A Teacher’s Tool to Develop Proficient Readers Karen Barker, Ed.D

2011

Upper Grades Strategies

Read Aloud/Think Aloud

Phonics

Vocabulary

Phonemic Awareness

Comprehension

Final thoughts...

What do Skillful Readers do? Hall & Moats (1999)

Researchers have concluded that a skilled reader’s eyes make thor-ough movements across the text, jumping and hopping across some text and fixating in other places (while deciphering words).

Skilled readers read almost every word, skipping a few worlds like the and and.

Rapid and automatic word recognition is a critical skill for expert reading.

Good readers quickly break words into chunks and syllables

Skilled readers use their vocabulary to make connections

Predicting Reading Problems… Hall & Moats (1999)

Studies have shown that reading failure is avoidable if children who dem-onstrate warning signs are identified in kindergarten.

What are we looking for, assessing and providing strong instruction in? Speech sound awareness (phoneme awareness) Knowledge of letters Speed in naming series of objects (colors, numbers, letters) Vocabulary Familiarity with print Hall & Moats (1999)

Sample Vocabulary from Curious George Gets a Medal

Think of the impact on vocabulary with upper elementary and middle grades teachers reading aloud upper level books with more

advanced vocabulary! Hall & Moats (1999)

curious hurled professor escape lather blotter grazing groping

funnel latch lever rattling squealing grunting permit launch

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This flipbook is designed to provide ideas and resources for teachers to help build strong readers. These strategies can be used by any teacher in any con-tent area to support emerging and reluctant readers.

Why Read Aloud?

Develops background knowledge

Builds vocabulary

Develops familiarity with language patterns

Develops familiarity with story structure

Assists in acquiring familiarity with the reading process

Demonstrates reading as a pleasurable activity

Appropriate for all levels of learners Hall & Moats (1999)

What do you mean “THINK ALOUD”? The Think Aloud strategy helps readers think about how they

make meaning and connect with the text. This strategy must be shown and modeled again and again for

students to understand it. You will verbally share connections that you have with the text.

(“This makes me think of…” “Oh, that reminds me of when I…”) Plan ahead and use post-it notes to help you generate connec-

tions. As students learn to think aloud, their comprehension will im-

prove. Eventually, the thinking aloud will transform into think-ing silently while reading.

Miller (2002)

Making Connections while Thinking Aloud Text to Self

When reading this text, how does this story relate to your life? “This story reminds me of when I was little and would splash in mud puddles.” Use think-pair-share and let partners share connections or in small group to actively involve all students.

Text to Text

This strategy allows you to guide comparisons with previous texts that have been read or when doing an author study. These con-nections help students better understand the text and even make predictions of what may occur. Graphic organizers such as Venn diagrams are great tools to use to enhance these connections.

Text to World

This strategy helps students make connections with every day applications. “How does this text connect to something going on in the world right now?” Great higher-order thinking can result from these discussions! Miller (2002)

Read Aloud/Think Aloud

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6S3JN_7wac&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z9CFSILxvk&feature=related

Thinking Aloud with Fiction and Non-Fiction

Making Connections

What do EMERGING readers need for success?

Speech sound awareness (phoneme awareness)

Knowledge of letters

Speed in naming series of objects, colors, numbers, and letters

Vocabulary

Familiarity with print Hall & Moats (1999)

PHONEMIC AWARENESS is the awareness that language is composed of small sounds call phonemes. Adams, et.al (1998)

Have your students mastered...

Phoneme isolation (recognizing individual sounds in words) - “Tell me the first sound in pail.” (/p/)

Phoneme identity (recognizing the common sound in different words) - “Tell me the sound that is the same in seal, sock, and sign.” (/s/)

Phoneme categorization (recognizing the word with the odd sound in a sequence of three or four words) - “Which word does not belong: bike, boy, mug?” (mug)

Phoneme blending (listening to a sequence of sepa-rately spoken sounds and combining them to form a recognizable word) - “What word is /f/ /l/ /a/ /t/?” (flat)

Phoneme segmentation (breaking a word into its sounds by tapping out or counting the sounds or by pronouncing and positioning a marker for each sound) - “How many phonemes are in smile?” (four—/s/ /m/ /i/ /l/)

Phoneme deletion—(recognizing what word remains when a specified phoneme is removed) “What is snail without the /s/?” (nail) National Reading Panel

Did you know?

