Improving Understanding: Reading Strategy Instruction

1. Improving Understanding: Reading Strategy Instruction Jenna Zwiebel Towson University Fall 2011

2. Objectives Participants will… • gain knowledge of important research that demonstrates the effectiveness of teaching comprehension strategies. • identify strategies that can be used to improve reading comprehension. • reflect on their comprehension instruction and identify ways to refine their practice. Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

3. Why Do We Read? • Turn and Talk: Why do you read? • What do our student’s think? • “because you tell me to” • “to become better readers” • “to get good grades” • “because we have to” • “to learn more words” Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

4. Why Do We Read? • Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. (Ness, 2011) • How does this compare with what our students said? • What can we do to align our students thinking with what the research indicates? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

5. Your Experiences • How were you taught comprehension? • Let’s play Four Corners! • Corner A: What was the teacher doing? • Corner B: What were the students doing? • Corner C: What materials were being used? • Corner D: What did the classroom look like/sound like? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

6. Minute Reflection • Take a minute to reflect on how you teach comprehension… Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

7. A Startling Statistic • “Nearly 9 million of today’s 4th through 12th graders struggle to read their textbooks.” (Ness, 2011) • “Many students progress to college without learning the reading comprehension strategies employed by proficient readers.” (Ness, 2011) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

8. Why Teach Comprehension Strategies? • Readers who actively engage in strategy use while reading are more likely to understand what they have read. (Stahl, 2004) • A reader’s understanding of text can be improved by teaching them to use specific cognitive strategies to overcome barriers with their comprehension of text. (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

9. Why Teach Strategies? (continued) • 70% of students who were provided explicit instruction in comprehension strategies made growth with their reading comprehension. (Prado & Plourde, 2011) • Students who were taught using metacognitive strategy instruction scored higher on reading comprehension assessments than student receiving traditional comprehension even a year after instruction was provided. (Houtveen & van de Grift, 2007) • Students who received direct instruction of comprehension strategies performed better on standardized assessments that peers who received no such instruction. (Ness, 2011) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

10. As An Expert Reader… • What strategies do you use while you read? • Do you teach your student’s to use any of these strategies? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

11. Comprehension Strategies • Current research identifies the following seven comprehension strategies utilized by readers to gain meaning from text. • Monitor understanding/Metacognition • Make connections using prior knowledge/Schema • Determine Importance • Synthesizing • Ask questions • Visualize/construct mental images • Make inferences (Prado & Plourde, 2011) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

12. Metacognition • Thinking about your thinking • Metacognition helps a reader identify tasks, monitor performance, choose appropriate strategies, and solve problems. (Wilson, 2011) • Thinking while we read, is REAL reading! Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011 lancastercfa.wikispaces.com

13. Schema • Children rely heavily on their background knowledge to interact with text. Instruction must help them utilize this knowledge to make connections to the text. (Stahl, 2004) www.readinglady.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

14. Determine Importance • “Thoughtful readers sift • out relevant and useful • information.” (McGregor, 2007) www.lifein4b.blogspot.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

15. Synthesize • “Thoughtful readers • continually change their • thinking in response to text.” • (McGregor, 2007) www.readinglady.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

16. Ask Questions • Learning to generate questions about a text will help to improve the readers general understanding of the text. (Duke & Pearson, 2008/2009) www.blogs.scholastic.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

17. Visualize • Using visual imagery will • help students with poor • comprehension store and • retrieve what they have read. • (Stahl, 2004) debbiediller.wordpress.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

18. Make Inferences • “Thoughtful readers • draw conclusions, make • predictions, and form • interpretations.” • (McGregor, 2007) www.readinglady.com Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

19. Which strategies do we use? • Let’s take a deeper look at the strategies you use while reading. • Select a dot to place on each of the seven strategies listed • Blue: all the time • Green: most of the time • Yellow: some of the time • Red: never Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

20. Which strategies do we use? • Which strategies are used most often? • Least often? • How does this reflect in the classroom? • Is there a correlation between your use of a strategy and your comfort level for teaching it? Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

21. Let’s Give it a Try • As you read this short piece of text, identify which strategies you are using, by drawing the corresponding symbol in the place of the text that strategy was used. ? Question ! Clarify & Connection ^ Infer $ Visualize # Synthesize % Determine Importance Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

22. What do you teach? • Are you currently incorporating any of these strategies in your instruction? • Take a moment to rank these strategies according to your comfort level with teaching them… • Nice and Calm • I Have Some Questions • Feeling Anxious Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

