COMPREHENSION SKILLS IN THE CONTENT AREASLandmark Outreach & Fitchburg State CollegeInstructor: Charles L. Newhall

Teaching Comprehension and Understanding

Comprehension Seminar Agenda What’s the BIG idea? Introductions Reflection & Individual Case Studies

of Teaching Comprehension Skills Setting Individual and Collective

Goals & Objectives Comprehension Skills Defined Artifact and Primary Source Learning

Schedule

8:30 – 10:00 Session I 10:00-10:15 Break 10:15-11:30 Session II 11:30-12:30 Lunch 12:30-2:00 Session III 2:00-2:15 Break 2:15-3:00 Session IV

Course Goals & Objectives

To learn and understand current theories of learning and comprehension

To read and reflect on current scholarship

To experience comprehension-centered lessons

To create practical lessons which use comprehension-centered exercises

To share and learn from each other about comprehension

Day One Agenda

Session One 21st Century teaching & learning Skills-based, Content-rich teaching & learning

Session Two Learning Styles & Differences Defining Comprehension Skills

Session Three Multisensory Comprehension Learning:

Inferences & Images Using Primary Sources in the Content Areas

Session Four Understanding by Design

Comprehension

How do YOU define comprehension?

Can comprehension be taught?

What are comprehension strategies?

How do we create comprehension-centered lessons?

21st Century Skills

Sir Ken Robinson:Changing Educational Paradigms

Robinson is the author of Out of Our Minds

Is there just too much information and too many new ideas to comprehend?

Version 4.o

Shift Happens

Daniel Pink’s “R-Directed” Thinking

Toward Wise Thinking

“We need to provide students with educational contexts in which they can formulate their own understanding of what constitutes wise thinking. In other words, teaching for wisdom is not accomplished by telling students about wisdom, but rather, by letting students actively experience wise decision making.”

Sternberg, Robert J. et al. (2009): 106.

Scaffolding & Case Studies “Toward this end, teachers can

provide scaffolding for the development of wisdom and case studies to help students develop wisdom, but a teacher cannot teach particular courses of action or give students a list of dos and don’ts.”

Sternberg, Robert J. et al. (2009): 106.

The New Bloom’s Taxonomy

Interactive 2.0 Bloom’s

For Interactive Bloom’s, click here.

What’s NEW in the NEW Bloom? Action Words! Focus on the cognitive process Knowledge is now “Remembering” “Comprehension” is now

“Understanding” “Synthesis” is now “Evaluating” “Evaluation” is now “Creating”

Kinds of Comprehension

Visual Auditory Kinethetic Emotional Environmental Reading Graphing

Interpreting Exemplifying Classifying Summarizing Inferring Comparing Explaining Predicting Executing(Source: Mary Forehand)

The Cognitive-Knowledge Grid

Oregon State Model of Bloom’s Taxonomy with definitions, click HERE.

Four Levels of Knowledge

Factual Knowledge Conceptual

Knowledge Procedural

Knowledge Meta-Cognitive

Knowledge

Constructing Meaning

“The current concepts of learning view students as active participants in the learning process. Students select the information to which they attend and construct their own meanings for the selected information.”

Source: LearnWiki article

Content-Rich & Skills-Based All teaching involves teaching

content and skills. We need to be as aware of the skills

we are teaching as we are of the content we are uncovering and helping students to make their own.

Content-Rich Curriculum

Cognitive Sequential Contextualized Diverse and

Inclusive

Primary Sources Secondary Sources Multiple Points of

View Textual Visual

Skills-Based Curriculum

Gathering Ideas and Information

Processing Ideas and Information

Expressing Ideas and Information

Gathering Ideas & Information Listening Skills Margin Notes Underlining Identifying Key Ideas Discriminating Information

for less important details Summarizing Paraphrasing Questioning Predicting Cornell Notes

Annotating Reading different kinds of

maps, charts, and graphs Reading photographs,

cartoons, art work, etc. Researching Identifying urls Using search engines Using bibliographical lists Using Dewey & LOC card

catalogues Using Reference books and

web sites

Processing Ideas & Information Separating facts

and opinion/judgment

Categorizing Outlining Identifying Cause

and Effect Drawing Valid

Conclusions

Diagramming (Venn) Webbing

(Inspiration) Analyzing Synthesizing Developing a thesis Organizing

supporting evidence

Expressing Ideas & Information Writing: process,

narrative, analytic, persuasive, creative

Developing questions Crafting a topic sentence Crafting a thesis

statement Crafting an introduction

and conclusion Oral Presentations

Debates Role Play

Simulations Table-top/poster

Projects PowerPoint Projects Documentary Film

Projects Web Page Projects

Kinds of Instruction

Direct/Explicit Instruction Lectures Teacher Modeling Scaffolding Demonstrations

Inquiry-based Instruction Simulations Hands-on Projects Debates

Moving beyond the either/or model of the teacher-centered versus the student-centered classroom to the concept-centered classroom.

Comprehension Lessons

Gardner Reading Sternberg Reading UbD Framework

Comprehension, Gathering & Processing Information & Ideas through Notetaking Strategies

Comprehension Unit Castle-building

Comprehension Unit Fateful Years: A Performance-

based assessment

Reading Next TeachingComprehensi

on wiki

Pearson’s Model

Learning Styles & Comprehension Multiple

Intelligences Gardner “Approaches to

Understanding”

Teaching for Wisdom Sternberg “thinking

reflectively” “thinking

dialogically” “thinking

dialectically”

Gardner’s “Approaches to Understanding”

Narrational Quantitative/

Numerical Logical Foundational/

Existential

Aesthetic Hands-On Social

Sternberg Thinking Styles

Legislative Executive Judicial

Monarchic Oligarchic Anarchic

Global-Local Internal-External Liberal-

Conservative

COMPREHENSION LESSONSComprehension in the Content Areas

Reflection on Comprehension

How has your understanding of comprehension evolved today?

How do “high level” formulations of comprehension (Gardner, Sternberg) help to focus our lesson planning?

What comprehension skills have you considered today?

What comprehension strategies will you take away from today’s seminar?

Towards Understanding

Are you developing a more sophisticated and useful understanding of comprehension?

Are there topics/issues that you want to be sure get addressed?

Are your goals for the course being met?

Do you have a comprehension project/unit/lesson you are considering developing?

Do you have a student outcome that you want to work on for your project?

Two Online Resources

Teaching Comprehesion wikispace Concept to Classroom (PBS Channel

Thirteen NYC)

From Gathering & Processing to Expressing Direct/Explicit

Instruction to Inquiry-based Instruction

Kinds of Intelligences – this is metacognition!

The Design Process

Writing & Comprehension

Research & Comprehension

Simulations & Comprehension

Six Facets to Build Assessments Can explain

Can interpret

Can apply

Sees in perspective

Demonstrates empathy

Reveals self-knowledge Source: Understanding by Design,

163-164 and see also the Rubric on pages 178-179

Building a Unit/Lesson

Identify Desired Results

Determine Acceptable Evidence

Plan Learning Experiences

Use the sample 6-page template on pages 327-332: This is your MODEL for your lesson.

Use the Charts in UbD On Page 257 for

Entry Points

On page 184

On pages 193-194

Develop an Essential Question “Reporter”

questions

Higher level questions (New Bloom)

Topical vs. Overarching

Concluding Thoughts

Writing Next framework

Research Skills

Structured Research to Structured Writing

Lesson Planning Using WHERETO Using Uncoverage Check for

Understanding

Reflecting on Comprehension

Chinese Proverb

I hear, I forget.I see, I remember.I do, I understand.