Preschool-age children’s awareness of phonemes has been shown to hold singular predictive power, statistically accounting for as much as 50% of the variance in their reading proficiency at the end of first grade.

Measures of preschool-age children’s level of phonemic awareness strongly predict future success in learning to read. Adams, et. al (1998).

Alliteration for Phonemic Awareness Bloom and Traub (2005) Alliteration is defined as a repetition of the same initial consonant sound. Using alliteration is a great strategy for introducing new sounds. Alliteration appeals to children of all ages and can provide direct focus on specific sounds. Examples: Little Lilli likes lemon lollipops. Jolly Jack joined jumping James joyfully. Shirley shined Sheldon’s shabby shoes.

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Counting Words in a Sentence—Write a short sentence on a sentence strip. Have the child place a unifix cube under each word. Count the words.

Un-compound this Word— See if students can segment compound words—Example:

Cowboy—Say it without the “boy” - cow Outside—Say it without the “side” - out

Initial letter sounds— Sing this song to the tune of “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”

“What’s the sound that starts these words: Turtle, time and teeth /t/ is the sound that starts these words Turtle, time and teeth With a /t/ /t/ here and a /t/ /t/ there Here a /t/ there a /t/, everywhere a /t/ /t/ /t/ is the sound that starts these words Turtle, time and teeth”.

Sing next round with /d/ sounds—daddy, duck and deep

Hall & Moat (1999)

Develop ability to hear and make compari-sons—Use familiar poems and rhymes and change them to see if students hear the differ-ences:

Song a sing of sixpence

Baa, baa, purple sheep

I’m a little leapot

Humpty Dumpty wall on a sat

Twinkle, twinkle little car

One, two shuckle my boo

Rhyme through Movement—Use familiar nursery rhymes while students are in a circle. The leader goes around the inside of the circle touching the two fists of all students while everyone says the nursery rhyme. When the nursery rhyme gets to a rhyming word, that student must put his fist behind his back. When both fists are behind the back, the stu-dent is out of the game. The child with a re-maining fist out is the winner.

Adams, et al (1998)

While teaching phonemic awareness to students, sing and chant often. Point out sounds and rhymes continually.

Beanbag toss—In a circle, the beanbag is tossed as students complete the sentence with rhyming words to fill in the blank:

The ship is loaded with _________ (cheese, peas, fleas, bees, trees, etc.)

Change the rhyming word.

Differentiate for higher level learners and involve rhyming words such as:

Barking—parking

Burning—turning

Mixing—fixing

Ringing—singing

Looking—cooking Adams, et al (1998)

Phonemic Awareness

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Phonics instruction is designed for beginning readers in the primary grades who are learning the alphabetic system. Phonics instruction is also appropriate for students having difficulty learning to read. National Reading Panel

Definitions: Beers (2003) Graphemes—Graphemes are the letters of our alphabet. We have 26 graphemes

in our written alphabet. Phonemes—Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound. The word cat has three

graphemes (c, a, t) and three phonemes (/c/, /a/, /t/) Rimes—A rimes is a vowel and any consonant that follow it in a syllable (in the

word cat, -at is the rime). Onsets—The onset is the consonant before the vowel (in the word that, th- is the

onset). Consonant teams (consonant digraphs) —Consonant teams occur when two or

three consonants appear together to create a single sound. Consonant blends—When consonants are combined to create sounds that blend

together, they form a consonant blend.

Common Phonics Generalizations Adams (1995)

Consonants: When two of the same consonants appear side by side in a word, only one is

heard (Ex: berry, Exception: suggest) When the letter c is followed by the letter o or a, the c makes the /k/ sound. (ex:

cat) The digraph ch is usually pronounced /ch/ as in chair. (Exception: chef) When letters c and h appear side by side in a word, they stand for only one sound

(rich). The letter g often has a sound similar to j in jump when it comes before i or e (ex:

ginger, exception: give). When a word ends in ck, it has the /k/ sound (ex: sick). When the letters ght appear together, the letters gh are silent (fight) When words begin with kn, the k is silent (know). When words begin with wr, the w is silent (wrong).

