1. How Do We Focus Our Instruction on Comprehension Strategies to Help Our Students Become Proficient Readers? ( Iowa Core Literacy Standard IA.1) Carol Duehr June 2012

2. Reading Standards for Literature Reading Standards for Informational Text IA.1 Employ the full range of research-based comprehension strategies, including making connections, determining importance, questioning, visualizing, making inferences, summarizing, and monitoring for comprehension.

3. Research-based Qualities of Best Practice in Teaching Reading from Best Practice, 4th ed., Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde. (2013)  Reading means getting meaning from print— The essence of reading is a transaction between the words of an author and the mind of a reader, during which meaning is constructed. This means that the main goal of reading instruction must be comprehension.  Reading is thinking-- Reading is a meaning-making process: an active, constructive, creative, higher-order thinking activity that involves distinctive cognitive strategies before, during, and after reading. Students need to learn how skillful, experienced readers actually manage these processes.  Teachers should model reading--... They must show their students how they think while they read. Using a powerful teaching strategy called “think-alouds,” teachers can read aloud unfamiliar selections in front of their students, stopping frequently to “open up their heads” and vocalize their internal thought processes.

4. Why These Strategies?... Mainstream researchers agree that all skillful readers: Visualize (make mental pictures or sensory images) Connect (link to their own experiences, to events in the world, to other readings) Question (actively wonder, surface uncertainties, interrogate the text and the author) Infer (predict, hypothesize, interpret, draw conclusions) Evaluate (determine importance, make judgments, weigh values) Analyze (notice text structures, author’s craft, purpose, theme, point of view) Recall (retell, summarize, remember information) Monitor (actively keep track of their thinking, adjust strategies to text at hand) Best Practice, 4 th ed. By Zemelman, Daniels, & Hyde. (2013)

5. How should Teachers Teach Strategies to their Students? Explicit instruction Showing our thinking and modeling the mental processes we go through when reading Demonstrate what thoughtful readers do Make our thinking visible Gradual Release of Responsibility Model Teacher Modeling—I do, You watch Guided Practice—I do, You help Collaborative Practice—I help, You do Independent Practice—I watch, You do

6. Monitoring Comprehension Proficient readers... Have an inner conversation about what they are reading Have metacognitive knowledge—an awareness and understanding of how one thinks Know how to use strategies during reading Match strategies to their purpose

7. Monitoring Comprehension Struggling Readers... Need explicit instruction demonstrating metacognition—thinking about what they are thinking while reading Need NOT ONLY a clear understanding of comprehension strategies BUT ALSO an awareness of when and how to use them Gradual Release of Responsibility Model

8. Making Connections A bridge from the new to the known---Activating and connecting to background knowledge—schema theory Connecting to personal experience facilitates understanding Text-to-Self: connections that readers make between the text and their past experiences or background knowledge Text-to-World: connections that readers make between the text and the bigger issues, events, or concerns of society and the world at large Text-to-Text: connections that readers make between the text they are reading and another text

9. Determining Importance Nonfiction—focus on important information and merge it with what we already know to deepen our understanding-- Text features that signal importance Fiction—focus on character’s actions, motives, problems & personality Poetry—figurative language, metaphors, & imagery require us to dig deeper Importance is determined by our purpose Remember important information Learn new information and build background knowledge Distinguish what’s important from what’s interesting Discover a theme, opinion, or perspective Answer a specific question Determine if the author’s message is to inform, persuade, or entertain

10. Questioning Readers ask questions to Construct meaning Enhance understanding Find answers Solve problems Find specific information Clarify confusion

11. Visualizing Allows readers to create mental images from words in the text Infer but with mental images Involves all of your senses Enhances meaning with mental imagery Links past experiences to the words and ideas in the story Strengthens a reader’s relationship to the text Stimulates imaginative thinking Heightens engagement with text

12. Making Inferences Occurs when text clues merge with the reader’s prior knowledge and questions to point to a conclusion about an underlying theme or idea in a text When readers infer, they Draw conclusions based on clues in the text Make predictions before and during reading Surface underlying themes Use implicit information from the text to create meaning during and after reading Use the pictures to help gain meaning

13. Summarizing Pull out the most important information and put it into our own words to remember it Retelling the information and paraphrasing it Need to sift and sort through large amounts of information to extract essential ideas

14. Resource Strategies That Work: teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement, 2 nd ed. Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, 2007.