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Strategies to Improve Reading Comprehension in LanguageImpaired Children Kerry Howland, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Boston University Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Plan for the Session What causes the fourth grade slump?
Finding the breakdown:
What our current tests tell us and don’t tell us about reading comprehension
Intervention Strategies and Consultation in the Classroom
Questions?
What is Reading?
•
Broad View •
Reading includes all the skills needed for an individual to derive meaning from written text.
Narrow View
• –
Reading is defined ONLY as word recognition, all other skills fall outside of the definition of reading.
Word Recognition Encompasses the processes to: Decode novel (unknown words) using:
1.
• • •
Alphabetic principle Rules of phonics Context combined with partial decoding
2.
Instantly recognize high frequency known words
3.
Fluently convert written text to language
Bottleneck Theory A breakdown in the accuracy and/or efficiency of word recognition will lead to problems with comprehension.
Assessment and Word Recognition •
Skills involved in Word Recognition are easily defined and measured
•
We have a good fund of knowledge about how to teach the fundamentals of decoding
•
We do not have good methodology yet for teaching automatic word recognition– but at least we know when it is missing.
Comprehension •
A complex, multi-dimensional process
•
Contains MANY component skills
•
Is greater than the sum of those component skills.
•
Is very difficult to measure discretely – wide variability in what we call reading comprehension on our tests.
•
By mid elementary school, accounts for most of the variance in reading scores and almost all of the performance on the state literacy examinations.
Common Core Standards
Common Core Standards for ELA and Math have been adopted by at least 42 states + District of Columbia and US Virgin Islands.
ELA Standards focus on narrative and expository text, reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Oral language includes elements of conversational competence.
Focus is on “college and career readiness” by end of high school.
Common Core Standards
Increased Emphasis on Expository Text as compared to prior frameworks.
Focus is heavily placed on higher level integrative comprehension; demands social language competence, metacognitive skills, knowledge of text structure, inferencing skills.
To complete the reading and writing standards in content areas, must integrate these skills with domain knowledge.
Gives Content Teachers more responsibility for teaching reading and writing
NAEP Writing Skills
To persuade (30% grade 4, 40% grade 12) To explain (35% grade 4, 40% grade 12) To convey real or imagined experience (35% grade 4, 20% grade 12)
Standards Focus on Results Standards do not dictate specific reading, writing or language arts programs, or details of the curriculum. Standards do not dictate how skills are assessed (States will determine this). “Teachers are thus free to provide students with the tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as the most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the standards”
Standards Do NOT
Tell all that should be addressed in a curriculum
Specify how to teach the skills
Indicate how ELL students might be supported to achieve the standards
“It is possible to meet the standards without displaying near native control of conventions, pronunciation and vocabulary” HOW?
Candidates to Explain Reading Comprehension Problems •
Oral language skills are deficient in some areas – (simple view of reading).
•
Executive control skills are deficient in some areas.
•
Domain knowledge is deficient in content areas
•
Lack of motivation/interest/effort.
Interactions of Top Down and Bottom Up Skills in Reading Planning, Organization, Working Memory, Strategic Reading, Self-Monitoring, Contextual Fluency, Inferential Reasoning
Lexical/Syntactic/Discourse Processing Content/Domain Knowledge
Decoding, Isolated Word Recognition, Processing/Retrieval Speed
Comprehension and Reading Testing
Reading comprehension measures confound word recognition and comprehension abilities.
By reducing a complex task like comprehension to a single score, we identify a problem without determining why the problem exists or what to do about it.
Our reading (and language) evaluations miss students who are in trouble
Are students who are performing at the 16th percentile likely to be “college and career ready?”
Comprehension Problems Resulting from Deficits in Spoken Language
We have measures to test a variety of discrete skills that are important to reading comprehension • • • • •
Vocabulary Morphology Syntax Inferencing Oral Passage Comprehension
But out tests are limited and not carefully controlled
Assessment of Oral and Written Language in Struggling Readers (Waters, G., Caplan, D., Bertram, J., 2011) •
Designed a computerized language and reading assessment battery to examine reading skills in older (middle and high school) readers.
•
In order to develop scientifically valid instruction, we need to know what skills are contributing the most to reading comprehension and WHY breakdowns might be occurring.
Test Characteristics
Tested comprehension at language code
Simple words Morphologically complex words Complex Syntax Discourse Comprehension (literal and inferential)
Tests same set of skills in spoken and written modalities Tested response time as well as accuracy Administered and scored via computer Have now completed two rounds of testing, with students 6-12 grade
Recognizing Words: Decoding Does this sound like a real word in English?
strete
Recognizing Words: Decoding Does this sound like a real word in English?
spage
Recognizing Simple Words Is this a real word in English?
choice
Recognizing Simple Words Is this a real word in English?
bruth
Processing Meaning: Simple Words Which picture matches the word?
ship
Processing Meaning: Simple Words Which word on the bottom is most similar in meaning to the one on top?
race run
walk
Recognizing Complex Words Is this a real word in English?
lifement
Recognizing Complex Words Is this a real word in English?
nationality
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Are these two words related in meaning?
late
lateral
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Are these two words related in meaning?
local
locality
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Which picture matches the word?
cleans
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Which word on the bottom is most similar in meaning to the one on top?
beginner student study
Recognizing Well-formed Sentences Is this sentence acceptable in English?
The man was scratched by the boy.
Recognizing Well-formed Sentences Is this sentence acceptable in English?
The man was scratched the boy.
Processing Meaning: Sentences Which picture matches the sentence?
The girl was tickled by the boy
Discourse Comprehension • Read 150 word passages
Varied grade level using Lexile
Varied coherence or macrostructure of the text
Followed by Yes/No factual and inference questions
By 1961, the town of Noel had become one of the most popular tourist destinations in southwest Missouri. Because Noel was near the Ozark Mountains, there were plenty of natural attractions. Visitors came to see the mountain views, caves, rivers, and cliffs in the area. Noel depended on the money from this tourism to support their town. When the state accidentally left Noel off the official map of vacation areas, Noel did not respond lightly. Local officials were upset by the state’s mistake, so they decided to form their own territory, called the McDonald Territory. Officials printed their own tourism information and even set up their own government. Cars were stopped before entering the territory. People who didn’t live there were given permission to enter, as well as tourism information. The attempt to secede didn’t work, but publicity from the stunt drew in even more tourists.
Questions: Factual: People visited Noel to see the nature. Missouri purposely left Noel off the map of vacation areas. The McDonald Territory had its own government. Outsiders were not allowed to enter the McDonald Territory. Inferential: Residents did not have to stop when entering the McDonald Territory Noel officials thought the state’s official tourist map was important. News of the McDonald Territory made people want to visit. Missouri did not consider Noel to be an important tourist spot.
General Trends Performance accuracy increased Response time decreased
with age
with age
Comparison of Factual vs. Inferential Discourse Comprehension 90 80 70 60 50
Factual
40
Inferential
30 20 10 0 Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Discourse Comprehension Trends From the First Round of Testing •
Students averaged 76.3% accurate with factual questions
•
Students were 67.5% accurate with inferential questions
•
Performance did not vary with level of discourse organization
•
Did students fail to take advantage of presentation of organized material?
Preliminary Analyses Of All Spoken and Written Tests What is Most Related to Written Passage Comprehension?
Preliminary Analyses Of All Spoken and Written Tests What is Most Related to NY State Exam?
Conclusions
Of all component skills, the most important were:
understanding of morphologically complex words understanding syntactically complex sentences Spoken language skills were extremely important predictors of reading comprehension
The contribution of complex language skills changed over time:
Understanding morphological complexity carried more weight in middle school Comprehension of syntax carried more weight in high school
Discussion Questions
How much of curriculum time is currently given to the comprehension of complex words and sentences (orally or in written form?)
How much knowledge do ELA teachers have about either of these skills? What about content area teachers?
In the classroom, we give explicit skill focus in phonics, but not in these skills. Should this change? Or would specific skill focus only be needed for children with deficits in these areas?
What should we, as SLPs, be focused on when children with reading comprehension impairments are referred for testing?
How well do our current tests assess comprehension of syntax and comprehension of complex words?
What About the Rest of the Variance? Planning, Organization, Working Memory, Strategic Reading, Self-Monitoring, Contextual Fluency, Inferential Reasoning
Lexical/Syntactic/Discourse Processing Content/Domain Knowledge
Decoding, Isolated Word Recognition, Processing/Retrieval Speed
Qualitative Reading Inventory
Criterion referenced measure– gives no norm referenced information.
Allows great flexibility in how the test is used.
Expository and Narrative passages at grade level. Explicit and Inferential Questions – open ended Allows for lookbacks Re-tells vs. direct questions Considers prior knowledge
Think alouds offer opportunity to probe comprehension of syntax, vocabulary, and ability to form bridging inferences.
Passage Length
QRI Level 5 passages range from 254-343 words– closest to the length of many MCAS passages
WIAT 5th grade section has 2 passages of about 200 words each, the rest are all shorter.
GORT-4 passages range from about 50-150 words in length from late elementary on.
WJRMT passages are under 50 words in length at the highest level
Domain-General Skills
Best Practice Guidelines recommend
Teaching narrative and expository text structure Engage in discussion about texts Use the following strategies • • • • • •
Activate prior knowledge Teach children to generate and answer questions about the text Teach visualization Teach self monitoring/clarification Inferencing via identification of key words that are clues Utilize story re-telling
How much instruction is needed in these strategies, and how is this best applied
Are Domain General Strategies all that are needed?
What about the oral language skills that are needed for comprehension
Guidelines mention vocabulary but not syntax or morphology.
There is very little evidence about how to teach inferencing effectively.
Whose job is it to teach these skills?
Content Instruction, Language Skill Development, and Strategy Development
Content Instruction =
Primary responsibility of classroom teacher. Often SLP/Sped teacher does not know the content in upper level grades BUT, we can give teachers strategies to present the content in a way our children will understand–
Specific Language Skill Development:
Primary responsibility of SLP/SPED, with co-teaching in classroom Teaching of component skills, needed to learn content instruction and presumed to be a known skill by teacher • Decoding the words (beyond primary grades) • Understanding sentence structures and morphology • Knowing how (generally) to make inferences, interpret figurative language
Strategy Development
Ideally a shared responsibility Systematically teaching of a method for approaching a task Generally involves building metacognitive skills
Direct Intervention Strategies
Developing language skills in the core areas that are critical for reading success:
Vocabulary/Lexical Development (briefly) Morphology Comprehension of Syntactic Structure Inferencing Skills
Executive control skills
Vocabulary Development
Choose Tier 2 words (Beck & McKeown 2002)
Nippold (2007) Recommends
Abstract uses of spatial words and adjectives • The score was above average
Adverbs relating to degree of magnitude or likelihood • Probably, possibly, definitely, somewhat, extremely
Mental-Linguistic Verbs • thought, asserted, inferred, concluded, whispered, announced
Factual vs. Non-Factual Verbs • Know, remember, see, think, assume, suspect
Vocabulary
Teach words thematically
Don’t just teach the lists of words for a story or a unit – organize them by category
Only pre-teach the essential words
Use contextual abstraction, semantic webs meaningful application to the unit or story
Use both semantic and phonological retrieval cues to get the words accessible (German 2007)
Addressing Word Recognition Deficits
For older students the goal is automaticity
Work on early phoneme-grapheme conversion only if
The student has a very low fund of sight words The student does not know very basic phoneme-grapheme correspondences This student slipped through the cracks and this was never taught.
For most older students who need work on automaticity
Work on identification of bigger chunks– rime patterns, syllable patterns Work on morphological analysis-especially for spelling Work on reading fluency, via repeated readings
Morphological Patterns Younger children focus on inflectional
morphology and how this impacts spelling patterns (e.g., past tense “ed”). Older children
focus on derivational morphology (can impact pronunciation of a word)
Using Word Sums to build Morphology and Spelling
Prefix
Root Word
Suffix
un re mis
help build mind develop thought place
ing ful ly er less ed ment ness
Complex words that occur in 8th grade texts (Adapted from: Nippold 2007) Science Alkaline Crystalline Electrical conductivity Electrochemical Endothermic Exothermic
Social Studies Federalism Nationalism Monotheism polytheism Militarism Imperialism
Content Area Instruction and Morphology Help the students identify what they know about parts of these words Types of Energy Kinetic kinesiology exercise, Potential meet your potential Electrical electric Thermal thermometer Mechanical mechanic
Including Morphology In Your Instruction:
Teach BOTH in context and explicitly:
Choose your words from your curriculum • Rich, deep instruction with multiple exposures and additional activities Teach meaning explicitly • Teach strategies
Recognize they don’t know a word ID word parts Hypothesize meaning based on word part meaning Check hypothesis against context Kieffer & Lesaux, 2007
Some Vocabulary from the Summer of the beautiful White Horse (William Saroyan)
furious natural pious descendant capricious vagrant practical
irrigation surrey suspicious comical irritable alfalfa
Word Sort OUS Words Furious Capricious Pious Suspicious
AL words Practical Natural Comical
Both suffixes mean one who is:
Expanding Morphology for Known Words Brainstorm Comical
Comedy Comic Comedian Comically
morphological variations
Activity for Novel Word Capricious
Define it using Google search
Make a semantic map of synonyms
Find antonyms
Synonym Map for Capricious Unpredictable
Fickle
Erratic Capricious
Impulsive
Quirky
capricious
cap
rich
us
Sentence Structure
The sentence is often the most neglected feature of reading comprehension instruction. (Scott, 2004)
Written language involves more complex syntactic constructions than conversational language.
Failure to extract the precise meaning of sentences loss of text comprehension.
Aspects of Sentences that Are Challenging for Struggling Readers (Scott 2004)
Long sentences with multiple descriptors intervening between subject, verb and direct object
Sentences that do not follow subject-verb-object order
The boy kissed the beautiful girl The beautiful girl was kissed by the boy The girl the boy kissed was beautiful
Sentences where the subordinate clause precedes the main clause
The class was a disaster “The redesigned class that was taught by the first year teacher was a disaster”
The man did not bring his umbrella although the forecast predicted rain Although the forecast predicted rain, the man did not bring his umbrella
Help teachers to identify difficult sentences in the texts that they ask children to read.
Example (from Scott, 2004) Target Sentence: The land to the west of the Appalachian Mountains was divided into two territories. Student’s Interpretation The Appalachian Mountains were divided into two parts.
Third grade MCAS story
Mr. Plumbian lived on a street where all the houses were the same.
When the other people came out of their houses, they saw Mr. Plumbian swinging in a hammock between two palm trees.
They asked the man who lived next door to Mr. Plumbian to go have a talk with him.
Tell him that we liked it here before he changed his house.
His house has to be the same as ours so that we can have a neat street.
Whenever anybody visited Mr. Plumbian’s house, that person would set about changing his own house to fit his dreams.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Use semantic knowledge to bridge the comprehension gap
Temporal markers: Young children (and SLI older children) rely on order of mention – but if a sequence is probable, children will over-ride order of mention
Passive Sentences: Children rely on SVO order, but again, if an action sequence is probable, kids will over-ride SVO
Video Using Probable Event
Use Domain Knowledge to Assist in Interpretation Target Sentence: The people, oppressed by the tyrannical dictatorship, rose up and revolted against the government. Bridging Sentence: The wizarding world, oppressed by Lord Voldemort, rose up and revolted against the Death Eaters.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Teach students to identify the basic components of simple sentences Subject: Simple and Compound Verb: Consider tenses and influence of Subject Object Expanders: • Verb phrase expanders: where, when, how, why • Noun phrase expanders: physical attributes, mental characteristics
Students can then apply this skill to complex sentences where it is difficult to identify the main components.
