Oh, Now I See! Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies in Elementary/Middle Reading

1. Oh, Now I See! Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies in Elementary/Middle Reading WABE 2010 Yakima, WA David Irwin Language Development Opportunities www.langdevopps.com dave@langdevopps.com

2. Today we will… Practice four learner comprehension strategies for use with struggling learners and/or ELLs by discussing and adapting comprehension skill activities

3. What A Decade of Reform said… • Strategies alone (first order) without changes in beliefs (second order) make no difference • Focus on targeted1 GLEs – eliminate non-essential activities • High expectations for all students including those in poverty and ELL • “Powerful teaching and learning” depends not on specific strategies, but on the intellectual demands placed on the student Fouts, Jeffrey T., A Decade of Reform: A Summary of Research Findings on Classroom, School and District Effectiveness in Washington State, Washington School Research Center, 2003. 1See Ainsworth 2003

4. Comprehension Strategies • Making Connections • Text-to-Self • Text-to-Text • Text-to-World • Inference • Summarizing

5. What is scaffolding and why is it important for ELLs? On a Post-it, write your own personal definition of scaffolding.

6. Student Centered Peer Assisted Teacher Assisted Increasing independence Teacher Centered Peer modeling Reciprocal teaching Cooperative learning Practice Teacher modeling Discussion Mini-lecture Explicit instruction Apply strategies during independent reading One model of scaffolding

7. Independent Work Partners Small Group Whole group Increasing independence Personal white Boards Thumbs up Worksheets Tickets out Rally Table Rally Robin Quiz-quiz-trade Mix-pair share Timed pair share Round table Round Robin Numbered heads together Talking Chips Shout out Think aloud Choral reading Another model of scaffolding

8. Verbal Scaffolding Prompting, questioning, and elaborating facilitate students’ movement to higher levels of language proficiency, comprehension, and thinking: Paraphrasing Using “Think – Alouds” Reinforcing Contextual Definitions Think-Pair-Share Procedural Scaffolding Lead the students through steps to make them more independent: Modeling: I do Practice opportunities with others: We do Independent practice: You do Graphic organizers Scaffolding

9. What is scaffolding? • Find the definition you wrote earlier. • Read it over and make some changes. • What is your new definition of scaffolding? • Share with your group.

10. Scaffolding: Gradual Release of Responsibility • I Do • Modeling the strategy yourself, thinking aloud while writing or charting • We Do • Do the same activity again with students or go to the next step of the activity. Plan to have directions of comments match your actions. • You Do • Paired or independent work after a successful “we do” trial

11. Making Connections • Help kids make in-depth connections related to story • Anchor charts for student responses • Self-to-text, text-to-text, text-to-world • Small group work: releasing responsibility

12. Making Connections:Thinking Aloud • Models real inner dialogue • Pick books you like – be real • Use academic language • Starters: • “When I read these words, I thought of…” • When I saw this picture, it reminded me of…” • From this information, I can infer…” Miller 2002 p. 54

13. Making Connections: Anchor Charts • Chart all student responses – give credit • Discuss which ones are helpful to the story. Vote 1, 2; star, circle; etc. • Students justify their votes Miller 2002 p. 60

14. Making Connections:Small Group Expectations • Read book to class • Students break up to pairs to record connections with pictures or words • Review helpful connections • Vote 1-2 if necessary Miller 2002 p. 61

15. Making Connections:Self-to-text • Connect to personal experience that deepens understanding of the story • Mostly oral language • Charts are useful to review connections • List and vote for relevance

16. Making Connections:Text-To-Text • Compare two books • Venn diagram – 3-tab foldable • Also: Text-to-World connections • What are the connections to the world outside of self? Miller 2002 p. 63

17. Thinking Aloud with Stickies • Write down thoughts on sticky notes – stick them in the book, notebook or poster • Categories: • Confusion/clarity • Huh? I don’t get it. How Why Who When What Where etc? • Oh, now I get this part! • Alternative: ? & Lightbulb • New information • Wow, I never knew ____ before! • Connection • This reminds me of… • I heard/read/remember something like this in _______.

18. Asking Questions “What are you wondering?” Why ask questions? Clarify meaning Speculate about what’s coming Examines author’s purpose, style, intent Locate specific information Rhetorical questions or make connection

19. Questions: Leaf & Root • “Leaf” questions are “above ground”, literal comprehension knowledge level • Answer is in the text • “Root” questions are “buried”, higher order thinking questions • Information leading to the answer is in the text, but not the exact answer

20. Asking Questions • Code questions after forming them. Why? • Do all questions have answers? • How else can questioning skills help our kids besides with reading? • How well can/do ELLs ask deeper level questions?

21. Digging Deeper: Questions Teach children to make meaningful connections with questions: • Does what I have to say connect to the current topic? …to what someone else said? • Can I support what I say with evidence or experience? • Did someone else already say it? • If I disagree, do I state what the other person said and say why my thinking is different in a nice way?

22. What to say instead of “I don’t know” • Write the following on sentence strips, post on wall • When you hear “I don’t know” refer student to a question choice or help him/her with a new one • Could I please have some more information? • Could you please repeat the question? • Could I ask my partner? • Where can I find the answer? • Can you say that a different way? • Can I have some more time to think?

