ABE/ASE Transitions Academy Virtual Session Central, Coastal, & South GREAT Centers January 29, 2011 Reading Instructional Strategies Presenter: Barbara Baird

What Is Reading?

What is “Reading” ? Reading is making sense of print Understanding what we read Active, intentional, constructing of meaning using the message in the text and own prior understanding

The Components of Reading Phonemic awareness Decoding Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension “ Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults ” by Susan McShane. Developed by National Center for Family Literacy

Comprehension Vocabulary Fluency Decoding Phonemic Awareness

Teaching Component Skills Not to be taught “sequentially” All components reinforce each other and develop simultaneously Teachers should address all components (at appropriate levels of difficulty) in reading lessons Teachers need to teach the “transfer” of reading skills to out-of class contexts and tasks

Comprehension Instructional Strategies Comprehension monitoring (Metacognition) Graphic organizers Question answering Question generating Summation Cooperative learning

Comprehension Monitoring Comprehension monitoring helps readers learn how to:  Actively monitor their understanding by pinpointing hard-to-understand sections of text  Identify specific problems when comprehension breaks down  Take steps to solve their comprehension problems, such as rereading, restating, and looking forward to other sections for clues

Graphic Organizers “Power Pictures” that paint important pictures on the brain Show the key concepts and the relationship of ideas and information Capture the organization and structure of text Illustrate the “who, what, where, when, why, how” elements

Answering & Generating Questions Answering questions Answering teachers' questions helps students focus on important points in a text and read actively Generating questions Students who are taught to ask their own questions become more active, involved readers

Pre, During, Post, Questions 1. Identify "what you know" and "what you don't know“ 2. Talk about thinking 3. Plan, predict, self-regulate, self- evaluate 4. Bloom’s Taxonomy: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation

Summarizing Brief statements that contain the essential ideas Encourage students to focus on the most important elements in a text and then reprocess them using their own words

Cooperative Learning Cooperative learning Working in small groups allows students to help each other learn and apply comprehension strategies Project- and problem-based instruction Providing opportunities for problem solving, communication, divergent thinking, linking new information

Research Findings Teaching comprehension strategies should be explicit and systematic: Direct explanation by the teacher—The teacher describes comprehension strategies Guided practice by the teacher—The teacher steps through the application of a selected strategy with the help of students Application by the student with help from the teacher — The students practice applying a selected strategy, and the teacher moves among the students, supplying feedback appropriate to the strategy Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults” by Susan McShane. Developed by National Center for Family Literacy f