What Classroom Teachers Need to Know About Comprehension

Rebecca Derenge, Title I Reading Coordinator

Title I Directors Spring Meeting

March 10-13, 2009

Complexity of Comprehension

• 70 % of input to the human brain is visual

Nothing about reading is new… we simply hear it again to renew and replenish ourselves to go back out there and teach.

Content area teachers are uniquely qualified to teach students how to actively think about the texts in their classes.

• Analyze cause/effect of historical processes

• Visualize physical and chemical processes

• Interpret character motives and figurative language

How do you know you’re stuck?

• The voice inside the reader’s head isn’t interacting with the text.

• The reader’s mind begins to wander.• Clarifying questions asked by the reader are not

answered.• The reader reencounters a character and has no

recollection when that character was introduced.

Tovani, C. (2000) I Read It, But I Don’t Get It

National Reading Panel Report

• Comprehension Monitoring (Metacognition – Thinking about Thinking)

– Identify where difficulties occur

– Restate passages in their own words

– Look back or forward through text to clarify

Sequencing

The sequence of a passage tells what

comes first, next or last

Tells when something happens

Can order events or actions

Has a beginning, middle and end

Tells who, what when and where

Gives directions when telling how something is done.

Need to show, not just tell:

• Modeling

• Scaffolding– I do- you watch

– I do – you help

– You do – I help

– You do – I watch

Compare and Contrast

Tells how things are alike and different

Look for adjectives when comparing and contrasting

Words with er or more compare two things

Words with est or most compare more than two things

Words such as like or as are also used to c/c

Better and best compare good things

Worse and worst compare bad things

Fact and Opinion

A fact is something that is true.An opinion is what someone thinks or feels

Facts use words such as names, places and dates

Opinions use words such as think, feel, good and should to tell you how to think or feel

Facts and opinions can be used in one paragraph

Use facts to explain who, what, when, where and why

Opinions based on facts are more convincing

Cause and EffectA cause is why something happens or what makes something happen.An effect is what happens as a result of a cause

A cause tells why or gives a reason something happened

Words and phrases like so, because, since, on account of, as a result of and therefore, are often clues that a cause or effect is being stated

Cause and effect sentences involve an event and often go together

Cause and effect can have a problem then solves it by telling how it is worked out

Parents with professional jobs speak about Parents with professional jobs speak about 2100 words an hour to their toddlers, 2100 words an hour to their toddlers, those in poverty only about 600those in poverty only about 600

Through the CracksBy Carolyn Stollman

Third grade determines the lifelong reading level. It talks

about how these children who have fallen through the

cracks band together and then finally reach a classroom

where they feel they can learn.

Literary Elements

Literary elements are what make up a story. These elements include author, setting, character, mood, theme, style and illustrations.

The author is the person who wrote the story

The setting is where the story takes place

The character is the person the story is about

The mood is your feelings about the story

The theme is the purpose for writing the story

The style is how the author writes the story

The illustrations give pictures to support the story

National Reading Panel Report

• Story structure– Narrative

• Different Genre

– Expository• Texts• References• Trade books

Main Idea

The main idea of the passage is what the

passage is about

What is the main idea of the passage?

Signal words: mostly about, another title, best tells, best title, main theme, best describes, main purpose, most likely, best way, main lesson and sums up

Put in graphic organizer

ACHIEVEMENT GAP

PovertyRace

Expectations Teacher quality

Parenting Test bias

• In the end it is about LITERACY INSTRUCTION

Inferences

Inferences are based on information stated in the story or text as well as what is already known from personal experience which may relate to the passage being read.

Making inferences means making a guess

Signal words: infer, guess, probably, happened, clues, judging, conclusion, feel, think, believe, referring, describe, reason and determined.

Put in graphic organizer

National Reading Panel Report

• Question answering

(with immediate feedback)

– Gives a purpose for reading– Focuses attention– Helps students actively think as they read– Reviews content and relate to what they

already know (background knowledge)

National Reading Panel Report

• Question Generating (asking themselves questions as they reading)

– What if…

– I wonder…

HOW IMPORTANT IS BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE?

• Although Cretaceous and Tertiary deposition has buried older rocks in the area under a sedimentary blanket many thousands of feet thick, an outline of the earlier geologic history may be inferred from deep well records and from studies in the surrounding areas. In the half-billion years from the close of the Precambrian to the end of the Cretaceous, this region experienced none of the great folding and faulting so conspicuous in the Appalachians, the Oachitas, and parts of Europe and Asia.

» Evans & Belknap, Desolation River Guide

National Reading Panel Report

• Use of graphic organizers

National Reading Panel Report

• Cooperative learning

National Reading Panel Report

• Summarization

– Identify or generate the main idea

– Connect main or central ideas

– Eliminate unnecessary or redundant information

– Remember what they have read.

Bibliography

• Put Reading First. (Sept. 2001). http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipfor reading/publications/reading_first1text.html

• Report of the National Reading Panel. (Apr. 2000). http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp

Bibliography

• Tovani, C. (2000). I Read It, But I Don’t Get It. Stenhouse Publishers, Portland, ME.

• Zimmerman, S. & C. Hutchins. (2003). 7 Keys to Comprehension. Three Rivers Press, NY.

• Zwiers, J. (2004). Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12. International Reading Association, Newark, DE

Additional Resources

• Beck, et al. (1997). Questioning the Author. International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware.

• Block and Pressley. (2002). Comprehension Instruction. Guilford Press, NY.

• Ruddell and Unrau. (2004). Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading. International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware.