Teaching the strategy of paraphrasing to Grade 6 children ... · Teaching the strategy of...

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Teaching the strategy of paraphrasing to

Grade 6 children will improve their literal

comprehension.

ABSTRACT

The concept being developed in this project was: That the teaching of the

paraphrasing strategy to Grade 6 students will enhance their literal comprehension.

Three participants from Grade 6 were involved in the project, one male aged 11yrs

6mths and two females one aged 11yrs 3mths and the other 11yrs 8mths. Students

were withdrawn from their classes on a regular basis and participated in a total of 9

teaching sessions. The OXO design was applied in the project which meant that

students were assessed at the beginning taught explicitly in an intervention program

and then reassessed at the completion of the project. Results showed that students

literal comprehension did improve through the explicit teaching of this strategy

however results for individual students varied from a high level of improvement to a

low level of improvement. Throughout the course of the program it became evident

that students were not familiar with using the visualizing strategy which is almost a

prelude to using paraphrasing effectively. This factor has prompted discussion

amongst teachers in our literacy planning meetings about our understanding of the

visualizing strategy and the teaching of this strategy to students. At team meetings

we are exploring the concept of visualizing and preparing to introduce the RIDER

strategy designed by John Munro in each of our classrooms.

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INTRODUCTION

For many years now as a Literacy leader in different schools I have been

involved in numerous professional discussions regarding children and reading

comprehension. A general misconception that has been evident over the years is

that literal comprehension is the major focus for teaching in the early years of

children s reading development. In the middle and upper levels of the school

many teachers have been inclined to design focused teaching sessions that place

more of an emphasis on higher level thinking skills that develop children s ability

to infer and think critically when reading. Whilst I think this is reasonable I also

think the development of comprehension is much broader than this.

Through quality professional development and regular professional learning team

meetings, teachers in the early years have come to recognise that children in the

middle and upper years of primary school can not become critical thinkers if they

have not been exposed to this aspect of comprehension at the beginning and

early reading stage. Some explicit teaching that includes fertile questions leading

to good discussions about varied texts, will enhance higher order thinking even

at this early stage. As this shift has occurred for teachers in the early years so to

does a shift need to occur for teachers in the later years of children s

development. As children move through different levels of development in

reading, texts become more varied and complex. I t is most important that

children are given strategies that will help them to comprehend these more

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complex texts on a literal level. As students progress through the later years of

primary school and into secondary school they are expected to learn by reading.

The demand on students to work more independently and self manage their

reading in a number of learning domains exacerbates the need for students to

have effective reading strategies that will enhance comprehension.

The reading process is very complex and strategies used in reading should not

be compartmentalized. Some strategies are used before reading, while reading

and after reading however all work together to help construct meaning. What we

hope to achieve in teaching children strategies is that they come to use them

automatically. Fontas and Pinnell (2001) talk about children making conscious

decisions to apply specific strategies to understand a text in a deeper way. They

describe this thinking about reading as really thinking about thinking, an act

called metacognition. Fontas and Pinell believe that students can become more

effective readers by engaging in conscious acts such as questioning, visualising

and gathering or synthesizing information. In reciprocal teaching, for example,

students are taught to rephrase information and ideas in several ways so they

can consciously learn to internalise new ideas for themselves. The goal is for

these overt acts to become automatic, simply a part of the individual s way of

thinking.

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Much has been learnt over the years by Literacy researchers and classroom

teachers about how the teaching of strategic processes will enhance student s

ability to actively construct meaning from text. Deshler and Schumaker (1986)

refer to this style of teaching as cognitive strategy training. They describe this

approach in the following way: Strategy-oriented approaches focus on helping

students acquire school content through instruction in strategies.

The orientation of a strategy is on the approach used by a person to complete a

given task. The approach includes both cognitive (what goes on in a person s

head) and behavioural (what the person actually does) elements that guide

student performance and evaluation of the task.

Often teachers of older students will ask them to summarise a text and yet not

ensure that these children are competent uses of this strategy. Before children

are able to summarise I think it is important that they have in place a strategy

that will allow them to put a phrase, sentence of paragraph in their own words.

This strategy is referred to as paraphrasing. Emily Kissner (2006) argues that

paraphrasing is an important skill for readers of all levels, even those in college

and beyond. Saying that students should have learned a skill such as this in a

previous class or grade is like saying that students should have learned how to

write in first grade and therefore need no more instruction in the topic. The logic

just doesn t work.

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Before continuing I think it is important to clarify what we mean by the term

paraphrasing. Following are some definitions taken from three different sources.

Paraphrasing is the process of restating information in different words. When we

paraphrase, we maintain the original meaning, but we say it in our own words.

Paraphrasing is an active learning strategy which helps us place information into

long-term memory as we move from an understanding level to an active

comprehension level. Good paraphrasing skills are necessary to create effective

summaries.

(Joan Sedita 2001)

The Webster s Collegiate Dictionary defines paraphrasing as the restatement of

a text, passage or work giving the meaning in another form.

The Collins Dictionary defines paraphrasing as an expression of a statement or

text in other words, especially in order to clarify.

I believe that children in Grade 6 need explicit teaching in this strategy

particularly those children that are displaying some difficulty with

comprehension. Developing children s ability to use this strategy can be seen in

light of Vygotsky s zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal

development is understood to be the gap between a person s current intellectual

level and a person s potential level. (Vygotsky 1978) With teacher guidance and

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explicit teaching of the paraphrasing strategy I think a child s potential

comprehension level can be developed.

Hence a detailed outline of explicit teaching sessions will be included in this

action research project based on the following hypothesis:

Teaching the strategy of paraphrasing to Grade 6 children will improve

their literal comprehension.

