Ineffective Strategies Learning from what DOESN’T work taken from Doug Fisher’s work

Myth 1 :Don’t waste time with reading outside of content areas. In schools where reading was limited to content instruction or focused only on the instruction at hand, there was a marked decline in circulation in the media center, and also a downward trend in achievement, in not only reading scores but history and science scores as well.

To increase comprehension … There has to be an increase of time with text. Time with text needs to be based on student interest and choice. Time with text at this age level is NOT SSR or DEAR. It has to be teacher directed, as in a Reader’s Workshop format.

Myth 2: Teachers should select and dictate ALL quality literature for students. The traditional format of teacher dictated literature accompanied with a packet filled with pages that require students to summarize, identify characters, or react to specific prompts does not promote increased comprehension.

When children are to read one chapter nightly, wait for teacher led discussion, most do just that. No background knowledge is expected, and all connections are teacher driven. What results is little interest, hurried completion and no increase in comprehension strategies.

Conversely When a teacher allows the students to self- select literature they care about, from a wide range of text selections, and then guides the students through the process of learning how to comprehend, there is an extension of what they know. Engagement occurs, comprehension follows.

Myth 3: Even if the book is difficult, students will learn if they are in reciprocal group. Even reciprocal teaching where there is summarizing, clarifying, questioning and predicting cannot help struggling students read grade levels higher than they can on their own.

We have to offer different levels of reading and different choices that fit the topics we are teaching. We have to let them select texts that make sense to them. We also have to know our students’ needs. THEN reciprocal teaching will work.

Myth 4: Teacher led questioning is the best way to teach comprehension. When teachers consistently grill their class with comprehension questions, students learn quickly to wait because when the questions go unanswered, the teacher answers them for the class.

Modeling strategies is the best way Teachers who model and think aloud as they are reading, or discussing, trigger more engagement and comprehension in their students. Don’t confuse TEACHING comprehension with TESTING comprehension.

After third grade, what DOES work: 1. Direct, explicit comprehension instruction. Teachers need to format lessons that TEACH comprehension and have them model strategies for students to try, both as a group and as an individual.

2. Effective instructional principles embedded in content. There has to be an integration of reading comprehension strategy teaching between both LA and the content areas. All staff have to be knowledgeable about helping students become better readers.

3.Motivation and Self-directed learning The most powerful way to engage students is to provide them with choices in their reading. Self-directed learning has been found to improve student motivation and sense of competence..

Self-selection is even more effective when coupled with TEACHER FEEDBACK on goals and progress. Students’ images of themselves as readers strongly predict both how much they read and their reading comprehension.

4. Text –based Collaborative Learning. Research has found that cooperative learning can improve reading comprehension and achievement across the content areas for students in the upper elementary through HS grades, as well as ESL and students LD. T-B learning is where the student works with a partner or small group.

5. Strategic tutoring Tutoring is an effective way to meet student needs in grade 4 up. Effective tutoring is NOT support in completing tasks but also strategies that enable them to read, write and learn independently.

6. Diverse texts Students need to have access to a wide variety of texts in both reading instruction and choice reading. Those with more diverse texts demonstrated higher reading achievement.

7. Intensive Writing Effective reading instruction integrates writing as a measure of comprehension because it fosters critical thinking. Schools need to increase the amount of time spent writing, especially asking students to read multiple texts and synthesizing them in writing.

According to one literacy expert, adolescents should receive 10 hours of literacy instruction each week, and a full quarter of those hours should be devoted to writing instruction. (Shanahan, 2004)

8. Technology Component Besides merely using technology, there also should be a component for technology to individualize student growth and monitor progress in reading.

9. Ongoing formative assessment of students Formative assessments are designed to give teachers information about student progress so that instruction can be improved. They should be informal and frequent.