Trending Strategies

Reading curriculum and instruction is constantly changing.  In fact, this past year my school did not even refer to the subject of reading, as reading.  The new term (which is really an old term) was Language Arts.  This shift was made in order to emphasize that the classroom reading block should incorporate reading, writing, and all elements that go hand-in-hand with reading.  

Currently, the shift in teaching reading comprehension seems to be towards teaching specific, explicit practices in which students identify and learn comprehension strategies.  This is done by teachers explicitly stating the objectives of the lesson, modeling the strategy taught for the day and allowing students to practice.  It is suggested and expected this be done every day in order to create higher order thinking readers who are prepared to meet the demands of a rigorous academic environment.  

This particular page will be dedicated to reading comprehension strategies intended to improve students' comprehension of informational text for intermediate elementary grades, primarily 5th grade.  

The National Common Core Standards for English Language Arts for Reading: Information Text are as follows:
Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2
Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

Craft and Structure:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.4
Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.5
Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.6
Analyze multiple accounts of the same event or topic, noting important similarities and differences in the point of view they represent.

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.7
Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.8
Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.9
Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.10

By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, at the high end of the grades 4-5 text complexity band independently and proficiently.

Reference:  http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RI/5/ 

In my opinion, in order to adequately complete these tasks, readers must be able to comprehend what they are reading.  To take it further, and this is something I have just recently learned and advocated, students must find meaning in what they read in order to comprehend what they read (Keene, E. O. et. al, 2011). 

Let me repeat that, because to me, this has been a powerful lesson I have had to learn as an educator:

What is the purpose of reading? (I often ask my students)

“Understanding what you read!”  They often respond.

“The most important thing is that YOU find MEANING in what you read!”

“Then you can COMPREHEND what you read!”

One more time in case you missed it:

In order to comprehend what they read, students must find meaning in what they read.

So how do they find meaning?

These are known, to me, as Comprehension Strategies.  

Now I will say that in the early stages of my career (honestly up until just two years ago), I believed that comprehension strategies meant to teach students the find the main idea, identify author’s purpose, compare and contrast, find cause and effect relationships, etc.  But what I didn’t realize is that students are unable to do this if they cannot FIRST do the following while they read 

-Experience empathy/fascination with the story or ideas in the text

-Experience a memorable emotional response

-Ponder, Revisit, Rethink

-Make predictions

-Recognize patterns and text structures

-Create Schema

-Make a Connection with an experience in their own life, another book they’ve read, or to something they’ve seen on TV or in a movie “That reminds me of…”

-Ask Questions

-Visualize what they are reading about or make sensory images

-Infer

-Ask Questions

-Synthesize and Summarize

(Keene, E.O., et. al., 2011)

I will add that finding the main idea, identifying sequence, author’s purpose, comparing and contrasting, etc may be referred to as Comprehension Skills. Comprehension skills must also be taught in the classroom.  So, suffice it say that in order to teach comprehension skills, teachers must first and concurrently teach comprehension strategies. 

Wow!  That’s a tall order to fill for teachers and don’t think you can isolate each one of these strategies and teach one each week. No Way!  These are behaviors that will come naturally to our brain.  But the good news is that teachers CAN make a difference in helping students train their brain to function like this while reading. This will be the FOCUS of the strategies posted here:  strategies that enable students to FIND MEANING in nonfiction texts (which may also translate to fictional texts as well). 

I will indicate which ones I have used and found to be successful and valuable with an asterisk *.

