Developing Strategic Readers: Thinking Processes

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Thinking PartnersSet up five dates for time to work through some ideas presented in this workshop

What Reading Program Do You Have in Your Classroom?

• Comprehensive – includes read aloud, shared and independent reading

• Moves from support to independence, explicit lessons that are responsive to students’ needs

• Allows the teacher to work independently or with small groups to assess, confer, and follow up

• Offers students choice and fosters independence; moves to daily habits, and supports individual needs

• Daily and sequential

“Kids not only need to read a lot but they need lots of books they can read right at their fingertips.

They also need access to books that entice them, attract them to reading.”

~ Richard L. Allington What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs

Comprehensive Reading ApproachBalanced Literacy, Daily Five,

Workshop

• Phonemic awareness• Phonics• Fluency & Accuracy• Vocabulary• Comprehension

Comprehension

What is the difference between thinking processes and strategies?

Thinking Partner #1

Thinking Processes

• How a learner constructs meaning

• Flexibly• Automatically• Appropriately

StrategyPlan that is consciously:• Selected• Adapted• Monitored

Thinking Process and Strategy

• Thinking processes are employed simultaneously in an orchestrated way, with unimaginable speed.” (Lyons & Pinnell)

• There are probably hundreds of strategies

Discuss Quotes

“Meaning can’t reside in the “ink spots on paper. Meaning emerges as readers transact with those squiggles.”

“The text awakens associations in the reader’s mind, and out of the mix, meaning is created. It resides neither in the text nor in the reader’s mind, but in the meeting of the two.”

• Louise Rosenblatt

What is Reading Comprehension?

• As you engage in this activity, examine what is going on in your head as you strive to understand the text?

Magic Craft

• What are you thinking this passage will be about?

Has your thinking changed? Why?

Through the thick, smoked glass viewport, she surveyed the dark bars and grey wall. A layer of fuliginous residue covered the bottom, but she chose to do nothing about it.

Turn and talk with your thinking partner…what are you thoughts

now?

A knob was turned, and some bars changed from black to radiating red. The space beyond the viewport became hotter and hotter. The residue began to smoke, adding an unpleasant smell to the closed space.

Did you change your thinking again? Why? Why not?

She worried about this, but decided it was too late to do anything about it. An alarm rang but it quickly stopped. Just a nuisance, she thought.

…and now? Are you confirming your thoughts?

The heat light flashed and went off. She pulled on thickly insulated gloves, opened the protective heat door, and moved some of the bars, carefully positioning them.

How did your thinking change as you continued through this

activity? Why?

Finally, the oven was hot, and she put the pans of bread in to bake.

Share your thoughts with the

people at your table.

Evolution of Thinking Processes

David Pearson: Comprehension Strategies (1992)

Search for connections Ask questions

Draw inferences

Distinguish

important from

less important Synthesize

Repair faulty comprehension

monitor

Thinking Processes

Defining the processes vary from researcher to researcher

• Harvey and Goudvis Strategies That Work

Harvey & Goudvis: Strategies That Work (2000, 2008)

Making connectionsQuestioning

Visualizing

Determining

importance

Inferring

Synthesizing

Thinking Processes Fountas and Pinnell

Fountas and Pinnell: Systems of Strategic Actions (2000)

• Thinking Within a Text– Solve words– Monitor and correct– Search for and use information– Summarize– Maintain fluency– adjust

Fountas and Pinnell: Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency (2006)

• Thinking Beyond the Text:– Predict– Make connections– Synthesize– infer

Fountas and Pinnell: Systems of Strategic Actions (2011)

• Thinking About the Text:– Analyze – Critique

Thinking ProcessesDescribed in

Scholastic Resources: Stead &

Brailsford

Balanced Literacy: Thinking Processes (2006- Present)

Sequencing

InferringEvaluating

Self-monitoringAnalyzing

Predicting

Synthesizing

Making connections

Thinking Processes: Jigsaw

• Divide up into groups of 4 people

• Each person is assigned 2 thinking processes (one person for self-monitoring)

• Read and report back the key ideas

• Whole group discussion

Asking Students Questions

After Reading≠

Teaching Reading Comprehension

How do we teach reading comprehension?

Routman, R. (2012). Mapping a pathway to schoolwide highly effective teaching. Kappanmagazine.org, 93(5), 56 – 61.

What is Rigour?

