supporting children with reading comprehension impairments · 2015-09-08 · supporting children...

Dr. Paula Clarke University of York [email protected]

Supporting Children with Reading Supporting Children with Reading Comprehension ImpairmentsComprehension Impairments

Turning Research Findings into Practical SolutionsTurning Research Findings into Practical Solutions

Lecture Plan

• Simple view of reading

• Specific reading comprehension impairments• How do we identify ‘poor comprehenders’?• What causes specific reading comprehension impairments?

• Interventions to support poor comprehenders• Small scale intervention studies• Large scale RCT – The York READing for MEaning Project

• Intervention materials & teaching approaches

• Application to school setting

Primary Framework for Literacy

• Rose Review (2006) – emphasises the importance of language to literacy development

• Move towards Simple View of Reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986)

• Two components of reading:• Decoding• Language Comprehension• Both skills are necessary• Neither skill alone is sufficient for reading

Simple View of Reading

Successful Reading – Reading for Meaning


Dyslexia


Poor Comprehenders


Generally Poor Readers

Poor Comprehenders

60

70

80

90

100

110

120

Comprehension Accuracy

Normal Readers Poor Comprehenders

Nation & Snowling, 1997, BJEP

Poor comprehenders often go unnoticed in the classroom because of their good

decoding ability

10% of primary school aged children

Rose Review ‐ Recommendations

More emphasis on oral language activities in classroomHigh quality systematic phonic work◦ Includes training in phoneme awareness

Speaking and listeningVocabulary Language comprehensionBalance will shift with development from word recognition processes to comprehension processesOral language fundamental to literacy development

What does reading comprehension involve?

Working Memory

Selecting and Manipulating Information

Inferencing

Vocabulary

Monitoring

Reading Comprehension


Jack was very happy. He was going on a holiday to somewhere far away. Jack had never flown before. He clicked shut his seatbelt and then looked out of the window. The cars and people became smaller and smaller. Suddenly the plane bumped and Jack trembled. “What was that Mum?” he asked. “It’s just a cloud” she replied and gave him a hug.

1. How was Jack going to get to his holiday destination?

2. Why did Jack need to go on an aeroplane?

3. Who did Jack go with?


Jack was elated. He was going on a holiday to somewhere very remote. Jack had never flown before. He clicked shut his belt device and then peeped out of the window. The cars and people became miniaturised. Unexpectedly the plane bumped and Jack trembled. “What was that Mum?” he asked. “It’s just a Cumulus” she acknowledged and gave him a hug.

1. How was Jack feeling about going on holiday?

2. Why did the cars and people get smaller?

3. Was Jack surprised when the plane bumped?

The importance of reading for meaning

• Which areas of the curriculum have the strongest reading comprehension demands?

• Literacy – KS2 SATs

• History – researching, finding key ideas

• Geography

• RE

• PSHCE

• Topic work

• Science

• Numeracy – problem solving

Based on responses of 30 KS2 teachers in York and North Yorkshire

• Decoding• Spelling

• Regular words• Exception words• In isolation and context

• WIAT II

• Comprehension• Listening comprehension• Multiple choice responses

• Range of question types

• Adapted NARA II, YARC or WIAT II

Identifying Poor Comprehenders

Large group/Class assessments

• Decoding• Single word reading accuracy• YARC or BAS

• Reading efficiency• TOWRE

• Nonword reading• GNWRT

• Comprehension• Reading Comprehension• NARA II or YARC or WIAT II

• Listening Comprehension • CELF IV Listening to paragraphs

Identifying Poor Comprehenders

Individual assessments

Assessing Reading Comprehension

Kim stopped on her way to school. In the middle of the traffic lay two children. Their bicycles had crashed into each other. Kim ran quickly to help. She saw that no‐one was hurt. The children pointed to a television camera. ‘We are taking part in a road safety lesson’ they said.

1. Where was Kim going?2. Why did Kim stop?3. What had happened to the bikes?4. How do you think Kim felt?5. What did Kim do?6. Were the children hurt?7. What were the children really doing?8. How did Kim find out what was happening?

Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA II)

• Children read aloud short passages (narrative only).

• Includes literal and inferential open ended questions.


Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT II)

• Children read (aloud or silently) a range of passages and sentences. (narrative, adverts, non‐fiction information etc.)

• Includes literal, inference and vocabulary dependent question types.

• Also involves summarization (finding key themes and ideas), prediction, and question generation.

Science fun you can do at home!HOW TO MAKE GOBBLEDEEGLUE

1.Put 2 teaspoons of water and 4 teaspoons of white glue in a cup. Stir with a spoon.2.In another cup, Add 2 teaspoons of borax powder to 1 cup of water. Stir with a spoon until the borax has dissolved. 3.Add 4 teaspoons of the borax and water into the cup that has the glue and water, and mix for three minutes.4.Add 2 drops of food colouring to the mixture. You may choose your favourite colour. Stir until the colour is mixed well. 5.Put the Gobbledeeglue mix on a piece of plastic and leave it alone for 3 minutes.6.Pick up the Gobbledeeglue, roll it into a ball, and watch it bounce!7.Sit the Gobbledeeglue on the piece of plastic and see what happens next.

• What three ingredients must you have to make Gobbledeeglue?• Why must you do Steps 1 and 2 before you can do Step 3?• How does Gobbledeeglue change after step 4?• What do you do straight after the first time you put Gobbledeeglueon a sheet of plastic?• What would you predict would happen if you tried to pull Gobbledeeglue apart?• What is the meaning of the word dissolved in Step 2?


York Assessment of Reading for Comprehension (YARC)

• Children read aloud short passages (alternating narrative and non fiction).

• Includes literal, inference and vocabulary dependent question types.

Anita stood quite still, transfixed by the repeated sequence of the blue‐grey water: the swell, the surge forward, the roaring crash and then the ebb. It reminded her of her fight with her older brother: the build up of petty irritations, the taunting remarks followed by an explosive row, and afterwards, the false calm as they each retreated to brood on real, or imagined, grievances. Sometimes she hated Chris.

As she turned to throw a stick for Patch, she noticed the mist beginning to swirl in; she could no longer make out the pier. A dank murkiness could quickly replace sunshine on this remote northern coast. Half way down the beach, she shivered, partly from cold and partly from fear, as the thickening fog isolated her from the rest of the world: even Patch had deserted her. Suddenly from the depths of the gloom, an arm reached out and a hand gripped her shoulder. Anita could feel her heart racing wildly. Anxiously, she stood rooted to the spot.

“Hi sis,” said a familiar voice, “I was getting worried about you.”

Literal Q• What two things made Anita

shiver?

Inference Qs• What is the ‘repeated sequence

of the blue‐grey water’?• Why did Anita’s heart race

wildly?

Vocabulary Q• What does a dank murkiness

mean?

Poor comprehender criteria

• Non verbal IQ in average range

• Cut off • Reading accuracy/efficiency greater than 100• Reading comprehension below 85

• Discrepancy based• Reading accuracy/efficiency in average range• Reading accuracy/efficiency in advance of reading comprehension

• Listening comprehension • YARC or CELF IV

• Understanding grammatical structure • CELF IV or TROG II

• Vocabulary• Expressive

• CELF IV (Naming) or WPPSI (definitions) • Receptive

• BPVS

Early Identification

Evidence of impairments on a range of different oral language tasks:

Vocabulary Nation, Clarke & Snowling, 2002; Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004, Stothard & Hulme,1992

Oral expression Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004

Figurative language Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004

Narrative skills Cragg & Nation, 2006; Cain & Oakhill, 1996; 2006

Grammatical development Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004; Nation & Snowling, 2000

Verbal reasoning Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004

Inferencing Oakhill, 1984; Cain & Oakhill, 1999; Nation, Clarke, Marshall & Durand, 2004

Evidence of impairments in other areas:

Comprehension monitoring Erlich, Remond & Tardieu 1996; Yuill, Oakhill & Parkin, 1989; Cain, Oakhill & Bryant, 2004; Oakhill, Hart & Samols, 2005

Verbal working memory Nation, Adams, Bowyer‐Crane & Snowling, 1999; Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Cain, 2006

Suppression/Inhibition Cain, 2006

Poor comprehender profile

Evidence of impairments

• Although converging evidence from studies using group means, poor comprehender profiles vary across individuals

• Not all poor comprehenders will necessarily have difficulties in all areas• Is there a core cognitive deficit in poor comprehenders?

Previous intervention research

Yuill and Oakhill (1988) Inference Training

McGee & Johnson (2003) Inference Training

Yuill and Joscelyne (1988) Story Structure & Inference Training

Oakhill & Patel (1991) Mental Imagery Training

Johnson‐Glenberg (2000) Verbal RT vs. Visualising Training

• Yuill and Oakhill (1988) developed an intervention to specifically target inferencing skills. Replicated by McGee and Johnson (2003).

