sheryl turner rmc research corporation, tampa, fl ramona chauvin

Systems Planning: Factors That Affect Reading Comprehension

A Presentation for North Carolina School Leadersprovided by the Southeast Comprehensive Center

Sheryl TurnerRMC Research Corporation, Tampa, FL

Ramona ChauvinSoutheast Comprehensive Center at SEDL

Urgency

“We educators are directly responsible for crucial, life-saving work.”

Source: Buffum, Mattos, & Weber, 2010, p. 10

2

Urgency

“Today, a student who graduates from school with a mastery of essential skills and knowledge has a good chance of successfully competing in the global market place, with numerous opportunities to lead a rewarding adult life.”


3

Urgency

“In stark contrast, students who fail in school are at a greater risk of poverty, welfare dependency, incarceration, and early death.”


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Urgency

“With such high stakes, educators today are like tightrope walkers without a safety net, responsible for meeting the needs of every student, with little room for error.”


5

Hart & Risley

The invisible curriculum of child rearing focuses parent talk on what children need to know – Building Knowledge:

1. The basics: the names of all the things and actions required in order to give and follow directions

2. Social routines: for polite giving and getting3. Preparation for school: naming colors, counting, and reciting name

and age.Source: Hart & Risley, 1995

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Words heard per hour

Words heard in a 100-hour week

Words heard in a 5,200-hour year

Words heard in 4 years

Professional Family Child 2,153 215,000 11 million 45 million

Working Class Family Child 1,251 125,000 6 million 26 million

Low SES Family Child 616 62,000 3 million 13 million

Early Language Experiences: Quantitative Differences

Source: Hart & Risley, 1995 7

8

Early Language Experiences: Qualitative Differences

Words heardper hour

Affirmativesper hour

Prohibitionsper hour

Professional family child 2,153 32 5

Working class child 1,251 12 7

Low SES child 616 5 11

Source: Hart & Risley, 1995

Cumulative Language Experiences30 Million Word Difference

Children from:

Professional Families

Working Class Families

Low SES Families

Num

ber o

f wor

ds h

eard

(mill

ions

) 50 –45 –40 –35 –30 –25 –20 – 15 – 10 – 5 –

1 2 34 5 Age of child (years) Source: Hart & Risley, 1995 9

Think-Pair-Share

• What impact does oral language have on students as they enter school?

• Can you predict how each set of students will achieve in elementary and middle school?

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“Children arrive in kindergarten with huge discrepancies in oral language development . . . and the gap between language-advanced and language-delayed children grows throughout the elementary school years.”

Source: Biemiller, 2001

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The Effects of Weaknesses in Oral Language Reading Growth

5 6 7 8 9 1011 12 13 14 1516

16 –15 –14 –13 –12 –11 –10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 –

Rea

ding

Age

Lev

el

Chronological Age

Low Oral Language in Kindergarten

High Oral Language in Kindergarten

5.2 yearsdifference

Source: Hirsch, 1996 12

How Do We Close the Gap?

There ARE things we can do to close the gap for all of our students!

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The Home-School Study ofLanguage and Literacy Development

Longitudinal Study (Began in 1987: Studied 72 children from pre-K to grade 7)

Children from lower socioeconomic homes who succeeded as readers experienced:

1. Exposure to rich vocabulary2. Extended discourse3. Cognitively and linguistically stimulating home and school

environments

Source: Dickinson & Tabors, 2001 14

Table Talk

At your table, discuss the following questions:1. What do the terms “reading” and “comprehension” mean to you? 2. What do they look like in the classroom? 3. What do you see the students doing? 4. What do you see the teachers doing?

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“Reading is thinking guided by print.”

“Reading is translating between oral and written language.”Source: Perfetti, 1985

What is Reading?

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What Should K-12 Administrators See in Their School’s Classrooms?

Good readers who• are active readers.• have clear goals in mind for their reading. They constantly

evaluate whether the text, and their reading of it, is meeting their goals.

