Comprehension/Vocabulary
What this reader might look like...
-
May read fluently, but is unable to articulate what they read.
-
May read with high accuracy but cannot retell.
What your Universal Screening data might look like:
A comprehension score on your district's reading screener (FAST, DIBELS, AIMsWEB) would not be proficient. Classroom assessments may also indicate comprehension difficulties.
Some Diagnostic Assessments to guide instructional planning are:
Click on a strategy to scroll below...
Text Structures
Understanding how a text is structured helps students to better understand the purpose of the writing, understand the central ideas, and to comprehend details of the material when reading expository texts. Common text structure types include: description, sequence, problem/solution, cause/effect, and compare/contrast. It is recommended that they are introduced and taught in that order. This strategy can be used in both large and small group instruction. Length of time needed for the strategy will vary depending on the students’ acquisition of the skills and the number of steps completed in a day.
(Taken from Reading Rockets)
Summarizing teaches students how to discern the most important ideas in a text, how to ignore irrelevant information, and how to integrate the central ideas in a meaningful way. Teaching students to summarize improves their memory for what is read. Summarization strategies can be used in almost any content area. Summarization can be used K-12 and with either large or small groups or 1:1. Time will depend on length of passage and quality of discussion.
Summarization
Canned Questions
Canned Questions offer a way for students to respond to questions at the various cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Students, in partners or small groups, have the opportunity to work through questions that range from lower to higher levels of thinking. This can be done with any age of student, and would be considered a large-group general education strategy, or a supplemental routine in smaller group. This is not an intensive strategy.
The Frayer Model is a strategy that uses a graphic organizer for vocabulary building. This technique requires students to (1) define the target vocabulary words or concepts, and (2) apply this information by generating examples and non-examples. This information is placed on a chart that is divided into four sections to provide a visual representation for students.
This instructional strategy promotes critical thinking and helps students to identify and understand unfamiliar vocabulary. The Frayer Model can be used with the entire class, small groups, or for individual work. The Frayer Model draws on a student's prior knowledge to build connections among new concepts and creates a visual reference by which students learn to compare attributes and examples.
Frayer Model
Question/Answer Relationship (QAR)
(Taken from Reading Rockets)
The question–answer relationship (QAR) strategy helps students understand the different types of questions. By learning that the answers to some questions are "Right There" in the text, that some answers require a reader to "Think and Search," and that some answers can only be answered "On My Own," students recognize that they must first consider the question before developing an answer.
K-W-L+ can be modified to any content area or grade. It emphasizes what students know, what they want to know, and what they learned. This graphic organizer can be used with a whole class, small group, or an individual as a pre-, during-, and post-reading strategy. K-W-L+ generates background knowledge, sets a purpose for reading, and transforms information, writing, and talking.
K W L
Paragraph Shrinking
The paragraph shrinking strategy allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph. This strategy is designed to be used in pairs, and is applicable for grades K-8. This strategy will take approximately 6- 8 minutes to group students, assign tasks and complete the tasks.
Magnet Summaries help students “rise above the details to construct meaningful summaries in their own words.” Students identify magnet words (key concepts/terms from their readings), attach appropriate details to each magnet, and then combine their ideas in writing. This strategy can be used with any grade level, K-12.
Magnet Summaries
Round Table
The Round Table strategy is for the recall of information through student engagement of nonfiction text. It allows students to practice listening, recall, and writing skills. Dictated writing is applicable for all grade levels as a class wide strategy; time is variable depending on text size.
This strategy teaches secondary students to take a multi-syllable words apart and use the meaning of the parts to determine the meaning of the word. It uses individual, group and partner work to come to a general understanding of the word. The strategy provides the students with lists of affixes and some root words and provides their definitions. It also provides a suggested way for the students to organize their notes (systematic procedure/routine). Time will depend on number of vocabulary words provided.
Vocabulary Analysis
Graphic organizer that helps locate information in a text and put it together with what you already know to arrive at a complete answer. Could be used in a large or small group.
The Teacher Track, 2011
Kari Wenzinger, 2013
AEA 267, 2012
Cult of Pedagogy, 2014
Knatum, 2009
TeachLikeThis, 2014
Mary Vick, 2015
Literacy4D, 2012
Heidi Flores, 2015
Paul Heavenridge, 2015