Inference training included:

• Lexical training – attending to each word in a sentence and discussing how the words contribute to the overall meaning of the sentence

• Question generation – examples of how questions can be derived from text – followed by generation of own questions

• Prediction – Sentences obscured, pupils guess missing segments

Inference training

• Yuill and Oakhill (1988) ‐ Skilled and less skilled comprehenders aged 7 years each received 7 sessions of training in 1 of 3 intervention conditions

• In the inference training condition gains in individual scores on the NARA were on average 17 months.

• McGee and Johnson (2003) ‐ Skilled and less skilled comprehenders aged 6y6m ‐9y11m years each received 6 sessions of training in 1 of 2 intervention conditions

• In the inference training condition gains in individual scores on the NARA were on average 20 months.

Inference Training

ComprehensionTraining

Rapid Decoding= >

Inference training

Inference Training

ComprehensionTraining>

Story Structure & Inference training

• Yuill and Joscelyne (1988)

• Experiment 1• Using verbal and pictorial text organisers to support understanding.

• Compared effects of integrated and non integrated organisers.

• Experiment 2 • Identifying clues to solve inferences in text.

• Less skilled comprehenders showed significant improvements in comprehension questions but not story recall.

• Oakhill and Patel (1991) focused on mental imagery training as a potential method for improving the reading comprehension skills of poor comprehenders.

• 22 poor comprehenders and 22 good comprehenders, taught in small groups were instructed using representational and transformational drawings, to picture stories in their minds.

• They were then encouraged to use their mental images to answer comprehension questions.

• They found that poor comprehenders benefited more from imagery training than good comprehenders and suggested that “the ability to use imagery strategies may give poor comprehenders a way of helping to circumvent their memory limitations…”(p.114)

Mental Imagery training

• Johnson‐Glenberg (2000)

• Compared a verbally based reciprocal teaching (RT) program (Palincsar & Brown, 1984) to a visually based visualising/verbalising program (Bell, 1986)

• Verbal RT• Children assigned roles. Clarifier, Summariser, Predictor, Question Generator.

Roles initially modelled by tutor, scaffolding reduced over time.

• Visualising/Verbalising

• Bell's (1986) instructional book, Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking. Students were trained to create mental images from the text and to discuss these images with the group.

Reciprocal teaching & visualising training

Reciprocal teaching & visualising training

• Johnson‐Glenberg (2000)

• 59 poor comprehenders assigned to either one of the training programmes or a control group. Small group teaching took place over 16 weeks.

• They found that both training programmes were similarly effective in improving poor comprehenders’ reading, language and memory skills associated with reading comprehension ability.

• They suggested that a combination of the two strategies might beparticularly powerful.

Limitations of intervention work to date

• Interventions teaching specific components of reading comprehension have generated some impressive results in poor comprehenders. However…

• Promising findings have not yet been replicated.

• Studies have focused largely on text level and metacognitive skills. Very little on oral language training.

• No studies have pulled these components together to create a comprehensive reading comprehension training programme.

• The only study to include an untreated control group did not use a RCT design.

Research questions

Text level training in written language

domain

Oral language training in spoken language domain

Improvements in text

comprehension

Text level training in written language

domain

Oral language training in spoken language domain

• To investigate three approaches to improving reading comprehension skills in poor comprehenders.

• To compare these approaches to existing classroom practice by monitoring the performance of an untreated waiting control group.

• To address the objectives of the primary framework (NLS) and equip teaching assistants with a wide range of skills and materials, useful in supporting children with reading comprehension and oral language difficulties.

OralLanguage

(OL)

Text Comprehension

(TC)

Combined(COM)

Project aims

Text Comprehension Programme

Metacognitive StrategiesReading ComprehensionInferencing from Text Written Narrative

Oral Language Programme

VocabularyListening Comprehension

Figurative Language Spoken Narrative

Combined Programme

All eight components connecting oral language and text‐based activities in an integrated and naturalistic approach.

All sessions contained both reading and listening comprehension to support complementary components.

Opportunities for children to encounter new vocabulary/idioms/inferences in both written and spoken language.

Programme components

• If the focus for the session is the development of comprehension, then practitioners should concentrate on plot, character, and motive, and features of language such as vocabulary, figurative language and sequence.

• Children benefit if they can make links to their previous experience, or they are supported where the text deals with matters that are beyond their immediate experience.

• Over time the practioner will model how readers predict, question, clarify, summarise and imagine as they read; and in time, children should internalise these mental activities. Modelling one or twostrategies really well is preferable to overloading children with multiple approaches.