Note: Evidence says that this process may not result in USE of more complex sentences.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Once students can identify the main components of a sentence, teach then to:
Identify complex sentences by circling the verbs identify conjunctions, especially subordinating conjunctions Identify the WH words (signal relative clauses or object complements
Third grade MCAS story
Mr. Plumbian lived on a street where all the houses were the same.
When the other people came out of their houses, they saw Mr. Plumbian swinging in a hammock between two palm trees.
They asked the man who lived next door to Mr. Plumbian to go have a talk with him.
Tell him that we liked it here before he changed his house.
His house has to be the same as ours so that we can have a neat street.
Whenever anybody visited Mr. Plumbian’s house, that person would set about changing his own house to fit his dreams.
Excerpt from the Summer of the Beautiful White Horse One day back there in the good old days when I was nine and the world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream, my cousin Mourad, who was considered crazy by everybody who knew him except me, came to my house at four in the morning and woke me up tapping on the window of my room
Unpack the Sentence Pull individual pieces of meaning from the sentences along with the necessary inferences back to the prior paragraphs.
.
This story happened a long time ago The writer was 9 years old The writer thought the world was magnificent, delightful and mysterious Mourad is the writer’s cousin Everybody think Mourad is crazy Mourad came to the writer’s house. He came at 4:00 in the morning He woke the writer up He woke him up by tapping on the window
Identify Sentences with the Same Meaning
The boy who was in the car was called by the girl’s mother.
The mother of the girl who was in the car called the boy
The girl’s mother called the boy who was in the car
Build Sentence Combining and Sentence Expansion Skills
Link sentences via the use of conjunctions
Identify the relationship among clauses
Elaborate on sentences by answering ‘wh questions
These procedures have the good outcomes for increasing USE of complex sentences in writing.
Combine the sentences
Sally is a good artist She paints portraits She creates sculpture. Alex is not a hard worker the job is easy Alex should be able to finish the job Danny lost the keys we had to call a locksmith The locksmith came and opened the door
Sentence Expansion
“John sang a solo” Where was he? How did he feel? When did this happen? Who was there “When John had to sing the solo in front of the whole school, he nervously walked to the front of the stage while the butterflies danced in his stomach.”
Inferencing Skills Inferences are needed to:
Explain the relationship among events in the text (particularly causal relationships).
Make connections/associations
Among events in the text With prior knowledge
Make predictions
Types of Inferences (Kispal 2008)
Local Inferences
Global Inferences
Allow for text coherence Applied across sentences to make sense of immediate relationships Focus on the main points, the summary conclusions of the passages
Elaborative Inferences
Integrate the text with the reader’s prior world knowledge base
Three important types of inferences (Westby 2002): 1.
Logical Inferences derived directly from the text must be true
2.
Pragmatic Inferences Combine text with world knowledge Are probably true but not necessarily
3.
Interpersonal Inferences Combine text with awareness of character feelings and motivations. Require the ability to take another’s perspective and understand what the other person knows or believes
Text Type Influences Inferences
With Narrative Text – children make many explanatory inferences elaborative inferencing is essential, particularly interpersonal inferences
With Expository Text – children paraphrase the content of the text. Local and global inferences are essential, elaborative inferences relate to factual knowledge.
Common Inferencing Errors
Most students do make inferences, the problem is that they make the wrong ones.
Common error types
Fails account for all of the information that was presented Does not have/apply essential domain knowledge Makes associative, irrelevant inferences rather than explanatory pr summarizing inferences Does not understand the sentence on which the inference was based. Does not evaluate accuracy of inferences and update accordingly [particularly important if we ask for predictions]
Students often remember their inaccurate inferences and incorporate them into their representation of the text meaning.
Developing Inferencing Skills: Think Aloud Strategy
Read text together with students
Periodically stop and ask students what they are thinking about as they read the text.
Model and verbalize your own inferences
Scaffold the students to develop key inferences by asking leading questions or referring back to the text.
Ask child “how do you know?”
Focus on explanatory inferences in narrative text. The goal is for students to make inferences that explain why events happened (Laing & Kamhi, 2002)
Helping Children Make Logical Inferences
Identify and highlight the key content words.
Locate adverbs that tell about magnitude or likelihood Locate verbs that indicate facts vs. opinions Discuss the implications of these
Unpack difficult sentences and, if need be, create model sentences with familiar domain knowledge.
Identify relationships among sentences: Are they
Explaining? Comparing or Contrasting Describing?
Search for the main point in each paragraph– find the commonalities among the details. Reconstruct topic sentences.
Excerpt from the Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
My cousin Mourad was considered the natural descendant of [Uncle Khosrove], although Mourad's father was Zorab, who was practical and nothing else.
Inference
Recognize that “although” signaled a contrast.
Key content: Mourad’s father is practical
Key content: (previous) Mourad is crazy
Infer that Mourad is not like his father and is like his uncle.
Helping Children Make Explanatory Inferences
Activate knowledge about the topic.
Ask WHY questions.
List all the key pieces of information from the text to be considered.
Identify any unfamiliar vocabulary or idiomatic/metaphoric uses of language– find the context clues
Predict outcomes, then evaluate predictions
Narrative: Beyond Story Grammar Differentiate Problem from Solution 2. Differentiate Plan and It’s Outcome. 3. Identify Character Emotions 4. INFER parts that are not directly stated 1.
Making Interpersonal Inferences
Highlight emotion words and mental linguistic verbs
Relate emotion to the student’s own experiences
Build comprehension of a range of emotion words Go beyond happy, sad, mad
Discuss what the narrator in the story knows or believes and compare this to what other characters in the story
Internal States Chart (Based on Westby,1998 ) Characters When
Feeling
Why
Cliff
Theo comes home and finds the dishwasher in pieces
Embarrassed
Because he ruined the dishwasher instead of fixing it.
Vanessa
She comes in 14th place in the science fair
Disappointed in herself
Because she knew that she didn’t do her best work.
Cliff and Claire
Vanessa decides to redo Proud her science project
Because Vanessa realized that she didn’t do her best and wants to do better.
Perspective Chart (Based on Westby, 1998)
Vanessa’s Perspective
Story Event
Janet’s Perspective
Vanessa is jealous that Janet’s project is better than hers. She knows that she did not do her best
Vanessa accuses Janet of getting help from her father for her science project.
Janet is confused and hurt by Vanessa’s accusation. She did not cheat on the science project.
Claire knows that Cliff is not very good at fixing mechanical objects but that he always want to try.
Claire wants to hire a repairman to fix the dishwasher
Cliff thinks that he can fix the dishwasher himself and he doesn’t want to pay a repairman.
Self-Evaluation of Inferences
Have students write down their predictions then go back and evaluate whether the prediction was correct.
Require students to identify the piece of information that supported or refuted the prediction.
Expand this skill to other types of inferences (explanatory and associative).
Teaching an Organized Approach To Reading Comprehension Teach
text types and their signal structures
Place
a high focus on identification of main ideas in expository text
Teach
self-questioning and self monitoring strategies.
Text Types and Their Signal Words
Easier Types
Description: • For example, Characteristics of, Refers to, Someone who, Something that
Procedural • First, next, last, finally, before, during, if-then
Harder Types
Causation • As a result, As a consequence, Therefore, Due to, For this reason, Since
Compare contrast • Although, However, On the other hand, In contrast
Effective Use of Graphic Organizers
Linear organizers work best for language assignments (Singer and Bashir, 2002).
Keep organizers simple. Use only a few types.
Organizers should be school wide and system wide would be even better!
Have students identify the type of assignment and match it to the right type of organizer
Using Organizers for Comprehension
Tailor the organizer specifically to the reading assignment.
