Reading: The Key to Academic Success

Comprehension Strategies

Presenter: Amy BenjaminYou may access any of today’s visuals at: www.amybenjamin.com

Joliet, IllinoisJune 11, 2010

Today’s Agenda: 1. Understanding through text types2. Five Gears of Reading3. Writing a one-sentence summary4. The Comprehension Process5. Vocabulary and Comprehension

What is the significance oftext types?

A reader who is aware of the text type is better able to:

1. Mentally organize the information (be oriented)2. Predict and anticipate3. Recall the key information4. Establish an accurate relationship between key ideas and supportive details

Outline: Descriptive information about a single topic

All About Ants

I. HabitatA. B.

II. Life cycleA. B.

III. Food sourcesA. B.

Controlling Question:

What is it? What are itsparts or branches?

How does it work?

I. Changes caused by Industrial RevolutionA. How people workedB. How people lived

II. Before the IRA. Workers mostly in rural areasB. Families worked together on farmsC. Most items made by handD. Children continued work of parents

Outlines: Text I

III. During and After the IR A. Families moved to cities

B. City living conditions1. Families less together2. Factory work

a. Dirtyb. Dangerous

C. Machinery1. Rapid production2. Decline of hand-made goods

Sequence: Story Arc

Controlling question:

What happens(ed)?

Background(exposition)

Events, in time order

Events buildto this point

Ending(resolution)

Text II: Eos and Tithonius

Controlling question:

What happens(ed)?

Background(exposition)

Events, in time order

Events buildto this point

Ending(resolution)

Eos, daughter of the Sun

Eos falls in love with Tithonius, a mortal. They marry and are happy. They appeal to Zeus to grant Tithonius immortality.Though immortal, he still ages.

Tithonius begs for death, but Eos cannot undo the spell

E transforms T into a g’hopper; Memories are eternal

Relationship: T-Chart

Comparison/Contrast:Subject A

Comparison/Contrast:Subject B

Causes Effects

Problem Proposed solution

Text V: Cause & Effect

Come before effects Come after causes

May be more than one

AKA: results, consequences

Causes Effects

May be more than one; may result in more than one effect

Clue words: because, therefore, due to, as a result

Ex: The wind knocked down a tree

Ex: The wind knocked down a tree

AKA: stimulus

The 3 Major TexTTypes

Outline

A B

T-Chart

I. A. B.

II. A. B.

Story Arc

Cooperative Learning Protocol for Improving Reading Comprehension

4-Step Process

1. Let’s summarize:

2. Let’s ask:

3. Let’s clarify:

4. Let’s predict:

Let’s summarize:

The ABOUT, AND technique:

1. It’s about…….. (one or two words)

2. and….

3. who, what, when, where, why, or how….

It’s about birds

It’s about birds and how they fly.

Text I:

It’s about the Industrial Revolution and how it changed family life.

Text II: It’s about Eos and Tithonius and how their ill-fated love story played out.

Text III:It’s about England and why it is to be treasured.

Text IV:It’s about the different kinds of taxes and what they are used for.

Text V:It’s about cause and effect relationships and how you can recognize which is which.

Summaries:

Cooperative Learning Protocol for Improving Reading Comprehension

2. Let’s ask: Questioning the Text

3 Kinds of questions:1. “Right there”: The answer is stated directly

I. Yes/NoII. Who/what/when/where/why/how

2. “Put it together”: The answer is impliedin the text

3. “Beyond the Text”: The answer is not given; the textevokes the question

Five Gears of Reading:

Skim it: Scan it: Sample it: Read it: (optional) Study it:

Glance over it; (30 secsper page); getthe gist; be able tostate what it is aboutin a complete sentence

Look it over with an eagle’s eye, scanningfor specific information,such as information thathas key words to answerquestions

Now that you’ve let thetext wash over you, readit thoroughly: every word,every sentence, everygraphic.

Go back, as necessary,getting a more useful andpermanent understanding. This may involve workingwith a partner, takingnotes, creating graphic organizers, and othermeaning-making activities.

www.amybenjamin.com

Find a segment that is most interesting to you and read it carefully.

The Reading Process:

BeforeDuringAfter

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3C’s:B:Connect ! (4 connections)D: Concentrate ! (5 behaviors)A: Complete ! (3 choices)

Or, 3F’s: B: FrontloadD: FocusA: Finish

The Reading Process:

Before: Connect !

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3 C’s

Connection 1: Background knowledge (incl. key vocab)

Connection 2: Text type (organizational structure)

Connection 3: Establish a purpose for reading

Connection 4: Overview

Before:Connection 1:Activate Background knowledge

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3 C’s

“What comes to mind when I say the word______?”

“What do/does ___________remind you of?”

“What do you see in your mind when I say ______?”

“What words are you seeing that you need to know moreabout?

Before:Connection 2:Prepare for the text type (organizational structure)

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3 C’s

Picture the structure. Set up a “mental closet” to containthe information. Think about what you expect in thisstructure.