Primary National Strategy (2006)

1. Understanding & interpreting texts

Objective Corresponding Components

Retrieve, select and describe information, events and ideas

RT (Clarification, Summarisation)Metacognitive strategies

Deduce, infer and interpret information, events and idea

RT (Prediction)Inferencing from text

Use syntax, context, word structures and origins to develop understanding of word meanings

Vocabulary Figurative language Inferencing from text

Identify and comment on structure and organisation of texts

Narrative

Explain and comment on writer’s use of language including vocabulary, grammatical and literary features

Vocabulary Figurative language

Links to Primary Framework (NLS)

2. Engaging & responding to texts


Read independently for purpose, pleasure and learning

All TC Components

Respond imaginatively using different strategies to engage with texts

Metacognitive strategies Narrative

Evaluate writer’s purposes and viewpoints and the overall effect of the text on the reader

RT (Summarisation)Narrative


3. Text structure and organisation


Organise ideas into coherent structure including layout, sections and paragraphs

RT (Summarisation)Narrative

Write cohesive paragraphs linking sentences within and between them

Written Narrative


• Two 10‐week blocks of intensive teaching in individual and pair sessions.

• Each session is 30 mins.

• Children receive 2 pair sessions and 1 individual session per week (1½hours per week).

• Teaching took place in designated areas within school (small classrooms/meeting rooms etc.).

• Teaching times varied depending upon existing timetabled commitments.

• All fully funded by ESRC.

Intervention delivery

Activity Approx. time per session

Introduction 3 mins

Vocabulary 5 mins

Listening comprehension

7 mins

Figurative language

5 mins

Spoken narrative 7 mins

Plenary 3 mins


Introduction 3 mins

Metacognitive strategies

5 mins

Reading comprehension

7 mins

Inferencing from text

5 mins

Written narrative 7 mins

Plenary 3 mins

Session structure

Session structure


Introduction 2.5 mins

Metacognitive strategies

5 mins


5 mins


5 mins


5 mins


Plenary 2.5 mins


Introduction 2.5 mins

Vocabulary 5 mins


5 mins


5 mins


5 mins


Plenary 2.5 mins

Oct 2006

8‐9years

Oct 2007

9‐10years

Oct2008

10‐11years

Oct2009

ScreeningIntervention development T1 assessment

Block 1 Block 2

T2 assessment T3 assessment T4 assessment

ControlBlock 1

ControlBlock 2

Project timetable

Not meeting inclusion criteria (n = 634)

Excluded (n = 45) 2 schools excluded due to low numbers of children showing poor comprehender profile

Absent for key measures (n=13)

Refused to be assessed (n = 2)

Not meeting inclusion criteria

(n = 114)

Excluded on behavioural grounds (n =1)

Declined to participate in intervention (n = 7)

Individual Screening (Jan‐Feb 2007)

21 schools; eligible for assessment (n = 296)

Individual assessments: NARA reading comp (n = 284); TOWRE (n = 282); WASI Verbal IQ (n = 277)

Complete data on key measures (n= 282)

Individual Screening (Jan‐Feb 2007)

21 schools; eligible for assessment (n = 296)

Individual assessments: NARA reading comp (n = 284); TOWRE (n = 282); WASI Verbal IQ (n = 277)


Selection & Pre‐test (Feb‐Apr 2007)

21 schools ‐ Selected for intervention (n =168)

Selection & Pre‐test (Feb‐Apr 2007)

21 schools ‐ Selected for intervention (n =168)

Group Screening (Oct‐Dec 2006)

Y4 children in 23 schools in York & N.Yorks; eligible for assessment (n = 1120)

Group assessments: Listening Comp (n = 1042); Ravens (n = 1054);Spelling (n = 1045); Numerical ops (n = 1050)


Group Screening (Oct‐Dec 2006)

Y4 children in 23 schools in York & N.Yorks; eligible for assessment (n = 1120)

Group assessments: Listening Comp (n = 1042); Ravens (n = 1054);Spelling (n = 1045); Numerical ops (n = 1050)


Participant flow

• Discrepancy in standard score points between NARA II reading comprehension and TOWRE real word reading efficiency.

• NARA II reading accuracy standard scores of 85 and above. • NARA II reading comprehension scores of 105 and below.• Age appropriate spelling ability.• Non‐Verbal IQ of 85 or above.

• Of these children, we selected eight children within each school with the greatest discrepancies.

Sample size

Power calculations for this study were carried out using estimates of effect sizes from previous studies of a similar nature.

A sample size of 40 children in each arm of the intervention provides 90% power to detect a difference of 0.6 standard deviations between the control group and the three intervention groups combined (with alpha = 0.05 two‐tailed).