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METHOD

Design: An OXO design will be applied in this project to improve student s

comprehension through the use of the paraphrasing strategy. A selection of

assessment tools will be used to measure student s comprehension and the use

of the paraphrasing strategy. Development of student s learning in this strategy

will then be monitored throughout the course of nine intervention lessons. At the

completion of these lessons comparisons will be made on pre and post

assessment results in order to measure the success of students.

PARTICIPANTS:

Student A

Student A is an eleven year old Grade 6 boy. He is living with both parents, he

has an older sister aged fourteen and a younger sister aged nine. He is a mad

sportsman who loves to play cricket and football. He is a keen participant in all

physical activities at school and outside in the wider community. Student A is

very popular amongst his peers and has been recently voted in as our school

captain for 2006. When completing the reading interview Student A indicated

that he enjoyed reading most of the time but found it hard to read information

on the internet and found worksheets with lots of instructions hard to

understand. Student A expressed a concern he had about reading at secondary

school was the length of the novels you are expected to read. When asked to

explain what he understood about the reading strategy referred to as

paraphrasing he replied, I wouldn t have a clue!

Student A was selected for this project because:

He had a low score of 10% comprehension level in the Probe test administered at the beginning of the year even though his accuracy level was 90%. (Text Mexico Age level 12-13yrs)

He Had a score of 11/23 for his Torch Test (Text The Accident)

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His classroom teacher was concerned that student A appeared to be a minimalist with his work which seemed to be affecting his overall literacy development.

Those children that were identified as lower achievers in Literacy in this class were already getting regular support from an integration aid so it was decided by the classroom teacher and myself that student A would benefit from his participation in this project.

Student B Student B is an eleven year old Grade 6 girl. She is an only child living with both

parents. Student B goes about her business in a quiet and unassuming way

however is very anxious if asked a direct question or put on the spot in any way.

She has a quiet group of friends with whom she feels very comfortable however

is often found to be playing with children in the lower grades. On her reading

interview sheet Student B stated she enjoyed reading most of the time however

found sheets with instructions and factual information hard to understand. Her

concern for secondary school is that she will be expected to read a booklet in a

short period of time and expected to know what it means. Student B did not

know what the reading strategy referred to as paraphrasing meant.

Student B was selected for this project because:

She had a comprehension score of 0% in the Probe test administered at the beginning of the year even though her accuracy level was 99.5% (Text Mexico Age Level 12-13yr)

She had a score of 11/23 in the Torch test (Text The Accident)

Her classroom teacher had expressed a concern that Student B always seemed to be attentive to her work, seemingly knowing what to do however on a number of occasions had noted that Student B had misinterpreted either the written or verbal instructions given. The classroom teacher was concerned about Student Bs comprehension.

As with the previous classroom teacher it was decided that even though there were children that scored lower in some aspects of the Pre Literacy testing we both decided that Student B would benefit from being involved in this project.

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Student C

Student C is an eleven year old Grade 6 girl. She lives with both parents and has

an older brother aged 13 and a younger brother aged 9. Student C has a very

caring and pleasant disposition and is popular amongst her peers. Student C

indicated on her reading interview that she only sometimes enjoyed reading and

found information on the computer and in the newspaper difficult to read. To

quote her exactly she stated the words used and the topics don t join to me.

Student C was not sure of what the reading strategy referred to as paraphrasing

was and her concern for secondary school was, reading a book in a week or

two, then doing a worksheet on it about the story.

Student Cs classroom

teacher first approached me to discuss her rather low score on the orthographic

reading test administered earlier in the year. Student C had a score of 64

compared to the majority of her peers who scored in the high seventies to mid

eighties. She also had a higher time recorded to read these words compared to

her peers. This discussion prompted us to look at other test results and note her

day to day work in the classroom.

Student C was then selected for this project because:

Her Probe comprehension score was only 20% with a reading accuracy of 93% (Text Mexico 12-13yrs)

Her Torch raw score was 3/23 (Text The Accident)

Student Cs classroom teacher had also noted that during focused teacher reading groups that this student was having difficulty comprehending the different text the students had been studying.

Both classroom teacher and myself felt that student C would benefit from some focused teaching on comprehension in a small group situation.

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MATERIALS:

Assessment Tools:

Torch

Tests of Reading Comprehension The Cats

Paraphrasing test designed by the author of this project. (Sentences used for this assessment task were extracted from Form 2 Level 4 of the Neale Analysis pg 29)

Synonyms test given for vocabulary used in text during teaching sessions

Reading survey to ascertain children s attitudes to reading.

Teaching Tools:

Teaching paraphrasing strategy John Munro (2006)

Fry s Readability Scale (1997)

Text used during teaching sessions. Hazards, Disasters and Your Community Emergency Management Australia (2003) This text came out as a late Year 10 level according to the Fry s Readability scale so information from this book was summarized into short readable text for Grade 6 children.

Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3]

TOUCHDOWN TEXT The School Magazine June 2005 [Vol.90 No5] Touchdown page 166

167 Hard Ice Soft Ice Article by Bill O Brien

Games: Bingo, Memory game, Matching, Classifying activity. All of these games were used to help build knowledge of synonyms. (See Appendix)

Photos of Natural and Unnatural disasters.

Thesaurus (written text and computer)

PROCEDURE:

The students in the project were withdrawn from their classrooms, sometimes

twice sometimes three times a week. To find a time that was convenient to

student, classroom teacher and myself was difficult so on a number of occasions

I would organize for the students to come to school for a session beginning at

8.30 a.m. On most of these early morning sessions I would provide a snack for

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breakfast to compensate for the early start and for student A not being able to

play his regular game of footy before school.

