Read-alouds that develop vocabulary and comprehension

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Read-alouds that develop vocabulary and
comprehension

• Keys to increasing explicitness
• Sharon Walpole
• University of Delaware

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Explicitness

• Emphasis on explaining the cognitive procedures
  necessary to complete a task.
• Modeling
• Scaffolding
• Assessment

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Read Alouds Can Build Knowledge

• Of the world
• Of language
• Of words
• Of text structure
• Of comprehension strategies

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Conceptual ModelGradual Release of
Responsibility
Pearson, P.D., Gallagher, M.C. (1983). The
instruction of reading comprehension.
Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 317-344.
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Research has almost universally supported the
idea that reading aloud to children leads to
improved reading comprehension. (p. 144)
Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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These children are ready to acquire comprehension
strategies, but they tend not to be proficient
decoders. So, whats a teacher to do?
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The Domino Theory Teach children to decode
first, and put off vocabulary and comprehension
instruction until later.
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If we want children to reason their ways through
texts during a time when they cannot yet read,
then the social context for comprehension
acquisition must be a read-aloud of text. (p.
144)
Smolkin Donovan, 2002.
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What kind of read-alouds shall we have?
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• Two Types of Read-Alouds
• Teacher Directed
• Planned with carefully placed questions
• IRE model employed
• 2. Fully Interactive Model
• Planned questions may be modified
• Teacher embeds commentary
• Flexible scaffolding provided
• Students collaboratively support one another

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The Five-to-Seven Shift During this age range,
children become able to think multi-dimensionally
, a requirement of comprehension, and to reason
with others in group settings. This argues for
fully interactive read-alouds!
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Interactive read-alouds tend to work best with
information books. Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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• In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
• a teacher can . . .
• Link a word to its context
• Help children infer causal relationships
• Tell about how texts are structured
• Model the use of fix-up strategies

Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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• In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
• a teacher can . . .
• Link a word to its context
• Help children infer causal relationships
• Tell about how texts are structured
• Model the use of fix-up strategies

Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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T In 1612, French explorers saw some Iroquois
people popping corn in clay pots. They would
fill the pots with hot sand, throw in some
popcorn and stir it with a stick. When the corn
popped, it came to the top of the sand and made
it easy to get. C Look at the bowl! T Okay,
now its hot enough to add a few
kernels. C Whats a kernel? C Like when you
pop. T Its a seed. C What if you, like,
would you think a popcorn seed. Like a
popcorn seed. Could you grow popcorn?
Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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T Oh, excellent, excellent question! Lets read
and well see if this book answers that
question, and if not, well talk about it at the
end.
Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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• In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
• a teacher can . . .
• Link a word to its context
• Help children infer causal relationships
• Tell about how texts are structured
• Model the use of fix-up strategies

Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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T Alright, it hit the reef. Why did it hit the
reef? Because it got . . . (no response from
children). What did it say? It said there was
C A storm. T Storm, right. C They couldnt
see. T Right, it did say that. Because they
couldnt see, and if they were out . . . C
Were the people surprised? C The storm blew it
into the rocks. T Exactly.
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• In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
• a teacher can . . .
• Link a word to its context
• Help children infer causal relationships
• Tell about how texts are structured
• Model the use of fix-up strategies

Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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T And 100-year-old popcorn kernels were found
in Peru that could still be popped. Now. This
guy is doing different . . . Its kind of like
two stories are going on. What is this part
giving us? Cs (together) Information T It is.
And what is this doing? C It is telling
you. T Its giving us, right, steps of how to
make the popcorn. C And he has a big old
speech bubble. T Yes, because hes reading about
this, remember? And so his speech bubble is him
reading this book about this (pointing to
pictures of native peoples).
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• In a nonfiction interactive read-aloud,
• a teacher can . . .
• Link a word to its context
• Help children infer causal relationships
• Tell about how texts are structured
• Model the use of fix-up strategies