Eligibility criteria

Selection & Pre‐test (Feb‐Apr 2007)21 schools

Selected for intervention (n =168)

Selection & Pre‐test (Feb‐Apr 2007)21 schools

Selected for intervention (n =168)

(Apr‐Jul 2007)

20 schools

Block 1 of intervention programmes(n = 157)

Mid‐Intervention Assessments(n = 159)

(Apr‐Jul 2007)

20 schools


Mid‐Intervention Assessments(n = 159)

Random allocation to intervention groups

OL programme

Took part in block 1 of intervention (n = 39)

COM programme


Waiting Control

n = 39

TC programme


Intervention:Excluded (n = 8) 1 school withdrawn from project

Declined to participate in intervention (n = 1)

Moved school (n = 2)

(Sept‐Dec 2007)


Post‐Intervention Assessment(n = 159)

(Sept‐Dec 2007)


Post‐Intervention Assessment(n = 159)

OL programme


Post‐intervention assessments T3 (n = 38)

TC programme



COM programme



Intervention:Moved school (n = 2)

Post‐intervention Assessments (wave 1) (n=155)In new schools (n = 4)

Participant flow

Waiting Control

Post‐intervention assessments (n = 39)

OL programme


TC programme


COM programme


(Nov‐Jan 2008/09)

Maintenance Post‐Intervention

Assessment(n = 159)

(Nov‐Jan 2008/09)

Maintenance Post‐Intervention

Assessment(n = 159)

Waiting Control


Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Whole sample

TOWRE Real words 110.48 108.88 108.30 108.70 109.09

TOWRE Nonwords 106.45 106.33 109.13 106.18 107.02

TOWRE Total 110.20 109.18 110.48 108.85 109.68

NARA II Reading accuracy 102.93 102.93 104.33 101.55 102.93

NARA II Reading comprehension 92.95 93.36 92.82 92.82 92.99

WIAT II Reading comprehension 94.31 95.43 96.38 97.77 95.96

CELF Listening comprehension 78.75* 80.42 87.36* 83.06 82.40

WASI Vocabulary (t score) 38.31 40.32 39.44 38.26 39.07

WASI Similarities (t score) 47.40 49.05 49.97 49.49 48.97

WASI VIQ 89.41 92.03 91.89 91.00 91.07

Ravens Matrices NVIQ 99.26 100.23 100.66 100.78 100.23

WMTBC Listening recall 94.50 94.19 93.08 92.19 93.49

WOND Numerical operations 97.53 98.98 97.59 95.30 97.35

*Statistically significant between groups difference (p<0.05)

Baseline characteristics of sample

• ManualsDetailed, prescriptive manual and pre‐prepared worksheets, readers and resources

• Training Training took place over 3.5 days. Delivered by the research team.

• Fortnightly tutorialsOpportunity to monitor delivery of programmes by discussing experiences, ideas and observations. Some sessions took the form of top up training in which we focused on particular components of the programmes.

• ObservationsEach TA was observed by a member of the research team at least twice in each intervention block. Careful records were kept and onsite feedback and support was given.

• Filmed sessionsFive TAs gave us permission to film teaching sessions.

Treatment fidelity

• T1 data was collected in school by the research team (blind) andthe trained teaching assistants (blind at this point).

• T2 & T3 data was collected by the research team (blind).• Testing conditions varied across schools. • Some assessments were individually administered, others were group administered.

• All score sheets analysed blind. • 10% double marking for reliability where necessary.

Data collection & reliability

Statistical technique

• Regression based approach used, controlling for performance at T1.

• Report 95% robust confidence intervals.

• Cluster variable = School

• Comparing each group to the control group

Control group change in performancefrom T1 –T2

Change in performance of intervention group from T1‐T2relative to control group.

Distant from 0 = significant

Crosses 0 = non significant

Results – WIAT II

Results – NARA II – Form 2

Results – NARA II – Form 2 1

Results – Summary 1

• All three interventions groups have improved significantly compared to controls on one measure of reading comprehension ability (WIAT II).

• Importantly these gains have maintained over an 11 month period.

• In particular the difference between the OL group and the control group has increased in significance.

• On the second primary outcome measure a significant gain for the COM group is only observed when alternate forms of the NARA II are used.

