A 7-Step Process for Comprehension Instruction

Step 1 – Establish Targets and Assessment Instrument

Step 2 – Collect Baseline Data Step 3 – Provide Direct Instruction on

Qualities of Effective Readers Step 4 – Self-Assessment Step 5 – Provide Feedback Step 6 – Set Goals, Reflect, and Celebrate

Growth Step 7 – Direct Instruction Based on Goals

“The assessor needs to have a clear picture of what achievement he or she intends to measure. If we don’t begin with clear statements of the intended learning- clear and understandable to everyone, including students- we won’t end up with sound assessments.”

Stiggins 2009

“When used effectively, assessment FOR learning always triggers an optimistic response to assessment results from within the learner. It starts by providing students with a clear, student-friendly vision of the achievement target to be mastered, including models of strong and weak work. These examples reveal to learners where we want them to end up.”

Stiggins 2005

Targets = the core (the essence) of a course agreed upon by all teachers who teach course. These targets are written in student-friendly language.

Naming and sharing core targets is a step in assuring that each and every student has equal access to core knowledge.

Core targets allow students to know where they are headed, wherethey are in relationship to the target, and what they need to donext to progress toward the target.

Teachers can design feedback to align with targets. They canassess both mastery of target and growth toward target.

We wanted our students to:Approach reading as an active, meaning-making process that requires the flexible use of different types of thinking to make sense of a variety of types of texts for different purposes.

We wanted to help our students:See the invisible process of reading.

Read a short story: “Man Who Had No Eyes”.

Mark it up or annotate to help them understand. Students are given no further instruction.

Write a response. Record “Baseline Data Collection” on Target

Sheet. Introduce students to the many different

ways they can be active readers.

Determine students’ strengths and weaknesses (diagnostic)

Plan instruction and support Provide a starting point for monitoring and

assessing students’ literacy growth (progress monitoring)

“Interventions focused on developing meta-cognition and comprehension skills have repeatedly shown to be more likely to accelerate reading development than decoding emphasis interventions.”

Richard Allington

Knapp, Shields, and Turnbull (1995, 1991, 1992) in their two year study of 140 classrooms found that:

Students in schools that taught reading with an emphasis on meaning scored significantly higher on standardized tests of reading and writing than students who received skills-emphasis reading instruction.

Identify and examine categories/characteristics

(ways of thinking used to comprehend text) Predictions Connections Opinions Questions Summary Author’s Craft Reflection/Evaluation

DURING READING

Mark in the text: Characters (who) Ο When (setting) ☐ Where (setting) ☐ Vocabulary ~~~~~ Important information

or ✓ 

Write in the margins: Summaries Predictions Opinions Connections Questions Analyze the Author’s

Craft Reflections/

Reactions/Comments

Teach the concepts of Surface and Deep Iceberg Student Interviews Me Boxes

Continue to make the reading process visible (some examples):

Read aloud and direct thinking Read aloud and model thinking Read aloud and show thinking with

annotations (overhead, Elmo, etc.) Show student samples of work that contains

the ways of thinking

The best artists, writers, actors, and athletes are capable not only of being coached but also of internalizing the coaching. The ability to accurately self-assess and self-adjust is critical to maximizing performance, and the same principle applies to school learning.

Understanding can be attained only by regular reflection, self-assessment, and self-adjustment in trying to apply prior learning to new situations and tasks via activities and assessments that demand such reflection and transfer.

Wiggins and McTighe

When – 4 ½ Weeks

How Share Target Sheets with Students Color-Code Annotations and Written

Responses (current and baseline) Rank Use of Types of Thinking Continue self-assessment every 9 weeks

Learners require regular, timely, and user-friendly feedback in order to understand goals, to produce quality work, and to meet high standards.

Wiggins and McTighe

Feedback has been shown to be one of the most significant activities a teacher can engage in to improve student achievement.

Hattie, 1992

Meet Individually with Students Students guide teacher through their

analysis of annotations and written responses, speaking the common, “target language”

Teacher engages in conversation with student regarding areas of success, challenges with text, etc..

Together students and teacher set goals for future encounters with text

Engaged, self-regulated readers are those who set realistic goals, select effective reading strategies, monitor their understanding of the text, and evaluate progress toward their goals.

Students’ self-efficacy beliefs are related to their achievement and their level of self-regulation.

Author’s Craft: Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street

Predictions: “By the Waters of Babylon” Summary: Non-Fiction Texts Opinions: Jodi Piccoult Connections: Media, news, film Questions: Inquiry Board Reflection/Evaluation: Generate reflection

questions, read texts where author reflects on process and/or where a character reflects

Step 4 – Self-Assessment Step 5 – Provide Feedback Step 6 – Set Goals, Reflect, and Celebrate

Growth Step 7 – Direct Instruction Based on Goals

Teachers must provide results in a way that helps students move forward. Specific, descriptive feedback linked to the targets of instruction and arising from the assessment items or rubrics communicates to students in ways that enable them to immediately take action, thereby promoting further learning

We’re still experimenting with different formats for:

◦Self-assessment

◦Documenting and expressing thinking about text

◦Target sheets

Websitehttp://dhs.dist113.org/Faculty/MorrisSR/Pages/default.aspx

Sara Morris – Deerfield High Schoolsrmorris@dist113.org

Janell Cleland – Schuler Family Foundationjanell@schulerfoundation.org

Carol Porter-O’Donnell – Elk Grove High Schoolcarol.odonnell@d214.org

Allington, R. (2009). What Really Matters in Response to Intervention Research Based Designs. Pearson.

Chappuis, S. Chappuis, J. Stiggins, R. (2009). The Quest for Quality. Educational Leadership, 14 – 19.

Knapp, M. S., Shields, P. M., & Turnbull, B. J. (1995). Academic challenge in high-poverty classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 770-776.

Porter-O'Donnell, Carol. “Beyond the Yellow Highlighter: Teaching Annotation Skills to Improve Comprehension. (2004). English Journal 93, no. 5, 82-89.

Stiggins, R. (2005). “From Formative Assessment to Assessment FOR Learning: A Path to Success in Standards-Based Schools.” Phi Delta Kappan.

Wiggins, G. and McTighe, J. (2007). Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement. ASCD.