How develops High Level Reading Comprehension*

* Comprehension: The ability to derive the message or meaning from text; the reason for reading.

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Its no longer learning to read.

But we need to prepare students to “read to learn” .

Reading to Comprehend

Memory

Attention

Processing

Sequencing

Cognitive Skills: The Foundation for Reading are in place

LEARNING MAPS

Students need to apply cognitive skills to the specific task of reading, it is important to refine or tune them in the context of that task with its specific demands.

As an analogy, consider what it takes to coach students in a sport like football.

Teaching them the rules and sending them off to lift weights is not enough. They may know how to play and they may be strong, but they will not be “strong players.” Clearly, it is critical that players build strength in the context of basketball activities.

Ask us about our cognitive skills programs

Text

Comprehension

Text

CAT

Decoding

Visual

processing

Phonological

processing

Short term

memory

Processing

rate

Word

identification

Word

memory

After all the hard work the student finally is reading fluently…..but there’s a lot more!

Comprehension Challenges Ahead that the Reader Must Meet……

Inference, deduction, vocabulary, grammar,

contractions, sequencing and many more

The city streets are crowded and busy. Sometimes the cars and trucks are backed up for miles! No one likes all that traffic. You hear a lot of honking horns and squeaking brakes. You also hear angry barking and growling! When drivers aren’t careful, there may be a crash. To avoid such trouble, many animals walk.

Comprehension in no longer a simple literal recall of facts

I will ask 3 typesof questions

Comprehension: Literal / Causative / Inferential

Straightforward if you read the paragraph carefully

Comprehension: Literal / Causative * / Inferential

* Cause and Effect: The connection or relationship between a precipitating event or reason and its effects or results

Now think carefully!

Comprehension: Literal / Causative /Inferential *

* Infer Draw meaning from a combination of clues in the text without explicit reference to something that was stated in the text.

Don’t guess please!

Vocabulary complications for comprehension:Even more words, metaphors, figurative speech synonyms, homophones, antonyms, near misses, analogies and so on…

Can’t we just keep it simple?

Readers Need to Continue to Expand Their Vocabulary

New one for me!

Advanced reading requires understanding and explanation of the figurative and metaphorical use of words in context.

So many ways to say it!

We need to identify the opposites?

Readers have to comprehend the word as well as identify the opposite meaning*

* Antonyms:

Vocabulary: Synonyms - using different words to mean roughly the same thing

Why can’t we all use the same words?

Vocabulary: Near Misses cause frustration

So close – but No cigar!

Language structures clarify meaningGrammatical elements found in every language (e.g., nouns, verbs, consonants, vowels).

Hard to bluff these!

Language Structure: Contractions add to the confusion and are so often used incorrectly by writers

You’re or Your?I can never decide which!

Language Structure: Deictic Pronouns cause a lot of grief

There, they, their, they’remmmmm? Not Sure.

Language Structure: Punctuation, Possessives and Plurals

Where does that apostrophe go?

Reading 5: Gator Jam

Read a partially completed analogy, and select the word that correctly completes it

High level comprehension requires a sophisticated use of analogies (as well as Greek and Latin word roots and a variety of semantic relations)

Reading 4: Goat Quotes

And comprehension gets more complex….

Paraphrasing is one of the more sophisticated ways that grammatical complexity can be taught.

In Goat quotes, for example, participants learn how one sentence can be embedded into another.

Organizationof Content

Moves from simple to more

complex, low to higher memory

load, building knowledge to

analysis and synthesis.

Comprehension makes more demand on working memory….

Reading 4: Goat Quotes

Reading 4: Book Monkeys: Book Two

Study the table and answer

questions about its content or

structure.

And extraction of key information efficiently and accurately….

Reading 5: Lana’s Lanes

Visually recognising and understanding text ….

Readers need to recognize and use the correct word order in written sentences.

Our programs can help you assist your students meet the comprehension challenges ……………………

Welcome to our exercises

We link it all to the curriculum standards so you can be sure you are covering what you are supposed to be teaching

Fast ForWord Family of ProductsLanguage Series – Elementary

Reading Series

Language Series – Secondary

The Fast ForWord® family of products is proven to accelerate learning by developing the student brain to process more efficiently. Our products evolved from the work of noted research scientists and is based on over 30 years of foundational research in neuroscience.

Fast ForWord can be complemented by Reading Assistant (A Reading Tutor on Demand)

Fast ForWordSeparate versions for younger and older participants

Example. Secondary School Programs

Processing & Memory –

Vocabulary, Word Forms,

ComprehensionThe more students can use words in

different ways and contexts as well as think about words

(metalinguistics) the more fluent and

flexible a reader they become.

