Strategies for Teaching Reading

Skills

October 6, 2011

Why are we having this conversation?

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Contexts for Reading Reading for literary experience Reading for information Reading to perform a task

Aspects of Reading Form a general understanding Developing an interpretation Making reader/text connections Examining content and structure

Basic (265) Twelfth-grade students performing at the Basic

level should be able to identify elements of meaning and form and relate them to the overall meaning of the text. They should be able to make inferences, develop interpretations, make connections between texts, and draw conclusions; and they should be able to provide some support for each. They should be able to interpret the meaning of a word as it is used in the text.

Proficient (302) Twelfth-grade students performing at the

Proficient level should be able to locate and integrate information using sophisticated analyses of the meaning and form of the text. These students should be able to provide specific text support for inferences, interpretative statements, and comparisons within and across texts.

Advanced (346) Twelfth-grade students performing at the

Advanced level should be able to analyze both the meaning and the form of the text and provide complete, explicit, and precise text support for their analyses with specific example. They should be able to read across multiple texts for a variety of purposes, analyzing and evaluating them individually and as a set.

NAEP Results12th grade 2009The average reading score for the nation's twelfth-graders was 2 points higher in 2009 than in 2005. The score in 2009, however, was 4 points lower than the score for the first reading assessment in 1992.White students, Asian/Pacific Islander students, and male students made gains since 2005.Thirty-eight percent of twelfth-graders performed at or above the Proficient level in reading in 2009, which was higher than the percentage in 2005, but not significantly different from the percentages in other earlier assessment years.

NAEP Results http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009

/gr12_national.asp?tab_id=tab2&subtab_id=Tab_1#tabsContainer

NAEP Results Overall results

Small gains overall for 8th graders No change in achievement gap No change, females continue to out perform

males No gains in lower-income students No significant change in Ohio scores

http://nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2009/state_g8.asp?subtab_id=Tab_1&tab_id=tab1#tabsContainer

Characteristics of Good Readers

When they come to an unfamiliar word, good readers use a variety of word analysis strategies, such as context clues, root words, prefixes, suffixes, etc. Poor readers “sound it out,” rarely connecting the word to a meaning.

Good readers are metacognitively aware, they self-correct when they make a mistake. Poor readers often ignore their errors, or fail to notice errors.

Good readers read to construct meaning, poor reader read to decode letters.

Characteristics of Good Readers

Good readers read and reread, becoming increasingly fluent; poor readers seldom read leading to problems establishing fluency.

Good readers pay attention to authors and illustrators, seeking out additional choices based on what they have enjoyed in the past, poor readers seldom notice those details and usually read only when material is assigned.

Good readers get excited about books and discuss them with friends, teachers, and family to share their enthusiasm, poor readers don’t discuss what they read unless required.

Characteristics of Struggling Readers

Read too fast, blurring words, rushing through punctuation

Do not reread to clarify meaning Read to finish rather than to understand Do not predict without prompting Do not easily make inferences, draw

conclusion, or make generalization Have difficulty summarizing important

points from the text

Characteristics of Struggling Readers Do not set a purpose for reading other

than to complete the assignment Do not connect events in the text to other

texts, personal experiences, etc. Do not recognize when comprehension is

not taking place, or do not know how to adjust, continues reading

Do not know how to use text features (charts, graphs, typeface, etc.)

Literate Aliterate Illiterate

Type of Reader

Avid Dormant Uncommitted Unmotivated Unskilled

Enjoys Reading?

Yes Yes No No No

Makes time to read

Yes No No No May or may not

Identifies as a reader

Yes Yes No No No

Says reading is...

A way of life A neat experience

Knowing words

Saying words

Figuring out words

Says books are

Entertaining Entertaining Functional Functional Functional

Strategies To Support Reading Comprehension

DRTA – Directed Reading Thinking Activity Cycle of predicting and summarizing to

enhance comprehension and metacognition Begin by predicting from the title of the reading Stop periodically to summarize, then predict what will

come next Works very well with text that is arranged with

headings and subheadings, if not students have to find their own stopping places

Often referred to as “chunking” text

Strategies To Support Reading Comprehension

Process Guides Help to guide students through the text to sort

out important information Prepared by the teacher in advance Points the way through the reading,

information student should focus on, information they can skim

For example….

Process Guide Example1. Compare definitions of and purposes for cooperative

learning in Cruickshank and Kagan.2. Don’t worry about knowing STAD, TGT, etc. focus on

theories behind cooperative learning and what makes cooperative learning different from group work, such as pgs. 244-45.

3. Focus on purposes, characteristics, definitions, when to use for

-discovery learning -constructivism-direct instruction

4. For direct instruction, pay more attention to research based, esp. pages 260, 263-64.

5. Chapter 9, p. 283 difference between formative and summative assessment.

Strategies To Support Reading Comprehension

Skimming and Scanning Skimming – preview or review

Read the first full paragraph Read the first sentence of each subsequent

paragraph Read the last full paragraph

Scanning Eyes scan the text looking for a particular piece of

information and then stop Works well to review, good for names, dates,

locations, bold type, etc.

Classroom Activities That Can Support Reading Comprehension

Linguistic Roulette 1. Assign a reading selection; it can be one piece for the

whole class, or different pieces for different groups. 2. Divide the selection(s) into smaller sections. 3. Students read the selected portion of the text. 4. After reading is complete, students go back and scan

the selection and choose a single sentence. They may choose a sentence because it is interesting, exciting, confusing, funny, informative, etc.

5. Around the group, students share the sentence they chose and the reason for choosing it. Students discuss choices and help each other to clear up any confusion, especially if the choice was because the student didn’t understand.

6. Repeat pattern until the selection has been read and all students have shared their final sentence choice.

Classroom Activities That Can Support Reading Comprehension

Think Aloud The purpose of a think aloud is to model

metacognition in a very overt manner for students, for them to “see inside your head” as you are reading and comprehending.

This is not something that occurs in isolation, it should be in the context of a lesson that uses the material.

You decide how much discussion to include with the think aloud model. Purists of this approach do not include discussion while they are modeling.

Classroom Activities That Can Support Reading

Comprehension Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)

Self-generated questions that help keep the reader interested and are used to seek information

Levels of questions Text explicit – the answer is quoted directly in the

text Text implicit – the answer must be implied from the

text Script implicit – the answer requires text, prior

knowledge, and experiences

Classroom Activities That Can Support Reading

Comprehension QAR cont’d. Teacher models several levels of questions This strategy facilitates comprehension by

identifying the type of question being asked and then the resources necessary to answer it

Can be used with individuals or in small group discussions

Classroom Activities That Can Support Reading

Comprehension QAR cont’d. Question labels

Right there (text explicit) Think and search (text implicit) Text and you (script and text implicit) On your own (script implicit)

References Improving Adolescent Literacy (2008)

Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey “No Time, No Interest, No Way!” (1996)

Kylene Beers, School Library Journal Content Area Reading (2010) Richard

Vacca, Jo Anne Vacca, Maryann Mraz When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can

Do (2003) Kylene Beers