English Language Arts
Focused on Increasing Analysis, Inquiry and
Higher Level Thinking Skills in Text
Presented to Lansing School District Personnel-September 18, 2014
By Melanie Kahler, Literacy Consultant at Ingham Intermediate School District
Agenda

Welcome, Learning Targets and Group Expectations

Relationships between the Common Core State Standards,
research from the National Reading Panel and John Hattie’s
research from Visible Learning

Effect size and it’s relationship to best practices in education

Higher level thinking skills/meta-cognition

How to use research-validated strategies in the classroom to
increase reading comprehension, higher level thinking
skills/meta-cognition
Learning Targets
At the end of this afternoon you will be able to:

Talk about John Hattie’s work, explain the concept of a meta-analysis, and know
how his work relates to best practices in raising educational achievement.

Understand effect size and what strategies will result in the most growth for
students.

Understand the concept of meta-cognition and how it relates to higher level
thinking skills.

Be able to use the following reading strategies to increase higher level thinking
skills and reading comprehension

Retelling

Visualization

Inferencing

Fix Up Strategies/Self-Monitoring

Reciprocal Teaching
Group Expectations
To make this day the best possible, we need your assistance and
participation
• Be Responsible
– Attend to the “Come back together” signal
– Active participation…Please ask questions
• Be Respectful
– Please allow others to listen
• Please turn off cell phones and pagers
• Please limit sidebar conversations
– Share “air time”
– Please refrain from email and Internet browsing
• Be Safe
– Take care of your own needs
We will be working in partners and small
groups-
Find a partner and decide who will be Partner #1
and who will be Partner #2

Find another pair to form a small group of four
We begin with the Common Core State
Standards, adopted by the State of Michigan
in the Spring of 2014
The English Language Arts Standards of the Common Core are the Goals for our
students. These include:

Foundational Skills
Print Concepts
*Phonological Awareness (Kindergarten and Grade One)
*Phonics and Word Recognition
*Fluency
*These skills are represented as three of the Five Big Ideas of Reading, according
to The National Reading Panel Report of 2000, and are part of the foundation for
comprehension of text.

Reading Standards for Literature and Informational Text
Key Ideas and Details
Craft and Structure
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity
*Comprehension, another of the Big Five Ideas of Reading is incorporated in all
of the areas listed above.

Writing Standards
Text Types and Purposes
Production and Distribution of Writing
Research to Build and Present Knowledge

Speaking and Listening Standards
Comprehension and Collaboration
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Language Standards
Conventions of Standard English
*Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
*Vocabulary is the last, but certainly not least, of the Big Five to be
incorporated into the CCSS
The Goal of the CCSS is to produce
students that:

Demonstrate independence

Build strong content knowledge

Respond to the varying demands of audience, task, purpose, and
discipline

Comprehend as well as critique

Value evidence

Use technology and digital media strategically and capably

Come to understand other perspectives and cultures
We have discussed two guides to national
expectations for what our students should be
learning.

Now to the hard part—teaching our students what they
need to know and expecting the learning to encompass
higher level thinking rather than rote memorization.

We begin by learning about Hattie’s meta-analyses of
more than 800 studies over the last 15 years of
educational research.

What works?!
Introduction to John Hattie’s work

John Hattie conducted a meta-analysis (gathering information
from numerous research studies about education) on the effects
of many different strategies on student achievement. As a
result of this work he has written three books. Today we will
begin to talk about effect sizes as related to best practice.

The effect size of 1.0 is typically associated with advancing
children’s achievement by two or three years. When
implementing a new program an effect size of 1.0 would mean
that, on average, students receiving the treatment would
exceed 84% of the students that are not receiving the
treatment.

The effect size of d = 0.40 is the hinge-point for
identifying what is and what is not effective in measuring
student achievement. One year of education typically
results in an effect size of 0.20 to 0.40…but we want to do
better than that.

Setting the bar at an effect size of d = 0.0 is so low as to
be dangerous. Don’t be fooled when reading research
studies.
Group Activity-John Hattie Effect Sizes

Get into your small group.

You can mark on one paper for everyone in the group, or
each mark on your own.

Each group should decide whether the items on the sheet
have High, Medium or Low effect on student achievement
according to the results of John Hattie’s meta-analysis.
Note that the number of high, medium and low items are
provided at the top of the page.

