Improving Comprehension with Informational Texts

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Improving Comprehension with Informational Texts

• National Board for Professional Teaching
  Standards Training Module
• Jill Shoda NBCT Ellen Spycher Ed.D

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What is the purpose of this module?

• To connect research findings to explicit teaching
  practices
• To offer support to teachers as they meet the
  challenge of improving student learning

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Purpose - Continued

• To provide and model practice for strategies that
  will increase comprehension using informational
  texts
• To demonstrate strategies that build strong
  comprehension translating into increased student
  achievement

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Who is the audience for this
module?

• Classroom teachers in grades 2 5
• Resource Teachers/Literacy Coaches
• Teachers seeking support in building
  comprehension strategies
• All others interested in improving student
  achievement

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Things to note.

• Research findings establish the rationale for
  using a particular strategy to meet a specific
  objective.
• Strategies are organized around the Before,
  During and After framework, but the use of
  strategies can be flexible.

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Things to note - continued

• Book choices are suggestions only remember that
  the purpose for reading drives the book
  selection.
• Use of short text is suggested for strategy
  instruction.

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Some Clarification

• Informational text used in a broad sense to
  include biography and procedural text.
• Vocabulary additional vocabulary development
  must supplement the suggested strategies.

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Narrative Expository Texts
Texts

• Tell stories
• Follow a familiar story structure
• Usually include story elements -
• characters
• setting
• plot
• resolution
• theme

• Explain information or tell about topics
• Contain varying structures from one text to
  another and within a single passage
• Provide a framework for comprehension of
  content-area textbooks

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What is Reading?

• Reading takes into account the reader, the text,
  and the context (Rosenblatt, 1978)
• Reading is a complex, cognitive process not
  easily understood, nor easily defined
• Its purpose is to construct meaning

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What is reading? - continued

• Parts of the process are automatic parts are
  strategic
• Both processes result in the same outcome some
  change or enhancement in thinking
• Reading is a response to text

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Think About Yourself As A Reader

• Read the article
• Note what you did as a reader
• Did you reread any sections?
• How did you deal with vocabulary challenges?
• Did you ask questions or visualize?
• What else did you do?

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What do I know about myself as a reader of
Informational Texts?

• Think about the informational texts you read
• What strategies do you use?
• How do you monitor your understanding?
• What do you do with the information you gather?
• What other types of informational texts do you
  encounter?

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Why read informational text?

• Key to success in later schooling
• Ever-present in society
• Preferred reading for some children
• Addresses interests questions
• Builds knowledge of natural social world
• Supports vocabulary literacy knowledge

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Consider..

• 96 of the text on the world wide web is
  expository!
• (Kamil Lane, 1998 in Duke, N.K.
  Bennett-Armistead, V.S. (2003) Reading writing
  informational text in the primary grades
  Research based practices. NY Scholastic)

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Skills vs. Strategies

• Strategies are conscious, flexible plans a reader
  applies to a variety of texts. The use of
  strategies implies awareness, reflection, and
  interactions between the reader and the author.
  Strategies do not operate individually or
  sequentially, but are interrelated and recursive.
  The goal is the active construction of meaning
  and the ability to adapt strategies to varying
  reading demands (Dole, Duffy, Roehler, and
  Pearson, 1991).

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Skills vs. Strategies

• Skills are highly routinized, almost automatic
  behaviors generally associated with lower levels
  of thinking and learning. It is assumed the use
  of skills will be unconscious there is no
  monitoring and the reader is viewed as a passive
  receptor of information (Dole, Duffy, Roehler,
  Pearson, 1991).

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Standards

• Accomplished
• Teachers
• Know and understand current literature and
  theories about reading - language arts

• Students
• Identify genres of fiction and non-fiction
• Set a purpose for reading
• Use a variety of strategies to connect important
  ideas in text to prior knowledge

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Reading the Book

• Number off by 4s to create expert groups to
• read a portion of the article
  -
• Group 1 - Introduction give a quick book
• tour (how does the
  book work?)
• Group 2 - Differences between fiction and
• non-fiction give
  some examples
• Group 3 - Why the interest in Non- fiction
• text? find a
  resource in the
• appendix to
  recommend to the group
• Group 4 - How does this benefit students?

