230 likes | 423 Views
Reading Comprehension North Todd Elementary. February 27, 2013 Betsy Madison Betsy.madison@grrec.ky.gov Betsymadison.com. What can we do?. Reading must be authentic (related to what you will do tomorrow) Reading must be purposeful (you must be responsible for something in class)
E N D
Reading ComprehensionNorth Todd Elementary February 27, 2013 Betsy Madison Betsy.madison@grrec.ky.gov Betsymadison.com
What can we do? • Reading must be authentic (related to what you will do tomorrow) • Reading must be purposeful (you must be responsible for something in class) • Comprehension strategies must be woven into content
Literacy Strategies for Comprehension • Determine Importance • Question • Connect to Schema (Prior Knowledge) • Synthesize • Visualize • Monitor • Infer
Gradual Release of Responsibility • I do it. • We do it. • Y’all do it. • You do it.
Connect to Schema (prior knowledge) • Every child comes to school with a “frame” made of their experiences since birth. • Some students have a frame that looks like garden lattice. • Some students have a skinny little frame.
Using Schema • All day long, we throw “dirt clods” at their frames.
New Knowledge has to have Prior Knowledge to “stick” to. Which frame will more dirt clods stick to?
The Role of WORDS in Schema • By age 3, kids from well off families have a working vocabulary of 1116 words. • Kids from working class families have 749 words. • Kids from welfare have a mere 525 words. • Word poverty leads to idea poverty. • You have to know stuff to read stuff.(New Knowledge has to have Old Knowledge to stick to.)
The Power of Reading to Build Vocabulary • Reading 14 minutes a day means reading 1,000,000 words a year. • Preschool and children’s books expose students to more challenging vocabulary than prime-time television. • For vocabulary development, children should have text that is 3 years above their age/grade level.
“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” Ludwig Wittgenstein What can you do, at NTES, to combat WORD POVERTY?
Intentionally Activating Schema • Text-to-Self Connections • Students compare what they are reading to their own prior knowledge & experiences • Students can better understand character, setting, events, etc… of a story because they’ve had a similar experience • These connections can be made by young students. • Engaging: I like learning when it’s about ME
Text-to-Text Connections • Students compare what they are reading to something they’ve already read. • Encourage connections across genres (article to story, story to poem) • Helps students understand the concept of character, setting • Helps students learn to make predictions, anticipate problems and solutions • These connections can be made by young students
Text-to-World Connections • Students compare what they are reading to a Real World Event • May require a little more teacher direction with young students • Helps students better understand both the Real World Event and the text
Schema Thinking/Discussion Stems • That reminds me of… • I’m remembering… • I have a connection to… • I have schema for… • I can relate to… • I already know…
Visualize • Creating a mental image • Making a picture in your head • MODEL, MODEL, MODEL • Ask students to draw the picture they see in their head • Ask students to write about the picture they see in their head
Visualizing Thinking Stems • I’m picturing… • I can imagine… • I can feel… • I can see… • I can smell… • I can taste… • I can touch… • I can hear… • My mental images include…
Questioning • Students ask questions, while reading,… • If they are curious about something in the text • If they want to predict what will happen • If they want to make something more clear • Asking the right questions allows good readers to focus on the most important information in a text.
Questioning Thinking Stems • I wonder… • What if…? • Why…? • I don’t understand… • It confused me when… • How could…?
Talk Time • “If you have to talk, you have to think.” • The importance of dialogic talk • “ By the age of 4, the child of professional parents in the US will have had nearly twice as many words addressed to it as the working-class child, and over four times as many as a child on welfare. For the middle-class child, encouragement from parents vastly outweighs discouragement; but for the child on welfare the climate of adult reaction is an overwhelmingly discouraging one. While talk is essential for intellectual and social development, for some children, the talk which they engage in at school is nothing less than a lifeline.” • (Robin Alexander, 2004)
Resources • Hello Literacy blog (www.helloliteracy.blogspot.com) • Reading Resource.net (http://www.readingresource.net/strategiesforreadingcomprehension.html) • Florida Center for Reading Research (www.fcrr.org) • Reading to Learn (nancy.huston@grrec.ky.gov) • www.julieballew.com