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Comprehension That Works! Taking Students Beyond Ordinary Understanding to Deep Comprehension
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Improving Students Reading Comprehension

Comprehension is what reading is all about! Learn how to foster students comprehension by showing them how to: focus on relevant information, interpret it and integrate it with what they already know. Youll learn how to create an instructional environment that promotes risk taking and involves students in a variety of real reading situations and meets standards. Your students will learn to focus on meaning as thoughtful readers. Attendees will learn how to enhance our students reading comprehension skills by: 1. Exploring what research says about the teaching and learning of reading comprehension; 2. Examining commonly used comprehension monitoring strategies; & 3. Differentiating among strategies that are appropriate before, during, and after reading.

The Nature of Text

A text has both content and organization. A reader who is able to detect the main idea of a text and its supporting details will better understand and retain information in the text than will a reader who fails to use the texts organization. A reader who has a good sense of story structure can use the structure of a story as a framework for remembering it.

What, How & Why What questions generally assess literal understanding Why and how questions help the reader integrate aspects of the story and create causal or other relationships Why questions also foster making inferences Discussions Should also include an opportunity for students to construct personal responses Structure is the skeleton of the story Readers response is the heart of the piece

Retelling
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Telling a story that one has read or heard Used to check comprehension or gain insight into students reading processes Morrow (1985) found that children who retell stories use syntactically more complex sentences, gain a greater sense of story structure and evidence better comprehension than those who simply draw pictures of the stories that are read to them Kindergarten students who retold stories and answered questions did better than those who only retold stories or only answered questions

Developmental Retelling Way of improving students comprehension by building prerequisite skills and fostering retelling skills that match students level of development got props? Props such as puppets or felt board figures are visual reminders of min characters and help shy children, who tend to forget themselves and assume the identities of the puppets Pretelling Model the process In demonstrating the steps in making a paper bag puppet, for instance, show each step while explaining what you are doing Emphasize the use of the sequence-signaling words first, second, third and last. Five-Finger Retelling Students sue their five fingers or a glove as an aid to retelling a story. Each finger represents a key element in the story 1. Who are the main characters? 2. Where does the story take place? 3. What happened in the beginning? 4. What happened in the middle? 5. What happened in the end? Guided Retelling In guided retelling, students are aided by illustrations and then by artifacts. Read selections aloud, and show how you use the illustrations to help you retell the story. After mastering retelling with props, students use story maps or graphic organizers to aid their retellings.

Expository Text
Generally speaking, stories are easier to read than science articles, how-to features and descriptions of historical events.

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Childrens schema for expository text develops later than that for narration. Because of its structure and linear quality, narrative text is generally more predictable than expository text.

Narrative/Expository Mix A mix of narrative and expository text is needed to promote a full range of thinking and comprehension skills. Text Structure One key to comprehension of expository text is understanding the text structure, the way the author has organized his/her ideas. Main idea and details, comparison-contrast, problem-solution, etc.

Types of Expository Text Structure

1. Enumeration-description Lists details about subject without giving any cause-effect or time relationship among them. Signal words include: for example, for instance 2. Time sequence Time order is specified. Signal words include: after, today, afterward, tomorrow, before, first, next, second, then, third, and then, finally, earlier, dates, later 3. Explanation-process Tells how something works Signal words: same as time sequence 4. Comparison-contrast Presents differences and/or similarities Signal words include: although, but, however, similar, different, different from, on the one hand, on the other hand 5. Problem-solution Statement of problem is followed by a possible solution Signal words include: problem, solution 6. Cause-effect Effect is presented along with a cause(s) Signal words include: because, therefore, thus, cause, effect, since, as a result, for this reason, consequently Signs Text signals are like street signs: they give you a heads up about whats coming

The CORE Model

CONNECT: teacher helps students build on known by connecting what they know to topic they will investigate ORGANIZE: teacher helps students see how the information in text is structured

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REFLECT: students think over how a text is organized and how knowing the organization helps them better understand it EXTEND: students extend their learning (e.g. if they used a story web to diagram information found in expository text, they might gather additional info to add to their webs)

The Role of Questions in Comprehension

Questions foster understanding and retention. What you ask about is what students learn. Planning Questions Questions need to be planned carefully Once the basic plot of a story or the main facts in an article are established, students can be led to a deeper understanding of the material. Placement of Questions Placement of questions has an impact on their effect. Before reading questions: help readers activate a schema and set a purpose During reading questions: help readers process text After reading questions: help readers check for understanding Types of Questions Comprehending Organizing Elaborating Monitoring Struggling Reader FYI There is a tendency to ask struggling readers mostly lower-level questions. DONT. Include some higher-level questions and provide scaffolding and prompts. Studies have shown that teachers are actually more likely to do this with good readers. Brophy and Good (1970) found teachers provide brighter students more prompts and call on other students the moment a slower student begins to falter (translation: provide wait time).

Literal-Interpretive-Applied
One of the simplest taxonomies describes comprehension in terms of the readers interaction with the text: literal, interpretive and applied. Literal comprehension entails grasping the basic meaning of the text. Interpretive comprehension entails making inferences by putting together several pieces of information or combining information from the text with the readers knowledge.

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In applied comprehension, the reader makes use of ideas found in the text.

Using Wait Time

Waiting five seconds results in longer, more elaborative responses, higher-level thought processes and fewer no-responses and I-dont-knows. Silence after an answer is given also helps students process information. Wait time requires patience and practice; you will have to make a conscious effort to implement it.

Classroom Atmosphere
The spirit of inquiry and exploration should be obvious. The teacher must be warm and accepting so students will feel free to speculate, go out on an intellectual limb or take an unpopular stand without being criticized.

33 Comprehension Ideas Off the Top of Dannys Head

1. Preview Vocabulary Understanding difficult vocabulary will aide in overall reading comprehension because students will not be hung up on words they dont know or cant understand. Discuss the words as they are found with context clues, look it up in a dictionary and form a class definition. Learn how to correctly pronounce it. Write these words down and keep them posted throughout the reading. 2. Read Aloud Stop a few times throughout the reading and check for students understanding. Have them make predictions, identify inferences or just tell you how they feel. Read alouds will also allow children to hear new, familiar and interesting words. Read with expression and have fun!

33 Comprehension Ideas Off the Top of Dannys Head (CONT.)

3. Drawing This strategy can be used especially for lower grade levels. Students will draw their favorite part of the story followed by one or two sentences describing what they drew. 4. Think Alouds This strategy makes meaning to the test. The students are able to share their thoughts and unfold different aspects of thinking. 5. Pre-reading Browsing the story can help students get an idea of what the story will be about. The clues can be taken either from the writing itself or the illustrations if there are any.
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6. Post-reading Re-reading the material can enable a student to pick up information that might not have been picked up the first time s/he read. Repetition for some students is very helpful, and this strategy allows that to happen. 7. Act it Out Have students choose their favorite scene and reenact it for the class. If its a long story, allow students to perform many different scenes. Then have the class act out the scenes in a sequential manner. 8. Continue the Story Have the students write the next chapter, scene or the sequel. This will allow the teacher to see how much students really understood. 9. Turn into a Character Do a monologue as if you are a character from the story/book. Or have the student pretend to be the character while classmates quiz and question them. 10. Sequencing Cutting a story into parts and then having students put it into chronological order. This activity can be done with the pictures, too. 11. Illustration Activities Students can read a story and then summarize what they have read by looking at the illustrations of the book. 12. Write an Alternate Ending Take the story and change its ending. For example, instead of Cinderella living happily ever after with Prince Charming, maybe she goes to Hawaii and gets wonderful spa treatments! 13. Guided Reading Using this strategy, the teacher supplies whatever help or guidance the students read to successfully read and comprehend the story. This strategy is best used with individuals, or in small group settings where the students are at similar levels of reading development. Guided reading consists of: introducing, reading, discussing, rereading, and extending the text.

