r4u4snerg.ppt

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r4u4snerg.ppt

• version 20091021

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Reading for Understanding Research Initiative

• Institute of Education Sciences
• US Department of Education
• 5 or 6 RD Core Teams
• 1 or 2 Network Assessment Teams
• Manhattan Project / Apollo Mission
• to improve (the teaching of) reading for
  understanding/reading comprehension
• 20 million over 5 years

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A Center for Reading for Understanding

• A Research and Development Core Team to Integrate
  Vocabulary, Writing, Reasoning, Multimodal
  Literacies, and Oral Discourse to Improve Reading
  Comprehension
• Principal location UB
• Satellite locations Niagara University,
  Penn State University
• Affiliated school districts Niagara Falls
  CSD, Cleveland Hill USD, State College
  Area SD

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Projects

• Writing Intensive Reading Comprehension
• Jim Collins (UB/LAI)
• Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition
• Bill Rapaport (UB/CSE CCS)
• Multimodal Literacies
• Kathleen Collins (Penn State)
• Virtual Interactive Environments to improve
  vocabulary and reading comprehension
• Lynn Shanahan Mary McVee (UB/LAI)
• Interactively Modeled Metacognitive Thinking
• Rob Erwin (Niagara U)
• Bilingualism and Basic Cognitive Processes
• Janina Brutt-Griffler (UB/LAI)
• Experimental Design Statistical Analysis
• Ariel Aloe (UB/CSEP)

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Writing-Intensive Reading Comprehension Jim
Collins (LAI)

• Based on previous successful research
• Thinksheets that guide students writing about
  a text improve their reading comprehension
• Thinksheets begin with questions whose answers
  can be found directly in the text
• Then gradually ask more abstract questions
  requiring inference.
• Goals
• extend this research
• apply to more grade levels
• semi-automate development of thinksheets

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Multimodal Literacies Kathleen Collins (Penn
State)

• Previous research
• if teachers work with professional artists to
  develop strategies for integrating the arts as
  forms of inquiry and meaning-making into the
  school curriculum, then more students are able
  to engage successfully with core curricula.
• Multimodal interventions enhancements will be
  designed to include the following broad
  categories
• Visual/Graphic (still photography, illustration,
  digital video)
• Oral/Interactional (scripted dialogue,
  interviews, guided conversations,
  podcasts)
• Tactile (movement, model building, sculpting)

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Virtual Interactive Environments to Develop
Vocabulary Knowledge Lynn Shanahan Mary McVee
(LAI)

• Develop extensible effective computational
  framework for improving vocabulary knowledge
  through virtual-contextual learning
• Couple a virtual world, large projection screen,
  stereo sound, positional tracking using
  commodity devices (e.g., Wii controllers).
• Virtual environment will be created using a
  programming toolkit developed for use in computer
  games and engineering simulations.
• NYSCEDII
• Rather than interact with a computer monitor, the
  environment will use projection technology to
  provide learners with the opportunity to interact
  with objects of actual size, increasing the
  immersion into the virtual world.

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Interactively Modeled Metacognitive Thinking
Rob Erwin (NU)

• Instead of teaching specific strategies for
  reading comprehension
• (which have recently been shown to be worse than
  teaching textual content)
• Have students develop their own strategies on
  an as-needed basis
• Then compare to strategies- content-approaches

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Bilingualism Basic Cognitive Processes Janina
Brutt-Griffler (LAI)

• What are the cognitive advantages of being a
  bilingual reader?
• What are the cognitive aspects of text
  comprehension and possible linguistic advantages
  observed in bilingual readers?

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Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition Bill Rapaport
(CSE CCS)

• Previous research
• A reader's understanding of a word's meaning in a
  context is a function of both the context (the
  surrounding words) and the reader's prior
  knowledge.
• Already accomplished
• A procedure for successful CVA can be expressed
  in terms so precise that they can be programmed
  into a computer.
• That computational procedure can then be
  converted into a strategy teachable to human
  readers
• We propose to embed this procedure in a
  curricular intervention that can help readers
  improve both
• their vocabulary and
• their reading comprehension.

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CVA (contd)

• Our goal is not to improve vocabulary per se,
  but
• to improve reading comprehension by
• active thinking about the text
• with a specific goal of vocabulary enrichment in
  mind
• and to provide readers with a method that can be
  used independently
• e.g., when they are reading on their own
• to learn new vocabulary and to improve
  comprehension.