Smolkin Donovan, 2002
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T Insects live on the tree, too. This big
cicada just crawled out of its brown, shell-like
skin. For several years . . . (teacher pauses.
The next word in the text is it) Lets start
back here. Insects live on the tree, too. This
big cicada just crawled out of its brown,
shell-like skin. C (interrupting) We already
read this. T I know, but see, sometimes if you
stop, it helps to go back It didnt make sense
just reading further in the text
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To what extent are you seeing fully interactive
read alouds? What barriers are you facing?
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The Vocabulary Catch-22 Children need to learn
more words to read well, but they need to read
well to learn more words. McKenna, M.C.
(2004). Teaching vocabulary to struggling older
readers. Perspectives, 30(1), 13-16.
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Why Wide Reading Why Wide Reading Is
Enough Is Not Enough
Vocabulary size and the amount a child reads are
correlated. Direct instruction cannot possibly
account for the number of word meanings children
acquire.
Context is generally unreliable as a means of
inferring word meanings. Most words occur too
infrequently to provide the number of exposures
needed to learn them.
Marzano, R.J. (2004). The developing vision of
vocabulary instruction. In J.F. Baumann E.J.
Kameenui (Eds.), Vocabulary instruction
Research to practice (pp. 100-117). New York
Guilford.
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There is no obvious reason why direct vocabulary
instruction and wide reading cannot work in
tandem. Marzano (2004, p. 112)
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Perhaps one of the most important reasons why
teachers need to pay attention to vocabulary is
that vocabulary knowledge is cumulative. The
more words you know, the easier it is to learn
yet more words. Stahl Nagy (2005)
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How do I know which words to teach?
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• Two characteristics that make a word
  inappropriate for teaching
• We cant define it in terms that the students
  know.
• The students are not likely to find the word
  useful or interesting.
• Beck McKeown (2004)

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Beck and McKeowns Three Tiers Tier 3 Rare
words 73,500 word families K-12 Often
content-area related Examples isotope,
estuary Tier 2 Important to academic
success 7,000 word families Not limited
to one content area Examples fortunate,
ridiculous Tier 1 The most familiar words
8,000 word families Known by average 3rd
grader Examples happy, go

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Beck and McKeowns Three Tiers Tier 3 Rare
words 73,500 word families K-12 Often
content-area related Examples isotope,
estuary Tier 2 Important to academic
success 7,000 word families Not limited
to one content area Examples fortunate,
ridiculous Tier 1 The most familiar words
8,000 word families Known by average 3rd
grader Examples happy, go

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Beck and McKeowns Three Tiers Tier 3 Rare
words 73,500 word families K-12 Often
content-area related Examples isotope,
estuary Tier 2 Important to academic
success 7,000 word families Not limited
to one content area Examples fortunate,
ridiculous Tier 1 The most familiar words
8,000 word families Known by average 3rd
grader Examples happy, go

Goldilocks Words Stahl Stahl, 2004
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Once I find them, how do I teach them?
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After Reading . . .

1. Tell how the word was used in the context of the
   story
2. Give a student-friendly explanation of the words
   meaning
3. Have children say the word
4. Give two additional contexts in which the word
   could be used correctly
5. Give the children a frame sentence to generate
   their own context

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What does this sound like?

• In the story, Bibot was a very fussy man. Fussy
  means you focus on details, even if it hurts
  someones feelings. Say the word with me.
• Someone might be fussy about the way her hair
  looks, and not like to play sports, or an adult
  might be fussy about eating, and not like to eat
  at someone elses house.
• Tell me something you might be fussy about. Try
  to use the word fussy when you tell about it.
  You could start by saying something like I am
  fussy about ________.

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And how can I integrate vocabulary and
comprehension instruction?
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www.guilford.com
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Classroom Model Direct Explanation

• Organize lessons to include introduction,
  modeling, interaction, and closure
• Before reading, provide
• Declarative Knowledge What strategy is to be
  learned and used?
• Procedural Knowledge How is that strategy
  actually employed?
• Conditional Knowledge When and why should that
  strategy should be used?

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What does this sound like?

• Today we are going to learn to find the main
  idea in a science article. When you find the
  main idea, you do three things you review the
  whole article, you think about what the author
  thought was most important, and you put that into
  a brief statement. Readers find the main idea
  after reading, and it helps them to understand
  and to remember.