Strategy Title	Comprehension Strategy Addressed	Strategy Description	Reference
*“Tea Party”	-Activating and Building Background Knowledge. -Predicting	1.Choose a reading selection for students to read (I’ve chosen poems and nonfiction articles recently). 2.Choose a certain number of phrases or words from the selection depending on size of class (I usually like to have about two times as many students for each phrase).  3.Write these phrases or words on an index card:  one phrase per card.  4.Instruct students that when they get the card they need to:   -make a connection to the phrase (What does it remind you of?)    -ask a question about it    -express empathy if there is a character in the phrase     -tell what you know about the phrase or what it might mean      -tell what the phrase makes them think of or describe a mental picture they have as they read the phrase. 5.Pass out one card to each student. 6.Have students “Stand-up-Hand-up-and-Pair-up” with a partner and share about their card.  Move to a new partner when they are done sharing.  7.Do not have students trade cards when they are through sharing. I haven’t figured out yet if it would be beneficial to trade or not.  I feel the ability to keep the same card allows students to form a deeper connection with the phrase as they continue to share their thoughts about it.  They may gain new thoughts the more they discuss it. 8.When students are done sharing with classmates, invite students back into a group (or in my classroom, their original groups).  8.With group, students should be comparing ideas about their prediction of the reading selection.  Based on what they shared with partners, what do they think the reading selection will be about.  Teacher may have students write one paragraph about their prediction. 9.Groups share prediction ideas with class. 10.Teacher then reads selection out loud with students following along and students confirm or change their initial predictions.  Teacher also takes this time to help students understand difficult phrases by asking questions like, “What do we learn from the text that can help us understand this word/phrase better?” **Accommodations for Special Needs:  Teacher can color code phrase cards and customize cards for varying reading levels.  Only the teacher should know why the cards are color coded.	Beers, K. (2002). When kids can't read what teachers do:  A guide for 6-12 teachers.  Portsmouth, NH:  Heinemann.
*“Digging Deeper”	All Comprehension Strategies	1.       1.Read a short piece aloud to students as they follow along. 2.      2. Ask them to reread the piece on their own and take notes on how they understand the text:  -Think about what they think about as they read -Think about what they DO to help themselves understand  3.  Share/Discuss what they wrote down with a partner  4.  Share with group what partner wrote **Key question to ask students as they are sharing:  “How did these connections/actions help you understand the text more deeply?” 5.  Try to categorize some of their thinking into the following categories: Recognize Test structure/Patterns such as a compare/contrast or cause/effect article Connections to something in their own life, another book they read, or a movie they had seen  Emotional Responses to phrases in the text.  Visions of what it would have looked like.  I called this “Movie in my Mind” Wonder or questions about certain events or ideas Generate Schema/Hypotheses about newly learned concepts/ideas 6.  From this, make a list of categories and help students identify these as COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES that readers do in order to Dig Deeper into the meaning of expository texts.	Keene, E. O., Zimmerman, S., Miller, D., Bennett, S., Blauman, L., Hutchins, C., .… McGregor, T., (2011). Comprehension going forward: Where we are and what's next.  Portsmouth, NH:   Heinemann.
“Learning Targets”	Synthesizing Building Schema Inferring Visualizing	1.As students come into class for the day, or a new lesson is introduced they should be directed to look at Learning Targets posted on board:       -Long-term Learning Target (Unit Concept or Big Idea) stated using the words “I Can…”.  And example of this may be “I can identify the text structure of an article.”       -Short-term Learning Target (Steps or Chunk of LEARNING, not tasks, Perhaps a new one each day that will lead to attaining Long-Term Target).  Uses the words “I Can…”.  Some examples of this may be:  “I can identify cause and effect relationships in the text” or “I can identify compare and contrast relationships in the text”, etc.         2.Students open notebooks and write their own “Title” for today’s lesson.  This causes students to think or synthesize information, rather than the teacher just reading the learning target to the class. 3.Students share Title with the class, and teacher clarifies and explicitly directs students to what they will be learning about.  4.Each student is given a copy of an article or short piece of text that the teacher has as well.  Teacher reads the article aloud to class as they follow along.  5.While students are following along, they are also taking notes on the teacher’s THINK ALOUD strategies of accomplishing Learning Target.  They may write the following:        -What they see the teacher DOING (Rereading, picking out key words)        -Which comprehension strategies the teacher is using (making connections, predicting, using clues to make an inference, etc) 6.  After teacher is done, students will share the notes they took with their group, clarify or articulate their notes, and then share with the class.  Teacher clarifies their thoughts further to direct their thinking back to the specific learning target.  The first 6 steps should take no more than 15 minutes. 7.  After reviewing what she DID to accomplish learning target, teacher sets the class free, to practice on their own, the strategies she modeled.  Students may continue reading the same text or be given a new text.  But they should practice the strategies the teacher modeled and take notes on what THEY DID in order to meet the requirements of the learning target.  8.  One students have practiced for an appropriate time on their own, once again they share with groups and class what they have learned and accomplished.  9.  Teachers may require students to complete and “exit” slip (informal assessment) documenting what they learned/accomplished from the day’s lesson.	Keene, E. O., Zimmerman, S., Miller, D., Bennett, S., Blauman, L., Hutchins, C., .… McGregor, T., (2011). Comprehension going forward: Where we are and what's next.  Portsmouth, NH:   Heinemann
“Gradual Release of Responsibility Model”	All Comprehension Strategies	This specific “strategy” is actually a teaching model. The purpose of this model is to teach comprehension strategies.  So, teachers may use this model to teach how to make effective PREDICTIONS to aid in reading comprehension of a text.  1.        Explicit Instruction:  Teacher leads, while students listen.  Teacher introduces strategy and explains the importance of it. 2.       Teacher Modeling/Think Aloud: Teacher shares what the strategy looks like while reading a text to the class. While reading the text, the teacher stops and demonstrates her thought process, or what she is thinking while she performs the task. 3.       Collaborative Practice:  Teacher encourages students to share their thoughts and observations.  Thus, students are ‘thinking aloud’ while teacher guides them to effectively use strategy.  4.       Guided Practice: Teacher gradually releases responsibility to the students while supporting, monitoring, and evaluating students’ use of the strategy.  Students may read a new text or continue with the one the teacher began with.  Students may also record evidence of their use of the strategy.  5.       Independent Practice: Generally, teachers should not at this point assign independent practice to the entire group, but rather in independent reading settings such as small groups so teacher can continue to monitor and encourage effective use of the strategy.  Here is a simplified version of the Gradual Release Model: The Teacher The Students I do (Steps 1 and 2) You watch I do (Step 3) You help I help (Step 4) You do I watch (Steps 4 and 5) You do	http://www.doe.in.gov/sites/ default/files/curriculum/ research-base-comprehension.pdf *More specifically this resource comes from a McGraw Hill Research Based Publication that explains a reading comprehension curriculum entitled “LEAD21”.  This program was developed by the Wright Group, and written by Dr. Taffy E. Raphael, a professor at the University of Illinois in 2002.

