Reading Comprehension

READING

TrinityTutors.com

For information:

Fred W. Duckworth, Jr.

c/o Jewels Educational Services

1560 East Vernon Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90011-3839

E-mail: admin@trinitytutors.com

Website: www.trinitytutors.com

Copyright © 2007 by Fred Duckworth. All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted and may not be linked to directly, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher.

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Table of Contents

From the author . . .

Selecting literature . . .

Getting started . . .

The following questions will help guide you in selecting the most appropriate literature for the lessons you will teach.

On what strategies, skills, or concepts do I want to focus this day/week?

What in particular do I want my learner(s) to understand about these strategies, skills, or concepts?

What is the most effective choice of literature I could make to teach these strategies, skills, or concepts?

Of all the places in the text that I could use to demonstrate or model the genuine use of the targeted comprehension strategies, skills, or concepts, which two or three would best illustrate the points I need to make?

Mark these places ahead of time, and think about what you will say and how you will say it. Be absolutely clear about the concepts you wish to convey. Be aware of your focus and stay on track. Use precise language and say what you need to say as clearly and concisely as you can. And finally, expect your learner(s) to respond using genuine, precise, and thoughtful language as well.

Each story should be broken up into sections. At the end of each section is an activity called BEFORE YOU MOVE ON… This is a reading comprehension check intended to get students into the habit of stopping while they are reading and thinking about what they read to make sure that they have taken it in (understand it). Students should not turn to the next page until they can answer these questions!

After the story comes the Respond to the Story Lesson where students have the opportunity to respond to this story in three different ways:

Check Your Understanding (comprehension)

Language Arts and Literature (another grammar lesson/review)

Content Area Connections (apply skills to content areas)

5. CREATIVE WRITING

At the end of each unit there is a component for building writing skills called “Writer's Workshop.”

Solidify the connection between how it off their rights and how readers make sense of a selection by encouraging students to incorporate these organizational devices into their own writing. As they attempt to use these devices, they will get a clearer understanding of how to identify them when they are reading.

Remind students often that the purpose of any skill exercise is to give them tools to use when they are reading and writing. Unless students learn to apply the skills to their own reading -- in every area of reading and study -- then they are not gaining a full understanding of the purpose of the exercise.

During this period your learner will practice various styles of writing including:

Narrative

Expressive

Descriptive

Expository, and

Persuasive.

The building writings skills component will take them through the writing process, from a pre-write, to a draft, to a revision, to editing and proofreading, to publishing.

4. READERS’ RENAISSANCE / SELECTING LITERATURE

A renaissance is a period of intellectual or artistic achievement, rebirth, revival and vigor. Utilizing aclaimed literature can make this Readers’ Renaissance and engaging part of the day in which reading comes alive.

Accepting the premise that the most effective instruction is that which is relevant and authentic, book selection will be a key factor in your program. It is essential that you choose well-written books which you can use over the course of a year to model a variety of strategies, skills, and concepts.

About five years ago (2002) California’s Fremont Unified School District was diligent enough to have compiled literature lists, duplicated here for your conveninece. I trust many of these books will be available at your friendly neighborhood library, but keep in mind however that Fremont is a public school system and as such, is likely to have included some books which certain families might deem unaccaptable. Discernment and due diligence is surely called for on your part as well.

Fremont Unified School District Literature Lists

Core and Extended literature lists:

Secondary grades (7-12)

Open Court Reading Program:

6. WRITING MECHANICS

The first period almost always involves a language development or language usage lesson dealing with some aspect of language function, such as identifying sight words, recognizing spelling patterns, finding little words in big words, chunking sounds together, learning the meaning of words, looking at sentence structure, reviewing vocabulary, analyzing strategies for decoding, asking questions, giving directions, persuading, etc.

By focusing on a particular function of language, the lesson can key and on specific vocabulary and grammar use, forming a nice, neat little package of language. Moreover, having taught in public, private, and homeschool settings, I believe that irrespective of the environment, as soon as the school day begins there are three “shoulds” that need to be in place:

From the author . . .

Reading comprehension is the process of extrapolating meaning from text, which is really the whole point of reading. So, if a learner is able to decode words, but doesn’t genuinely understand the message that those words convey, then he or she isn’t truly reading at all. For students to become more than competent decoders, they must become strategic readers. That is, they must learn how to think about what they read and how to use specific reading skills and behaviors.