Some Common Vowel Generalizations If there is one vowel letter in an accented

syllable, it has a short sound (Ex: city, Ex-ception: lady)

When a word has only one vowel letter, the vowel is likely to be short (ex: lid, Ex-ception: mind)

When two vowels appear together in a word, the long sound of the first one is heard and the second is usually silent (ex: seat, exception: chief).

Adams, (1995) Clymer’s research

The English language is complex. In teaching phonics, we want students to understand not simply that /j/ can be spelled with a j, g, or dge but also understand the conditions these spellings are most likely to occur. The under-standing of these generalizations is necessary for proficient reading and writing. As complex and numerous as they are, almost none is 100 percent reliable. Common generalizations are included here with examples and exceptions.

Adams, (1995)

Phonics is understanding what sounds a letter can make under certain conditions. It is one of the cues, or clues, readers use to figure out words. Beers (2003)

Phonics

A syllable is a part of a word with a vowel in it. There are six kinds of syllables: Rudginsky and Haskell (1997)

1. Closed syllable—ends with a consonant and the vowel has a short sound (bas/ket, nap/kin, in/vent) - (teach in 1st—12th grade) 2. Open syllable—ends with a vowel and the vowel has a long sound (says its own name) (la/dy, cra/zy) - (teach in 1st—12th grade) 3. Magic E syllable— has a silent final e which makes the vowel before it say its name (mis/take, es/cape) - (teach in 1st—12th grade) 4. Consonant + le syllable— syllables are divided before the consonant + le (ta/ble, ti/tle, an/kle, sim/ple) - (teach in 4th—12th grades) 5. Vowel team syllable—sometimes known as the diphthong syllable because it has two vowels together that make one sound (rain/y, pea/nut) -

(3rd—12th grades) 6. R controlled—has at least one vowel followed by r. The vowel-r combinations are ar, er, ir, or, ur and ear (doc/tor, riv/er, sol/ar) - (3rd—12th grades)

Syllabication rules:

Every syllable usually has a vowel sound.

A word usually has as many syllables as it has vowel sounds.

Vowel teams should not be separated into different syllables (ai, ay, ea, ee, oa, ow, oo, io oy, ou, ie, ei)

When a word has two consonants together in the middle of a word, divide between the two consonants (VC/CV) (examples: yel/low, ad/mire, con/test)

When a word has one consonant between two vowels, divide between the first vowel and consonant (VCV divides as V/CV—pi/lot)

When a word has one consonant between two vowels and the consonant is an x, divide after the x

When a word has a consonant plus le, the consonant le make the last syllable (lit/tle, syl/la/ble) Beers (2003)

Read this… McGuinness & McGuinness (1998) This gallimaufry is multitudinously gargantuan, puissantly capacious and ineffably Juno-esque and in consequence of such Protean tribulations and in such psychotic contraven-tion of stereotypical consuetudinary hygiene, there exists the infinitesimal exiguity of a satisfactory resolution to this cataclysmic dilemma.

Do you know what modified story this is? The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss Keep in mind the skills that you used to read this passage and remember them when you

Requiring a student to spell nonsense words helps to assess the working knowledge of the reader’s phonological awareness.

Vowel Generalizations…

The letter w is sometimes a vowel and follows the vowel digraph rule (ex.: snow, exception: few)

The letter a has the same sound as the /o/ when fol-lowed by l, w, and u (ex.: fall, exception: canal)

In ay, the y is silent and gives a its long sound (ex: play, exception: bayou).

When the letter a followed by the letter r and final e, we typically hear the sound that is in care (ex: dare, excep-tion: are)

When the letter i is followed by the letters gh, the letter i typically stands for its long sound and the gh is silent (ex: high, exception: neighbor). Beers (2003)

Beginning reading is like learning to ride a bike. If you pedal too slowly, you will fall off.

Hall & Moats (1999)

Activities for Repeated Oral Reading Practice Student-adult reading—reading one-on-one

with an adult who can provide a model of fluent reading and can offer feedback to the reader.

Choral reading—reading aloud simultane-ously in a group

Recorded-assisted reading—reading aloud simultaneously or echoing an audio-recorded model

Partner reading—reading aloud with a more fluent partner (or of equal ability) who can model fluent reading

Readers’ theatre— the rehearsing and per-forming before an audience of a dialogue-rich script from a book

Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn (2003)

Fluency

Strategies for improving fluency… Improve Students’ Knowledge of High Frequency Words and Sight Words

Practice Dolch words— The Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary con-tains 220 words. Although this list was generated decades ago, these words still account for over 50% of the words found in text-books today.

