Duke's video on comprehension strategies

The video of Professor Duke’s comprehension instruction illustrates clear ideas on strategies that can help all readers.  To better understand the process, observations of good readers are described.

Professor Duke’s research shows that good readers talk aloud, read aloud, and are extremely active when reading. In other words, they make meaning as they go; they make connections to their own experience; ask questions; and preview the reading by looking at the text structure. Based on these findings, strategies can be taught to struggling readers to implement good reading behaviors.

Although teaching one strategy will help improve comprehension, having multiple strategies is even better. Students need to be able to choose a strategy or multiple strategies that will help them in different situations.

Accessing prior knowledge and building knowledge are very important for teachers to build upon to help students with comprehension. Students need to be exposed to many books, rich experiences, world knowledge, and hands on experiences to build knowledge in subject matters.

Improving students’ vocabulary is essential to improving comprehension. A dictionary can and should be used to help students understand vocabulary that is necessary to understand reading materials. Students should be taught how to break down words by identifying prefixes, suffixes, and compound words; look at context clues; re-read for meaning; re-read around words; look for author’s clues or message; stop and think; and ask for help. It is also beneficial to students if there are many opportunities to practice comprehension by listening to teacher read alouds. This will provide students with a model of fluent reading and opportunities for using strategies to comprehend. Students will then be able to use short-term memory to comprehend instead of decoding words.

Teachers should teach and model for students the awareness of text structures such as complex plot twist, graphics in informational text (charts, graphs, and tables), the significance of bold and italic print, or captions under a picture. This can be extremely helpful in subjects like science where print structures can give clues to students to determine what is important information. Teachers should also provoke good discussions by asking many open ended questions that require students to make inferences and connections, encourage writing, and motivate students with authentic activities.

Teachers can use these strategies to help students improve comprehension. Although it is probably best to coach one to one, it might not be possible with a large class. However, students need to learn to be aware of when they comprehend and what they can do when they do not comprehend.

The idea from this video that was most relevant to me for teaching comprehension was the rereading. I think it is very important for struggling and emergent readers to learn through repetition. In fact, I used that idea for my writing project with a struggling ELL student. I had the student reread a lower level book once a day for five days. I also had him answer one question everyday pertaining to the story. By the end of the last reading, there was an improvement in his reading and comprehension. His reading was not exactly as he would speak, but it was more fluent; he sounded less robotic during his last reading than his first. This revealed to me that he is developing automaticity with decoding. If he continues to reread the same book or uses this method with another book, the decoding and the comprehension will improve.

QRI-5 vs Dibels

Using the Dibels System on the palm pilot was very interesting and at the same time frustrating to use. Because the device was unfamiliar to me, I found it confusing at first. When I finally understood how to use it, I realized how much time it would save me as a teacher.  With a touch of a screen, I can access many different evaluation materials that can be administered and assessed quickly. Data can be stored and charted to evaluate student progress in minutes. This eliminates all paper work that can be cumbersome and inconvenient to keep.  

When comparing the QRI-5 to Dibels, the most obvious difference is the grade levels each system targets. The QRI-5 provides assessment materials for students in grades K-12, while Dibels targets students from K-6. Dibels also has stringent rules on timing for each assessment; one minute. The goal of this timed assessment is to achieve automaticity and fluency in early literacy skills critical for reading comprehension.  The QRI-5 also has timed assessments but it is not used on all grade levels.

The QRI-5 and Dibels both offer a number of investigating options that serve a collection of choices. They can be used to identify reading levels and match students to suitable text, verify a suspected reading problem, determine strength and needs of a student, and recommend paths for interventions. Even though the QRI-5 and Dibels are designed to identify students having difficulty in achieving basic literacy skills, Dibels assesses more in-depth issues pertaining to phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The measures that encompass Dibels are Initial Sounds Fluency (ISF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF), Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), Retell Fluency (RTF), and Word Use Fluency (WUF).  The QRI-5 encompasses word lists, concept questions (accessing prior knowledge), miscue analysis, retelling, and comprehension questions. Although examiners using the QRI-5 will notice phonemic awareness when a student reads the word list, there is not a specific evaluation for that concept.

