Comprehension Strategies

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Comprehension Strategies

• Prepared by Dr. Aline R. Bobys
• Associate Professor, Literacy Education
• SUNY Plattsburgh
• aline.bobys_at_plattsburgh.edu
• March 21, 2005

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Agenda

• Comprehension Overview
• Contrasting Proficient Readers and Struggling
  Readers
• Comprehension Instruction
• Before, During, and After Strategies Workshop

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Reading comprehension has been called the essence
of reading, essential not only to academic
learning but to lifelong learning. Durkin, 1993
Improving students comprehension abilities is
arguably the most important challenge teachers
and students face... Dorothy Strickland, 2002
Good readers make connections with the text. They
make text to text connections, text to self
connections, and text to world connections.
Keene Zimmerman, 1997
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ABC Brainstorm(activating prior knowledge)

• Goal
• Think of a word or phrase associated with the
  topic, and match it to each letter of the
  alphabet
• Procedure
• List all the letters of the alphabet down a sheet
  of paper (or use a printable ABC Brainstorm
  sheet) leaving room beside each letter to write
  out the rest of a word or phrase
• Work individually at first, thinking of as many
  words as you can that could be associated with
  the identified topic
• Then pair up or work in small groups to fill in
  blanks for letters not yet completed
• Go around the room and have students report out
  possible terms for the different letters of the
  alphabet

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Seven Keys to Unlock Meaning

• Use background knowledge
• Create mental images
• Ask questions
• Determine the most important ideas or themes

• Make inferences
• Synthesize and summarize information
• Use fix up strategies

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Strategies for Reading Text
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• Text to Self
• Connections (TTS)

That reminds me of That made me think of the
time I can relate.
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Text to Text Connections (TTT)
This part is just like That reminds me of I
read another book where This is similar to
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Text to World Connections (TTW)
That reminds me of This is like I know about
this but I didnt know that.
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Carousel Brainstorm Activity(activating prior
knowledge)

• Get into groups of 3 or 4
• Each group has a paper with an identified topic
• Write down on your chart paper all the terms you
  can think of that you associate with your topic
  in the allotted time
• Pass your paper to the group on your right
• Brainstorm, write, and pass until each group has
  had a chance to add ideas to each of the sheets
• Pass it the final time to the group who had each
  sheet first

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Contrasting Proficient and Struggling Readers

• Proficient Readers
• Before Reading 
• "Activate" their background knowledge on the
  subject.
• Question and wonder.
• Know their purpose for reading.
• Look for the structure of the piece of reading.
• Believe they are in control of the reading
  process

• Struggling Readers
• Before Reading 
• Start reading without thinking about the subject.
  
• Do not know why they are reading -- except that
  it is an assignment.

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Contrasting Proficient and Struggling Readers

• Proficient Readers
• During Reading 
• Give their complete attention to the reading
  task.
• Keep a constant check on their comprehension of
  the reading material.
• Stop to use a "figure-it-out" strategy when they
  do not understand what they read.
• Know that they can make sense of it eventually
  with use of strategies.
• Look for important ideas and see how details
  relate to the whole.
• Visualize, "Go to the movies in their head."
• Make inferences and connections.
• Accept the challenge of being frustrated or
  confused and deal with it.
• Realize that the problem may be the way the
  author wrote rather than the reader's inability
  to understand.

• Struggling Readers
• During Reading
•  
• Do not know whether they understand or do not
  understand.
• Do not monitor their own comprehension.
• Seldom use any "figure-it-out" strategies.
• View reading as looking at words and turning
  pages -- the quicker the better.
• Are sometimes adept at phonic analysis but do not
  go for meaning. (They can say the words but don't
  know what they mean.)
• Can be bored by the process of reading.

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Contrasting Proficient and Struggling Readers

• Proficient Readers
• After Reading 
• Decide if they achieved their goal for making
  meaning from reading.
• Evaluate their comprehension.
• Summarize what they read.
• Seek additional information if curious to know
  more.
• Think through the information and decide whether
  it was useful or not.

• Struggling Readers
• After Reading 
• Do not know what they have read.
• Do not follow reading with comprehension
  self-check.
• See no connections between what they read and
  anything else.

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Comprehension Instruction

• Explain the strategy
• Demonstrate/Model the strategy
• Guide/Coach the students to apply the strategy
• Practice the strategy
• Reflect on strategy use
• Assess the strategy

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Think Alouds(works on all 7 keys)

• Model strategies of expert readers
• Use authentic texts
• Gradual release of responsibility
• The How of reading

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Think Alouds

• Teacher Does/ Students Watch
• Modeling
• Teacher Does/ Students Help
• Guided Instruction
• Students Do/ Teacher Helps
• Scaffolding
• Students Do/ Teacher Watches
• Facilitating

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Probable Passages(making predictions)

• Goal
• To make predictions using story elements
• To introduce vocabulary
• To use story vocabulary to make connections with
  story structure
• Procedure
• Introduce key vocabulary from the story to the
  students
• Choose vocabulary that represents various
  elements of the story (setting, characters,
  problem, events, and solution)
• Have students use the key vocabulary to create
  probable sentences to predict each element in the
  story (providing a story map or story frame
  facilitates this process)
• Students share their predictions with the class
• Read the story to confirm or modify original
  predictions

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D-R-T-A(Use background knowledge, Prediction,
Inferring, Asking questions)
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D-R-T-ADirected-Reading-Thinking-Approach
(Russell Stauffer, 1975)

• Procedure
• Children receive a copy of the text
• Teacher leads students through making predictions
  
• Students read a segment of the text and stop at
  predetermined place selected by the teacher
• Teacher guides students in examination of the
  evidence
• Students revise and generate new predictions
• Students continue reading until they reach the
  next predetermined segment and the process begins
  again

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Predicting/Rationalizing

• What do you think a story with this title might
  be about?
• Why do you think that?
• Who do you think the characters might be in this
  story?
• What makes you think that?
• When do you think this story takes place?
• Where do you think it takes place?
• What do you think the problem might be in the
  story?
• How do you think the problem might be solved?
• Students are encouraged to discuss the
  predictions and to tell which predictions they
  agree with and why. The teacher can record their
  predictions on the chalkboard or on chart paper
  under the heading "Before".

