Reading Comprehension

Strategies for Monitoring Meaning &Creating a Learning Community

GreetingFor your classroom: experiment with starting your class with a greeting or full-scale morning meeting.

Resources: Responsive Classroom series Morning Meeting books

by Robert Inchausti

1. Morning-Meeting-style greeting2. Overview3. Activator4. Comprehension strategies5. Teaching and modeling6. Other tools7. Q & A

from Spitwad Sutras:Classroom Teaching as Sublime Vocation

Word SortAn initial word sort can be revisited & revised throughout the unit.

For your classroom: can be used to get a feeling for student understanding before teaching a unit.

Resources: http://tinyurl.com/word-sort-lesson-ideas

Think-Pair-ShareFor your classroom: give students time to synthesize new ideas and improve their oral language skills.

◦Time to read◦Time to talk◦Instruction in strategies Metacognition: thinking about thinking Teachers modeling how we read Showing students how they’ve grown

“I read it but I don’t get it.”

Students need:

Metacognition in math class

Monitoring for meaning

Asking questions Connecting - Using and creating schema Tracking down - Determining important information Inferring Visualizing - Using sensory and emotional images Eureka! - Synthesizing

Seven Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Printable resources available from: Anchorage School District and

Troup County School System

The umbrella under which the other comprehension strategies fall

Keep track of your understanding as you read

Know what your purpose is as you read Know how to solve problems and change

your thinking when meaning breaks down Good readers carry on an inner

conversation with themselves when they read.

Monitoring for Meaning

Before, during, and after reading:◦ Clarify meaning◦ Speculate about the text yet to be read◦ Determine author’s intent, style, content, or

format◦ Locate a specific answer

Proficient readers understand that many of the most exciting questions are left to the reader’s interpretation.

Asking QuestionsA C T I V E

(Ask

ing)

Right There Questions:

Think and Search Questions:

Author and You:

On My Own:

Right There Questions: “What color was the dog?”

Think and Search Questions: “What was the same about every dog in the story?”

Author and You: “How did the boy probably feel when he found the dog?”

On My Own: “What would you do if you found the dog?”

Asking Questions, continuedQuestion-Answer Relationship (QAR): Categorizing Post-Reading Questions

A C T I V E

(Ask

ing)

Using and Creating Schema

If new learning is like a crystal, the schema is the chandelier on which it can hang and make sense.

Successful readers need to access their schema.◦ Teachers can help activate “mental files” before, during, and

after reading.◦ Kathy Schrock’s Guide is full of activators and summarizers.

Proficient readers make different kinds of connections: ◦ Text-text◦ Text-self◦ Text-worldview

A C T I V E

(Con

nect

ions

)

“You expect me to remember all of that?!”◦ Which ideas are the important ones to remember?

Highlighting is easy. Determining what to highlight is hard.

Nonfiction:◦ Fonts, signal words, illustrations, graphics, text

organizers, and text structures

Determining ImportanceA C T I V E

(Tra

ckin

g im

port

ant

idea

s)

Inferences are used to:◦ determine meanings of unknown words◦ reason about the theme of a text◦ make predictions about text that can be

confirmed or contradicted as they read on

Inferences depend on:◦ the schema in the reader’s mind◦ close attention to textual clues◦ rereading◦ conversations with others

InferringA C T I V E

(Inf

erri

ng)

Using Sensory and Emotional Images

Visualizing brings joy to reading!

We create pictures in our minds that belong to us and no one else.

Visualizing is a process of creating meaning.

A C T I V E(V

isua

lizin

g)

As we read, we create a blueprint for what we’re reading and continually revise the plan as we recall or encounter new information.

“I have been there, this is what I remember, and this is what I believe about what I know.”

Synthesis takes place during and after reading.

Synthesizing (and Summarizing)

A C T I V E

(Eur

eka!

)

Monitoring for meaning

Asking questions Connecting - Using and creating schema Tracking down - Determining important information Inferring Visualizing - Using sensory and emotional images Eureka! - Synthesizing

Seven Strategies for Reading Comprehension

Printable resources available from: Anchorage School District and

Troup County School System

Give One – Get OneNumber your paper 1-5. Write 3 ideas. Talk with at least two more students to get 2 new ideas and share two of your own.

For your classroom: good for summarizing concepts or uncovering possibilities.

Model how you use the strategies in texts that you genuinely love and/or grapple with.

Provide opportunities for guided and independent practice.

Find time to confer with students individually and track their progress.

Gradually release responsibility (*.doc file - preview) for using strategies to the student, moving them toward independent reading and thinking.

How do I teach the strategies?

Asking questions Connecting - Using and creating schema Tracking down - Determining important information Inferring Visualizing - Using sensory and emotional images Eureka! - Synthesizing

“Girl,” by Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River

Quick Talk30-60 sec for A to talk; 30-60 sec for B to talk.

For your classroom: good for summarizing between topics.

Resources: www.online-stopwatch.com

Rubrics work on many levels at once:

◦ Help with grading: clear and consistent standards

◦ Help kids stay on-task and accountable: “How are you doing on each section of your rubric?”

◦ Act as a teaching tool: “This is what ‘excellent’ work looks like, as compared to ‘good’ work.”

Rubrics for comprehension skills – can be used as conference forms

Rubrics

Mini-Lesson: 15-20 minutesRead & Confer: 15-20 minutesShare: 5 minutes

Mini-Lesson Lesson Plans (Troup County School System page)

The Mini-Lesson Model

5 min: Settling in, teacher reads along with students

35 min: All students reading, teacher roves, one-on-one conferences, observational notes, monitoring notes, oral reading records. Teacher can systematically meet with between 3 and 5 students each day in 7-10 minute meetings.

5 min: Meeting together – students or teacher sharing, reflections about strategy use during reading, book talks or recommendations, self-evaluations, changing books, record keeping

Source: Caught in the Spell of Writing and Reading

Independent Reading Block Model

Learn reading and writing in an authentic environment of practice & peer collaboration

See Nancie Atwell, In the Middle: New Understandings aboutWriting, Reading, and Learning

Reading / Writing Workshop Model

Fluency: sample rubric

Vocabulary Development:vocab squares examples 1 & 2

Oral Language: Think-Pair-Share, Quick Share, other activators & summarizers from Kathy Schrock

Phonics Instruction: activity on next slide

Other Building Blocks

Big List1) Timed quick-write.2) Split into groups of 4-8

students. Compile lists.3) Face off with a student

from another team and knock out duplicates.

For your classroom: good for activating prior knowledge

Thank you for the incredibly important work

you all do!