Increasing Explicitness in Fluency, Vocabulary & Comprehension Instruction

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Increasing Explicitness in Fluency, Vocabulary
Comprehension Instruction
Sharon Walpole University of Delaware
Sara McCraw University of Delaware
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Todays Agenda

• Presentation on correlation between DIBELS data
  and DSTP scores Spring 2006
• Paired jigsaw activity with our reading
• Application of these ideas to first-grade
  planning
• Small-group planning of school follow-up
• Business meeting

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Speed test . . . ready?
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The Herdmans were absolutely the
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worst kids in the history of the
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world. They lied and stole and
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smoked cigars (even the girls) and
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talked dirty and hit little kids and
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cussed their teachers and took the
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name of the Lord in vain and set
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fire to Fred Shoemakers old
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broken-down toolhouse.
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Rate 265 words per minute
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• Is speed reading real? Take a minute to read
  about Mike McKennas experience with a
  speed-reading course.

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• In its beginnings, reading fluency is the
  product of the initial development of accuracy
  and the subsequent development of automaticity in
  underlying sublexical processes, lexical
  processes, and their integration in single word
  reading and connected text.

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• These include
• perceptual letter recognition?
• phonological segmentation and blending?
• orthographic graphemes and spelling patterns?
  and
• morphological grammatical morphemes? prefixes
  and suffixes?
• Processes at the letter, letter-pattern, and word
  levels, as well as semantic and syntactic
  processes at the word level and connected-text
  level.

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• After it is fully developed, reading fluency
  refers to a level of accuracy and rate where
  decoding is relatively effortless where oral
  reading is smooth and accurate with correct
  prosody and where attention can be allocated to
  comprehension.
• (Wolf Katzir-Cohen, 2001)

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Fluency requires the child to use phonics and
spelling knowledge automatically
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Fluency requires the child to automatically
integrate phonics and spelling knowledge to
recognize entire words
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Fluency requires the child to link recognized
words into natural phases, with appropriate
enunciation and emphasis
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Fluency in Connected Text (textual)
Fluency at the Word Level (lexical)
Fluency within Words (sublexical)
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Coaches Corner

• What does that complex definition of fluency
  actually mean?
• Can you think of examples of children in your
  school who get stuck at the first, second, or
  third level in the pyramid?

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A definition is the enclosing of a wilderness of
ideas within a wall of words

• Samuel Butler (1912)
• Notebooks

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Vocabulary Instruction

• Many children learn vocabulary words indirectly
  from the adults in their life
• Those who come to school with limited vocabulary
  can build their vocabulary through explicit
  instruction
• Research on vocabulary instruction strongly
  suggests a positive correlation between
  vocabulary knowledge and comprehension

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Instructional Approaches to Teaching Vocabulary

• Modeling
• Synonyms
• Definitions and Opposite Definitions
• Semantic Maps
• Word Continuum ranking words
• Morphology
• Context Clues

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Not all words are equal

• Tier 1Most basic words. Table, baby, run
• Tier 2High frequency for mature language users.
  Span a range of domains. Coincidence, absurd,
  fortunate
• Tier 3Low frequency, limited to a single domain.
  Isotope, refinery, lathe

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Identifying Tier 2 Words

• Importance utility words characteristic of
  mature speakers
• Instructional potential words can be
  incorporated into various activities
• Conceptual understanding students may understand
  the general concept, but need more clarity

Beck, McKeown, Kucan (2002)
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How to teach vocabulary

• Introduce target words (before/after)
• Contextualized introduction
• Explanation of meaning
• Provide multiple opportunities to interact with
  the word
• Use graphic organizers when needed
• Encourage future use

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Coaches Corner

• When and how should we introduce new vocabulary
  terms to children?
• Can you think of examples of children in your
  school who struggle with comprehension because
  they skip words or infer the wrong meaning?

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Comprehension Instruction

• Proficient readers use a variety of strategies to
  monitor and repair their understanding while
  reading
• Teachers must teach students how to use each of
  these strategies through the gradual release of
  responsibility model (explicit instruction-modelin
  g-scaffolded practice-independence)

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Instructional Practices

• Begin with the most concrete literal
  comprehension at the sentence level
• Increase level of difficulty literal
  comprehension at the passage/full text level
  (teacher supports by reading aloud more complex
  text)
• Move to inferential level sentence level first
  followed by passage/full text level

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Some DERF Assumptions

• Phonemic awareness, decoding, and fluency are
  necessary but insufficient to guarantee reading
  comprehension
• Teachers tend to assess vocabulary and
  comprehension (by asking children to demonstrate
  it) rather than actually teach it
• Differentiated instruction can move from
  lower-level skills and tasks to higher-level ones

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Remember direct instruction?

• Tasks, even complex tasks, can be decomposed into
  specific components.
• Each component can be taught and practiced to
  mastery.
• Components can then be coordinated to accomplish
  higher-order tasks.