Measure Corresponding Component

TOLC Inferencing Inferencing from text

CMS Story Recall Listening Comprehension

WASI Vocabulary Vocabulary

WASI Verbal Similarities Vocabulary

CELF Listening to Paragraphs Listening Comprehension

Measure

WMTBC Listening Recall Complex Working Memory

NARA II Passage Reading Accuracy

TOWRE Reading Efficiency

WOND Numerical Operations CONTROL TASK

Myself as a Learner Self Esteem

Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire

Teacher report of behaviour

Measure Corresponding Component

Story Writing Written Narrative

Beaver & Hedgehog Stories Metacognitive Strategies

Reading Attitudes Questionnaire Reading Comprehension

Storytelling Spoken Narrative

Vocabulary (target & non‐target) Vocabulary

Idioms (target & non‐target) Figurative Language

Secondary measures

Results – CELF III Listening to Paragraphs

Results – WASI Subtests

Vocabulary Verbal Similarities

Results – Bespoke Vocabulary

Target Vocabulary Non‐Target Vocabulary

Results – Bespoke Idioms

Target Idioms Non‐Target Idioms

Results – Control Task – Num Ops

Results – Summary 2

• Intervention groups showed no significant gains relative to control group on a measure of listening comprehension.

• Significant gain for the OL group on WASI Vocabulary at T3 only.

• Bespoke measures of vocabulary and idioms revealing significant gains, importantly on both targeted and non targeteditems.

• No significant differences on the control measure.

• In poor comprehenders, 20‐week intervention programmes can produce significant gains in:

• Text comprehension • Oral language

• Importantly these gains are relative to an untreated waiting control group.• The gains maintain over time and for the OL programme the difference between

intervention group and controls increases in significance.

Overall Summary & Conclusions

Implications for education

• Evidence that the skills that underpin oral language and text comprehension are trainable in children aged 8‐11 years.

• Evidence that teaching assistants with a relatively small amountof training can deliver high quality effective teaching.

Future research directions

• To examine the role of vocabulary training as a mediating factor in improvements in text comprehension.

• To consider the impact of early oral language intervention on later text comprehension skills. http://www.york.ac.uk/res/crl/languageforreading.html

• To explore the prevalence and profiles of poor comprehenders in secondary school with a view to developing intervention materials. http://www.york.ac.uk/res/crl/readingaloud.html

• To apply this work to individuals with high functioning ASD, many of whom have poor comprehender profiles.

Results – Parent Feedback

He has enjoyed learning the meaning of new words and testing my understanding of

them

Sometimes the things she has learnt pop up in conversation – she makes a connection

This project has increased her awareness – She has been talkative about what’s been happening – She questions more

and opens conversations

It has been a pleasure to see her grow in confidence – she has read more at home for

pleasure

XXX has improved so much in her school work and enjoys all the learning that is given to her – I think the whole course has been very worth while

It has given him a thirst for learning – he is much more enthusiastic than last year

I think it was an excellent and enjoyable project for my

daughter

• Listening• Vocabulary• Figurative Language• Narrative

• Reciprocal Teaching• Metacognitive strategies

• Inferencing

Practical Approaches

Research context

• Nuffield • Evaluation of two intervention programmes for children at‐risk of literacy

difficulties because of poor speech and language skills at school entry. • Bowyer‐Crane, C., Snowling, M.J., Duff, F.J., Fieldsend, E., Carroll, J.M., Miles, J.,

Goetz, K., & Hulme, C. (2008).

• REVI• Reading with vocabulary intervention for children who had a poor

response to Reading Intervention (Hatcher et al., 2006b)• Duff, F. J., Fieldsend, E., Bowyer‐Crane, C., Hulme, C., Smith, G., Gibbs, S., &

Snowling, M. J. (in press).

• READ ME

Listening Skills: Nuffield

• Activities that encourage active listening:• Spotting deliberate mistakes in stories

• One morning, Sam was getting ready for school. There was a knock at the door. The milkman had a parcel for Sam. Mum let Sam open it. Inside the parcel was a big ball. Mum said, “Sam, you can take the doll to school”…

• Following instructions• growing cress• origami dogs

• Chinese whispers• Listening to then answering questions about a story• Performing an action upon hearing a certain word during a story‐telling

Vocabulary Instruction: Nuffield

• Teaching Session 1: Introduction of new vocabulary• Children try to guess the word from context

• Verbal clue; picture; action• Reinforce correct guesses, or supply correct word if necessary• Every child says the word aloud• Provide formal definition of the word

• Teaching Session 2: Reinforcement of vocabulary• Opportunity to revise the vocabulary work

• Consolidation sessions• Further reinforcement of vocabulary


• Teaching Session 1: Introduction of new vocabulary ‐‐ journey• Children try to guess the word from context

• It was a long _________ to London• We went on a _________ at the start of our holiday

• Reinforce correct guesses, or supply correct word if necessary• Every child says the word aloud• Provide formal definition of the word

• When we travel from one place to another place


• Teaching Session 2: Reinforcement of vocabulary• Ask children to recall the words learnt in the last session• Reinforcement activity e.g.:

We’re going on a journeyTo a place we’ve never been.We’re going on a journeyOn a bus to see the queen.The passengers are ready,The driver’s in his chair.We’re going on journey,Oh when will we be there?!

