Post on 06-Feb-2018
Improving reading comprehension in the upper primary grades
Dr Danielle Colenbrander danielle.colenbrander@mq.edu.au
The simple view of reading (Gough & Tunmer, 1986)
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Simple View of Reading !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Poor decoder profile
Successful reader profile
Generally poor reader profile
Poor comprehender profile
Decoding
Poor Comprehenders
• Normal word reading skills for their age but poor language skills from a young age
• Approximately 10% of school-aged children • Difficulties tend to be subtle and “hidden” • Difficulties tend to appear in the later years of
primary school
What we do to understand a text
“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”
What we do to understand a text: Understanding word meanings (vocabulary)
“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”
What we do to understand a text: Understanding word meanings (morphology)
“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”
What we do to understand a text: Understanding sentences (syntax)
“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”
What we do to understand a text: Making inferences
“When the manicured evil genius, Captain Neptune F. Bone, disappears in the Red Sea while diving for a lost sarcophagus, that well-known archaeologist and little-known poet, Cairo Jim, is called in to try and help find him in the dark and watery depths.”
Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills
Text Comprehension
Inferencing
Morphology and Syntax
Vocabulary
Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills
Text Comprehension
Inferencing
Morphology and Syntax
Vocabulary
Higher-level reasoning is dependent on basic oral language skills
Text Comprehension
Inferencing
Morphology and Syntax
Vocabulary
The oral language skills of poor comprehenders
• 13 Australian poor comprehenders • Aged 8 to 12 (Grades 3 to 6) • Age-appropriate reading accuracy and fluency • Below average reading comprehension
Morphology
Blean. Which one means something like “a person who bleans”?
a. bleanify b. bleaner c. bleanity d. bleanance
The oral language skills of poor comprehenders
Participants
Oral Language Tasks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Vocabulary/Semantics
Syntax
Morphology
Listening comprehension
Shaded areas represent participants who scored below the bottom 10% of the control sample
The York Reading for Meaning Study Clarke, Snowling, Truelove & Hulme (2010)
Scr
eeni
ng
Pre
-test
Text Comprehension
Block 1
Oral Language Block 1
Combined Block 1
Control
10 weeks
Mid
-Tes
t
Text Comprehension
Block 2
Oral Language Block 2
Combined Block 2
Control
10 weeks
Pos
t-Tes
t
Text Comprehension
Oral Language
Combined
Control
11 months
Follo
w-U
p
Training
Text Comprehension • Reciprocal teaching • Narrative • Inferencing • Metacognitive strategies
Oral Language • Reciprocal teaching • Narrative • Vocabulary • Figurative language
Image from www.readingformeaning.co.uk
Results
• Training period - All three groups made significant comprehension
improvements compared to controls - Controls’ scores decreased
• Follow-up period - No increase in gain for text comprehension and
combined groups - Scores of oral language group continued to
improve
The importance of vocabulary
• Gains in combined group completely driven by improvements in vocabulary
• Gains in oral language group partially driven by improvements in vocabulary
• Vocabulary is crucial for reading comprehension skill
• Is vocabulary training enough on its own?
Vocabulary training Colenbrander, Kohnen, Smith-Lock & Nickels (in preparation) • 11 poor comprehenders • Average word and text reading accuracy and fluency • Below average reading comprehension • 8 weeks of oral-language based vocabulary training • 30 minutes a week, 3 times a week • Small groups (5 or 6 per group)
TIME 1 Baseline 1
TIME 2 Baseline 2
TIME 3 Post test
TIME 4 Follow up
No training No training TRAINING
Training method
Adaptation of Robust Vocabulary Instruction method (Beck, Perfetti & McKeown, 1982; Beck, McKeown & Kucan, 2002) • Tier 2 words envy, prevent, nimble, offend, gradual • Child-friendly definitions “If something happens gradually, that means it happens slowly over time” • Multiple exposures to words in rich contexts
A typical lesson
• Introduction of first word “Confide. The next word is confide. What is the word?” • Child-friendly definition “Confide means to tell a secret, or to trust someone with
information you don’t want anyone else to know” • Three examples of the word in context “Imagine your friend is about to give a speech in front of
the class. She tells you she is very nervous but she doesn’t want anyone else to know. Your friend confided in you that she was nervous.”
A typical lesson
• Children hear 5 examples relating to the word and discuss them
Would you confide in someone if you accidentally broke your mum’s favourite vase? Why or why not?