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Reading/Revising

• Students read the first segment silently to
  check their predictions. When they have finished
  reading the first section, they close their books
  or turn them face down and discuss
• Were your predictions correct? Why or why not?
• What do you think now?
• What in the selection makes you say that?
• What do you think will happen now?
• Revised predictions are recorded under the
  heading of "During". Students continue the
  predicting-reading-proving cycle until the
  selection is completed.

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Proving

• Students review the predictions that were
  made before the reading began by considering
• Were your predictions confirmed, revised, or
  rejected?
• Why did some predictions change?
• How was this story similar to other stories you
  have read?
• How was this story similar or different to other
  stories written by the author?
• What would you have done differently or the same
  as the main character?

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3 2 1 Strategy(synthesize and summarize)

• Goal
• Give students a chance to summarize some key
  ideas, rethink them in order to focus on those
  that they are most intrigued by, and then pose a
  question that can reveal where their
  understanding is still uncertain
• Procedure
• Students fill out a 3-2-1 chart with something
  like this
• 3 Things You Found Out 2 Interesting Things 1
  Question You Still Have

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I-Chart(asking and answering questions)

• Goal
• To examine critical questions by integrating what
  is already known or thought about the topic with
  additional information found in several sources
  within a planned framework.
• Procedure
• Explore several questions on a given topic, which
  are placed at the top of each column on the
  I-chart.
• The rows are for recording, in summary form, the
  information you think you already know and the
  key ideas pulled from several different sources
  of information. The final row gives you a chance
  to pull together the ideas into a general
  summary.

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Questioning the Author(asking questions/determini
ng importance)

• Goal
• to encourage students to think beyond the words
  on the page and to consider the author's intent
  for the selection
• Procedure
• The standard format involves five questions.
  Students read a selection of text (one or more
  paragraphs, but generally not as much as a whole
  page), and then answer these questions
• What is the author trying to tell you?
• Why is the author telling you that?
• Does the author say it clearly?
• How could the author have said things more
  clearly?
• What would you say instead?

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Each employee must wash his hands thoroughly with
warm water and soap after each trip to the toilet
and before beginning work. What is the author
trying to tell you? Why is the author telling
you that? Does the author say it clearly? How
could the author have said things more clearly?
What would you say instead?
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Open-Mind Portraits(create mental images, make
inferences, summarize and synthesize)

• Goal
• To create and represent personal meanings to
  understand a characters perspective or point of
  view
• Procedure
• Students draw and color a portrait of a character
  from the story
• Students cut out the portrait and use it to trace
  on one or more blank sheets of paper to create
  more blank head shapes
• Students staple the color portrait and blank head
  shapes together to make a book
• On the blank pages, students draw or write about
  the characters thoughts, feelings, or actions
  throughout the text.

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Double Entry Journal(significant aspects of text
and personal connections)

• Goal
• To provide a structure for reading response
• To make decisions about significant aspects of
  text
• To reflect on personal connections to text
• Procedure
• Provide students with a double entry journal or
  have them make one
• Model the procedure and provide examples
  encouraging text-self, text-text, text-world
  connections
• Students read or listen to a section of the text
• Students select a key event, idea, word, quote,
  or concept from the text and write it in the left
  column of the journal
• In the right column, students write their
  response or connection to the item in the left
  column
• Use journal entries as a springboard for
  discussion

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SMART Strategy(self monitoring approach to
reading and thinking)

• Read. Read a section of the text. With a pencil
  lightly place a u" next to each paragraph that
  you understand. Place a "?" next to each
  paragraph that has something you do not
  understand.
• Self-Translate. At the end of each section, stop
  and explain to yourself what you read, in your
  own words. You can look back at the text as you
  go over the material.
• Troubleshoot. Go back to each "?" you have made.
  Try to see if you can now make sense of this
  paragraph.
• Re-read the trouble spot to see if it now makes
  sense. If it still does not make sense
• 5. Pinpoint the problem by figuring out why you
  are having trouble
• Is it a difficult word or unfamiliar
  vocabulary?
• Is it a difficult sentence or confusing
  language?
• Is it about things you know very little about?
• 6. Try a Fix-Up Strategy.
• Use the Glossary or some other Vocabulary Aid.
• Look over the Pictures or other Graphics.
• Examine other parts of the chapter (Summary,
  Review Section, Diagrams, Other Features)
• 7. Explain to yourself exactly what you do not
  understand or are confused about.
• 8. Get Help. Ask the teacher or a classmate.

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Fix-Up Strategies(strategies proficient readers
use)

• Look for words you know
• Look at Word Bits and Parts
• Self-Correct
• Read Ahead
• Reread Aloud
• Use Picture Clues to Confirm Meaning

• Make and Confirm Predictions
• Sequence Events/Summarize
• Create Mental Images
• Use Context to Confirm Meaning
• Reread
• Make Inferences