It is my opinion that Dibels’ assessments are broader in terms of evaluating student difficulties with basic early literacy skills.

Ovservation - QRI-5

At my last observation, I conducted the QRI-5 Assessment and it did not go as well as I had hoped.
The student did not want to cooperate with me. The student is reading at the primer level although he is in the first grade. He did not do well on the reading list, prior knowledge, or comprehension. The teacher and I was very surprised because we know he can read most of the words on the Primer level list. We feel that it was a bad day for him since he said he was tired and did not want to read. I think it is best if I conduct the assessment again this week to get a more accurate analysis of his ability.

Observation update

Here is the interview I conducted for my observation with the cooperating teacher.

• Please describe your ELL teaching experience. My ELL teaching experience includes having ELL students in my class when I was a first and fourth grade teacher. As a reading teacher, I have had ELL students in my reading groups and as Reading Recovery students. 

• What is your perception on ELLs in terms of their learning motivation and performance(especially in reading and writing)? 

ELL students are very motivated to learn. They listen and absorb all that is taught to them each day. In terms of writing, they may have difficulty putting their ideas into clearly written sentences. At times the structure of their sentences may not be clear. I have found that my reading students benefit from rich book introductions, that review new vocabulary that may be unknown to them.

What learning difficulties do ELLs usually encounter in schools? ELL students may be lower in reading and writing than their peers due to the fact that they are learning the language as well as learning to read and write.

What is the role of family and community in helping ELLs’learning? I think it is very important for family and community to be involved in any student’s learning. It is important for them to review and reinforce at home what the student has been taught in school.

• In your opinion, how do classroom teachers resolve ELLs’ learning difficulties? I believe that classroom teachers need to differentiate instruction based on the needs of the student. 

What strategies do you adopt? Students may need to work in small groups to complete assignments or may need reteaching of concepts that may be difficult for them. They may need to have a conversation to generate ideas for writing and they will benefit from rich book introductions to review vocabulary that may be unknown. 

Are they effective or not? Yes, these strategies are effective.

Do you participate in on-going professional training for teaching ELLs? I have not participated in specific training for teaching ELL students. I do participate in other professional development to enrich my teaching. 

What is your experience in terms of working students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds? I have had students from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds in my classes during my teaching career including students from Denmark, Sweden , and many students from Spanish speaking countries. 

How do you make sure that your teaching is culturally responsive? I think it is important to include each child’s background into your teaching and to have students share this information with you and the class.

How do you go about reaching out to the family and the community? I have always written newsletters to keep my parents informed of what is happening in my classroom. I have an open line of communication with parents and keep them informed of their child’s progress throughout the year. As a Reading Recovery teacher, I invite the parents in to observe me teaching a lesson to their child.

• If you have an ELL in your class whose culture you are not familiar with at all, how do you go about teaching the child?
I think it is important for a teacher to learn about a child’s background from the child, their family or from other resources. 

COCA

The COCA assessment system is an effective tool to measure student informational comprehension to first and second graders who show signs of poor comprehension. Unlike the QRI-5, COCA does not use word list to define comprehension or reading passages in the traditional way. Using an unconventional method of no words on a page, COCA assesses four different dimensions of informational comprehension through the use of vocabulary knowledge (V), the use of comprehension strategy (CS), comprehension of graphics in the context of text (GCT), and knowledge of informational text features (TF). Questions and prompts are used to assess each of the four dimensions. Students are required to answer some questions by providing a missing word in a sentence or provide an answer based on what was heard. Graphics or pictures on a page assist students with a required answer. Scoring for this assessments range from 0 – 2. If a child scores several 0’s on questions assessing informational text features (TF) such as table of contents, index, glossary, labels, or pronunciation guides, the teacher can provide additional instruction for that student. If a student scores lower than a 1 on several questions pertaining to vocabulary words used in informational text, such as examine, observe, and kinds, instruction can be given to improve students comprehension in that area. With each dimension, a teacher can provide instruction to improve a student’s skills or knowledge in that area.

