PROJECT ESTRE2LLA

Comprehension and Vocabulary

Pickle Elementary School

Austin Independent School District

January 6, 2014

Presented by

Linda Cavazos, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Austin

Project ESTRE2LLA, US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs

Grant # H326M110010

Agenda

• Overview of research on vocabulary and comprehension

• Robust instruction to develop vocabulary and comprehension

• Vocabulary and comprehension strategies

Objectives

1. Identify causes of student difficulty with reading comprehension.

2. Review the use of strategies in reading instruction.

3. Identify interventions to address students’ difficulty with reading comprehension and vocabulary development.

RESEARCH ON VOCABULARY AND COMPREHENSION

Research

• Nearly 60% of the ELLs who enter U. S. schools in kindergarten fail to develop sufficient proficiency in English to be reclassified before they complete high school or drop out. (Hakuta et al., 2000; Hill 2004; Parrish, Perez, Merickel, & Linquanti, 2006)

Necessary skills for comprehension

• Word-level skills

• Vocabulary knowledge and oral language skills

• Broad conceptual knowledge

• Knowledge and abilities required specifically to comprehend text

• Thinking and reasoning skills

• Motivation to understand and work toward academic goals

Research

A recent study showed the percentage of students who could read

– 130 correct words per minute (cwpm) at 3rd grade • Non-ELL 90% • Non-ELL and low SES 75% • High English proficiency 68% • Low English proficiency 29%

– 130 cwpm at 5th grade • Non-ELL 82% • Non-ELL and low SES 62% • High English proficiency 58% • Low English proficiency 19%

(Kung, 2009)

Research

• Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text (Chall & Dale, 1995; Klare, 1984).

• Vocabulary knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension (Nagy et al. 1993; Geva & Petrulis-Wright, 1999)

– Adequate reading comprehension depends on a person already knowing 90-95% of the words in a text (Nagy & Scott, 2000).

• Readers need to learn how to derive meaning from texts while using language to interact with texts and express their understanding

• Content knowledge is linked to language.

Research

• Children at age 6 are expected to have a spoken vocabulary of 6,000 words.

• By 8th grade, students have a reading vocabulary of 25,000 words.

• By 12th grade students have a reading vocabulary of 50,000 words.

• From 3rd grade on, children need to learn 2,000 to 3,000 words per year. – word = word families; basic word and other forms;

also includes all meanings of the word (Cairns, 1996; Graves, 2006)

Research

• Growth trajectories in English reading for ELLs who enter kindergarten with limited oral English proficiency lead to large differences in achievement compared to native English speakers by fifth grade.

• Children are exposed to language, largely through

teacher talk and text.

• ELLs in particular respond positively to effective reading comprehension instruction that includes language development

(Kieffer, 2008; Francis et al., 2006; Peregoy & Boyle, 2005; Roit, 2006)

Reflect

• What causes most of your students’ difficulty in reading comprehension?

– Do they have adequate decoding skills?

– Are they metacognitive when they read?

– Do they have adequate vocabulary and conceptual knowledge?

– Do they implement vocabulary strategies?

– Do they implement comprehension strategies?

ROBUST INSTRUCTION

Robust Instruction

• Multi-component

• Builds disciplinary knowledge

• Includes effective practices

– To build comprehension

– To build robust language

– To build content knowledge

COMPREHENSION

Comprehension: Definition

• “The process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.”

(Snow, 2002, p. 11)

Why do students struggle with comprehension?

• Comprehension Monitoring – Are not sure of what they should be doing as they

read – Do not show comprehension strategy awareness – Lack basic decoding skills

• Mental Imagery

– Do not use imagery

• Prior Knowledge – Need relevant knowledge – Overuse of background knowledge

Why do students struggle with comprehension?

• Question Answering – Do not know how to answer questions; cannot

make inferences

• Summarization – Do not know how to summarize; often retell

• Vocabulary-comprehension relationship

– Do not have sufficient or appropriate vocabulary

Research Evidence: Strategies

• A strategy is the intentional application of a cognitive routine by a reader before, during, or after reading a text.

• Comprehension strategies help readers enhance their understanding.

• Strategies may be taught one at time or in combination.

• Students need to learn when to use each strategy.

