Reading Comprehension: The Key to Academic Achievement Presenter: Amy Benjamin

1. Reading Comprehension: The Key to Academic Achievement Presenter: Amy Benjamin • Today’s Presentation: • About domain-specific • reading comprehension • 2. Anyone can be a challenged • reader • 3. Two classic strategies • 4. The relationship between background • knowledge strategies • 5. The effects of free voluntary reading • 6. Academic Reading Fitness: A vision • for schoolwide reading fitness You may access today’s visuals at www.amybenjamin.com (Recent Presentations)

2. The visuals in today’s presentation are available at: www.AmyBenjamin.com/media.html

4. Information processing (reading comprehension) is domain-specific:

5. Domain-Specific Reading Period Three: To subtract a polynomial from another polynomial, the opposite of each term of the polynomial that is being subtracted is added. Period Four: Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore…

6. Domain-Specific Reading Period Six: Which of the following phenomena best represents a cyclical event? Period Seven: Liberty and Slavery—opposite as Heaven and Hell—are both in the Constitution; and the oath to support the latter, is an oath to perform that which God has made impossible.

7. Anyone can be a challenged reader: The amount of distributions from net investment income and net realized capital gains is determined in accordance with federal income tax regulations, which may differ from generally accepted accounting principles. These “book/tax” differences are either considered temporary or permanent in nature. Key differences are the treatment of short-term capital gains, foreign currency transactions, organization costs and other temporary differences. To the extent that these differences are permanent in nature, such amounts are reclassified within the capital accounts based on their federal tax-basis treatment; temporary differences do not require reclassifications. To the extent distributions exceed net investment income and/or/net realized capital gains for tax purposes, they are reported as distributions of paid-in capital. Semi-Annual Report for a Mutual Fund

8. Golden Oldies: Volume I SQ3R Survey Read Question Recite Review

9. Golden Oldies: Volume II KWL 1.Summoning prior knowledge 2.Establishing a purpose; asking questions prior to reading 3.Summarizing how the new learning relates to existing knowledge

10. Reading Comprehension= Background + Strategies Strategies/Skills BEFORE: Preview Set a purpose DURING: Visualize Monitor, adjust, reread Anticipate & predict Be aware of dominant patterns Connect to known info AFTER: Make meaning: Talk, write, draw, summarize, outline Background Knowledge Vocabulary Words in context Phrases Allusions References

11. RFV (Reading for Fun) aka: SSR (sustained silent reading) DEAR (“Drop everything and read”) from the National Center for Educational Statistics: Increases in vocabulary, background knowledge, interest in reading, speed Improvements in writing, spelling, overall knowledge 50% of American students read for four minutes or less per day in their spare time 10% of American students do not read at all in their spare time

12. RFV (Reading for Fun) DO THE MATH: One hour of reading: 150 words per minute; 9,000 words per hour, encountering approx. 100 words for first time We tend to learn 5%-10% of previously unknown words per reading. 5-10 words learned per hour of reading. 25 new words per week 100 new words per month 1000 new words per school year

13. Circuit Training Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Active Literacy Strength Flexibility Endurance Enjoyment

14. Strength: Vocabulary and Background Knowledge

15. Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training • Today, we will train for strength. By strength, we mean having sufficient • vocabulary to make meaning from text. Vocabulary is closely related to • background knowledge, and background knowledge is the most important • factor in reading comprehension. • Here are a few things you can do that will take just a few minute of class time to • build your students’ vocabulary: • Analyze word prefixes and roots of key words to show how they are related • to words that students may already know. • 2. Embed the target word in a cluster of words related to the topic. • 3. Introduce key words that the students will meet in their upcoming readings. • Repeat new words in various contexts. • 5. Show the word. Emphasize its spelling and how it looks like related words. • 6. Give students opportunities to use new words in conversation. • 7. If you can, make connections between new words and words in other languages. • 8. Give students opportunities to use new words in informal writing. • 9. Indulge in word games and crossword puzzles to reinforce new word. • 10. Give students opportunities to use non-verbal ways to express meanings • (drawing, gestures, skits, charades).

16. Tier II Words Tier III Words Tier I Words: Domain-specific terminology; “Glossary” words On-the-job words Language of academics, business, government “Vocab List” words Everyday Language: Ask Dead Name Find out; figure out Answer Rain Use Sharp Get Take apart and put together balance Photosynthesis Cytoplasm Metamorphosis Asymmetrical Bathysphere Rhetoric Deoxyribonucleic acid Artifact Habeas corpus Diaspora Polysyndeton Adjective Interrogate Deceased Designate; designation; identify, identification Ascertain; determine Precipitate, precipitation Utilize; employ Acute Acquire Analyze; synthesize equilibrium x chr___ ___ic ph __y__ ___sis Code-switching Prefix/root/suffix

17. Flexibility: Different paces for different purposes

18. Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training Today, we will train for flexibility. By flexibility, we mean the ability to adjust pace and focus to get the desired level of information from text. Flexibility is important for readers because not everything demands the same level of concentration. The flexible reader has the skills to skim, scan, read closely, read between the lines, and study to memorize targeted information. • Here are a few things that you can do to help your students develop flexibility • as readers: • Provide all kinds of reading material in your classroom related to what you • want students to know: magazines, paperbacks, fiction, Internet, lists, etc. • Give students guided practice in skimming, scanning, reading closely, • reading between the lines, and studying. Increase their awareness of how they • shift gears to derive information from text. Skim it Scan it Read it (Read between the lines of it) Study it

19. Four Gears of Reading: Skim it: Scan it: Read it: Study it: Go back, as necessary, getting a more useful and permanent understanding. This may involve working with a partner, taking notes, creating graphic organizers, and other meaning-making activities. Glance over it; (30 secs per page); get the gist; be able to state what it is about in a complete sentence Now that you’ve let the text wash over you, read it thoroughly: every word, every sentence, every graphic. Look it over with an eagle’s eye, scanning for specific information, such as information that has key words to answer questions

20. Endurance: The ability to concentrate on a text over a period of time

21. Schoolwide Academic Fitness: Circuit Training Today, we will train for endurance. By endurance, we mean the ability to concentrate on reading for a sustained amount of time. • Here are some things you can do to help your students build endurance: • Start with short intervals of sustained silent reading and/or listening to • you read aloud while they follow along in the text. Begin with alternating • one-minute intervals, if necessary. Systematically increase the intervals • of sustained silent reading. • 2. Remind students that it is necessary that they visualize as they read. • 3. Give students the opportunity to see the extent to which their concentration • is impaired by environmental conditions such as noise or lighting.

22. Enjoyment: Reading anything we want, just for fun!

23. Enjoyment: Reading anything we want, just for fun! stories, newspapers, comics, magazines, graphic novels, teen romances, sci-fi, adventure, humor…. • Components of successful free reading programs in schools: • Lavish access to all kinds of appealing reading material • No accountability (ie, tests) • Teacher modeling • Regular time set aside for reading • Sustained over time (multiple years) • Comfortable environment, conducive to reading • Opportunities for discussion • Staff training on the benefits and management of SSR

24. What the research tells me [about SSR] is that when children …start reading for pleasure… good things will happen. Their reading comprehension will improve, and they will find difficult, academic-style texts easier to read. Their writing style will improve, and they will be better able to write prose in a style that is acceptable to schools, business, and the scientific community. Their vocabulary will improve, and their spelling and control of grammar will improve. Stephen Krashen, The Power of Reading

25. Yes, we can! Si, se puede!