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| Reading Comprehension: Building An Effective Instructional Array |
| Sunday, May 30, 2004 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| Clarendon |
| Area: EDC/TPC; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy) |
| Discussant: Timothy A. Slocum (Utah State University) |
| Abstract: . |
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| Lexicon, Context, and Text Recall |
| KRISTINE F. MELROE (Morningside Academy), Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy), Libby M. Street (Central Washington University), Suzanne Casson (Precision Tutoring, Winnebago) |
| Abstract: Students' abilities to read and understand both explicit and implicit meaning from text is, in part, a function of fundamental language skills. This paper describes procedures to improve the students' vocabulary fluency and to enhance their ability to derive word meaning from context. It also explains a pre-reading volley between teacher and students during which the teacher helps students to develop connections between their own histories and the context of the printed material. Last, it outlines procedures to establish and extend the students' memory for details in the text through an expansion of Vickie Benson's "retelling" technique. The presenter will describe standard celeration chart-based activities to expand vocabulary and to monitor memory for details and present evidence of students' improvement in these important reading comprehension skills. |
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| Improving Students' Abilities to Draw Inferences |
| KENT JOHNSON (Morningside Academy), Libby M. Street (Central Washington University), Kristine F. Melroe (Morningside Academy), Suzanne Casson (Precision Tutoring, Winnebago) |
| Abstract: Effective reading comprehension requires reading between the lines. However, this ability to infer the author's intent is an elusive skill for many readers. Reading practitioners have identified a number of inferential skills that students who are good readers practice, among them predicting, questioning the author, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, and establishing cause and effect. Teachers intentionally model these skills in the context of group reading, using a procedure called "think aloud." After several think-alouds, the teacher uses a delayed prompting technique to prompt students and assess their proficiency in applying these previously modeled skills. In this reversal of the typical mathematics approach which is characterized as "model, lead, test," the teacher tests, then prompts, then finally models until student performance meets criterion. This paper will describe this delayed prompting technique and present evidence of its effectiveness in improving students' performance on reading comprehension tasks. |
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| Choosing Appropriate Comprehension Skills and Applying them Moment-to-Moment in Time |
| LIBBY M. STREET (Central Washington University), Kent Johnson (Morningside Academy), Kristine F. Melroe (Morningside Academy), Suzanne Casson (Precision Tutoring, Winnebago) |
| Abstract: Students who meet criterion on a set of comprehension skills don't necessarily apply them when they are reading for pleasure or reading a content-rich assignment. Morningside is developing and field-testing procedures that effectively transition students from "knowing how" to "knowing when." Students transition, still in a read-aloud setting, from being instructed by the teacher to employ a particular skill to being encouraged to think about the skills they've practiced and decide which, if any, are appropriate. They later transition to employing the skills in silent reading and making note of skills used and locations in the text of their use. The last step is to transition to reading in the content fields and self-monitoring application of skills. In essence, the program is designed to establish a habit of using proficient skills. This paper describes work to date on this component of the program including procedures for data-collection and self-monitoring. |
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