Consequently, great readers use effective techniques when encountering text. They monitor their comprehension and repair their understanding when it fails, something most any reader can do by learning to use mental plans, or strategies, that maximize comprehension as he or she processes written language. This book will help you teach your learner(s) such strategies.

Understanding grows when instruction equips pupils, through careful modeling and other techniques, with the methodologies used by effective readers, such as the application of specific behaviors to varied texts along with individual reflection upon each strategy in the course of reading real texts for real purposes.

Included among these “tactics” are: using what they already know to make sense of what they read, making predictions, paying attention to the way a reading selection is organized, creating mental pictures, asking questions, using inference, summarizing, and re-reading.

This book serves to demonstrate for you, the parent-teacher, how to equip your learner(s) – regardless of grade level – with such skills and strategies in order to maximize reading comprehension, accomplished by means of explicit instruction, modeling, discussion, practicing real reading and writing using high-quality literature, and most importantly, by gradually working up to the independent selection and application of the various comprehension skills and strategies that your learner(s) will have at his or her disposal, thus producing a strategic, independent reader (or readers) who values reading as a life-long pursuit.

The key words here are “over the course of a given school year.” As the parent-teacher will need to choose a limited number of skills, concepts, or strategies on which your learner(s) will focus within any given time period, be it an hour, day, week, month, or beyond. Each week you should be looking at no more than one or two stategies and one or two skills.

During Readers’ Renaissance you read a selection orally with your learner for approximately 20 to 40 minutes. When it’s your turn to read, you model for, teach to, and review with your learner specific comprehension skills and strategies in conjunction with the text -- taking brief “metacognition” breaks during which you make comments out loud that model critical thinking processes for your learner.

To put it another way, you stop periodically and use a particular comprehension strategy or skill to guide a brief discussion about what was just learned and/or what problems have arisen during reading. This comprehensive development of skills and strategies encourages your learner to develop a variety of strategies to help him or her understand both expository and narrative material.

When it’s your student’s turn to read, ask questions about the story that lead him or her to apply both comprehension strategies and comprehension skills. (You may want to focus on comprehension strategieson Monday and Tuesday, then “zero-in” on comprehension skills on Wednesday and Thursday.) You want to encourage your learner to eventually utilize these metacognition skills on his or her own, independent of or without your prompting.

As with the pre-reading strategies, don’t try to teach all of the concepts on the same day, or even In the same month. Rather, introduce them one at a time (and review them two at a time) throughout the school year. About a week per pair of strategies and a week per pair of skills is a good pace for introducing and reviewing all of the techniques.

And once again, by the end of the year, your learner should know all of the techniques, though in the case of comprehension strategies and skills the order is not important.

Even though it has no relevance, it turns out that at TrinityTutors.com we usually list the strategies in the same order due to having developed the following mnemonic [acrostic/acronym]. (Monitor and Adjust Reading Speed is not included in the acronym because it came along after the originally group was already formed):

Obviously, before a learner can employ any particular strategy, he or she has to first be aware of its existence, and once aware, thoroughly understanding its underlying concepts. Therefore, a learner should not be considered to have mastered any given skill until and unless able to verbalize that skill by memory.

At least one and no more than three comprehension strategies will be modeled, practiced, and reviewed during the initial reading of the litrature on Monday and Tuesday. Then at least one and no more than three comprehension skills will be modeled, practice, and reviewed during a second reading of the literature on Wednesday and Thursday.

This will be done in conjunction with excellent literature, which will form the core of each lesson. Such comprehensive development of skills and strategies builds lifelong confidence.

PRE-READING STRATEGIES

Having discussed the relative topics, it is time for pre-reading . . .

Before you begin reading any new piece of literature, passage, selection, story, article, novel, etc, you should use the six pre-reading strategies. I have found this to be the most logical progression:

First browse the selection. Look over the first couple of pages quickly. Next, make connections. Look for things in the text that remind you of things in your own life, also known as schema. Then, look for clues and make predictions as to what the selection might be about. After that, identify possible problems and ask questions. Find out how to pronounce words that you are not sure how to read and discover the meaning of words whose meanings are not clear to you. Now you're ready to wonder. Ask yourself questions about those things about which you are naturally curious. And finally, establish a purpose for reading.

These skills cannot all, and therefore, they should not all, he taught or learned in one lesson or even in a month's worth of lessons. They should be introduced one at a time (and reviewed two at a time) throughout the school year. About a week per pair of strategies is a good pace for introducing/reviewing all of the concepts.

