Tools for Improving Reading Comprehension

1. Tools for Improving Reading Comprehension P. David Pearson UC Berkeley www.scienceandliteracy.org

2. Goals for the day • Part I • Introduce you to 10 research-based principles for teaching and fostering reading comprehension • (based on Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011) • Discuss fewer (4 or 5) in greater depth • Break • Part II • QnA about Part I • Some other issues… • Close Reading • Text Complexity

3. For more information about my views of comprehension… • Duke, N., & Pearson, P.D. (2002) Effective Practices for Developing Reading Comprehension. In S. J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (Eds.) What research says about reading instruction (3rd edition). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. • Duke, N., Pearson, P.D., Strachan, S. & Billman, A. (2011) Essential elements of fostering and teachng reading comprehension.. In S. J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (Eds.) What research says to about reading instruction (4th edition). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. • Underwood, T., Yoo, M., & Pearson, P. D. (2007). Understanding reading comprehension in secondary schools through the lens of the four resources model, in Rush, L.S., Eakle, A.J., Berger, A. (Eds.) Secondary school literacy: What research reveals for classroom practice (pp 90-116). Urbana IL: National Council of Teachers of English. • Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Schatschneider, C., et al. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through 3rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE 2010-4038). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. For presentations and papers, go to www.scienceandliteracy.org

4. Survey • Elementary? • Secondary? • College? • What’s the difference

5. Elementary Teachers Love • Their kids

6. Secondary Teachers Love • Their subjects

7. College Teachers Love • Themselves

8. Why Comprehension? • Keep our curricular wits about us? • Keep the enablers separate from the goals • Phonemic awareness may be important • But it is on the pathway to • Phonics, which may be important • But it is on the pathway to… • Word reading, which may be important • But it is on the pathway to… • Word meaning, which may be important • But it is on the pathway to… • Comprehension, which may be important • But it is on the pathway to… • Critical reasoning, which may be important • But it is on the pathway to… • Action to make our lives and democracy better

9. The Role of Enabling Skills

10. Why now? • There is a new game in town (in the US)… • Common core standards OR • New or refined state standards • Teaching for understanding… • But with high levels of accountability • More challenging curriculum for all kids • In terms of both task and text • We’ll be overturning the Basic Skills Conspiracy: • First ya’ gotta’ get the words right and the facts straight before you can do the what ifs and I wonder whats of the curriculum. • Replacing it with a Keep Your Eye on the Prize approach • Skills are enablers to keep you on the road to meaning and critique

11. So how do you design a comprehension curriculum for teachers to enact in their classrooms? • Goal • Set of Principles • Set of Practices to enact the principles For presentations and papers, go to www.scienceandliteracy.org

12. The Goal: The Active, Critical Meaning Maker Confession: My Grandson Tobias

13. From Stephen King • On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King • He got it right about building what it takes to build a model of reading • Listen as I read his words…

17. What can we learn from Stephen King about building mental models? • That writers leave us a lot on the printed page to work with, but… • writers expect us to fill in some of the details in building a model of meaning. • That no two readers will ever build exactly the same mental model • That our models will often be similar enough to allow us to “talk about a text.” (we need to agree on the general frame not the details)* • That some text details are more important than others • Question: Whose minds meet in reading? • Reading is an inherently social activity *levels of accountability in making meaning

18. My favorite: A debunking of the idea that the meaning is solely in the text: From one of the close reading heroes of the past: Mortimer Adler—How to read a book • And that is exactly what reading a book should be: a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; naturally, you'll have the proper humility as you approach him. But don't let anybody tell you that a reader is supposed to be solely on the receiving end. Understanding is a two-way operation; learning doesn't consist in being an empty receptacle. The learnerhas to question himself and question the teacher. He even has to argue with the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. And marking a book is literally an expression of differences, or agreements of opinion, with the author.

19. Rand (2002) Definition of Reading Comprehension: The process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language. We use the words extracting and constructing to emphasize both the importance and insufficiency of the text as a determinant of reading comprehension (Rand Reading Study Group, 2002) .