It’s Rigour, Not Rigour Mortis –when the text is too tough, then the task is simply hard, not rigourous

The essential element in rigour is engagement –transaction between the reader and the text and then among readers (shared)

Going Deeper into the Thinking Processes

• Self-monitoring• Making connections• Predicting• Inferring• Sequencing• Analyzing• Synthesizing• Evaluating

Self-monitoring: Control Central

Involves• Being mentally active• Setting personal goals• Asking questions and monitoring

understanding• Knowing what the problem is and applying

appropriate “fix up” strategies

Self-monitoring

Applied at the word level• Think about what you know • Look at the word and its parts• Studies reveal that efficient readers have

multiple ways to solve words (Betsy Kaye)

Self-monitoringTracking comprehension• Adjust reading speed, slow down,

re-read• Look at visual, graphs, charts• Read the confusing part out loud• Note the spot that is confusing and

come back to it later• Talk to someone about the

confusing part

Self-monitoring

• Involves metacognition• Is challenging• Complex• Most effective teaching strategy is modelling

and explicit instruction• Students need practice and need to be

encouraged to talk about how they self-monitor

• Use fix up strategies to regain meaning– Use picture support– Reread– Read more slowly– Look carefully at all the letters in the word and think

about what would make sense– Read ahead to see if you get more information– Ask yourself questions– Ask for help

Fix Up Strategies

Self- Monitoring

• What do you do that demonstrates self-monitoring when you are reading?

Self- Monitoring

• Saying voice/Thinking voice• “Does it make sense?” • Clicks vs. clunks • Fix-up strategies• Questioning

Between Friends: Poems to Share

“Anchor charts make our thinking permanent and visible, and so allows us to make

connections from one strategy to another, clarify a point,

build on earlier learning, and simply remember a specific lesson.”

Miller, D. (2002). Reading with meaning: Teaching comprehension in the primary grades. Markham, ON: Pembroke. p. 57

Anchor Charts

Anchor Charts:

Self-Monitoring at the Word Level

Clay states that reading is a message getting, problem solving activity

• “Competent readers…use many different ways to solve new words.”

• (Clay 2005)

• Betsy Kaye’s Second Graders’ Reading Behaviors: A Study of Variety, Complexity, and Change

• Second grade readers…

Used a variety of ways to solve

• Said the first consonant cluster or sound of the word and then said the whole word.

• Said the first part, then started over and said the whole word.

• W- washer

• Int-interesting

• Said the first part of the word and then the rest

• Dr-ied

• Made four or more attempts using a variety of word parts and/or whole words

• Dr-ied

• Con, con, cunny, continueted continued

• Tried the first part of the word two different ways and then started over and said the whole word

• Made consecutive substitutions

• Hid, heard, heed for head

• Dis, diseye, disease

• Hid, heard, heed, head

Showed consistency in solving but never…

• Never attempted letter by letter sounding out

• Never skipped a word and read to the end

• Never appealed for help before trying

• Never just stopped

• When a child is reading a text of appropriate level he/she should be able to solve a multisyllabic word (one that is new, not yet familiar, or unexpected) within continuous text without slowing up too much, and by working flexibly with word parts and clusters of letters from an awareness of how words work.

The Two Journeys:• The beginning reader

is a long way from having anything under perfect control, and each thing that the child is learning about…is on a least two journeys:

• One of coming to know words and word parts…and then regrouping in some unitized chunks

• …responding to it faster and faster with minimal attention unless a detail is a task requirement.

Fast Processing is important (automaticity)

Need to Teach

• Taking words apart (break –single letters, clusters, onsets and rimes, and larger chunks)

• Hearing syllables• Inflection break• Prefix and suffix break• Onset and rime break• Teach and prompt

Students mid-grade one

• Self-monitoring• Cross-checking• Searching• Self-correcting• Confirming

“Prompts provide short, explicit support for the student to engage in

successful problem-solving actions and become independent in their use.”

• Fountas & Pinnell Levelled Literacy Intervention Prompting Guided 1

Why Prompt in Reading?

• Does the miscue make sense in the context of the sentence? man–The boy saw the person in the doorway.

How to Identify if a Child is Using Meaning Cues

• Look at the letters in the text words and the word that the child used. Ask yourself ‘are any of the letters the same?’

hope Sally looked across the field at the horse.

How to Identify if a Child is Using Visual Cues

• Does this error make grammatical sense?• Frequently the miscue will be the same part of

speech as the word in the text. bakedoThe boy brought his brother to the party.

How to Identify if a Child is Using Syntax Cues

“Long interactions trying to elicit a word from a reader will interrupt

comprehension and fluency. If readers cannot solve a word with

one or two quick prompts, then it is best to tell them the word.”

Fountas, I.C. & Pinnell, G.S. (2009). When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. p. 348.

“When you teach for, prompt for, and reinforce effective reading behaviors, your

goal is to help readers learn how to do something that they can do

when they read any text. It is not simply to ‘get the word right.’ ”

Fountas & Pinnell, (2009)

• “That’s the word you learned yesterday.”• “It’s on our chart.”• “You know that word!”• “Remember you read this word yesterday.”• “That’s the word I was showing you.”• “You have that word on your spelling list.” • “What are you sitting on?” (for chair)• “What would you say if someone did something nice?” (for

thank you)

Ineffective Prompts:

• Did you run out of words?• Were there enough words?• Read that line (or page) again with your finger

and make it match.• Go back and make it match.• Try it again with your finger.