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Comprehension Framework

• Before Reading
• During Reading

• Preview/Determine purpose
• Activate Prior Knowledge
• Make Predications
• Rereading for understanding
• Making connections
• Asking Questions

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Comprehension Framework
(continued)

• After Reading

• Summarize
• Make Connections
• Respond to text

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Overview of Approach for Each
Strategy

• Explain
• Model
• Guided Practice
• Reflect

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Before Strategies

• Text Features
• Text Structure
• Anticipation Guide
• PACA Predicting and Confirming Activity
• Vocabulary 4-Square

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During Strategies

• Self-Monitoring
• Rank Ordering
• Text Mapping
• Concept Relationship Maps

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After Strategies

• Retelling Informational Texts
• Rank Ordering Information
• Reader Response
• Semantic Feature Analysis
• QAR

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Before Reading
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Standards

• Accomplished Teachers
• Engage students in learning within across
  disciplines to explore important issues in their
  lives

• Students
• Read informational text for various purposes
• Recognize informational text structure
• Summarize text according to text structure

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Informational Text Immersion

• Combine brief instructional read-alouds with -
• Shared guided reading
• Many opportunities to browse
• Lots of problem solving opportunities
• Pointing out features naming them
• Describing how features help readers

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3 Ways to Approach Immersion
Experiences from Kristo and
Bamford

• A few non-fiction texts to examine a
• variety of features
• Many non-fiction books to examine a variety of
  features
• Many nonfiction books to compare a single feature

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Examining Text Features

• Examine the books on your table with your
  colleagues
• Locate text features and complete the chart
• How did this task help you to notice how each
  book was organized?
• What similarities and differences did you notice
  between the books?

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Book Tour

• What is it? A way to preview text features to
  help students understand how informational texts
  are organized to give information.
• When is it used? Before reading. Ideally, an
  initial lesson may be done with a shared reading
  approach, allowing all students to see the same
  text.

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Text Feature Search

• Use the Informational Text Features chart to help
  select a text with multiple features.
• Prepare a think-aloud for one of the
  informational books on your table. Consider how
  you will model the identification of each feature
  with your students.
• Demonstrate your think-aloud with colleagues at
  your table. Have them locate the same features
  in the book they selected.

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Text Structure

• What is it? The structure is the organizational
  pattern within a text. The structure connects
  ideas together. When students understand the
  content and the structure of a text, they will be
  able to comprehend and use the information more
  effectively.

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Common Text Structures

• Description or list
• Sequence or time order
• Compare and contrast
• Cause / effect
• Problem / solution
• Question / answer

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Text Structure Activity

• Identify the text structure of the book on your
  table.
• Complete the summary frame for the corresponding
  text feature.
• Pass the book to the next table.

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Anticipation Guide

• What is it? Statements about expository text.
  Students agree or disagree with these statements
  prior to reading the text.
• When is it used? Before and after reading. May
  be used before reading to activate prior
  knowledge. May be used after reading to prove or
  disprove their original responses or as a summary
  of basic concepts contained in the text.

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Anticipation Guide

• Work in partners.
• Identify the major ideas/concepts presented in
  the text.
• Write 4-6 statements about these ideas/concepts.
  Write them in a format that can be responded to
  with yes/no answers.
• The statements should be realistic, but proven
  true by reading the text.

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Predicting and Confirming Activity
(PACA)

• What is it? A way to organize information about
  a topic to activate background knowledge.
  Students sort words or phrases about a topic into
  categories.
• When is it used? Before and after reading.

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Standards

• Accomplished Teachers
• Provide students with multiple paths to
• Learn central concepts in each school subject,
• Explore important themes concepts that cut
  across subject areas
• Build overall knowledge

• Students
• Compare an authors information in nonfiction
  texts with the students knowledge of self, world
  other texts
• Use evidence in the text to modify predictions
  questions

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Predicting and Confirming Activity
(PACA)

• Work with a partner or group of three. Sort the
  words or phrases about giant pandas.
• Organize the cards by common characteristics or
  logical ways information might be grouped about
  this topic.
• Make predictions about the text with the people
  at your table.

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Vocabulary 4 Square

• What is it? A tool for making personal
  connections to a text or topic. A graphic
  organizer to help students visualize different
  ways to learn vocabulary.
• When is it used? Before, during and after
  reading to improve understanding of key concepts.

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Vocabulary 4 Square

• Work with a partner. Use the text provided to
  complete the vocabulary 4 square about cactus.
• Discuss your squares with at least 3 people at
  your table.
• How will students increase their content area
  vocabulary by using this strategy?
• Be ready to share your observations with the
  whole group.

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During Reading
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Standards

• Accomplished Teachers
• Use their knowledge of reading processes,
  language development, and texts to -
• Advance literacy
• Develop strategic readers
• Promote appreciation of reading as vital to
  lifelong learning

• Students
• Continuously check clarify for understanding
  during reading
• Ask questions to clarify understanding

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The Boat

• A man was building a boat in his
• cellar. As soon as he had finished
• the boot he tried to take it through the
• cellar door. It would not go though
• the door. So he had to take it a part.
• He should of planed better.

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Self- Monitoring What is
it?

• Teaching Students To
• Track their thinking by coding, writing or
  discussing
• Notice when they lose focus or meaning
• Stop and go back to clarify thinking
• Reread to enhance understanding
• Identify what is confusing
• Think critically about the text
• Use a strategy to repair their comprehension

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Self - Monitoring

• Code the passage by using the following
• New idea
• I already knew this
• I have a question
• ! I was surprised

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Text Mapping

• What is it? Using a visual structure or graphic
  organizer to help the reader understand the text.
  The graphic organizer reflects the text
  structure.
• When is it used? During and after reading to
  help the reader monitor comprehension and retell
  key information.