• Children are asked to come up with examples of the word from their own experience
• This is repeated for 2 further words • Children play word-association game
Group results: Vocabulary
Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
Time of Testing
Tota
l sco
reVocabulary Definition Scores
*
*
Trained vs. untrained words
Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Time of Testing
Tota
l sco
re
Definition Scores - Trained Words
*
*
Trained vs. untrained words
Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Time of Testing
Tota
l sco
re
Definition Scores - Trained Words
*
*
Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Time of Testing
Tota
l sco
re
Definition Scores - Untrained Words
Results: Reading comprehension Experimenter-designed test
Before training After 8 weeks without training After 8 weeks of training0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Time of Testing
Tota
l sco
reExperimental comprehension test
*
Individual results
• All children made improvements in vocabulary skills
• Only 4 made statistically significant improvements in reading comprehension skills
• These children had the poorest vocabulary skills to begin with
Conclusions
• Training oral vocabulary does improve reading comprehension – but only if the text contains words the children have learnt
• Choice of words to teach extremely important • Vocabulary training is most effective in
improving reading comprehension for children who have poor vocabulary skills
Reciprocal teaching (Palincsar & Brown, 1984)
• Relies on dialogue between instructor and pupils • Initially, responses are modelled, with modelling
gradually faded out • Lessons revolve around a text • Four strategies: - Clarification - Summarisation - Prediction - Question generation
Clarification
• Involves teaching children to identify words, phrases or concepts that are not fully understood, and to look for information that might help them to understand
• Examples of activities include: - Highlighting difficult or unknown words - Using dictionaries to look up word meanings - Examining text for clues to word meanings
Summarisation
• Involves identifying key ideas in a passage and putting them in a logical order
• Examples of activities include: - Highlighting key ideas - Identifying topic sentences - Identifying and removing unnecessary words - Creating mind maps or graphic organisers to help identify key ideas
Prediction
• Requires synthesis of different information to make informed judgements about what might happen next
• Examples of activities include: - Identifying important clues in the text - Connecting clues with general knowledge - Checking predictions against what actually happens - Discussing the reasons why predictions are good or bad
Question generation
• Most advanced reciprocal teaching skill • Requires not only comprehension skills but also expressive
language skills • Requires theory of mind • Examples of activities include: - Assigning children a “question word” (who, what, when, where, why) and generating questions for partners - Discussing why the question is easy or difficult
Example from Palincsar & Brown (1984)
Class reads a passage title “Can snakes sting with their tongues?” A: Do snakes’ tongues sting? K: Sometimes A: Correct. This paragraph is about do snakes sting with their tongue, and different ways that the tongue is for and the senses of smell. Teacher: Are there any questions? C: Snakes’ tongues don’t sting! Teacher: Beautiful! I thought, boy, I must have been doing some fast reading there because I missed that point. A, could you ask your question again? A: Do snakes’ tongues really sting? Teacher: Now A, since you asked the question, can you find in that paragraph where the question is answered? A: No, snakes’ tongues are completely harmless. Teacher: So we’ll try it again. Can you generate another question you think a teacher might ask? A: What are the tongues used for? Teacher: Good
Combining vocabulary training and recipriocal teaching
• Identify target vocabulary words during reciprocal teaching • Integrate vocabulary activities with reciprocal teaching - Give additional examples of the word in context - Discuss why the word fits in textual context - Talk about synonyms for the word - Follow a period of reciprocal teaching with vocabulary games
• Remember to ensure that sufficient time is spent on direct vocabulary teaching – discussing words in context alone is not enough
Resources for teaching vocabulary
• Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction.
• Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2008). Creating robust vocabulary: Frequently asked questions and extended examples.
• Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. J. (2005). Building academic vocabulary: Teacher’s manual.
Resources for reciprocal teaching
• Palincsar, A. S. & Brown, A. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension-fostering and comprehension monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 1(2), p. 117-175.
Online resources: • http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/
reciprocal_teaching • http://literacymalden.wikispaces.com/ReciprocalTeaching • http://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/
2013/01/26/reciprocal-reading-groups-lesson/ • Many more available!
Conclusions
• Reading comprehension and spoken language are closely interconnected
• The most effective way to improve reading comprehension is to work on oral language skills
• In order to be effective, oral language work needs to happen frequently and over a long period of time
• Oral language training is likely to be most effective if integrated into classroom activities
References
• Biran, M., & Friedmann, N. (2007). ‘Shmita vehar Sinai’: picture and word association test. Tel Aviv, Israel: Tel Aviv University. • Cain, K., & Oakhill, J. (2006b). Profiles of children with specific reading comprehension difficulties. British Journal of
Educational Psychology, 76, 683-696. • Clarke, P. J., Snowling, M. J., Truelove, E., & Hulme, C. (2010). Ameliorating children's reading-comprehension difficulties: a
randomized controlled trial. Psychological Science, 21, 1106-1116 • Clarke, P. J., Truelove, E., Hulme, C., & Snowling, M. J. (2014). Developing Reading Comprehension. Chichester, UK: Wiley
Blackwell. • Colenbrander, D. (2015). Understanding the role of oral vocabulary in reading comprehension difficulties. Doctoral
dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. • Elwer, S., Keenan, J. M., Olson, R. K., Byrne, B., & Samuelsson, S. (2013). Longitudinal stability and predictors of poor oral
comprehenders and poor decoders. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 497-516 • Friedmann, N., & Novogrodsky, R. (2002). BAMBI: Battery for assessment of syntactic abilities in children. Tel Aviv, Israel: Tel
Aviv University. • Hogan, T. P., Adlof, S. M., & Alonzo, C. N. (2014). On the importance of listening comprehension. International Journal of
Speech Language Pathology, 16, 199-207 • Nation, K., Clarke, P., Marshall, C. M., & 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
• Nation, K., Cocksey, J., Taylor, J. S., & Bishop, D. V. (2010). A longitudinal investigation of early reading and language skills in children with poor reading comprehension. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 51, 1031-1039
• Nation, K., & Snowling, M. J. (1997). Assessing reading difficulties: the validity and utility of current measures of reading skill. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 359-370
• Yuill, N., & Oakhill, J. (1991). Children's problems in text comprehension: An experimental investigation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge.