FOR IMPROVED FLUENCY & COMPREHENSION MAKING TIER I TEXT ACCESSIBLE:

DR. KATHLEEN J. BROWN UNIVERSITY OF UTAH READING CLINIC

READING COMPREHENSION Reading comprehension is the model of meaning that a reader constructs for a text by using information from the text and his/her background knowledge. Within a text, comprehension occurs at the phrase level as the reader processes strings of letters. Ideally, this gradually builds to comprehension at the text level.

WHAT AFFECTS READING COMPREHENSION? The RAND Heuristic (2002) Text ReaderTask Context

INSTRUCTION SHOULD… help students be fluent with text understand what the author is saying in the text right in front of them, right now, help students connect what they just read to what they read previously in that same text, and, help students build the capability to be more fluent & understand future texts

PROBLEM: MANY KIDS CAN’T HANDLE TIER I TEXT Not much actual reading even in primary grade classrooms: < 9 minutes/day & some struggling readers as little as 1-2 minutes/day (Gambrell, 1984). Round Robin Reading is ineffective (Ash, Kuhn, & Walpole, 2003). Many students can’t understand or remember what they read

VEHICLES TO HELP KIDS READ CONTENT TEXTS Your core reading program Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI) routines Questioning the Author (QtA) routines for comprehension

FORI BASICS Set goal of at least 20 minutes/day of ‘miles on the page.’ Keep a weekly schedule of oral reading routines. Use consistent prompts. Alternate oral reading with QtA comprehension work

FORI: WEEKLY ROUTINES Day 1: Brief preview & read-to main selection w/basic comprehension work Day 2: Echo-read same main selection w/deeper comprehension work Day 3: Partner-read same main selection w/kid comprehension work

FORI: READ-TO Work with small chunks of text, stopping for basic comprehension work. Read prosodically (pause at phrase boundaries). Move around the room. Use precise, consistent prompts “Fingers under ___. My turn; you point.”

FORI: ECHO READING Work with small chunks of text, stopping to deepen comprehension. Read prosodically (pause at phrase boundaries). Move around the room. Use precise, consistent prompts “Fingers under ___. My turn; you point.” “Fingers under ___. Voices together.”

FORI: PARTNER READING Kids work in pairs: Lows w/Mids; Mids w/Highs. Kids use same prompts: “Fingers under ____. Voices together.” Partner page/paragraph; then stop for Kid- Comprehension. “What does the author want us know from that paragraph/page?” Move around the room. Is everybody on task?

Let’s shift gears from fluency to comprehension

PROBLEM: TRADITIONAL COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION Mostly occurs after kids read Uses an IRE pattern of discussion I nitiate R espond E valuate

WITH TRADITIONAL COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION… Few kids respond Most responses are just “filling in the teacher’s blanks” Teacher does most of the work. Few kids really “engage.” If they don’t engage, their comprehension is likely to be shallow, off-base, or both.

SO… How can we get them to engage deeply with text to improve comprehension/learning?

QTA: THE PROCESS 1. Read text before class and ask: what is the major understanding that I want students to derive from this text? Write it out in 1 sentence. 2. Prepare 2 minute preview on post-it. 3. Mark stopping points in text & jot queries on post-its for Day 1 and Day Execute FORI routines & QtA queries & follow- up queries.

QTA: MAJOR UNDERSTANDING Major understanding is NOT the theme, moral, or message of the story. Rather, it is the most important info in the text that the reader needs. Major understanding is a precursor to theme! Think “3 Little Pigs.” What is the major understanding? What is the theme?

QTA: QUERIES What’s happening here? What is the author trying to say/want us to know? _______ is onto something! What is that all about? So, is that all there is to it?

FORI SIMULATION Let’s try it! Kuhn et al., 2006

FORI: RESEARCH FINDINGS 3 empirical studies Kids need to be at least end G1 level. Material should be challenging! Scaffolding of multiple texts in a week is better than just 1 text. Kids need minutes of text per day to make gains. In Utah pilot, strong gains in CRT 14%-24%, DIBELS Daze (37%), DIBELS ORF (10%)

FORI: EMPIRICAL RESEARCH Stahl S.A. & Heubach, K.M., (2005). Fluency-oriented reading instruction. Journal of Literacy Research, 37, Kuhn, M.R., Schwanenflugel, P.J., Morris, R.D., Morrow, L.M., & Woo, D., et al. (2006). Teaching children to become fluent and automatic readers. Journal of Literacy Research, 38, Schwanenflugel, P.J., Hamilton, A.M., Kuhn, M.R., Wisenbaker, J., & Stahl, S.A. (2004). Becoming a fluent reader: Reading skill and prosodic features in the oral reading of young readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, Schwanenflugel, P.J., Meisinger, E., Wisenbaker, J.M., Kuhn, M.R., Strauss, G.P., & Morris, R.D. (2006). Becoming a fluent and automatic reader in the early elementary school years. Reading Research Quarterly, 41,

QTA: EMPIRICAL RESEARCH McKeown, M.G., Beck, I.L., & Blake, R.G. (2009). Rethinking Reading Comprehension Instruction: A Comparison of Instruction for Strategies and Content Approaches, Reading Research Quarterly, 44, Beck, I.L, McKeown, M.G., Sandora, C., Kucan, L., & Worthy, J. (1996). Questioning the Author: A yearlong classroom implementation to engage students with text. Elementary School Journal, 96, McKeown, M.G., & Beck, I.L. (2004). Transforming knowledge into professional development resoureces: Six teachers implement a model of teaching for understanding text. Elementary School Journal, 104,

QTA: RESEARCH FINDINGS 4 empirical studies More on-task student talk More talk about text itself and ideas in text vs. ‘fill-in-the-teacher’s-blank’ Student began asking more questions & acknowledging/responding to peers’ contributions Outperforms reading comprehension strategy instruction