Debbie Draper, Julie Fullgrabe & Sue Eden Workshop 2 Monitoring comprehension Overview of the session • The inner conversation –hearing the inner voice that assists reading • leaving tracks of thinking- ways to demonstrate thinking while reading • The different types of (human)readers in a class • Why meaning breaks down and what to do about it – fix-up strategies • Think aloud strategies to share thinking with students Monitoring understanding is essential to engage with the reading strategies Making connections questioning synthesis Monitoring understanding Summarising visualising Inference Do I really have to teach reading? Content,comprehension grades 6-12 Cris Tovani Observations about reading Teaching points Ask yourself why am I doing this? How will it help students think, read or write more thoughtfully about my content? Good readers use reading writing and talk to deepen their understanding Reading strategies are options for thinking. One comprehension tool is not more important than another. There is no specific order, sequence or template for introducing strategies Good readers have a variety of ways to think about text Is the reading authentic? Good readers don’t need end of chapter summaries or isolated skill sheets. They ask their own questions, based on their own need for a deeper understanding of the text Don’t isolate strategies into individual activities. Build on previous learning Good readers reread and return to build and extend their knowledge or to enhance enjoyment of reading for enjoyment Links to Tfel 1.1 understand how self and others learn 1.2 develop deep pedagogical and content knowledge Understanding how students learn to read through your own experiences Learning to learn. Using dialogue as a means to sharing understanding Part one Your own inner voice and how you use it. Just relax…..let your mind go free What did your inner voice say to you? • When you are a busy person, your mind is always having conversations with you. • What went on with you? • If it’s appropriate, what did your inner voice say or think about? Listening to the inner voice-George Costanza does not like what he hears NOT listening to any voice You need to hear your inner voice • Without recognising this voice, it will be harder to ‘think aloud’ with students and share the thoughts you have as a competent reader Part 2 Leaving tracks of thinkingways to demonstrate thinking while reading Sticky labels were invented to monitor comprehension… They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and kids love them! They are a great way to keep track of thoughts and ideas and can be placed in books to refer back to They support remembering what you read far better than highlighting They can help students to show tracks of their learning without Interruption when working independently Discuss this quote-what do you think- have you ever highlighted to extremes? • Highlighting text‘first of all : throw away the highlighter in favour of a pen or pencil. Highlighting can actually distract from the business of learning and dilute your comprehension. It only seems like an active reading strategy; in actual fact, it can lull your into dangerous passivity’. (Harvard College library 2007) Text coding • • • • • R- reminds me of T-T text to text ? Question ! Surprising Make it meaningful for your class, create your own codes From the textTeaching Reading Comprehension Strategies Sheena Cameron Leaving tracks of thinking • Margin notes • Sticky notes • Many of these approaches will be dealt with further as we explore the strategies in more detail. • Think sheets –scaffolds, graphic organisers • Response journals, literature logs, notebooks, wonder books • Artistic, dramatic, musical, numerical, scientific, historical, economic Another way to show tracks of thinking Which of these strategies have you tried? Lifting texts from sources and sharing with students Reading aloud Classroom strategies Re-reading for deeper meaning Thinking aloud/coding text Strategies that Work • Use some of the previous strategies when you read the 4 pages provided from Strategies that Work to make tracks of your thinking. • Share what you have identified as important with someone near you. • Is it the same or different? Part 3 Different types of readers and reading behaviours Awareness of reading • Four levels of metacognitive awareness and the ways in which readers monitor their thinking about their reading are described in Strategies That Work: 24 Types of readers Tacit readers lack awareness of how they think when they read. Aware readers may realize when meaning has broken down, but lack strategies to fix the problem or repair confusion. Strategic readers use a variety of strategies to enhance understanding and monitor and repair meaning when it is disrupted Reflective readers can apply strategies flexibly depending on their goals for reading. They reflect on their thinking and revise their use of strategies. You can observe this reflective stance when students comment with surprise, amazement, or wonder as they read Group chat • Think of particular students that you have taught or are teaching that fit into each category of reader. • How do you know they were one of these types of readers? Comprehension shouldn’t be silent Kelley and Clausen Grace • These authors talk about ‘fake or disengaged readers and mindless reading’ • What behaviours have you seen ‘fake readers’ doing? • You have probably been one yourself at some time. • Y chart about behaviours of fake reading Disengaged reading.. Looks like Feels like Sounds like Part 4 • Why meaning breaks down and how to fix it. MONITOR your understanding Identifying synergistic regulation involving c-Myc and sp1in human tissues • Read the pages silently. • Highlight in one colour the text you understand • highlight in another colour the text that is confusing or difficult to understand. What are you thinking about as you embark on this task? After you have read some of the text.. • Of the parts of the text you highlighted as being hard to understand, could you not read it well because of • lack of background knowledge? • Vocabulary? • Writing style? • Discuss with someone what they learned about themselves as readers through the experience, and what they can take back to their work with struggling readers. • What was your inner voice doing as you read this? Was it? • Thinking about what you need to do at school? • Panicking? • Thinking about what to buy on the way home for dinner? • Making rude comments about the activity? • Trying to make connections, question etc etc The inner conversation • The fact is that all readers space out when they read. Kids need to know this or they risk feeling inadequate when it happens to them. • Once readers are made aware of their inner conversation, they tend to catch themselves quicker and repair meaning if there is a problem. • Strategies that work. Page 27 Checking on monitoring of comprehension-inconsistent element • An easy and informative technique to see whether students are monitoring their comprehension is to select a passage on a group’s instructional level, then retype it adding an inconsistent element. Introduce the selection as you would normally do when you are getting students ready to read (tapping prior knowledge, setting a purpose for reading). • After reading, ask students to comment on what they read. • They may summarize or relate the information to a personal experience. See if any student points out the inconsistent element. • Text example- Earthquakes When meaning has broken down… Reasons for breakdown What can be done about it run into words that are unknown or unusual Vocabulary- ask, word substitute, dictionary Stopped concentrating Re-read or read aloud Reading too fast Slow down and re-read Lose thread of content Read in smaller chunks, re-read before and after Not know enough about the topic Find out more, teacher scaffolding, easier text Lose visualisations of content Try to find mental pictures, look at source material such as the internet Can’t see text organisation Know and teach text types so they can be recognised Didn’t know which strategy to use Explicit teaching of strategies so that students can try appropriate ones. From the textTeaching Reading Comprehension Strategies Sheena Cameron Podcast about monitoring reading Part 5 Think aloudsstrategies to share with students- making the implicit explicit • Think-Alouds have been described as "eavesdropping on someone's thinking." With this strategy, teachers verbalise aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalisations include describing things they're doing as they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how skilled readers construct meaning from a text Sentence starters for think alouds • • • • • • • • • • So far, I've learned... This made me think of... That didn't make sense. I think ___ will happen next. I reread that part because... I was confused by... I think the most important part was... That is interesting because... I wonder why... I just thought of... Reciprocal think alouds • In reciprocal think-alouds, students are paired with a partner. • Students take turns thinking aloud as they read a difficult text. • While the first student is thinking aloud, the second student listens and records what the first student says. • Then students change roles so that each partner has a chance to think aloud and to observe the process. • Students reflect on the process together, sharing the things they tried and discussing what worked well for them and what didn't. As they write about their findings, they can start a mutual learning log that they can refer back to. Use the checklist to observe my think aloud about the textSmall pox Summary • Which strategies to monitor understanding do you think are appropriate for your context? • How will you introduce this strategy with your staff? • How might you do any of this with your class?