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Research on Direct Explanation

• Initial training included
• Presentations on DE
• Lesson plan design by teachers
• Observation and feedback
• Effects on students
• They developed declarative, procedural, and
  conditional knowledge
• The did not have better standardized
  comprehension scores

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More DE

• Second study of DE included
• Presentations on DE
• Lesson plan design by teachers
• Observation and feedback
• One on one coaching
• Collaborative discussions
• Videotaped model lessons
• Effects on students
• Students again learned about strategies
• Students did use more of the basal skills
• Students used and described reasoning during
  reading
• Standardized test scores improved

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• Specifying procedural knowledge for teachers and
  children is a barrier to full implementation of
  direct explanation. The slides which follow
  provide the procedural knowledge that Duffy has
  shared in Explaining Reading.

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Predicting

1. Look for clues in the text
2. Think about what you already know about the topic
3. On the basis of prior knowledge and the clues,
   predict what you think will happen

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Monitoring, Questioning and Repredicting

1. Keep your original prediction in mind
2. Keep asking whether that prediction continues to
   make sense in light of new information from the
   text
3. Use new information in the text and prior
   knowledge about that information to make new
   predictions

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Imaging

1. Identify words the author is using that are
   descriptive
2. Use prior knowledge about those words and about
   your senses to create an image in your mind

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Inferring

1. Note the clues embedded in the text
2. Access your own experience regarding the clues
3. Make predictions about the implied meaning based
   on experience with the clues the author provides

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Looks-Backs as Fix-It Strategies

1. Stop when the text stops making sense
2. Identify what is blocking meaning
3. Think about what strategy you know that could be
   used to fix the problem
4. Apply the strategy
5. Test to see if the problem is fixed

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Main Idea

• Put yourself in the authors place
• Examine words and phrases for clues to what is
  important
• Ask questions about what, in your experience, the
  clues combined seem to say about what is valued
• Decide what the main idea is by saying, If I had
  written this and said things this way, what would
  that say about what I thought was important?

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Summarizing

1. Understand the concepts of beginning, middle and
   end
2. Know the parts of a story
3. Review the book to identify the information
   provided at the beginning, in the middle and at
   the end

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Drawing Conclusions

1. Think about the topic being discussed and ask
   what the author wants readers to think
2. Use experience about clue words
3. Ask yourself, Why would I say about what is
   being said here if I were the author?

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Evaluating

1. Read what the text says
2. Note if there are gaps or inconsistencies or
   flaws in the logic
3. Use prior knowledge to answer the questions,
   What do I think about this? Do I agree? Do I
   have a different view?

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Synthesizing

1. Think about the content of each story
2. Decide how the stories are alike and different
3. Identify common elements
4. Use experience about the common elements to
   create a synthesis

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• To what extent are these skills and strategies
  consistent with the ones in your core program?
• How could you help your teachers to integrate
  strategy instruction by using the core strategy
  and language and applying it in a new text?
• How could you make that simpler for teachers?

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Planning a Strategic Read-Aloud

• Choose well.
• Consider students interests and needs.
• Consider vocabulary are there words that at
  least half your students dont know?
• Consider text structure how does this text
  expand childrens text structure knowledge?
• Consider the rest of your curriculum are there
  ways to connect the theme of this text to other
  things children are learning?

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Planning a Strategic Read-Aloud

• Analyze the material
• Identify tier 2 words
• Decide what background information to provide
• Decide what strategy could be useful for
  understanding the text
• Find places to stop and model
• Consider whether a graphic organizer would be
  useful

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Planning a Strategic Read-Aloud

• Make a plan for building prior knowledge
• How can you relate content to students past
  experiences? (Have you ever ?)
• Jot down information you want to provide before
  reading.
• Plan a brief overview (This story is about )
• Make a plan for introducing the strategy, with
  declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge

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Conducting a Strategic Read-Aloud

• Read the book interactively
• Stop to model
• Stop to ask questions
• Stop to allow children to ask questions
• Show pictures after reading the text and
  interacting with it

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Conducting a Strategic Read-Aloud

• Use the graphic organizer to help children
  generate a summary
• Review the strategy youve chosen
• Teach the Tier 2 words

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• So lets try it . . . How can we plan fully
  interactive read alouds that include both
  comprehension strategy instruction and direct
  instruction in word meanings?
• How can we make a simple lesson plan frame to
  guide teachers in planning and to guide ourselves
  in observing and coaching?