Reading Comprehension

1. Reading Comprehension Prepared by Patrice Bucci Title I Roberts School

2. “If learning to read effectively is a journey toward ever increasing ability to comprehend texts, then teachers are the tour guides, ensuring that students stay on course, pausing to make sure they appreciate the landscape of understanding, and encouraging the occasional diversion down an inviting and interesting cul-de-sac or by way.” Nell Duke, P. David Pearson, Stephanie L. Strachan, Alison K. Billman

3. What Reading Scholars Have to Say about Reading Comprehension • “Reading is not simply recognizing meaning that is written in a text. Reading requires that meaning be constructed with text. In other words, reading is a transaction in which the reader brings purposes and life experiences to the text.” • Doug Fisher, Dianne Lapp, • Nancy Frey

4. What Reading Scholars Have to Say about Reading Comprehension ( cont.) • Comprehension strategies are thoughtful behaviors that students use to facilitate their understanding as they read. *Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008 • Text comprehension can be improved by instruction that helps readers use specific comprehension strategies • Students can be taught to use comprehension strategies • Text Comprehension is purposeful and active • Text comprehension can be taught through explicit instruction * Put Reading First, 2001

5. What Reading Scholars Have to Say about Reading Comprehension ( cont.) • Reading Comprehension emphasizes both what the author has written and the readers ability to use their background knowledge and thinking ability to make sense of what they read. • Reading comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. • Extracting meaning is to understand what the author has stated. • Constructing meaning is to interpret what the author has said by bringing ones abilities, knowledge and experiences to what he or she is reading. • IES WWC Practice Guide

6. What Reading Scholars Have to Say about Reading Comprehension • “Comprehension strategies are procedures that guide students as they attempt to read and write.” • - National Reading Panel, 2000 • “Readers bring to the reading event their cognitive capabilities, purposes for reading, knowledge of language and the world, and prior experiences. Readers draw upon these resources to make sense of the texts they encounter.” • Frank Serafini, The Reading Workshop

7. Comprehension Strategies • Students learn to use a variety of cognitive and metacognitive strategies to ensure that they comprehend what they are reading. • Important comprehension strategies: • Activating Prior Knowledge • Making connections • Determining Importance • Drawing Inferences • Using Fix-Up Strategies ( Monitoring) • Questioning • Making Mental Images ( Visualizing) • Summarizing • Tompkins, 2010

8. Comprehension Constructing meaning • Involves utilizing comprehension strategies • ( this is the reading part) Conveying Meaning • Involves retelling or summarizing text • Can be Text Centered or Student Centered • ( this is the response part)

9. Teaching for Strategies • Strategies to Sustain Processing • “Fix up Strategies” • Self-Monitoring • Self Correcting • Searching cues • Solving Words: Taking words apart while reading • Strategies for Expanding Thinking • Predicting/Previewing • Accessing/Developing Prior Knowledge • Making Connections • Questioning • Determining the Big Idea • Inferring • Summarizing • Visualizing • Fountas/Pinnell

10. Factors that Effect Comprehension Reader Factors: • Readers level of background knowledge • Readers vocabulary knowledge • Readers oral fluency • Readers ability to use skills and strategies • Readers level of motivation and engagement Text Factors: • Readers familiarity/knowledge of genre • Readers knowledge/understanding of text structures • Readers knowledge/understanding of text features Tompkins, 2010

11. Motivation and Engagement: Many factors contribute to involvement in reading and writing Tompkins, 2010)

12. Best Practices 10 essential elements of effective reading comprehension Instruction that research suggests every teacher should engage in to foster reading comprehension: 1.Build disciplinary and world knowledge. 2.Provide exposure to volume and range of texts. 3.Provide motivating texts and contexts for reading. 4.Teach strategies for comprehending. 5.Teach text structures. 6.Engage students in discussion. 7. Build vocabulary and language knowledge 8.Integrate reading and writing. 9. Observe and assess. 10. Differentiate instruction. -Duke & Pearson, et al, 2002

13. Role of the Teacher • Know the reader • Know what comprehension strategies are used and neglected • Know the demands of the text • Facilitate understanding…. • Think: Conversation, not interrogation

14. Implications for Teaching Teaching for Comprehension Strategies: • Instructional Practices: • Interactive Read Aloud • Shared reading • Guided Reading • Transactional Strategy Instruction • Concept Oriented Reading Instruction • QtA ( Questioning the Author) • DRTA ( Directed Reading Thinking Activity) Keeping in mind the importance of : • Modeling • Gradual Release of Responsibility • Dialogic thinking/talking • Anchor Charts to chart thinking, keep track of thinking, a visual map of the child’s/groups feed forward/feed backward thinking

16. Anchor Charts • Anchor charts are a record of thinking and learning. They are co-constructed by both teacher and students. They should have a prominent place in the classroom for teachers and students to refer to. • http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/AnchorChartPhotographsfromKellyandGinger/slides/Fiction-Nonfiction.html

17. When… Construct Meaning Convey Meaning Comprehension: Teachers need to engage in explicit comprehension instruction. Through modeling teachers can make comprehension more visible. Comprehension is a multifaceted thinking process in which students engage with text. Readers construct meaning by interacting with the text. Tompkins, 2010

