The use of the strategies summarized in this chapter take the reader deeper into the complexities and meaning of the text.
Strategies -
- Both conscious and unconscious
Used simultaneously - Access, use, and modify knowledge the reader already has (prior knowledge).
Schema - Storage and organization systems
Helps readers...
- Seek and select information
- Make inferences, anticipate content, make predictions
- Organize text information...Retain and remember
- Ex. Diagram, outline, mental image
- Elaborate information
"Readers bring information to their processing of the text, and these connections set the scene for higher-level comprehension." Pg. 358
Connecting -Personal Connection (Text to Self)
- Made before, during, and after reading of the text.
- Especially important before reading text to establish personal link.
World Experiences (Text to World)
- May require more modeling.
- "Think aloud about background info. Make students aware of what they already know about the subject.
- Discussion, KWL charts, photographs, Informational text
- May need to frontload essential vocabulary/meaning.
Connections between texts (Text to Text)
Make connections to: Content, Genre, Author, Illustrator, Setting, Characters, Illustrations, Plots, Structure, Theme, Language, ToneInferring - Your connections + information from the text = tentative theory
- Go deeper than connection to infer what was NOT stated.
- Visualizing; Feel like you know the characters.
Summarizing - Take select important information & create a concise statement.
- DRA reading assessment calls for retelling sequential details.
- We must model/teach students how to summarize.
Synthesizing - Meshing together of information from text and connections
- To gain a deeper understanding- different from the text & readers' previous understandings.
- Getting the 'big picture.'
- Looking for overall themes.
Analyzing - Reader becomes 'examiner'.
- Look at elements and how they fit together.
- Learn about crafting a text.
- Identify characteristics of a genre'
- Analyzing Fiction - Study description of characters, setting, and problem and how characters react.
- Analyzing Nonfiction - Learn how texts are organized. Includes: diagrams, maps, charts, photographs, headings, labels, signal words, bold print.
Critiquing - Evaluating or judging a text based on knowledge.
- Use your connections/knowledge to determine whether a statement/account is believable.
- Become thoughtful consumers of print - not believing that because it was in print, it was true.
- Question what they read.
Examples of teacher questions/prompts and student discussions are included for each comprehension strategy.
"A collective gain comes from a literate citizenry composed of competent readers who also think critically about what they read. Being a 'critical' citizen means questioning what one hears or reads and evaluating those texts for accuracy." pg. 368
I'll post to my own chapter first. I was reminded about Dr. Dorn's comments concerning our overuse of the terms for connecting to text and have spent time reflecting on this. At the primary level, making personal connections is where we usually begin, attempting to help students retrieve a personal experience that helps them understand the story. At first, the students grab any connection..."I have an Aunt Sally too!" which is NOT where we were headed, but as we model and make these personal connections a focus of instruction, a student begin to see that his trip to the beach or his fight with his little sister aids his understanding of this particular text.
ReplyDeleteConnecting text to text becomes a focus when teachers do Author Studies or students get hooked on a book series. Sometimes they find similar settings, but as they study the author's writing, they begin to notice similar author's techniques, as well. As students amass a larger number of texts read, the numbers and depth of their text to text connections increase.
Many of our students in Anderson Co. have not had the personal experiences my 3 yr. old grandson has had. He has been to the beach, museum, zoo, circus, etc. He has been exposed to the vocabulary that describes these experiences. So when my students cannot make these personal connections, I need to be mindful that in order for them to read/comprehend this book successfully, it is my responbility to frontload essential vocabulary and background knowledge that my students lack. It sometimes is a SURPRISE to find out that someone doesn't know the names of common zoo animals, but In preparing for my lesson, I need to be aware of this possibility!
As a teacher, I expect to have to teach/model text to text and text to world connections, but sometmes I'm shocked at the lack of experiences my students have had!
