The best strategies for improving reading comprehension in

every subject

James Pinnuck

A quick warm up

Reciprocal summarisation• Read through the article in front of you and underline 3-5 bits

of information which you think are important or interesting

• Your task is to turn to your partner and summarise what was in your article. Before you do this, look over the pieces of information you underlined and rehearse your summarisation in your head.

• Summarise your article to your partner / listen to their summarisation

• Identify at least two ways the articles are similar / two ways they are different

Unique about cab article In both articles Unique about dog

article

• Division: Long division / short division

• Apostrophes: Possessive apostrophes / apostrophes of contraction

• Rocks: Sedimentary rocks / conglomerate rocks

• Pyramids: One theory of how the pyramids were built / another theory about how pyramids were built

Reading skills❏ Predicting what a text will be about

❏ Questioning what a text is about

❏ Evaluating/prioritising what is important / not important

❏ Summarising information

❏ Visualising information

❏ Making personal connections with the text

❏ Connecting this text with other texts

❏ Comparing and contrasting information within the text or between texts

❏ Understanding information that is directly stated

❏ Inferring ideas which are suggested

This morning’s program

• Before reading strategies

• During reading strategies

• After reading strategies

Before reading strategies

Before reading strategies

• What does it mean to work out the meaning of words in context?

• Text prediction skills

• Noticing roles

Working out the meaning of words in context

• What does context mean?

• con = with, together

• text = writing

A word on its own

• conquest

• deciphered

A word in contextFor almost 30 centuries—from 3100 B.C when the first Pharaoh ruled all of Egypt to its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.—ancient Egypt was the most outstanding civilization in the Mediterranean world. The main sources of information about ancient Egypt are the many monuments, objects and artefacts that have been recovered from archaeological sites, covered with hieroglyphs that have only recently been deciphered.

Working out words in context

• Identify clue words: words before or after the unknown word (in the same or different sentences) which you definitely know and which provide a clue as to what the unknown word means.

• Replace the unknown word with a word which would make sense in the context. What does this mean the unknown word might mean?

• Use what you already know. Is there part of the word you already know? Do you have a clear picture in your head of the information or situation which a word is referring to?

A word in contextFor almost 30 centuries—from 3100 B.C when the first Pharaoh ruled all of Egypt to its conquest by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C.—ancient Egypt was the most outstanding civilization in the Mediterranean world. The main sources of information about ancient Egypt are the many monuments, objects and artefacts that have been recovered from archaeological sites, covered with hieroglyphs that have only recently been deciphered.

*Which words are clue words?

*What could be a substitute word?

*What knowledge do you have of the situation being described?

Another example

Most Australians who drink alcohol do so at levels that have few adverse effects. However, any level of drinking increases the risk of ill-health and injury.

*Which words are clue words?

*What could be a substitute word?

*What knowledge do you have of the situation being described?

In maths

Now we’ve practised this skill a few times, apply what you’ve practised to this longer piece

What are three things we can definitely tell

about this website or it will definitely

tell us?

What can we probably tell

about this website or

what it will it probably/

possibly tell us?

Scan through/scroll through the webpage looking at

logos, headings and pictures

Predict/Read/Review

Produce

Growth

Plants

Chemical

Energy

Chlorophyll

Converts

Leaves

Sunlight

How much time do students spend reading

in your class?

In maths

https://what-if.xkcd.com

https://mathspig.wordpress.com

http://wonderopolis.org

Science, Maths, English, Technology

http://tweentribune.comfood, technology, maths, science

Google news search

history, geography, science, health

rewordify.com

14/04/2016, 11:20 AMRewordify.com: Understand what you read

Page 1 of 3https://rewordify.com/printsheet.php

Name:

Cloze Activity:

Word Bank:aftermath, ancient, bronze, chronology, civilization, civilizations, coalesced, concentrated, conquered,conventional, foreign powers, globally, instability, invaded, occurred, pinnacle, prehistoric, province,succession of, unification.

Instructions: Write the correct word in the blanks. Use the Word Bank for reference.

_________________ Egypt was a _________________ of _________________

Northeastern Africa, _________________ along the lower reaches of

the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. It is one

of six _________________s _________________ to arise independently.

Egyptian _________________ followed _________________ Egypt and

_________________ around 3150 BC (according to _________________

Egyptian _________________)[1] with the political _________________

of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh Narmer (commonly

referred to as Menes).[2] The history of _________________ Egypt

_________________ in a series of stable Kingdoms, separated by

14/04/2016, 11:21 AMRewordify.com: Understand what you read

Page 1 of 1https://rewordify.com/printsheet.php

Name:

Matching: For each difficult word or phrase, write the number of the matching definition.

Difficult word or phrase Definition

_____conventional 1: very old

_____occurred 2: city/people

_____globally 3: (focused one's effort/increased/mainly studied)

_____province 4: cities/people

_____bronze 5: around the world

_____chronology 6: (happening before the time when humans wrote down history)

_____pinnacle 7: came together

_____instability 8: ordinary

_____foreign powers 9: history

_____prehistoric 10: bringing-together-as-one

_____civilizations 11: happened

_____aftermath 12: (quality that shows weakness because important things aren't steady or strong)

_____civilization 13: (brown metal that's copper and tin)

_____ancient 14: peak

_____succession of 15: (suddenly entered a place in an unwanted way)

_____coalesced 16: won (by force)

_____conquered 17: series of

_____unification 18: other countries

_____invaded 19: bad after-effects

_____concentrated 20: area of control/area of land

choosito.com

Reading instruction vs. Assessment

Instruction Assessment

*Students are given instruction about a reading strategy, participate in guided practice before to applying a strategy independently to some text.