• Ask children to define the word journey

Vocabulary Instruction: REVI

TA contextualises word

TA uses alternative context

Child uses word in context

Child repeats word

TA defines word

Child repeats word

Vocabulary Instruction: REVI

TA contextualises word

TA uses alternative context

Child uses word in context

Child repeats word

TA defines word

Child repeats word

TA: Kipper kept on trying until he could do up his laces himself – he persisted

TA: Even though I was tired I persisted with my work until it was finished

Child: I persisted with my work, even though it was hard

Child: persisted

TA: If you persist you go on doing something even if it is difficult

Child: persisted

Vocabulary Consolidation: REVI

• Call My Bluff• Give the child 3 or 4 possible definitions of a target word, and ask

them to choose the right one• Donate

• Is a type of cake• Means to give money or things to help people• Is a very rich person• Means to be worried or scared about something

• Same or Different• Ask the child to explain how two target words are similar or different.

• How are these different? Astonished vs. Terrified• How are these similar? Greedy/Selfish

Vocabulary Consolidation: REVI

• Beat the Clock• True/false quiz: Child has to correctly answer as many questions

relating to target vocabulary as possible in 90s• If someone won’t let you play with him, you might feel

rejected: True or False?• If you give up easily, you have persisted: True or False?

• Or• How would you feel if you were worried about

something? Anxious or Relieved?• How do we describe people who think only of

themselves? Mischievous or Selfish?

• Magic Sack• Teacher/child draws pictures/objects out of a sack and describe

them for the other person to guess identity

Word of the day:magnificent (adjective)

• Say “Today we are going to learn a new word. The word of the day is magnificent.”

•Write the word on the board and circle it.

• Ask “Have you heard the word magnificent before?” Discuss the context of the word.

• Say “Can you say magnificent with me?” Encourage the child to repeat the word with you. Then ask “Now can you repeat the word on your own?” Praise and correct.

• Ask “Can you tell me what you think this word means? Or what you think of the word? Or what type of word you think it is?”Encourage responses. If no response, ask “Do you know when we might use the word magnificent?”

• Praise the child’s efforts. Say “the word magnificent is used to describe something that is very good or beautiful, for example, a magnificent palace.”

• Say “The word magnificent is an adjective which is a describing word it tells you what someone or something is like.”

The slugs and snails had been busy in the night, too, and the yard outside Old Molly’s house was patterned in shining silver. On the roof white fluffy doves, rosy finches and tiny bluetits preened themselves and twittered and cooed. “What amagnificent sight!” cried the Mayor, rubbing the bluebottles on his waistcoat. “Two hundred out of fifty, without any doubt.”

Multiple Context LearningBeck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002

Vocabulary: READ ME

Necessity

“At school, books and

pencils are a necessity.”

Food, water and

air

warmth & shelter

Graphic Organisers Nash & Snowling, 2006

Picture CardsMnemonic Strategies Levin, 1993; Peters & Levin, 1986; Graves & Levin, 1989

Verbal Reasoning

• Generating synonyms & antonyms

Multiple Context LearningBeck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002

Vocabulary: READ ME

Word Wizard (Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002)

• To encourage the children to use new vocabulary outside of the intervention sessions.

Vocabulary: READ ME

“There never was a row as pretty as ours,”complimented Mrs Gordon, who lived in the first cottage. “And our gardens are a sight for sore eyes,” said Mr Bennett, who lived in the second cottage. “All except for one,” sighed Mr and Mrs Bunce, who lived in the third cottage. “And that’s not a sight for sore eyes; it’s nothing but an eyesore.” And they pointed to the fourth cottage, where Old Molly lived.

Post cards through smart chute and reveal the answer! Then put the idiom into a sentence

To be at sixes and sevens

6

66

77

7

http://www.smartkids2.co.uk/ukshop/

• Idioms• Jokes & Riddles • Simile & Metaphor

The more of them you take, the more of them you leave behind. What are they?

Footsteps

Why do cows have bells?Because their horns don’t work!