23. Strategy versus Skills • Harcourt Storytown identifies both reading strategies and skills for each lesson. • How do we know what to teach? • What should we focus on? • What’s the difference? • Strategies are the techniques a reader uses to process the text. (Pressley & Beard-Dinary, 1992) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

24. Condensing What we Teach • Skills should be able to fit into the processes required for several different strategies. • Take the list of skills Harcourt suggests we teach our students throughout the school year. • Work with your team, determine which strategy each of these skills could be taught with and record in your chart. Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

25. How do We Teach it? Match Up • In your envelope are researched based steps to be utilized during strategy instruction, there is also a description of each step. • Work in groups of 2-3 • Match the step to its description • Place the steps in the order you feel would be most appropriate for instruction Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

26. Steps for Strategy Instruction • Explicit Instruction • Modeling • Shared Practice • Guided Practice • Independent Practice (Houtveen & van de Grift, 2007), (Duke & Pearson, 2008/2009) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

27. Research about Instructional Practices • A key to success in comprehension strategy instruction is the use of the gradual release of responsibility. (Ness, 2011) • Instruction should follow a cycle of the gradual release model • Teacher explanation and modeling • Shared and guided practice • Independent practice & application (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008), (Prado & Plourde, 2011) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

28. Transactional Strategy Instruction • Transactional Strategy Instruction • Students work in groups to construct an understanding of the text while the teacher proves prompts and reminders regarding which strategies can be used while reading Lesson beings with the teacher or a student sharing their a question about the text, several students response and provide feedback (Pressley & Beard-Dinary, 1992) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

29. Reciprocal Teaching • Reciprocal Teaching • Students work in small groups with guidance from the teacher to utilize four strategies (predicting, questioning, clarfying, and summarizing) to develop an understanding of the text. The lesson begins with the discaloge leader modelsthe use of strategies explaining how, when, and why the strategy was used, then the dialouge leaders will ask a question about the text and group members work together to clarify this and other questions they may have. After discsuion the dialogue leader summarizes the selection and makes a prediction about what will happen next. (Stahl, 2004) (Sporer, Brunstein, & Kieschke, 2009) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

30. What Resources Can We Use? • Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor (Heinemann, 2007) • Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis (Stenhouse Publishers, 2007) • Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades by Debbie Miller (Stenhouse Publishers, 2002) Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

31. Next Steps • Book Study • Classroom Demonstration Lessons • Small Group Planning • Lesson Study • Observations and Feedback • Individual or Group Planning Sessions Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

32. Begin with the End in Mind • What goals do we have for our students? • What will our strategic readers… • look like? • sound like? • be able to do? • Complete the picture of a strategic reader to show what your student’s will do at the end of the school year. Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

33. Reflect • Minute Reflection: What would you like to see modeled in your classroom? • This can be a specific strategy or a component of a lesson you are unsure how to implement! Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

34. Evaluate • Please take a few minutes to complete the workshop evaluation • Please be honest with your feedback as it will be used to help plan future professional development sessions/activities! Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011

35. References • Afflerbach, P., Pearson, P.D., & Paris, S.G. (2008). Clarifying differences between reading skills and reading strategies. Reading Teacher, 61(5), 364-373. • Dewitz, P., Jones, J., Leahy, S. (2009) Comprehension strategy instruction in core reading programs. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(2), 102-126. • Duke, N.K., and Pearson, P.D. (2008/2009). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. Journal of Education, 182 (1/2), 107-122. • Houtveen, A. A. M., & van de Grift, W. J. C. M. (2007). Effects of metacognitive strategy instruction and instruction time on reading comprehension. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 18(2), 173-190. • McGregor, T. (2007). Comprehension connections: Bridges to strategic reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. • Ness, M. (2011). Explicit reading comprehension instruction in elementary classrooms: Teacher use of reading comprehension strategies. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 25(1), 98-117. • Prado, L., & Plourde, L. A. (2011). Increasing reading comprehension through explicit teaching of reading strategies: Is there a difference among the genders? Reading Improvement, 48(1), 32-43. • Pressley, M., & Beard-Dinary, P. (1992). Beyond direct explanation: Transactional instruction of reading comprehension. The Elementary School Journal, 92 (5), 513-546. • Sporer, N., Brunstein, J.C., & Kieschke, U. (2009). Improving students’ reading comprehension skills: Effects of strategy instruction and reciprocal teaching. Learning and Instruction, 19(3), 272-286. • Stahl, K.A.D. (2004). Proof, practice, and promise: Comprehension strategy instruction in the primary grades. The Reading Teacher, 57(7), 598-609. • Wilson, N. (2011). The heart of reading instruction: Metagcognition. California Reader, 44(3), 32-37. Jenna Zwiebel Fall 2011