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Text Mapping

• Work with a partner
• Select a book from the selection on your table
  representing your assigned text structure
• Write a text map using the corresponding text map
  from your handouts
• Meet with another group to share maps

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Concepts Relationships Chart

• What is it? A way of organizing information to
  identify relationships between concepts in the
  text
• When is it used?
• During and after reading

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Concepts Relationships Charts

• Work with the people at your table to identify
  books to use with this strategy
• Determine the key concept - relationships found
  in the text
• List books and a key concepts on large chart
  paper
• Be prepared to share your list with the whole
  group

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After Reading

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Standards

• Accomplished Teachers
• Create effective instruction so that readers can
  negotiate, inquire about construct meaning
  across the curriculum
• Provide developmentally appropriate learning
  activities that integrate across the curriculum

• Students
• Interpret concepts or make connections through
  analysis, evaluation, inference and /or
  comparison
• Critique text using personal reflections
  responses

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Summarizing

• Reader finds the most essential information
  organizes it to understand the text
• Retelling is a precursor to summarizing
• Summary is usually brief, succinct
• Text structure may help the reader determine the
  key ideas in the text

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Evaluating

• Reader makes judgments about the content of the
  text
• Consider the credibility of the authors
  information or message
• Consider the relevance of the information to the
  purpose for reading
• Readers consider their own reading performance on
  this text

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Retelling Informational Text

• Retelling Informational Text by Owocki
• Using graphic organizers
• Preparing for an Informational Retell by Hoyt

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Graphic Organizers

• What is it? Specially designed graphic
  organizers for each text structure designed to
  help students clarify how to talk about the
  information in a text.
• When is it used? During and after reading. Some
  graphic organizers work more effectively for
  retelling than others.

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Retelling Informational Text

• What is it? A wall chart or handout is used to
  prompt students about what to include in their
  retelling.
• When is it used? After reading. Used initially
  for modeling by the teacher before students use
  it independently.
• Source Comprehension Strategic Instruction
  for the Primary Grades by Owocki

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Retelling Guide

• What is it? A planning guide used by students to
  help them prepare a retelling of key points in a
  text.
• When is it used? After reading
• Source Make it Real Strategies for Success
  With Informational Text by Hoyt

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Practicing Retelling

• Each table will be responsible for
• modeling one of the prompts for retelling.
• 1 - Hoyts retelling rubric
• 2 - Owockis retelling
• 3 - Retelling using a graphic
• organizer

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Reader Response

• Response is any kind of thinking or activity
  that involves children in taking a closer look
  at, or thinking again about text.
• Owocki, G. (2003). Strategic instruction
  for k-3 students. Portsmouth, NH Heinemann.

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Types of Reader Response

• Visual response
• drawing, painting, retelling with props
• Oral response - any kind of talk about text
• discussion, presentation
• Written response
• ISAT extended response
• Wonder books
• Learning Logs.

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ISAT Extended Response

• Read the ISAT example
• Complete the extended response
• Talk with colleagues about the demands of this
  task for our students
• What are the implications for instruction?
• Make a list at your table

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Semantic Feature Analysis

• What is it? A data chart used to organize
  information about a topic. This strategy
  develops vocabulary and builds background
  knowldege on a topic.
• When is it used? Before and After reading.

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Semantic Feature Analysis

• Make a list of everything you know about insects
  (by yourself)
• Talk with a partner and combine your lists
• Complete the semantic feature analysis chart
  about insects with your partner
• Listen to the text read aloud or read the text
  yourself
• Modify your chart with any new information

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Question - Answer Relationships (QAR)

• What is it? A strategy to help students identify
  the kinds of questions they are being asked and
  to promote self questioning. It will also help
  the reader summarize the information in the text.
• When is it used? After Reading.

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In The Book
In My Head
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Assessment Observing Students Over
Time

• Anecdotal notes
• Running records
• Work samples - all kinds of response
• Written or taped retellings
• Book logs of books read over time
• Student interests and preferences
• Use of rubrics and checklists
• Student reports and reviews of text

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• Enhanced Architecture of Accomplished Teaching

• START HERE
• ASSESSMENT OF STUDENTS
• Who are they?
• Where are they now?
• What do they need and
• when do they need it?
• Where should I begin?

Set new high and worthwhile goals that are
appropriate for these students at this time.
Reflect on student learning, the effectiveness of
instructional design, particular concerns and
issues.
Provide timely, meaningful feedback to students
about their level of accomplishment of the
targeted goals.
Set high, worthwhile goals appropriate for these
students, at this time, in this setting
Evaluate student learning in light of the goals
and the instruction.
Implement instruction designed to attain these
goals.
Einhorn, 2002E
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