The organizer should have the same number of main ideas and details as the text it is used on.
Identify main ideas first
Teach students how to use KEY words to summarize content on an organizer
Multi-Paragraph Organizer MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
RAP (Ellis & Graves 1990)
Read a paragraph,
Ask yourself “what were the main ideas and details in the paragraph”
Put the main ideas and details into your own words. Teach concept of key words
This works great if the student knows how to find the main idea.
Control Text Complexity and Type
Select Easier Text Types First Descriptive Chronological Sequence
Control Readability
Use Same General Format Repeatedly
Move Systematically from Concrete, Imageable Concepts to Abstract Ideas.
Multi-Paragraph Organizer: Descriptive What it looks like
detail
Where it lives
What it eats
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
Putting it Together: Case Study SLI
4th grade student
Had been in therapy since kindergarten
3rd Grade Focus
Narrative structure Inferencing Building comprehension of emotion words
Semantic and Phonological Feature Analysis Emotion Word
Type Of Emotion
How Strong
Thrilled
Happy
A lot
Furious
Mad
A lot
Annoyed
Mad
A little bit
Disappointed
Sad
A little bit
Sounds Like
Child Status: Start of 4th Grade QRI
Narrative Text (4th grade text)
Recalled the gist of information, 19/47 propositions Recalled information about all story grammar components Instructional Level for Comprehension • 4/4 correct explicit questions • 3/4 correct implicit questions
Child Status: Start of 4th Grade
QRI Expository Text
Informal Task to Assess Monitoring
Re-Tell – 8/57 ideas (0 main ideas) Frustration Level Comprehension 1/4 explicit questions; 0/4 implicit questions
Identified 0/10 unfamiliar vocabulary words when asked to scan a text.
Trouble forming Complex Sentences (SS=5 on Recreating Sentences of TLC)
Text Comprehension Targets Over 4th Grade Year
Built knowledge of Expository Text Structure
Descriptive passages Compare/contrast passages’
Adapted Framing Your Thoughts (Project Read) to improve Syntactic Structure
Worked on self-monitoring by identifying unknown words in passages
Progress
Significant gains over course of 2 semesters. Within structured texts, identified main ideas with 80% accuracy. Identified 100% of unfamiliar words in text, and was working on inferring meaning from surrounding context. Formulated Sentences administered in school yielded SS of 10. Still needs considerable help to comprehend grade level expository text
Concluding Thoughts To comprehend text, our students must integrate top
down strategic reading with bottom up comprehension of complex language structures.
To be effective in intervention, we must address both aspects of comprehension.
In consultation, we need to help teachers identify the language in their text that will be difficult for students.
References
Bashir, A.S. & Hook, P.E. (2009). Fluency: A key link between word identification and comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 196-200. Beck, I.L, McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002) Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York, Guildford. Brown, A.L. & Day, J.D. (1983) The development of plans for summarizing texts. Child Development, 54, 968989. Carlisle, J.E., (2004). Morphological Processes that influence learning to Read. In: Stone, C.A., Silliman, E.R., Ehren, B.J., Apel, K. (Eds) Handbook of Language and Literacy, Guilford Press, New York, NY Catts, H. (2009). The narrow view of reading promotes a broad view of comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 178-183. Cutting, L.E., Materek,A, Cole, C.A.S., Levine, T.M., & Mahoone, M.E., (2009). Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance. Annals of Dyslexia, 59,34-54. Crowe, L. (2003) Comparison of two reading feedback strategies in improving the oral and written language performance of children with language learning disabilities. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12, 16-27. Denton, C.A., Fletcher, J.J., Anthony, J.L. & Francis, D.J. (2006) An evaluation of intensive intervention for students with persistent reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39:5, 447-466. Dilberto, J.A. Beattie, J.R., Flowers, C.P & Algozzine, R.F. (2009) Effects of teaching syllable skills instructing on reading achievement in struggling middle school readers. Literacy Research and Instruction, 48. 14-27. Ellis, E.S. & Graves, A.W. (1990). Teaching rural students with learning disabilities: A paraphrasing strategy to increase comprehension of main ideas. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 4, 482-533. Flanigan, K & Greenwood, S.C. (2007) Effective content vocabulary instruction in the middle: Matching students purposes, words and strategies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51:3, 226-238.
References Continued
German, D.J. & Newman, R.S. (2007). Oral reading skills of children with oral language (word finding) difficulties. Reading Psychology, 28, 397-442. German, D.J. (2005) Word-Finding Intervention Program 2nd Edition, Austin, TX, Pro-Ed. Graham S., Harris K., (1999) Assessment and Intervention in Overcoming Writing Difficulties: An Illustration From the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 30, 255-264 Green, V.E. & Enfield, M.L. (2009) Project Read Bloomington, MN, Language Circle Enterprises. Kamhi, A.G., (2009) The case for the narrow view of reading. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 174-177. Kispal, A. (2008) Effective Teaching of Inference Skills for Reading: Literature Review. National Foundation for Educational Research. Downloaded from: http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RR031.pdf Laing-Gillam, S.L., Fargo, J.D. & St. Clair Robertson, K. (2009) Comprehension of expository text: Insights gained from think-aloud data. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18. 82-94. Laing, S.P. & Kamhi, A.G. (2002) The use of think-aloud protocols to compare inferencing abilities in average and below average readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35, 437-448. Mason, L.H. (2006). Explicit self-regulated strategy development versus reciprocal questioning: Effects on expository reading comprehension among struggling readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96:2, 283-296. McGee, A. & Johnson, H. (2003) The effect of inference training on skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Educational Psychology, 23:1, 49-59. Nippold, M.A. & Scott, C.M. (2010) Expository Discourse in Children, Adolescents, and Adults. New York, NY. Psychology Press.
References Continued
Nippold, M. (2007). Later Language Development: School Age Children, Adolescents and Young Adults. 3rd Ed. Austin,TX, Pro-Ed. Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C., Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language Impairments in children: Parallels between poor reading comprehension and specific language impairment? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 47, 199-211 Scott, C.M., (2004) Syntactic Contributions to Literacy. In: Stone, C.A., Silliman, E.R., Ehren, B.J., Apel, K. (Eds) Handbook of Language and Literacy, Guilford Press, New York, NY Scott, C.M, (2009). A Case for the Sentence in Reading Comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 80, 184-191 Sedita, J. (2001). Study Skills, 2nd Ed. Prides Crossing Ma, Landmark School Inc. Singer, B.D. & Bashir, A.S. (2002). EmPower: A Strategy for Teaching Expository Writing. Newton, MA. Innovative Learning Partners Ukrainetz, T.A. (2006) Contextualized Language Intervention. , Eau Claire, WI, Thinking Publications Waters, G., Caplan, D., Michaud, J. & Bertram, J. (2010) Assessment of auditory and written language comprehension in middle and high school students. Paper presented at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Berlin, July 7-10. Waters, G., Caplan, D., & Bertram, J. (2011) Assessment of oral and written language in struggling readers. Poster presented at the American Speech, Language and Hearing Convention, San Diego, CA, November, 2011 Westby, C.E. ( 2004 ) Assessing and Remediating Text Comprehension Problems. In:Catts H. & Kamhi A. (2004) Language and Reading Disabilities 2nd Edition, Boston, MA. Allyn & Bacon, Westby C.E. (2002) Beyond Decoding: Critical and Dynamic Literacy for Children with Dyslexia, LLD or ADHD. In E. Silliman and K.G. Butler (Eds) Speaking, Reading, and Writing in Children with Language Learning Disabilities. New Jersey, Lawrence Ehrlbaum Associates
Plan for the Session What causes the fourth grade slump?
Finding the breakdown:
What our current tests tell us and don’t tell us about reading comprehension
Intervention Strategies and Consultation in the Classroom
Questions?
