1. Goal: To Improve Teacher Confidence when Teaching Reading Comprehension 2012

2. What are some of the things we know about teaching comprehension?
----- Meeting Notes (11/07/12 11:01) -----
Invite teachers to discuss in pairs and then share ideas with another pair

3. St Thomas’s School Goal: To improve comprehension of students.
In order to achieve this goal, teachers need to feel confident with teaching
comprehension in their classrooms.
Our aim is that teachers will feel more confident about:
-the theory behind the teaching of comprehension
-the range of strategies they should be teaching
-how to explicitly teach comprehension strategies in their classrooms
-teaching comprehension in a differentiated classroom
WHAT HAVE WE DONE SO FAR?
Teaching staff have taken part in the following PD:
The 6 Step Teaching Process (QAR Now)
First Steps Reading and Writing
and CARS & STARS is available as a resource
In 2012 St Thomas’s is taking part in an Australian Government Quality Teaching
Project (AGQTP) and the focus of the project is comprehension
Alison Davis Workshop (21st May 2012)
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:44) -----
6 step process and first steps - addressed the how (structure of presenting eg. explain, modell...) and a little of the theory. Gave some ideas about how to differentiate (Guided sessions)
CARS and STARS and First STEPS - helped us by giving information about the range of strategies we should be teaching (Go to First Steps Resource Book p What are the strategies?) TEACHERS TO READ then look at & CARS and STARS strategies.

4. The 6 Step Teaching Process
Explicit
Explanation
Goal Setting 1
Modelled
Lessons 2
Shared Lessons 3
Guided Lessons 4
Independent Work 5
Reflection 6
The 6 Step Teaching Process
(Gradual release of responsibility model
Pearson and Gallagher 1983)
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:44) -----
The Alison Davis workshop was affirming because she discussed the importance of using the release of responsibility model. She explained that Explicit teaching of reading comprehension strategies has been shown to make a difference in schools. She also stressed the importance of the teacher acting as a successful reader in the modelling stage and THINK ALOUD - I will talk more about this later
All of the steps of the process should be evident in planning for teaching of comprehension strategies.

5. Australian Government Quality Teaching Project
Survey of St Thomas’s Staff March Results:
With your current class, how easy do you find planning for the teaching of
comprehension strategies using the 6 step teaching process?  
Very easy % (8)
Easy with support % (6)
Difficult but having some success 17.6% (3)
Very difficult % (0)
Difficult and unmanageable  0.0% (0)

6. 2. With your current class, how easy do you find the teaching of
comprehension strategies in a differentiated classroom?
Very easy % (2)
Easy with support % (8)
Difficult but having some success 29.4% (5)
Very difficult % (2)
Difficult and unmanageable  0.0% (0)

7. EXPLICIT TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR READING COMPREHENSION
WORKSHOP BY DR ALISON DAVIS
Dr Alison Davis is the director of Vision Education, a team providing regional PLD in
literacy for schools in Auckland and Waikato. She has a PHD from Auckland University and a 1st class Masters degree in
Educational Leadership and Administration. Her specialist areas are literacy, assessment and schooling improvement.
She has led the PEN schooling improvement project in Huntly/Ngaruawahia and the
Papakura Achievement Initiative in Papakura. Alison has been on the writing team for Effective Literacy Practice years 1-4
and years 5-8, the newly published oral language handbooks and the
revised literacy progressions. Alison has also written her own texts – Teaching Reading Comprehension 2007 and
Building Comprehension Strategies She is working on her next book,
Strategies for Comprehension: Informational text, due to be published in 2012.
                 

8. KEY POINTS FROM THE WORKSHOP *Metacognitive approach
Metacognition (Thinking about our thinking)
*Learning must be active - purposeful. Students must engage.
How do we get students to engage?
Students understand ‘why’ they are learning this and therefore are happy to engage in the learning.(Mark Davidson mentioned that this is also crucial for behaviour management.)
*Teachers need to assist students to ‘make links’ between what they already know and new knowledge.
*Goal Setting – students need to have some individual goals to focus their learning and to make learning active and purposeful. (This is also the first step towards planning for differentiation in a classroom.)
----- Meeting Notes (11/07/12 11:01) -----
By active - don't necessarily mean jumping around the classroom - but mean 'engaged' taking ownership of learning. (Year 8 teacher at workshop - beh management - how brain works We need to think about or students disengage
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:44) -----
A little more about the theory of teaching comprehension strategies
HOW DO WE GET STUDENTS TO ENGAGE?
Explain why they are doing something and what goal is - be explicit and clear
Keep reviewing why as the lessons progress
HELP students make links - differentiate
HELP your students have ownership of their learning by helping them to set goals

9. METACOGNITION
Students need to know what reading is, they need to know (be able to explain and demonstrate) the skills and strategies “skilled” readers use.
They need to be able to self-monitor and reflect on their choice of strategies while reading. They need to know when they are reading with skill and when they are not.
Metacognition is important for students of all ages e.g. A prep student might explain that he knew the word ‘cat’ because it started with ‘c’ and he also saw a cat in the picture. He should also explain that he knows to use letter clues and picture clues to help work out words when he is reading.
----- Meeting Notes (11/07/12 11:01) -----
Examples from Powerpoint - students have written what reading is...
students of all ages can do this
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:44) -----
Be explicit - otherwise some students will pick up the strategy and other students will not
Get students to be reflective - think about and be aware of what they are thinking
Students of all ages can do this

10. LEARNING must be ACTIVE
For active learning to occur, students must have ‘cognitive capacity’ –
space in the brain for the ‘new stuff’. New space in the brain is created
when ‘stuff’ that was once ‘new’ becomes ‘automatic’.
(Done on autopilot – we can do it without thinking.)LEARNER DRIVER EXAMPLE
‘New stuff’ needs to be just out of range of what students already know. This
allows students to ‘make links’ and ‘build on what they already know’.
Students need lots of opportunities to practise ‘new stuff’ so that it becomes
‘automatic’. Once skills are taught they need to be maintained
– similar to mathematics.
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 16:05) -----
Discussion about how brain works - must be room for new information (students need time to practise skills so they become automatic - guided and independent work is important and skills must be reviewed. Just like maths) DRAWING OF BRAIN
We need to help students make links - when starting a new lessons remind them of where we were up to and why we are doing this (class goal - Mark Davidson also discussed this)
We also need to differentiate - some students need more time - they will not be able to move on to new information if they have not had time and had the chance to make links with what they already know - This is how the brain works. We need to be aware of this or students will disengage.
Activating Prior Knowledge is the key to students being able to make links to what
they know.

11. When teaching new strategies, teachers must introduce the strategy and
For Metacognition to occur, strategies must be explicitly taught and explained, in
language students will understand. Teachers need to model the use of strategies in
Context, using the “Think Aloud” teaching strategy, so students see how a successful
reader thinks.
The aim, is for students to be able to explain and demonstrate a strategy using their
own language, and to discuss why they would choose a strategy/strategies for a specific
purpose.
When teaching new strategies, teachers must introduce the strategy and
explain what it is and how and why it is used. Class goal setting should be part of
this explanation and the goal should be displayed for the students and referred
to often as the lessons progress.
Reflection at the end of the process is also vital. Reflection could involve
students making a class chart to explain their understanding of a strategy
at a point in time. These charts should be displayed and added to as understanding of
the strategy develops.
Students could also make short video presentations to explain and demonstrate the
use of a strategy in context.
----- Meeting Notes (11/07/12 11:01) -----
Study of how skilled readers think before, during and after reading (how strategies came about). A strategy is a plan - how I might go about
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:44) -----
Introduce and teach each strategy (one at a time) - be aware that good readers use many strategies together and once strategies have been taught this can be pointed out to students and students will start to discover this themselves e.g. students use letter clues in conjunction with reading on to work out an unknown word
Students use predicting, prior knowledge and comparing to make meaning
Alison has a chapter about multi strategy instruction in her book

12. Key learning goal: We are learning to retell what we have read.
Alison Davis has examples of goals written in ‘Student Friendly Language’ for
all suggested strategies in her book “Building Comprehension Strategies”.
Here is an example of a class goal for learning about the strategy of ‘retelling’.
Key learning goal: We are learning to retell what we have read.
Retell is the strategy by which we tell about what we have
read AFTER we have read it.
Retell helps us to become skilled readers because we learn:
that if we cannot retell we need to read the text again
how to check if we understand what we have read
how to better understand the words and ideas the author
has written
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:56) -----
Make a class chart to show students what they are learning about.
Keep referring to the chart during the process of the teaching when starting a new lesson - you may have this as the focus for the week ...

