What Every SLMS Should Know about Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies

1. What Every SLMS Should Know about Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies Prepared by the SLMS Role in Reading Task Force                                  July 2009

2. Research shows that reading comprehension strategies can and should be taught from the primary grades through high school (p. 216).Research also shows that this instruction is not taking place in many classrooms (p. 198). Source:Reading Instruction that Works: The Case for Balanced Teaching by Michael Pressley (Guildford Press, 1998)

3. By explicitly teaching and coteaching reading comprehension strategies, LMS can make a positive impact on students’ reading development. These strategies are easily integrated into classroom-library lesson plans and storytime learning objectives. Source:Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact by Judi Moreillon (ALA Editions, 2007)

4. Reading Comprehension Strategies • Activating or building background knowledge • Using sensory images • Questioning • Making predictions and inferences • Determining importance • Monitoring and regaining comprehension • Synthesizing

5. Procedures for TeachingReading Comprehension Strategies • Direct instruction begins with educators modeling one strategy at a time (for whole group instruction). • Educators use think-alouds to describe why, when, and how they are using the strategy to make meaning. • Educators guide whole group in practicing the strategy. • Educators guide small groups, partners, or individual readers in applying the strategy. • Readers reflect on the benefits and challenges of using the strategy. • Phase out educator direction until readers apply strategies independently.

6. Reading Comprehension Strategy Activating and Building Background Knowledge • Text-to-self • Text-to-text • Text-to world connection

7. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Activating and Building Background Knowledge Indicators • Use prior and background knowledge as context for new learning. (1.1.2) • Connect ideas to own interests and previous knowledge and experience. (4.1.5) • Recognize when, why, and how to focus efforts in personal learning. (4.4.3)

8. Reading Comprehension Strategy Using Sensory Images • Engaging all five senses in “visualization” • Increasing enjoyment as well as comprehension of texts

9. AASL Standardsfor the 21st-Century Learner Sensory Images Indicator Read, view, and listen for pleasure and for personal growth. (4.1.1)

10. Reading Comprehension Strategy Questioning • Monitoring comprehension through questioning • Focusing on questions rather than answers before, during, and after reading • Questioning the text and the author

11. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Questioning Indicators • Develop and refine a range of questions to frame search for new understanding. (1.1.3) • Find, evaluate, and select appropriate sources to answer questions. (1.1.4) • Display initiative and engagement by posing questions and investigating the answers beyond the collection of superficial facts. (1.2.1)

12. Reading Comprehension Strategy Making Predictions and Inferences • Making predictions based on plot • Making inferences found between the lines (dependent on reader’s background knowledge) • Propelling reader through the text • Interpreting and make meaning

13. AASL Standardsfor the 21st-Century Learner Making Predications and Inferences Indicator • Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning. (1.1.6)

14. Reading Comprehension Strategy Determining Importance • Sorting and prioritizing • Identifying main ideas and supporting details • Summarizing Essential skill for notemaking

15. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Determining Importance Indicator • Organize knowledge so it is useful. (2.1.2) Note: Students must be able to distinguish main ideas from supporting details in order to make notes and organize knowledge.

16. Reading Comprehension Strategy Monitoring and Regaining Comprehension • Determining when comprehension was lost • Using fix-up options to regain comprehension

17. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner Monitoring and Regaining Comprehension Indicator • Monitor gathered information and assess for gaps and weaknesses. (1.4.3)

18. Reading Comprehension Strategy Synthesizing • Making meaning from multiple resources • Using decision-making to interpret information through the selecting important ideas and concepts and discarding others • Thinking critically about information and ideas

19. AASL Standardsfor the 21st-Century Learner Synthesizing Indicator • Make sense of information gathered from diverse sources by identifying misconceptions, main and supporting ideas, conflicting information, and point of view or bias. (1.1.7)

20. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and ALL Reading Comprehension Strategies Indicators • Read, view, and listen for information presented in any format (e.g., textual, visual, media, digital) in order to make inferences and gather meaning (1.1.6) • Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real world situations, and further investigations (2.1.3)

21. AASL Standards for the 21st-Century Learner and ALL Reading Comprehension Strategies Indicators (continued) • Use strategies to draw conclusions from information and apply knowledge to curricular areas, real world situations, and further investigations (2.1.3) • Read widely and fluently to make connections with own self, the world, and previous reading (4.1.2) • Respond to literature and creative expressions of ideas in various formats and genres (4.1.3)

22. Resources for Educators • Allen, J. 2000. Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. • ______. 2004. Tools for Teaching Content Literacy. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. • Grimes, S. 2006. Reading Is Our Business : How Librarians Foster Reading Comprehension. Chicago: ALA Editions. • Harvey, S., and A. Goudvis. 2000. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. • Keene, E. O., and S. Zimmermann. 1997. Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

23. Resources for Educators(Continued) Moreillon, J. 2007. Collaborative Strategies for Teaching Reading Comprehension: Maximizing Your Impact. Chicago: ALA Editions. Tovani, C. 2007. Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. _____. 2000. I Read It, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. Walker, C. 2004. Teaching Reading Strategies in the School Library. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited. Zimmermann, S., and C. Hutchins. 2003. 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to Help Your Kids Read It and Get It! New York: Three Rivers Press.