I found this text very interesting because of the emphasis placed on teaching reading of non-fiction. One of the most profound pieces of knowledge I have learned through UALR is the disconnect between elementary school and middle school reading. Early elementary school reading is actual learning to read while intermediate grades focus on improving and knowledge but in the middle school the students are given a textbook and expected to gain knowledge. Well, this is not happening. Middle school students must learn strategies to obtain knowledge. The middle school content area teachers have been given training in MAX strategies which are simply strategies used to teach content.
ReplyDeleteAngela, I immmediately thought of MAX as I read these pages. Students need to learn strategies to help them access the content in their textbooks. These strategies will help to engage the students in their learning. This will create students that are better readers and thinkers.
ReplyDeleteThis effort should not be left to only academic teachers. Special area teachers can also use these strategies to help students become better readers, thinkers, and writers.
I certainly agree Angela. Our middle school students must obtain strategies for deeper comprehension. As mentioned on p. 358, we make connections while we're reading using our own sets of knowledge which makes it possible to engage in higher-level comprehension. At this point, we are able to use strategies such as to infer, summarize, synthesize, analyze and critique. Our teachers have been focusing on increasing the level at which we require our students to think. Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to guide this process, teachers are truly beginning to incorporate higher-level thinking strategies into their lessons. Just as Fountas and Pinnell explain, "learning a process involves doing it again and again in different ways, each time learning how to adjust, modify, and refine the series of actions" (pg 358). These higher-level strategies are not simply an item of knowledge, they are processes which must be practiced.
ReplyDeleteGo for it Cin and Rae!! Now I'm really interested in learning about critiquing reading.
ReplyDeleteARE YOU READY? I found it interesting to read that students must "become thoughtful consumers of print". With social networking and the internet in today's world student's tend to believe everything they read. The internet is looked at as the encyclopedia on a computer, they believe everything they read. We must teach students to begin detecting inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and prejudices in the material they read.
Students who learn to question the texts they read are engaging in critical reading which is the highest level of comprehension. Students must ask questions of their reading.
Teachers must model how to bring background knowledge to what the author is saying. Students must be taught to look at many sources to find what is missing. Students must become critical readers.
You got where I'm going from?
Yes, Angela I am getting it. I am reminded of several LA standards that should actually be taught it all content areas.
ReplyDeleteSPI 0801.4.1
Select the most focused research topic.
SPI 0801.4.2
Identify levels of reliability among resources (e.g., eyewitness account,newspaper account, supermarket tabloid account, Internet source).
SPI 0801.4.3
Determine the most appropriate research source for a given research topic.
SPI 0801.4.4
Distinguish between primary sources (i.e., interviews, letters, diaries, newspapers, autobiographies, personal narratives) and secondary sources (i.e., reference books, periodicals, Internet, biographies, informational texts).
SPI 0801.4.5
Discern irrelevant research material from written text.
Here I am again, responding to my own post. Today in a session entitled, The Power of Purposeful Talk, Maria Nichols played a video of a 4th grader responding to a reading called "Math + "Ads" = Trouble. The state of CA is banning brand names from textbooks, This student read the neewpaper article, then gave a number of valid reasons he considered this banning unnecessary. The student was articulate and cited evidence from the article. I was reminded of the quote I posted. "A collective gain comes from a literate citizenry composed of competent readers who also think critically about what they read. Being a 'critical' citizen means questioning what one hears or reads and evaluating those texts for accuracy." pg. 368 This young man proves that even intermediate readers can be critical readers.
ReplyDeleteSue, I found Maria's talking very informative today. I also enjoyed Johnston's session. I liked his comment about educators being "sunk" if we only have one teacher in the room. I think it is easy for teachers to forget that our students have insights and knowledge that can be shared and taught to others.
ReplyDeleteBut, RaeAnn, then we'd have to give up control, and that's a hard thing to do! The other teachers in the room may not follow my script or explain it like I had planned. In my building, (not every classroom), that would mean allowing kids to sit in groups and talk...maybe even taking the chance that they may be off topic! So many times another student can demonstate/explain a concept better than I. These students are taking control of their own learning, and isn't this what we should be encouraging?
