioning

5. Monitoring & Clarifying

6. Synthesizing

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Making Connections

Schema is the background knowledge and experience readers connect with the text.

Good readers access their schema naturally making connections as they read.

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Three in

One

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How To Teach Connections

• Model how to make meaningful connections that help you understand the text better.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.• Challenge students to analyze how

their connections contribute to their understanding.

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Readers’ Toolsfor Connections

Providing our young readers with bookmarks helps to remind them of the strategy they are practicing.

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Readers’ Toolsfor Connections

Double Entry Journal

Ideas from My Book My Connections

T-S

T-T

T-W

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Readers’ Toolsfor Connections

The Connection Pie

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Readers’ Toolsfor Connections

A “Connection Pie” by a 2nd grade student

Rotten Ralph’s Rotten Christmas

Ramona Quimby

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Readers’ Toolsfor Connections

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3 Point Interview

Making Connections/Using Schema1. When you read that story did it remind you of anything you know about? What? Why did it remind you?2. Are there things you know about or things in your life that help you to understand this book?3. What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before?

Adaptation of Major Point Interview found in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

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Assessing Connections

1 2 3 4-5Makes no connections between text and background knowledge.

Makes simple connections, but cannot explain them, or the connections are irrelevant to the text.

Relates background knowledge/experience to text and expands interpretations by using schema.

Explains how schema enriches interpretation of text and makes connections beyond life experience.

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Visualizing

Visualizing is the creation of a vivid mental picture in the mind.

Good readers picture what is happening while they are reading.

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Visualizing

“Sketch

and

Stretch”

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How To Teach Visualizing

• Model how to make meaningfulmental images that help youunderstand the text better.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.• Challenge students to analyze

how their visualizations contribute to their understanding.

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Readers’ Toolsfor Visualizing

Providing our young readers with bookmarks helps to remind them of the strategy they are practicing.

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Readers’ Toolsfor Visualizing

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Readers’ Toolsfor Visualizing

Ralph Fletcher

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3 Point Interview

Visualizing1. When you were reading this story did you

make any pictures or images in your head?

2. Do the pictures or images help you to understand the story better?

3. What do you understand now about the story that you didn’t understand before?

Adaptation of Major Point Interview found in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

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Assessing Visualizing

1 2 3 4-5

Cannot describe sensory images.

Describes some visual or other sensory images; may be tied directly to text or description of the picture in the text.

Describes own mental images, usually visual; images are somewhat elaborated from the literal text or existing picture.

Creates and describes multi-sensory images that extend and enrich the text, and can explain how those images enhance comprehension.

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Predicting and Inferring

• Inferring is making personal meaning from text that is not stated explicitly.

• It is a mental combining of a reader’s schema and what is read.

• Predicting is using what you know to make a good guess about what will happen next.

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Predicting and Inferring

Good readersthink aboutwhat’s going tohappen andmake predictionsbased on whatthey read.

Good readers revise their inferences as they read more, and when they hear other interpretations.

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Predicting and

Inferring

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How to Teach Predicting and Inferring

• Model how to make meaningful predictions and inferences that help you understand the text better.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.• Challenge students to analyze how

their predictions and inferences contribute to their understanding.

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Readers’ Tools forPredicting and Inferring

Providing our young readers with bookmarks helps to remind them of the strategy they are practicing.

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Readers’ Tools forPredicting and Inferring

An “I bet…” journal entry from a 2nd grader.

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Readers’ Tools forPredicting and Inferring

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Readers’ Tools forPredicting and Inferring

When good readers come to words that are unfamiliar,they search for context clues and make a good guess.

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Readers’ Tools forPredicting and Inferring

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3 Point Interview

Making Predictions and Inferences1. Can you predict what is about to happen? Why did you make that prediction? What helped you in the story figure that out?2. What did the author mean by………? What in the story helped you know?3. What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before?

Adaptation of Major Point Interview found in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

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Assessing Predicting and Inferring

1 2 3 4-5Attempts to make predictions or draw conclusions w/o using text or misinterprets text.

Draws conclusions or makes predictions that are inconsistent with the text.

Draws conclusions and/or makes predictions and can explain how from the text.

Develops predictions, interpretations, and conclusions about the text that include connections.

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Questioning

Asking questions helps students clarify and deepen understanding of the text.

Good readers ask themselves questions as they read.