• typically look over the text before they read, noting such things as the structure of the text and text sections that might be most relevant to their reading goals.

Source: Duke & Pearson, 2002

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What Should K-12 Administrators See…? (cont.)

Good readers who• make predictions about what is to come.• read selectively, continually making decisions about their

reading–what to read carefully, what to read quickly, what not to read, what to re-read, etc.

• construct, revise, and question the meanings they make as they read.


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Good readers who• draw upon, compare, and integrate their prior knowledge with

material in the text.• think about the authors of the text, their style, beliefs,

intentions, historical milieu, etc.• monitor their understanding of the text, making adjustments

in their reading as necessary.Source: Duke & Pearson, 2002


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Good readers who• try to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and

concepts in the text and deal with inconsistencies or gaps as needed.

• process text during “reading” as we have traditionally defined it, and during short breaks taken during reading; even after the “reading” itself has commenced, even after the “reading” has ceased.



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That comprehension is a consuming, continuous, and complex activity, but one that, for good readers, is both satisfying and productive.



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What Does This Research Mean to Me as a K-12 Administrator?

• Children are not born knowing how to do the things good readers do when they read.

• Children cannot, for the most part, “see” good readers doing these things.

• Some children will figure these things out on their own.• But many children need teachers to let them in on these

secrets of good reading.

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Revisit Your Table Talk

Based on the information provided about good readers that you as a K-12 administrator should see in classrooms, what are you seeing regarding reading in your school’s classrooms since school started this year?

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Factors to Consider

1. Reading and the Brain 2. Student Level of Activity3. Motivation4. Vocabulary Instruction5. Comprehension Skills and Strategies: Multiple Teaching

Strategies6. Instructional Planning and Delivery

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Brain Activity vs. Brain Activation

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MEG Activation

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Reading and the Brain

Source: Reading Rockets, Creative Commons Use:http://www.readingrockets.org/license_av/ 27

http://www.readingrockets.org/license_av/

The Effects of Successful Intervention

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Before

Results of Intensive Intervention(Subjects 1–4)

N = 8 7-17 years

Source: Simos et al., 2002. Neurology. 23;58(8):1203-13After

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Think-Pair-Share

• Take a few minutes at your table to think about how the brain works when a student is reading well and when a student is having difficulties.

• Also, reflect on the information shared about interventions and their effects on how the brain works when a student is reading and comprehending.

• Can a teacher “re-program” the brain of a struggling student?

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Scarborough’s Reading Rope

• Background Knowledge(facts, concepts, etc.)

• Vocabulary Knowledge(breadth, precision, links, etc.)

• Language Structures(syntax, semantics, etc.)

• Verbal Reasoning(inference, metaphor, etc.)

• Literacy Knowledge(print concepts, genres, etc.)

•Phonological Awareness(syllables, phonemes, etc.)

•Decoding (alphabetic principle, spelling-sound correspondence)

•Sight Recognition(of familiar words)

SKILLED READING:fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension.

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

WORD RECOGNITION

increasingly

automatic

increasinglystrategic

Source: Scarborough, 2001 31

Reading Comprehension and The Brain

As you are sitting here reading this text, your occipital cortex is starting to become quite active. This part of your brain is processing all of the information that you are seeing as you read: the words, letters, and even the size and shapes of the letters. The frontal lobe of your neocortex is now meting out the meanings of words, sentences, and the texts that you are reading. At the same time, your brain is working to relate what you are currently reading with any background information you have on the subject.

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Reading Comprehension and The Brain (cont’d.)

It is interesting to note that if you are right-handed, the left side of your temporal lobe is also working to process all of the “sounds” of reading. While you may be reading silently, there is a part of the brain that processes speech sounds in the same way that it would if you were listening to someone read the information out loud. While brain functions may be very complex in nature, the functions are extremely structured in the way that they work. Tasks, including reading, are broken down into smaller, less complicated tasks and then dispersed to different areas of the brain. These dispersals will be sent in certain timing patterns to the sections of the brain that concentrate on performing tasks that increase understanding.

