Improving reading comprehension in the upper primary grades

Dr Danielle Colenbrander danielle.colenbrander@mq.edu.au

The simple view of reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986)

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Simple View of Reading !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Poor decoder profile

Successful reader profile

Generally poor reader profile

Poor comprehender profile

Decoding

Poor Comprehenders

•  Normal word reading skills for their age but poor language skills from a young age

•  Approximately 10% of school-aged children •  Difficulties tend to be subtle and “hidden” •  Difficulties tend to appear in the later years of

primary school

What we do to understand a text

“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”

What we do to understand a text: Understanding word meanings (vocabulary)

“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”

What we do to understand a text: Understanding word meanings (morphology)

“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”

What we do to understand a text: Understanding sentences (syntax)

“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”

What we do to understand a text: Making inferences

“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”

Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills

Text Comprehension

Inferencing

Morphology and Syntax

Vocabulary

Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills

Text Comprehension

Inferencing

Morphology and Syntax

Vocabulary

Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills

Text Comprehension

Inferencing

Morphology and Syntax

Vocabulary

The oral language skills of poor comprehenders

•  13 Australian poor comprehenders •  Aged 8 to 12 (Grades 3 to 6) •  Age-appropriate reading accuracy and fluency •  Below average reading comprehension

Vocabulary and semantics

Pictures: Biran & Friedmann, 2007

Morphology

Blean. Which one means something like “a person who bleans”?  

a. bleanify b. bleaner   c. bleanity d. bleanance  

Syntax

Point to: “Which elephant is the boy spraying?

Picture: Friedmann & Novogrodsky, 2002

Listening comprehension

The oral language skills of poor comprehenders

Participants

Oral Language Tasks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Vocabulary/Semantics

Syntax

Morphology

Listening comprehension

Shaded areas represent participants who scored below the bottom 10% of the control sample

The York Reading for Meaning Study Clarke, Snowling, Truelove & Hulme (2010)

The York Reading for Meaning Study Clarke, Snowling, Truelove & Hulme (2010)

Scr

eeni

ng

Pre

-test

Text Comprehension

Block 1

Oral Language Block 1

Combined Block 1

Control

10 weeks

Mid

-Tes

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Text Comprehension

Block 2

Oral Language Block 2

Combined Block 2

Control

10 weeks

Pos

t-Tes

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Text Comprehension

Oral Language

Combined

Control

11 months

Follo

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Training

Text Comprehension •  Reciprocal teaching •  Narrative •  Inferencing •  Metacognitive strategies

Oral Language •  Reciprocal teaching •  Narrative •  Vocabulary •  Figurative language

Image from www.readingformeaning.co.uk

Results

•  Training period -  All three groups made significant comprehension

improvements compared to controls -  Controls’ scores decreased

•  Follow-up period -  No increase in gain for text comprehension and

combined groups -  Scores of oral language group continued to

improve

The importance of vocabulary

•  Gains in combined group completely driven by improvements in vocabulary

•  Gains in oral language group partially driven by improvements in vocabulary

•  Vocabulary is crucial for reading comprehension skill

•  Is vocabulary training enough on its own?

Vocabulary training Colenbrander, Kohnen, Smith-Lock & Nickels (in preparation) •  11 poor comprehenders •  Average word and text reading accuracy and fluency •  Below average reading comprehension •  8 weeks of oral-language based vocabulary training •  30 minutes a week, 3 times a week •  Small groups (5 or 6 per group)

TIME 1 Baseline 1

TIME 2 Baseline 2

TIME 3 Post test

TIME 4 Follow up

No training No training TRAINING

Training method

Adaptation of Robust Vocabulary Instruction method (Beck, Perfetti & McKeown, 1982; Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002) •  Tier 2 words envy, prevent, nimble, offend, gradual •  Child-friendly definitions “If something happens gradually, that means it happens slowly over time” •  Multiple exposures to words in rich contexts

A typical lesson

•  Introduction of first word “Confide. The next word is confide. What is the word?” •  Child-friendly definition “Confide means to tell a secret, or to trust someone with

information you don’t want anyone else to know” •  Three examples of the word in context “Imagine your friend is about to give a speech in front of

the class. She tells you she is very nervous but she doesn’t want anyone else to know. Your friend confided in you that she was nervous.”

A typical lesson

•  Children hear 5 examples relating to the word and discuss them

Would you confide in someone if you accidentally broke your mum’s favourite vase? Why or why not?

•  Children are asked to come up with examples of the word from their own experience

•  This is repeated for 2 further words •  Children play word-association game

Group results: Vocabulary

Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0

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Time of Testing

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Trained vs. untrained words

Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0

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Time of Testing

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Definition Scores - Trained Words

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Trained vs. untrained words

Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0

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120

Time of Testing

Tota

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Definition Scores - Trained Words

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Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0

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Time of Testing

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Definition Scores - Untrained Words

Results: Reading comprehension Experimenter-designed test

Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0

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Time of Testing

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reExperimental comprehension test

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Individual results

•  All children made improvements in vocabulary skills

•  Only 4 made statistically significant improvements in reading comprehension skills

•  These children had the poorest vocabulary skills to begin with

Conclusions

•  Training oral vocabulary does improve reading comprehension – but only if the text contains words the children have learnt