*Students think about and discuss a range of ways a reading strategy can be applied to a text.

*Students read through some text and then answer questions. This tests their current reading skills.

*Students are given a reading task which has one correct solution.

During reading strategies

During reading strategies

• Annotation schemes

• Types of prior knowledge

All living organisms on Earth are divided into cells. The main concept of cell theory is that cells are the basic structural unit for all organisms. Cells are small compartments that hold the biological equipment necessary to keep an organism alive and successful. Living things may be single-celled or they may be very complex such as a human being.

FactCells are…

InferenceBecause cells are…

this also (could) mean…

• This tells us the fact…

• This also probably means that…

This tells me the fact that…

This also probably means that…./Because of this I can also work out that probably…

Carbohydrate is an important nutrient found in many foods. Carbohydrate containing foods include breads, breakfast cereal, rice, pasta, noodles, fruit, potato and starchy vegetables, corn, dried beans and lentils, sugar, milk and yoghurt.

Carbohydrate is an important source of energy for the body. Many carbohydrate-containing foods are high in dietary fibre and are healthy food choices. Try to eat carbohydrate-containing foods in every meal to provide the body with energy throughout the day.

The rate at which carbohydrate-containing foods are digested varies greatly. Carbohydrate containing foods that are digested slowly and therefore provide a longer lasting release of energy are those with a low glycaemic index or GI.A great deal of misleading information exists about carbohydrate. Many fad diets suggest carbohydrate-containing foods be eliminated in order to lose weight. This is far from the truth.

• What is the main message of this piece of information?

• A) Carbs are in every food

• B) Carbs should be in our diet

• C) Carbs taste delicious

It’s normal to question a text

Questions: So why, how, what? Does this mean…?

Possible answers

CARBOHYDRATE IS AN IMPORTANT NUTRIENT FOUND IN MANY FOODS. CARBOHYDRATE CONTAINING FOODS INCLUDE BREADS, BREAKFAST CEREAL, RICE, PASTA, NOODLES, FRUIT, POTATO AND STARCHY VEGETABLES, CORN, DRIED BEANS AND LENTILS, SUGAR, MILK AND YOGHURT. Carbohydrate is an important source of energy for the body. Many carbohydrate-containing foods are high in dietary fibre and are healthy food choices. Try to eat carbohydrate-containing foods in every meal to provide the body with energy throughout the day. The rate at which carbohydrate-containing foods are digested varies greatly. Carbohydrate containing foods that are digested slowly and therefore provide a longer lasting release of energy are those with a low glycaemic index or GI.A great deal of misleading information exists about carbohydrate. Many fad diets suggest carbohydrate-containing foods be eliminated in order to lose weight. This is far from the truth.

Is Google making us stupid?

It says / I say

Surprising / not surprising

How does new information connect with what we already know?

Types of prior knowledgeGeneral

topic prior knowledge

What do you know about religion in general? What do you know about any ancient religion?

Specific topic prior knowledge

What do you know about Ancient Egyptian religion?

TopicAncient Egypt

religion

K W L

What do I know? What do I want to know? What have I learnt?

After reading strategies

Discussion prompts

1. The interesting/strange/curious thing for me is...

2. The simple fact is that...

3. As I read this I thought...

4. Like you I also think... 5. For me the question really is....

6. I see what you’re saying, but don’t you think...?

7. I’m interested in what you just said. Do you think...?

8. I don’t believe/think that...What I do think is that...

9. Don’t you think it’s true that...?

10. To be honest... 11. What you said reminded me/made me just think...

12. Perhaps the thing that was most...about this story/topic/information was...

After reading strategies• Picture recounts

• Visually representing information

• Before, now, after, because, like and unlike

• Summarisation

• Word grids

• Statement response

Must make the reader actively revisit the text

Picture recount

Summarisation

• Divide text into three sections

• Summarise each section with two sentences

• Reduce your six sentences to three sentences

Summarisation wordsStart a sentence Insert into a

sentence Add onto a sentence

When As

Along with

While Despite

Although

Since Because

Which Who That

By which, in which, through which

Because of which

and along with

because since

such as, including

to, for, in, from, by, with, of, through

leading to, resulting in, showing (‘-ing’ words)

process transform energy

captures Photosynthesis requirement

colour glucose sunlight

although

while

despite

such as

An example of

when

You can’t do all of these

Before During After

*Words in context *Definitely/possibly preview *Word sort prediction *Rewordify Choosito

*Fact/inference *Question/answers *It says/I say *Surprising / not surprising

*Discussion prompts *Summarisation *Flow charts *Picture recount *Word grids *Reciprocal summarisation

*Maths Pig *Smithsonian Tween Tribune *Wonderopolis *Google news search

Thank you