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Comprehension Strategy Instruction
A Good Choice• Much of the comprehension strategy instruction (CSI)
today is based on a review of the research reported in “Developing Expertise in Reading Comprehension: What Should Be Taught? How Should It Be Taught?” by P. David Pearson and colleagues
• There has been multiple research studies since that time supporting CSI for students struggling in the area of reading as well as a part of the total reading program.
• Harvard University’s suggested reading strategies for freshmen. (handout)
Comprehension Strategy Instruction
• Comprehension strategies are a means to an end, not an end in themselves.
• Comprehension strategies are tools readers employ in order to make meaning from text.
• Comprehension means that readers think about what they are learning as they read. As they build their store of knowledge, they must also develop understanding. They must go beyond literal understanding in order to develop insight and to think more deeply and critically.
The goal is for students to be able to use the reading strategies flexibly and independently, applying them
if and when they enhance learning.
• Learning how to drive a stick shift step by step
• Practicing the process with prompts
• Driving with minimal attention
• Driving under adverse conditions with increased attention
• Learning to comprehend strategy by strategy
• Practicing the process with verbal and written prompts
• Orchestrating strategies with minimal attention
• Reading more challenging texts with increased attention
Teaching requires careful listening. Being a sensitive observer helps answer the questions: How do I know what my students know and are able to do? How will I use what I learned about students today to help them learn more tomorrow?
Developing a Common Language
It is helpful to readers if we settle on a common language across grade levels within a school.
Tools for Active Literacy
• Think-Alouds
• Read-Alouds
• Interactive Read-Alouds
• Lifting Text
• Guided Discussion
• Anchor Lessons with Anchor Charts
• Rereading for Deeper Meaning
• Sharing Our Own Literacy by Modeling With Adult Literature
Strategies That Work, second edition
Thinking Aloud• makes our thinking public by showing how we construct meaning
• demonstrates how proficient readers think
• is central to CSI
• remains focused and focuses student attention• includes identifying the purpose of the demonstration
• ends with students sharing what they noticed
Choosing a Think-Aloud Text
• Short selection or excerpt with several natural stopping points to pause and think aloud
• Interesting/provocative text which is relevant, compelling or intriguing
• More challenging than a text that most of the children could read independently
• Should come from a variety of genres• May be new, or familiar and well-loved
Mosaic of Thought, second edition
Practice – Approx. 20 min.Groups of three
• Find one book that you think all or a portion of would be a good selection for a think-aloud and one book that you think would be a poor selection.
• Share with your small group the reasoning behind each of your selections.
• Share opposing view points. (We need to become more accustomed to having our thinking challenged.)
Reading Aloud• If the only reading aloud we do is for the
purpose of instruction, we will be losing the opportunity of demonstrating reading for pleasure.
• We need to read aloud every day for the sheer joy of it.
• We need to lift language into the air, savoring its beauty and power as well as its ability to provoke laughter and tears.
Interactive Reading Aloud
• Focuses on listening comprehension• Students do not have a copy of the text• Teacher reads and guides the discussion
while students listen and talk to each other• Teacher jots down student thinking• Decoding doesn’t interfere with
understanding• Not a strategy for teaching fluency, but when
students take what they learn and apply it to independent reading, it can impact both comprehension and fluency
Steps for Interactive Reading Aloud
1. Activating background knowledge
2. Modeling3. Guided practice4. Sharing thinking
Lifting Text• Overhead transparency of the lifted piece of
text, charts, big books• Copy for each student• Gather students close with copies and
clipboards• Read, stopping to point out how the strategy
is used and to allow students to share• Newspaper articles, portions of textbooks,
excerpts from longer fiction and non-fiction texts
• Reason through the text together
Guided Discussion
• Show your thinking first, give students clear, explicit language for talking about their reading before they join in
• Move quickly from thinking aloud to guided practice
• Not a free-for-all discussion, focused conversation
• Develop a line of thinking by listening to each other and building on one another’s comments
• Clear up misconceptions
Anchor Charts• Identify and choose your most effective
mini-lessons as anchors• Refer back to that lesson • Co-construct anchor charts to record
student thinking so that you can return to it to remember processes
• Elaborate and add to previously constructed anchor charts
Types of Anchor Charts
Strategy ChartsContent ChartsGenre Charts
Rereading for Deeper Meaning
The more the children hear or read a story, the better they comprehend it, and the more they love it.
Sharing Our Own Literature
• Don Graves: “Those of us who teach reading must be readers ourselves.”
• Bring in magazines, novels, newspaper articles, essays, poetry, etc… to share with students and to model your own reading processes.
• Share reading material you are passionate about, demonstrating the importance of reading in your daily life.
Know your tools and match them
to the task
Let’s Not Forget: Provide ample time for text
reading• Opportunity to orchestrate all of the skills and strategies that are important to proficient reading
• Results in the acquisition of new knowledge which fuels the comprehension process
• Teachers must assure students are actively engaged in actual reading, not reading related activities
• P. David Pearson (Michigan State Univ.) and Linda Fielding (Univ. of Iowa) recommend that of the total block of time set aside for reading, students should be given more time to read than the combined total time allocated for learning about reading and talking or writing about what has been read
• Avoid the Matthew effectBalancing Authenticity and Strategy Awareness in Comprehension Instruction” Pearson and Fielding
Simply allocating time for text reading is not enough.
Things teachers can do to increase the likelihood that text reading translates into improved comprehension:
• Choice• Optimal difficulty• Multiple readings • Negotiating meaning socially
Balancing Authenticity and Strategy Awareness in Comprehension Instruction” Pearson and Fielding
Responding to Reading•Purposeful
• Authentic
• Open-ended responses tell us the most about what children understand or don’t understand when they read
• Create a safe, respectful environment in order to increase risk taking
• Teach active listening and conversation skills
• A place to differentiate instruction
Activity
• Discuss the handout about how children can record their thinking about text.
• Clarify terms• Add other ideas
Gradual Release of Responsibility
TEACHER
STUDENT
Gradual Release of Responsibility
ExplicitlyTaught
Demonstrated Shared and Guided
Collaborative Independent
www.rememberit.org
Gradual Release: Explicitly Taught
• Naming and explaining the strategy gives students knowledge of the strategy.
www.rememberit.org
Gradual Release: Demonstrating
• Demonstrating explicitly gives students comprehension of what the strategy looks like.
• Think Aloud
www.rememberit.org
Gradual Release: Shared and Guided Practice
• Shared and guided reading and discussing give the students the opportunity to do part of the work of using the strategy with support from teachers and peers.
www.rememberit.org
Gradual Release: Collaborative Practice
• Collaborative reading and discussions give students the chance to do more of the work of using the strategy with peer and teacher feedback.
www.rememberit.org
Gradual Release: Independent
• Independent reading and reflecting gives students the chance to practice it by themselves with new or familiar text.
www.rememberit.org
Activity Using the handouts “Optimal Learning Model Across
the Curriculum” and “Planning for Gradual Release”, discuss the following talking points:
• Where along the gradual release continuum do I tend to spend too much or too little time and effort?
• Why is that the case?• How does my instruction need to change in order to
adequately move myself and my students across the continuum?
• How might things look different in my classroom if I implemented the gradual release model?