Since many students have a more difficult time with comprehending informational text, COCA addresses these issues by concentrating on assessing the skills and strategies needed to improve comprehension. Although these assessments are not determining student level of reading, it does reveal certain kinds of thought processes needed for good comprehension. If COCA were used in conjunction with the QRI-5, it would be most beneficial to students who read but struggle with comprehension. In the future, I hope there is more documentation revealing the improvement of informational comprehension using COCA. It is a system I would like to learn to help struggling students.

Reflection on Christopher Myers

Before this video clip, I have never heard of children's author, Christopher Myers. What a positive role model he is to students! He has a powerful message to students: Being different is cool! He uses his own oddities to transfer to students that being different is great and that is what makes you special. When students hear this from someone who has accomplished so much, it brings positive feelings about themselves. He also has a great message for students who do not like to read because it is difficult for them. His advice: keep reading! Every time you read you will get better and better. Many students need to hear and understand this when they are struggling with anything, especially reading. So often students reach a level of frustration that causes them to shut down. This can be avoided if students are reminded that it's alright not to know that word or words; keep trying, it will get better. This is something that I will say to the ELL student that I will be working with. Positive reinforcement will encourage him to continue to read and not give up even when he is frustrated with himself.

Observation Update

Great news!!!
As of yesterday, I finally have placement for this class! I will observe an ELL student with a reading teacher at Clayton Huey Elementary School. I will meet the teacher on Tuesday and will ask the interview questions. I will also get the background information I need on the student.

Observation update

It has been a rough journey finding placement for this class. On Friday, I was told I might have placement but the principal has to approve it. This seems to be the problem with every school I've contacted. Although this school did place me for my other class, I am hoping that they can find me a reading teacher that is willing to work with me for this project. I'll keep you all informed.

Relection to podcast

The podcast, Creating a home reading program, the R4 reading program created by educators Michelle J. Kelly and Nicki Clausen-Grace explains how teachers can promote independent reading to make students better readers. R4 stands for read, relax, reflect and respond. At home, students need to find a quiet place to read each night and log the minutes in a reading log. Parents initial the log to confirm that the reading was done. The reflect and respond portion of this program defines it from other programs; it develops students critical thinking skills. Students are given a list of reflection topics called prompts once a week. Students choose a prompt and reflect on what they have read in a journal. The response should be one half to a whole page but can be modified according to student ability and level. The teacher works with students to achieve high quality responses by modeling and reviewing examples. To keep students motivated and interested in reading, the teacher must validate students’ work by commenting in journal entries. Many students look forward to teacher comments and respond positively by reading more. This program requires the cooperation of teachers, parents, and students to successfully achieve reading goals.

I have personally experienced a similar type of reading program with my children. My children were committed to reading and keeping a log that I had to initial every night. On the last night of reading, they were to answer some questions on the reading material and draw a picture that describes the story. I did not know at that time that this was the reflecting and responding portion of the program. The teachers always had a comment or two in the reading journal. They responded to every journal entry to show my children that they were interested in what they wrote. My children were so proud if there was a sticker in the journal and could not wait to show me. This motivated my children to read more and eventually become independent readers.

Many schools use this program or something similar to help students’ literacy and comprehension. It encourages students of all reading levels to develop an interest in reading while validating their efforts. The key to the success of this program is to have parental involvement. The parents need to be aware and supportive of this by establishing a routine time for reading each night. The parents’ initials in the reading log also shows the student that they care and are interested in what they are reading.

Question

What would you do if the parents of your student do not agree with your assessment that their child needs special education services?

Article - The assessment of thoughtful literacy in NAEP: Why the states aren’t measuring up

The article, “The assessment of thoughtful literacy in NAEP: why the states aren’t measuring up,” the authors perform a study to determine the differences between the state achievement tests in reading comprehension and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Framework. It is assumed that these state achievement test are fairly comparable with the NAEP since the educational community agree that reading comprehension involves the reader to use prior knowledge to attain thoughtful and logical answers, thus becoming mature readers. However, this is not the case. Researchers have observed many teachers teaching to the test, which reveals students are memorizing and reciting details instead of thinking and responding to text. In 2005, many states have reported students achieving proficiency at an average rate of 40% higher than NAEP standards. The article states that these exaggerated levels of achievement are possibly due to the states “lowering the bar” due to the stress of the No Child Left Behind Act.