Reading 4: Hoof Beat

Vocabulary Practice: Metalinguistics

We use a FAST Formula to allow the participants to optimiselearning

Frequency and intensity

Adaptivity

Simultaneous development

Timely motivation

Maximum Performance

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

40000

45000

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41

Number of 50 min Sessions

Learn

in

g T

rials

FFWD_Reading

Other_Software

We provide more Frequency and Intensity of Learning Trials compared to other software programs

Frequency & Intensity

Individualised Adaptivity

Millions of Individualised Learning Paths

Simultaneous Development

Vowel Sounds

Spelling

FluencyImproved Generalization – Domain specific skills are

presented within short intensive learning epochs

StandardRewards

Short duration, immediate and consistent with

correct responses

Timely Motivation

Feedback within 10s of milliseconds improves synapse formation

Vocabulary Practice: Synonyms:

Here the student has to match similar words.

Reading 3: Hog Hat Zone

Vocabulary Practice: Antonyms:

Here the student has to match opposites

Reading 3: Hog Hat Zone

Vocabulary Practice: Rhyming Words

Here the student has to match rhymingords

Reading 3: Hog Hat Zone

Comprehension Practice: Inference

Here the student has to predict the next likely line of the story

Reading 3: Book Monkeys

Comprehension Practice: Select the best summary - adaption

Reading 3: Twisted Picture

Building Complexity in language and cognitive skills

4 word comprehension

Comprehension Practice: Select the best summary - adaption

Reading 3: Twisted Picture

Building Complexity in language and cognitive skills

7 word comprehension

Comprehension Practice: Select the best summary - adaption

Reading 3: Twisted Picture

Building Complexity in language and cognitive skills

12 word comprehension

Reading 3: Hog Hat Zone

Read the incomplete sentence, and select the correct, grammatically important word to fill in the blank.

The emphasis shifts from sentence structure to morphology and the grammatical features of words.

Comprehension Practice: Sentence comprehension – grammar practice

Sentence Structure, Punctuation Rules;

Capitalisation

Working on punctuation and capitalization improves written language accuracy.

Reading 4: Lulu’s Laundry Line

Passage Comprehension Exercises

Reading 5: Toad Loader

Instead of just selecting or completing a sentence, participants must now compose entire sentences, taking care as they select each segment that the sentence they are building is both semantically appropriate and grammatically correct.

Comprehension Practice: Sentence comprehension – grammar practice

Purpose: Comprehension for longer passages

Build written formulation skills through practice with organization and sequencing of sentences into paragraphs and later, paragraphs into extended narrative.

Fast ForWord Reading 5: Quack Splash

Passage Comprehension Exercises

Reading 5: Quack Splash

Passage Comprehension Exercises

Read the paragraphs on this page carefully, put them in the correct order, then answer questions about what you read.they must apply all of their reading skills to carry out a writing task: paragraph and passage organization.

Academic Proficiency in Reading

The student reads and comprehends grade level content about the subject matter and produces evidence of reading that…

– Makes and supports warranted and responsible assertions about the texts

– Supports assertions with elaborated and convincing evidence

– Draws the texts together to compare and contrast themes, characters and ideas

– Makes perceptive and well developed connections

– Evaluates writing strategies and elements of the writer’s craft

Large Group – The teacher leads a discussion about the target skill(s) being addressed in Fast ForWord and demonstrates how the product works using a computer and large screen or projection system.

Some of the teacher-directed offline activities, such as stories read aloud or practice with word lists or families, also may be done with a large group.

Teachers can use the programs with large groups

Small Group – Students are given the directions in a small group by the teacher. Then each student goes to the computer to work on individualized exercises, adapted to his or her ability. As students finish, they may work on an offline activity that supports the exercises completed on the computer or prepares the student for the next exercise.

Teachers can use the programs with small groups

Individual Student – A student works on an andividualisedprogram either in the classroom

or in a pull out program using the software and the offline activities.

Or at home in the library with follow-upby a teacher

Teachers can use the programs in a library setting or at home

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We provide complete automated reporting

Group and individual basis

You can track performance in summary

You can track performance visually

You can see complete error lists

You can use the error lists to direct classroom activities

You can use the error lists to match to exam standards

You can even see how your students participate

You can even see how your students participate right down to the time and number of trials

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And give your students clear feedback…

For More Information

Please contact us

www.neuronlearning.com

Email info@neuron.ie

Tel Int’l + 353 21 494 3971