By the end of the year, everyone should know all of the pre-reading strategies and should probably even have them memorized in order. Each of the pre-reading strategies is discussed in detail below for easy reference as you teach the skills to your learner(s).

Beginning the Instructional Period

Let’s begin a detailed look at TrinityTutors.com’s suggested program, not only for reading, but for English/language arts as a whole.

To keep students engaged and attentive, the program consists of several subcomponents designed to encourage short “bursts” of learning, beginning with what we will call Wordshop.

1. WORDSHOP

Wordshop is designed to equip learners with strategies and techniques that they can use to figure out the meanings of those numerous unfamiliar and unknown words they are sure to encounter while reading.

Starting the day with Wordshop (which often entails a brief mini-lesson and worksheet) privides a nice way to accomplish three “shoulds” I believe set the tone for the remainider of the school day. (1) Students should know what is expected of them when “entering the classroom,” (2) should know what to expect from their instructor as well, (3) and should have a task already prepared and waiting for completion in order to encourage a quick transition into an academic mindset.

Borrowing from the classical education model (which is characterized in part by a rich exposure to the languages utilized in Hellenistic times), Wordshop stresses the importance of knowing common roots and affixes derived from Greek and Latin in order to analyze the meaning of complex words such as paracardial as an example. Lessons for Wordshop are available by following this link. There are fewer that 180 lessons listed since most will need to be repeated or reviewed for the subject matter to be genuinely mastered – a hallmark of TrinityTutors.com’s philosophy of and approach to education.

On the first day of school Workshop consists simply of an orientation and introduction to its concept and purpose, which was just stated. This is followed by an introduction to the Pre-lesson.

PRE-LESSON SCRIPT

“Good readers relate what they know to what they are reading. In other words, they make connections. Making a connection is finding something in a passage or selection that reminds you of something in your own life. So, let's find out what you already know about [insert the appropriate theme here] especially if it's something that you would like to talk about, investigate, or understand better.

First of all, what is a theme?

What is the theme of our current unit?

Explain what you already know about [insert the current theme].

How are the elements within this unit related to one another? How do they go together?

What story are you about to read?

Are you familiar with this story? If you are, tell me a little about it, but remember not to give away the ending.

While you were browsing the selection, what did you see that reminded you of something in your own life?

Have you faced a similar situation in your life? When? What happened?

What do you already know about the type of characters you expect to encounter in this story?

What do you know about [insert some element of the selection]

What are...?

What is a...?

What [insert the appropriate noun/concept] have you faced or encountered in your life?

Have you read any other stories that dealt with [enter some aspect of the selection]?

Have you read any other work by this author?

You're about to read a story characterized by [enter the appropriate characteristics]. Which genre is that? or...

You are about to read a [enter the appropriate genre]. What are the features of this genre?

2. PRE-LESSON / DISCUSSION

Before beginning a given piece of literature, good readers make a habit of considering what they already know about the topic. Moreover, prior to beginning any particular selection, students and/or their instructors should also be sure to gather and discuss whatever additional background information is necessary to fully understand and appreciate the work. One of my favorite resources for background material on the literature I use in my program is http://www.bookrags.com. The Pre-lesson will serve to introduce each individual literary work and should never be skipped in that it greatly helps reading comprehension. It may also establish a purpose and motivation for reading.

Pre-lesson discussion plays a significant role and constitutes an integral part of student learning, since it is through discussion that we are exposed to different points of view and reactions to information. We also learn to express our thoughts and opinions coherently, as well as to respect the ideas and opinions of others. During the Pre-lesson, be sure to incorporate some or all of the following:

(1) Talk about the author. (2) Consider what is already known about the topic. (3) If your learner is already familiar with the story, he or she might tell you a little bit about it, remembering not to give away the ending. (4) You and your learner should mention any other stories you can think of involving the theme (more about themes later). (5) Use the discussion to clarify any relevant concept(s). (6)The student(s) should discuss any similar situations personally experienced. (7) Be sure someone identifies the genre. (8) Share stories that are related to the current selection. (9) Discuss people similar to those in the selection. Ask questions like...

Have you faced a similar situation in your life? When? What happened?

What do you know about the type of characters that are in the story?

What do you know about (insert some element of the selection)?