Prompting Early Reading Behaviors (I to 1 matching)

Let’s Watch Reading in ActionSecond Thinking Partner

• Review the cueing system• What do you notice about the child’s reading?• Self-monitoring• Self-corrections• Fluency• Use of all sources of information• comprehension

Next Steps

• What does the child have control of?

• What strategic actions would you explicitly teach?

Metacognition

• Read Article –Metacognition and Automaticity• Find your third thinking partner• Engage in interactive reflection• QR4 -orally– Find a quote or passage that resonated with you– Reflect– Have your partner respond– Reflect again– Respond again

Making Connections

• Activate background knowledge• Link personal experience with

author’s information (text to self)• Relate to other texts (text to text) and

world events (text to world)• Compare information

Why Making Connections is Important?

• Helps the reader connect personal knowledge with new learning

• Helps determine what information is relevant to support comprehension

• Need to assist students make connections that deepen understanding of text that does not detract from comprehension

• Need explicit modeling and explanations

Schema Theory

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzbRpMlEHzM

• How does background knowledge and making connections effect reading comprehension?

• When does making connections interfere with reading comprehension?

Prompts to Help Students Make Connections

• Does this make you think of something you’ve experienced?

• How does this title/movie make you feel? • Is there anything you’d compare this

character/person/event/book to?• As you read further, did this new

information remind you of something different?

Rosenblatt’s Stances

• Efferent and aesthetic stance• Reading is not a monolithic activity (e.g.

grocery list, funny pages, novel, mortgage)• How do help students move between the two

stances when reading

Purpose for Reading• Relationship between text, readers’ purpose

and reading –readers’ stance (Rosenblatt, 1978, 2014)

• reading-for-the-writer

• Efferent stance aesthetic stance

Reader’s Stance

• How do we move the reader between the stances

• How might the stances shift during reading?

• What implication does this have for reading in the classroom?

Predicting

• Need to use the clues from the text and think about what the author might be planning on telling the author

• Think ahead and anticipate• Confirm and adjust

predictions

Prompts to Help Students Predict

• What did you learn from previewing?

• What might happen next? What is your evidence?

• What might you learn from this part?

• Did you check your predictions? Did it work out?

• What clues did the author give you?

What is Inferring?

• Fill in the gaps left by the author• Go beyond the literacy information and

understand information not explicitly stated in the text

• Visualize • Interpret pictures, graphics and other

visual features

Prompting Students to Infer

• What do you think and how do you know?

• What clues did the author give you about…

• Can you picture that in your head?

• Fill in the gaps and tell me what the author meant by…

You Try It

What is Sequencing

• Understands sequence of directions, events, arguments, details

• Retells events in sequence

• Comprehends order (flashbacks, present, future)

Prompting for Sequencing

• Tell me what happened?• In what order did it happen?• What came first?• How did it end?• Is the order important here?• How does the author show us

order

What is Analyzing?

• Focus on literal information • Understands central ideas

explicitly stated by the author• Able to determine the

supporting details• Locate information (maps,

charts, diagrams)

Prompting Students to Analyze

• Can you skim and find that information?• What facts did you find out about?• Where do you think you could look for that

information?• Look at that part of…

What is Synthesizing?

• Sift through information to determine the important ideas• Retell the essence of something read

or learned• Summarize and add new insights• Put together parts and create a new

whole

Prompting Students to Synthesize

• Underline the most important parts• What is the main thing the author is trying to

tell you?• Get to the point.• Is that important or just interesting?

Using a Strategy to Combine Thinking Processes

• Fourth Thinking Partner• Read article “Floating on a

Sea of Talk”• Discuss with your thinking

partner• Examine the PARIS approach

Modeling the PARIS Approach

• What thinking processes does this reading strategy address

• Model (support to independence)• You Try it!

What is Evaluating?• Student forms opinions about the content

presented• Student can confirm or adjust opinions as

they learn from the views of others• Back up opinions with evidence• Critique the author’s craft

Prompting Students to Evaluate• What is the author’s point of

view?• What is the bias?• What is your opinion of…

Why?• What did you think of the way

the author wrote this…

Modeling Evaluation

• The Trouble with Geese

Maximizing your goal setting

Fifth Thinking Partner

What are the benefits or having students set goals and work on these aspects of reading?

What are some cautions?

What is the most important aspect of reading?

Let’s Discuss

• How Do You Assess Student’s Comprehension?

• What assessment systems do you have in place?

Other Considerations

• How much time do you spend assessing?• How useful is the information?• Cost to instructional time?• Assessment “for” learning

Moving Assessment to Programming

• How do you determine student’s needs?– Running records– Informal assessment– Observations– Conversations

Do you set goals with students, confer with them, engage them in the process?

More Discussion…

• How do you keep on-going observations of your students?

• Have you a record-keeping system?

How Do You Teach Thinking ProcessesSupport to Independence

• Whole group –explicit teaching

• Small group –practice

• Individual observations and conversations

What are your next steps?

Thank You