•  Choice of words to teach extremely important •  Vocabulary training is most effective in

improving reading comprehension for children who have poor vocabulary skills

Reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984)

•  Relies on dialogue between instructor and pupils •  Initially, responses are modelled, with modelling

gradually faded out •  Lessons revolve around a text •  Four strategies: -  Clarification -  Summarisation -  Prediction -  Question generation

Clarification

•  Involves teaching children to identify words, phrases or concepts that are not fully understood, and to look for information that might help them to understand

•  Examples of activities include: -  Highlighting difficult or unknown words -  Using dictionaries to look up word meanings -  Examining text for clues to word meanings

Summarisation

•  Involves identifying key ideas in a passage and putting them in a logical order

•  Examples of activities include: -  Highlighting key ideas -  Identifying topic sentences -  Identifying and removing unnecessary words -  Creating mind maps or graphic organisers to help identify key ideas

Prediction

•  Requires synthesis of different information to make informed judgements about what might happen next

•  Examples of activities include: -  Identifying important clues in the text -  Connecting clues with general knowledge -  Checking predictions against what actually happens -  Discussing the reasons why predictions are good or bad

Question generation

•  Most advanced reciprocal teaching skill •  Requires not only comprehension skills but also expressive

language skills •  Requires theory of mind •  Examples of activities include: -  Assigning children a “question word” (who, what, when, where, why) and generating questions for partners -  Discussing why the question is easy or difficult

Example from Palincsar & Brown (1984)

Class reads a passage title “Can snakes sting with their tongues?” A: Do snakes’ tongues sting? K: Sometimes A: Correct. This paragraph is about do snakes sting with their tongue, and different ways that the tongue is for and the senses of smell. Teacher: Are there any questions? C: Snakes’ tongues don’t sting! Teacher: Beautiful! I thought, boy, I must have been doing some fast reading there because I missed that point. A, could you ask your question again? A: Do snakes’ tongues really sting? Teacher: Now A, since you asked the question, can you find in that paragraph where the question is answered? A: No, snakes’ tongues are completely harmless. Teacher: So we’ll try it again. Can you generate another question you think a teacher might ask? A: What are the tongues used for? Teacher: Good

Combining vocabulary training and recipriocal teaching

•  Identify target vocabulary words during reciprocal teaching •  Integrate vocabulary activities with reciprocal teaching -  Give additional examples of the word in context -  Discuss why the word fits in textual context -  Talk about synonyms for the word -  Follow a period of reciprocal teaching with vocabulary games

•  Remember to ensure that sufficient time is spent on direct vocabulary teaching – discussing words in context alone is not enough

Resources for teaching vocabulary

•  Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction.

•  Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2008). Creating robust vocabulary: Frequently asked questions and extended examples.

•  Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. J. (2005). Building academic vocabulary: Teacher’s manual.

Resources for reciprocal teaching

•  Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), p. 117-175.

Online resources: •  http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/

reciprocal_teaching •  http://literacymalden.wikispaces.com/ReciprocalTeaching •  http://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/

2013/01/26/reciprocal-reading-groups-lesson/ •  Many more available!

Conclusions

•  Reading comprehension and spoken language are closely interconnected

•  The most effective way to improve reading comprehension is to work on oral language skills

•  In order to be effective, oral language work needs to happen frequently and over a long period of time

•  Oral language training is likely to be most effective if integrated into classroom activities

References

•  Biran, M., & Friedmann, N. (2007). ‘Shmita vehar Sinai’: picture and word association test. Tel Aviv, Israel: Tel Aviv University. •  Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. (2006b). Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties. British Journal of

Educational Psychology, 76, 683-696. •  Clarke, P. J., Snowling, M. J., Truelove, E., & Hulme, C. (2010). Ameliorating children's reading-comprehension difficulties: a

randomized controlled trial. Psychological Science, 21, 1106-1116 •  Clarke, P. J., Truelove, E., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2014). Developing Reading Comprehension. Chichester, UK: Wiley

Blackwell. •  Colenbrander, D. (2015). Understanding the role of oral vocabulary in reading comprehension difficulties. Doctoral

dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. •  Elwer, S., Keenan, J. M., Olson, R. K., Byrne, B., & Samuelsson, S. (2013). Longitudinal stability and predictors of poor oral

comprehenders and poor decoders. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 497-516 •  Friedmann, N., & Novogrodsky, R. (2002). BAMBI: Battery for assessment of syntactic abilities in children. Tel Aviv, Israel: Tel

Aviv University. •  Hogan, T. P., Adlof, S. M., & Alonzo, C. N. (2014). On the importance of listening comprehension. International Journal of

Speech Language Pathology, 16, 199-207 •  Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C. M., & Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language impairments in children: Parallels between

poor reading comprehension and specific language impairment? Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 47, 199-211

•  Nation, K., Cocksey, J., Taylor, J. S., & Bishop, D. V. (2010). A longitudinal investigation of early reading and language skills in children with poor reading comprehension. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 1031-1039

•  Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (1997). Assessing reading difficulties: the validity and utility of current measures of reading skill. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 359-370

•  Yuill, N., & Oakhill, J. (1991). Children's problems in text comprehension: An experimental investigation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge.