1. Regina Propst Catawba County Schools July 2011
Reading Comprehension, Writing and Content Learning Strategies for Grades 3-8
Regina Propst
Catawba County Schools
July 2011

2. Welcome!

3. Agenda Objectives/ Research Applications
Learn, Practice, and Discuss New Strategies
Break 10:00-10:15 AM
Lunch 11:30-12:15 PM
Break 1:30-1:45 PM
Final Thoughts and Discussion 3 PM

4. Objectives for today…
To learn research-based strategies to help with reading comprehension, writing, content learning
To model and practice the strategies in the workshop activities
To provide time to process new learning and plan implementation of these strategies
Not new…just strategic!

5. Clock Buddies
Pg. 2
Find 4 people that you will meet with during this session to share, discuss, and reflect.
Make appointments for 12, 3, 6, and 9 on your clock.

6. Common Core Connections
In the new Common Core Standards, informational text is a priority.
Ratio of informational to literary texts
Elementary 50/50
High School 70/30
Common Core also has a focus on writing skills in the content areas.

7. Teaching Comprehension
OLD, INCORRECT THINKING
NEW THINKING BASED ON RESEARCH
Comprehension occurs naturally after a student learns to decode, thus comprehension just needs to be tested.
Comprehension will improve through isolated teaching of specific comprehension skills (e.g. sequence, cause and effect, main idea).
Students must be taught to flexibly use a repertoire of strategies for text comprehension.
This slide is showing what the research is saying about good comprehenders. They use a multitude of strategies to comprehend text. We need to teach these strategies and teach students how to comprehend – not just test their understanding. Too often, teachers think that if they just hand students a list of questions, they are teaching comprehension. This is not the case – that is testing comprehension – not teaching.
Adapted from Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001; Carlisle and Rice, 2002; Smith in Birsh, 1999

8. Teaching vs Testing Comprehension
Developing Comprehension
Determining Comprehension vs
Process-Oriented
Product-Oriented
Modeling
Testing
Grading
This is a graphic to further illustrate the previous slide. There is a difference between helping students develop comprehension skills and determining if they have them. Have a discussion with participants about what happens in classrooms on a regular basis especially in the upper grades. What are some ways we can help students develop comprehension skills instead of always going toward evaluating? Our goal is to teach comprehension as illustrated on the left, not to simply test if students can comprehend.
Guided Practice
Evaluating
Independence
(Adapted by Dr. Lois Huffman from Richardson & Morgan, 2000)

9. What Do Good Readers Do?
Make predictions based on background knowledge
Identify key ideas from text they are reading
Are aware of text structures
Monitor their comprehension and know how to employ fix-up strategies
Have a knowledge of and use a variety of reading strategies effectively.
Paraphrase, explain and summarize information and construct conclusions
Ask participants before clicking the points under the title. Most of these will be given through discussion and you can just use this slide as a quick summary.
Summary of Good Readers is from both Birsh editions. Page 185 in 1st ed and p. 379 in 2nd ed. The main point to make here is that good comprehenders are ENGAGED while reading. They may be having a conversation with the author, they are questioning, scanning expository text – reading the picture headings, studying the graphs, etc. You may just have your participants generate these ideas before showing the slide and then use this slide as a summary. Most participants will bring these things up and then you can use this slide just to verify their ideas.

10. National Reading Panel On Comprehension
Directly teaching comprehension strategies leads to improvements in comprehension.
Strategies are most effective when taught in combination and used flexibly in active, naturalistic learning situations
Teachers can be taught to be effective in teaching comprehension.
There is a need for extensive teacher preparation to teach comprehension.
These points will come in one at a time for you to review NRP on comprehension
National Reading Panel, 2002

11. National Reading Panel: Research-Supported Strategies
comprehension monitoring
cooperative learning
graphic and semantic organizers
story structure
question answering
question generation
summarization
multiple strategies
These strategies were found by the National Reading Panel to be ones that are supported by research as most effective for improving reading comprehension. Note: this does not mean that other strategies were not effective – some strategies have simply not been studied yet. The point is that we have good evidence for using these strategies with students. This will be the framework for the following slides. Info. on most of the strategies will be provided.
National Reading Panel, 2001

12. Robert Marzano

13. Comprehension Strategy Instruction – Teacher Actions important for Success
Make explicit connection between strategy and application in text
Repeatedly state and model the “secret” to doing it successfully so students “see” the mental workings involved
Provide students with multiple opportunities to perform the strategy themselves
Base assessment on both strategy use and text comprehension
(Duffy, in Comprehension Instruction ed. by Block and Pressley, 2002)
Research keeps saying to use strategy instruction but many teachers do not understand exactly how to teach strategies to students. These were the teacher actions found to be the most instrumental in student success with strategies.