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The Role of Syntax in Comprehension

As a student reads a sentence, he/she stores the words in working memory until he/she has read a clause. At this point, the student interprets the clause's meaning and forms a gist, which the student then stores in working memory.

Source: Adapted from National Reading Technical Assistance Center (RMC)

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The Role of Syntax in Comprehension (cont’d.)

As the student continues to read, he/she adds new gists to the gists already stored, and thus forms higher and higher level gists; first for the sentence, then for the paragraph, then for the passage, then for the complete text. The higher the level of a gist, the more likely it is to be retained.

Source: Turner, 2010

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Understanding How Readers Organize Information: The Schema

The schema is also useful for thinking about how students appreciate and remember stories. As the student reads more and more fiction, the student develops schemas for different types of events; these schemas then set up an expectation for how these types of events work and thus help the student interpret and remember these types of events in the future.


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Understanding How Readers Organize Information: The Schema (cont’d.)

Schemas also help students make inferences; for instance, if a student has read The Adventures of Robin Hood, that student will later be able to infer that a reference to “a Robin Hood” refers to a person who gives to people in need.


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What the Student Needs

What happens after the student reads and comprehends a sentence? How does the student put sentences together to comprehend the connections between them and then form an idea about a longer passage?


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What the Student Needs (cont’d.)

• To read a paragraph or longer passage fluently, the student needs to be able to pick out the main points from the text in order to recover the meaning, or gist, of the passage.

• To understand the main points of a paragraph, the student needs to be able to make inferences about such things as the relation between a cause and its effect as well as which nouns are referred to by pronouns.


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Reading Paragraphs for Literal, Inferential, and Causative Comprehension

• The reader's goal is to extract coherent meaning from the text.

• Though literal comprehension is a priority for the reader, he or she is usually more concerned with maintaining coherence than with memorizing and reproducing the exact text.


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Reading Paragraphs for Literal, Inferential, and Causative Comprehension (cont’d.)

• The coherent meaning constructed by the reader will be somehow related to the reader's prior experience and to the structures already formed in the reader's mind.


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Working Memory

In order to comprehend a text, the student must use working memory to store semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic information and use this stored information to clarify ambiguities, form an idea about the text, and integrate subsequent text.


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Working Memory (cont’d.)

In addition to working on the text at hand, this process might call on knowledge the reader has already learned.


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Information becomes part of working memory in several ways:• Information is stored after just reading a text.• Comprehension as a gist is formed.• Information is activated by text (or recently formed gists) and

retrieved from long-term memory.Source: Turner, 2010

Working Memory (cont’d.)

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When readers read a passage twice, they are doing different things.

• On the first reading, readers spend more time on the new information than on the old information.

• On the second reading, readers spend more time on the important information than on the unimportant information.


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Implementing in the Classroom

• So how does this work in the classroom?

• What does it look like?

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Eight Evidence-Based Instructional Practices that Improve Comprehension

1. Comprehension Monitoring: the reader learns how to become aware or conscious of his or her understanding during reading and learns procedures to fix comprehension problems.

2. Cooperative Learning: readers work together to learn strategies in the context of reading.

3. Graphic and Semantic Organizers: enable readers to graphically represent the meanings and relationships of the ideas that underlie the words in the text.

Source: National Reading Panel (NRP), 2000, pp. 4–6

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4. Story Structure: the reader learns to ask and answer who, what, where, when, and why questions about the plot and maps out the time line, characters, and events in stories.

5. Question Answering: the reader answers questions posed by the teacher and is given corrective feedback.

6. Question Generation: the reader asks himself or herself what, when, where, why, what will happen, how, and who questions.


