Teaching Tipster: Clarifying Unknown Words

When I use this Predicting, Clarifying, Questioning, and Summarizing form with my students, for each book we read in small group. First, they choose the vocabulary words that are challenging for them. After they choose the words that "are tricky for them," I work with them to clarify the words.

Here's what we do:

1. We write down the words on chart paper. I check the words that are repeats. This helps me to see the words that are tricky for all of the students.
2. Then I choose words that are essential to the comprehension of the text or words that are Tier 2 words that they will encounter often. See this article from Colorin Colorado for more help on choosing vocabulary for ELLs. We talk about 5-10 of the words.
3. Next, the students read the word in context and make inferences about the meaning.
4. I draw a picture of the word, and we discuss the word togther- giving examples and non-examples.
 

I took some quick pictures of the work we did with clarifying  this week:

On the bottom are Tier 2 words (clogged, harder), up top are Tier 3 words (geysers, craters, cinder cones, shield volcanoes).

This process could always be improved on. But, I think it's esecially essential to discuss the tricky words with my students, and giving them an illustration is especially important- it helps to anchor the word for them.

How do you teach vocabulary to the kids you teach?

Teaching Tipster: Teaching Questioning to Improve Comprehension

After working with my students with this reciprocal teaching framework for the past month, I realized that they need a lot more explicit teaching on questioning.

I really like the questioning model presented in Jan Richardson's The Next Step in Guided Reading. Her model is based in the QAR  (Question-Answer-Relationship) model, but it's more explicit and gives sentence frames to better guide students.  Sentence frames are essential learning tools for my ELL students, but are helpful for every student.

I first introduced my interevention students to GO (literal, right there) questions. These questions start with Who, What, When, Where, and How.  Students can go directly to the text to find the answer to these questions. I modeled GO questions with a shared reading of the students' leveled text. Then, after some practice together, the students began asking literal questions with an instructional-leveled text.    

After practice with the GO questions, I introduced my students to STOP questions, or inferrential questioning. These questions are not directly answered in the text, but students have to use background knowledge, or the inferences from text to find come to an answer. These questions start with What if...?, I wonder why...?, What would happen if..?, Why would..?, How could...? Why do you think?... Again I modeled how to ask these questions, and began with teaching the sentence frame, I wonder why...?

I haven't yet introduced my students to SLOW DOWN questions. They need to become more proficient with GO and RED questions, before I introduce them to these more complex questions. For these questions students have to look more than on place in the text to find the answers to their questions. SLOW DOWN questions are cause/effect, compare/comtrast questions.

This model is especially helpful for my students as English Language Learners. They struggle with knowing how to start questions. The sentence frames give the students the academic language they need to ask questions.

Knowing about question-answer relationships allows the students to find answers to the questions their teacher (or the test!) is asking them. Do they go to the text? Do the make an inference? When you teach your students different question types, it helps them to know how to both ask and answer questions. Knowing how to answer to question well, also dramatically improves students' ability to comprehend a text.

If you don't have this Jan Richardson book, you should get it. She has great ideas to improve guided reading.

Teaching Tipster with Free Printable: Reading Comprehension in Small (Intervention) Groups

The Why:
It's taken me a while to discover what works best when teaching reading comprehension in a small group. For phonics, fluency, and phonemic awareness I use systematic intervention programs, and alter content and format according to a student's reading intervention need. I use systematic intervention programs for the mentioned reading pillars (I favor SIPPS) and with these easy-to-track skills (phonics and fluency are easy to assess and  growth is very measurable), I always see monumental growth in my students' reading.

I see students begin to really struggle with comprehension around the 2nd and 3rd grade reading levels. At these levels, vocabulary becomes more complex (a major stumbling block to poor comprehenders) and the writing becomes more nuanced, expecting that the reader can make inferences and go beyond the text while reading.

There are a lot of advantages to teaching reading comprehension in a whole-class setting, or to a group of students you spend a great deal of time with. First off, students are able to understand text with greater depth by making connections with classroom content (past/present) and the current text being read.  The more shared experiences you have with your students, the more deeply you can push them to comprehend a text. Also, you can immerse your students in a theme (author study, etc...) or a set of vocabulary words far more easily than in an intervention setting. You can also set up daily routines that foster reading motivation, which ultimately goes a long way in helping a student understand what they've read.   

All that being said- I'm not in a traditional classroom. I've has to find ways that successfully develop a group of students' comprehension in four short sessions weekly.  With reading intervention, I see my students for a limited time each week, which really limits how I can teach reading comprehension. There's no quick fix in teaching reading comprehension!

This last intervention cycle I have tried a new lesson sequence in teaching reading comprehension. It is a spin off on reciprocal teaching. But my students are far from being able to lead the lessons (as is the purpose with reciprocal teaching.

