Interactive Readingday 2

a reading comprehension training module

Welcome back for day two.

Reviewing Strategies

Brainstorm and list the components of comprehension we worked with yesterday.

Share definitions and/or an examples of each strategy.

Reviewing Strategies

Read the first four pages of The Giver by Lois Lowry. Using self-monitoring, write on the response sheet the ideas which need to be clarified. Use peer-support and inferring strategies to come up with some possible questions, clarifications, and visualizations. Then make a prediction about what will happen to Jonas.

Our purpose for reading is to consolidate the strategies we’ve learned. We will be reading the first few pages of a novel. Activate your prior knowledge by sharing with a partner what you know about starting a novel.

Handout #10

Discussing

Talking about a text with others who have read it in small or large groups for the purpose of understanding it better.

Please discuss with your peers your personal comprehension of this graphic.

When we return from our break, we will do a discussion activity.

Discussing

Discuss with a group of people with whom you have not worked before and make a collaborative list of all the ways comprehension has been enhanced by discussion during the workshop.

Summarizing

Being able to read or listen to a text and condense it by retelling or writing only the main parts with supporting details and important facts.

After Reading Activities

Summarizing

Summarizing

RAP stands for

Read

Ask yourself a main idea question

Put ideas into your own words in complete sentences

After Reading Activities

Katims and Harris, “Improving the reading comprehension of middle school students in inclusive classrooms.” JAAL 41.2 (1997) 16-123.

Summarizing

After Reading Activities

Summarizing

After Reading Activities

Read “Athenian Women” from a world history text and use either the attribute circle or the herringbone to organize your thoughts before you write your summary.

Listen to the selection called “The Peloponnesian War.” Examine the graphic organizer and the summary before you try your own.

Handout #11

Treasury on Delos

Sparta didn’t join

Athens gave leadership

Other

city

-state

s

gave

ship

s and

mon

ey

Started

after

the

Persian

Wars

and

lasted

deca

des.

Greec

e gre

w rich

and A

egea

n was

freed

of p

irates

With the exception of Sparta, the Greek city-states formed the Delian League after the Persian Wars in order to combat the Persian threat.

Summarizing

Delian League

Sparta didn’t joinTreasury on Delos

Athens gave leadership Other city-states gave ships and money

Started

after

the P

ersian

Wars an

d laste

d decades

Greece grew rich and

Aegean was freed of

pirates

Summarizing

Writing in Response to Reading

Putting thoughts about the text in the readers’ own words; writing reflections or extensions of the text; and using graphic organizers.

After Reading Activities

The components of reading work together to foster

Comprehension

Let’s brainstorm and draft a working definition of comprehension.

Our Definitions of Comprehension

The ability to understand and demonstrate a concept in a variety of ways: visual, oral, and written.

The process of assimilating information either visually, auditorially, or kinesthetically, by relating to one’s prior knowledge and schemata.

Getting meaning from what is said, in print, or visualized, and being able to impart that meaning to others in a manner in which they understand.

Lancaster Middle School Faculty, August 31, 2000

The experts define ComprehensionReading is a thinking process, implying that comprehension is more than recognizing letters and words; it includes thinking about what those symbols mean. (Huey 1908 and Thorndike 1917)

Comprehension is thinking applied to reading. (Hillerich 1979)

Reading is analytical, interactive, constructive, and strategic. (The Reading Report Card 1985)

The reader not only apprehends the author’s meaning but also reflects on the significance of the ideas as presented, evaluates them critically and makes application of them in the solution of problems. (Gray 1941)

The experts define ComprehensionReading cannot take place unless meaning is involved in the transaction between reader and writer, and comprehension is the bottom line. (Vacca and Vacca 1989)

A reader must grab hold of - apprehend - and ponder the significance of the content. Comprehension is not a passive, receptive process, but an active, constructive, reader-based process. (Richardson and Morgan 2000)

Comprehension processes include relating text to prior knowledge, making predictions based on prior knowledge, constructing mental images, generating summaries and monitoring when summary construction is challenging. (Pressley 2000)

How will we measure our success?

Implementation Plan

Unique to each division:

•leadership

•pretesting

•phasing in

•collaboration

•follow-up

Culminating Activity

Our purpose for reading is to consolidate and apply the strategies we’ve been learning. We will read a passage about memory. Activate your prior knowledge by sharing with a group of four what you already know about memory. Fill in the first page of the response sheet before you read. Your prediction should indicate what you think you will find in the passage.

Read the five pages of “The Psychology of Memory” by Morris K. Holland. Using self-monitoring, write on the response sheet the words or concepts which need to be clarified. Use peer-support, inferring, and visualization strategies to come up with some possible clarifications of the words and concepts you identified as confusions. Use the space provided for any inferences.

Handout #12

Before you read, create questions from each of the four subheadings in the passage and write these on page two of your response sheet.

After you have finished reading the passage, record the answers to your questions on the third page of the response sheet. Create a simple graphic organizer of the material you read.

Each member of the group should choose one of the subheaded sections to reteach cooperatively to the rest of the group.

Finally, on the last page of the response sheet, write a summary and draw a picture to reflect what you have learned.

You are not having any trouble comprehending this graphic, are you?

Sharing Knowledge through

Interactive Readinga reading comprehension training module

Created by

Kay Grandstaff Harrisonburg City Schools

Catherine Rosenbaum Virginia Department of Education

Kathleen Smith Virginia Department of Education

Maria Tsuchiya Richmond City Schools

Piloted at

Lancaster Middle School under the direction of Charlene Winter, reading specialist and Sandy Spears, principal.