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Questioning

Thick (Inferential)

vs.

Thin (Factual)

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How to Teach Questioning

• Model how to ask meaningful questions that help you understand the text better.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.• Challenge students to

analyze how their questions contribute to their understanding.

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Readers’ Tools for Questioning

Providing our

young readers

with bookmarks

helps to remind

them of the

strategy they

are practicing.

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Readers’ Tools for Questioning

Source: readinglady.com

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Readers’ Tools for Questioning

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Readers’ Tools for Questioning

.

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Readers’ Tools for Questioning

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3 Point Interview

Asking Questions1. What did you wonder about while you were

reading this text?2. What additional questions do you have about

this book now? What are you still curious about?

3. What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before?

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Assessing Questioning

1 2 3 4-5Asks only literal questions.

Asks questions only to clarify meaning.

Asks questions to deepen the meaning of the text; may explain how the questions enhance comprehension.

Uses questions to challenge the text (author’s purpose, theme, or point of view).

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Monitor and Clarify

• Become aware of their thinking as they read.

• Detect obstacles and confusions that derail understanding.

• Understand how strategies can help repair meaning when it breaks down.

Readers need explicit instruction to:

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Monitor and Clarify

Good readers STOP to think about their reading and know what to do when they don’t understand.

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How to TeachMonitor and Clarify

• Model how to STOP and think aloud by paraphrasing the text.

• Model choosing “Fix-up” strategies to clarify misunderstanding.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.• Challenge students to analyze how their

paraphrasing and “fixing” contributes to their understanding.

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Fix-up Strategies

• Notice when you no longer understand.• Stop and go back to clarify.• Reread to enhance understanding.• Read ahead to clarify meaning.• Identify what is confusing.• Talk with someone else.• Ask questions.• Read aloud slowly.

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Readers’ Tools for Monitoring and Clarifying

Providing our young readers with bookmarks helps to remind them of the strategy they are practicing.

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Readers’ Tools for Monitoring and Clarifying

Paraphrasing as I read…

Or “Leaving Tracks” as you read to help you pay attention to what you read.

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Readers’ Tools for Monitoring and Clarifying

Buddy Reading

EEKKElbow, ElbowKnee, Knee“You read.I paraphrase.Let’s switch.”

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Readers’ Tools for Monitoring and Clarifying

While I was reading…..

I used the Fix-up Strategy….

Fix-up Strategies T-Chart

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Readers’ Tools for Monitoring and Clarifying

Insert

Tools

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3 Point Interview

Monitoring and Clarifying1. Did you have any problems while you were reading this story? What could you do to solve your problem?2. When you are reading other stories what kinds of problems do you have? What are other ways you solve those problems?3. What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before?

Adaptation of Major Point Interview found in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

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Monitoring and Clarifying

1 2 3 4-5Little or no conscious awareness of reading process.

Identifies difficulties, comprehension breakdown is often at word level, little sense of need to solve a problem.

Identifies problems and can use a strategy to fix a comprehension breakdown at the sentence level.

Uses more than one strategy to build meaning when comprehension breaks down; articulates which strategies are best.

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Synthesizing

Synthesizing is the combining of separate pieces of knowledge into a single idea or understanding.

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Synthesizing

Good readers constantly modify their understanding by:• discarding information• adding new ideas• creating new interpretations.

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How to TeachSynthesizing

• Model how to analyze and discard unimportant information.

• Provide plenty of guided practice.

• Challenge students to analyze how their synthesizing contributes to their understanding.

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Readers’ Tools for Synthesizing

Providing our young readers with bookmarks helps to remind them of the strategy they are practicing.

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Readers’ Tools for Synthesizing

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Readers’ Tools for Synthesizing

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3 Point Interview

Synthesizing1. Are there some parts of this story that are

more important than others? Why do you think they are the most important?

2. If you were to tell another person about the story you just read, and you could only use a few sentences, what would you tell them?

3. What do you understand now that you didn’t understand before?

Adaptation of Major Point Interview found in Mosaic of Thought (Keene & Zimmerman, 1997).

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Synthesizing

1 2 3 4-5Stops occasionally or at the end of the text and identifies some text elements.

Stops periodically to identify text events and may incorporate schema into interpretation.

Stops frequently to reflect on text meaning; uses own schema and story elements to enhance meaning; may identify key themes.