33 Comprehension Ideas Off the Top of Dannys Head (CONT.)

14. Keep a Response Journal Following reading, have the students write a paragraph to a selected response question. Or, have them write about their feelings and questions. Collect these journals regularly and correspond with the student. You may allow students to keep journals from the points of view of different authors and characters, as well. 15. Story Mapping There are many different ways that this can be done. Typically, a good story map is going to include setting, characters and important details. This can also be done like sequencing give the students a comic strip-type paper and have them write in and draw scenes as they happened. 16. Connect it to Real Life/Prior Knowledge Whenever possible, help students make connections to their own lives and worlds. For example, if you are reading a story

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about visiting the country, ask students what they know about the country, and find out if anyone has ever been to the country. 17. Retell it in Your Own Words Have the students tell the story back to you, a parent or a peer, in their own words. 18. Think-Pair-Share Students tend to work better when they are in groups or with partners. Having them discuss what they read to each other can help both of them go back and clear any misunderstanding. 19. Paragraph Summarization For students such as English Language Learners (ELLs), this strategy might come in handy because they will be able to understand what is happening throughout the story. Pause after each paragraph and allow students to highlight important points. 20. Realia Bringing in realia about what students are reading can really help them understand better. When students have a hands on experience with any subject they tend to learn and memorize more. 21. Paraphrasing in Simpler Terms Sometimes text can be very difficult for ELL students. Paraphrasing into simpler terms can actually help students do that on their own in the future. 22. Make a KWL Chart Have the students make a three-column chart beginning with two columns indicating what they Know and Want to knowthis can even be done together, as a class. Then after reading the selection, have the students fill in the third column with what they have Learned. If you want to add a +, ask students to discuss what more theyd like to learn.

33 Comprehension Ideas Off the Top of Dannys Head (CONT.)

23. Build a Schema help the students understand and comprehend by building a schema prior to reading. This organized knowledge about people, places, things or events may be very general or fairly specific. But, by providing a framework for comprehension helps make the story flesh out and become meaningful. A schema will also help aide in retention because students will use the schema to organize and reconstruct the events. 24. Set a Purpose or Tell a Goal by setting a purpose or having the students answer a question regarding the reading, the student is more vested in comprehending the story. Also, set a goal. Tell the students why they are reading. Is it for pleasure, required, for test prep? 25. Reciprocal Teaching this is a form of cooperative learning in which students learn to use four key reading strategies in order to improve comprehension: predicting questioning, summarizing and clarifying.

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26. Do a Story Pyramid - This activity can be done as a class, individually or in small groups. It gets students thinking about crucial moments in the story, as well as the overall plot details. Have the students fill in the pyramid accordingly:
1. __Name of the main character__ 2. Two words describing the main character_ 3. ______Three words describing the setting______ 4. _______Four words stating the story problem_________ 5. _______Five words describing one event in the story___________ 6. ______________Six words describing a second event________________ 7. ________________Seven words describing a third event____________________ 8. _________________Eight words describing the solution to the problem__________________

27. Directed Reading Activity Although similar to guided reading, DRA follows a traditional five-step lesson plan designed to assist students in the reading of a selection: preparation or readiness, silent reading, discussion and skill/strategy development, re-reading, and follow-up or extension.

33 Comprehension Ideas Off the Top of Dannys Head (CONT.)

28. Cloze Procedure Cloze, short for closure, is the tendency to fill in missing or incomplete information. Using this strategy, the reader demonstrates comprehension by providing missing words. The teacher should read the whole selection first. Students should be taught techniques like how to use clues in the passage, read past the blank/missing word and finally read the passage with the words filled in, to ensure it all makes sense. 29. Teach Inferential Reading The inferential reading strategy provides a list of the various types of inferences that readers make while reading even seemingly straightforward text; recognizing that there are different types of inferences helps students to analyze text more consciously and strategically. Teaching inferences builds deeper understanding and requires higher-level thinking. 30. Conversations Across Time This reading strategy helps students to develop deeper insights by making connections between and across texts from different time periods in response to a common topic, theme or essential question. This strategy is especially helpful when students are reading through thematic units.

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31. Online Sources Students today rely on the computer/Internet a lot. The Internet offers a variety of games that can help students demonstrate comprehension. 32. Personal Interest Surveys Students are often forced to hate reading because they are forced to read books that fail to attract their interests. Survey students so that you can determine their proficiency and passion levels for reading. There is no better way to increase comprehension than to allow students to read books of their own choice. 33. Reading Frequently The most important strategy to help students to improve their comprehension is to constantly allow them to read books of their own selection and discuss these books.