The first two sessions were purely to orientate children into the intervention

program and introduce them to the strategy of paraphrasing. The text on

Hazards and Disasters was chosen so that it correlated to the integrated unit

being studied in student s classrooms. In the first two sessions there was only a

small amount of text being paraphrased and the teacher was doing a great deal

of modeling for the students. It was important to establish in these initial

sessions what the strategy of paraphrasing sounded like. It was also important to

demonstrate to students the importance of using synonyms when trying to

paraphrase. Above all it was imperative that rapport be established between

teacher and students.

The next four sessions were developed around the theme of Anzac Day. As

withdrawal sessions were to happen during Literacy for this part of the project I

agreed to use text that would keep in line with what was being studied by the

rest of the class. At team planning the Grade 5/6 teachers and myself came up

with the appropriate text we would use with the children the week before Anzac

Day. We completed a Fry s readability test on an article in a primary school

magazine to check it was appropriate for Grade 5/6 children.

Up until date I had felt that what we were doing in our withdrawal sessions were

disjointed and they needed a lift. Therefore, prior to the first session on Anzac

day I took the children for a writing session and we really tried to get into the

mood of the Anzac story we were about to explore. ( A copy of this writing

session is in the Appendix) During this writing session we used our senses to

immerse ourselves in the text we were going to write a snapshot on. We then

moved onto the text we were going to read in our reading session. We looked at

the target words and made suggestions for synonyms. We read the first part of

the text using the Shared Reading strategy. Children then learnt how to

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verbalize what they do when they paraphrase. Teacher still modeled how to

paraphrase a sentence and students checked for meaning. Students practiced

paraphrasing as a group and then practiced individually.

In session 4-6 I followed the John Munro Teaching Paraphrasing Strategy (See

Appendix ) After session four however I felt I needed to simplify the

paraphrasing strategy by just getting students to say a sentence in their own

words after they had read it. All three students were concentrating more on

changing as many words as possible through the use of synonyms and not

concentrating on maintaining the meaning of the sentence.

The next two sessions also followed John Munro s model however by the end of

session six I began to realize that student s were not using the visualizing

strategy. It became evident that students were having difficulty picturing the

sentence in their head and using this vision to help put a sentence in their own

words. For sessions seven, eight and nine the students verbalized the strategy in

the following way. After I read a sentence I will picture it in my head, put

it into my own words and change as many words as I can.

For details of all lesson plans please see Appendices

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PRE AND POST TESTING RESULTS FOR PARTICIPANTS

Pre and Post Testing of TORCH 'The Cats' Raw Score

0

5

10

15

20

STUDENT A STUDENT B STUDENT C

Pre testing

Post testing

Pre and Post testing Torch Questions answered correctly. STUDENTS 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

Student A

Student B

Student C

Pre test

Post test

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INTERPRETATION OF TORCH DATA:

The raw scores recorded on the Torch comprehension test indicate that the

comprehension level for all students improved. When comparing students results

on the Torch norm table for this text it indicates that Student A has a stanine

score of 7 and has a percentile ranking of 83. His post test results show him to

be operating well above other Grade 6 children in the reference group.

Even though student B did show some improvement in her raw scores her

stanine score of 5 and percentile ranking of 43 indicate that her post test results

are still a little below average. Student C s percentile ranking of 51 and her

stanine score of 5 place her within the average range when compared to Grade 6

children in the reference group. Student C however showed minimal

improvement in her comprehension score in comparison to Student A and B.

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ORAL PARAPHRASING PRE TEST NAME: Student A GRADE 6 AGE 11yrs 5mths

DATE 7/4/2006 Sentences

Student s Translation

Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning

Replaced words in the

sentence with accurate

synonyms

Types of words replaced in the sentence

VERB AD/VERB NOUN ADJ

Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.

% of sentence paraphrased appropriately

The fearful roaring of the

dragon guided the

Knight to the monsters territory.

The roaring of the dragon made the knight approach the monster s territory.

X made approach

x 13%

He crouched as though wounded.

He pretended to be hurt.

X pretended hurt

x 20%

The Knight now realised that he must attack when the creature

was off-guard.

The knight must attack because the creature was not taking any notice of him.

not taking any notice of him

x 14%

Then the knight struck

powerfully beneath the

beast s outstretched

wing.

The knight hurt him on it s outstretched wing.

X X hurt X it s

x 0%

The monster, accustomed to speedy

victory, prepared to

seize its prey.

He thought the knight was down and out so tried to eat him.

X X thought X knight X down and out

tried to eat him

x 11%

Sentences for this test were taken from the Neale Analysis (1988 Ed). A Fry Readability Procedure was done on the text these sentences were extracted from to ascertain there appropriateness for Grade 6 students. (Extracts were taken from Form 2 Level 4 of the Neale Analysis pg29)

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ORAL PARAPHRASING POST TEST

NAME: Student A GRADE 6 AGE 11yrs 5mths DATE 11/5/2006

Sentences Student s Translation

Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning


sentence with

accurate synonyms



Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.



dragon guided the


The loud roaring of the dragon reached the knight which led the knight to the dragons land.

Loud

Led

Land

X 39%


He pretended to be hurt.

Pretended X Hurt

X 20%


was off-guard.

The knight knew he had to attack when the creature was not paying attention.

Knew

Had to

Not paying attention

X

35%




wing.

The knight attacked the beast underneath the open wing.

Attacked

underneath

open

X 30%



seize its prey.

The monster thought he had the victory and was about to eat the knight.

About to

Eat

Knight

X 33%

Sentences for this test were taken from the Neale Analysis (1988 Ed). A Fry Readability Procedure was done on the text these sentences were extracted from to ascertain there appropriateness for Grade 6 students. (Extracts were taken from Form 2 Level 4 of the Neale Analysis pg29).