Eight Evidence-based Instructional Practices that Improve Comprehension (cont’d)

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7. Summarization: the reader attempts to identify and write the main or most important ideas that integrate or unite the other ideas or meanings of the text into a coherent whole.

8. Multiple-Strategy Teaching: the reader uses several strategy procedures with guidance from the teacher; multiple-strategy teaching is most effective when the procedures are used flexibly and appropriately in naturalistic contexts.


Eight Evidence-based Instructional Practices that Improve Comprehension (cont’d)

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Comprehension strategies are not ends in themselves; they are means of helping

students understand what they are reading.

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Table Talk

Discuss the following question at your table. Be prepared to share out, if requested by the presenter.

In your school, has the strategy supplanted actual reading for students or become the instruction?

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A General Framework for Comprehension Strategy Instruction

1. Select the text: Choose an appropriate piece of text from the students’ reading assignment.

2. Select the strategy: Determine a strategy that is relevant to the understanding of the text.

3. Give a clear explanation: Tell students what the strategy is and why it is useful.

4. Model the strategy: Help students learn how, when, and where to use the strategy by demonstrating or thinking aloud about how to use the strategy to better understand the text.

Source: Duke & Pearson, 2002, pp. 208–209; Lehr & Osborn, 2005, p. 26

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A General Framework for Comprehension Strategy Instruction (cont’d)

5. Support student practice: Work with students to help them figure out how and when to use the strategy themselves. Engage them in discussion about how they are applying the strategy; as necessary, provide corrective feedback.

6. Apply the strategy: In subsequent lessons, ask students, on their own, to apply the strategy to other texts. (Be prepared to do additional modeling and guided practice.)

Source: Duke & Pearson, 2002, pp. 208–209; Lehr & Osborn, 2005, p. 26

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Reasons for Comprehension Difficulties

• Lack of appropriate prior knowledge• Inability to relate content to prior knowledge• Over-reliance on background knowledge• Inability to read text fluently

Source: Effective instruction for adolescent struggling readers, by C. S. Murray et al., 2010,Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. Reprinted with permission.

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Reasons for Comprehension Difficulties

• Difficulty with decoding words• Inability to attend to meaning while reading• Inability to apply comprehension strategies• Difficulty with understanding meanings of words

Source: Effective instruction for adolescent struggling readers, by C. S. Murray et al., 2010,Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. Reprinted with permission.

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Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction

The teacher tells readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps typically include an explanation of the strategy, teacher modeling, guided practice, and application.

Source: Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2006

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• Explanation – The teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply it.

• Modeling – The teacher models or demonstrates how to apply the strategy, usually by “thinking aloud” while reading text that students are using. (I DO)

• Guided Practice – The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy. (WE DO)

• Application – The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently. (YOU DO in small groups; YOU DO individually)


Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction (cont’d)

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The teacher then helps readers to use strategies flexibly and in combination with other strategies. Effective comprehension strategy instruction can also be accomplished through cooperative and collaborative learning.


Explicit Comprehension Strategy Instruction (cont’d)

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Remember Oral Language?

Productive Talk or Discussion of Text provides a strong way for students to grasp the meaning of the text.

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Table Talk

Discuss the following questions at your table and be prepared to share out, if requested by the presenter:

• What does productive talk or discussion of text look like or sound like in different content areas in your school?

• What do you expect productive talk or discussion of text to look/sound like?

• What do you think productive talk or discussion of text should look/sound like?

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Characteristics of Productive Talk

Teacher Talk

• Authentic questions• Up-take questions• High-level thinking questions

Student Talk

• Elaborated explanations• Exploratory talk• Reasoning words

Source: Wilkinson, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2009d 61

Characteristics of Productive Talk

Authentic Questions

Up-take Questions

High-level Thinking

QuestionsElaborated

Explanations Exploratory Talk“Is there something about the event that moves your thinking in a particular direction?”

“Why do you think that?” “What causes this?”

“How do we know that Jack could be an imposter?”