18. Struggling Readers/ ELL Learners Reasons Comprehension is difficult: • Limited background knowledge • Limited cultural knowledge • Difficulty with figurative language • Mismatch between reading level and English proficiency level Ways to Support these learners: • Careful selection of text • Build background knowledge and hierarchical knowledge • Front-load, pre-teach important vocabulary • Explicitly model use of comprehension strategies • Utilize interactive reading aloud/think aloud instructional practice Tompkins, 2010)

19. Assessment • An effective reading program includes assessment of all the essential components of reading: alphabetics/phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. • Purposes of assessment practices: • 1. Identify skills and strategies that need review • 2. Monitor student progress • 3.Guide teacher instruction • 4.Demonstrate effectiveness of instruction • 5. Provide teachers with information on how instruction can be improved. • Why? “We want our ongoing reading assessments to provide us with evidence that students are using systems of strategic actions across instructional texts” Fountas & Pinnell “We assess students for four reasons: 1. Screening 2. Diagnosis 3. Progress monitoring 4. Outcome measurement” David Pearson

20. Questions to Consider when choosing assessment tools: • Does the tool you used yield evidence of: • Comprehension strategy use? • Use of strategies on text ( fix up strategies)? • Instructional level? Independent Level? • Highlight focus for further instruction? • Show evidence of progress? • Measure students growth in the reading process? Or Measure students growth within standards based curriculum? Both?

21. Tools that assess how students construct meaning: ( most neglected) Running Records Miscue Analysis DRA, QRI Rubrics Tools that assess how students convey meaning: ( most used) Retellings/responses Rubrics Reading response logs Assessment Tools

22. Assessment: Consider the Reader • Understanding the “reader” involves considering: • the child’s prior experiences ( background knowledge, prior knowledge, hierarchical knowledge) • The child’s decoding knowledge • The child’s word knowledge • The child’s knowledge of language • ( this includes “book language” as well as oral language)

23. The Challenge? • The challenge for us is to assure use of a variety of assessments that will allow us to: • Observe and analyze the reader • Observe and analyze both the process ( strategic behaviors that construct meaning) and the products ( responses/retellings that convey meaning) • Provide us with evidence of progress • Allow for planning for further instruction

24. If…( based on assessment)…then…(instructional possibilities are)…-What's’ After Assessment, Kathy Strickland 2005

25. Differentiation • Student achievement levels differ according to their interests, preferred ways of learning, as well as ability. When teachers differentiate instruction, they modify instructional programs so that all students can be successful. • Teachers modify instruction by differentiating: • Content • Process • Product • Characteristics of Differentiated Instruction: • High Standards • Assessment Instruction Link • Flexible grouping • Matching students with text • Varied instructional activities • Instructional modifications Tompkins, 2010

26. IRA: Excellent Reading Teachers http://www.reading.org/Libraries/Position_Statements_and_Resolutions/ps1041_excellent.sflb.ashx

27. Suggested Reading

28. Suggested Reading • Mosaic of Thought, Ellin Keene • Strategies that Work, Stephanie Harvey • Reading with Meaning, Debbie Miller • Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency, Fountas and Pinnell • Teaching Struggling Readers, Carol Lyons • Lessons in Comprehension, Frank Serafini • What Really Matters for Struggling Readers, Richard Allington • Teaching for Deep Comprehension, Linda Dorn • Comprehension Instruction, Michael Pressley • On Solid Ground, Sharon Taberski • Comprehension Going Forward, Ellin Keene, • To Understand, Ellin Keene • Reading Assessment, Peter Afflerbach • Reading Essentials, Regie Routman

29. Suggested Resources • www.readinglady.com • http://reading.ecb.org/teacher • http://www.storylineonline.net/ • http://www.readingrockets.org/atoz/reading_comprehension/ • http://www.literacy.uconn.edu/compre.htm • www.choiceliteracy.comhttp:// • http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/ • http://www.reading.org/General/Publications/webinars-archive/webinars-free-text-talk-task.aspx • http://www.reading.org/downloads/podcasts/II-LappFisher.mp3 • http://www.cori.umd.edu/ • http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/resources.html • http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/29035/

30. References Tompkins, G., (2010). Literacy for the 21st Century, Boston, MA, Pearson Samuels, S.J., & Farstrup, A.E. (2011). What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (4th ed.). Newark, DE: International Reading Association Fisher, D.,Frey, N., and Lapp, D., (2009). In A Reading State of Mind. International Reading Association, Newark DE Duke, N.K., & Pearson, P.D. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In A.E. Farstrup & S.J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205-242). Newark, De: International Reading Association. Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G., ( 2006).Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency, Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH Keene,E.O., & Zimmerman, S. ( 1997). Mosaic of thought: Teaching comprehension in a readers workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Anderman, E., & Anderman, L., (2010). Classroom Motivation. Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Allington, Richard. (2001). What Really Matters for Struggling Readers. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc. Tomlinson, C. A., (1995). Differentiating instruction for advanced learners in the mixed-ability middle school classroom. ERIC Digest ED443572 Johnston, Peter. (2010), RTI in Literacy- Responsive and Comprehensive. Newark, DE: International Reading Association Strickland, K.,(2005). What's’ After Assessment?. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Shanahan, T., & North Central Regional Educational Lab., N. L. (2005). The National Reading Panel Report. Practical Advice for Teachers. Learning Point Associates / North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P., Schatschneider, C., & ... What Works Clearinghouse, (. (2010). Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade: IES Practice Guide. NCEE 2010-4038. What Works Clearinghouse, Retrieved from EBSCOhost.