Practice Fry’s Instant Word List—1000 most frequently used words. Of Fry’s words, the first twenty words make up about a third of all printed material The first hundred words make up about half of all written material, and the first three hundred make up about 65 percent of all written material.

Give students various opportunities to hear texts with a fluent reader modeling

Teach phrasing and intonation Read a sentence aloud and allow students to practice stressing

the underlined word: Please write your name. Please write your name. Please write your name. Please write your name.

Read the sentences aloud again changing your voice to reflect the punctuation:

Please write your name! Please write your name? Please write your name.

Have students reread the selected text (see Repeated Oral Reading Activi-ties)

Prompt, don’t correct. The last thing a non-fluent reader needs is an-other interruption to their fluency. On the other hand, letting a student stare blankly indefinitely will not work either. Prompt students using some of these cues:

“Read that again.” Can you divide the word into syllables and sound it out that

way?” “Do you see a part of the word that you already know?” “What word would make sense at this point?” “Can you get your mouth ready to say the first few letter

sounds?”

The more a reader reads, the more the reading rate will improve. Think about the impact a lower reading rate has on a student who is completing grade level work. It will take the student much more time just to read the directions and the passages before he or she even begins the work. Students often get more and more frustrated with all schoolwork when reading rate is slower. Suggested range for grade levels: Grade Oral Rate per minute Silent Rate 3 70-120 90-120 4 90-140 110-140 5 100-150 160-190 6 110-150 160-190

Beers (2003)

Students who read and reread passages orally as they receive guidance and feedback become better readers. Repeated oral reading substantially improves: Word recognition, Speed Accuracy Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn (2003)

Strategies to help students become more fluent readers… Have students read passages repeatedly while offering guidance and feed-

back. Provide students with models of fluent reading (either with you reading to

students or allowing them to listen to a recording of a fluent reader) Read aloud daily to students Use expressing and show students how a reader’s voice can help

the written text make sense After you model fluent reading, have the students read the pas-

sage. Researchers have found that usually having students read a text four times is sufficient to improve fluency (if at the appropri-ate level)

Ensure that the books that students are choosing to read are at their inde-pendent level of reading ability

Poems are often well suited to practice fluency since poems for children are usually short and include rhythm and rhyme.

Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn (2003)

Independent Level Text

Relatively easy text for the reader

No more than 1 in 20 of the words are

difficult for the reader

Should have 95% success when reading

Instructional Level Text

Challenging but manageable text for the

student

No more than 1 in 10 of the words are

difficult for the reader

Should have 90% success

Frustration Level Text

Difficult text for the reader

More that 1 in 10 of the words are diffi-

cult for the reader

Less than 90% success Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn (2003)

A Teacher’s Self-check on Promoting Fluency How often do you give students instructional or independent-level texts to

read?

How much time in class do you give your students?

How often do you read aloud to students?

When struggling readers read aloud, do you correct their mistakes or prompt them to correct their own mistakes?

What prompts do you offer to struggling students beyond “sound it out”?

Do you remind students to transfer what they do with oral reading to their silent reading?

More Self-Check questions… How often do you discuss with students why you read a

passage a certain way?

Do you ask students to pause while they are reading si-lently to reflect on how the reading sounds in their heads?

Do you give students specific instructions before they read silently about how the reading should sound in their heads? Beers (2003)

Fluency vs. Automaticity Automaticity is the fast, effortless word recognition that comes with reading practice. When students are first learning to read, they may be accurate but slow and inefficient at recognizing words. Continued practice will help word recognition become more rapid, automatic and effortless. Automaticity re-fers only to accurate, speedy word recognition and does not include reading with expression. Automaticity is necessary for fluency—but it is not sufficient to say that a reader can read fluently. Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn (2003)

Vocabulary Tree

tract: to pull, drag

attract: to cause to come near

contract: to draw together detract: to

take

away from

“Too many patterns will

detract from your design.”

My art teacher

subtra

ct: tak

e away

“When you subtract 3 from

4 you get 1.”