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ORAL PARAPHRASING PRE TEST

NAME: Student B GRADE 6 AGE 11yrs 3mths

DATE 7/4/2006


Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning


sentence with

accurate synonyms



Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.



dragon guided the


The terrifying growling of the fierce dragon took the brave knight to the monsters home.

terrifying growling took home

x 30%


He crouched as though he was very hurt. (Didn t know what crouched meant)

very hurt

x 20%


was off-guard.

The knight found out now that he must attack when the creature was not looking.

X X found out

not looking

? x 14%

Then the knight struck powerfully

beneath the beast s

outstretched wing.

The knight stabbed strongly underneath the beast s stretched wing.

X stabbed strongly

underneath stretched

x 40%



seize its prey.

I don t know what any of that really meant.

Had a go: The monster accustomed to fast preparing to kill its food.

X fast food

X kill

x 22%


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ORAL PARAPHRASING POST TEST NAME: Student B GRADE 6 AGE 11yrs 3mths DATE 11/5/2006


Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning


sentence with

accurate synonyms



Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.



dragon guided the


The scarceful roaring of the dragon leaded the knight to the terrifying creatures place.

Scarceful X Leaded X creatures

place

26%


He crawled as he was injured.

X Crawled X injured.

20%


was off-guard.

The knight realised that he must fight when the monsters were not around.

X Fight

Monsters

not around. X

28%




wing.

The knight stabbed hardly underneath the dragon s wing.

X Stabbed

Hardly X Underneath

Dragons

30%



seize its prey.

The creature accustomed to fast victory and got ready to fight its prey.

X Fast

Got ready

Fight X

22%


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ORAL PARAPHRASING PRE TEST

NAME: Student C GRADE 6 AGE

11yrs 8mths

DATE 7/4/2006 Sentences Student s

Translation

Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning


sentence with

accurate synonyms



Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.


The fearful roaring of the dragon guided the Knight to the monsters

territory.

The roaring of the fearful dragon told the knight where to go/ how to get to the monsters territory.

how to get to

x 7%

He crouched as though

wounded.

He knelt down as though wounded.

knelt down

x 20%

The Knight now realised that he

must attack when the

creature was off-guard.

The knight realised that he must attack when no creatures are on guard.

X X are

x 0%




wing.

The knight struck powerfully underneath the beasts stretched out wings.

underneath

x 10%

The monster, accustomed to speedy victory,

prepared to seize its prey.

The monster was prepared to seize his prey.

X x 0%


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ORAL PARAPHRASING P0ST TEST

NAME: Student C GRADE 6 AGE 11yrs 8mths DATE 11/5/2006


Translated into own

words maintaining

meaning

Replaced words in

the sentence

with accurate

synonyms



Changed the

structure of the

original sentence.



dragon guided the


The terrifying dragons led the way to the monsters place.

Terrifying

Led

Place

X 39%


He bent down as he saw the injured, dying people.

X Bent down

Injured

X 40%


was off-guard.

The knight knew that he needed to attack when no one was watching on guard.

X Knew

X

14%




wing.

The knight came upon the power from underneath the beasts wings that were stretched out.

X underneath

X 10%



seize its prey.

The monster came over with victory and then went off to find his preys.

X X

0%


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INTERPRETATION OF PARAPHRASING DATA The paraphrasing pre and post testing indicated that overall student s ability to

paraphrase increased however some responses by students raised concerns

about their ability to maintain meaning when paraphrasing. Student A gave

responses in his post test that indicate he is able to paraphrase maintaining

meaning whilst using a reasonable amount of appropriate synonyms. Student A s

test results also suggest he is able to visualise a sentence in his head and has a

reasonable grasp of vocabulary knowledge.

Student B gave a number of responses in her post test for paraphrasing that

suggest she is not paying attention to meaning and was mainly focused on

searching for appropriate synonyms. Student Bs responses suggest that she is

having difficulty at the sentence level and needs to pay more attention to the

syntactical aspect of language. Student Bs responses might indicate some ability

to visualise however seems unable to verbalise this appropriately.

Student C had a great deal of difficulty paraphrasing these sentences and was

unable to maintain meaning in her attempts. Student C had difficulty

understanding both vocabulary and concepts at the sentence level.

N.B. In the following synonyms test student A s pre test was invalid as half way through the test I realised he could see the suggested synonyms that were covered over during the test. I chose not to draw attention to this as he would have been very embarrassed.

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INTERPRETAION OF DATA SYNONYMS TEST

The pre and post test in choosing appropriate synonyms was

designed to see if students could retain understandings of new vocabulary they

had learnt.

Unfortunately student A had an invalid pre test score and his attainment was

difficult to measure. His post test showed that he had some knowledge of words

however after exploring these words during our initial sessions I would have

expected a higher score.

Student B was the most successful at this test which shows she has the ability to

retain information and operate well at the word level.

Student C showed minimal improvement in her use of synonyms. Student Cs

results in this test suggest that even after some intense exploration of words she

is unable to retain their meaning and has difficulty working at the word level.

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DISCUSSION

Through the teaching of the paraphrasing strategy which was the independent

variable in this project student s showed improvement in their literal

comprehension. It would seem that the attainment of the dependent variable

(improved literal comprehension) stated in the hypothesis of this project was due

to the successful teaching of one strategy; however I would like to expand on

this in the following discussion.

In the introduction to this research I made note that reading was a very complex

process and that strategies should not be compartmentalized. One of the most

significant findings throughout this project was that limited development in the

visualising strategy and vocabulary knowledge hindered student s ability to

paraphrase effectively. It took me quiet a few sessions to realise that I had made

assumptions about children s prior knowledge and experiences before teaching

them a strategy they were not familiar with. Even though I continued to teach

the strategy of paraphrasing explicitly I could not work on it without paying some

attention to the visualising strategy. The children s inability to maintain meaning

when paraphrasing enticed me to change the statement they made before

applying the strategy to just after I read a sentence I will try to put it into my

own words. With little change in the quality of children s paraphrasing I then

included the phrase on visualising. After I read a sentence I will put a picture in

my head and will try to put it into my own words. After this had been modelled

and practised I was able to see an improvement in the retention of meaning

when the sentence was paraphrased. Student A was showing marked

improvement at this stage however Student B and C still needed lots of

modelling and practice. It was only in the later stages of the project that I

reintroduced the phrase on changing as many words as possible in the sentence.