What is Reading?
•
Broad View •
Reading includes all the skills needed for an individual to derive meaning from written text.
Narrow View
• –
Reading is defined ONLY as word recognition, all other skills fall outside of the definition of reading.
Word Recognition Encompasses the processes to: Decode novel (unknown words) using:
1.
• • •
Alphabetic principle Rules of phonics Context combined with partial decoding
2.
Instantly recognize high frequency known words
3.
Fluently convert written text to language
Bottleneck Theory A breakdown in the accuracy and/or efficiency of word recognition will lead to problems with comprehension.
Assessment and Word Recognition •
Skills involved in Word Recognition are easily defined and measured
•
We have a good fund of knowledge about how to teach the fundamentals of decoding
•
We do not have good methodology yet for teaching automatic word recognition– but at least we know when it is missing.
Comprehension •
A complex, multi-dimensional process
•
Contains MANY component skills
•
Is greater than the sum of those component skills.
•
Is very difficult to measure discretely – wide variability in what we call reading comprehension on our tests.
•
By mid elementary school, accounts for most of the variance in reading scores and almost all of the performance on the state literacy examinations.
Common Core Standards
Common Core Standards for ELA and Math have been adopted by at least 42 states + District of Columbia and US Virgin Islands.
ELA Standards focus on narrative and expository text, reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Oral language includes elements of conversational competence.
Focus is on “college and career readiness” by end of high school.
Common Core Standards
Increased Emphasis on Expository Text as compared to prior frameworks.
Focus is heavily placed on higher level integrative comprehension; demands social language competence, metacognitive skills, knowledge of text structure, inferencing skills.
To complete the reading and writing standards in content areas, must integrate these skills with domain knowledge.
Gives Content Teachers more responsibility for teaching reading and writing
NAEP Writing Skills
To persuade (30% grade 4, 40% grade 12) To explain (35% grade 4, 40% grade 12) To convey real or imagined experience (35% grade 4, 20% grade 12)
Standards Focus on Results Standards do not dictate specific reading, writing or language arts programs, or details of the curriculum. Standards do not dictate how skills are assessed (States will determine this). “Teachers are thus free to provide students with the tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as the most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the standards”
Standards Do NOT
Tell all that should be addressed in a curriculum
Specify how to teach the skills
Indicate how ELL students might be supported to achieve the standards
“It is possible to meet the standards without displaying near native control of conventions, pronunciation and vocabulary” HOW?
Candidates to Explain Reading Comprehension Problems •
Oral language skills are deficient in some areas – (simple view of reading).
•
Executive control skills are deficient in some areas.
•
Domain knowledge is deficient in content areas
•
Lack of motivation/interest/effort.
Interactions of Top Down and Bottom Up Skills in Reading Planning, Organization, Working Memory, Strategic Reading, Self-Monitoring, Contextual Fluency, Inferential Reasoning
Lexical/Syntactic/Discourse Processing Content/Domain Knowledge
Decoding, Isolated Word Recognition, Processing/Retrieval Speed
Comprehension and Reading Testing
Reading comprehension measures confound word recognition and comprehension abilities.
By reducing a complex task like comprehension to a single score, we identify a problem without determining why the problem exists or what to do about it.
Our reading (and language) evaluations miss students who are in trouble
Are students who are performing at the 16th percentile likely to be “college and career ready?”
Comprehension Problems Resulting from Deficits in Spoken Language
We have measures to test a variety of discrete skills that are important to reading comprehension • • • • •
Vocabulary Morphology Syntax Inferencing Oral Passage Comprehension
But out tests are limited and not carefully controlled
Assessment of Oral and Written Language in Struggling Readers (Waters, G., Caplan, D., Bertram, J., 2011) •
Designed a computerized language and reading assessment battery to examine reading skills in older (middle and high school) readers.
•
In order to develop scientifically valid instruction, we need to know what skills are contributing the most to reading comprehension and WHY breakdowns might be occurring.
Test Characteristics
Tested comprehension at language code
Simple words Morphologically complex words Complex Syntax Discourse Comprehension (literal and inferential)
Tests same set of skills in spoken and written modalities Tested response time as well as accuracy Administered and scored via computer Have now completed two rounds of testing, with students 6-12 grade
Recognizing Words: Decoding Does this sound like a real word in English?
strete
Recognizing Words: Decoding Does this sound like a real word in English?
spage
Recognizing Simple Words Is this a real word in English?
choice
Recognizing Simple Words Is this a real word in English?
bruth
Processing Meaning: Simple Words Which picture matches the word?
ship
Processing Meaning: Simple Words Which word on the bottom is most similar in meaning to the one on top?
race run
walk
Recognizing Complex Words Is this a real word in English?
lifement
Recognizing Complex Words Is this a real word in English?
nationality
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Are these two words related in meaning?
late
lateral
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Are these two words related in meaning?
local
locality
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Which picture matches the word?
cleans
Processing Meaning: Complex Words Which word on the bottom is most similar in meaning to the one on top?
beginner student study
Recognizing Well-formed Sentences Is this sentence acceptable in English?
The man was scratched by the boy.
Recognizing Well-formed Sentences Is this sentence acceptable in English?
The man was scratched the boy.
Processing Meaning: Sentences Which picture matches the sentence?
The girl was tickled by the boy
Discourse Comprehension • Read 150 word passages
Varied grade level using Lexile
Varied coherence or macrostructure of the text
Followed by Yes/No factual and inference questions
By 1961, the town of Noel had become one of the most popular tourist destinations in southwest Missouri. Because Noel was near the Ozark Mountains, there were plenty of natural attractions. Visitors came to see the mountain views, caves, rivers, and cliffs in the area. Noel depended on the money from this tourism to support their town. When the state accidentally left Noel off the official map of vacation areas, Noel did not respond lightly. Local officials were upset by the state’s mistake, so they decided to form their own territory, called the McDonald Territory. Officials printed their own tourism information and even set up their own government. Cars were stopped before entering the territory. People who didn’t live there were given permission to enter, as well as tourism information. The attempt to secede didn’t work, but publicity from the stunt drew in even more tourists.
Questions: Factual: People visited Noel to see the nature. Missouri purposely left Noel off the map of vacation areas. The McDonald Territory had its own government. Outsiders were not allowed to enter the McDonald Territory. Inferential: Residents did not have to stop when entering the McDonald Territory Noel officials thought the state’s official tourist map was important. News of the McDonald Territory made people want to visit. Missouri did not consider Noel to be an important tourist spot.
General Trends Performance accuracy increased Response time decreased
with age
with age
Comparison of Factual vs. Inferential Discourse Comprehension 90 80 70 60 50
Factual
40
Inferential
30 20 10 0 Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Discourse Comprehension Trends From the First Round of Testing •
Students averaged 76.3% accurate with factual questions
•
Students were 67.5% accurate with inferential questions
•
Performance did not vary with level of discourse organization
•
Did students fail to take advantage of presentation of organized material?
Preliminary Analyses Of All Spoken and Written Tests What is Most Related to Written Passage Comprehension?
Preliminary Analyses Of All Spoken and Written Tests What is Most Related to NY State Exam?
Conclusions
Of all component skills, the most important were:
understanding of morphologically complex words understanding syntactically complex sentences Spoken language skills were extremely important predictors of reading comprehension
The contribution of complex language skills changed over time:
Understanding morphological complexity carried more weight in middle school Comprehension of syntax carried more weight in high school
Discussion Questions
How much of curriculum time is currently given to the comprehension of complex words and sentences (orally or in written form?)
How much knowledge do ELA teachers have about either of these skills? What about content area teachers?
In the classroom, we give explicit skill focus in phonics, but not in these skills. Should this change? Or would specific skill focus only be needed for children with deficits in these areas?
What should we, as SLPs, be focused on when children with reading comprehension impairments are referred for testing?