20. Kintchian-derived model… Context Text 3 Knowledge Base 1 Text Base Says Inference Propositions 2 Mental Model Means Inference Experience Macrostructure Microstructure Out in the world Inside the head

21. Pedagogical implications for CI • Since the meaning is in this reader text interface, we need to go dig it out… • Query the accuracy of the text base to build up the microsructure and the macrostructure. • What is going on in this part here where it says… • What does it mean when it says… • I was confused by this part… • Ascertain the situation model. • So what is going on here? • What do you know that we didn’t know before? • What can we expect to happen next or What can we expect the author to talk about next?

22. New and different • Most important: A new model of the comprehension process • Text (what the author left on the page) • Text base (the version a reader creates on a veridical reading) • Knowledge (what the reader brings from prior experience) • Model of meaning for a text • Dubbed the Situation Model (mental model) • A model that accounts for all the facts and resources available in the current situation

23. What’s inside the Knowledge box? • World knowledge (everyday stuff, including social and cultural norms) • Topical knowledge (dogs and canines) • Disciplinary knowledge (how history or astronomy works) • Linguistic knowledge • Phonology • Lexical and morphological • Syntax • Genre • Pragmatics (how language works in the world): Discourse, register, academic language, intention • Orthography (how print relates to speech)

24. How does a reader build a text base? Excerpt from Chapter 8 of Hatchet

25. “Some of the quills were driven in deeper than others and they tore when they came out. He breathed deeply twice, let half of the breath out, and went back to work. Jerk, pause, jerk — and three more times before he lay back in the darkness, done. The pain filled his leg now, and with it came new waves of self-pity. Sitting alone in the dark, his leg aching, some mosquitoes finding him again, he started crying. It was all too much, just too much, and he couldn’t take it. Not the way it was.

26. The pain filled his leg now, and with it came new waves of self-pity. Sitting alone in the dark, his leg aching, some mosquitoes finding him again, he started crying. It was all too much, just too much, and he couldn’t take it.Not the way it was.

27. “I can’t take it this way, alone with no fire and in the dark, and next time it might be something worse, maybe a bear, and it wouldn’t be just quills in the leg, it would be worse. I can’t do this, he thought, again and again. I can’t. Brian pulled himself up until he was sitting upright back in the corner of the cave. He put his head down on his arms across his knees, with stiffness taking his left leg, and cried until he was cried out.”

28. Building a Text Base • “Some of the quills were driven in (into what? His leg) deeper than others (other what? Quills) and they (the quills that were driven in deeper) tore when they (the deeper-in quills) came out (of his leg).He (Brian) breathed deeply twice, let half the breath out, and went back to work (work on what? Don’t know yet. Suspense. Expect to find out in next sentence). Jerk, pause, jerk (the work is jerking quills out)— and three more times (jerking quills out) he (Brian) lay back in the darkness, done (all the quills jerked out).

29. The pain filled his (Brian’s) leg now, and with it (the pain) came new waves (what were the old waves?) of self-pity. (Brian) Sitting alone in the dark, his (Brian’s)leg aching, some mosquitoes finding him (Brian) again, he (Brian) started crying. It (the whole situation Brian was in) was all too much, just too much, and he (Brian) couldn’t take it(the situation).Not the way it (the situation)was. (What way was the situation? Don’t know yet. Suspense. Expect to find out in the next paragraph.)

30. “I (Brian)can’t take it (the situation) this way (what way? Still don’t know. Suspense), alone with no fire and in the dark (now we know “this way” means “alone with no fire and in the dark”),and next time it (the next situation) might be something worse(than this situation),maybe a bear, and it(the problem that will define the situation)wouldn’t be just quills in the leg, it (the problem)would be worse (than quills in the leg). I (Brian)can’t do this (deal with the problem situation), he (Brian) thought, again and again. I (Brian) can’t “do this (deal with the problem situation).” Brian pulled himself (Brian)up until he (Brian) was sitting upright back in the corner of the cave. He (Brian)put his (Brian’s) head down on his (Brian’s) arms across his (Brian’s) knees, with stiffness taking his (Brian’s) left leg, and cried until he (Brian)was cried out.”

