Building a KnowledgeBase in Reading

By Joseph Schmith

Teaching StrategiesClose Reading Shared ReadingGuided Reading

Independent ReadingReading AloudReciprocal Teaching

Oral ReadingWriting

Explicit S.I.

Word Study

Why did I pay for college?

My Kindergarten Experience

Teaching StrategiesClose Reading Shared ReadingGuided Reading

Independent ReadingReading AloudReciprocal Teaching

Oral ReadingWriting

Explicit S.I.

Word Study

Deep Thoughts

Meaning vs. Phonics

Explicit Strategy Instruction

Make it Social!

Karen- 2003

Making Meaning PhonologicallyAware

False Dichotomy

Sweet Spot

Phonemic awareness is a predictor of early reading success (Blackmon, 2000).

A basic knowledge of letter-sound relationships (phonics) is a necessary but not a sufficient strategy used by readers. Independent Reading and phonemic awareness interact and support each other’s development (Moustafa, 1995, 1997).

Poor readers have lower phonemic awareness than do good readers. (Juel, 1994).

Teaching children to manipulate the sounds of language helps them learn to read (NICHD, 2000).

Isolated processes, such as phonological coding, do play a modest part in predicting real-world reading (Swanson, Trainin, Necoechea, and Hamill, 2003).

Their study highlights additional processes as making additional roles in reading (Swanson, Trainin, Necoechea, and Hamill, 2003).

The impact of increased performance in isolated phonemic awarenesss tasks on tests of reading comprehension is considerably less (Tummer, Herriman, & Nesdale, 1988).

Suggestions/Teaching PhonicsLanguage play- games that emphasize rhyming and thinking about the structure of words.

Sociodramatic play: Role-playing how to treat each other

Reading Aloud: Models what language sounds like and how one reads, it helps children foster an appreciation and comprehension of text and literary language.

Alphabet centers/word walls: notice letters, acquire a growing inventory of letters and words, link sounds and letters and letter clusters, to use what they know about words to learn new words

Invented Spelling: Have them try to spell words based on how you sound them out.

Dictations: A teacher writing down the children’s own language-in the form of a story or experience-and having the child read it.

Reading for meaning/fun: Problem solving, many models of reading aloud, offer manageable texts for beginning readers, Big Books, patterned stories, rich experiences with language (videos)

What I do

Explicit Strategy InstructionExpert readers are active, purposeful, strategic, and metacognitive. Such readers are using strategies to construct meaning before, during, and after reading. (Sweet, 1993)

A strategic reader is the problem solver who draws from his or her toolbox of metacognitive strategies to repair virtually any comprehension failure that might arise (Pearson, 1993).

When the students receive coaching or supportive instruction in relevant strategies when they read, they both expand their repertoire of strategies and develop control of the strategies for greater independence as readers (Taylor, Pearson, Clark, and Walpole, 1999)

When readers learn strategies in the context of in-depth content learning, they are more likely to understand the strategies as purposeful tools that they can and will use to support their understandings of new texts (RAND Reading Study Group, 2002).

Students need opportunities to read many and diverse types of texts to gain experience, build fluency, and develop a range as readers (National Council of Teachers of English, 2004)

Explicit Strategy InstructionClassroom contexts that support comprehension development offers large amounts of time spend in real reading, experience reading texts purposefully, experience reading the range of text genres students are expected to comprehend (Duke & Pearson, 2002)

Learning a strategy fully involves repeated opportunities to use it in reading actual texts; over time and across a range of reading experiences, reader build competence in and conscious control over powerful strategies (Kamil, 2003).

