reading comprehension webinar handout - salda.org.au

Presented 10 September 2020

Reading Comprehension Webinar Handout

Introduction

• Presented by Speech & Language Development

Australia (SALDA) – School Support Services (SSS)

team

• SSS team based out of Brisbane and Townsville

• The School Support Service is a multidisciplinary

service funded by the Department of Education

to provide additional support within schools

throughout QLD, to enhance learning outcomes

of students

Key Learning Objectives

• Attendees will expect to investigate:

o Oral language comprehension as the

foundation for reading comprehension

o Strategies to support students’ reading

comprehension

Oral Language Comprehension

• Oral language comprehension = receptive

language – the ability to receive and understand

oral language

• Language is further broken down into the

Components of Language:

o Form = the structure of language

o Content = the part of language that holds

meaning

o Use = how language is used in various

situations


Link between Oral Language Comprehension &

Reading Comprehension

• Understand complex vocabulary

• Utilise higher order language skills, including:

o Inferencing

o Reasoning

o Predicting

o Evaluating

o Analysing

o Synthesising

• Understand complex sentence structures

• Understand way that the story is read – including

tone of voice in dialogue



• Before understanding the story, students first

have to access it

• Decode the text through using phonics and

phonological awareness skills

• Then have to apply all of the skills used for

comprehending oral language:

o Understanding vocabulary

o Inferring

o Understanding complex sentence

structure



• Overlap in skills between oral language

comprehension and reading comprehension

• Many adjustments, strategies and activities for

reading comprehension are based in supporting

oral language


Language Disorder and Literacy

• ‘Reading comprehension requires all of the

component parts of the reading process to be

securely in place, each of which has been

supported by oral language in some way’ (Konza,

2014)

• Depth of vocabulary knowledge is predictive of

reading comprehension skills (Ouellette, 2006)

• Familiarity with complex sentence structures

[helps children] comprehend stories read aloud to

them and that they later read themselves (Konza,

2014)

• Understanding a variety of situations prepares

students for more successful comprehension at

later stages, including both listening and reading

(Lexia Learning, n.d.)

Teaching Reading Comprehension

• An evidence-based process for teaching

comprehension strategies is:

o Model and explain

o Guided practice with scaffolding

o Independent practice

o Application of strategy to multiple

contexts


• Think, Pair, Share

o Think: Students to think about their

response independently

o Pair: Students to discuss their responses

with a peer

o Share: Students share their responses

during a whole class discussion



• Question-Answer Relationship (QAR)

o Right there: literal questions found in the

text

o Think and search: combine details from

multiple parts of the text to create a

comprehensive answer

o Author and you: based on information in

the text and own experiences/prior

knowledge (e.g., use clues in the text to

infer/predict)

o On my own: answer is not in the text;

students must use their background

knowledge

Adjustments to Support Reading Comprehension

• Blank’s Levels of Questioning

o Questioning hierarchy ranging from basic,

concrete questions to complex questions

about abstract information

o Level 1: Look at it

o Level 2: Talk about it

o Level 3: Think about it

o Level 4: Reasoning


• Bloom’s Taxonomy

o Created for the purpose of categorising

educational goals

o Can target questions and activities at the

level that your student is currently

working at

o Complexity increases as the levels

progress upwards



• Breaking down complex questions

o Explain complex vocabulary

o Rephrase question with simpler

vocabulary

o Ask multiple simple questions to have the

student generate content

o Ask the complex question again

o Support the student to recall their

responses to the complex question

o Use visuals as prompts or graphic

organisers to help organise responses


• Ask literal questions to guide student towards a

response for a complex, higher order language

question (e.g., “Who is sad?” “What is on the

ground?” “What happened to the ice-cream?”

“Why are they sad?”)

• Explicitly verbalise your own thought process

• Have students practice finding supporting

information in the text by giving them the

‘outcome/inference’ and then having them find all

the clues for it (e.g., ‘I think James is feeling sad.

Can you find what things in the text told me he is

sad?”)

