A presentation based on NSW DET training "Reading Matters"

1. Reading Matters
Comprehension
Strategies
Sharing some ideas presented at
NSW DET Training “Reading
Matters” by Debbie Francis
Adapted by Barbara Schaffer

2. Things to Consider
-whole school approach K-6
Continuum
Learning to K-6 Syllabus
READ
Reading to
Learn
Critical Literacy
• Common philosophies; Aspects Sessions
• Metalanguage
Grouping &
• Links to writing ,talking and listening
Differentiating
Assessment
The Four Teaching
Literacy READING • Modelled
Resources Teaching and
Strategies
• Guided
Learning
• Independent
Sourcing
and
Comprehension Selecting
Strategies Texts
• Before Super 6
• During Decoding Teaching
• After Fluency Ideas
Vocabulary

3. K-6
Continuum
Learning to K-6 Syllabus
READ
Reading to
Learn
Critical Literacy
• Common philosophies; Aspects Sessions
• Metalanguage
• Links to writing ,talking and listening Grouping &
Differentiating
Assessment
The Four Teaching
Literacy READING
Strategies • Modelled
Resources Teaching and
Learning • Guided
• Independent
Sourcing
and
Comprehension Selecting
Strategies Texts
• Before Super 6
• During Decoding Teaching
• After Fluency Ideas
Vocabulary

4. Changes in the nature of reading are reflected in all the syllabuses
Less
Familiar Unfamiliar
familiar
known Less New
known /unknown
Concrete More
Abstract
generalised

5. How literacy demands change
• How do literacy demands change as students move
from the early years, into the middle years and through
to the later years of schooling?
• How do early, middle and later years teachers use
modelled, guided and independent teaching strategies to
cater for increasingly complex literacy demands?

6. There is an increased emphasis on reading
strategically and efficiently through
A sense of how the text has been constructed
Identifying facts and opinions
Identifying more than one theme
Analysing the intent of the author
Identifying what they already know
Knowing to spend time on the new

7. Videos available on curriculum support website.at
http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/literacy/publications/index.htm
An introduction to quality Literacy in the early, middle
Literacy teaching learning
literacy teaching and later years
Putting planning for literacy
Modelled teaching – Later
into practice: A middle
years
years teacher’s perspective
Guided teaching – Early Guided teaching – Middle Guided teaching - Later
years years years
Independent teaching – Independent teaching –
Early years Middle years

8. The critical aspects of literacy development
Reading texts
Comprehension
Vocabulary knowledge Unconstrained skills
Aspects of writing
Aspects of speaking
Phonics
Phonemic awareness Constrained skills
Concepts about print

9. Individually read through:
Balanced and integrated literacy teaching p. 16
Explicit and systematic literacy teaching p. 17
What is it?
What do teachers do?
What does it look like in a literacy lesson?
Compare and discuss your understandings with a partner
or the group.

10. What is Comprehension ?
Comprehension involves responding to, interpreting
analysing and evaluating texts. (NSW.DET.2009)
Comprehension should go hand in hand in with building
knowledge in a particular content area.
Comprehension is the key to
learning

11. Help students understand what
comprehension is
No single standard for everyone on every text
We can revise and improve our understanding
Students may misunderstand a great deal but partial
understandings are building blocks for better
understanding
Students need to know that comprehension is built
recursively through rereading and rewriting. (Scott Paris 2009

12. Knowledge Comprehension
Comprehension Knowledge

14. What are the Threads
Within in each aspect, threads indicate areas of knowledge . For
example the Comprehension aspect includes the following threads;
Strategies and skills
Inferring
Perspective /opinions/discussing making and confirming predictions
Comparing and contrasting of multiple texts /sources/purposes
Influence /positioning
Features (ways ideas are presented )
Main ideas, central themes , retell ,summary

15. Expectations
High correlation between teacher expectation and student
performance.
The impact of expectations is particularly significant for
students from cultural and linguistic backgrounds that differ
from those of the majority school culture.
High expectations applies as much to literacy development as it
does to other areas if the curriculum.
Low or negative expectations affect not only a a students
progress and achievements but also their self image and sense
of identity

16. End of Stage One
Eighth cluster of markers:
• Refers to prior knowledge and experiences to build understanding of a
text.
• Justifies predictions about sections of a text.
• Builds understanding of a text by using knowledge of text organisation
and features, e.g. referring to
headings and sub-headings to locate information.
• Draws conclusions by using clues in a text.
• Identifies more than one perspective or point of view when represented
in texts.
• Articulates the main idea and provides a synthesised retell that captures
key events in texts.
• Creates mental images to capture ideas in texts.

17. End of Stage 2
• Interprets text by inferring connections, causes and consequences during
reading.
• Responds to and interprets texts by discussing the differences between
literal and inferred meanings.
• Interprets the meaning of a text by seeking further information in other
sections of a text or in different texts.
• Identifies ways texts present different perspectives.
• Evaluates text accuracy and credibility by comparing texts on a similar topic.
• Analyses and evaluates the relative importance of key ideas and information
in a text to construct an overview.
• Responds to and analyses texts by discussing the ways language structures
and features shape meaning.
• Responds to and interprets texts by integrating sources of information in
texts.

18. End of Stage 3
Twelfth cluster of markers:
Interprets and critically analyses texts by responding to inferred meaning
within a text and justifying interpretations using evidence.
Reinterprets ideas and issues by creating innovative personal responses to
ideas and issues in literary texts through oral, dramatic, written and
multimodal presentations.
Critically analyses a wide range of imaginative, informative and persuasive
texts in different forms to compare how ideas are presented.
Explains how texts can be interpreted from a variety of perspectives by
discussing the ways that different views and values are presented.
Interprets texts by identifying and discussing multiple purposes within the
same text.
Interprets and analyses several different texts on one topic to present a
summary of information and ideas that show an understanding of the topic.
Analyses texts to compare how language structures and features are used
to position readers and viewers.
Analyses and evaluates how written information and visual images shape
meaning by comparing texts on the same topic.

19. Factors that affect the supports and
challenges of any text, include:
Experiences and knowledge of the students
Concepts in the text
Vocabulary
Amount of abstraction and complexity of ideas
Text layout and visual features
Familiarity with the text type and structure
The purpose for which the text will be used by the
students .

20. Explicit Teaching of Comprehension
Strategies
Increasing explicit instruction for the use of comprehension
strategies is the most widely cited current recommendation for
improving reading comprehension in all students.
So what do we mean by explicit instruction
We need to explicitly teach
What is the strategy
Why is it important
How and when do you use it ?

21. Something in your
own life (text to self)
Something occurring in the
world (text to world).

22. Example questions/statements
This story reminds me of my holiday ,
This character has the same problem that I read/saw/heard in
another text.
I saw a program on television that presented things described in
this text.
Does this remind me/you of something?
Has something like this ever happened to me/you?
Example teaching idea
Book and me: Students create two columns with headings
Book/Me.
Prior to and during reading students add details about the
connections between the book and their lives.

23. We actively adjust (comprehension)
We do this while reading/ viewing or
listening.

24. Example teaching idea
Before and after chart: Students list predictions before and during reading.
As they read students either confirm or reject their predictions.

25. Questions can be generated by the
learner, a peer or the teacher.

26. Example questions/statements
What in the text helped me/you know that?
How is this text making me/you feel? Why is that?
When you read/viewed/ listened to that text did it remind me/you of
anything I/you know about? Why did it remind me/you of that?
What did the composer of the text mean by …?
Whose point of view is this? What points of view are missing?
Example teaching idea
Wonderings: Using post-it notes, students list all the questions
they have about the text. As they read students continue to
write questions. When an answer is found for the wondering
students remove the post-it note.

27. We stop and think about the text and know
what to do when meaning is disrupted.

28. Example questions/statements
Is this making sense?
What have I/you learned?
Should I/you slow down? Speed up?
Do I need to re-read/view/listen?
What can help me/you fill in the missing information?
What does this word mean?
What can I use to help me understand what I’m/you’re reading/viewing/hearing?
Example teaching idea
Coding: As they read students code the text with post-it notes
+I understand
? I don’t understand
! I fixed it up myself
*This is important

29. Learners create a mental image from a text read/viewed/heard.
Visualising brings the text to life, engages the imagination and uses all of the senses.
Visualising and imagining brings the text to life, engages the
imagination and uses all of the senses

30. Example questions/statements
What are the pictures I/you have in my/your head as I/you read/view/ listen to this
text?
Can I/you describe the picture or image you made while you read/ heard that part?
How did the pictures in my/your head help me/you to understand the text?.
Example teaching idea
Sketch to stretch: As a passage/story is read students sketch
their visualisation. In groups they share their sketches and
discuss reasons for their interpretation.

31. Example questions/statements
What things will help me/you summarise this text list, mind map, note-
taking, annotations, etc?
What are the main ideas and significant details from the
reading/viewing/listening?
If you were to tell another person about the text read/viewed/heard in a few
sentences, what would you tell them?
What is the main theme? How is it connected to the world beyond the text?
In what significant ways does this text relate to/elaborate on the topic that you
have been investigating?
Can you create a metaphor for the text that you have read?
Example teaching idea
Key words: Students highlight words they believe are key to
understanding the passage. These words are written on post-it notes
and placed on the page. After reading the students close the book and
arrange the key words in an order that supports a cohesive summary

32. Learners identify and accumulate the most important ideas
and restate them in their own words.

33. The role of conversations in
comprehension
Discussion is described as “a dialogic classroom event in
which students and teachers are cognitively, socially and
affectively engaged in collaboratively constructing
meaning or considering understandings.”Almasi 2002

34. Begin with the general rather than
the specific
So what’s going on in this part ?
What do we know that we didn’t know before?
What’s new ?
What was the author trying to get us to understand
here ?
Can you say something about that ?

35. Invite and support clarification of the
tricky parts
Anyone want to share something that was tricky or
confusing?
How about this part here………………. Where it says
………………?
I got confused by …………..what do you think about this part
?
What was the author trying to get us to think ? How ?
View questions as a scaffold trying to get to the big picture and not a quiz to
check understanding .

36. Authenticity is Important
Authenticity encompasses the use of real texts but it is also
about purpose .
Using authentic texts can align the teachers purpose for
reading with the students purpose for reading
When reading texts on a topic that they are interested in
students:
Use more comprehension strategies
Have a greater recall of information and ideas

37. Rich experiences
with a variety if
forms and types of
texts are crucial to
improved student
achievement .
http://youtu.be/bGKNLikKZj4

38. Model for teaching challenging texts
Framing the text
What support do my students need before they begin to read or view a text
?
Surface
Understanding
Read Carefully
What strategies will assist students to read with purpose and clarity
Return to the Text
How can I encourage a second reading to facilitate deeper meaning
Collaboration
Deep Which collaboration activities will help deepen their understanding.
Understanding
Reflective Response
How can I helps students to see the relevance this text and the themes and
ideas it contains has to their world

39. Framing the text
What support do my students need before they begin to read or view a text ?
Draw on students’ existing background knowledge
Build students’ background knowledge
Take students on a virtual tour of the text
Use outlines to scaffold understanding
TEACH VOCABULARY EXPICITLY
Focus on the key vocabulary

40. Read Carefully
What strategies will assist students to read with purpose and clarity
Brainstorming
Concept maps, mind maps etc.
Before and after charts, KWL
Making predictions
Making connections, topics, authors, texts ,experiences
Think alouds

41. Return to the Text
How can I encourage further or closer reading to help deepen understanding
Dictagloss, Jigsaw
Analysing text layout/structure
Graphic organisers
Skimming
Web searches/ research
Videos /DVDS /poems/artworks/photographs/diagrams
Guest speakers /excursions