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By the end our strategy statement was After I read a sentence I need

to make a picture of it in my head and try to say it my way. I

will change as many words as I can. This statement has been typed

up and given to classroom teachers to continue practising in the classroom.

At the beginning of the project I felt frustrated, as what we were doing in the

withdrawal group was not connected to what was being done in the classroom.

At the onset of the project I spent a great deal of time working with the Grade 5

and 6 teachers planning their Term 2 program. Following on from this I sort out

text that could be used with my study group and that would relate to the unit of

work being studied in the classroom. Unfortunately the Grade 5/6 unit on

Hazards and Disasters was delayed so when I began my teaching with the study

group the topic was new to them and they had not been tuned in or immersed in

this unit. I felt this impacted on the start of the sessions as it made it more

difficult for the students to make connections to the text. Before the following

three sessions I met with the classroom teachers to discuss another possible

topic they were exploring. We decided to look at some literature on Gallipoli as it

was the week leading up to Anzac day. I asked the teachers if I could run a

writing session with the class that would tune the children into a text we were

going to use in our reading session. This lesson was very successful and the

following three teaching sessions on paraphrasing were the most successful of

all. This outcome did not surprise me as I am well aware that children are more

successful in reading when they can connect with a text. The other variable in

the success of this week was that we had three successive sessions compared to

other weeks that were rather disjointed, sometimes there would be a break of

three to four days. If the students had been attending these sessions on a more

regular basis and at regular times I think their use of the paraphrasing strategy

and their comprehension would have been enhanced.

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Much has been written about the importance of explicit teaching of different

reading strategies. We equip students with cognitive strategies so that they can

think about what to do when they are reading. In my initial readings on research

that involved the teaching of the paraphrasing strategy I was taken by the study

of Schunaker, Denton and Deshler. (1984) Their instructional intervention study

was conducted on a group of secondary students in the United States in 1984.

Even though they were teaching paraphrasing of paragraphs rather than at the

sentence level I found their use of an acronym referred to as RAP an interesting

way of helping children to remember what they had to do when reading. Initially

I thought I may use a similar method with the students I was working with but

because we adapted and changed our reading statement it was not really

possible. From the students reflections at the end of our sessions it was evident

they knew what they needed to think about when they were reading however

results in their testing suggest they need to use this thinking in a more

metacognitive way.

When each of the students in this study group attend secondary school next year

and are reading texts across the domains I can only hope that they will use this

cognitive strategy of paraphrasing. I also hope they are able to think about when

to use it as they independently work through the varied and complex text they

are likely to embark on. Before entering this new phase in their lives I would

recommend that some attention be paid to the following areas of reading before

finishing primary school.

Student A has shown good use of the paraphrasing strategy and improved not

only in his literal comprehension but also in his inferential. Results from Student

A s performance in this project suggest he may be capable of producing a higher

standard of work in the classroom setting. I think that Student A needs some

direction in how to improve his self efficacy. I also believe that Student A would

benefit from some work being done on his vocabulary knowledge.

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Student Bs results and participation throughout the project suggest she is operating

reasonably well at the world level however I would suggest she to do some further

work in developing her vocabulary knowledge. Student B also needs to work on her

oral language. Work needs to be done at the sentence level so that she has plenty

of practise structuring words and intentions into grammatically correct sentences.

Student B needs to think more about strategies that will help her reading eg: she

needs to decide when to re-read if grammar or meaning is disrupted in a sentence.

Student C has a great deal of difficulty working at the word level. Like Student s A

and B she needs work on her vocabulary knowledge. Student C needs to consolidate

her knowledge of letter clusters and begin to use this knowledge to make analogies

when reading unfamiliar words. Student C had a lot of difficulty pronouncing words

in the text we were studying. She needs a great deal of practise pronouncing words

accurately, particularly multisyllabic words. With support in these areas I think

Student Cs ability to comprehend at the sentence and topic level will improve

however attention will need to be paid to the difficulty she is having with

comprehension.

Suggested tests and teaching strategies based on John Munro s model of multiple

levels of text processing will be discussed and shared with all three students

classroom teachers.

Participation in this project has given me greater insight into the reading process. It

has emphasised the importance of explicit teaching of strategies that will enhance

student s comprehension when reading. It has informed me about good strategies

older readers can use to help them in their development towards using reading to

learn. It has provided me with a number of tools that can be implemented and

shared with colleagues at my school and best of all I think my participation in this

project will impact on our students and help enhance their reading abilities.

30

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Australian Council for Educational Research Torch Tests of Reading Comprehension (second ed) Pub Melbourne 2003

Emergency Management Australia (2003) Hazards, Disasters and Your Community A Booklet for students and the community.