How well do our current tests assess comprehension of syntax and comprehension of complex words?
What About the Rest of the Variance? Planning, Organization, Working Memory, Strategic Reading, Self-Monitoring, Contextual Fluency, Inferential Reasoning
Lexical/Syntactic/Discourse Processing Content/Domain Knowledge
Decoding, Isolated Word Recognition, Processing/Retrieval Speed
Qualitative Reading Inventory
Criterion referenced measure– gives no norm referenced information.
Allows great flexibility in how the test is used.
Expository and Narrative passages at grade level. Explicit and Inferential Questions – open ended Allows for lookbacks Re-tells vs. direct questions Considers prior knowledge
Think alouds offer opportunity to probe comprehension of syntax, vocabulary, and ability to form bridging inferences.
Passage Length
QRI Level 5 passages range from 254-343 words– closest to the length of many MCAS passages
WIAT 5th grade section has 2 passages of about 200 words each, the rest are all shorter.
GORT-4 passages range from about 50-150 words in length from late elementary on.
WJRMT passages are under 50 words in length at the highest level
Domain-General Skills
Best Practice Guidelines recommend
Teaching narrative and expository text structure Engage in discussion about texts Use the following strategies • • • • • •
Activate prior knowledge Teach children to generate and answer questions about the text Teach visualization Teach self monitoring/clarification Inferencing via identification of key words that are clues Utilize story re-telling
How much instruction is needed in these strategies, and how is this best applied
Are Domain General Strategies all that are needed?
What about the oral language skills that are needed for comprehension
Guidelines mention vocabulary but not syntax or morphology.
There is very little evidence about how to teach inferencing effectively.
Whose job is it to teach these skills?
Content Instruction, Language Skill Development, and Strategy Development
Content Instruction =
Primary responsibility of classroom teacher. Often SLP/Sped teacher does not know the content in upper level grades BUT, we can give teachers strategies to present the content in a way our children will understand–
Specific Language Skill Development:
Primary responsibility of SLP/SPED, with co-teaching in classroom Teaching of component skills, needed to learn content instruction and presumed to be a known skill by teacher • Decoding the words (beyond primary grades) • Understanding sentence structures and morphology • Knowing how (generally) to make inferences, interpret figurative language
Strategy Development
Ideally a shared responsibility Systematically teaching of a method for approaching a task Generally involves building metacognitive skills
Direct Intervention Strategies
Developing language skills in the core areas that are critical for reading success:
Vocabulary/Lexical Development (briefly) Morphology Comprehension of Syntactic Structure Inferencing Skills
Executive control skills
Vocabulary Development
Choose Tier 2 words (Beck & McKeown 2002)
Nippold (2007) Recommends
Abstract uses of spatial words and adjectives • The score was above average
Adverbs relating to degree of magnitude or likelihood • Probably, possibly, definitely, somewhat, extremely
Mental-Linguistic Verbs • thought, asserted, inferred, concluded, whispered, announced
Factual vs. Non-Factual Verbs • Know, remember, see, think, assume, suspect
Vocabulary
Teach words thematically
Don’t just teach the lists of words for a story or a unit – organize them by category
Only pre-teach the essential words
Use contextual abstraction, semantic webs meaningful application to the unit or story
Use both semantic and phonological retrieval cues to get the words accessible (German 2007)
Addressing Word Recognition Deficits
For older students the goal is automaticity
Work on early phoneme-grapheme conversion only if
The student has a very low fund of sight words The student does not know very basic phoneme-grapheme correspondences This student slipped through the cracks and this was never taught.
For most older students who need work on automaticity
Work on identification of bigger chunks– rime patterns, syllable patterns Work on morphological analysis-especially for spelling Work on reading fluency, via repeated readings
Morphological Patterns Younger children focus on inflectional
morphology and how this impacts spelling patterns (e.g., past tense “ed”). Older children
focus on derivational morphology (can impact pronunciation of a word)
Using Word Sums to build Morphology and Spelling
Prefix
Root Word
Suffix
un re mis
help build mind develop thought place
ing ful ly er less ed ment ness
Complex words that occur in 8th grade texts (Adapted from: Nippold 2007) Science Alkaline Crystalline Electrical conductivity Electrochemical Endothermic Exothermic
Social Studies Federalism Nationalism Monotheism polytheism Militarism Imperialism
Content Area Instruction and Morphology Help the students identify what they know about parts of these words Types of Energy Kinetic kinesiology exercise, Potential meet your potential Electrical electric Thermal thermometer Mechanical mechanic
Including Morphology In Your Instruction:
Teach BOTH in context and explicitly:
Choose your words from your curriculum • Rich, deep instruction with multiple exposures and additional activities Teach meaning explicitly • Teach strategies
Recognize they don’t know a word ID word parts Hypothesize meaning based on word part meaning Check hypothesis against context Kieffer & Lesaux, 2007
Some Vocabulary from the Summer of the beautiful White Horse (William Saroyan)
furious natural pious descendant capricious vagrant practical
irrigation surrey suspicious comical irritable alfalfa
Word Sort OUS Words Furious Capricious Pious Suspicious
AL words Practical Natural Comical
Both suffixes mean one who is:
Expanding Morphology for Known Words Brainstorm Comical
Comedy Comic Comedian Comically
morphological variations
Activity for Novel Word Capricious
Define it using Google search
Make a semantic map of synonyms
Find antonyms
Synonym Map for Capricious Unpredictable
Fickle
Erratic Capricious
Impulsive
Quirky
capricious
cap
rich
us
Sentence Structure
The sentence is often the most neglected feature of reading comprehension instruction. (Scott, 2004)
Written language involves more complex syntactic constructions than conversational language.
Failure to extract the precise meaning of sentences loss of text comprehension.
Aspects of Sentences that Are Challenging for Struggling Readers (Scott 2004)
Long sentences with multiple descriptors intervening between subject, verb and direct object
Sentences that do not follow subject-verb-object order
The boy kissed the beautiful girl The beautiful girl was kissed by the boy The girl the boy kissed was beautiful
Sentences where the subordinate clause precedes the main clause
The class was a disaster “The redesigned class that was taught by the first year teacher was a disaster”
The man did not bring his umbrella although the forecast predicted rain Although the forecast predicted rain, the man did not bring his umbrella
Help teachers to identify difficult sentences in the texts that they ask children to read.
Example (from Scott, 2004) Target Sentence: The land to the west of the Appalachian Mountains was divided into two territories. Student’s Interpretation The Appalachian Mountains were divided into two parts.
Third grade MCAS story
Mr. Plumbian lived on a street where all the houses were the same.
When the other people came out of their houses, they saw Mr. Plumbian swinging in a hammock between two palm trees.
They asked the man who lived next door to Mr. Plumbian to go have a talk with him.
Tell him that we liked it here before he changed his house.
His house has to be the same as ours so that we can have a neat street.
Whenever anybody visited Mr. Plumbian’s house, that person would set about changing his own house to fit his dreams.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Use semantic knowledge to bridge the comprehension gap
Temporal markers: Young children (and SLI older children) rely on order of mention – but if a sequence is probable, children will over-ride order of mention
Passive Sentences: Children rely on SVO order, but again, if an action sequence is probable, kids will over-ride SVO
Video Using Probable Event
Use Domain Knowledge to Assist in Interpretation Target Sentence: The people, oppressed by the tyrannical dictatorship, rose up and revolted against the government. Bridging Sentence: The wizarding world, oppressed by Lord Voldemort, rose up and revolted against the Death Eaters.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Teach students to identify the basic components of simple sentences Subject: Simple and Compound Verb: Consider tenses and influence of Subject Object Expanders: • Verb phrase expanders: where, when, how, why • Noun phrase expanders: physical attributes, mental characteristics
Students can then apply this skill to complex sentences where it is difficult to identify the main components.
Note: Evidence says that this process may not result in USE of more complex sentences.