My M

ath te

acher

traction: to

be drawn to

something

“His leg should be

put in traction.” ER

doctor

tractor:

a machine

that pulls

Prefix Meaning Examples

ad- to adapt, addict, admit, adhere

an- not anarchy, anorexia, anonymous

auto- self automobile, automatic, autograph

co- together coauthor, coincide, cooperate

im- into immerse, immigrate, import

ir- not irregular, irresponsible

sub- under subcontract, subject, submarine

Suffix Meaning Examples

-ade, -age,

-ment

action or process parade, blockade, voyage, mar-

riage, development, government

-ant one who assistant, merchant, servant

-dom state or quality of boredom, freedom, wisdom

-less without ageless, careless, tireless

-let small leaflet, owlet, starlet

-or one who actor, auditor, doctor, donor

Root Meaning Examples Root Meaning Examples

act do action, actor, react, transact, enact aud hear audience, auditorium, audible,

cred believe credit, discredit, incredible, credulous dic speak dictate, predict, verdict

graph write autograph, paragraph, telegraph loc place allocate, dislocate, location

man hand manual, manufacture, manipulate mot move demote, motion, motor, promote

ped foot pedal, pedestrian, pedestal pop people population, popular, populace

port carry import, export, transport sign mark insignia, signal, signature

spec see inspect, respect, spectacle tract pull, drag attract, contract, subtract, tractor

vid see evidence, video, provide volve roll evolve, involve, revolve

Beers (2003)

Mark My Words bookmarks give students space to re-cord unusual or unfamiliar words that they encounter while reading.

house + - - o o o + -

shack + - - - + + ? -

lean-to - - + - + + ? -

barn - + o - - - + -

pump tent + - - - o o - +

mansion + - - + - - + -

Po

rtab

le

Fo

r an

imal

s

Fo

r st

ora

ge

Lar

ge/

fancy

Sm

all

Cru

de/

rou

gh

Per

manen

t

Fo

r hu

man

s Key: + = true

- = false

O=opinion ? = unsure

Carlisle and Rice (2002)

Mark My Words Name: _________________ Title: __________________

Page: _______ Word

Page: _______ Word

Page: _______ Word

Page: _______ Word

Page: _______ Word

For students who struggle to learn vocabulary words in context, a matrix that shows relationships between

terms can be helpful. Interactive discussions produce better vocabulary learning and higher scores on

comprehension measure for students who have difficulty learning new words.

Dependent readers can increase their vocabulary when they learn Greek or Latin root words as well as meanings of prefixes and suffixes. See the most common root words, prefixes and suffixes below. Beers

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Vocabulary instruction, like spelling instruction, tends to be one of those things we know we should be doing, but often don’t know much about how best to do it. We fall back on how we were taught vocabulary words. On Monday, teachers give a list of vocabulary words which the students look up definitions. During the week, students memorize the definitions. On Friday, a vocabulary test is given. On Saturday, most students have no memory of what the words were, let along what their meanings are! We must make the words have meaning and connect to our students’ worlds. Students learn more words when we focus on fewer words and use those words in our own speech. Beers (2003)

Vocabulary

Strategies that Effective Readers Use: Activate prior knowledge (schema) before, during and after

reading text—connect to what they already know

Create visual images (and other sensory images) while read-ing and reflecting

Draws inferences from text, makes critical judgments, and creates own interpretations

Ask questions of themselves, the author and the text

Determine the most important ideas and themes in a text

Synthesize that they have read. Miller (2002)

QAR technique (Question –Answer Relationship) This technique allows students to categorize questions in terms of how to determine the answer. Carlisle & Rice (2002)

In the Book QARs In My Head QARs

Right there The answer is “right there” in the text—usually fairly easy to find.

Author and Me The answer is not in the text. You will need to think about what you already know, what the author has stated and how they fit to-gether

Think and Search The answer is in the story, but the reader may have to put different story parts together to find it.

On My Own The answer is not in the story. You need to use your own experience to answer the question.

Helping students understand inferences…

What is an inference? An inference is the ability to connect what is in the text with what is in the mind to create an educated guess.

Many times, students struggle with making inferences and under-standing the author’s message.

To help students understand what is meant by inferring, try dis-cussing these bumper stickers/signs:

Enter at your own risk. An unknown bacteria is said to be growing in this room. (Hanging on a teenager’s door)

I am your coach, not your mother. (Hanging in a locker room

Don’t slow down on my account. But if you don’t, it probably will hurt your account. (Posted on a highway patrolman’s car).

