Reading Comprehension Case Studies - 2023 Instructor PDF

READING COMPREHENSIO N Case Studies Help students develop language comprehension: language proficiency We’ve been looking at why building our students’ knowledge base is important to language comprehension. But there is more to language comprehension than background knowledge and v...

READING COMPREHENSIO N Case Studies Help students develop language comprehension: language proficiency We’ve been looking at why building our students’ knowledge base is important to language comprehension. But there is more to language comprehension than background knowledge and vocabulary. For strong language comprehension, our students also need to understand how language works. That’s language proficiency. Verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge, and knowledge of language structure are all part of language proficiency. We can help our students develop their language proficiency at the word, sentence, and discourse (paragraph and text) levels. Cohesive words There are some words and phrases that alert readers to the relationship between ideas in both spoken and written language. As skilled readers, we recognize these relationships without conscious effort. For example, the words “first,” “second,” and “next” signal a sequence of events or ideas. “Therefore” signals that one idea is building on an idea that came before. “However” and “in contrast” let us know that an opposite point or counter-example is coming next. Explicitly teaching our students to notice and think about these words can help them understand what they re Complex sentences As our students read increasingly Passive voice (“It is going to be a hot day.”) We understand this sentence effortlessly, but some of complex texts, they will come across our students may not know automatically what more challenging vocabulary, but it’s “it” refers to. not just individual words that present Multiple verb tenses (“The ball hit the ground a challenge. Some sentences are more because gravity makes things fall.”) As skilled readers, we understand that the ball falling is a difficult to understand than others, not discrete event that happened in the past while only because they’re longer, but gravity is not tied to a particular time — it always makes things fall. This mixture of past and because of the way they are present, however, may be confusing to some of structured. our students. Nested phrases and clauses (“The boy who jumped over the fence and tried to grab the bucket later disappeared in the field.”) In this To help our students “repair” meaning sentence, some of our students may need within hard-to-understand sentences, scaffolding to recognize that the boy, not the bucket, disappeared in the field. the first step is noticing the kinds of syntax (the order of words and Anaphoric references (“Monique went to the park. She ran straight to the swings.”) If a student can’t phrases) and structures that may be keep track of who “she” is, comprehension may confusing. We can give our students a break down. Words that refer back to words earlier in the text, like the pronouns he, she, it, head start in understanding complex and they, can make sentences tricky. Color-coding text by explicitly teaching sentence pronouns that refer to a particular character is a great way to help students keep track. structure. Features of complex sentences include: Complex sentences Targeted questioning is one Sentence unpacking way to scaffold our students — rewriting complex through complex sentences. sentences as a series of By asking questions like “Who simple sentences — is another is this sentence about?” (the way to help our students subject) and “What is the break down and comprehend main ‘doing’ or ‘being’ word?” complex sentences. Sentence (the verb) and pointing out unpacking is a technique meaningful “chunks” (in our often used with English- nested phrases sentence learners, but is beneficial for above, the entire phrase “who all our students. This video jumped over the fence and below shows a sentence tried to grab the bucket” unpacking activity with fifth- describes the boy) we can graders that could be adapted help students break sentences for younger students. down into manageable units. https://youtu.be/3Ni-0-1lAjA Text Structure Narrative text can be fiction or nonfiction. In fact, the line between the two can be pretty blurry! An autobiographical story like Patricia Polacco’s Thank You, Mr. Falker (opens in a new window) is a great example. All narrative texts tell stories, and stories have a structure we can teach our students to recognize. In this classroom video (opens in a ne w window) , first-graders are explicitly taught about the story structure of a read-aloud text using a graphic organizer. https://www.pbslearningmedia. org/resource/df749d67-c2d3-4 af4-9c03-474f9fe819dd/df749d 67-c2d3-4af4-9c03-474f9fe819 dd/ Inferences Making inferences is a part of language comprehension; it is also a behavior consistently observed in skilled readers. Developing