Building Comprehension of Complex Sentences
Once students can identify the main components of a sentence, teach then to:
Identify complex sentences by circling the verbs identify conjunctions, especially subordinating conjunctions Identify the WH words (signal relative clauses or object complements
Third grade MCAS story
Mr. Plumbian lived on a street where all the houses were the same.
When the other people came out of their houses, they saw Mr. Plumbian swinging in a hammock between two palm trees.
They asked the man who lived next door to Mr. Plumbian to go have a talk with him.
Tell him that we liked it here before he changed his house.
His house has to be the same as ours so that we can have a neat street.
Whenever anybody visited Mr. Plumbian’s house, that person would set about changing his own house to fit his dreams.
Excerpt from the Summer of the Beautiful White Horse One day back there in the good old days when I was nine and the world was full of every imaginable kind of magnificence and life was still a delightful and mysterious dream, my cousin Mourad, who was considered crazy by everybody who knew him except me, came to my house at four in the morning and woke me up tapping on the window of my room
Unpack the Sentence Pull individual pieces of meaning from the sentences along with the necessary inferences back to the prior paragraphs.
.
This story happened a long time ago The writer was 9 years old The writer thought the world was magnificent, delightful and mysterious Mourad is the writer’s cousin Everybody think Mourad is crazy Mourad came to the writer’s house. He came at 4:00 in the morning He woke the writer up He woke him up by tapping on the window
Identify Sentences with the Same Meaning
The boy who was in the car was called by the girl’s mother.
The mother of the girl who was in the car called the boy
The girl’s mother called the boy who was in the car
Build Sentence Combining and Sentence Expansion Skills
Link sentences via the use of conjunctions
Identify the relationship among clauses
Elaborate on sentences by answering ‘wh questions
These procedures have the good outcomes for increasing USE of complex sentences in writing.
Combine the sentences
Sally is a good artist She paints portraits She creates sculpture. Alex is not a hard worker the job is easy Alex should be able to finish the job Danny lost the keys we had to call a locksmith The locksmith came and opened the door
Sentence Expansion
“John sang a solo” Where was he? How did he feel? When did this happen? Who was there “When John had to sing the solo in front of the whole school, he nervously walked to the front of the stage while the butterflies danced in his stomach.”
Inferencing Skills Inferences are needed to:
Explain the relationship among events in the text (particularly causal relationships).
Make connections/associations
Among events in the text With prior knowledge
Make predictions
Types of Inferences (Kispal 2008)
Local Inferences
Global Inferences
Allow for text coherence Applied across sentences to make sense of immediate relationships Focus on the main points, the summary conclusions of the passages
Elaborative Inferences
Integrate the text with the reader’s prior world knowledge base
Three important types of inferences (Westby 2002): 1.
Logical Inferences derived directly from the text must be true
2.
Pragmatic Inferences Combine text with world knowledge Are probably true but not necessarily
3.
Interpersonal Inferences Combine text with awareness of character feelings and motivations. Require the ability to take another’s perspective and understand what the other person knows or believes
Text Type Influences Inferences
With Narrative Text – children make many explanatory inferences elaborative inferencing is essential, particularly interpersonal inferences
With Expository Text – children paraphrase the content of the text. Local and global inferences are essential, elaborative inferences relate to factual knowledge.
Common Inferencing Errors
Most students do make inferences, the problem is that they make the wrong ones.
Common error types
Fails account for all of the information that was presented Does not have/apply essential domain knowledge Makes associative, irrelevant inferences rather than explanatory pr summarizing inferences Does not understand the sentence on which the inference was based. Does not evaluate accuracy of inferences and update accordingly [particularly important if we ask for predictions]
Students often remember their inaccurate inferences and incorporate them into their representation of the text meaning.
Developing Inferencing Skills: Think Aloud Strategy
Read text together with students
Periodically stop and ask students what they are thinking about as they read the text.
Model and verbalize your own inferences
Scaffold the students to develop key inferences by asking leading questions or referring back to the text.
Ask child “how do you know?”
Focus on explanatory inferences in narrative text. The goal is for students to make inferences that explain why events happened (Laing & Kamhi, 2002)
Helping Children Make Logical Inferences
Identify and highlight the key content words.
Locate adverbs that tell about magnitude or likelihood Locate verbs that indicate facts vs. opinions Discuss the implications of these
Unpack difficult sentences and, if need be, create model sentences with familiar domain knowledge.
Identify relationships among sentences: Are they
Explaining? Comparing or Contrasting Describing?
Search for the main point in each paragraph– find the commonalities among the details. Reconstruct topic sentences.
Excerpt from the Summer of the Beautiful White Horse
My cousin Mourad was considered the natural descendant of [Uncle Khosrove], although Mourad's father was Zorab, who was practical and nothing else.
Inference
Recognize that “although” signaled a contrast.
Key content: Mourad’s father is practical
Key content: (previous) Mourad is crazy
Infer that Mourad is not like his father and is like his uncle.
Helping Children Make Explanatory Inferences
Activate knowledge about the topic.
Ask WHY questions.
List all the key pieces of information from the text to be considered.
Identify any unfamiliar vocabulary or idiomatic/metaphoric uses of language– find the context clues
Predict outcomes, then evaluate predictions
Narrative: Beyond Story Grammar Differentiate Problem from Solution 2. Differentiate Plan and It’s Outcome. 3. Identify Character Emotions 4. INFER parts that are not directly stated 1.
Making Interpersonal Inferences
Highlight emotion words and mental linguistic verbs
Relate emotion to the student’s own experiences
Build comprehension of a range of emotion words Go beyond happy, sad, mad
Discuss what the narrator in the story knows or believes and compare this to what other characters in the story
Internal States Chart (Based on Westby,1998 ) Characters When
Feeling
Why
Cliff
Theo comes home and finds the dishwasher in pieces
Embarrassed
Because he ruined the dishwasher instead of fixing it.
Vanessa
She comes in 14th place in the science fair
Disappointed in herself
Because she knew that she didn’t do her best work.
Cliff and Claire
Vanessa decides to redo Proud her science project
Because Vanessa realized that she didn’t do her best and wants to do better.
Perspective Chart (Based on Westby, 1998)
Vanessa’s Perspective
Story Event
Janet’s Perspective
Vanessa is jealous that Janet’s project is better than hers. She knows that she did not do her best
Vanessa accuses Janet of getting help from her father for her science project.
Janet is confused and hurt by Vanessa’s accusation. She did not cheat on the science project.
Claire knows that Cliff is not very good at fixing mechanical objects but that he always want to try.
Claire wants to hire a repairman to fix the dishwasher
Cliff thinks that he can fix the dishwasher himself and he doesn’t want to pay a repairman.
Self-Evaluation of Inferences
Have students write down their predictions then go back and evaluate whether the prediction was correct.
Require students to identify the piece of information that supported or refuted the prediction.
Expand this skill to other types of inferences (explanatory and associative).
Teaching an Organized Approach To Reading Comprehension Teach
text types and their signal structures
Place
a high focus on identification of main ideas in expository text
Teach
self-questioning and self monitoring strategies.
Text Types and Their Signal Words
Easier Types
Description: • For example, Characteristics of, Refers to, Someone who, Something that
Procedural • First, next, last, finally, before, during, if-then
Harder Types
Causation • As a result, As a consequence, Therefore, Due to, For this reason, Since
Compare contrast • Although, However, On the other hand, In contrast
Effective Use of Graphic Organizers
Linear organizers work best for language assignments (Singer and Bashir, 2002).
Keep organizers simple. Use only a few types.
Organizers should be school wide and system wide would be even better!
Have students identify the type of assignment and match it to the right type of organizer
Using Organizers for Comprehension
Tailor the organizer specifically to the reading assignment.
The organizer should have the same number of main ideas and details as the text it is used on.