I pause in my table of strategies before I continue on with further strategies.  I came across the following article:

                Aflerbach, P., Cho, B., Kim, J., Crassas, M., & Doyle, B., (2013). Reading: What else                             matters besides strategies and skills? Reading Teacher, 66 (6), 440-448.

In addition to teaching cognitive strategies, the authors in this article believe that students must be exposed to AFFECTIVE strategies as well.  The authors discuss FOUR elements of reading comprehension that should be implemented in any reading comprehension program, beyond just teaching for cognitive purposes.

These four elements are:

1.        Metacognition: Readers monitor and evaluate their reading and they progress

2.       Motivation and Engagement:  Readers willingly invest time and effort in the reading process

3.       Epistemic Beliefs:  Readers view reading as an opportunity to construct new knowledge and approach texts with higher order thinking skills and strategies

4.       Self-Efficacy:  Readers believe in their abilities to produce desired results by their actions

The authors offered a glimpse into a classroom that foster these reading elements.  The following practices will highlight this.

Strategy Title	Comprehension  Strategy Addressed	Strategy Description	Reference
“Metacognitive Bookmarks”	Metacognition: Infer Ask Questions Make Predictions Reread	Teacher models Metacognitive Questioning during direct instruction time and encourages students to use metacognitive bookmarks during independent reading time. The following Key provides the: A.       Teacher Questions B.       Student Bookmark Checklist C.       Related Student Metacognition A: Why are you reading? B: -----I remember why I am reading. C: Student reads with a sense of purpose. A: Does this make sense? B: -----read to understand the text. C: Student reads, expecting to construct meaning. A: Is there a problem? B: -----When I read, I keep an eye out for problems. C: Student is looks out for blockages to meaning. A: What is the problem? B: -----If I feel there is a problem, I try to identify it. C: Student identifies the problem. A: Can I fix it? B: -----I try to fix the problems I find. C: Student tries to fix the problem. A: Can I get back on track? B: -----I try to maintain my reading, even when I encounter problems. C: Student resumes reading. Obviously, the “B” Statements are the statements that should be put on the Students’ Bookmarks.	http://web.a.ebscohost. com.ezproxy.fgcu.edu/ ehost/detail?sid= 4db5b63b-0faf-4877- bb09-072bd3ab89e2%40 sessionmgr4005&vid=1& hid=4107&bdata= JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ% 3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=85862250
“Developing Epistemic Beliefs”	Ask Questions Synthesize Make Judgments Evaluate	Most literary students can successfully gather information from a single text, but many struggle with consistently evaluating text.  In order to engage students’ critical thinking skills, try using a curriculum with historical texts that provide multiple perspectives on the same events.  For example, “students read different accounts of the construction of the transcontinental railroad in the 19th century. The texts represent varied voices involved in the event: A textbook passage describes how business owners and investors profited from the railroad, whereas a personal diary and a narrative tribal history describe the experiences of people treated unfairly, including railroad laborers and Native Americans”  (p. 446). The teacher guides students to compare and evaluate each text and determine how the texts contribute individually and jointly to their learning.  The teacher does this by creating questions that “help students focus on understanding the text content, the particular perspective or bias of a text or author, and their own learning” (p. 446). * What does each text tell you? Whose voices are heard and whose voices are missing in each text? * What meaningful connections can you find or build across the texts? How do the texts support each other? How do the texts contradict each other? * Does reading from multiple perspectives help you learn about this topic? Why or why not? * What does this reading experience tell you about what is "true" in the texts that you read? Knowledge source  Questions The text          * Do you believe that the content of the text is true and accurate? The author        * Do you believe the author is a credible expert about the topic?  * Does the author know what he or she is talking about?  * Do you think it's important to read other texts     that represent different perspectives? The learner       * Do you know anything about the topic of this text? * Do you think what you know is important to understanding this text? Why? * Is getting information from this text the best way to learn about the topic?	See Above
“Reading Conferences”	Building Self-Efficacy Setting Goals Monitor Reading Progress	Hold regular, and as needed Reading Conferences.  Conferences should: ·         help students to highlight student progress ·         focus on recent accomplishments ·         set realistic goals ·         focus on students’ effort in relation to those goals	See Above