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• A Closer Look at Direct Instruction
• During the 1970s and 80s, researchers worked to
  identify the characteristics of effective
  teaching. They asked two key questions
• What do more-effective teachers do that
  less-effective teachers dont?
• If less-effective teachers learn and apply these
  techniques, will the learning of their students
  increase?
• In 1986, a now-classic article by Barak
  Rosenshine appeared in Educational Leadership.
  In it, he summarized the findings of the huge
  body of effectiveness research.
• The result is a teaching model called explicit
  instruction, or sometimes direct instruction.

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The explicit teaching model is sometimes divided
into three phases
1 2 3
Guided Practice
Independent Practice
Introduction of new material, organized into
clear objectives, tied to previous learning, and
accom-panied by modeling and monitoring by the
teacher
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Keep in mind that most of the researchers who
studied effective teachers were not specifically
interested in reading instruction. This is why
the model sounds generic. It can be applied to
nearly any content subject! When reading
researchers, such as the National Reading Panel,
say that research favors explicit, systematic
instruction, this is the model they mean. Now
lets look more closely at the characteristics
Rosenshine extracted from the research.
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For your teaching to be explicit, you should

• Begin the lesson with a short statement of goals.
• Begin the lesson with a short review of previous,
  prerequisite learning.
• Present new material in small steps, with student
  practice after each step.
• Give clear and detailed instructions and
  explanations.
• Provide active practice for all students.
• Ask many questions, check for student
  understanding, and obtain responses from all
  students.
• Guide students during initial practice.
• Provide systematic feedback and corrections.
• Provide explicit instruction and practice for
  seatwork exercises and, where necessary, monitor
  students during seatwork.
• Continue practice until students are independent
  and confident.
• Rosenshine (1986), pp. 60, 62

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Direct Explicit
Some confusion can occur when the phrase, direct
instruction is used interchangeably with
explicit instruction. This is because a
publishing company has long used Direct
Instruction in the name of its commercial
products. One way to avoid confusion is to say
Little d-i when referring to explicit teaching
and Big D-I when referring to the product. Of
course, you can also avoid confusion by using the
phrase explicit instruction.
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Our book study today is designed for teachers who
want teachers to apply specific procedures from
little d-i to their own core scope and
sequence. Some of the authors have been
associated with Big D-I curriculum design, but
they have written this book specifically for an
audience not using DI.
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Jigsaw Procedure

• Break into three groups of 6-8 members (thematic
  groups fluency, vocabulary, comprehension)
• Each group will split into two sub groups and
  will be assigned one chapter from the Carnine
  book (12,13, 15,16,18, or 19)
• Plan 30 minutes in your subgroup and 20 minutes
  in thematic group to read and prepare the chapter
  presentation and demonstration
• Presentation and demonstration will last 30
  minutes for each thematic group. During the share
  time, the paired groups will be working together
  to share what theyve learned

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Fluency Beginning Reading Groups

• Read chapter 12, pp. 145-161.
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction including both word reading in
  isolation and reading of decodable text. You can
  use procedures in the chapter to make up your own
  decodable text.

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FluencyPrimary Reading Groups

• Read chapter 13, pp. 163-179 .
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction that includes reading for accuracy,
  for comprehension, and for fluency. Consider
  whether you can accomplish this without
  round-robin reading.

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Vocabulary Beginning Reading Groups

• Read chapter 15, pp. 183-191.
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction including a variety of ways to
  introduce new vocabulary.

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VocabularyPrimary Reading Groups

• Read chapter 16, pp. 193-208 .
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction that includes a variety of ways to
  introduce vocabulary.

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Comprehension Beginning Reading Groups

• Read chapter 18, pp. 211-220.
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction including literal comprehension at
  both the sentence and passage level.

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ComprehensionPrimary Reading Groups

• Read chapter 19, pp. 221-235 .
• Discuss the main ideas in the chapter, and
  prepare a chart paper summary to share.
• Prepare a teaching demonstration for needs-based
  instruction including inferential comprehension
  monitoring at both the sentence and passage level.

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Lets Plan . . .
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Back in School

• Apply concepts from todays work to plan
  needs-based instruction focused on developing
  fluency (at word, sentence or text level as
  needed), vocabulary, or comprehension. Test your
  plan for three days.
• Consider strategies to share what you learned
  with the rest of your instructional team be
  prepared to share at our next meeting.

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References

• Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kameenui, E. J.,
  Tarver, S. G., Jungjohann, K. (2006). Teaching
  struggling and at-risk readers A direct
  instruction approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ
  Pearson.
• Rosenshine, B. V. (1986). Synthesis of research
  on explicit teaching. Educational Leadership,
  43(7), 60-69.
• Wolf, M., Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading
  fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies
  of Reading, 5, 211-239.