our students’ ability to make inferences will help them to understand what they read and to tackle assignments throughout the school day. If we can also help them be aware that they are making inferences and encourage them to be intentional in doing so, we are giving them one of those “strategic” boosts that will support them as they make their way into more complex texts. Learning to make educated guesses about what an author means takes practice. We can help our students get practice by examining the words an author chooses, facilitating discussion about what the author meant, asking what the characters might have been thinking or feeling, or exploring what a specific event might tell readers about the bigger picture. There are plenty of opportunities to point out inferences in everyday situations. An observation like, “When I said, ‘It’s 10:15,’ you all started to clean up from centers and get ready to line up for recess. I didn’t tell you to do those things, but you knew to do them anyway,” can be a great starting point for a discussion about inferencing. Monitoring comprehension Students who are good at monitoring their own comprehension are aware, as they read, of whether they understand what they are reading. Research shows that instruction in self-monitoring, even in the early grades, can help students recognize when they don’t understand and take steps to fill gaps in comprehension. Before reading, skilled readers often preview the text and remind themselves of their purpose for reading. They monitor their understanding as they read, adjusting their speed to fit the difficulty of the text and actively trying to solve comprehension problems that arise. After reading, they make sure they understand the passage they just read. Some tools our students can use to “fix” their comprehension include: Figuring out where comprehension breaks down (“I don’t understand this sentence.”) Homing in on the part that’s hard to understand (“I don’t get what ‘Turtles are creatures of habit’ means.”) Restating that part in their own words (“Oh, I think the author is talking about how turtles always go back to the same beach to lay their eggs.”) Looking back through the text (“I remember I read more about this character at the beginning of the story. Maybe if I go back and reread, I can figure out why he’s acting this way now.”) Looking ahead in the text for information that might help. (“It says, ‘Molten rock flows out of volcanoes.’ What does molten mean… Oh, the next section is called ‘Hot Enough to Melt Rocks.’ Maybe molten means melted. I’ll read on to see if it tells me.”). Help students access increasingly complex text We invest so much time and effort in helping students become skilled readers because we believe that almost every student can understand, learn from, and enjoy reading. We hope to put them on the path to college and career readiness and we’d like them to become engaged, lifelong learners who feel empowered to pursue their passions and interests. That’s why it’s important, when matching students with books, to support them in reading increasingly complex texts. Fortunately, classroom practices for working with complex text aren’t all that different from best practices for teaching reading generally. Drs. Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey have described five “access points” that serve to “build a bridge between the reader and the text.” We can help our students take on challenging texts by: 1. Establishing a purpose for reading a complex text and then modeling how we, as skilled readers, draw meaning from it 2. Providing scaffolded and close reading instruction to guide students through complex texts 3. Creating opportunities for cooperative and collaborative learning 4. Moving students forward through independent reading of increasingly complex texts 5. Staying aware of our students’ progress by using formative assessments and by addressing gaps in their knowledge and understanding Case Study One Name: John Age: 5;4 Grade: Kindergarten Presenting Complaints: 1. Inattentive to story time. 2. Unable to retell stories discussed in class. Case Study One Suggestions: 1. Engage him in story time with character cards. 2.Small group story retell using character cards and story glove. https://youtu.be/TZ_phFEUghA 3. Act out story in class. 4. Class discussion. 5.Take home story and props for practice. Case Study Two Name: Susie Age: 10;2 Grade: Fourth Presenting Complaints: 1. Strong oral reading skills 2. Unable to answer questions about stories or chapters Case Study Two Additional Suggestions: 1. Introduce the following strategies in small group: Visualization Retelling Summarizing 2. Co-teach lessons to introduce these in classroom. Tips for Teaching Visualization Prompts: In my mind’s eye… I see… I have a picture of… I imagine… Tips for Teaching Retelling R-Read what your hand can cover C-Cover the words with your hand R-Remember what you have read R-Retell it to yourself or a friend Tips for Teaching Visualization 1. Make it concrete and relevant. 