Reading Comprehension

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Reading Comprehension

• the ability to make meaning out of text.
• Students must
• Be able to make personal connections with the
  text
• Understand meaning of vocabulary used
• Understand text structure
• Understand purpose for reading

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Reading Comprehension Skills

• Decoding
• Ability to use letter-sound relationships to
  decipher words
• Fluency
• Automaticity, appropriate reading rate
• Vocabulary knowledge
• Breadth, and depth, of vocabulary knowledge is
  important, i.e., not just the number of words
  students know, but the depth of their
  understanding
• Background knowledge
• A conceptual framework, or context, into which
  students can fit new ideas
• Knowledge of comprehension strategies

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Teaching Comprehension to ELLs

• Solution
• Explicit teaching of vocabulary
• Preview unfamiliar concepts/ideas before reading.
  Create connections to familiar concepts
• Teach comprehension strategies through modeling

• Issue
• Limited vocabulary
• Different background knowledge
• Lack of effective strategies for comprehension

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Modeling Reading

• Model effective reading strategies, such as
• re-reading.
• This part didnt make sense.
• I think Ill re-read to see if I get it the
  second time.

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Teaching Vocabulary

• Focus lesson on key words
• Teach vocabulary intentionally
• Explicit definitions
• Use cognates when possible
• Use student-friendly definitions
• Writing activities
• Classroom discussions
• Use context to teach words with multiple meanings

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Vocabulary Strategy Index Cards

• Include
• Cognates
• Synonyms/Antonyms
• Picture
• Other concepts that help them relate to the word
• Help students own words
• Interacting with the vocabulary helps students
  understand that words arent just something they
  need to study
• By creating their own meaningful definitions,
  students are empowered to analyze new English
  vocabulary, and draw on their own knowledge as a
  resource

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Preparing for Reading

• Establish goals for reading
• Anticipation guides
• Focus questions
• Making predictions
• Gist statements
• These are golden nugget statements concise
  ideas about what might happen based on provided
  information from the text (such as key
  vocabulary).
• Focus on vocabulary concepts
• Preview key words other vocabulary
• Explore/activate background knowledge
• Provide bridges between new concepts and what
  children already know

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Video

• Becoming Bilingual Two Languages at Once
• Webster Elementary, Long Beach, CA

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Role of Native Language
The effects of primary language instruction are
modest, but they are real and reliable.
Claude Goldenberg

• Strong literacy skills in native language
  transfer to second language
• The level of reading skills in native language is
  an important predictor of successful second
  language reading acquisition

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Transferable Literacy Skills

• Understanding symbolic relationships
• Print awareness
• Phonological awareness
• Decoding skills
• Comprehension strategies
• Concepts
• Cause and effect
• Sequencing

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Comprehension Strategies for ELLs
Strategies to use while reading

• Questioning
• Ask and answer questions about readings
• Summarizing
• Using graphic organizers
• Monitoring comprehension as students read
• Using text characteristics to aid comprehension
• headings, bold type, etc.
• Note taking

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Cognates

• A word that is closely related to
• another word in another language.
• Remember
• If students are using cognates it is important to
  make the process obvious highlight the strategy.
• Help students realize that using cognates is a
  tool for comprehension.

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Using Cognate Word Walls

• Word walls are created by the teacher,
• and the class, as a way to display
• vocabulary that they are using.
• A classroom might have large posters with
  different letters of the alphabet at the top. 
• The posters have cognates written on them in
  alphabetical order. 
• Students can add cognates as they discover them
  and refer to the lists when they are reading to
  see if they can get the meaning that way.

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Making Predictions

• Younger children
• Based on pictures
• Older children
• Graphs
• Illustrations

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Language Functions

• Narrative text
• Vocabulary for description
• Adjectives
• Comparative language
• Re-telling
• Vocabulary for order sequencing
• First, next, afterwards

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Helping ELLs Achieve Academic Proficiency

• Finding important information in text
• Labeling
• Working with information in alternative ways
• Help make concepts concrete
• Using play dough to create a cell in biology
  class enables students to use academic vocabulary
  during the process.

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Social vs. Academic Proficiency

• Social proficiency
• Language used in day-to-day interactions
• Variety of cues facilitate comprehension
• Environment, gestures, facial expressions, etc.

• Academic proficiency
• Language used in textbooks
• More abstract
• Higher order skills

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Strategies for Effective Reading

• Relate vocabulary to cognates
• Use cues from illustrations
• Re-read
• Excellent strategy for building fluency and
  reading rate.
• Read aloud
• Practice comprehension skills through listening
  to oral reading.
• Keep reading logs

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Language Strategies for MasteringAcademic English

• Using description
• Characteristics
• Locations
• Dimensions
• Asking and answering questions
• What
• When
• Where
• Who
• Why

• Signal words
• Sequence
• After, before, finally, now, then, while, etc.
• Restatement or synonym
• Also, for example, just as, too, etc.
• Contrast and compare
• Like, similar to, etc.
• But, unlike, yet, etc.