I use one book with each group of students each week. The leveled books tend to average about 30 pages. I am using non-fiction only with these readers. Their comprehension ability is greatly affected by poor vocabulary knowledge and lack of background knowledge (my students are mostly ELLs who speak Spanish at home). My goal in choosing non-fiction texts is to build their background knowledge, to widen their reading, and to foster vocabulary learning.

I have four 30-minute sessions with my students weekly. This lesson sequence was crafted to fit within that time frame. And again, I use one text with my students for an entire week.

The How:

Day 1: Prediction
Before reading the text, students share predictions about the text first based on the cover. Then we look at the table of contents together, and the students make another prediction. Finally, we look through the subtitles, captions, and pictures and the students make additional predictions.

The kids usually want the jump to look at the photos before making predictions about the cover, or the table of contents. However, I encourage them not to peek ahead. I like them to see how their predictions change once they have more information about the book. Also, it is a skill on the DRA and other reading assessments to be able to make predictions solely based on the table of contents of a book- it takes inferring, a valuable comprehension skill to develop.

After the students make predictions, they read the entire text.

When small group is done, their exit ticket is to ask a question, state something they learned, or add a word to their group's word wall.

Day 2: Clarifying
Wow! Day 2 really helps me, as the teacher, get into the mind of my students and really understand what they do and don't understand about a text.

I have them start Day 2 by rereading the text. During this time I am giving a running record, or stopping students to have them tell me about what they are reading. I have them highlight words they don't know with highlight tape while they are reading the book this second time.        

Usually students are stumped on words- and many times words that present them with a new concept. I am often astonished what words my students do not know, words I often assume they know. Having them share words they do not know can be embarrassing, but we talk a lot about the importance of asking for help with words/ideas they do not understand. And you'll see, once they get started, they love it!

After they share their words, we discuss them together. A lot of times students that know the meaning of the word share what they know about the word to the other students. Then we add the new word to our word wall. Many times I explain the word and draw a quick sketch or show a picture from google to help them fully grasp the meaning.

Like Day 1, When small group is done, their exit ticket is to ask a question, state something they learned, or add a word to their group's word wall.

Day 3: Summarizing
Summarizing a text is cognitively challenging. This is the day where I find I need to scaffold the students the most. 


The students reread through the book, or a portion of the book (depending), a third time. This time they are on the search for key words. On the worksheet I created to correspond with this process, they record their key words. Choosing the most important words/concepts in a text is a challenging task. But students become increasingly savvy with this week after week. I have to give some students more support than others during this process.

After students come up with the key words, they use some or all of these words to develop a main idea sentence from the book. Many times I will write a sentence frame to help narrow their focus.  I may have the students write these sentences on their own, or depending on the group, we may write the main idea sentence together.


When small group is done, their exit ticket is to ask a question, state something they learned, or add a word to their group's word wall.


Day 4: Questioning
Kids often have questions about a book throughout the week, so I don't limit questioning to Day 4.

But after a final reread of the text on Day 4, I encourage students to ask questions that go beyond the text read. Some groups are ready to start delving into the different types of questions they can ask (I use: on the line, in between the lines, or beyond the line question types). But for starters, I tell them to ask questions with who, what, when, why, or how.


Many times students like to answer each others questions. We also look back to the book to find the answers together. Or talk about that that is a question that we may have to do more reading to find an answer.


When small group is done, their exit ticket is to ask a question, state something they learned, or add a word to their group's word wall.

In closing, this has worked well to give structure to teaching reading comprehension in small groups. I have seen the students become more motivated about the reading. Teachers have also reported back that the students are using the vocabulary (impressively) in class which definitely boosts the confidence of these lower struggling readers. I also like how it helps the students know how to attack a book when they're reading independently. Week by week their comprehension skills are become sharper and their comprehension tool kit growing,  while they are also learning new words and concepts, and become savvy with discussing a text in a small group.

Time will tell, and data (for sure!) will tell. But I'm pretty confident that this new crop of students are becoming comprehension all stars.

Here's the worksheet I use- follow link to download for free:

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/110168700/Comprehension-Wrkst-2

Be well! Read on!

Into the Book: An Excellent Resource for Teaching and Building Reading Comprehension

I LOVE this new-to-me resource! If you haven't already come across Into the Book, I suggest you high tail to it and check this out! Pure awesomeness!

Why I love it:

This site has so many wonderful downloadable resources for teachers about reading comprehension. It provides also videos and student interactives to aid in learning reading comprehension strategies. I know I will be using this site extensively next year with my struggling readers. Visit the site to see for yourself!

A Couple of (free) Gems:

Reader's Response Bookmark

Downloadables (Music, Posters, and More!)