What does scientifically based research tell us

about effective comprehension instruction? Armbruster, Lehn, and Osborn (2003)

Comprehension strategies are conscious plans. These strate-gies have proven to improve text comprehension: 1. Teach students to monitor comprehension—Students are

aware of what they understand and what they do not un-derstand. They also know some strategies to resolve the problems in comprehension. Monitoring strategies in-clude:

Identify where the difficulty is (“I don’t under-stand the second paragraph on page 32.”)

Identify what the difficulty is (“I don’t get what the author means when she says, ‘This moment was a milestone for me.’”).

Restate the difficult passage in their own words (“Oh, so the author means that…”)

Look back through the text (“Maybe if I reread the first chapter where this character was de-scribed I can figure this out.”).

Look forward in the text for information (“The next section shows a picture and includes a pas-sage under the picture that explains what the author is describing.”)

2. Teach students to use graphic and semantic organizers to help students focus on text structure as they read, provide tools to examine and visually represent relationships in the text, and help write well-organized summaries of a text.

3. Teach students to ask and answer questions (See Upper Grades Strategies—Reciprocal Teaching and QAR)

4. Teach students to summarize—determine what is impor-tant in what they are reading and condense the informa-tion. Instruction in summarizing helps students:

Identify the main idea Connect the main or central ideas Eliminate unnecessary information Remember what they have read

Comprehension

Spinner

Game—

have

students

read

a passage

or para-

graph and

spin the spin-

ner to play the

game.

Predict what will happen

next.

Why do you think that?

Clarify a word or a phrase

from the text that made you

think.

Ask

a questio

n o

f the

gro

up

—w

ho

, what, w

hen,

where, w

hy , h

ow

, what if.

Su

mm

ariz

e t

he

read

ing i

n y

our

ow

n

wo

rds.

R

erea

d i

f

nee

ded

.

Comprehension

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More on Comprehension...

Reading involves a two-prong attack—cracking the alphabetic code to determine the words and think-ing about those words to construct meaning.

Harvey & Goudvis (2000)

5 Years/Kindergarten—Knows letters and sounds. Can read three sound words. Beginning to read and spell words. Knows the parts of a book. Tracks print while reading. Rec-ognizes some words by sight. Uses new vocabulary. Can count phonemes and syllables in words. Uses letter knowl-edge to spell independently.

4 Years—Beginning to learn the alphabetic code with letters and sounds. Can recite rhymes. Identifies rhyming words. Counts syllables.

6—7 Years/ First Grade—Reads single-syllable words with few errors. Spells single syllable words. Reads orally. Uses letter-sound correspondence knowledge to sound out un-known words. Monitors own reading and self-corrects. Reads/comprehends grade-level fiction and non-fiction. Counts syllables. Blends/segments 2 to 3 phonemes. Has a reading vocabulary (300-500 words) of sight words and easily decodable words.

7-8 Years/ Second Grade—Reads/comprehends grade level fiction and non-fiction. Accurately decodes multiple syllable words that follow basic decoding rules. Accurately reads many irregularly spelled words. Interprets information from charts and diagrams. Correctly spells previously studied and spelling patterns in own writing. Reads voluntarily for inter-ests and own purposes. Connects/compares information. Blends/segments phonemes. Understands phoneme dele-tion.

8-9 Years/ Third Grade— Reads aloud with fluency and com-prehension (grade level fiction and nonfiction). Uses letter-sound correspondence knowledge and structural analysis to decode words. Reads longer fictional selections and chapter books independently. Can identify specific words or phrases that are causing comprehension problems. Can summarize text. Asks how, why and what-if questions in interpreting text. Infers word meaning from roots, prefixes and suffixes. Correctly spells words using spelling patterns and structures.

10 years/Fourth Grade and beyond— Reads to learn. Comprehension and fluency continues to improve. Reading for pleasure continues and text complexity grows. Still enjoys being read aloud to and interacting with text and others. Can compare, summarize and synthesize text and make connections to the world.

Many of the types of reading that adults partici-pate in involve short text reading—newspapers, magazine articles, manuals, cookbooks, brochures, newsletters, reports, etc.). Since much of the read-ing that students will do as adults involve short text, we need to include short-text instruction in our classroom discussions. The good news is that short text is the most effective type for teaching comprehension!