Examples of Strategies

• Activating prior knowledge

• Predicting

• Questioning

• Visualization

• Monitoring, clarifying, or fix-up

• Drawing inferences

• Summarizing/retelling

Reflect

• Which strategies do you teach?

• What other strategies might you need to teach?

How to teach strategies

1. Teach students how and when to use several research-based reading comprehension strategies.

2. Teach reading comprehension strategies individually, but apply in combination.

3. Teach reading comprehension strategies by using a gradual release of responsibility.

(Shanahan, T., Callison, K., Carriere, C., Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Schatschneider, C., & Torgesen, J. (2010). Improving reading comprehension in kindergarten through, 3rd grade: A practice guide (NCEE 2010-4038). Washington. DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, U. S. Department of Education)

Meta-cognition

• Meta-cognition is an awareness of one’s own learning and understanding.

– In reading, it is critical to comprehension.

• Students have to learn to monitor their understanding as they read.

• We can teach students a strategy to help them monitor their comprehension.

Strategy: Self-monitoring

Stop and ask:

– Does this make sense?

– Do I know what the words mean?

– Can I picture in my mind what is happening?

– What do I think will happen next?

Strategies Needed

• What other strategies are needed?

VOCABULARY

Vocabulary: Definition

• Vocabulary is generally defined as the knowledge of words and the understanding of word meanings and their use (Kamil & Hebert, 2005).

– Vocabulary knowledge contributes to reading comprehension and knowledge building.

– Vocabulary instruction supports comprehension as well as oral language development.

Academic Language: Definition

• Academic language is: – the language used in the classroom

– the language of subject and content areas

– the language of text

– the language assessments

– the language of academic success

(Scarcella, 2003)

Academic Language: Definition

Includes: • Breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge needed,

including multiple meanings to read and understand expository text;

• Wide range of vocabulary that appears far more often in text than in oral conversation;

• Specific academic vocabulary needed to compare historical events, state and reflect on different points of view, among others;

• Complex sentence structures;

• Corresponding syntax

Scarcella, 2003

Stages of Knowing a Word

• never heard of the word before;

• heard of it but have no idea what it means;

• recognize generally what it means but cannot provide a specific description; and

• know the word well and can use it and understand meaning when the word is used orally or in writing (Dale, 1965).

How do students develop vocabulary?

• Implicit Instruction – Oral language

– Read to or read

• Explicit Instruction – Definitions and deep processing

– Word parts (word families, prefixes, and suffixes)

– Context clues (multiple meanings, synonyms)

Reflect

• How do you currently teach vocabulary?

– How are words chosen?

– How many words do you teach directly?

– What strategies do you teach?

– What other strategies do you need?

Vocabulary Instruction

• Pre-instruction of vocabulary is important because it

– helps to reduce the number of unknown concepts and

– introduces the words to the students’ receptive vocabulary.

Explicit vocabulary instruction

1. Pronounce the word

2. Develop students’ word consciousness (i.e., interest in, and awareness of, words, including word parts and word order)

3. Give a student friendly definition

4. Give examples and non-examples.

5. Give students opportunities to encounter

the word throughout the lesson. (Scott & Nagy, 2004; Graves & Watts-Taffee, 2002)

Strategies

• Context clues

Context Clues

• Context clues are hints provided by authors to help the reader determine the meaning of difficult words.

• Students can also use the context to determine the correct meaning of words with more than one meaning, multiple meaning words.

Context Clues

• Direct definition context clues are words that signal that the definition is in the text.

• Look for markers in the text that will help you: – Words

• Is, such as, means, in other words

• es, como, significa, en otras palabras

– Punctuation marks • Commas

Context Clues

• Synonym context clues are words around a difficult word that mean the same or nearly the same as the word.

General Context Clues

• Sometimes a word or phrase is not immediately clarified within the same sentence.

• Relationships, which are not directly apparent, are inferred or implied. The reader must look for clues within, before, and after the sentence in which the word is used.

What other strategies are needed?

Putting it Together

• How much time is devoted to teaching vocabulary explicitly?

• How much time is devoted to teaching comprehension strategies explicitly?

• How much time is devoted to teaching vocabulary strategies explicitly?

• How much time is devoted to student practice?