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Facilitating Comprehension

• Teacher should preview text for
• Words highlighted in text book
• Words that ELLs might have difficulty with
• Definitions provided within text
• Important to point out to ELLs how to find these.
• Give ELLs vocabulary needed for asking for help,
  or further explanation of text
• I dont understand. Can you explain it another
  way?

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Video

• Becoming Bilingual Beyond Survival English
• Heritage Elementary School, Woodburn, OR

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Strategy Frontloading

• The process of inputting as much
• information as possible about a reading
• before the students read on their own
• in order to increase comprehension. 
• Examples
• Highlighting new vocabulary words
• Making direct connections to students background
  knowledge
• Previewing the pictures to make predictions (no
  reading)
• Previewing the text to make predictions

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Tea Party

• A pre-reading activity to help students
  anticipate what is next in a text
• Teachers write down phrases directly from text
  onto index cards, repeating them at least twice
  (you want multiple cards of same phrases).
• Students each get a card and walk around reading
  as many of their classmates cards as they can in
  5 minutes (or so).
• Students group to discuss the information theyve
  read, and, as a group, write a statement about
  what they think the story will be about, based on
  the information from the cards.

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Tools for Helping ELLsGrasp the Full Picture

• Graphic Organizers
• A way to visually organize or represent concepts
• Examples
• timelines
• semantic maps
• story maps
• Venn diagrams
• cause-effect charts

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More Tools Thinking Maps

• Help break down reading and concepts into
  manageable parts so students interact more
  effectively with the text.
• Set up structure in bubbles or double bubbles
  or other configuration that makes it easy for ELL
  students to see the relationship between
  vocabulary and concepts.
• Allows teachers to do a comprehension check in a
  meaningful way and encourage students to support
  each other in their learning.

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Additional Tool Sentence Starters

• Help students with limited English language
  skills get started on a response.
• Teacher models appropriate academic language
  structure by starting a sentence that students
  will finish.
• I think the elephant ran away because ___________
  
• When I read about _____________ it reminded me
  of _____________ because ______________
• According to _____________ , _________________

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Scaffolding Information

• The process of breaking down a concept into
  smaller, manageable parts that can then be
  introduced with support from the teacher. 
• Example of scaffolding for responding to a story
  
• For very beginning students the teacher may want
  them to say what they think while the teacher
  writes it down.  Then the students copy the
  dictation.
• Higher level students may be given starter
  statements by the teacher and asked to complete
  them in their own words, After Goldilocks went
  to sleep?.
• And finally, students who are very proficient are
  expected to respond in writing on their own.

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The How-to of Explicit Instruction

• Determine the specific strategy to be taught.
• Make sure your text facilitates the practice of
  that strategy.
• Use a direct statement to tell your students
  exactly what strategy they will be learning.
• Model the strategy for students out-loud (a
  think-aloud).
• Give students multiple ways to practice the
  strategy.
• Deconstruct why this strategy is useful.
  Identify contexts for using this strategy.
• Repeat these steps when you change genres but use
  the same strategy.
• Allow students to become independent users of the
  strategy.

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Continually Monitor Comprehension

• Strategy Think, Pair, Share
• Why do you think ?
• Pair-up and share what you think with your
  partner, talk about differences
• Share with the rest of the group
• Dont ask yes or no questions
• Make sure students have to elaborate on their
  answer
• Cross-check

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Video

• Reading for Meaning Practicing Good Strategies
• Frank Love Elementary School, Bothell, WA

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Engaging Students in Reading

• Help students understand that we read for
  information
• Ask students questions
• Find answers while reading
• Have students ask questions
• Make predictions
• Compare predictions to what actually happens in
  the story

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Interacting with Text

• Struggling readers are often unaware that reading
  is an active process and they are engaging with
  the author about the text continually.
• This interaction happens through predicting,
  recognizing causality, questioning, clarifying,
  and responding to what is read.
• Help students interact with text
• Write notes or reactions to text
• Analyze words
• Teach word families

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Strategy SWBS

• Somebody
• Character in the story
• Wants
• Whats the issue?
• But
• What is the problem?
• So
• Resolution

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Story Grammar

• Structure of a text
• Characters
• Settings
• Problem/Issue
• Solution/Outcome
• Explicit instruction in story grammar is useful
  for ELLs.

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Cultural Differences Affecting Comprehension

• Story grammar
• Varies by culture
• In Western cultures story grammar is linear
  cause effect
• In Spanish, the subject is often inferred from
  the verb, rather than stated explicitly
• Background knowledge
• i.e. Family reunion
• Mixed ages
• i.e. Holidays and celebrations

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Tips

• Try strategies such as Think, Pair, Share
• Get your students to use second language
• Check comprehension constantly
• Try to link academic information to ELLs personal
  lives
• Teach comprehension in all content areas.

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Thank you for watching!