Choose text pieces based on the following criteria: Content—Does this text support and build

background knowledge of the content that we are teaching?(Making connections for stu-dents)

Strategy practice—Will this text require and encourage students to use effective reading strategies—asking questions, clarifying sec-tions of the text, summarizing, etc.?

Features—Does this text include some fea-tures such as headings, bold print, captions, etc. to signify important information?

Form—Does this text expose students to a form that the class has not discussed lately—i.e. letters, articles, columns, essays, recipes?

Genre—Does this text add to our collection of various genres— poetry, short stories, nonfic-tion informational articles, etc.?

Text structure/Cue Words—Does this text include cue words and text structures that will allow the readers to advance their predic-tions? (For example: When a sentence in-cludes the word but, readers should be ready for a change to come, in other words is fol-lowed by a definition, and most important usu-ally means very important point to remember.

Perspective— Does this text bring a different perspective that will draw students’ attention, enhance classroom discussions and is of high writing quality? Harvey & Goudvis (2000)

Literacy Growth Chart McGuinness, C. & McGuinness (1998)

Hall & Moats (1999)

More on Comprehension

Often in Science and Social Studies classes, textbooks are the most common reading material. Utilize the SQ3R strategy to

Survey: Read through CHAPTER HEADINGS

Question: Generate questions based on the HEADINGS

Read: Read each CHAPTER SECTION to answer questions

Recite: Recite or take notes on the HIGHLIGHTS of each section

Review: After reading the whole chapter, review main points

For students struggling to make sense of the textbook, try an add-on to SQ3R… MULTIPASS MULTIPASS involves much more explicit instruction in how to use headings and chapter questions to identify central concepts. The strategy requires students to make three “passes” over the chapter.

1st PASS—

SURVEY

Read the title and introductory summary sec-tions

Examine the illustrations

Read heading to see how the chapter is organ-ized

Examine the table of content to see the chap-ter’s relationship to other chapters

Paraphrase information learned

2nd PASS—

SIZE-UP

Use questions at the end of the chapter, head-ings and italicized words as clues to key con-cepts in the chapter

Generate new questions based on these clues

Answer the new questions by reading relevant portions of the chapter

Paraphrase important ideas

3rd PASS—

SORT-OUT

Reinforce understanding by answering ques-tions at the end of the chapter.

Here’s a strategy that has proven to be helpful for struggling

students in upper elementary and middle schools—POSSE. This strategy should occur in small, cooperative groups.

Predict In looking at the title, headings, and illustra-tions, students brainstorm a list of predictions about what might be in the chapter and gen-erate questions that they hope will be an-swered.

Organize Students use graphic organizers (like semantic maps) to organize the ideas of their predic-tions.

Search Students search for the author’s structure as they read and create a semantic map repre-senting the author’s structure.

Summarize Students summarize main ideas and ask each other questions that they think their teacher will ask.

Evaluate Students compare their predictions with the actual structure of the text. They should clar-ify portions of the text that was hard to un-derstand and predict the content of the next section.

Advantages of both MULTIPASS and POSSE: They give students a set of procedures to apply before, during and after

reading that help comprehension They improve a student’s memory for what they have read.

Semantic Map example...

Predict:

Organize your thoughts:

Search for structure:

Summarize: What is the main idea? What questions will your teacher ask?

Evaluate: Compare and predict.

Who is involved? What might happen? What impact did this have?

First

Flight

What

happens

What it

looks like

Where it

occurs

Stories

about it

Carlisle & Rice (2002)

kjb 2011

Upper Grades Strategies

More upper grade strategies...

High School Strategies—Asking Questions

QAR Strategies

Reciprocal Teaching Strategies… THIS IS A MUST DO

Reciprocal teaching is a scaffolded discussion technique built on four strategies that good readers use to comprehend text:

Predict Use clues from the text or

illustrations to predict what will happen next.

I think… because… I’ll bet… because… I suppose… because

Question Ask questions as you read. Ask some questions that have

answers in the text. Use the question words who,

what, where, when, why, how and what if

Try asking questions that can be inferred. Use clues from the text plus your experiences.

Clarify How can you figure out a difficult word or idea in the text? Reread, reread. Reread! Think about word chunks you

know Try sounding it out. Read on. Ask, “Does it make sense?” Talk to a friend.