Think alouds, modeled by the teacher and practiced by the student with authentic text, build metacognitive strategies and improve comprehension (Duke & Pearson, 2003). Conversations about metacognition lead to conscious, individual metacognition by students as they work with new texts (Greenleaf, 2001).The purpose of the instructional conversations is not practice with the strategies but a shared understanding of the text. Strategies are only a means to the end (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)

Teachers phase in to demonstrate and name particular strategies, then phase out to give students a chance to use the new strategies on their own (Walker, 1996)Teachers who read aloud to upper, elementary, middle, and high school students made significant, positive, and long-lasting impressions on their student (Duchein and Mealy, 1993)

Teaching StrategiesClose Reading Shared ReadingGuided Reading

Independent ReadingReading AloudReciprocal Teaching

Oral ReadingWriting

Explicit S.I.

Word Study

What I doInferencing, predicting, reading selectively, identifying important information, self-monitoring, summarizing, questioning, what do I do when I am stuck?

You model these strategies by reading with them. You assess their comprehension by letting them go, observing them, and periodically asking questions to gain information on their understanding.

Give everyone the same copy of whatever you’re reading. How do you get them to read and model how to read a new piece well? Whether you read or not, you need to make sure they are, outloud, in front of you. The whole class or small group should follow along as you read (site word recognition practice) and you should take your time. Stop, re-read confusing sentences or unknown words, and ask for evidence of why. Ask them questions to ask each other. Read slow, but not slow enough to limit comprehension. Over time, by reading and think aloud, a lot of your reading habits will become internalized by your students. Make sure to diversify the genre of texts you use and make sure the kids are reminded of the difference.

Most important thing to remember: How will you make it interesting? If the students are interested, a lot of these reading strategies can manifest themselves naturally.

Suggestions for Explicit S.I.Retellings- Learners have the opportunity to retell stories or other texts they have read and to relate them to personal experience.

Transactional Strategies Instruction- Students learn comprehension-monitoring and problem-solving strategies as they read real texts. Teachers encourage personal meanings and emphasize personal enjoyment (Pressley, 1992).

Reciprocal teaching: Students use questioning, predicting, clarifying, and summarizing while reading a challenging text.

Scaffolded reading experience: Instructional support before, during ,and after reading a text bridges the gap between students’ independently achieved comprehension and the deeper understanding set as a goal (Graves & Graves, 2003)

Make it Social!

Students who talk about what they read are more likely to be motivated to read (Guthrie, Schafer, Wang, & Afflerbach, 1995)

Critical knowledge of both the reading proceses and what one does as a strategic reader is built through discussion (Langer, 1993)

Student interaction in discussions promotes the ability to think critically and to consider multiple perspectives (Applebee, 2003) and develops the ability to confirm, extend, or modify individual interpretations of the texts (Leal, 1992).

Discussion promotes deep understanding of text (Nystrand, 1997).

When students are encouraged to verbalize their ideas and questions, cognitive development is supported. They learn how to realize uncertainties in their understandings, explain and justify their positions, seek information to help them resolve the uncertainty, and learn to see alternative points of view (Almasi, 1995)

Learners gradually internalize and effectively control ways of thinking, learning, and doing that they originally acquire and practice in supportive social interactions. (Vygotsky, 1978)

Suggestions for SocializingVygotsky emphasizes the importance of social interactions to actually drive any learning process.

Scaffolding-the interaction between the learner and more sophisticated others that provides guidance, support, and models as new learning takes place.

If you trust the students to talk to one another, you need to talk to them in a whole-class, one-on-one, or small group setting. More importantly, they should be talking and the teacher should be listening. Thankfully, my classes over the past two years have done pretty well conversing amongst themselves about the topic at hand. I ask a lot of questions and I want numerous kids to answer because I am informally assessing each kid with each answer. I also tell them they are wrong a lot, because I want them to continue to learn from their misconceptions.

Suggestions:Throw it back to them for a short period of time and tell them how longBe careful to stay on topic and not let kids drift offOne giant, conversation amongst themselves or youIf not verbalizing, they need to be doing something because learning is not passively sitting there

Deep Thoughts

Meaning vs. Phonics

Explicit Strategy Instruction

Make it Social!