14. Two Minute Talks
Pg. 1
Purpose: To activate prior knowledge and focus student learning on the topic about to be addressed.
Directions:
Share with your 12 o’clock partner by brainstorming everything you already know (prior knowledge) about Veteran’s Day.

15. You Ought to be in Pictures
Pg. 3
Purpose: to make connections to prior knowledge and allow students to make personal connections in order to motivate them to read and comprehend new texts.
Directions:
Write down your individual reactions to the picture. Make sure that you describe any personal connections you have to the topic.

16. You Ought to be in Pictures

17. Read
Now read the selection “Veterans Day History.”

18. PET Check Non-fiction reading Visual Note-taking Tool Collaborative
Pg. 4
Non-fiction reading
Visual Note-taking Tool
Collaborative
Writing in content areas

19. Suggestions for working with vocabulary
1. Provide a clear and concise definition of a target word
2. Use dialogue in which the words meaning is explored in context
3. Relate the word to the student’s experience
4. Provide descriptions, explanations or examples of the new word
5. Have the student restate the description or explanation in his or her own words
6. Use the word

20. What the research says…
The use of non-linguistic representations by teachers in the action research studies was associated with a gain in student academic achievement of 27 percentile points.
Robert Marzano
Drawings/ Sketches
Graphic Organizers
Pictures to explain vocabulary and other concepts

21. Trading Cards
Pg. 4
Purpose: To apply new vocabulary and provide students opportunities to talk about the content
Directions:
Use the assigned word to create a trading card.
Picture of the word Write the definition in
kid friendly terms
Write the word or write a description
Front
Back

22. “Warts” Contagious: tending to spread from person to person
Orthodox: customary or conventional
Caustic: capable of burning
Charm: a magic spell
Nodule: a small, rounded mass or lump
Transference: movement or placement
Reliance: confidence, trust, faith
Quirk: a peculiarity of action, behavior, or personality

23. Expert to Expert
Purpose: To allow students to practice new information, talk about what they have learned, and teach!
Directions:
Form 2 lines of students facing one another.
Each student teaches the new word/concept/ etc.
Students in one line rotate to work with another student.
Repeat until all students have heard everyone.

24. KWL/ KLQ/ KWL+ Write a few lines about what you know about warts.
Pg. 7
Write a few lines about what you know about warts.

25. Read Now read the selection “Warts.”
Return to your chart and write what you learned about warts.
List any questions you still have about warts.

26. Teaching Vocabulary Give both definitional and contextual information
Involve children more actively in word learning
Provide them with opportunities to process information and make connections
Number of instructional encounters:
between 7 and 12 are necessary for students to have ownership of instructed words
Give information about what a word means and how it is used. These bullets come in one at a time. Have them fill in the blanks on their ppt. for number of instructional encounters. It should say: Number of instructional encounters – between 7 and 12 are necessary for students to have ownership of instructed words.

27. 3x3 Vocabulary
Pg. 10
Purpose: To promote the development of complete sentences and the identification of relationships between concepts
Directions:
Write six sentences that will show the relationships between the words in column 1 down, 2 down, 3 down and rows 1 across, 2 across, and 3 across.

28. 3x3 Vocabulary leaves sunlight grow plants adaptations climates
survive
roots
water

29. What the research says…
The direct teaching of vocabulary by teachers in the action research studies was associated with a gain in student academic achievement of 22 percentile points.
Robert Marzano

30. Three Step Interview
Pg. 12
Purpose: To engage students in conversation for the purpose of analyzing and synthesizing new information.
Directions:
1. Work with your 3 o’clock partner. One is the interviewer, the other is the interviewee. The interviewer listens actively to the comments and thoughts of the interviewee, paraphrasing key points and significant details.
2.   Reverse roles, repeating the interview process.
3.   Join another pair to form groups of four Introduce your partner and share what the partner had to say about the topic at hand.

31. Three Step Interview The worst storm I can remember
Topic for interview:
The worst storm I can remember

32. Talking Drawings
Pg. 16
Purpose: To activate and evaluate student knowledge of a topic.
Description: Students will activate prior knowledge by creating a graphic representation of a topic before the lesson. After engaging in learning about that topic, students will re-evaluate their prior knowledge by drawing a second depiction of their topic. They will then summarize what the different drawings say to them about what they learned.

33. Talking Drawings Close your eyes and think about tornadoes.
On scratch paper, draw a tornado and include details that you were thinking.

34. Read Now read the selection “Tornadoes.”
Return to your drawing and add to it new information that you learned based on the reading.
Share with your 6 o’clock partner.

35. Sentence Expansion
Pg. 14
Purpose: To increase vocabulary by helping students elaborate on concepts and words.
Directions:
Work with your 9 o’clock partner to expand the following sentences. Use information from the selection on tornadoes to add details and information.