Thank You!
Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading. There are lots of paths to take in assisting your diverse learners with comprehending what they read. Above all, keep reading interesting to students, so that students want to read on their own. Students who read more, read better. You are your students role model. Remember, you make a difference everyday. Thank you for choosing to teach. Danny

List of Related Citations

Blank Kelner, L., & Flynn, R.M. (2006). A dramatic approach to reading comprehension: Strategies and activities for classroom teachers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Brassell, D., & Rasinski, T. (2008). Comprehension that works: Taking students beyond ordinary understanding to deep comprehension. Huntington Beach, CA: Shell. Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S. (2006). Teaching for comprehending and fluency: Thinking, talking, and writing about reading, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Graves, M.F. (2004, April). Toward a comprehensive comprehension curriculum for language minority students. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA. Gunning, T.G. (2005). Creating literacy instruction for all students (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Jones, D.E. (2004). Painless reading comprehension. New York: Barrons Educational Series. McGregor, T. (2007). Comprehension connections: Bridges to strategic reading. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Copyright 2011, Danny Brassell www.dannybrassell.com 9

McKeown, M.G., & Beck, I.L. (2004). Transforming knowledge into professional development resources: Six teachers implement a model of teaching for understanding text. The Elementary School Journal, 104, 391-408. Nichols, M. (2006). Comprehension through conversation: The power of purposeful talk in the reading workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Polselli Sweet, A., & Snow, C.E. (2003). Rethinking reading comprehension. New York: Guilford. Schwartz, R.M. (2005). Decisions, decisions: Responding to primary students during guided reading. The Reading Teacher, 58, 436-443. Zimmerman, S., & Hutchins, C. (2003). 7 keys to comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it! New York: Three Rivers Press.

Copyright 2011, Danny Brassell www.dannybrassell.com 10

Taking Students Beyond Ordinary Understanding to Deep Comprehension

Comprehension That Works

Grades K6

Help students become motivated, lifelong readers

Research and standards based

Empower teachers to facilitate innovative and engaging instruction with the expertise and practical knowledge of authors Dr. Timothy Rasinski and Dr. Danny Brassell Use unique classroom-tested strategies that integrate current research findings with real-life observations of diverse students in action Learn why comprehension strategies matter and how to facilitate activities that benefit students multiple intelligences Discover effective approaches to help students: engage with fiction and nonfiction texts develop vocabulary build study and test-taking skills

Based on the work and research of Dr. Timothy Rasinski and Dr. Danny Brassell Based on McREL content standards

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Use ideas and activities that have been successfully classroom tested

About the author

Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D., Kent State University, is the author of several best-selling books and numerous articles on reading education, word study, and reading fluency. His research was cited by the National Reading Panel in the development of Reading First. Danny Brassell, Ph.D., Ed.D., California State University, Dominguez Hills, has written over 40 articles for academic journals, magazines, newspapers, and book chapter, as well as textbooks

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Comprehension That Works:

Taking Students Beyond Ordinary Understanding to Deep Comprehension Grades K6

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Exploring Nonfiction: A Differentiated Content-Area Reading Program, 2nd Edition Practice With Purpose: Standards-Based Comprehension Strategies & Skills Assessing Comprehension Thinking Strategies Successful Strategies for Reading in the Content Areas Funding Sources
Title I At Risk Migrant Ed. Comprehensive School Reform Summer School/ After School/ SES Title II Math/Science Partnerships 21st Century Special Ed. State Math Initiatives

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A Bakers Dozen of Lessons Learned from the Teaching Trenches

All Grades

Be inspired with this engaging memoir of Danny Brassells experiences as a teacher

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Learn practical, tried-and-true strategies and valuable insights to enhance instruction based on Dannys popular staff-development presentation. Engage all students in meaningful learning experiences with successful motivation techniques and guidelines based on Dannys experiences in urban schools with topIcs that include:

Concrete, classroom-tested approaches provided can be readily applied to help teachers reflect on why they became teachers and how they impact student success on a daily basis.

Teachers Make A Difference Good Parenting Is Underrated Passion Is Powerful We Become Whom We Hang Out With Flexibility + Perserverance = Results Your Attitude Makes Or Breaks You And More!

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A Bakers Dozen of Lessons Learned from the Teaching Trenches

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A Bakers Dozen of Lessons Learned from the Teaching Trenches
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