“I agree with Jill. He keeps pestering the others and I think he is just trying to get them to let him join. They wouldn’t let him because he didn’t have an instrument.”

S1: “So do you think that his lying was wrong?”S2: “No, because he was trying to protect his friend’s feelings.”S1: “But I don’t think that’s a good reason. He should’ve told the truth.”S2: “I don’t think so in this case.”S1: “Why? He could explain it nicely.”

Source: Adapted from Wilkinson, 2009a, 2009b, 2009c, 2009d 62

Some Interesting Facts

• Students are not attentive to what is being said in a lecture 40% of the time.

• Students retain 70% of the information in the first 10n minutes of a lecture, but only 20% in the last 10 minutes.

Source: Meyers & Jones, 1983

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Deepening Instruction

Strategy Purpose Brain Function/Impact

Survey Get a sense of what the text is about Link new information to background knowledge

Access Background Knowledge Relate what is already known to what is being read

Connect new information to what is already known

PredictCheck understanding and

comprehension of what is being read

Manage short-term memory with long-term memory

Set a Purpose Stay focused on what is being read Stay clearly focused to help commit information to memory

Ask Questions To check own understanding or clarify what is not understood

Must understand information for it to be committed to memory

Source: Adapted from Gaskins & Elliott, 1991; Gaskins et al., 1996–1997;Gaskins et al., 1997; Gaskins, 2005; Gaskins, 2008

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Identify Story ElementsIdentify story elements (setting,

character, problem, and solution) to recall information in fiction

Easier to recall structures and patterns than individual facts

Create Mental Images A clear mental picture can check understanding

The more senses that can be involved, the easier to remember

Monitor Understanding Constantly check understanding of what is being read

Brain needs to understand information to accept it

Summarize Should be able to summarize if understood the new information

Rehearse what should be committed to long-term memory

Deepening Instruction (cont’d.)


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Make Inferences Fill in gaps in the text Helps to create a clear sense of the text for memory

Identify Character TraitsConnect characters to the story problem, key events, or story

resolutionStay actively involved with

characters

Take Notes Aid working memory Working memory can only hold five ideas at one time

Put Notes in Own Words Deeply process what should be remembered and put into own words

The more information is processed, the easier to move from working

memory to long-term memory


Deepening Instruction (cont’d.)

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Small Group Activity

Summary of Study

Harvard Educational Review Spring 2008

Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia ShanahanUniversity of Illinois at Chicago

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Adolescent Literacy and Comprehension

• More sophisticated learning strategies to get through assignments

• Good “reading stamina” required• Dense technical vocabulary (e.g., gametophytes, vascular)• More academic vocabulary (e.g., ancestors, elongated)• Instruction in segmenting and pronouncing for fluency

Source: Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008

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Structural Complexity Increases

• Elementary: structures signaled explicitly. • One relationship explained at a time.

• HS: structures not signaled explicitly• Several logical relationships between ideas• Interrelationships of section headings not apparent

Source: Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008

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Questions to Reflect on as YouVisit Classrooms

1. How did the teacher create opportunities for students to return to important text throughout the lesson?

2. How did the teacher foster discussion throughout the comprehension instruction?

3. How did the teacher activate or build background knowledge?

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4. How were the comprehension strategies tailored to meet the needs of the content area?

5. How did the teacher maintain the importance of the content knowledge students needed to build?

6. How were students prepared to use comprehension strategies independently to support their learning?

Questions to Reflect on as YouVisit Classrooms (cont’d)

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IES Recommendations• Explicit vocabulary instruction• Direct, explicit comprehension strategy

instruction• Discussion of text meaning and

interpretation• Increase student motivation and

engagement in literacy learning• Qualified specialists for intensive,

individualized interventions

Source: Kamil, Borman, Dole, Kral, Salinger, & Torgesen, 2008 73

sheryl turner rmc research corporation, tampa, fl ramona chauvin

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