10 Things Every Teacher Should Know About Reading Comprehension Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago www. shanahanonliteracy. com
1. Don’t be misled by reading comprehension tests • Do low “reading comprehension scores” mean students struggle with “reading comprehension”? • Because reading is a collection of linguistic and cognitive skills that are embedded and hierarchical, low comprehension scores do not necessarily mean there is a need for more comprehension instruction
Is it a reading comprehension problem? Or is it a decoding problem?
Is it a reading comprehension problem? Or is it a word meaning problem?
Is it a reading comprehension problem? Or is it a fluency problem?
Is it a reading comprehension problem? Or is it a comprehension problem?
• Don’t fall for the “comprehension items fallacy” • You can’t simply teach students how to answer particular question types such as main idea, vocabulary, inferencing, supporting details, drawing conclusions, etc.
2. Basic skills teaching improves reading comprehension • “Enabling skills” can seem like ends in themselves • But the purpose of teaching “enabling skills” is that they can improve reading comprehension • Need to pay attention to student performance and developmental level
• NRP reviewed 51 studies of phonemic awareness instruction • And 38 studies of phonics instruction
• NRP reviewed 45 studies on vocabulary instruction • And NELP and NLP looks at vocabulary are revealing, too
• NRP reviewed 16 (or 52) studies on oral reading fluency instruction
• Don’t fail to teach these basic skills • But teach them with a clear purpose • Skills instruction should eventually end up with “reading for meaning” as the pay off
3. Reading comprehension is not listening comprehension • Reading comprehension and listening comprehension are both about thinking with language • Students low in reading comprehension are often low in listening comprehension too • Early listening comprehension is correlated with later reading comprehension and for English learners these relations are stronger within English than across languages
• One reason the correlations aren’t higher is because the demands of decoding: Reading requires students to think about text WHILE decoding • Studies do not yet show that improving listening comprehension is an effective intervention for improving reading comprehension
• Kindergarten teachers should focus on listening comprehension • Unfortunately, teachers often replace reading with listening lessons because of the difficulty of the books • This gets you through the books, but doesn’t teach reading • Students need to read materials that are challenging
4. Depth of thought matters • While question types don’t make much difference, how deeply students think about the ideas in text does matter • Close reading is a good idea (if the text justifies it) • Close reading is a kind of apprenticeship into how to think about the ideas in text
Many versions of close reading • In all versions the meaning is in the text and needs to be acquired through careful and thorough analysis and reanalysis (texts don’t just give up their meaning) • Mortimer Adler & Carl Van Doren (Great Books): How To Read a Book
Adler’s Close Reading • Rereading is essential and each reading has a separate purpose • A first reading should determine what a text says • A second reading should determine how a text works • A third reading allows the reader to evaluate the quality and value of the text (and to connect the text to other texts)
Close Reading • All focus on text meaning • Minimize background preparation/explanation (and text apparatus) • Students must do the reading/interpretation • Teacher’s major role is to ask text dependent questions • Multi-day commitment to texts • Purposeful rereading (not practice, but separate journeys)
What does the text say? • First reading • Questions should help guide students to think about the most important elements of the text (the key ideas and details) • Stories are about significant, meaningful conflicts (between man and nature, with others, and with oneself) • Human nature and human motivation are central to the action and the meaning • Questions should also clarify confusions (in this case, confusions about what the text says)
The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater What was the street like at the beginning of the story? How did everybody feel about that? What did they want? What happened to Mr. Plumbean’s house?
How did the neighbors feel about the splot? Why? What did they do about it? How did they think Mr. Plumbean felt about it? Why did they think that? But what did he do? Why does he do this?
How did his neighbors react? Why? --
The neighbors were upset… so what did Mr. Plumbean do? Why did the neighbors pretend not to notice?
When the neighbors asked him what he had done, what is his response? What does that mean?
Why was the man there? What happened? Why did the man do that?
What do the people say about the man? What happened to him?
What happened then? What was the street like at the end of the story? How had the street changed? What changed it?
Conclusion of First Reading • My questions focused on key events and motivations (particularly events that I thought might be confusing) • The discussion led by these questions should lead to a good understanding of what the text said • A good follow up would be to tell/write summaries or retellings of the “story”
How does the text work? • Second reading • Questions should help guide students to think about how the text works and what the author was up to (craft and structure) • Stories are written by people to teach lessons or reveal insights about the human condition in aesthetically pleasing and powerful ways • Awareness of author choices are critical to coming to terms with craft and structure
The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater ------What was he thinking? (The conflict starts here, but the author doesn’t beat you over the head with it… Plumbean has decided something or is about to. )
How did he say this… bright and happy? Reluctantly? (There is more going on here than is on the page. When is Plumbean transformed—when does he decide to be different? ) Why does the author explain why he painted at night? (Character motivation is important. Was he painting at night so he could get it done before anyone saw it or was he beating the heat? He is a different kind of man depending on what you think is happening? ) --
How does the author describe Plumbean’s house? Why does he compare it to a rainbow, a jungle, an explosion? (The author describes the house three times… each time in colorful metaphorical language, a technique he uses throughout the story when he wants to emphasize the feelings of the neighbors? ) --
What do you notice here? Why does the author tell you the neighbors’ feelings in this way? (I want to make sure the students see the repetition of this literary device and that they try to make sense of it. )
What’s going on here? (The repetition of this literary device should be evident by now. By saying the same thing over and over again with colorful language we get a sense of how strong the emotions are).
Why didn’t the author reveal this conversation? (Given that Plumbean just worked this out for himself, I doubt that he had the certainty to persuade his neighbor. My hunch is he just told him his own story and the neighbor identified with it. )
Why did the author have the man explain himself like this? (Although the man claims to be unique —and he is in terms of the specific dream his is pursuing—but ultimately he states his individualism in a way that mimics Plumbean’s. )
Why does the author have the people say this? (The whole neighborhood is now caught up in Plumbean mania. They are pursuing their individual versions of their dreams, expressing themselves identically to Plumbean. They wanted conformity at the beginning and they end up with conformity at the end).
Conclusion of Second Reading • My questions focused on why and how the author told his story (particularly focusing on literary devices, word choices, structural elements, and author purpose) • The discussion led by these questions should lead to a good understanding of how the text works and to a deeper understanding of its implications • A good follow up would be a critical analysis of the story or some aspect of the story (How do Mr. Plumbean and the neighbors change across the story? )
What does the text mean? • “Third” reading • Questions should help guide students to think about what this text means to them and how it connects to other texts/stories/events/ films • Stories relate to other stories and to our lives • Evaluations of quality and connecting to other experiences is an essential part of the reading experience • Do you know other stories like this? How were those stories similar and different? • Which of these stories did you like best? Why? • What did you think about how the author used literary devices? How effective were these?
5. Don’t get in the way of the text Current pre-reading ritual: • Guided/directed/assisted reading includes: • Background review/context • Previewing (predicting, picture walks, etc. ) • Purpose setting/motivation
Pre-reading (cont. ) Rule 1: The candle has to be worth the game • Pre-reading can be/seem endless • Limit pre-reading • It should be no longer than the reading itself Rule 2: Let the author do the talking • Try not to reveal too much information from the text • If an idea is explained in the text, then it ought not to be in the prereading • Students need to figure out what a text says by reading it and analyzing the information from the text
Pre-reading (cont. ) Rule 3: Give students enough information that they have a reason to read. • A brief blurb or tease is not harmful especially if it does not repeat to much of the author’s message or method • Title: Profile: You Belong With Me by Lizzie Widdicombe Blurb: Taylor Swift’s teen angst-empire. Caption: Swift hooked a previously unrecognized audience: teen-age girls who listen to country music. • Title: The Obama Memos by Ryan Lizza Blurb: The making of a post-partisan Presidency. Caption: Hundreds of pages of internal White House memos show Obama grappling with the unpleasant choices of government.
6. Reading comprehension can be taught explicitly • There is more to comprehension teaching than just building enabling skills • It is possible to provide instruction that helps students to think more effectively while they read (to understand remember more) • NRP reviewed 205 studies that showed that reading comprehension could be taught directly throughout the elementary and secondary grades. • These studies emphasized teaching students how to think effectively during reading
7. Strategies should be taught as strategies rather than skills • • • Historically, reading instruction has emphasized comprehension skills Skills are meant to be carried out quickly, easily and without conscious attention But strategies are intentional and complex
Reading Comprehension Skills • • • Cause and effect Classify and categorize Compare and contrast Draw conclusions Fact and opinion Main idea Important details Inferences Sequence Bias and propaganda • • • Problem and solution Identify theme Literal recall Tone Mood Etc. , etc.
Reading Comprehension Strategies • • Summarizing (18) Questioning (27) Story mapping (17) Monitoring (22) Question answering (17) Graphic organizers (11) Mental imagery (7) Prior knowledge (14)
Strategies vs. Skills Strategies: Intentional Metacognitive Reflective Complex/multi-step Probability of success Approximation Skills: Automatic Over-learning Immediate Simple/single step Certainty of success Accuracy
8. Clear explanations matter • Studies show that how well teachers can explain mental processes makes a difference in student progress • Core programs and professional development can give teachers guidance in teaching strategies clearly • Students need explanations of how text works (e. g. , vocabulary, grammar, cohesion, structure, literary devices, data presentation devices) • Students need explanations of how strategies work
Students need to learn the what, when, how, why of strategies.
9. Gradual release of control approaches are effective • Modeling and explanation • Guided practice and explanation • Independent practice
Gradual release of control: I do it. We do it. You do it.
Gradual release of control: I do it. We do it. You do it together. • You do it.
10. Disciplinary strategies matter, too • Strategies are about taking intentional mental actions to understand a text • Story maps versus character change charts
Chemistry Note-taking Substances Properties Processes Interactions Atomic Expression
History Events Chart TEXT WHO? 1 Relation: 2 Relation: 3 Relation 4 Main point: WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? WHY?
Character Change Chart What is main character like at the beginning of the story? What is the main character like at the end of the story? How has he or she changed? Crisis Given this character change, what do you think the author wanted you to learn? ________________________________________
Summing Up 1. Don’t be misled by reading comprehension tests 2. Basic skills teaching improves reading comprehension 3. Reading comprehension is not listening comprehension 4. Depth of thought matters 5. Don’t get in the way of the text 6. Reading comprehension can be taught explicitly 7. Strategies should be taught as strategies rather than skills 8. Clear explanations matter 9. Gradual release of control approaches are effective 10. Disciplinary strategies matter, too
10 Things Every Teacher Should Know about Reading Comprehension Timothy Shanahan University of Illinois at Chicago www. shanahanonliteracy. com
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