Learning and Cognition in the Content Areas

Reading

Phonic-based vs Whole-Language

Approaches

A DevelopmentalModel of Reading

Levels of Comprehension

InstructionalApproaches

MetacognitiveSkills

What Is Reading?

vs.

LEARNING TO READ

Developingautomaticity

Reading Fluency

grades K-3

READING TO LEARN

Gaining specific knowledge

ReadingComprehension

grades 4 on

Development of Reading

Stage 0: Prerequisites for Readingbirth to beginning of 1st grade

Stage 1: Phonological Recoding Skills1st & 2nd grades

Stage 2: Reading Fluency2nd & 3rd grades

Stage 3: “Reading to Learn”4th – 8th grades

Stage 4: Higher Levels of Comprehensionhigh school years

PRE-READING SKILLS

READING FORMAT

- left to right on line

-top to bottom on page

-text goes from extreme right (end of line) to extreme left (new line)

- spaces signal beginning & end of words

LETTER PERCEPTION

- degree of confusability due to # of common features

e.g., vertical/horizontal lines, curved lines, open vs. closed letters

“d” and “b” “F” and “E” highly confusable

KEY PRE-READING SKILL

Phonemic - recognizing that words consist ofAwareness separable sounds

*** IMPORTANT ***Predicts early reading achievement

STUDY: ask 4 & 5 yr old children to tap when they hear a specific sound in a word, e.g., “it.” None of the 4 yr olds could do it, only some 5 yr olds could. Training helps, ask children to pick out word that is different.

cot, pot, hat

Training Phonological Awareness

Blending: listening to a series of separate spoken sounds and blending them, such as /g/ and /o/

Segmentation: consists of tapping out or counting out the sounds in a word, such as /g/ /o/ = go,which is two sounds

THE COSTS OF WEAK PHONEMIC AWARENESS

difficulty in learning to read words

limits exposure to text

delays automaticity in decoding

delays skill in comprehension

more limited vocabulary& knowledge base

PHONICS BASED APPROACH

“I am hot,”said the pot.

“I am wet,”said the pet.

“I am cut,”said the nut.

Get the pot.The pot is hot.

Get the pet.The pet is wet.

Get the nut.The nut is cut.

I got the nut.The nut was cut.

I got the pet.The pet was wet.

I got the pot.The pot was hot.

WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACH

STRANGE BUMPSOwl was in bed.“It is timeto blow out the candleand go to sleep.”he said with a yawn.Then Owl saw two bumpsunder the blanketat the bottom of his bed.“What can those strangebumps be?” asked Owl.

WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE?

Question 1: How do skilled readers read?

- They use direct, visually based retrieval from LTM

That is, they recognize whole words

- They employ fast and accurate decoding processes

WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE?

Question 2: Which method provides a transition from less skilled to more skilled reading?

- the phonics based approach enables a child to

adopt a sounding out strategy when a word is

not automatically recognized

- & each correct pronunciation strengthens the

tie between the written word and its auditory

representation

SO, ONCE AGAIN, WHICH METHOD SHOULD WE USE?

The case for the whole word method: It emphasizes direct, visually based retrieval from LTM, just like skilled readers, and reading for meaning

The case for the phonics based approach: It emphasizes correct pronunciation of new words, enhancing the transition to automaticity of decoding skills

Recommendation: Phonics based approach has the advantage, but a combination of both is best.

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION

Level 1: Meaning Access

Definition – retrieve meaning of printed word from long-term memory

strawberry jam fruit bat

traffic jam baseball bat

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION

Level 2: Proposition Assembly

Definition - the process of relating words to each other to form meaningful units

Can you break this sentence into its basic propositions?

“The sick boy went home.”

Propositions:

“there was a boy” “the boy was sick”

“the boy went home”

LEVELS OF COMPREHENSION

Level 3: Proposition Integration

Definition - involves combining individual propositions into larger units of meaning

Level 4: Text Modeling

Definition - processes by which readers draw inferences and relate what they are reading to what they already know.

