A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

II.    Conceptualizing Reading and Reading Instruction

Speaker:
Elfrieda Hiebert, Director, Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Moderator:
Judith Johnson, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education

Abstract:
Several factors have been shown to promote comprehension: vocabulary, including full and precise understanding of the meanings of words; background knowledge about the subject matter; familiarity with semantic and syntactic structures that signal meaningful relationships among words; appreciation of the writing conventions used to achieve different communicative purposes (e.g., irony, humor); verbal reasoning ability, which permits inferences to be made by reading between the lines; and verbal memory capacity.

Participants will learn that comprehension can be enhanced through instruction that is focused on concept and vocabulary growth and the syntax and rhetorical structures of written language, as well as through experience gained by reading both independently and interactively in dyads or groups. Moreover, participants will learn that explicit instruction in comprehension strategies (e.g., summarizing the main idea, predicting what text will follow, drawing inferences, discussing the author’s communicative intent and choice of wording, and monitoring for misunderstandings) leads to improvement. Finally, participants will learn that in order to prevent reading difficulties, formal instruction in reading needs to focus on the development of comprehension skills in conjunction with word recognition skills.

Notes

Proposals:

1. Link K-3 Programs and Headstart.
2. Need to bring fluency to the text task in order to free-up concentration on thought and reasoning about what?s being read.
3. Comprehension should take a different form in the early stages of reading, with lots of practice with short sentences to master fluency.

How comprehension should look different for K, Grade 2, Grade 2 and Grade 3 needs to be spelled out:

• Districts/schools need to identify and implement a plan with goals for learning and activities for achieving them from Headstart to Grade 3.
• Need developmental benchmarks on video for teachers to see what kids look like over time in reading; from pre-K to Grade 3 and higher (5 years).
• Build-in model of fluency and comprehension into the 5 year plan.

Two types of comprehension

a) reading aloud/oral comprehension. (Begin in Headstart)
b) read from text independently

Primary-grade children should be reading dozens of ?little? books per week. These books are intended to be read rapidly, for practice to achieve fluency. Don?t go into bunches of pre and post comprehension activities on these simple little stories and don?t have kids ?memorize read? them. The idea is to read lots of different ones [don?t spend a week on one book - read at least 3 per day!]

*Go to the WEB (CIERA.org) for session overheads ...