Figurative Language

Narrative Instruction: Nuffield

• Oral narrative task• Assessment and training of ability to produce a coherent story• Promotes:

• knowledge of story structure• use of grammar e.g. verb tenses• temporal sequencing• use of connectives


• Target ideas:– Boy getting undressed– Going to have a bath– Boy in bath– Boy playing/splashing– Boy getting dried– Water dripping on floor Pictures courtesy of Black Sheep Press


• Sample narrative:

• There’s a boy. His clothes are on the floor. The bath there. The boy is in the bath. The boy is out of the bath. He has a towel. It is snuggly. The boy getted dry.

• Teaching Points:• Story Opening: One day, Tom

played outside and got very messy. His mum told him to go and have a bath.

• Elaboration: So Tom ran himself a nice hot bath with his favourite bubble bath. While the bath was running Tom took off his dirty clothes.

• Connectives: Then he climbed into the bath.

• Correct Verb Use: Tom climbed out of the bath and got himself dry

• Story structure (Beck & McKeown,1981; Pearson, 1982; Idol & Croll, 1987)

• Sequencing• Story production

The Story MountainMuch of the narrative work centred around the Story Mountain. For example, sequencing story cards onto the mountain and using the stages of the mountain the support story production.

Children used story planners to map out their ideas then using digital voice recorders created cds of their stories.

Children presented their stories to one another and reflected on them at the end of the programme.

Narrative Instruction: READ ME

Children used story planners to map out their ideas. They then wrote their stories out in full, illustrated them and turned them into books.

Children presented their stories to one another and reflected on them at the end of the programme.

• Story structure (Beck & McKeown,1981; Pearson, 1982; Idol & Croll, 1987)

• Sequencing• Story production


Narrative activities were always linked to the passage of the day. Many different types of activity were included:

The Story Maker's Chest: Creative Writing Set by

Pie Corbett


RT refers to an instructional activity that takes place in the form of a dialogue between teachers and students regarding segments of text

The teacher and students take turns assuming the role of the teacher in this dialogue

Palinscar & Brown (1984)Review by Rosenshine & Meister (1994)

Reciprocal Teaching (RT)

RT resources

• Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension by Lori D. Oczkus(2003) International Reading Association. ISBN 0‐87207‐514‐1

• Re‐read(Garner, et al., 1984)

• Look‐back (Garner, 1982)

• Think aloud (Farr & Connor, 2004)

• Mental imagery (Oakhill & Patel, 1991)

• Explain & reflect (McNamara, 2004)

Metacognitive Strategies

• Lexical inferencing• Bridging inferencing• Activating prior knowledge• Elaborative inferencing• Guessing missing information • Evaluative inferencing


Supporting students with learning difficulties

• Klinger, Vaughn & Boardman (2007) Guildford Press

• Includes advice and ideas on:• Assessing comprehension• Vocabulary instruction • Text structure • Multicomponent approaches to strategy teaching (e.g. RT)

Summary of intervention approaches

• Little and often distributed practice. • Routine activities, varied presentation. • Embedding oral language activities into spoken passages.• Using different text types to explore inferencing and strategy

use. • Building an evidence base for the Beck, McKeown & Kucan

(2002) multiple context learning approach to vocabulary instruction. Amassing a wealth of materials suitable for a wide age and ability range.

• Both REVI and READ ME included oral and written narrative and encourage links between the two. Activities to support understanding of narrative structure that translate directly to narrative production work.

Applications in school

• READ ME, Nuffield and REVI are all most suited to Wave 3 style intensive intervention. Individual, pair and small group work.

• Techniques and ideas could be embedded into guided reading sessions.

• General principles can be applied to Wave 1 classroom practice. Particularly reciprocal teaching and vocabulary.

The importance of training

• All of the CRL interventions require specialist training.

• To date this has been delivered by the research team.

• Regular support is extremely important if the interventions are to be successful.

• Intervention manuals are highly prescribed. However, it is very important that teaching assistants tailor the support to the individual children they are working with and contexts they are in.

The importance of evaluation

• Good pre, mid and post intervention assessments are crucial.

• Where possible use a range of different measures• Expressive

• Receptive

• Self paced

• Timed

• Teaching assistant administered

• Independent assessor administered

• Important to monitor progress in the specific skills being taught as well as the more general outcome measures of reading and attainment.

Take home message

• Interventions to support poor comprehenders have been successful in improving both oral language and reading comprehension.

• These interventions have been highly supported by researchers and funded by research councils.

• Cost implications have yet to be explored.

• Training package and intervention manuals are in development not yet readily available.

• Any ideas and input gratefully received!

For more information:

http://www.york.ac.uk/res/crl/

Dr. Paula Clarke University of York [email protected]

supporting children with reading comprehension impairments · 2015-09-08 · supporting children...

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