• Simplify questioning language


• Scaffolding such as providing a cloze activity

• Graphic organisers such as mind maps and KWL

charts

• Record answers either by video or anecdotally

• Provide multiple opportunities for students

respond

• Adapt activities and assessments based on a

students’ needs and capabilities


Reading comprehension activities

• Pre-reading

• During reading

• Post-reading activities

Pre-reading Activities

• Build background knowledge

o Link to what is already known

o Correct any misconceptions

o Could introduce topic with informative

video

o Students could fill out the first two

columns in a KWL chart


• Pre-teach vocabulary and concepts

o Student could skim through the text and

highlight any ‘tricky words’

o Help student to read them and give

friendly definitions

o Could establish understanding of key

curriculum vocabulary through the use of:

▪ Semantic maps/word maps

▪ Four square templates, etc.


• Discuss text structure (e.g., narrative vs

expository) – help students to identify the most

important information for understanding the text

and can help them to organise the information

that they take in

• Explore the text: ‘book feature walk’ or ‘text

feature walk’

o Discuss title, pictures, chapter titles,

headings, captions, glossary, indices,

bolded words, etc.

o Make predictions


o Make connections to own experiences

and prior knowledge

During Reading Activities

• Click and Clunk

o A self-monitoring strategy

o If a student understands a section of text,

they ‘click’ (using a sound, action or image)

o If a student is unsure of a section of text, they

‘clunk’ (using a sound, action or image)

During Reading Activities

• Annotations

o Can be used to support comprehension during

reading – includes underlining the main idea,

circling unknown words, a question mark can

be used as a prompt to visit that section of

text again and an exclamation mark can be

used to highlight important sections of the

text.

o A visual representation can be created to

support students to remember which

annotation to use to provide consistency.

Post-reading Activities

• Check predictions

o Were they valid?

o What was different?

o How did any differences affect the story?

• Retell story

o To teacher or peer

o Can be summary of key points, not word-

for-word retell


Post-reading Activities

• Final column in KWL chart – ‘what I learned’ –

answers questions from ‘W’ column

• Organise content into appropriate structure

template

• Students may need to be explicitly taught how to

identify key information in sentences/paragraphs

to aid in note-taking

Examples of Reading Comprehension

Strategies/Approaches

• SCORE Poster

o Skim & Scan: similar to a book/text

feature walk. Prompts include skimming

one sentence per paragraph and the final

sentence – provides a quick summary of

the text

o Connect & Question: draws on

background knowledge and personal

connections, as well as knowledge of text

structures/genres. Students are

encouraged to predict and develop

questions to be answered by the text

o Organise your Thinking: reflect on the first

steps and set goals for reading the text

o Read, Reflect, Retell: encourages good

reading practices, ‘clicks/clunks’, prompts

students to summarise

o Expert: be the expert; respond to

comprehension questions, reflect on

predictions and any new information they

learned from the text




• Direct Reading Thinking Activity (DTRA)

- Direct: Direct and activate a student’s prior

knowledge through open-ended questions

- Reading: Read the text up to a certain point,

reflect on predictions, ask questions.

- Thinking: Reflect on questions, summarise

text

• Read-Ask-Paraphrase (RAP)

- Students read the text

- Students ask questions about the text

- Students paraphrase the text

• Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review (SQ3R)

- Survey: students skim the text

- Question: students ask questions based on

the headings in the text

- Read: students read the text being ‘active

readers’

- Recite: students recite the main idea and

sequence the text

- Review: students provide the main concepts

of the whole text in their own words



• Reciprocal Reading

o The predictor will offer suggestions on what

might happen in the story

o The clarifier will help to address any concepts

or vocabulary that may need further

exploration or explaining

o The questioner will pose questions throughout

reading

o The summariser will focus on the main idea or

key points throughout the text.

• Throughout this process, the teacher will take the

role of modelling and guiding students through

these strategies, gradually releasing this

responsibility as the students develop these skills.


Assistive Technology to Support Reading

Comprehension

• Read-aloud technology can remove the barrier of

decoding for students who struggle with that skill,

allowing them to access the content

• Some assistive technology options can specifically

support reading comprehension, e.g., through

supporting understanding of complex vocabulary

o e.g., definitions/dictionary features,

picture dictionaries, etc.

Professional Learning

• Available on SALDA website: salda.org.au

o Online Learning Modules

o Recorded webinars

o Upcoming webinars

o Range of handouts and resources

Final Notes

• Please complete the feedback survey

• Consider accessing the SALDA SSS Professional

Network on Facebook for more support

• Contact details listed on slide


References

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reading comprehension webinar handout - salda.org.au

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