While strategies will continue to be added to this page, I will summarize with the following:

There is much consensus among educational professionals in regards to preparing students to meet the literacy demands of the 21^st century (Harvey & Goudvis, 2012).  At the forefront of literacy education, is the idea that students should be able to construct meaning from a text, usually by performing several tasks such recalling information, developing mental images, making connections to background knowledge, predicting, questioning and so on (Brown, 2008, Hess, 2008, Keene et. al., 2011).  In fact, researchers conclude that the most important thing about reading is comprehension and that the ultimate goal of proficient literacy is comprehension (Pressley, 2006). 

The means in which to accomplish such a feat have been the subject of interest for educators throughout the ages.  In order to meet the demands of critical areas of literacy, and more specifically comprehension instruction, it is crucial for teachers to pinpoint specific and effective strategies for use in the classroom (Harvey & Goudvis, 2012, Keene et. al., 2011).    As the literature will suggest, students who are constantly exposed to concentrated encounters in which the teacher is explicitly modeling strategies such as understanding purposes of text features and eventually allowing guided and independent reading experiences, will become empowered and purposeful readers (Bluestein, 2010; Fealy, 2010; Moss, 2005).

While there seems to be much documented about what teachers should do, not as much is known about how teachers should actually implement strategies or how much daily class time should be devoted to teaching reading comprehension (Connor, Morrison, & Petrella, 2004). 

My aim in presenting this "Trending Strategies" page is provide more of the HOW of teaching reading comprehension as opposed to the WHAT.  

Ultimately, teachers must be familiar with innovative and trending strategies that will create world class learners and future professionals.  

References:

Beers, K. (2002). When kids can't read what teachers do:  A guide for 6-12 teachers. 

     Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Bluestein, N.A. (2010). Unlocking text features for determining importance in expository text: A

       strategy for struggling readers. Reading Teacher, 63(7), 597-600. 

Connor, C. M., Morrison, F. J., & Petrella, J. N. (2004). Effective reading comprehension instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(4), 682-689.

Fealy, E. M. (2010). Explicit instruction of graphic organizers as an informational text reading comprehension strategy: Third-grade students' strategies and perceptions. Proquest Llc, Ph. D. Dissertation (Fordham University)

Harvey, S. and Goodvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching comprehension for understanding

     and comprehension. (2^nd ed.). Portland, Maine: Stenhouse.

Keene, E. O., Zimmerman, S., Miller, D., Bennett, S., Blauman, L., Hutchins, C., … McGregor, T.,

       (2011). Comprehension going forward: Where we are and what's next.

       Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. 

Manoli, P., & Papadopoulou, M. (2012). Graphic organizers as a reading strategy: Research findings and issues. Creative Education, 3(3), p. 348.

Moss, B. (2005). Making a case and a place for effective content area literacy instruction in the

        elementary grades. The Reading Teacher, 59, 46-55.