If the balloons popped the sound wouldn’t be able to carry since everything would be too far away from the correct floor. A closed window would also prevent the sound from carrying, since most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since the whole operation depends on a steady flow of electricity, a break in the middle of the wire would also cause problems. Of course, the fellow could shout, but the human voice is not loud enough to carry that far. An additional problem is that a string could break on the instrument. Then there could be no accompaniment to the message. It is clear that the best situation would involve less distance. Then there would be fewer potential problems. With face to face contact, the lesser number of things could go wrong.

John BransfordVanderbilt Univ.A Founder of

Cognitive Psychology

ClassicProblems:Understanding The Balloon Story

ClassicProblems:Understanding The Balloon Story

Making Inferences

Good comprehension requires that the reader makeinferences, filling in missing details, etc.

e.g., “She slammed the door shut on her hand”Inference: hurt her finger

e.g., “Our neighbor unlocked the door”Inference: used a key

e.g., “The river was narrow. A beaver hit the logthat a turtle was sitting on (beside), and thelog flipped over from the shock. The turtlewas very surprised by the event.”

Inference: Turtle was knocked into the water.

METACOGNITION: RECOGNIZING INCONSISTENCIES

Do you know when you don’t understand?

A Passage with an Implicit Inconsistency

Many different kinds of fish live in the ocean. Some fish have heads that make them look like alligators, and some fish have heads that make them look like cats. Fish live in different parts of the ocean. Some fish live near the surface of the waters, but some fish live way down at the bottom of the ocean. There is absolutely no light at the bottom of the ocean. Some fish that live at the bottom of the ocean know their food by its color. They will only eat red fungus.

METACOGNITION: RECOGNIZING INCONSISTENCIES

Do you know when you don’t understand?

A Passage with an Explicit Inconsistency

Many different kinds of fish live in the ocean. Some fish have heads that make them look like alligators, and some fish have heads that make them look like cats. Fish live in different parts of the ocean. Some fish live near the surface of the waters, but some fish live way down at the bottom of the ocean. Fish must have light in order to see. There is absolutely no light at the bottom of the ocean. It is pitch black down there. When it is that dark the fish cannot see anything.They cannot even see colors. Some fish that live at the bottom of the ocean can see the color of their food; that is how they know what to eat.

RECOGNIZING INCONSISTENCIESKey Findings

% Children Who Detected Inconsistencies

Grade Explicit Implicit

3rd 50% 0%

5th 60% 10%

6th 60% 0%

Results: elementary school children are not good at finding inconsistencies, particularly if they are implicit

If you prompt 3rd and 6th graders with “there is something tricky about this passage” only 6th graders benefit from the hint

Cognitive Approaches: Metacognitive Strategies

Overview text before readingSeek and relate important ideasDetermine meaning of words not recognizedMonitor text comprehensionUnderstand relationships between parts of textRecognize when you need to rereadAdjust pace based on difficulty of material

Cognitive Approaches: Prior Knowledge (e.g. “Spider” Study)

%

Cor

rect

Verbatim Ques Inference Ques

Low knowledge

High prior knowledge

Key Finding: 2nd graders who knew a lot about spiders were much more likely to fill in gaps, make inferences.

Social Constructivist Approaches

Reciprocal Teaching1. Generate questions about text

2. Clarify understanding of text

3. Summarize text

4. Make predictions

Book Clubs

School/Family/Community Connections

CLASSIC STUDY USING RECIPROCAL TEACHING: PALINCSAR & BROWN (1984)

Students: 7th graders who were 2 years behind on reading comprehension (no problems with decoding)

Students Were Trained To:- summarize- clarify- predict what comes next- predict what questions a teacher would ask

Results:- successful summarizing went from 10% to 60%- reading comprehension scores on pre- and post-test

went from 20% to 80%- in science and social science classwork, students went

from the 20th percentile in their school to the 56th