To determine if there are superiority differences between state tests and NAEP, the authors collected fourth grade sample state achievement tests in reading comprehension from California, Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Each sample test was classified by item type (open-ended or multiple choice format); item objective (assess vocabulary knowledge, familiarity with genre, text organization, characterization, or text detail); and item purpose and cognitive demand (text emphasis or higher order interpretation items.). The authors considered text emphasis items as those with improbable distractors that require very little thought answering the question. Higher order interpretation items require readers to logically answer questions using their understanding of the text or their personal experiences.

The authors found NAEP used 57% open-ended questions while sample state assessments used and average of 7% to assess comprehension. Although Florida used the most open-ended question, their sample test used less than half the amount of open-ended questions in NAEP.

The use of vocabulary items to assess comprehension was used regularly in the state test, while rarely used by NAEP. California and Wisconsin allotted 25% of comprehension items to vocabulary assessment. The average used by other states was 17%.

NAEP used only 2% of genre items to the ability to identify genre elements. Texas and Wisconsin averaged about the same as NAEP. However, California, Illinois, and North Carolina used more than 15.0% of their items to assess knowledge of genre.

The objective of text organization revealed NAEP and state average used 25% of their items, while Florida used 13% and North Carolina used 10%.

NAEP used more items for characterization and detail (46% and 24%) while the state average was at least 11% below the NAEP for characterization and about 6% for detail.

Data collected by the authors suggest that NAEP and state test use more than half their test to access higher order thinking skills. However, when compared to the actual items used for each objective, NAEP rated higher than the state test. 

 

In conclusion, the authors determined that there are significant differences between NAEP tests and the state test. NAEP allocates more open-ended items for reading assessment, higher order thinking responses, and fewer genre and vocabulary items for comprehension. They suggest that teachers who encourage students to reach a mature reading level will better prepare them for state and national accountability assessments.

Article - Response to Intervention (RTI): What teachers of reading need to know

 In the article “Response to Intervention (RTI): What teachers of reading need to know,” the authors Mesmer and Mesmer provide understandable definitions and processes of RTI in the method of identifying and supporting struggling readers. RTI signifies a key change to the Individuals With Disabilities Act (IDEA) by changing the process of which students are identified as special education and providing early intervention to those students in need of special instruction.

The discrepancy model used for identifying students with learning disabilities waits for students to fail before providing instruction. Students are not supported for months until enough data and discussion has been evaluated. RTI is an alternative approach that increases the quality of instruction for struggling readers.

There are five steps in the process of RTI. The fist step is to establish universal literacy practices to identify at risk students. About three times a year, all students are tested on basic literacy skills and their performance is compared to minimal benchmark scores. Students scoring below the benchmark scores receive assistance.

The second step is to implement suitable interventions for students not meeting benchmark scores. The interventions are provided in small group instruction to facilitate skill development for improving reading skills.

The third step is to use progress-monitoring assessments targeting the skills that need improvement. The assessments should occur weekly or biweekly and should be brief, reliable and valid. It should also be sensitive to indications of minor changes in a student’s reading performance.

The fourth step of the RTI process is individualized interventions for students who still struggle after receiving the first few interventions. Additional assessments are required to determine the problem area and should be used by teachers, reading specialists, school psychologist, and with the assistance of parents to collaboratively develop more concentrated intervention strategies. Through out this process, student’s progress is continuously monitored.

If the student has not responded to the interventions implemented after a sufficient amount of time, the decision-making process for special education services is initiated. This is the last step of the RTI process. School professionals and the student’s parents review all assessment data to determine the student’s eligibility for special services. If there are suspicions that other factors, which cannot be explained by a learning disability, maybe the cause for the students unresponsiveness to earlier interventions then additional assessments of the students emotional, behavioral, social, intellectual, and adaptive functioning should be evaluated.

