Professional Development Session 2: Reading Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections And Making Inferences Heather Page Heather Page November 8, 2011

Entrance Slip How were you able to incorporate the reading comprehension strategies of determining importance and synthesizing into your classrooms?

Research: Reading Comprehension Strategies According to Harvey and Goudvis (2007), “True comprehension goes beyond literal understanding and involves the reader’s interaction with the text. If students are to become thoughtful, insightful readers, they must merge their thinking with the text and extend their thinking beyond a superficial understanding” (p. 14). It is important for teachers in all content areas to incorporate reading comprehension strategies into their instruction to ensure that students understand what they are reading.

Research: Reading Comprehension Strategies in Social Studies Classrooms According to the National Council for the Social Studies (1994), students should be able to: acquire information and manipulate data; develop and present policies, arguments, and stories; construct new knowledge; and participate in groups (as cited in Jones & Thomas, 2006, p. 58). By teaching and modeling for students different ways of thinking and different strategies to achieve comprehension, students can truly understand what they are being taught in a social studies classroom.

Research: Gradual Release of Responsibility Teresa Therriault, as cited in Hoyt (2009), states, “As educators, we should never ask students to do something they haven’t seen us do first” (p. 3). It is necessary that as educators, we model behaviors for our students so that they truly grasp what it is we expect from them.

Research: Gradual Release of Responsibility The gradual release of responsibility framework: students observe the teacher modeling how to use a strategy, students replicate the actions of the teacher while he or she coaches from the sidelines, students apply the strategies independently.

Making Connections Harvey and Goudvis (2007) point out that when students have had an experience similar to that of a character in a story, they are more likely to understand the character’s motives, thoughts, and feelings (p. 17). Students can also connect ideas which they are learning about to other historical events or to other texts that present similar settings, ideas, themes, or characters. Heather Page November 8, 2011

Making Inferences According to Susan Hall, “Inferring allows readers to make their own discoveries without the direct comment of the author” (as cited in Harvey and Goudvis, 2007, p. 18). It is up to students to make meaning from the text as opposed to simply reading—and perhaps not understanding—what is explicitly in front of them.

Strategies at Work: Post-it Note Annotations As a group, we are going to read Chana Byers Abells, The Children We Remember. Using post-it notes, we will annotate our connections and inferences and put them in the margins.

Chana Byers Abells, The Children We Remember

Minute Reflection & Discussion Think of a topic that you focus on in your classroom. How can use an outside text to enhance understanding and improve comprehension of that subject? Can you think of a specific genre you could use besides to supplement the textbook?

Isabella Leitner, “My Sorrow” Work individually to annotate it with post-it notes, recording specific connections and inferences about what they are reading and place them in the margins beside text to which you are referring. Then you will share your annotations in a small group, which will allow you to see what other teachers made connections to as well as the inferences that they made.

Minute Reflection & Discussion Making connections and making inferences are two of the most important reading comprehension strategies because not only does they exhibit that students comprehend what they are learning, but it requires them to think outside of the text in front of them. How can the strategies of making connections and making inferences work in your classroom? How could this strategy benefit your students?

References Abells, C. B. (1986). The children we remember. China: Greenwilllow Books. Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding and engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers. Hoyt, L. (2009). Revisit, reflect, retell: Time-tested strategies for teaching reading comprehension. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Jones, R. C., & Thomas, T. G. (2006). Leave no discipline behind. Reading Teacher, 60(1), 58-64. Leitner, I. (1985). Saving the fragments. New York: Dutton Adult.