Fountas Irene C & Pinnell Gay Su (2001) Guiding Readers and Writers Grades 3-6. Teaching comprehension, genre and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann

Fisk Candace, Hurst Beth. (2003) Paraphrasing for Comprehension. The Reading Teacher: Newark Oct 2003 Vol 57, Iss. 2; pg 182

Katims, D.S & Harris, S (1997) Improving the reading comprehension of middle school students in inclusive classrooms. Journal of Adolesent and Adult Literacy Vol 41 Iss 2 Pg 116 -123

Knight Jim (2002) Crossing boundaries: What constructivists can teach intensive-explicit instructors and vice versa. Monthly Publication: Focus on Exceptional Children Dec 2002 Pg 2 David S Katims, Sandra Harris (1997) Improving the reading comprehension of middle school students in inclusive classrooms. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy. Newark Vol. 41, Iss. 2; pg 116 124

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Martin Noelene Armed With a Typewriter: (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3] Touchdown page 76 81

John Munro (2002) High Reliability Literacy Teaching Procedures: A means of fostering literacy learning across the curriculum. Pub in Idiom, 38. June 1 2002 Pg 23 31

Neale Marie D. Neale Analysis of Reading Ability Revised Australian Council for Educational Research 1996

O Brien Bill Hard Ice Soft Ice

The School Magazine June 2005 [Vol.90 No5] Touchdown page 166 167

Sedita Joan (2nd Ed 2001) Study Skills A Landmark School Teaching Guide Pub: Landmark School Inc and Joan Sedita Pg 67 68

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APPENDICES

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TEACHING PARAPHARASING

SESSION ONE:

Relax each of the readers before session begins.

Before Reading:

Introduce the strategy. Explain to children that we are going to work on a strategy that can help you read. One of the things we will be doing is making a picture in our mind but as well as this we will be learning something else we can do.

What you do is tell yourself what you have read. After you have read a sentence, you say it to yourself, in your own way. You try to change as many words in the sentence as you can. Let s practise it.

Teacher models paraphrasing by taking a sentence from the text being studied. Look at the first sentence . I will read it and I want you to read it to yourself with me. Then I will try saying it another way.

Sentence read Hazards are dangerous conditions or events that can cause injury, loss of life, and/or damage to property or the environment.

Teacher paraphrase. A hazard can kill people, destroy houses and ruin land and animal homes, they can be very destructive.

2nd Sentence read Hazards can originate from natural or unnatural causes.

Paraphrase as a group. A hazard can be caused by something or someone or can come from the environment.

List synonyms for the words that are replaced in the text. Add to this list as children work through the text.

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Read the next sentence in the text: Disasters of all kinds and sizes happen when hazards seriously affect communities.

Each child puts this sentence into their own words. (It might help to write it down). Student A: Communities are really damaged when disasters of all kinds and sizes happen. Student B: Disasters many kinds no matter how strong or weak can cause serious damage to places and people. Student C: Disasters happen when hazards of all shapes and sizes seriously affect places and people. Share each of the sentences and decide which one best matches the meaning of the original sentence. List synonyms that children have used to replace words in the sentences.

With the introduction of these three sentences children should have an insight into what the text is going to be about. From what we have read so far ask them to picture in their minds what a hazard or disaster might look like. Share this with the group.

Scanning for words in the text we may have difficulty understanding. Get children to scan the text and highlight words they may not understand. List these on a large sheet and get children to suggest synonyms for each of them. Have a thesaurus for children to access.

Reflect: Discuss with children how putting sentences in our own words could help us understand what we are reading better.

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SESSION 2 Teaching Paraphrasing

Inform children that the strategy they used in the previous session is called paraphrasing. Ask children to suggest how this strategy may improve their reading.

Text Retelling Children retell what they remember about the text we looked at in our first session. What were the main points we remember?

Text Reading Students and teacher re-read the passage from previous session. Choose a sentence from each student to practise paraphrasing.

Synonyms Play a game of concentration with the words and synonyms discussed in the previous session.

Text Reading Shard Reading Strategy used to read the second part of the text. Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read: After I have read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as

many words as I can.

Students read the passage. The teacher cues the student to paraphrase aloud selective sentences in the text. Use synonym list for key content words to support children in this strategy.

AFTER READING.

Reflect: Ask the students to comment on the new strategy they have learnt in this first session. Did it help with reading this text? How did it help them.

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Introduction to Session 3 was a writing task that involved the target students working in a whole class setting. PROCEDURE Introduce children to some of the vocabulary that will be in the text. Discuss their meanings.

Children make predictions about what they think the text will be about. Build on children s predictions by: Asking children to expand on their predictions with clear explanations as to why they were made. Teacher giving background information about the text that will help build a picture of the text s content.

Strategy used to explore the text. Teacher completes a Read To:

At the completion of the text refer back to children s predictions. Ask if children need any part of the text clarified.

Children work in small groups to complete a sensory response to the text. (see attached sheet)

Share each groups responses with the whole class.

INDEPENDENT TASK. Children spent 20 minutes writing a snapshot of the prelanding to Anzac cove from one of the soldier s viewpoints. (Chn use the vocab established by their group in previous task to support their piece of writing.)

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WRITING SESSION ON GALLIPOLI

Step 1.

Establish the meaning of some words in the text.

Rendezvous engagement, date, meeting

Aroused stimulate, wake up, awaken

Waned decrease, subside, lessen

Civilian a person not serving in the armed forces

Disembark land, go ashore, get off

Midshipman a sailor ranking next above a cadet.

Pinnaces a light boat propelled by sails or oars

Brigade a group of people organised for a special purpose. group, squad, team

Suppressed keep something from being known or seen; put an end to something forcibly or by authority.

Abreast side by side

Cable chain, cord

Grim gloomy, harsh

Menacing frightening, terrifying, threatening.

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BEING BRAVE AND BEING THERE

To write convincingly, you have to make your reader feel they are actually there. If you were a soldier on the ship ready to disembark onto the banks of Turkey soil think about what you would:

SEE

HEAR

TOUCH

SMELL

TASTE

FEEL

Ready For one minute, everyone calls to their scribe what they see . For the next minute, everyone says what they hear . Minute three is what they touch etc .