Identify main ideas first
Teach students how to use KEY words to summarize content on an organizer
Multi-Paragraph Organizer MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
MAIN IDEA
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
RAP (Ellis & Graves 1990)
Read a paragraph,
Ask yourself “what were the main ideas and details in the paragraph”
Put the main ideas and details into your own words. Teach concept of key words
This works great if the student knows how to find the main idea.
Control Text Complexity and Type
Select Easier Text Types First Descriptive Chronological Sequence
Control Readability
Use Same General Format Repeatedly
Move Systematically from Concrete, Imageable Concepts to Abstract Ideas.
Multi-Paragraph Organizer: Descriptive What it looks like
detail
Where it lives
What it eats
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
detail
Putting it Together: Case Study SLI
4th grade student
Had been in therapy since kindergarten
3rd Grade Focus
Narrative structure Inferencing Building comprehension of emotion words
Semantic and Phonological Feature Analysis Emotion Word
Type Of Emotion
How Strong
Thrilled
Happy
A lot
Furious
Mad
A lot
Annoyed
Mad
A little bit
Disappointed
Sad
A little bit
Sounds Like
Child Status: Start of 4th Grade QRI
Narrative Text (4th grade text)
Recalled the gist of information, 19/47 propositions Recalled information about all story grammar components Instructional Level for Comprehension • 4/4 correct explicit questions • 3/4 correct implicit questions
Child Status: Start of 4th Grade
QRI Expository Text
Informal Task to Assess Monitoring
Re-Tell – 8/57 ideas (0 main ideas) Frustration Level Comprehension 1/4 explicit questions; 0/4 implicit questions
Identified 0/10 unfamiliar vocabulary words when asked to scan a text.
Trouble forming Complex Sentences (SS=5 on Recreating Sentences of TLC)
Text Comprehension Targets Over 4th Grade Year
Built knowledge of Expository Text Structure
Descriptive passages Compare/contrast passages’
Adapted Framing Your Thoughts (Project Read) to improve Syntactic Structure
Worked on self-monitoring by identifying unknown words in passages
Progress
Significant gains over course of 2 semesters. Within structured texts, identified main ideas with 80% accuracy. Identified 100% of unfamiliar words in text, and was working on inferring meaning from surrounding context. Formulated Sentences administered in school yielded SS of 10. Still needs considerable help to comprehend grade level expository text
Concluding Thoughts To comprehend text, our students must integrate top
down strategic reading with bottom up comprehension of complex language structures.
To be effective in intervention, we must address both aspects of comprehension.
In consultation, we need to help teachers identify the language in their text that will be difficult for students.
References
Bashir, A.S. & Hook, P.E. (2009). Fluency: A key link between word identification and comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 196-200. Beck, I.L, McKeown, M.G., & Kucan, L. (2002) Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. New York, Guildford. Brown, A.L. & Day, J.D. (1983) The development of plans for summarizing texts. Child Development, 54, 968989. Carlisle, J.E., (2004). Morphological Processes that influence learning to Read. In: Stone, C.A., Silliman, E.R., Ehren, B.J., Apel, K. (Eds) Handbook of Language and Literacy, Guilford Press, New York, NY Catts, H. (2009). The narrow view of reading promotes a broad view of comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 178-183. Cutting, L.E., Materek,A, Cole, C.A.S., Levine, T.M., & Mahoone, M.E., (2009). Effects of fluency, oral language, and executive function on reading comprehension performance. Annals of Dyslexia, 59,34-54. Crowe, L. (2003) Comparison of two reading feedback strategies in improving the oral and written language performance of children with language learning disabilities. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12, 16-27. Denton, C.A., Fletcher, J.J., Anthony, J.L. & Francis, D.J. (2006) An evaluation of intensive intervention for students with persistent reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39:5, 447-466. Dilberto, J.A. Beattie, J.R., Flowers, C.P & Algozzine, R.F. (2009) Effects of teaching syllable skills instructing on reading achievement in struggling middle school readers. Literacy Research and Instruction, 48. 14-27. Ellis, E.S. & Graves, A.W. (1990). Teaching rural students with learning disabilities: A paraphrasing strategy to increase comprehension of main ideas. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 4, 482-533. Flanigan, K & Greenwood, S.C. (2007) Effective content vocabulary instruction in the middle: Matching students purposes, words and strategies. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 51:3, 226-238.
References Continued
German, D.J. & Newman, R.S. (2007). Oral reading skills of children with oral language (word finding) difficulties. Reading Psychology, 28, 397-442. German, D.J. (2005) Word-Finding Intervention Program 2nd Edition, Austin, TX, Pro-Ed. Graham S., Harris K., (1999) Assessment and Intervention in Overcoming Writing Difficulties: An Illustration From the Self-Regulated Strategy Development Model. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 30, 255-264 Green, V.E. & Enfield, M.L. (2009) Project Read Bloomington, MN, Language Circle Enterprises. Kamhi, A.G., (2009) The case for the narrow view of reading. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools, 40, 174-177. Kispal, A. (2008) Effective Teaching of Inference Skills for Reading: Literature Review. National Foundation for Educational Research. Downloaded from: http://publications.dcsf.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RR031.pdf Laing-Gillam, S.L., Fargo, J.D. & St. Clair Robertson, K. (2009) Comprehension of expository text: Insights gained from think-aloud data. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 18. 82-94. Laing, S.P. & Kamhi, A.G. (2002) The use of think-aloud protocols to compare inferencing abilities in average and below average readers. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 35, 437-448. Mason, L.H. (2006). Explicit self-regulated strategy development versus reciprocal questioning: Effects on expository reading comprehension among struggling readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96:2, 283-296. McGee, A. & Johnson, H. (2003) The effect of inference training on skilled and less skilled comprehenders. Educational Psychology, 23:1, 49-59. Nippold, M.A. & Scott, C.M. (2010) Expository Discourse in Children, Adolescents, and Adults. New York, NY. Psychology Press.
References Continued
Nippold, M. (2007). Later Language Development: School Age Children, Adolescents and Young Adults. 3rd Ed. Austin,TX, Pro-Ed. Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C., Durand, M. (2004). Hidden language Impairments in children: Parallels between poor reading comprehension and specific language impairment? Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. 47, 199-211 Scott, C.M., (2004) Syntactic Contributions to Literacy. In: Stone, C.A., Silliman, E.R., Ehren, B.J., Apel, K. (Eds) Handbook of Language and Literacy, Guilford Press, New York, NY Scott, C.M, (2009). A Case for the Sentence in Reading Comprehension. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in the Schools, 80, 184-191 Sedita, J. (2001). Study Skills, 2nd Ed. Prides Crossing Ma, Landmark School Inc. Singer, B.D. & Bashir, A.S. (2002). EmPower: A Strategy for Teaching Expository Writing. Newton, MA. Innovative Learning Partners Ukrainetz, T.A. (2006) Contextualized Language Intervention. , Eau Claire, WI, Thinking Publications Waters, G., Caplan, D., Michaud, J. & Bertram, J. (2010) Assessment of auditory and written language comprehension in middle and high school students. Paper presented at the Seventeenth Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, Berlin, July 7-10. Waters, G., Caplan, D., & Bertram, J. (2011) Assessment of oral and written language in struggling readers. Poster presented at the American Speech, Language and Hearing Convention, San Diego, CA, November, 2011 Westby, C.E. ( 2004 ) Assessing and Remediating Text Comprehension Problems. In:Catts H. & Kamhi A. (2004) Language and Reading Disabilities 2nd Edition, Boston, MA. Allyn & Bacon, Westby C.E. (2002) Beyond Decoding: Critical and Dynamic Literacy for Children with Dyslexia, LLD or ADHD. In E. Silliman and K.G. Butler (Eds) Speaking, Reading, and Writing in Children with Language Learning Disabilities. New Jersey, Lawrence Ehrlbaum Associates
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