2. Move to text and begin with drawing pictures. https://youtu.be/CZNfHwEFJlw Example: The sky was the color of a fresh bruise. Movie Visual Imagery Tips for Teaching Summarizing https://youtu.be/O5TiUcVg2tk https://youtu.be/mL8iqCdQcHo Begin by reading OR have students listen to the text selection. Ask students the following framework questions: What are the main ideas? What are the crucial details necessary for supporting the ideas? What information is irrelevant or unnecessary? Havethem use key words or phrases to identify the main points from the text. Tips for Teaching Summarizing Example: James was a bully. He terrorized every student in his class. At lunch, he ordered a PB and J sandwich and knocked Sally’s tray on the floor. At recess, he pulled Patty’s pigtails and in class he threw a spitball at Jerry. He even tortured his poor teacher by repeatedly letting the class rabbit out of his cage. No one wanted to be around James. Case Study Three Name: Samuel Age: 12;7 Grade: Seventh Presenting Complaints: 1. Poor essay test results 2. Information was incorrectly stated. Case Study Three Additional Suggestions: 1.Remind student of his successful use of some strategies to improve self-esteem. 2. Introduce paraphrasing and use of graphic organizer. 3. Improve self-questioning. Tips for Teaching Paraphrasing Reword– replace words and phrases with synonyms whenever you can. Rearrange – rearrange words within sentences to make new sentences. You can even rearrange the ideas presented within the paragraph. Realizethat some words and phrases cannot be changed – names, dates, titles etc. cannot be replaced, but you can present them differently in your paraphrase. Recheck – make sure that your paraphrase conveys the same meaning as the original text. Text At just 8.5 square miles, the Pacific island country of Nauru is one of the smallest countries in the world. The island was once rich in phosphate, but most of the resource has been mined leaving damage to the environment behind. Nauru has a population of about 10,000 people. Paraphrased Version Nauru is a Pacific island country that is only 8.5 square miles in area. It is one of the smallest countries on the planet and only about 10,000 people live there. Nauru has mined its once plentiful supplies of phosphate. This has damaged the environment on the island. Improving Self-Questioning Introduce types of questions: A. Literal B. Inferential C. Evaluative Discuss situations in which to use these questions: A. Before reading B. During reading C. After reading Make a list of questions. Highlight specific text reference. https://youtu.be/tp0NvUDRY0M Additional Suggestions: 1. Use text sets to encourage the development of vocabulary and background knowledge. 2. Encourage teachers to use themed curricular materials. 3. Use a comprehension binder. 4. Work on executive functioning issues. 5. Balance content and strategy instruction. https://youtu.be/mtm5_w6JthA https://youtu.be/3Ni-0-1lAjA https://youtu.be/jQCKXQUquTc https://youtu.be/My68SDGeTHI Additional Suggestions As students read, ask them open-ended questions such as "Why did things happen that way?" or "What is the author trying to do here?" and "Why is this somewhat confusing?". Teach students the structure of different types of reading material. For instance, narrative texts usually have a problem, a highpoint of action, and a resolution to the problem. Informational texts may describe, compare and contrast, or present a sequence of events. Discuss the meaning of words as you go through the text. Target a few words for deeper teaching, really probing what those words mean and how they can be used. Teach note-taking skills and summarizing strategies. Use graphic organizers that help students break information down and keep tack of what they read. Encourage students to use and revisit targeted vocabulary words. Teach students to monitor their own understanding. Show them how, for example, to ask themselves "What's unclear here?" or "What information am I missing?" and "What else should the author be telling me?". Teach children how to make predictions and how to summarize. Additional Suggestions Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life. For example, say "I wonder why that girl did that?" or "How do you think he felt? Why?" and "So, what lesson can we learn here?". Help your child make connections between what he or she reads and similar experiences he has felt, saw in a movie, or read in another book. Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Teach her to continually ask herself whether she understands what she's reading. Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers. Discuss the meanings of unknown words, both those he reads and those he hears. Read material in short sections, making sure your child understands each step of the way. Discuss what your child has learned from reading informational text such as a science or social studies book. Additional Suggestions: Students collect gems to represent new information.