23. Inference • Connecting prior knowledge with textual clues to draw conclusions, form interpretations and make predictions Using the term “infer” frequently helps kids internalize its use and function

24. Inference for Vocabulary • 3-column Chart (I do, We do), sticky note or 3-way organizer (You do) • List unknown word • What we infer it means • What helps us • Confirm (C) or deny (X) meanings by context, picture, glossary and use strategy to find meanings for the X words

26. Inference for Prediction • 2-column Chart (I do, We do) or Notes (You do) • Fiction: What will happen? • Non-fiction: What will we learn? • What is our thinking (based on pictures and text features) • Read passage • Confirm (C)/deny (X) predictions • Make new predictions; What is our thinking (based in information from text)

28. Inference for Drawing Conclusions, Making Interpretations • Metaphor and allusion: is there more meaning in these words than meets the eye? • Using schema again to connect text to experience • 2-column notes • Text printed on left side • Student highlights on left and writes interpretations on right • On doc cam (I do, We do); on paper (You do)

30. Try it! • Dave will model with The Year of Miss Agnes • Pick a book, read and develop your inner conversation to model • Mark places to stop, think, write, ask students for their connections • Write questions (red), answers (green) and connections (purple) • Write them all at first. Days later, have the class help you decide which ones really give more understanding of the story. Rate them 1, 2. • Make inferences about the passage

31. Visualization Help students create mental images by having them work together to draw pictures based on text: • Tell a personal story or use a book, picture at first, then text only, then poetry • Have students “think in their head” about what they see before telling it • Then have them describe what they see one by one • Highlight any new, interesting vocab they might use or help them with new words Miller Ch 6 p 78-85

32. Visualization • Choosing text: do students have enough schema to make images from this text? • Do they have the vocab and what new words do they need? • Make copies of several passages; s. can choose • Partners go to a corner and draw their images Miller Ch 6 p 78-85

33. Visualization • Discuss why they chose to draw what they did. Why is it important? • The partners’ images can influence each others’ – sharing schema • Highlight any new, interesting vocab they might use or help them with new words • Write responses to the readings and pictures • Practice for several weeks. Save vocab lists for use in writing stories or poetry of their own. Miller Ch 6 p 78-85

34. outside inside Describe my image: (picture is on the back of this page) What it reminds me of (connection): (front) Drawing

35. Summarizing • Story Pyramid • Sketch to Stretch (main idea/detail) • Sketch in color – 3 minutes • One sentence - main idea • 3-4 sentences – supporting details • Final draft • Organizer has versions for elementary, secondary.

36. Digging Deeper: Visuals • Reading spaces, bulletin boards, book displays. See p 98 for ideas. • Map your room. • Do you have • Group reading space (carpet) • Individual/partner reading spaces • Inviting/instructional visuals • Student work • Books/authors

37. Digging Deeper: Tools • Do you have on hand: • Paper, bond & construction in colors • Markers/colored pencils/crayons • Sticky notes • Two-column note pages (spirals for older kids) • Story maps • Venns (paper for making 3-tab foldables)

38. So What Now… I can use the ___________________________strategy with my ___________________ group or class. How I need to modify it: What materials I need:

39. Download and Contact Forms, templates, questions, bookings: www.langdevopps.com dave@langdevopps.com

40. Acknowledgements Material in this presentation draws on the work of Ainsworth, Larry (2003) Power Standards: Identifying the Standards that Matter the Most, Advanced Learning Press Archer, Anita (2006) “Dynamic Vocabulary Instruction in Secondary Classrooms,” presentation at OSPI January Conference, Seattle, WA. Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2002) Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, Guilford Press Beck, McKeown & Kucan (2008) Creating Robust Vocabulary: Frequently Asked Questions & Extended Examples. Guilford Press. Calderon & Rowe (2005) “Project ExC-ELL: Expediting Comprehension for English Language Learners in Secondary Schools” training, Johns Hopkins University. Cummins, J. (1981) The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 3-49). Los Angeles: Evaluation, Dissemination, and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles. Echevarria, Vogt & Short (2008) Making Content Comprehensible for English Learners: The SIOP Model, 3rd Edition, Pearson. Echevarria & Graves, (2003) Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching English Language Learners with Diverse Abilities 2nd Edition, Allyn & Bacon. Figueroa, Richard (2002) “Scientifically Based Reading Research”: The Definitional Dilemma for California Migrant Education Students (draft), UC Davis.

41. Krashen, Stephen (1993) The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research, Libraries Unlimited. Montaño-Harmon, Dr. Maria (2003) “English for Academic Purposes” training, California State University Fullerton. Miller, Debbie (2002) Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. Stenhouse. National Reading Panel (2000) Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read. Russell, Sarah (2007) Powerpoint slides & ideas. Washoe School District, Reno NV. Thomas, W. & Collier, V. (1997) School effectiveness for language minority students. George Mason University. Vacca& Vacca (1999) Content Area Reading: Literacy and Learning Across the Curriculum, 6th Edition, Longman. Zike, Dinah (1989) Big Book of Projects: How to design, develop, & make projects from kindergarten through college, dinah-might adventures, San Antonio. Zwiers, Jeff (2004) Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12: A Toolkit of Classroom Activities, IRA.