ReplyDeleteI felt I accumulated some new ideas to share with my teachers and have many new picture books I'd like Sandra to buy for us! Worthwhile conference!
It was a very worthwhile conference. My heading is spinning from all of the great information that was presented. I am excited to share some of the strategies with my teachers. They are going to love this stuff.
ReplyDeleteI agree RaeAnn. The conference was very worthwhile. I was so impressed with Doug Beuhl, Peter Johnston, and Diane Southerland. I am finally realizing that we are on the right page at the middle school level. "We" meaning the Cindy, You and me. I just hope that we will be allowed to implement the things we have learned with our teachers. I also hope resources are made available.
ReplyDeleteHey everyone,
ReplyDeleteSue, I really like these chapters (the ones F and P have on sustaining and expanding strategies) to help teachers begin to think about comprehension with students. I think they have done a great job explaining the "nuts and bolts" and have embedded transcripts to help us see into the classrooms.
I laughed out loud when I read your post to your chapter - the part about the kids making any old connection. That's are hard piece for the kids to grasp... that it is a meaningful connection that helps them understand the story that matters, not just any old thing.
The suggestions for professional development on page 368 are really useful when thinking about working with groups.
I like your quote, Sue. The thought of students reading critically is so important to their education and the rest of their lives. Motivation at the middle school level is crucial. Connecting and growing their background knowledge while allowing them to make choices of their own can help motivate them. Middle School students have a difficult time relating to Shakespeare. There are ways to make it enjoyable but so many teachers still want to just have the students read and write about it. Hopefully, we can make a change.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the keys to success in middle school reading is to allow the students to have some choice in what they read. I know that we have one particular teacher who narrows the reading choices down and then lets her students choose from her list. She makes a big production when she announces who will be in each "book club". Her method seems to work quite well. Maybe it's just one way to help solve the middle school motivation problem that Angela talked about.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree Sue. If I had a dollar for every connection lesson I've observed I could retire! I feel like that's the key term that teachers make over and over. Connecting to text is important, the connections I see are like yours. My cousin is named Sue. We're not digging deeper.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Debbie Miller book, I think it's called Reading with Meaning, when I taught first grade. She lays out synthesizing,connections, inferring. I would spend so much time just inferring. My kids would use that language and I would be so proud of myself. Then after Dorn talked about how teahers get hung up the terminology of reading. That's not how readers talk. Do you teach your kids these terms?
Well, I apparently missed a wonderful conference...but bringing home my precious baby girl makes up for it.
ReplyDeleteSue, I think your comment about giving up control of the classroom and taking a chance on students being off topic was funny! One of the main reasons the upper elementary teachers in my building do not like the balanced literacy program is because then they don't get to stand up in front of the class and lecture all day long. They have to let the students have a little responsibility in their own learning. I also have found that the teachers are using the connections to texts as just fluff, to say they are doing it. Journey is right that we aren't digging deeper into it. The students need to know that the connection needs to be meaningful and not just something trivial.
Jessie, I was worried about the same thing. I have always taught my kids the terminologies like inferencing, sequencing, and using context clues because throughout their lives people in other professions will use those terms, and it will be on the TCAPS. If I'm going to teach my students the reading strategies so they know what to do, shouldn't I teach them the term for what they are doing? Now, I agree that we shouldn't get hung up on teaching the term, but the students need to at least hear them so that when they see the word on the test they know what they are expected to do.
Jacqueline, Last year I tried to encourage my intermediate level teachers to be more purposeful about encouraging discussion in their reading groups. There are numerous 'versions' of literature circles/comprehension groups, etc., but the purpose is to provide opportunities for the students to expand their comprehension of the text by engaging in discussion, etc. These same students, who answer questions in their reading groups, but rarely have opportunity for discussion, become excited in Comprehension Focus Groups because they get to share their thinking and have genuine conversations about their reading. These discussions certainly don't follow any script, and I think this may be where some teachers feel uncomfortable; but from the spark I saw in these kids, I'd say...be uncomfortable for a while and watch the kids dig deeper and increase their comprehension!
ReplyDelete