Constructing meaning, demonstrating understanding and

using it

MELS Working Document 2008

Agenda

1. Word of welcome2. Review of programs3. Activating prior knowledge4. Constructing meaning5. Demonstrating understanding

of texts6. Reinvesting understanding of

texts7. Wrap-up

When we were kids, we obediently kept our noses in our school books without knowing why we were reading or what we were expected to

get out of it. We were passive readers, because we didn’t believe that we had much to do with

anything in the text or that our thoughts or opinions mattered. Our task seemed to be to answer end-of-chapter questions, make an

outline, and remember the author’s ideas and information just long enough for Friday’s test.

Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. P.25.

Goals of the workshop

• Help teachers get a better grasp of the fundamental aspects of the second competency

• Help teachers reflect on their teaching practices

• Give teachers ideas on how to help students become active readers/listeners

* What is reading?

* What is listening to a text?

* What is understanding?

Think / Pair / Share

a) Think and answer the questions using key words. (1minute)

b) Pair up and select one or two key words for each question. (5 minutes)

c) Share with whole group.

Do You Have These Tools?

Checklists

http://speaq.qc.ca

How do students construct meaning?

First cycle (program, p. 10-11)

Second and third cycles(program, p. 356-357/ competency levels, p. 34-35)

• activate prior knowledge

• focus on contextual cues, visual support and the teacher

• focus on the sounds, intonation and rhythm of English

• connect words, ideas, actions and resources provided by the teacher

• self-monitor

• use prior knowledge

• use contextual cues

• use strategies such as predicting, accepting not being able to understand everything, inferencing, skimming …

• self-monitor

Do You Have These Tools?

Do You Have These Tools?

Interacting with the text to construct meaning

Use of prior knowledge

Why do we use this strategy?

to help connect new ideas to what we know which in turn helps us better understand what we read

Example – Moira’s Birthday

Modeling the use of the strategy with a KWL chart

Example – Moira’s Birthday

Modeling the use of the strategy with a KWL chart

What do I want to know about Moira’s birthday?

Example – Moira’s Birthday

Modeling the use of the strategy with a KWL chart

We understand so much more about what we read if we know something about it beforehand.

Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. P..

Interacting with the text

to construct meaning

• Read the story you have chosen.

• When the text reminds you in some way of your own life, use a sticky note to jot that thinking down.

* mark the sticky note with the code T-S for text-to-self and write a few words about the connection

* place the sticky note on the appropriate passage or picture

Use of functional language

I’m good at…

I’m not good at…

I’m happy too.

I’m sad too.

Self-monitoring

Think (about what you were supposed to do) + Check (what you have done) + Adjust = Self-monitoring

Self-monitoring comprehension

Example of how to model the strategyTHINK

I think about what I am supposed to do while reading. My checklist says to look for key elements and words I know. It also says that for difficult words, I should look at the illustrations to help me understand or look at the words before and after to guess the meaning.

Self-monitoring comprehension

The teacher reads aloud and thinks aloud finding key elements, characters, places…; known words and hesitating at certain difficult parts of the text.

CHECK (what you have done)

To check what I understood, I will make a visual representation of what I read. Oups, I can’t put too much detail because I don’t understand everything yet.

Self-monitoring comprehension

Source: Paul Kropp

Self-monitoring comprehension

ADJUST

The teacher

•rereads the text aloud and uses a code;

I will reread text and use a code. If I don’t understand , I will put a question mark next to the sentence or section. If there is interesting information, I will put an exclamation mark next to it.

•discusses the text with the class to clarify the sections with question marks. Discusses the interesting sections.

Students are active in constructing meaning. They interact with the text, supported by the teacher and peers.

When students construct meaning, are they demonstrating understanding?

What is demonstration of understanding?

How do students demonstrate understanding?

First cycle (program, p. 10-11) Second and third cycles(program, p. 356, 357 / competency levels, p. 34-35)

• using strategies ( physical response, using resources …)

• identifying orally familiar key elements and main events of texts

• imitating the rhythmicality of the language as they spontaneously join in

• performing familiar songs and rhymes with their group, saying most of the lyrics and using appropriate gestures

• anticipating and quoting recurrent passages

• retelling stories with their group (guided by the teacher and aided by resources)

• creating personalized versions of text

• using strategies (scanning, note taking, resourcing…)

• using functional language and words drawn from texts to identify and briefly describe key elements

• showing their understanding of the overall meaning

• comparing reality with their own

• expressing their appreciation of texts

Demonstration of Understanding or

Reinvestment?

• Reflect on the activities listed on the sheet you

received.

• Identify the activities that allow students to

demonstrate understanding of a text (DU).

• Write your reasons.

Demonstration of understanding

text + understanding + display

PLAN

Use texts and available resources as sources of ideas and information

Select, organize, summarize information

Develop ideas

Expand own range of words

using texts and available resources

DELIVER A PERSONALIZED

PRODUCT

How can students use their understanding/knowledge from texts to carry

out a reinvestment task?Second and third cycles

(program, p. 356-357 / competency levels, p. 34-35)

How can students reuse their understanding or knowledge from texts?

TEXT

+ UNDERSTANDING

+ TRANSFORMATION

=

REINVESTMENT IN A PERSONALIZED PRODUCT

(creative use of ideas, information, words, expressions from texts in a product that is

unique)

Demonstration of Understanding or

Reinvestment?

• Use your Discussion Web handout.

• Reflect on the activities listed.

• Identify the activities that allow students to

reinvest understanding of a text (RT).

• Write your reasons.

Demonstration of Understanding or Reinvestment?

writing about what you would do if you were a character in the story creating a plot diagram to help summarize a story making a character riddle discussing a character’s feelings with a partner explaining why one would or wouldn’t like to live in the time of the story comparing the wolf’s version of events from The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to the pig’s version found in a traditional telling of the tale taking action in school to support peace after familiarizing themselves with human rights through reading, videos and discussions reader's theater

Demonstration of Understanding or Reinvestment?

making a visual representation of the text

writing about the day before in a character’s life sequencing /preparing a time line for the main events in the story answering questions creating a comic strip after having read those from English newspapers and after having been introduced to media-related techniques creating a trading card with a picture representing the book read on one side and important information on the other researching information on a country and holding a stand to presenting it in a creative way writing the name of a character under the illustration writing a Dear Abbey column for a character experiencing a conflict in the story

Wrap up

text + strategies + teacher & peers = construction of meaning

text + understanding + display =

demonstration of understanding

text + understanding + transformation =

reinvestment in a personalized product