13. Once the strategy has been explicitly explained in language students will understand,
the teacher must then model the strategy in context.
THINK ALOUD
This helps students to see and understand how a successful reader might successfully
use a comprehension strategy. TEACHERS IN LOWER SCHOOL MIGHT HAVE A “THINK
ALOUD” HAT THEY WEAR. ONCE STUDENTS ARE FAMILIAR WITH THE THINK ALOUD
PROCESS, THEY MIGHT BE INVITED TO WEAR THE HAT AND SHARE THEIR THOUGHTS
WHILE READING. PUPPETS MAY ALSO BE USEFUL DURING THIS PROCESS.
TEACHERS NEED TO READ THE TEXT PRIOR TO THE LESSON AND MAY NEED TO
MAKE NOTES. STICKY NOTES CAN BE LEFT INSIDE A TEXT FOR NEXT TIME.
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:56) -----
Need to plan modelled lessons - be purposeful - choose a suitable text and read the text before and you may need to plan what you are going to say as you think aloud.
Make notes (sticky notes in the text for next time)

14. Retelling is when I talk aloud about what I have read.
REFLECTING – Class chart created by teacher and students
Retelling
Retelling is when I talk aloud about what I have read.
Retelling happens AFTER I have read.
When I retell, I need to include some detail (information)
to make my retell clear for the listener.
I need to think about the order of the story when I retell –
(beginning, middle and end) I might use these words (At the
beginning, next, then, later, after that…)
I need to make sure that I include all of the most important
parts of the text when I retell.
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:56) -----
Chart could be made by whole class, or by a group during guided reading or as an individual activity (assessment? - shows what students know)
Students add to or change as their understanding deepens

15. Reflecting: Develop a chart/ wall display or flip chart on IWB.
Teacher and students or groups of students work together to develop a wall display
about what they know. The chart can be added to as understanding is developed.
HERE IS ANOTHER EXAMPLE:
INFERENCE – What do we know about this strategy?
What I think – I wasn’t told this but I really, really think this is so.
A calculated guess ??
Drawing together different ideas in the story.
Getting inside the author’s head.
Reading between the lines.
Thinking about the bits the author did not tell me.

17. Reading is learning and travelling to the author’s imagination.
What is reading?
Some ideas from kids taken from Sheena Cameron Reading Workshop:
Reading is when you read a book and
understand it and it paints a picture
in your mind.
Reading is learning and travelling to the author’s imagination.
Reading is a way of finding out more information about
a topic.
Reading is a subject
that helps you in the
future. It helps you
understand. It’s
better than sitting
on the coach (sic) watching
a box.
Reading is understanding
words and knowing what
they mean.

18. What is a strategy?
A strategy is a plan to help you achieve something. So a
reading strategy helps you achieve understanding when
you are reading. Another word for understanding is
comprehension.

19. WHAT ARE THE STRATEGIES?
FIRST STEPS READING RESOURCE BOOK p

20. First Steps Reading Resource Book
Chapter 4: Teaching Comprehension and Word Identification Strategies
What are the strategies? p. 114
*Predicting *Self-questioning *Re-reading
*Connecting *Skimming *Reading On
*Comparing *Scanning *Adjusting Reading Rate
*Inferring *Determining Importance *Sounding Out
*Synthesising *Summarising & Paraphrasing *Chunking
*Creating Images *Using Analogy
*Consulting a Reference
First Steps also talks about the importance of developing fluency (Chapter 1, p. 30)

21. CARS and STARS strategies
Finding the Main Idea
Recalling Facts and Details
Understanding Sequence
Recognising Cause and Effect
Comparing and Contrasting
Making Predictions
Finding Word Meaning in Context
Drawing Conclusions and Making Inferences
Distinguishing Between Fact and Opinion
Identifying Author’s Purpose
Interpreting Figurative Language
Summarising

22. Strategies suggested by Alison Davis in her book
“Building Comprehension Strategies”
Making connections to prior knowledge
Prediction and re-prediction
Visualisation
Asking and Answering Questions
Inference
Retell and Paraphrasing
Summarisation
Sheena Cameron
List of strategies:
Activating Prior Knowledge Questioning
Visualising Inferring
Self Monitoring Making connections
Synthesising Predicting
Summarising

23. Use assessment from Terms 1 and 2 (running records and comprehension
Goal Setting:
In order for students of all ages to be engaged and to improve, they need to
have achievable goals. Students must be aware of these goals. (Not just parents
and teachers.) School officers should be aware of the goals of students they are
working with.
Use assessment from Terms 1 and 2 (running records and comprehension
tests) to identify comprehension goals. Some goals may become class goals as many students in the group may need to work on developing the same skills.
Start simply – one or two goals for each student.
Group students with similar goals. (This is the first step towards differentiation in the classroom.)
Plan guided lessons to target the goals of groups of students. Think about how
school officers and/or parent helpers can also help to support these goals.
Provide explicit feedback to let students know how they are progressing and how they can improve.
Include time for student reflection of how they are going towards meeting
their goals.
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 15:56) -----
By this stage of the year - teachers can use assessment from terms 1 and 2 to set some reading goals. (don't have to be all related to comprehension - could be sight words, matching words to letter clues, fluency, sequencing, including detail when retelling or things that have come up in CARS and STARS
----- Meeting Notes (12/07/12 16:05) -----
Spend some time discussing how other teachers do this - how you might do this this term

24. Individual Student Goal Setting Sheet
Class Goal Setting Sheet
Individual Student Goal Setting Sheet

25. Class Goal Setting Comprehension Skills Class: Teacher: Term 3, 2012
Read on to work out words
Include some detail in retell
Tell the difference between fact and opinion
Use letter clues to match words and pictures -
Improve fluency
Develop a bank of sight words

26. STUDENT GOAL SETTING READING COMPREHENSION
 NAME:
 CLASS:
 DATE:
 To be a better reader I need to work on the following goals:
 How am I going?

27. Our aim is that teachers will feel more confident about:
-the theory behind the teaching of comprehension
-the range of strategies they should be teaching
-how to explicitly teach comprehension strategies in their classrooms
-teaching comprehension in a differentiated classroom

28. REFLECTION Use the “Traffic Light” strategy to reflect on the session:
What will you stop doing in your classroom?
What will you continue to do in your classroom?
What will you start to do in your classroom?
REFLECTION

29. SUMMARY of KEY IDEAS:
Gradual release of responsibility model – Modelled Guided Independent
Explicit explanation of strategies in language that students can understand.
Working towards students being able to ‘explain’ and ‘demonstrate’ their
choices of strategies in different situations, and reasons for these choices. (Example
of Learning Goal written in student friendly language.)
Goal setting – students need to know the purpose of what they are doing and
should be setting goals to work towards (Modelled by the teacher. Start off with
whole class goals and move towards students having one or two individual goals.)
Reflection – students should be frequently reflecting on how well they are doing
in relation to class and personal goals. (This is a vital part of having students who
are ‘engaged’ and ‘active learners’.)
Class charts should be created by teachers and students as new information
about strategies is discovered. (See example of class chart.)
Feedback provided by the teacher must be explicit and provide students with
information about how they are going in relation to their goals
e.g. “One thing I noticed you doing today during guided reading was…”
“Today I noticed you learned to…when you read …”
The ‘think aloud’ teaching strategy is a vital part of allowing students to understand
the thinking process of a ‘skilled’ reader (the teacher). Could have a “think aloud”
hat in lower school for teacher and students to wear.