Stops frequently to reflect on text meaning; relates to the story or genre in a personal way; can identify key themes; may articulate how this process has created new meaning.

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Resources Consulted• Harvey, Stephanie, & Goudvis, Anne (2000).

Strategies That Work. Stenhouse.

• Keene, E. O., & Zimmerman, S. (1997). Mosaic of Thought. Heinemann.

• Fountas, Irene C., & Pinnell, Gay Su. (2001). Guiding Readers and Writers- Grades 3-6. Heinemann.

• Miller, Debbie. (2002). Reading With Meaning. Stenhouse Publishers.

• Kump, Laura. (2010). The Reading Lady. Available: http://www.readinglady.com

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Appendix

Some more

helpful stuff

for you to use in your

Readers’ Workshop!

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Connections Bookmarks

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Thinking Personally

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Text to Self Connections10 Books That Work

• The Art Lesson, de Paolo• Koala Lou, Fox• Wemberly Worried, Henkes• I Hate English, Levine• Frog and Toad, Lobel• My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother, Polacco• The Relatives Came, Rylant• Ira Sleeps Over, Waber• Hazel’s Amazing Mother, Wells• William’s Doll, Zolotow

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Thinking of Other Books

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Text to Text Connections10 Books that Work

• Oliver Button is a Sissy, de Paolo• William’s Doll, Zolotow

• My Rotten Red-Headed Older Brother, Polacco• The Pain and the Great One, Blume

• Julius, the Baby of the World, Henkes• Owen, Henkes

• The Surprise Wednesday, Bunting• Thank you, Mr. Falkner, Polacco

• Now One Foot, Now Another, dePaolo• The Two of Them, Aliki

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Thinking Beyond

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Text to World Connections10 Books that Work

• The Secret Place, Bunting (any Bunting!)• The Great Kapok Tree, Cherry• Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, Fox• A Basket of Bangles: How a Business Grows, Howard • Three Brave Women, Martin• Planting the Trees of Kenya, Nivola • Night in the Country, Rylant• Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory, Rey• The Butter Battle, Seuss• One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference,

Milway

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Visualizing Bookmarks

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Visualizing10 Books that Work

• Many Luscious Lollipops, Heller

• Miss Rumphius, Cooney

• I’m in Charge of Celebrations, Baylor

• Twilight Comes Twice, Fletcher

• Two Bad Ants, Van Allsburg (any Van Allsburg!)

• Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak

• The Monster Who Ate My Peas, Schnitzlein

• Fireflies, Brinkloe

• Smoky Night, Bunting

• Heat Wave, Ketteman

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Predict and Infer Bookmarks

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Predicting and Inferring10 Books that Work

• How Many Days to America, Bunting• Stellaluna, Cannon• Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type, Cronin• Possom Magic, Fox• George and Martha, Marshall• The Paper Bag Princess, Munsch• The Royal Bee, Park• Miss Maggie, Rylant• Big Bushy Mustache, Soto• If You Listen, Zolotow

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Questioning Bookmarks

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Questioning10 Books that Work

• Pink and Say, Polacco• Brave Irene, Steig• Nettie’s Trip South, Turner• The Stranger, Van Allsburg• The Wise Woman and Her Secret, Merriam• Guess What?, Fox• The Lotus Seed, Garland• Monarch Butterfly, Gibbons• Library Lil, Williams• Verdi, Cannon

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Monitor and Clarify Bookmarks

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Monitoring and Clarifying10 Books that Work

• Grandfather Twilight, Berger• Magic School Bus (any of them), Cole• The Lotus Seed, Garland • The Trip, Keats (any Keats)• The Day of Ahmed’s Secret, Parry Keide• Tikki Tikki Tembo, Mosel• The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, Scieszka• The Stranger, Van Allsburg• Alexander Who Used to Be Rich…, Viorst • Galimoto, Williams

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Synthesizing Bookmarks

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Synthesizing10 Books that Work

• Fly Away Home, Bunting

• Grandfather’s Journey, Say

• Missing May, Rylant

• Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, Fox

• Oliver Button is a Sissy, de Paola

• The Quiltmaker’s Gift, Brumbeau

• She’s Wearing a Dead Bird on Her Head, Lasky

• Charlie Anderson, Abercrombie

• The Rag Coat, Mills

• The Three Little Wolves and the Big, Bad Pig, Trivias

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