Teaching for Comprehending

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Teaching for Comprehending

• Reading Leadership Team InstituteSummer, 2007

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Outcomes

• Participants will be able to
• Clarify what makes comprehension instruction
  visible.
• Understand what works in comprehension
  instruction
• Identify an instructional practice to share with
  their Reading Leadership Team

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Hmm

• What visible evidence leads you to believe
  comprehension instruction is taking place at
  your school?
• Think about comprehension instruction in your
  school.
• What is taking place?
• Are students and teachers actively engaged in
  reading and learning?
• Is comprehension instruction visible?

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Expanding Your Thinking

• Using the additional resources provided, are
  there other ways to see comprehension instruction
  that you have not already placed on your list?
• Add your thinking to your list.

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Coding Our Thoughts

• Using your list, code each idea with a (T) for
  teacher behaviors, (S) for student behaviors, and
  an (A) for artifacts.

• Which ideas relate to teacher behaviors?
• Which ideas relate to student behaviors?
• What are some artifacts?

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Chart Our Thoughts

• Using your lists
• lets chart
• our thinking

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Teaching for ComprehendingMaking it Happen!

• Elementary Initiative
• Mango Reads!
• A school wide initiative focused upon the
  understanding and application of strategic
  actions.
• The initiative grew both teachers and students in
  the use of strategic actions to improve
  comprehending.

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Teaching for ComprehendingMaking it Happen!

• How did Mango Elementary do it?
• Teachers attended afternoon sessions to learn
  about teaching for strategic actions using
  Strategies that Work by Harvey and Goudvis.
• Then an anchor text (trade book) was used by all
  classrooms to explore and apply the various
  strategic actions.
• Each classroom chose one strategic action to
  teach and apply using the anchor text.
• After exploring the strategic action in the
  classroom, 2 students per classroom engaged in a
  book talk with the reading coach. The book talks
  were held on the morning news show.

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Teaching for ComprehendingMaking it Happen!

• How did Mango Elementary do it?
• Student artifacts demonstrating application of
  the strategic action were then organized and
  displayed in the school multi-purpose room.
• All students and teachers visited the artifacts
  on display as part of the Mango Reads! Strategy
  Showcase.
• Classes used a rubric to evaluate whether the
  class artifacts made comprehension visible!

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Mango Reads! Strategy Showcase
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Mango Reads! Strategy Showcase
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Secondary Reading Leadership Team Focus

• School-wide focus called The Literacy Fare
• Reading Leadership Team teachers representing
  many disciplines were the presenters of literacy
  ideas
• Teachers came to the media center during their
  planning period for refreshments and mini
  break-out sessions
• Every 15 minutes teachers moved to new sessions

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A Focus On Reading Leadership Teams - Secondary
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Back to Reading Leadership Team

• Thinking about these three categories, in which
  area might your Reading Leadership Team focus to
  make comprehension visible?
• Share with your groups any ideas or current
  initiatives taking place at your site.

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Resources

• Harvey, S. Goudvis, A. (2000). Strategies that
  Work Teaching Comprehension to Enhance
  Understanding. Portland Stenhouse.