Reading Comprehension StrategiesHighfield School

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Our session tonightSome background

What are the strategies?

The importance of vocabulary learning

Revision of main points

Each of us – write on a post it – what you think is reading!

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Key areas of reading

• Phonemic awareness• Phonics• Fluency• Comprehension• Vocabulary

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Someone is not trulyreading if they don’t

understand what theyare reading.

Medical text

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Multiple research studies weresummarized by Pearson, Dole,

Duffy, and Roehler (1992)

who analysed what active,thoughtful readers do when

they construct meaning fromtext.

Always had good readers – teaching all readers what ‘ good readers do’A bit of background

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Proficient readersuse specific strategiesto construct meaning

from text.

Good readers areactive readers.

What is a reading strategy? (or reading comprehension strategy)A strategy is a plan to help you achieve something.So a reading strategy helps you achieve understanding of the text.

Another word for understanding is comprehension.

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Can teach individually but good readers use these together dependent upon what they are currently read.Rereading is a great comp strategyThink of when you read – how often you reread a passage or exertOur struggling readers sometimes struggle to see this –Talk about what we are doing – our metacognition – what is happening inside our heads

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What are the strategies?

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Prior knowledge is the unique set of knowledgeeach individual student brings to the readingexperience. It is a combination of the students’attitudes, experiences, and knowledge.

By knowledge we mean;• what the student already knows about the reading

process• vocabulary knowledge• topic knowledge• concept knowledge• and text types/genres and language features of

these.

Importance of language experiences – go to park, go fishing, cooking, feeding the ducks, learning to ridea bike… these experiences add to our prior knowledgeThe importance of talking about these experiences – even watching a TV programme and talking about itLinks between doing it, talking about it, reading about it, and later writing about it.

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Self monitoring supports comprehension bygiving the reader control over the readingprocess. Before reading, they might clarifytheir purpose for reading and preview the text.During reading, they monitor theirunderstanding, perhaps adjusting theirreading speed to fit the difficulty level of thetext and using "fix up" strategies to deal withany comprehension problems they may have.After reading, they can monitor theirunderstanding of what they have read.

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Predicting is a key pre-reading strategy as ithelps to set a purpose for reading. Continuingto make predictions and confirming or revisingthem throughout the reading processencourages students to become active readerswho have expectations of the text. This alsokeeps them actively engaged in the readingprocess. This engagement is crucial forcomprehension. By thinking about theirpredictions and confirming or revising them,students remain motivated and focused.

Nicola – wonderings…. Do not have to be right? Sometime better not being ‘right’Can be used to keep us focused – “aha I thought this was going to happen…”

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Questioning is when the student posesquestions before, during and after reading atext. Questioning plays an important part in theprocess of self monitoring as students askthemselves, “Does this make sense?”

Encouraging students to become aware of andvalue the questions they ask naturally is a wayof helping them to engage with the text.

Before, during and afrer

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Asking and answering questions helps toengage the reader with the text. It provides apurpose for reading and gives the student areason to clarify meaning. This connection

helps to deepen comprehension.

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What is making connections?text to self

text to text

text to world

Links to what I may already know… in my world, from something else I have read, what I actually knowabout the world.The more I read the more I know

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Making meaningful connections helps studentsrelate the text to their own prior knowledge. Themore connections, the more likely the student isto comprehend the text. For example, if astudent is reading a book about snorkelling andthey have had that experience, they are morelikely to make more meaningful connectionsthan a person who has not had that sameexperience.Making connections helps to deepencomprehension and create personal links withwhat is being read. These connections impacton a student’s motivation to read.

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Robyn – nordet??

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What is visualising?

(pictures in your mind creating mental images = the movie in your head)

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Visualising supports comprehension asstudents create their own unique mentalimages of what they are reading. By doing this,they feel more connected to the story, enjoy thestory more and understand it more deeply.

Visualising is also useful for self monitoring. Ifthe ‘movie in your head’ stops, you realise youhave stopped understanding and need to stopand use a strategy to repair meaning.

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In order to summarise, the student must attendclosely to the text and be able to includeinformation that gives the essence of the text.Summarising also plays a part in the ability tosynthesise – if the students are able toarticulate the main points and ideas of a text,they are more ready to synthesise.

Jamie – key notes and summarizing

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Inferring requires that readersmerge their backgroundknowledge with clues in the text tocome up with an idea that isn’texplicitly stated by the author.Inferences are based on textevidence.

What else do I know that the text hasn’t told me – we went to beach and had a swim – ie it was summerThe boys dragged their feet through the door ( maybe they are not very happy)

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Some people say it’s like

Reading between the lines

or even

Reading between the ears!

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Students develop deeper understandings of thetext when they ‘read between the lines’ to drawtheir own conclusions by using priorexperience. They create their own uniquemeaning of the text. As they read, theseunderstandings may be revised as the reader isexposed to new information and confirms oradjusts their thinking.

Develops as experiences develop – as you get more experiences you are able to infer more deeply.

Anna – cartoons

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Putting it all together – taking old ideas and making something new with them….Makes the learning even more powerful ‘NZC states active, motivated, meaningful’Knowledge as a verb rather than knowledge as a noun

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Synthesising is when the studentmerges new information with priorknowledge to form a new idea,perspective, or opinion or togenerate insight.

Synthesis is an ongoing process.As new knowledge is acquired, it issynthesised with prior knowledgeto generate new ideas.

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Synthesising (creating)• Useful Verbs

createinventcomposeplanconstructdesignimagineproposedeviseformulate

• Sample Question StemsCan you design a ... to ...?Why not compose a song about...?Can you see a possible solution to...?If you had access to all resources how would you deal with...?Why don't you devise your own way to deal with...?How many ways can you...?Can you create new and unusual uses for...?Can you write a new recipe for a tasty dish?can you develop a proposal which would...Invent a machine to do a specific task.

• Potential activities and productsDesign a building to house your study.Create a new product. Give it a name and plan a marketing campaign.Write a TV show, play, puppet show, role play, song or pantomime about...?Invent a machine for a specific taskSell an idea.Devise a way to...Write your prediction about how views on this topic would change in time or place

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Synthesising supports reading comprehensionbecause it requires students to combine theirprior knowledge with new knowledge and putinto their own words.

This creates ownership of the thinking. This canbe a powerful experience that makes it morelikely the student will remember the informationand transfer it to new situations which will helpto further reinforce their new thinking.

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The importance ofvocabulary

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“Vocabulary plays a significantrole in students’ reading success.Without an understanding of the

words in a sentence, paragraph, orpassage, comprehension cannot

occur, and without comprehension,one is not truly literate.”Block & Mangieri (2006)

Adding to your own vocab and that of your children….My most boring favourite = WENT!

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How are reading strategiestaught in the classroom?

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from ‘The Learner as a Reader’.

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• I’ll show you You watch me

• I’ll show you You help me

• You show me I’ll help you

• You show me I’ll watch you

Adapted from The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model – Pearson &Gallagher, 1983, Nicky Anderson 2008

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Read togeher – talk with me – share the load - maybe you do the reading and I’ll do the thinking –We have reading to, shared reading, guided reading…

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Students need to beaware of what the strategies are and when

to use them.

Although they need to be explicitly taughtindividually – the aim is for students will use

multiple strategies.

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Word attack strategies

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To re-cap…

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We teach the strategiesindividually but

will usemultiple strategies

at one time.

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What is reading?

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