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CVA (contd)

• GOFAI
• if we know how to explicitly teach some
  cognitive task to humans
• e.g., play chess, do calculus, prove theorems
• then we can explicitly program a computer to
  do that task pretty much as humans do it.
• Our CVA algorithms fall into this category
• ? Can do the converse!
• I.e., can have a human reader simulate our program

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CVA (contd)

• Not think like a computer
• I.e., rigidly, mechanically, uncreatively
• But
• what we have learned by teaching a computer to do
  CVA can now help us teach human readers who
  need guidance in CVA.

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Contextual Semantic Investigation (CSI)A
Curriculum Outline

1. Teacher models CSI
2. Teacher models CSI with student participation
3. Students model CSI with teacher assistance
4. Students do CSI in small groups
5. Students do CSI on their own

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CSI Algorithms (for Humans)

• Become aware of word X of need to understand X
• Repeat
• Generate hypothesis H about Xs meaning
• Test H
• until H is a plausible meaning for X in
  the current wide context

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IIB. Test H

1. Replace all occurrences of X in sentence by H
2. If Sentence (X H) makes sense then proceed
   with reading else generate new H

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IIA. Generate H

• Make an intuitive guess H
• If H fails or you cant guess, then do in any
  order
• if you have you read X before if you
  (vaguely) recall its meaning, then test
  that earlier meaning
• if you can generate a meaning from Xs
  morphology, then test that meaning
• if you can make an educated guess (next
  slide), then test it

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IIA. Generate H

• Do in any order to generate H
• Make an intuitive guess
• Try to recall Xs meaning from previous reading
• Use Xs morphology
• Make an educated guess

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IIA1d Make an Educated Guess

1. Re-read Xs sentence slowly actively
2. Determine Xs part of speech
3. Summarize entire text so far
4. Activate your PK about the topic
5. Make inferences from text PK
6. Generate H based on all this

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IIA2 If all previous steps fail,then do CVA

1. Solve for X
2. Search context for clues
3. Create H

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IIA2a Solve for X

1. Syntactically manipulate Xs sentenceso that X
   is the subject
2. Generate a list of possible synonyms(as
   hypotheses in waiting)

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IIA2aii Generate a list of hypotheses in
waiting

• Sandra had won the dance contest the
  audiences cheers brought her to the stage for an
  encore. Every step she takes is so perfect
  graceful, Ginny said grudgingly, as she watched
  Sandra dance. (Beck, McKeown, McCaslin 1983)
• A misdirective context?
• But syntactic manipulation yields
• Grudgingly is a way of
• saying something (e.g., quickly, loudly,)
• praising someones performance (lavishly,
  honestly)
• apparently praising (e.g., ironically,
  sarcastically, reluctantly)

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IIA2b Search context for clues

• If X is a noun, then search context for clues
  about Xs
• class membership
• properties
• structure
• acts
• agents
• comparisons
• contrasts

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IIA2b Search context for clues

• If X is a verb, then search context for clues
  about Xs
• class membership
• what kind of act Xing is
• what kinds of acts are Xings
• properties of Xing (e.g., manner)
• transitivity
• look for agents and objects of Xing
• cause effect information
• comparisons contrasts

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IIA2b Search context for clues

• If X is an adjective or adverb, then search
  context for clues about Xs
• class membership
• is it a color adjective, a size adjective, a
  shape adjective, etc.?
• contrasts
• is it an opposite or complement of something else
  mentioned?
• parallels
• is it one of several otherwise similar modifiers
  in the sentence?

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IIA2c Create H

• Aristotelian definitions
• What kind of thing is X?
• How does it differ from other things of that
  kind?
• Schwartz Raphael definition map
• What is X?
• What is it like?
• What are some examples?
• Express (important parts of) definition
  framein a single sentence
• Cf. Collins COBUILD

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CVA (contd)

• Research questions
• Can a computer algorithm be translated into a
  successful curricular intervention?
• Does this computer-based curriculum improve
  (meaning) vocabulary?
• CVA students vs. typical context-based
  students vs. no treatment control
• Each read same passage with single unfamiliar
  word figure out a meaning from context
• CVA students vs. direct-method control at time
  t
• Tested on meaning at time t? gt t

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CVA (contd)

• Can a computer algorithm be translated into a
  successful curricular intervention?
• Does the algorithm-based curriculum improve
  reading comprehension?
• CVA students vs. typical context-based
  students vs. no-treatment students
• Test for reading comprehension on passages
• containing unfamiliar words
• with no unfamiliar word

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CVA (contd)

• Other issues
• teacher training/professional development
• oral discussion
• explicit instruction on using language to reason
  is valuable
• use thinksheet as detective/scientist
  notebook
• role nature of prior knowledge
• what is needed, how to identify it, how to elicit
  it, etc.
• test at different ages in STEM vs. ELA
• develop software for use in classroom
• student can ask Cassie how she figured it out