36. Sentence Expansion 1. A tornado is a wind storm.
2. Tornadoes can be destructive.
3. Unstable air causes a tornado.
4. A safety plan is important in case of a tornado.

37. Collaborative Listening/ Viewing Guide (CLVG)
Pg. 17
Purpose: Guides students in organizing new information while listening, viewing new material.
Can be used with videos, guest speakers, field trips
This strategy helps students to elaborate on their note-taking.

38. Window Pane Summary
Purpose: To summarize learning using the higher order thinking skills of analysis, elaboration, and paraphrasing.
Great for lengthy and unfamiliar content
Helps students identify key areas of the reading selection and helps to chunk information
Increases students’ understanding of content and helps with elaboration of information

39. Window Pane Summary
Pg. 20

40. Read Now read the selection “The Lifeline of the Nile.”
Complete your Window Pane Summary. Use the following headings:
Location
Transportation
Crops
Problems

41. What the research says…
The use of cues and questions by teachers in the action research studies was associated with a gain in student academic achievement of 22 percentile points over what was expected when teachers did not use cues and questions. Robert Marzano

42. QARs
Pg. 22
Purpose: To help student recognize question types and create quality questions
4 basic types of questions
Helps students recognize the construction of a question
Helps students determine answers to textbook and test questions

43. QARs
Right There Questions: Answer is in the text, usually all in one sentence
Think and Search Questions: Answer is in the text, different pieces of information from different locations in the text.
Author and You Questions: Answer isn’t in the text, based on information in the selection and your prior knowledge
On My Own Questions: Answer isn’t in the text, can be answered without reading the selection.

44. QARs
Create one question for each type based on the selection about the Nile River.
Work with your tablemates.
Share with the group.

45. Word Wheels
Pg. 25
Purpose: to help students analyze a word, provides deep thinking about vocabulary
Post for the class to see during a unit of study.
Have partners create different word wheels.

46. Study Stars/ Story Stars
Pg. 26
Purpose: to help students organize important information and to summarize what they learned.

47. What the research says…
Similarities and differences
The brain seeks patterns, connections, and relationships between and among prior and new learning.
The ability to break a concept into its similar and dissimilar characteristics allows students to understand and often solve complex problems by analyzing them in a more simple way.
Finding similarities and differences can increase student achievement by 45%

48. Word Sorts
Pg. 28
Purpose: To help students categorize and classify words and terms based on their understanding of a topic.
Students examine relationships and connections
Open Sorts
Closed Sorts
Cooperative Learning

49. Concept Circles
Pg. 31
Purpose: to help students understand concepts and vocabulary
Divide circle into 4 or more equal sections
Students discuss which concepts belong to the group and which isn’t related
Sometimes called “Odd One Out”
Can include written explanation
Great for test reviews

50. Concept Circles
Poem
Novel
Song
Short Story

51. Create examples for your class for next year.
Math
Reading
Science
Social Studies

52. Thinking Maps
Thinking Maps are important non-linguistic representations.
Pg. 33

53. Circle Map

54. This is a focused definition
This is a focused definition. Each fraction can be assigned to a group and then the maps can be rotated from group to group in order for other equivalent fractions to be added. Later the maps can be posted on a bulletin board.

55. Bubble Map

56. Double Bubble Map

57. Tree Map

58. Brace Map

59. Brace Map

60. Flow Map

61. Flow Map
Parallel Flow Maps are often used with word problems in math.

62. Multi Flow Map

63. Multi Flow Map

64. Head Body Numerator Fraction AS Is the top part of...
Bridge Map
Head
Numerator AS
Body
Fraction
Point out the importance of including the relating factor. If the example above is read as Is To then many people would say “The head is to the body as the numerator is to the denominator.” The relating factor clearly defines the relationship and helps students identify the correct answer.
Is the top part of...
Relating Factor: _________________

65. Bridge Map

66. What the research says….
Summarizing and Note Taking increases student achievement by 34%.
These skills promote greater comprehension by asking students to analyze a subject to expose what’s essential and then put it into their own words.

67. Tear and Share Great for Unit Tests and EOG Review.
Cooperative Learning
Discussion of Content
Writing about Content

68. Websites to Review www.freereading.net www.readwritethink.org
Jim Burke m/notemaking.htm
(go to tools and resources)

69. Summary Of Best Practices: Teaching Comprehension
Set stage to show how reading activity changes according to text and purpose
Explain and model steps in strategy
Present more than one situation or text in which strategy would be useful
Provide many opportunities for practice
Encourage think alouds
Have student suggest times and conditions for strategy
Go through these quickly. These are found in Birsh 2nd ed. on page 384
Mason and Au, 1986

70. Shape Up Review
Pg. 35
One thing I liked/ loved important things / concepts to remember
3 important facts 1 global statement to summarize