Summarize Using your own words, tell the main ideas from the text in order.

This text is about…

This part is about…

Oczkus (2003)

Pre-reading Strategy Beers (2003)

To help students predict what will happen in the story, use this technique… 1. Choose words from the story and make them available to the students.

(Sample words: guilt, bird, seashore, frostflower, jagged, ivory bones, plover, boy, gun, headlands)

2. Use this graphic organizer and allow groups to sort words and antici-pate what the story may be about.

Title _______________________________________________

Characters Problem Setting

Gist Statement...

Outcomes Unknown Words Questions to research... 1. 2. 3.

It is more critical for dependent readers to talk about what they are reading during the reading experience rather than after it.

Beers (2003)

During Reading Strategy… Say Something This strategy is a very simple one that forces students to pause in their reading and respond to the text in some way. The strategy helps student to think about what they are reading—thus making meaning and comprehending. The students set the amount of text they want to read and then pause to “say something”. Stu-dents should gather in groups of 2 or 3 people and follow this set of rules:

Rules for Say Something 1. With your partner, decide who will say something first. 2. When you say something, do one or more of the follow-

ing: Make a prediction Ask a question Clarify something you had misunderstood Make a comment Make a connection

3. If you can’t do one of those five things, then you need to reread. Beers (2003)

After Reading Strategy Think Silently

Choose a portion of the text, a quote or even the entire poem if appropriate and write it on the whiteboard, inter-active board or poster board. Students should come and write some type of response to the chosen text. After eve-ryone has responded, the class discusses in small groups the responses.

Utilize Wordle (a web application for creating artistic word clouds from users who supply the text). Wordle can help stu-dents see themes that come from their responses.

Wordle by Meridtith “Period G”

Predicting Questioning

Clarifying Summarizing

More Upper Grades

Strategies

kjb 2011

IF… THEN... If a student can call all the words and reads at an expected rate but: Consistently can’t answer questions Has trouble asking questions about the text Struggles to discuss the text, always says the reading is

“boring” or doesn’t seem to visualize anything while reading

Can’t think beyond the simple recall level Struggles to understand unknown words

Then… the student needs help with Vocabulary Making predictions Drawing conclusions Questioning the text Monitoring their own understanding Making connections Sequencing Visualizing

If a student: Stumbles through words Tries to sound out a lot of words Confuses simple words like were and where Decodes the first few letters and then guesses what the

words says Reads very slowly Misspells numerous words

Then… this student needs help with: Decoding, letter-sound correspondence High frequency words Phonics rules

If a student: Does not participate in group discussions Does not question what is read Thinks good readers are “just smarter” Is disengaged from reading and many other learning ac-

tivities Does not appear to put effort into reading assignments

Then… this student needs help with: Gaining confidence about reading skills Making connections with the text Participating in think aloud/read aloud activities

If a student: Has good word attack skills Appears to understand text but resists reading Repeatedly claims reading is boring Reads all text the same way (probably very quickly) Cannot name favorite authors Cannot describe a favorite genre

Then… this student needs help with: Making connections of text to self Participating in more read aloud/think aloud activities

where others model reading with pleasure Connecting personal interests with books on those topics

Beers (2003)

References Adams, M. (1995). Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Beers, K. (2003). When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do (A Guide for Teachers 6—12). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Bloom, F. and Traub, N. (2005). Recipe for Reading: Intervention Strategies for Struggling Readers. Cambridge: Educators Publishing Service. Carlisle, J and Rice, M. (2002). Improving Reading Comprehension: Research-based Principles and Practices. Baltimore, MD: York Press, Inc. Hall, S. and Moats, L. (1999). Straight Talk About Reading. Chicago, IL: Contemporary Books. Harvey, S. and Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. http://www.wordle.net/display/wrdl/1092476/Period_G McGuinness, C. and McGuinness, G. (1998). Reading Reflex: The Foolproof Phono-Graphix Method for Teaching Your Child to Read. New York, NY: The Free Press. Miller, D. (2002). Reading with Meaning: Teaching Comprehension in the Primary Grades. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers. Oczkus, L. (2003). Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension. Newark, DE: Interna tional Reading Association. Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read. Rudginsky, L. and Haskell, E. (1997) How to Teach Spelling. Cambridge: Educators Publishing Service.