What are ________ ? What is a _________? What __________ (s) have you faced or encountered in your life? Have you read any other stories that dealt with (insert some element or aspect of the selection)? You are about to read a story characterized by (insert features of the appropriate genre). Which genre is that? Can you identify this selection’s genre? What are the features of that genre?

Other FUSD lists:

K-6 Harcourt Math Lists:

Kindergarten-Grade 2

Grades 3-5

Grade 6

READING

STANDARD 2.2 Comprehension w Level K-12

Objective: Student will use appropriate strategies when reading for different purposes.

HOW TO MAKE CONNECTIONS

Today we're going to learn about what good readers do to better understand and have fun with their reading.

To let you in on a little secret, one of the things that great readers do is think and read at the same time. Do you? That's pretty smart if you do! And one of the most important things readers think about as they read are the connections between what they already know and the information in the text. In other words, a good reader finds things in the passages he or she reads that remind him or her of things in the reader's own life.

Some people call thinking about what you already know using your schema, others call it using your background knowledge, and yet others call it making connections.

Schema is all the stuff that's already inside your head, like places you've been, things you've done, books you've read -- all the experiences you've had that make up who you are and what you know and believe to be true. When you use your schema, it helps you use what you know to better understand and interact with the text.

Good readers use schema to make connections from their reading, or the text, to themselves, so we will call this text-to-self connections. When you make connections when you read, it's kind of like having a conversation going on in your head.

For example, maybe you can remember a time when you were younger and you did the exact same thing that a character in the story did. Or maybe a character in a story reminds you of one of your relatives. Or perhaps you once felt like somebody feels in the story. Using your schema will help you better understand just how the people in the book feel. And so, good readers make connections between what they are reading and what they already know from past experience or previous reading.

Explicit instruction requires thoughtful planning, and as suggested by the preceding questions, you as the parent-teacher will need to choose a limited number of skills, concepts, or strategies on which your learner(s) will focus within any given time period, be it an hour, day, week, month, or beyond. And again, you should note in the literature/text ahead of time exactly when, where, how and why you will be teaching a given strategy, skill, or concept.

I call this portion of the instructional period (in which the focus is on enhancing your learner’s understanding of a literacy selection by teaching him or her how to construct meaning out of, or “think through” the text) Readers' Renaissance. A renaissance is a period of intellectual or artistic achievement, rebirth, revival and vigor. Utilizing aclaimed literature can make this Readers’ Renaissance and engaging part of the day in which reading comes alive.

The table below summaraizes everything you will be teaching during Readers’ Renaissance over the course of a given school year.

A class chart showing the strategies and skills students use to “think through the text.”

THINKING THROUGH THE TEXT

You will be learning the following strategies and skills, which good readers use to enhance understanding and construct meaning while reading literary works of art.

The Pre-reading Strategies

Browse

Scema

Clues

Problems

Wonder

Purpose

Comprehension Strategies

Comprehension

Skills

Wonder

Interpret

Connect

Predict

Summarize

Monitor

Visualize

Clarify

Question

Reread

Compare & Contrast

Cause & Effect

Drawing Conclusions

Authors Point of View

Main Idea / Details

Sequence

Inference

7. STUDENT ASSESSMENT

The last component of Reader’s Renaissance is where you assess how much was learned by your student.

Use highlighted question formats from comprehension book

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

Drawing conclusions is gathering pieces of information about events or characters in a story and using that information to come to a decision or make a judgment about that character or event.

Often, writers do not directly state everything -- they take for granted their audience's ability to "read between the lines." Readers draw conclusions when they take from the text small pieces of information about a character or event and use this information to make a statement about the character or event.

Drawing conclusions is gathering pieces of information and using them to figure out something about a character or event in the story.

MAKING INFERENCES

To make inferences is to get the total picture about a character or event in a story -- to understand things that are not directly or clearly said -- by using the information that is given in the text along with personal experiences.

Readers make inferences about characters and events to understand the total picture in a story. When making inferences, readers use information from the text, along with personal experience or knowledge, to gain a deeper understanding of a story event and its implications.

CLASSIFY AND CATEGORIZE

The relationships of actions, events, characters, outcomes, and such in new selection should be clear in enough for the reader to see the relationships. Putting like things or ideas together can help the reader understand the relationships set up by the author.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

A cause is a force or influence that produces an effect. It is why something happens. An effect is a result or consequence of a force or action. It is what happens. Writers use cause and effect to help readers understand why something happened in a certain way. They organize information into cause-and-effect relationships to show the connection between events in a story.

