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The Second Level Support Service is funded by the Department of Education and Science under the National Development Plan

Literacy Link and Core team

Link Teacher

Core team

Whole staff

Support from management is vital

for this model to work

Looking at Literacy

SpeakingListeningReading WritingDigital Critical Thinking

ReadingEducation and reading are circular – the more one has of one, the better the development of

the other

Fluency Vocabulary Knowledge

Text Comprehension

Some ideas to support reading fluency in your class

Create a safe reading environment

Create opportunities for students to read aloud in a way they will be comfortable- pairs/ small groups

Allow students time to practice if you are asking them to read aloud

Teacher models good reading

No round robin

Why is it important to spend time on Vocabulary?

Vocabulary knowledge is important to reading because the oral and written use of words promotes comprehension and communication.

However, according to Swanborn and de Glopper (1999) the probability that students will learn new words while reading is relatively low – about 15%.

Content areas teachers should engage in vocabulary instruction strategies to enhance students' vocabulary knowledge and aid comprehension

Text Comprehension

It is constructing meaning from text; being able to understand and interpret what is read.

It is a process that is intentional and thoughtful.

It occurs before, during and after a person reads a piece of writing.

It can be supported by direct and explicit teaching of comprehension strategies.

What is Comprehension?

I do, you watch

I do, you help

You do, I help

Regardless of the strategy being taught, the process of explicit instruction remains the same.

You do, I watch

Explicit Instruction Model

Vocabulary Vignettes

"Most individuals would agree that no single method, material or strategy will consistently guarantee that students will improve their word knowledge. Therefore, it seems advantageous for teachers to select a variety of approaches."

Brozo and Simpson, 2003

Individual work: read the vocabulary vignette and complete the graphic organiser as you read. Group work: share your findings with your group

Fill in your agreed findings on the flip chart.Each member of your group will be assigned a role.

Activity

Maths Vignette: Mr. Patten

Acknowledge the meaning of the word in other contexts. Then highlight that the word has a specific meaning in your subject.

Actively demonstrate the concept where possible

Provide opportunities for multiple exposures to new terms

History Vignette: Mrs. Rice

Activate prior knowledge

Generate interest prior to reading

Group work- gives students the opportunity for multiple exposures to vocabulary

Group work- gives students the opportunity to really interrogate the meaning of vocabulary

Science: Mr. Stack and Ms. Long

Identify which are the important words to teach and spend time on those

Use a variety of methods

Actively demonstrate concepts where possible

Provide opportunities for multiple exposures (spoken, print and in writing)

Provide students with opportunities to work out meanings of words independently

Use explicit model of instruction

Highlight all the features/ different definitions

Use a student dictionary

Get students to actively engage with and use the words (move beyond the definitional meaning)

Home Economics: Ms. O' Connor

Construction: Mrs. Mc Keon

Equip students with the skill to work out the meanings of words independently

Use context clues

Break the words down in to their meaningful parts

Use the explicit model of instruction

Three Goals of Vocabulary Instruction:

1. Provide students with skills/opportunities to learn words independently

2. Teach students the meanings of specific words

3. Nurture a love and appreciation of words and their use

"Kindling students' interest and engagement with words is a vital part of helping all students, but especially less advantaged students, to develop rich and powerful vocabularies”

(Graves, 2006, p. 120)

Approaches to deepening understanding of specific meanings

Semantic Map

Peer teaching of semantic map

Active demonstration of meaning/concept

Matching words

Finding a synonym or antonym

Approaches to promote independent word learning

Use of Context Clues

Morphemic Analysis

Use of Dictionaries

Glossaries

Use of 'Fix-Up' strategies

I do, you watch

I do, you help

You do, I help

You do, I watch

Explicit Instruction Model

If we want students to use the strategies INDEPENDENTLY then we should teach the use of the strategy using the EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION MODEL.

Rationale: Students who understand wordsat the morphemic level are better prepared to deal with the increased reading andwriting demands across the curriculum and content areas (www.adlit.org)

Extract from Mrs. McKeon's Construction Vignette

Rooting out the Meaning

The most remarkable feature of this multipartite development, the titanic signature building in Belfast, is the unusual design that represents the bow of a boat.

“The most remarkable feature of this multipartite development, the Titanic signature building in Belfast, is the unusual design that represents the bow of the boat,"First Mrs. McKeon considered its place in the sentence and context – “the word comes before development therefore must describe the building.”She then broke the word in to its different parts. She modelled her thought process aloud for the students. “Multi is a prefix which I’ve seen in another context, multi -purpose, meaning many purposes. The root word is part. I know what this means. So now I can guess the word means many parts. I wonder what the suffix ‘ite’ means. I will check my list. The list tell me that ‘ite ‘ as a suffix turns a word into an adjective. It adds nothing to the meaning. Putting all my learning together I now know that a multipartite development means a development that has many parts”

Morphemic Analysis is a strategy in which the meanings of words could be worked out by examining

their meaningful parts (morphemes).

A morpheme is the smallest unit of a language that expresses meaning or serves grammatical function

Words that consist of more than one morpheme usually consist of a root word and either a prefix or a suffix or both.

UN -PrefixA morpheme addedat the start of a word

Only 20 prefixes account for 97 percent of prefixed words that appear in printed school English (Graves, 2004; Stahl, 1999).

FAIRRootCore of the word, Carries the majorComponent of the meaning

- NESSSuffixA morpheme added at the end of a word

Looking at Science...

Greek and Latin Words

Morpheme Meaning Found InAdipo Fat Adipose TissueAn Without AnaerobicAnte In front AnteriorAnti Against Antibody

We cannot expect subject teachers to teach morphemic structures but they could introduce the morpheme patterns that are related to the content vocabulary that they will need to teach in their class.

Important Note

1. English teachers could agree to build on work from primary school teaching word parts.

2. Teachers from other subjects could agree to:*Teach the key morphemic patterns that occur most frequently in the subject* Explicitly model the process of morphemic analysis and using context clues using 'think aloud' 3. Teachers of history could support the work when studying if studying a unit on Ancient Greece/ Rome.

4. It might be possible to put lists of the most common roots, prefixes and suffixes in students' journals as a reference tool.

How could this work in our school?

What are Comprehension Strategies?Comprehension Strategies are the unobservable in the head thought processes that good readers use to understand text. (Clay 1991)

Strategies

*activate students' prior knowledge

* set a purpose for reading

Strategies help students

* make connections*monitor their understanding

*generate questions* stay focused

Strategies provide students an

opportunity to:

*summarise *question *reflect *discuss *respond to text.

Before AfterDuring

The goal of text comprehension instruction is to help students become active, purposeful, and independent readers of science, history, geography, literary, mathematics and other subject texts.

Themes we should keep in mind when talking about promoting literacy

Active

Independent

Motivating

Challenging

Collaborative

Strategies help students

* make connections*monitor their understanding

*generate questions* stay focused

Comprehension Strategy that can be used

During Reading

How do Graphic Organisers support comprehension?

1. Organise disjointed information in a structured way

3. Work together to derive meaning from texts

4. Actively read as they identify and extract relevant information

2. Enhance their understanding of text structure

5. Can support students in planning and organising a piece of writing

Using graphic organisers in the classroom

Important considerations:

Use of the explicit instruction model when introducing the use of graphic organisers

Use of graphic organisers to highlight features of text structure

Use of cooperative learning strategies

Remember that Graphic Organisers are useful for students of all abilities

This isn't just putting information into boxes!

What is important to understand is the powerful nature of all the processes that occur both before and after the information is put into the boxes.

The role of the teacher and the methodologies used are crucial to the success of the use of graphic organisers as a strategy.

Where can I find more information/ resources?

SSE: http://www.slss.ie/resource_category/view/1138

AdLit: http://www.adlit.org/article/27882/

Strategy

Determining Importance (using think aloud)

As we want students to be able to do this independently, we need to use the explicit instruction model.

When introducing this strategy choose an accessible text, it is not about the content it is the strategy that they are learning

Summarising

Note making

Active Engagement

Monitoring

Questioning

Determining Importance using the

Explicit Instruction Model

1. Write the name of the strategy on the board2. State why and when you might use it3. Read the entire piece first4. Using 'think aloud' to model active reading5. Highlight the important words6. Identify 5 - 6 most significant words7. Remove the original piece of text8. Using the prompt words recall the main points of the

text

Step One: I Do, You Watch It is important to choose an accessible text when modelling this strategy

Determining Importance using the Explicit Instruction Model

1. Use the next part of the text or a different piece of text2. Explain to the class that this time we are going to do it together3. Read the piece fully first4. Explain that nothing will be highlighted unless we are all in agreement5. When students choose a word, ask them to explain why they chose it6. If class agrees highlight the word/ if not ask for other suggestions7. Reduce the important words to 5-68. Remove the original piece9. Ask someone in the class to recall the text

Step Two: I Do, You Help

"Highlighting is easy, determining what to highlight is the challenge." Harvey

Determining Importance using the

Explicit Instruction Model

1. Use the next part of the text or choose a different text2. Explain to the class that this time they are going to follow the steps in pairs3. It is important that they read the text fully first4. Students will: choose important words together reduce these to 5 -6 important words remove the piece of text will recall the story orally to their partner

Step Three: I Do, You Help

At this stage the teacher could circulate the room

watching out for word choice and understanding of the task

Determining Importance using the

Explicit Instruction Model

1. Use the next part of the text or a different piece of text2. Explain to the class that they are now going to do it independently3. Students will now follow the steps on their own4. Students may write down their account or present it orally5. It is important that you ask the students about the strategy and

encourage them to reflect on its uses

Step Four: You Do, I Watch

The accuracy of the oral report is a good means of assessing the

students' comprehensionIf students are struggling with the

strategy go back over the steps until they are comfortable using it

independently

Evaluate the arguments on both sides: The Catholic Church and Martin Luther

Extension Activities

What if…What if Martin Luther had not broken away from the church...consider how this might have changed the course of history.

Further Investigation1) Ask students to research an aspect of the reformation referring to at least three sources 2) Give students a series of statements about Martin Luther. Ask students to investigate if the statements are true or false and to justify their answers.

What are Comprehension Strategies?Comprehension Strategies are the unobservable in the head thought processes that good readers use to understand text. (Clay 1991)

Strategies

*activate students' prior knowledge

* set a purpose for reading

Strategies help students

* make connections*monitor their understanding

*generate questions* stay focused

Strategies provide students an

opportunity to:

*summarise *question *reflect *discuss *respond to text.

Before AfterDuring

The goal of text comprehension instruction is to help students become active, purposeful, and independent readers of science, history, geography, literary, mathematics and other subject texts.

What Active Readers Do:

Active readers ask questions as they read. These questions allow the reader to:• clarify meaning• speculate on the text• determine the author's intent

Monitor for Meaning Good readers will recognise when they lose the thread of what they read. They will be able to get their flow back through specific fix-up strategies such as:• re-reading• reading ahead• focusing on specific words for clarity • summarising the material up to a point to bring ideas together.