Before:Connection 3:Read with a purpose.

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3 C’s

Decide what you are looking for.

Before:Connection 4:Overview.

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3 C’s

THIEVVES:TitleHeadingsIntroductory paragraphEvery first sentence of every paragraphVisuals and Vocabulary End-of-chapter questionsSummary

The Reading Process:

During: Concentrate!

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3 C’s

Adjust the environment: eliminate all sensorydistractions

Visualize: Look for imagery in the text Visualize the organizational structure

Monitor comprehension: Be prepared to reread and/orseek outside help

Be an active reader: Anticipate, react, predict, question connect

The Reading Process:After: Complete!

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3 C’s

Write, talk, or draw

The Academic Word List (AWL):

Background: The Academic Word List consists of 570 word families that are not in the most frequent 2,000 words of English but which occur frequently over a very wide range of academic texts.These 570 word families are grouped into ten subsets that reflect word frequency. A word like analyze falls into Subset 1, which contains the most frequent words, while the wordadjacent falls into Subset 10 which includes the least frequent (among this list of high incidence words).

The AWL is not restricted to a specific field of study. That means that the words are useful for learnersstudying in disciplines as varied as literature, science, health, business, and law. This high-utility academic word list does not contain technical words likely to appear in one,specific field of study such as amortization, petroglyph, onomatopoeia, or cartilage. Two-thirds of all academic English derive from Latin or Greek.

Understandably, knowledge of the most high-incidence adademic words in English can significantly boost a student’s comprehension level of school-based reading material. Students who are taught these high-utility academic words and routinely placed in contexts requiring their usage are likely to be able to master academic material with more confidence and efficiency, wasting less time and energy in guessing words or consulting dictionaries than those who are only equipped with the most basic 2000-3000 words that characterize ordinary conversation.

Source: Coxhead, Averil. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213-238.

Of Limited Value…Lists aloneContext aloneDefinitions aloneDictionaries and Glossaries alone

Of Durable Value…Words in clustersMultiple exposures in various contextsChances to speak, hear, write the wordsManipulation of forms of wordsClassify and categorize word listsWord games

Think of a child that you know well.

Turn & Talk: Talk about how this

child began to use language. How did he or she

learn his or her first words, phrases, and

sentences?

This is Charlotte.

Role play a conversation

that you would have with

Charlotte about juice.

“Charlotte, are you thirsty?

Would you like some juice?

What kind of juice do you

want? Do you want apple

juice? That’s the yellow juice

that you liked at Nana’s. No?

Do you want the purple juice? The grape juice?

OK. Do you want your juice in the sippy cup or

the Big Girl juice box? OK, now hold it carefully.

Two hands. Don’t squeeze it! It’ll spill all over the

place. Very carefully.Sip it through the straw.

What do you think are the instructional implications

for your ELL’s?

• Repetition in various contexts and forms• Physical associations with the language• “Target words” presented with “accessory• words”• Connect word to experience

“The Raven”: Vocabulary List

LoreMorrowSurceaseEntreatObeisanceBeguileCountenanceCravenDiscoursePlacidMelancholyPlutonianPallidLetheNepentheRespite

Strangers Acquaintances Friends

Key Idea IV:We need both verbal and non-verbal processing.

structure

technical

mechanism

Key Idea IV:We need both verbal and non-verbal processing.

Key Idea IV:We need both verbal and non-verbal processing.

Complete sentence of at least ____words: Must contain an action verb and a visual image.

Target Word:

Visual:Draw or find a picture:

My guess: Glossary Definition:

Vocabulary Chart:

Definition in my own words:

5 Strategies for Learningf Words on a Vocabulary List:

Classify Build Analyze Morph Synthesize

Studentsthink of waysin which thewords ontheir lists canbe classified(sorted,arranged,organized)

Studentsbuild wordsinto phrases;

phrases intosimplesentences;

simple sentencesinto complexsentences

Students breakwords downinto prefixes,roots, suffixes

(Word Study)

Studentsmanipulate thewords intodifferent partsof speech byadding endings

Students usetheir words togenerate ideasfor a writingpiece:

Purposes:

To inform,To entertain,To persuade,To socialize

Word Components: Level 1 (usually known in elementary grades)

Prefixes

ex-pre-re-un-dis-non-im-mis-mini-maxi-

Word Components: Level 2 (usually known in intermediate grades)

Prefixes

co-; con-; com-syn-; sym-in-; en- (into)sub-; sup-e-a-; ab-inter-intra-mono-uni-bi-; tri-; quad-, etc.

cent-; milli-; mega-poly-; multi-omni-trans-semi-bio-; geo-; eco-

Word Components: Level 3 (usually known in high school)

Prefixes

pseudo-demi-endo-; ecto-pro-per-peri-hemi-ob-bene-mal-

photo-nom-ig-muni-contra-philo-