Teaching Tips

Links to helpful websites

About the site:

Into the Book is a multimedia package designed to improve students' reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. Based on current research, the project focuses on eight learning strategies:

• Using prior knowledge
• Making connections
• Questioning
• Visualizing
• Inferring
• Summarizing
• Evaluating
• Synthesizing

Into the Book includes:

• student Web site featuring interactive reading comprehension activities
• teacher Web site featuring music, video clips, classroom design ideas, posters, teacher guides, lesson plans and lots more
• Into the Book video series: nine 15-minute classroom videos teaching children how to be strategic readers
• Behind the Lesson video series: nine 10-minute professional development videos that model effective ways of teaching the learning strategies

The nine Into the Book student episodes feature an extraordinary classroom where a group of ordinary students use powerful learning strategies to enter the world of the story. Programs show student viewers how to use these strategies when reading fiction, nonfiction, or everyday text. They'll also model real-life applications of the strategies. For more information, video clips, and a teacher guide to using the video programs, click on "Student Video" under each strategy.

In the professional development videos, we go Behind the Lesson as teachers demonstrate how they are using these strategies effectively with their students. Programs combine actual classroom footage with dialogue and personal reflection on instructional practices. For more information, video clips, and a slide show, click on "Teacher Video" under each strategy.

This project was developed by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a team of experienced educators. It is produced by Wisconsin Public Television and the Agency for Instructional Technology.

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"Teaching children which thinking strategies are used by proficient readers and helping them use those strategies independently creates the core of teaching reading. If proficient readers routinely use certain thinking strategies, those are the strategies children must be taught. For the kindergarten-through-twelfth-grade reading curriculum to focus primarily on those strategies, we need a new instructional paradigm: Our daily work with children must look dramatically different from the approaches in wide use in our schools today."

I'm linking up at  Learning All the Time. Visit to find other bloggers' fav resources of the week!

Be well! Read on!

Reading Comprehension with Ease: The Click/Clunk Strategy

Teaching comprehension can be daunting. It requires that students have a toolbox of reading skills in place, and that these skills function seamlessly. When one of these skills lacks (vocabulary, fluency ability, conceptual reasoning), understanding the text can be challenging for the student/child.

Many poor readers struggle with monitoring their comprehension while they're reading. Good readers, like you and me, do this naturally. When we're confused- we question the text, reread the paragraph, or even go to a second source to find more information. Poor readers are not always aware when they need to reread for clarification, and they may be unsure when or how to ask a question when they're confused.

I came across a brilliant comprehension strategy on Intervention Central earlier this year called Click or Clunk. I've been using this strategy all year (with great success), and many teachers at my school have also started using it.

When the child has read a page/paragraph/chapter (or when I have read a portion of text out loud) we stop and I ask them to Click or Clunk. Students say Click when they understand what they read, and Clunk if they're confused. If they say Click, they retell what was read. If they say Clunk, they ask a question that will help them to clarify the text.

This is so simple, yet so empowering for kids.

Here's why it works so well:

• The kids that understand the text synthesize the material for the other students- which is good for the "clickers" and the "clunkers".
• Students that think they understand the text (but don't), are pushed to explain their thinking. Usually this process helps them to realize their misconceptions- which, in turn, helps them to more fully understand the text.
• All students are eager to help each other understand the text and usually answer each others questions really well.
• "Clunkers" learn how and when to ask questions while they read. They learn how to explain their thinking.
• Students pay better attention to the text when they are asked to share so specifically.
• It's easy! Kids can easily do it independently!
• Kids like it! My students ask to do Click or Clunk, even when I don't have it scheduled into the lesson.
• It gets students talking A LOT more (and the teacher talking a lot less). When students are truly interacting with text in a lively discussion- they comprehend a whole lot more!
• Did I mention that it gets the kids talk A LOT more??!

How I use Click/Clunk:

• I use this in small group (3-5 students) discussion in reading sessions with my students. But you could easily use it whole class.
• Some days I have students get into pairs. Students switch off reading. At the end of every page, each student Click or Clunks.
• I use it as an exit ticket at the end of my reading session with the students.
• I made comprehension cards with different comprehension strategies- one is labeled for monitoring with Click/Clunk. It reminds the students to retell for Click and ask a clarifying question for Clunk. Despite the simplicity of the activity, my student really like have the card in their hands to help remind them how to Click/Clunk.
• I try not to do any talking. I choose the first student to talk, and then they call on each other. This takes me out of the conversation (for the most part), and helps the kids to have a healthy discussion on their own.

Teachers, I hope you get a chance to try this with your students! Parents, I think you could easily try this at home with your elementary aged kids. The more you get your student/child to talk about what they're reading, the better. This interactive and simple way of comprehending text is a little less daunting- for both the student and the teacher!

Read On!