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Session 3 on Paraphrasing: LEVEL GRADE 6 SMALL GROUP

Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3] pg 76 -77

TOUCHDOWN Tuning children into the text. Explain to children that the text we are going to read is about a war journalist that was at Gallipoli. Explain the role of journalist during the war. Show children a newspaper that was circulated on a ship during World War11. (5mins)

Reading Target words: (New Passage) Read through a list of content words from the text with the children.

Synonyms Play a quick synonym game on the computer to expand children s understanding of content words. (See attached activity) (10 mins)

Text Reading (Shared Reading Strategy) Teacher reads text while students follow with their own copy of the text. Reread highlighted sentences in the text. (Sentences highlighted will contain the content words explored by children at the beginning of the session.) Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read these sentences. After I read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as many words as I can.

Teacher to model the first sentence.

Paraphrase the next sentence as a group.

Children paraphrase the next sentence individually, share with the group, and decide which sentence best matches the meaning of the sentence in the text.

Children then paraphrase their own individual sentence check with the group that meaning has not been lost.

Children continue to practice the paraphrasing strategy with the remaining sentences.

(20mins)

Reflection: Children comment on what has been learnt in the session and how it might have helped their reading. (5mins)

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COMPUTER TASK Session 3 on Paraphrasing:

Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3]

TOUCHDOWN Task

Read each of the words in the table. Look at the words on page two. You have 5 minutes to match words of similar meaning and then cut and paste the words on page two into the table. Print out your complete table ready to discuss with the group.

Reading Target words: (New Passage) Answer sheet

descend climb down freelance independent concise summary eyewitness observer ballot vote contingent Large group disorderly badly behaved mutterings mumblings pap soft food for babies correspondent reporter anticipation prediction

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Session 3 Student form Reading Target words: (New Passage)

descend freelance concise eyewitness ballot contingent disorderly mutterings pap correspondent anticipation

observer

Large group

prediction

soft food for babies

climb down

mumblings

reporter

independent

summary

vote

badly behaved

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Session 4 on Paraphrasing LEVEL GRADE 6 SMALL GROUP

Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3] pg 78 - 79

TOUCHDOWN Text Retelling Students retell passages from the previous session. They say what they remember about the text. (5 mins)

Synonyms: (content words from the previous text) A quick quiz: teacher to call out words from previous text and students are to quickly write a synonym for each word. Compare and discuss as a group at the end. (5 mins)

Practising the paraphrasing strategy: (Use previous text) Students choose a highlighted sentence from previous text and practise the paraphrasing strategy. (5 mins)

Reading Target words. Read through a list of content words with the students. Read through the synonym list. With different coloured pencils students quickly try to match up a synonym for each content word. Compare and discuss as a group. Compare student s answers to an answer sheet. (10 mins)

Text Reading (Shared Reading Strategy) Teacher reads text while students follow with their own copy of the text. Six main sentences from the text are written on cards. These are distributed to students so that each student has two sentences from the text that they have to paraphrase for the group. The group need to determine if the meaning of the sentence was retained after it was paraphrased. Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read these sentences. After I read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as many

words as I can.

(20 mins)

Reflection: Students comment on what has been learnt in the session and how it might have helped their reading. (5mins)

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WORKSHEET SESSION 4 Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3] pg 78 79

TOUCHDOWN

FINDING SYNONYMES FOR CONTENT WORDS

Read the content words for this piece of text and then match it with a synonym. Draw a matching coloured line to a word on the right hand side of the table.

CONTENT WORDS SYNONYMS AND MEANINGS

aft middle of foc sle guard amidst restrained sentry close to stern of ship muzzled important army

messages ferocious upper deck of a ship despatches earth embankment parapet violent

ANSWER SHEET

FINDING SYNONYMES FOR CONTENT WORDS CONTENT WORDS SYNONYMS AND MEANINGS

aft close to stern of ship foc sle upper deck of a ship amidst middle of sentry guard muzzled restrained ferocious violent despatches important army messages parapet earth embankment

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Text: Armed With a Typewriter: Article by: Noelene Martin (The School Magazine April 2005 [Vol. 90 No. 3] pg 80 - 81

TOUCHDOWN Text Retelling Students retell passages from the previous session. They say what they remember about the text. Encourage children to use the visualising strategy as they are not very familiar with this. (5 mins)

Synonyms: Place content words and synonyms on magnetic cards. Place all words on the white board. Students work as a group to match content words and synonyms. Give students a 3 minute time frame to work in. (5 mins)

Practising the paraphrasing strategy: (Use previous text) Teacher reads a sentence to individual student. Student paraphrases orally, concentrating on the first part of the paraphrasing strategy ie: I will try to say that in my own words. (5 mins)

Reading Target words. Students locate a words highlighted in the text. Write these on whiteboard. Ask children to suggest synonyms for these words, if unable to make a suggestion get students to find a synonym in the thesaurus. (10 mins)

Text Reading (Shared Reading Strategy) Teacher reads text while students follow with their own copy of the text. Locate sentences in the text where a content word has been highlighted. Students take it in turns to paraphrase these sentences. Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read these sentences. After I read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as many

words as I can. (Today we are only practising the first part of the strategy) (20 mins)


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CONTENT WORDS Session 5

SYNONYMS AND MEANINGS

evacuation emptying/Leave a place in an orderly fashion

publication a published item slaughter kill devastated shocked carnage massacre / killing Pozieres A city in France densely thick somme River in france dugout underground shelter

representation symbolise relics souvenir urged desire promoted helped reality something real knighthood gives a person the

right to put sir before their name.

elimination remove

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TEXT Hazards, Disasters and your Community EMA Emergency Management Australia Pg 8-9

Text Retelling Read children an extract from the Age newspaper that refers to the article we read in previous session. Ask children to recall what they remember about our previous text. (5 mins)

Synonyms: Repeat the board matching game for synonyms from the last session. Give students 2 mins to match words with a synonym. (5 mins)

Practising the paraphrasing strategy: (Use a sentence from the newspaper that is related to our previous text) Children say what they will do when they paraphrase. (We are still only practising the first part of the strategy) Discuss the sentence paraphrased by each child to determine if meaning is maintained (5 mins)

Reading Target words. Because some of the words and their meanings are difficult in this text we are going to use pictures and words to introduce the content words. With lots of discussion and the use of a thesaurus the children will help determine synonyms for the words in this text. (15 mins)

Text Reading (Shared Reading Strategy) Teacher reads text while students follow with their own copy of the text. Because this is a short text we will go back and paraphrase each of the sentences in turn. Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read these sentences. After I read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as many

words as I can. (Today we are only practising the first part of the strategy) (15 mins)


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Pictures used for Session 6

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Text used for sessions 6 HAZARDS, DISASTERS AND YOUR COMMUNITY.

NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS

Some hazards and disasters originate from meteorological causes. This means that many hazards and disasters are caused by different weather patterns. Some examples of meteorological hazards and disasters that occur in Australia are cyclones, bushfires, droughts, floods, severe storms and tornadoes. Compared to some other countries, disasters caused by these hazards in Australia rarely take a large death toll, mainly because we are not densely populated and are quite well prepared.

Australia is a country that is considered to be geographically stable. This means that we do not have a lot of movement in the land around us. We are not affected by volcanoes or intense earthquakes in populated areas however several moderate earthquakes have caused some damage in different parts of Australia. In 1966 and 1997 two landslide disasters claimed lives in Western Australia and New South Wales.

Sometimes disasters can be caused by things such as a mice plague, food crop disease or an infection such as hepatitis. When disease is spread from living organisms such as these the disaster is of biological origin.

A disaster of extraterrestrial origin presents a low risk to Australia however the impact on Earth by a comet or asteroid could cause anything from a major disaster to a worldwide catastrophe.

NON NATURAL HAZARDS AND DISASTERS

Not all disasters are of natural causes, disasters that are caused by human error

such as urban fires, riots, wars etc are a non natural hazard or disaster.

With our ever increasing technological world and increasing population in Australia we are increasing the likelihood of hazards and disasters being of technological origin. These types of hazards and disasters include things such as transport accidents, industrial explosions, fire and bridge collapses and oil and chemical spills.

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TEXT The School Magazine June 2005 [Vol.90 No5] Touchdown page 166


Text Retelling Children classify pictures used in previous lesson to tune them into the text read on the different causes for hazards and disasters. Children to recall information read about in previous lesson. Teacher to ask questions to help organize the information. (10 mins)

Synonyms: Play a game of Bingo using the content words from previous text and the synonyms the children found for these on the computer. (5 mins)

Practising the paraphrasing strategy: Give students a copy of two sentences from the previous text. Students say the paraphrasing strategy before they begin to read these sentences. After I read each sentence I will try to say it my way. I will change as many words as I can. Children paraphrase their sentence and record. Reread changing as many words in the sentence as possible. Share and discuss meaning and use of synonyms. (10 mins)

The discussion that took place while children were practicing the paraphrasing strategy took some time so we left the remainder of the lesson for the next session.

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BINGO CARDS FOR SESSION 7

rarely

meteorological

Biological

extraterrestrial

catastrophe. Organisms

riots

industrial

Geographically

technological

moderate

Intense

industrial

geographically

Extraterrestrial

meteorological

technological

Moderate

organisms

intense

Rarely

catastrophe. riots

Biological

ntense

moderate

Riots

geographically

organisms

Extraterrestrial

biological

meteorological

catastrophe.

industrial

rarely

Technological

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From our discussion held in session 7 it became very obvious that the students have difficulty visualizing a sentence or group of sentences. I decided to incorporate some of this strategy in the session.

Tuning Into new text: Show students a quick slide show of the Hail Storm that hit Sydney in April 1999. Discuss what it would have been like to be in this storm. Get students to use their senses to grab the essence of this event. What would they see, hear, feel etc. (15 mins)

Reading Target words: Flash cards front of card content word back of card a synonym for that word.

Text Reading (Shared Reading Strategy) Display the first two sentences of this new text on the last slide of the slide show. Read these with the children. Get the students to create a picture in their head when they read these sentences. Ask students to say the sentences their own way. Put the nouns and adjectives and verbs in the sentence in italics; get students to change as many of these words as possible using synonyms. (15 mins)

Reflection: Students comment on the effectiveness of using the visualizing strategy as well as both parts of the paraphrasing strategy. (5mins)

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FLASH CARDS TO BE USED IN SESSION 8

direct terrible devastating weaker common damaged cell devastating destructive harmlessly massive immediate

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Session 9 on Paraphrasing. LEVEL GRADE 6 SMALL GROUP



Text Retelling Students recall information from both visual and written text about the Sydney storms in 1999. (5 mins)

Synonyms: Revise synonyms from previous sentences. Use flashcards from session 8. (5 mins)

Practicing the paraphrasing strategy: Revisit the two sentences looked at in the previous session, put in a third sentence composed by the teacher on the subject so that all students have an individual sentence to practice on. (5 mins)

Reading Target Words Write target words on the white board; get children to make suggestions for synonyms to match these words. Look words up in the thesaurus if unable to suggest an appropriate synonym. (5 mins)

Text Reading (Shared reading strategy) Teacher reads part 2 of the text about the Sydney storms in 1999. Students practice paraphrasing two or three sentences each. Ask children to say what they do when they paraphrase. Emphasis the importance of visualizing. Children need to say, After I read a sentence I need to make a picture of it in my head and try to say it my way. I will change as many words as I can. (10 mins)

Reflection: As this is our last session it is important to allow the students to reflect on the program they have been involved in and suggest how their involvement may or may not be beneficial for them as a reader.

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