H860 Reading Difficulties

Week 6

Comprehension Difficulties

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Today’s session

1. Thinking ahead – final projects2. Reading comprehension presentation3. Unpacking comprehension4. Break5. Repacking comprehension

Final projects

• Meeting the Needs of English Language Learners in Science Classrooms

• Math difficulties for children with reading difficulties• When “Sound it Out” Is Not Enough: The Role of Scaffolded

Prompts to Encourage Fluent and Accurate Word Reading • Why bother with motivation: a literature review• A “One Size Fits All” Instructional Method? The Efficacy of

Reciprocal Teaching to Improve The Comprehension of Struggling Readers

• What Role does Phonology Play in the Acquisition of Reading Skills for Prelingually Profound Deaf Students?

• Grassroots Approach to Reading Difficulties: How can we most effectively utilize community volunteers?

Today’s feature presentation…

Break

Di Tri Berres

Why might comprehension be poor?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

What do we do about it?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

What do we do about it?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

What do we do about it?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

What do we do about it?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

Vocabulary

&

“hippopotamus”

How do you say it?(can you retrieve it or does It remain on the ‘tip of yourTongue’?)

How do you read/spell it?

How is it different to ‘rhinoceros’ or ‘crocodile’?

Is that a word in my language?

What does it mean?

Depth

Word Know it well, can explain it, use it

Know something about it, can relate it to a situation

Have seen or heard the word

Do not know the word

tyranny

surreptitious

grapnel

purport

sensitive

dubious

How can vocabulary be problematic?

• Basic, functional vocabulary• Words with important syntactic functions

(wh question words, prepositions)• Category words• Multiple meaning words• Comparing, description words• Idioms, figures of speech

How much can I rely on context…?

• Students must read widely enough to encounter a substantial number of unfamiliar words

• Multiple exposures will be necessary• Students need skills to infer meaning from

context

How much can I rely on context?

• Children do learn words from context but studies estimate that of 100 unfamiliar words met in reading, between 5 and 15 will be learnt (Nagy, Herman & Anderson, 1985)

What words to teach?

Armbruster and colleagues (2001)• Important words = words you need to know to

understand the text you’re reading• Useful words = high frequency words that will be seen

regularly• Difficult words = e.g. words with multiple meanings

• Tier 1 – rarely require instruction in school e.g. baby, happy, clock

• Tier 2 – high frequency words for mature language users e.g. coincidence, absurd, industrious

• Tier 3 – low frequency, limited to specific domains e.g. isotope, lathe, peninsula

Find the Tier 2 words

• Johnny Harrington was a kind master who treated his servants fairly. He was also a successful wool merchant, and his business required that he travel often. In his absence, his servants would tend to the fields and cattle and maintain and upkeep his mansion. They performed their duties happily, for they felt fortunate to have such a benevolent and trusting master.From: Beck, Isabel & McKeown, Linda (2002). “Bringing words to

life : robust vocabulary instruction”

Find the Tier 2 words

• Johnny Harrington was a kind master who treated his servants fairly. He was also a successful wool merchant, and his business required that he travel often. In his absence, his servants would tend to the fields and cattle and maintain and upkeep of his mansion. They performed their duties happily, for they felt fortunate to have such a benevolent and trusting master.

Developing Vocab. in Early Grades

1. Read the story2. Contextualize the word within the story3. Have children say the word4. Provide a student-friendly explanation of the

word5. Present examples of the word used in contexts

different from the story context6. Engage children in activities that get them to

interact with the words7. Say the word again

The cutting edge of vocab. Instruction at HGSE!

Assessments of Vocabulary

Expressive Vocab. measures

• EVT (Expressive Vocab. Test) - picture naming (retrieval)- breadth

• WISC vocabulary - definitions, “what does ‘island’ mean?”- breadth and depth

Receptive Vocab. measures

• PPVT (Peabody Picture Vocab. Test) - choosing picture for tester-spoken item from choice of 4. - breadth

• CELF word classes - associative relations e.g. shoe – warm – tree - cold- depth (and memory!)

And talking of assessment…

General Comprehensive ReadingCore

I. General Vocabulary

II. Syntactic Similarities

III. Paragraph Reading

IV. Sentence Sequencing

Diagnostic Supplements

V. Mathematics

VI. Social Studies

VII. Science

VIII. Reading the Directions of

Schoolwork

TORC-3 Test of Reading Comprehension

Why bother with all this effort?

Reading comprehension

Processing strategies

Short-term memory/listening

comprehensionVocabulary

Because facts will:• interest you• be useful in life• help you reach your career goals

For enjoyment:• connecting to content• experiencing new things

Non-fiction NarrativeSelf-efficacy