31. Some key moves in building a text base… • Processing words and attaching meaning to them • Using syntax to solidify key relations among ideas • Microstructure • Macrostructure • Resolving reference--things that stand for other things (mainly pronouns and nouns) • Using logical connectives (before, after, because, so, then, when, while, but) to figure out the relations among ideas • Inferring omitted connectives (e.g., figuring out that A is the cause of B) based on PK about the world • Posing questions for short term resolution • Identifying ambiguities for later resolution (wait and see)

32. So how about building a situation model? • The knowledge-comprehension relationship • We use our knowledge to build a situation model for a text • The information in the situation model is now available to become part of our long term memory and store of knowledge • To assist in processing the next bit.

33. Situation Model for Hatchet Passage

34. The blurb from the jacket of Hatchet gives a preview of the book: Thirteen-year old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker and the hatchet his mother has given him as a present — and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents’ divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity or despair — it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.

35. What a reader knows by Chapter 8 Brian is stranded in the Canadian wilderness with a hatchet and his wits as his only tools for survival. He already has overcome several obstacles, including surviving the plane crash, building a small shelter and finding food. In chapter eight, Brian awakens in the night to realize that there is an animal in his shelter. He throws his hatchet at the animal but misses. The hatchet makes sparks when it hits the wall of the cave. Brian then feels a pain in his leg. He sees the creature scuttle out of his shelter. Brian figures out that the animal was a porcupine because there are quills in his leg.

36. Some prior knowledge that a 5th grader might bring • What sparks look like • How it feels to be scared by an animal • How big porcupines are • To survive you have to have food, water and shelter • To survive you have to be strong

37. An actual retelling of key parts of chapter 8 from Sam, a 5th grade reader • The same text for which we just examined the text base…

40. Why is this model of iteratively constructing and integrating so important? • The mental (situation) model is central to knowledge construction • Building a mental model transforms new ideas and information into a form that can be added to memory, where they endure as knowledge that can be retrieved in the future. Unless readers build a mental model, the information they derive from the text is not likely to connect to their stored knowledge. The new information will be forgotten or lost. • Key role of knowledge: • Knowledge involved in even the most literal of processing • Knowledge begets comprehension begets knowledge… • Knowledge is available immediately: dynamic store…

41. How can we help students build solid text bases and rich and accurate situation models? • Do a good job of teaching subject matter in social studies, science, mathematics, and literature • Don’t let reading remain our curricular bully!

42. Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011 • Ten key practices • Can’t possibly touch on all of them today • Pre-publication copy available at www.scienceandliteracy.org and on the website for this organization. • Book available at reading.org • S. J. Samuels and A. E. Farstrup (Eds.) (2011). What research says to say about reading instruction (4th edition). Newark, DE: International Reading Association. • Also on your website, available for download

43. Duke et al, 2011 • 1. Build disciplinary and world knowledge. • 2. Provide exposure to a 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.

44. NUMBER 1: Build disciplinary and world knowledge • Embedding • Principle # 8—emphasize reading-writing relationships • Principle #7—teach vocabulary and language

45. NUMBER 1: Build disciplinary and world knowledge • The dilemma we face in teaching reading • The more kids know, the better they understand. • The more time we devote to reading, the less time there is for social studies and science • The less time there is for science and social studies, the less kids learn and the less they know • The less they know, the harder it is for them to comprehend • The cost of teaching reading better cannot be teaching the disciplines worse

46. My solution: replace the vicious with the virtuous cycle • The more you know, the better you understand. • The better you understand, the more you learn. • The more you learn, the more you know. • The more you know, the better you understand. • Anon, anon, anon…

47. How to implement my solution • MORE use of expository text in CORE programs • MORE reading, writing, and language instruction in science and social studies • Starting in grade K • Reading, writing, and language as tools for acquiring more disciplinary knowledge • See www.scienceandliteracy.org for Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading NSF Project.

48. Our current view of curriculum Social Studies Language Arts Mathematics Science

49. A model we like: Tools by Disciplines Academic Disciplines……….. Language Tools 

50. Weaving is even a better metaphor than a matrix Language Writing Reading math literature Social studies Science 