The article further demonstrates how the RTI process is used to help a struggling second grade student. The student is given initial intervention, assessed and monitored, then individualized instruction. The student finally responded to the individualized plan by meeting the benchmark, reading instructionally at grade level with comprehension, and reading 60 WCPM. If it were not for the RTI process, this student would have had to fail before receiving additional support. RTI eliminates that problem by providing instruction as soon as a student displays signs of difficulty.

Video Summary

The video “Using Assessment to Guide Instruction” demonstrates the assessment used by teachers to measure student performance. Dr. Jeanne Paratore leads a workshop of practicing teachers in discussions of assessment strategies used in their classrooms. The teachers reveal how, when, and where they assess their students while Dr. Paratore relates how these assessments directs instruction.

I learned that there are many important aspects to assessment. Although it is very important that assessment need to be done in formal ways, such as running records, assessments need to be done throughout the day during daily classroom routines. The assessments need to reveal how students are doing with comprehension; use of language and word level; reading narrative and expository text; reading with peers or alone. Assessments should be gathered as teachers teach. This ongoing assessment should be used to dictate what is being taught.

During my observation in a first grade class, the teacher sometimes assessed students during centers. While students were busy doing the assigned center, the teacher would formally assess one or more students by doing running records. She would also assess students during the entire day. In fact, when she noticed a student was incorrectly writing the letter "b", she sat with the student during free time and explained to the student the difference between "b" and "d". From there, she gave the students some words to practice with at home. 

Weer 2 Readers Response

Organizing instruction for struggling readers in tutorial settings & Linguistically responsive teacher education: Preparing classroom teachers to teach English Language Learners

The number of ELL students are growing at such a rapid rate that seasoned, novice, and preservice teachers need to be prepared to teach these students skills so they can succeed in school. As a preservice teacher, knowledge of the ELL students I have in my class will provide the information needed to appropriately teach and provide instructional support for these students. But where do I start?

In the article "Linguistically responsive teacher education: Preparing classroom teachers to teach English Language Learners," the authors summarize six principles of second language learning and suggestions to help preservice teachers teach ELL students. Knowing these principles, preservice teachers have a foundation and knowledge to better serve these students to academically succeed. It would serve many preservice teachers well to know these principles before entering a class. Knowing what to expect from ELL students will guide preservice teachers in developing a plan with appropriate supports to ensure English proficiency.  The appropriate supports or scaffolding are clearly defined in the article. Many of the scaffolding methods are not new to preservice teachers. The article just clarifies which one to use and how to use it to help ELL students. For example, using visual tools such as a video, graphic organizer, or pictures, will reduce the amount of auditory information ELL students must process in order to make sense of the instructional information being given.

One important aspect that teachers and preservice teachers must always keep in mind is providing a safe and encouraging atmosphere for ELL students. It is hard enough for ELL students to be in a mainstream classroom without the added stress of being harassed because of their accents or error in speech and writing. Teachers must strive for a classroom that encourages cooperation and respect for all students.

The information provided in this article is very helpful to preservice teachers only if the appropriate exposure is provided. The article stresses that preservice teachers need to be prepared by observing and practicing these strategies before becoming mainstream teachers. Teacher education programs must provide prospective teachers with this foundation by training and exposing them to real classroom environments that allow them to envision and possibly practice what they have learned.

The article “Organizing instruction for struggling readers in tutorial settings,” the authors use a case study to provide the tutoring framework for a struggling reader. The article reveals the use of multiple assessments to develop an instructional plan that is organized with the particular needs of the student.

This framework guideline the planning, organization, and instructional monitoring used by the tutor to facilitate the student’s reading skills in a tutorial setting. The key steps to follow in this framework are to provide narrative texts and grade appropriate informational texts to accelerate and strengthen reading comprehension; allow the reader to realize the essential features of reading and writing to construct their own meaning of what they have read through reading discussions and writing lessons; use student selected narrative and informational texts for at home reading and familiar reading so students can experience fluent reading.

Both articles are very informative and provide strategies that will help preservice teachers adapt to the diverse student population they will encounter in their classrooms. 

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