What made this happen? Why did this character act the way he or she did? Knowing the causes of events helps the reader to see the whole story. Using this information to identify the probable outcomes (effects) of events or actions will help the reader anticipate the story or article.

AUTHOR'S PURPOSE

Everything that is written is written for a purpose. That purpose may be to entertain, to persuade, or to inform. Knowing why a piece is written -- what purpose the author had for writing the peace -- gives the reader in idea of what to expect that perhaps some prior idea of what the author is going to say.

If a writer is writing to entertain, then the reader can generally just relax and let the writer carry him or her away. If, on the other hand, the purpose is to persuade, it will help the reader understand a key perspective if he or she knows that the purpose is to persuade. The reader can be prepared for whatever argument the writer delivers.

FACT AND OPINION

Learning to distinguish fact from opinion is essential to critical reading and thinking. Students learn what factors need to be present in order for statement to be provable. They also learned that an opinion, while not provable itself, should be based on fact. Readers use this knowledge to determine for themselves of the validity of the ideas presented in their reading.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

When we compare two or more characters, events, or things, we tell how they are alike. When we contrast two or more characters, events, or things, we tell how they differ. Accordingly, to compare and contrast is to tell how two or more characters, events, or things are alike and different.

Using comparison and contrast is one of the most common and easiest ways a writer uses to get his or her reader to understand a subject. Comparing and contrasting unfamiliar thoughts, ideas, or things with familiar thoughts, ideas, and things gives the reader something within his or her own experience base to use in understanding.

MEAN IDEA AND SUPPORTING DETAILS

The main idea is what a passage is mostly about. Supporting sentences provide details that tell more about the main idea. An author writes to communicate something to his or her audience. He or she may state this "main idea" in different ways, but the reader should always be able to tell you what the text is about. So, to strengthen the main point (or main idea) of a piece, the writer provides details to help the reader understand. For example, the writer may use examples, provide facts, give opinions, write descriptions, list reasons, or give definitions. By being able to identify the main idea and details you will be better equipped to figure out the most important aspects of what you read.

And author always has something specific to say to his or her reader. The author may state this made idea in different ways, but the reader should always be able to tell what the writing is about.

To strengthen the main point or main idea of the peace, the author provides details to help the reader understand. For example, the author may use comparison and contrast can make a point, provide examples, provide facts, give opinions, give descriptions, give reasons or causes, or give definitions. The reader needs to know what kinds of details he or she is dealing with before making a judgment about the main idea.

SEQUENCE

The order of events in the story is called sequence. Understanding sequence helps you to follow the plot better. Writers often use signal words, called time-and-order words to help you follow the action in the story. Words such as first, then, when, soon, and finally show order, and such words as spring, tomorrow, and morning show time.

The reader can't make any decisions about relationships or defense if he or she has no idea in which order that you can't take place. The reader needs to pay attention to how the writer is conveying the sequence. Is it simply stated that first this happened and in that happened? Does the writer present the gained of the story first and then go back and let the reader know the sequence of events? Knowing what the sequence is and how it is presented helps the reader follow the writer's line of thought.

AUTHORS POINT OF VIEW

Every story is told from a specific point of view, which is the position from which the author presents the action and information in the story, otherwise known asauthor’s point of view. The narrator might be a character in the story or an outside observer who is not involved with the action of the story. You should use authors point of view to assist you in identifying who is narrating or telling the story. By recognizing the authors point of view, you will know whether you are getting a full picture, or merely a picture of events as seen through the eyes of only one character. Writers use either a first-person point of view (in which the narrator is a character in the story who is speaking from his or her viewpoint) or a third-person point of view (in which the narrator is an outside observer who reveals the thoughts and feelings of any or all characters in the story).

Point of view involves identifying who is telling the story. If a character in the story is telling the story, that one character describes the action and tells what the other characters are like. This is first-person point of view. In such a story, one character will do the talking and use the pronouns I, my, me. All other characters thoughts, feelings, and emotions will be reported through this one character.

If the story is told in third person point of view, someone outside the story who is aware of all of the characters thoughts and feelings and actions is relating them to the reader. All of the characters are referred to by their names or the pronouns he/she, him/her, it.

If students stay aware of who is telling a story, they will know whether they are getting the full picture or the picture of events as seen through the eyes of only one character.

