Comprehension– that’s what it’s all about: Teaching

students HOW to interact with texts across the curriculum

Melissa HornKatie Laver

Jody Shaughnessy

Proficient readers use a number of different cognitive strategies in the process of interacting with texts and constructing meaning. (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000)

Constructing meaning refers to building knowledge and promoting understanding. (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000)

What Research Says

Engaged reading involves a complex set of cognitive, emotional, and visual processes that expert readers enact automatically. (Wilhelm, 2001)

The goal of reading research has been to recognize these processes so that these tools can be taught to students to help them improve their reading. (Voyager U, 2006)

QuestionsThink-AloudUses Prior KnowledgeInfersVisualizes Determines What’s ImportantSynthesizes

7 Thinking Strategies

Explicit reading instruction means that we show students HOW we think when we read.

1. Teacher Modeling ( I do, you watch)2. Guided Practice (I do, you help)3. Independent Practice (you do, I help)4. Application of a Strategy (in real

reading situations) (you do, I watch)

Gradual Release of Responsibility

What is it?Strong readers ask questions before, during, and after reading.

Why is it important?The questions clarify our understanding and

focus our reading. They also help us to move forward and dig deeper into the text.

Questioning

At the modeling level:• Think- aloud• Teachers can model w/ a book that they are

reading

Scaffolding:• Read Aloud/Pause/ Write (Read aloud a text

and pause at certain points to jot down questions)

• Listing and Categorizing questions

Questioning

As students move toward independence:• “Thick and Thin questions” (great for use in the

content areas with nonfiction)• Wonderbooks• Encouraging Inferential Thinking- use of

questioning with poetry\• Coding/Flagging the text- to help students

monitor understanding

Questioning Strategies Continued

What is it?Effective way to open a window into students’

reading processes. Different types:

Oral Think- Aloud- student reads or listens to you read a text.

Written Think-AloudWhy is it important?Helps determine what students do and don’t

do as they read. Reveals what strategies they use while reading and ways to improve.

Think Aloud

Say Something Ask the AuthorHand Gestures (DVD)

Think Aloud Activities

What is it? Helping students recall information from

their own experiences to make connections to texts.

Why is it important?Making connections from the text to prior

knowledge helps integrate new information with what is already known.

Uses Prior Knowledge

“I Can Tell Because…”

Beginning to Make Connections: It Reminds Me of…

KWL Plus

Extended Reaction Guide

Uses Prior Knowledge Activities

What is it? Inferencing is combining schema and background

knowledge with clues provided in the text to form a new idea

Why is it important?  Inferential comprehension includes a number of skills

under one umbrella: Prediction Drawing conclusions Prior knowledge Context clues Figurative language http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/Inferring

%20lesson%20plan-grade%203%20from%20Elouise.pdf

Inferencing

Possible Sentences

Exchange Compare Writing

Probable Passages

Story Impressions

Inferencing Activities

Why do you think that happened? I wonder…What is really going on? What evidence does the author provide to

support_____?What clues did the author give that led to your

conclusion? How do you know that? How do you think the character feels?How do you combine the clues in the paragraph with

what you already know to draw a conclusion?

Questions to ask for an Inference Lesson

What is it? Taking the words of the texts and mixing them with the

readers preconceived ideas to create pictures in the mind

Why is it important?

Combining the author’s words with our background knowledge allows students to create mental images that enhance our understanding of the text and bring life to reading.

When we visualize, we are inferring, but with mental images rather than words and thoughts; like creating a movie in our mind.

Visualizes

Talking Drawings

IEPC: Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, Confirm

Visualizing Activities

What is it?• Determining the important events, themes, key

ideas as we read

Why is it important?• Students need to see the “big picture” and not

get bogged down with small details. They need support in sifting through details and deciding what is important to remember and what is not

Determining What’s Important

Modeling and Scaffolding:• Teaching students the features of Nonfiction

text to help them pick up on cues for what is important

• Reading for Answers to a Specific Question (nonfiction)

• Think –aloud for fiction• Think-Alongs • Topic vs. Detail (nonfiction, notetaking)

Determining What’s Important –Classroom Strategies

As students move toward independence:• Coding/ Flagging

• Reading Opposing Perspectives (Nonfiction)

• Open Mind Strategy- students with partners and teacher observes

Determining What’s Important- Classroom Strategies Continued

What is it?Readers create original insights, perspectives,

and understandings by reflecting on texts and merging elements from text and existing schema.

Put the pieces together to see them in a new way. Synthesizing can be compared to a journey. The

student begins with prior knowledge of the topic, gains new knowledge about that topic from a variety of sources, combines and analyzes this information, and as a final destination makes an evaluation and forms an opinion.

Synthesizes

Why it’s important?Enhances understanding and better

constructs meaning. What students say:

“When I synthesize my mind is changing, my ideas are changing, my thinking is changing.”

“When you synthesize you say in your head, I used to think this but now I’m thinking this.”

Synthesizing

http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/synthesizing/syn_lessonplans.html

Creating a playThree Little PigsMiss Pingels Synthesizing ActivityGISTDouble Journal EntriesWriting from a different person’s perspective

Synthesizing Activities

Melissa.horn@kannapolis.k12.nc.usKatie.laver@kannapolis.k12.nc.usJody.shaughnessy@kannapolis.k12.nc.us

Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. 2007. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement.

Beers, K. 2003. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. A Guide for Teachers 6-12.

Wood, K. 2001. Literacy Strategies Across the Subject Areas.Oczkus, Lori, 2009. Interactive Think Aloud Questions.http://www.kbumreading.com/index.htmlLaverk.wikispaces.com login: laverk password: SBBulldogs

Bibliography