Now for the comprehension skills

The comprehension skills enable students to develop a more complete understanding of what they have read and lead them into a deeper understanding of the selection. Comprehension skills are a way of "reading between the lines."

The goal of instruction in reading comprehension skills is to make students aware of the logic behind the structure of the written piece. If the reader can discern the logic of the structure, he or she will be more able to understand the offers logic and gained knowledge both of the facts and the intent of the selection. By keeping the organization of the peace in mind and considering the office purpose for writing, the reader can go beyond the actual words on the page and make inferences or draw conclusions based on what was read. Strong, mature readers utilized these "between the lines" skills to get a complete picture of not only what the writer is saying, but what the writer is trying to say.

We suggest you focus on comprehension skills the third and fourth day of the week (and on comprehension strategies the first and second).

Again, remember that these skills will be introduced one at a time (spending about one week per introduction/review of a given pair).

The comprehension skills are discussed over the next few paragraphs, beginning with author's point of view . . .

Asking questions is a good way to think about and remain involved with what you are reading. Moreover, asking questions helps you to clear up confusion and figure out why something in the text is as it is. It helps you check your understanding of the text.

REREAD

A good reader will stop and take the time to read something that was unclear over again.

processes. When a complex process or an event is being described, the reader can follow the process or the event better by visualizing each step or episode. Sometimes an author or an editor helps the reader by providing illustrations, diagrams, or maps. If no visual aids have been provided, it may help the reader to create one.

Form mental images based on information in the story as you read through the text.

MONITOR AND CLARIFY

Good readers constantly monitor themselves as they read in order to make sure they understand what they are reading. They noted the characteristics of the text, such as whether it is difficult to read or whether some sections are more challenging or more important than others are. In addition, when good readers become aware that they do not understand, they take appropriate action, such as rereading, in order to understand the text better. As they read, good readers stay alert for problem signs such as loss of concentration, unfamiliar vocabulary, or lack of sufficient background knowledge to comprehend the text. Disability to self monitor and identify aspects of the text that hinder comprehension is crucial to becoming a proficient reader.

As you read, regularly stop to clarify any unfamiliar or confusing words, phrases, or passages by rereading paragraphs, thinking about what is going on in the story, etc. Good readers monitor and to help them understand the meaning of words and difficult ideas or passages.

ASK QUESTIONS

Good readers ask questions that may prepare them for what they will learn. If their questions are not answered in the text, they may try to find answers elsewhere and thus add even more to their store of knowledge. Certain kinds of questions occur naturally to a reader, such as clearing up confusion or wondering why something in the text is as it is. Intentional readers take this somewhat informal questioning one step further by formulating questions with the specific intent of checking their understanding. They literally test themselves by thinking of questions a teacher might ask and then by determining answers to those questions.

PREDICT

Good readers predict what will happen next. When reading fiction, they make predictions about what they are reading and then confirm or revise those predictions as they go.

analyze information given about story events an characters in the context of how it may logically connect to the story’s conclusion.

SUMMARIZE

Good readers sum up to check their understanding as they read. Sometimes they reread to filling gaps in their understanding. Good readers use the strategy of summarizing to keep track of what they are reading and to focus their minds on important information. The process of putting the information in one's own words not only helps good readers remember what they have read, but also prompts them to evaluate how well they understand the information. Sometimes the summary reveals that one's understanding is incomplete, in which case it might be appropriate to reread the previous section to fill in the gaps. Good readers usually find that the strategy of summarizing is particularly helpful when they are reading long or complicated text.

Summarizing prompts you to keep track of what you are reading and to focus your mind on important information.

MONITOR AND ADJUST READING SPEED

Good readers understand that not all text is equal. Because of this, good readers continuously monitor what they are reading and adjust their reading speed accordingly. They skim parts of the text that are not important or relevant to their reading goals in the purposely slowed down when they encounter difficulty in understanding the text.

Good readers regulate their reading speed according to the type of material they are reading. Text with lots of information is read more slowly to ensure understanding.

VISUALIZE

Good readers visualize what is happening in the text. They form mental images as they read. A picture this setting, the characters, and the action in a story. Visualizing can also be helpful when reading Xbox a Tory text. Visualizing helps readers understand descriptions of complex activities or

MAKE CONNECTIONS

See student lesson sheet on page so and so

PREDICT

Good readers predict what will happen next. When reading fiction, they make predictions about what they are reading and then confirm or revise those predictions as they go.

analyze information given about story events an characters in the context of how it may logically connect to the story’s conclusion.

SUMMARIZE

Summarizing prompts you to keep track of what you are reading and to focus your mind on important information.

MONITOR AND ADJUST READING SPEED

Good readers regulate their reading speed according to the type of material they are reading. Text with lots of information is read more slowly to ensure understanding.

WONDER

This is sort of like reading with purpose. As previously stated, wondering is simply asking questions about that which you are naturally curious.

INTERPRET

Putting meaning into what you have read. It's a kind of filling in the gaps. It's determining motivation..

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Make connections between what you are reading and what you already know from past experience or previous reading. Making connections between the text and what you already know it helps you to understand the story better.

As already stated, during the Pre-lesson you leave the students in making connections, also known as accessing prior knowledge. Some refer to this past schema.

To help them formats their responses and build a common language for talking about books, give them a framework for a fee keen, directing them to begin sharing their connections in this way:

When I read (or heard) these words ____________________ it made me think about...

When I saw the picture of _______________________ it made me think about...

By recalling the words are pointing out the picture your connection will be textbased and you would give your instructor a point of reference as he or she analyzes your thinking.

READERS’ RENAISSANCE

you read a selection orally with your learner for approximately 20 to 40 minutes. When it’s your turn to read, you model for, teach to, and review with your learner specific comprehension skills and strategies in conjunction with the text -- taking brief "metacognition" breaks during which you make comments out loud that model critical thinking processes for your learner.

And once again, by the end of the year, your learner should know all of the techniques, though in the case of comprehension strategies and skills the order is not important.

THEMATIC STUDY

Such guiding questions prior to reading the selection are designed to get your learner(s) thinking about the underlying theme around which you will have previously decided to organize the next few weeks of instruction. The initial Pre-lesson always deals with the theme.

Again, the first thing you will do during the Pre-lesson is make sure your learner(s) knows what is the theme – the unifying idea underlying the work, its overall message, or the grand subject or concept of the piece. Use discussion to determine what the student(s) already know about it along with what is known about any specific topics related to the story you are about to read. By way of introduction, activate any prior or background knowledge, having your learner(s) explain what they already know about the theme. This is know as “making connections” and is refered to by some as “schema.” Something else to consider is how the various elements of the unit or selection are related to one another – how do they fit together?

To encourage such discussion you should select quality literature for your learner(s). And as already stated, in order to promote understanding along with the discussion, try to organize the literature you decide to use around a central “theme.” And again, a theme is an organizing idea or concept designed to guide the learning process as students strive to maximize comprehension and gain depth of understanding. You might say that the theme is the "big picture." You (and your students) can aid the learning process by organizing the literature around big ideas or major themes. It is critical that both you and the student(s) have a clear understanding of the concept of a theme and remain aware the current one. Here is a link to a few suggestions for themes.

Encourage you learner(s) to make connections with the overall theme as well is with the individual selsctions. There are two types of themes which you may wish to use. Universal themes like friendship and survival, which encourage deep and critical thinking, and research themes such as weather, astronomy, and ancient civilizations, which foster inquiry and research in other content areas Here’s a link to various themes.

3. PRE-READING STRATEGIES

After the Pre-lesson you’re still not ready to read. It is duiring this next period that your learner(s) begins to focus directly on reading comprehension strategies.

This is the section reserved for their pre-reading strategies. This component consists of thre steps: “into,” “through,” and “beyond.” The focus is on enhancing your learner’s understanding of a literacy selection by teaching him or her how to construct meaning out of, or “think through” the text. You, the teacher, will begin by modeling the target skills, then teach them, and finally, have your learner(s) apply what was taught.

Each skill is explicitly taught using teacher models or models from the handbook and practiced in reading and/or writing activities. These activity show how the skill is connected to the other parts of the lesson. Skills are added to each student's knowledge toolbox, so that students can employ it appropriate skills when developing their investigations, or in other context.

Where is the pre-reading dirctions. Find the into through and beyond stuff!

INTO / MAKING CONNECTIONS

This is also referred to as “making connections.” The student begins by thinking about what they already know.

THROUGH / ASKING QUESTION

Here is where this did it begins to examine and analyze the key selection vocabulary. These are the words that the student must know to understand the story. The key vocabulary words will appear in bold print and will be highlighted in yellow. Also appearing in bold print, but not highlighted, are “secondary words.” Their definitions will appear in the on-page glossary at the bottom of the page. This component is also referred to as “problems,” or “ask questions.”

BEYOND / ESTABLISH A PURPOSE FOR READING

The last step is for the learner to relate goals and outcomes. It’s what I call “establishing a purpose.” Again, the teacher should model, teach, and have the students apply these skills.”

1. BROWSE

Good readers browse a selection before they begin in-depth reading to help them get a general idea as to what its content might be.

Browsing amounts to skimming pages in order to get an overall idea about the kind of material with which you are preparing to interact. When you browse, you quickly scan through the first few pages looking for clues that tell you something about the selection or that give you and indication of what the selection might be about -- paying special attention to headings, subheadings, captions, etc. If the selection is a narrative, you'll want to especially note the title, author (and illustrator), illustrations, and initial sentences from the paragraphs making up the body of the text.

While browsing, you should also be performing all of the other pre-reading strategies (as described on the following pages). Once you are finished, keep any questions that you formed while browsing in mind as you begin reading the selection and try to find the answers to them as you progress. You may wish to use the a graphic organizer to record your browsing observations.

2. MAKE CONNECTIONS

Good readers consider what they already know about a topic before they read, relating what they know to what they are reading. In other words, they make connections. Making connections is finding something in a story or selection that reminds you of something in your own life. It is also known as accessing prior knowledge.

While you browse a selection, note the things you see that remind you of things in your own life or things that you learned prior to encountering the text currently before you.

3. MAKE PREDICTIONS

Good readers make predictions. Or in other words, they regularly stop, consider the information they have read about the characters and events in the story, and then make a guess as to what may happen next, keeping in mind how it might connect to the ending in a way that makes sense (however, at this point any predictions will be based solely on what was encountered while browsing).

We also refer to this step as “clues.”

4. ASK QUESTIONS

Asking questions involves looking for and noting any problems such as long sentences, words that are unfamiliar, or ones that might give you trouble or present some type of difficulty -- in general, anything that is confusing -- and then getting help or clarification.

We also call this step “problems.”

As you browse, you should also ask any other questions you have that relate to the story, the characters in the story, or to the theme.

You might also what to create a personal vocabulary notebook containing difficult words encountered during browsing. To help you learn such material, try making up sentences using such unfamiliar words, perhaps even writing the same sentence two times -- the first time using the unfamiliar word, and the second time, substituting the unfamiliar word with its definition.

5. WONDERING

Wondering is simply asking questions with regard to those things about which you are naturally curious and leads you right into the final pre-reading strategy, which is establish a purpose for reading..

6. DECIDE ON A PURPOSE

The final pre-reading strategy is to establish a purpose for reading. Good readers set their own purposes for reading a story or selection before they begin. In this way, the become more involved or engaged with the text as they read, continuing to think and self-question as they go along, thinking about additional questions as they come up, and returning repeatedly to the one(s) they had originally.

Make sure that you always establish a purpose for reading, even if it's nothing more than personal enjoyment. Of course a perfectly locical purpose for reading is to answer the very questions about which you were wondering in the previous step.

INFERENCE

Sometimes authors do not clearly state everything in a story because they want their readers to take away something of their own from the book, leaving their readers with something to think about and remember. Many of the most intriguing questions are not answered explicitly in the text, but are left to the reader’s interpretation. In such cases, the audience has to make inferences.

Inferring is thinking in your head to help you understand when the story doesn’t let you in on it. It's when you wonder, but the book doesn't tell you, and you use your schema and the clues in the text to help you figure it out.

When readers infer, they use their prior knowledge and textual clues to draw conclusions and form unique interpretations of text. Readers in for when the answers to their questions are not explicitly stated in the text, creating interpretations to enrich and deep in their experience in the text.

Good readers know to infer when the answers to their questions are not explicitly stated in the text. They create interpretations to enrich and deepen their experience in the text.

ASKING QUESTIONS

Good readers ask questions for a number of reasons: to clarify meaning; speculate about text yet to be read; determine an author’s style, intent, content, or format; focus attention on specific components of the text; and locate a specific answer in the text or consider rhetorical questions inspired in the text.

They’ve been determined whether the answers to their questions can be found in the text of whether they will need to end Fergie answer from the text, their background knowledge, and/or an outside source.

Comprehension