Turn your paper over when you are finished.
Low Effect on Student Achievement
Influence
Effect Size
Retention
-0.13
Student control over learning
0.04
Whole-language programs
0.06
Teacher subject matter knowledge
0.09
Gender (male compared with female
achievement)
0.12
Ability grouping/tracking
0.12
Matching teaching with student learning styles
0.17
Within-class grouping
0.18
Reducing class size
0.21
Individualizing instruction
0.22
Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012
Medium Effect on Student Achievement
Influence
Effect Size
Using simulations and gaming
0.33
Teacher expectations
0.43
Professional development on student achievement
0.51
Home environment
0.52
Influence of peers
0.53
Phonics instruction
0.54
Providing worked examples
0.57
Direct instruction
0.59
Cooperative vs. individualistic learning
0.59
Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012
High Effect on Student Achievement
Influence
Effect Size
Concept mapping
0.60
Comprehension programs
0.60
Vocabulary programs
0.67
Acceleration (for example, skipping a year)
0.68
Meta-cognitive strategy programs
0.69
Teacher-student relationships
0.72
Reciprocal teaching
0.74
Feedback
0.75
Providing formative evaluation to teachers
0.90
Teacher credibility in the eyes of the students
0.90
Student expectations
1.44
Visible Learning for Teachers; Hattie, 2012
Results

Which results were surprising to you?

What questions were raised in your mind, based on the
results of John Hattie’s meta-analysis?

How might this information effect the work you do in
your classroom/school?
How does this relate to what we are talking
about today?

As a teacher/administrator it is important to spend the most time on
learning activities that result in the most positive changes for our
students

As a presenter it is important to spend the most time on learning
activities that result in the most positive changes for teachers,
administrators and their students

Based on educational research we will spend time on:

reciprocal teaching

meta-cognitive strategies
to impact higher level thinking in students
Do Not Forget-The National Reading Panel of 2000 indicated that children need to master all of
the following skills to be successful readers
1.
Phonemic Awareness
2.
Alphabetic Principle or Phonics
3.
Reading Fluency
4.
Vocabulary Knowledge
5.
Reading Comprehension Skills
Phonemic awareness, phonics and reading fluency should be taught to
automaticity so that students have the cognitive energy for higher level thinking
skills and reading comprehension.
“
Development requires time devoted to practicing
lower order skills under conditions of relative ease,
enjoyment and strong motivation. Whatever a child
spends a great deal of time doing, then skillfulness
and automaticity will follow. But if an activity does
not take place, then development cannot proceed.
Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn: Hattie & Yates, 2014
As teachers and educators this reminds us that we must pay
attention to the basic building blocks of reading to produce
students with excellent reading comprehension skills and the
ability to analyze text.
”
Efficient Ways to Teach Reading
Comprehension Strategies/Higher Level
Thinking Around Text (Meta-Cognitive
Thinking)
We will be
learning about
researchvalidated
reading
strategies to use
in your schools
and classrooms
to increase
reading
comprehension
and higher level
thinking skills.
Improving Reading Comprehension in
Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade; What
Works Clearinghouse, 2010
Effectively Teaching any Reading
Comprehension Strategy
There are three key elements found in effective comprehension strategy
instruction: (1) the explicit instruction of strategies through declarative,
procedural, and conditional knowledge, (2) the gradual release of responsibility
from the teacher to the student, and (3) the coordinated use of multiple
strategies.
1.
First, at the elementary level, explicit instruction of comprehension
strategies is preferable over instruction where students are to deduce the
purpose of the lesson
2.
Second, equally as important as using explicit cues is a student's transition to
independent strategy use through a teacher's gradual release of responsibility
3.
Third, research supports teaching students how to coordinate the use of
multiple strategies while reading
Pilonieta, P., & Medina, A.L. (2009, October). Reciprocal Teaching for the Primary Grades: "We Can Do It, Too!" The Reading
Teacher, 63(2), 120-129.
Classroom Roles
in the
Transition from
Supported to
Independent
Use of Reading
Comprehension
Strategies
Adapted from Reading for
Understanding; Schoenbach,
Greenleaf and Murphy, 2012
Explicit Instruction=
Modeling and Thinking Out Loud
Modeling
There are eight essential components of
this instructional technique:
Thinking Out Loud as an Instructional
Technique
1.
Concept/skill is broken down into
critical features/elements.
2.
Teacher clearly describes concept/skill.
The Think Aloud strategy allows the teacher to
model how a good reader thinks about text while
reading. The process is fairly simple. The
teacher reads aloud from an appropriate book,
and stops periodically to:
3.
Teacher clearly models concept/skill.
1.
make predictions
4.
Multi-sensory instruction (visual,
auditory, tactile, kinesthetic)
2.
clarify meaning
5.
Teacher thinks aloud as she/he models.
3.
decode words
6.
Teacher models examples and nonexamples.
4.
make personal connections,
5.
question the author
6.
summarize what has been read.
7.
Cueing
8.
High levels of teacher-student
interaction
This explicit modeling of the reading strategies
will benefit all students as they strive for deeper
understanding of what they read.
Meta-Cognition
Metacognition is defined as "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about
knowing". It comes from the root word "meta", meaning beyond.[1] It can
take many forms; it includes knowledge about when and how to use
particular strategies for learning or for problem solving.[1] There are
generally two components of metacognition: knowledge about cognition, and
regulation of cognition.[2]—Wikipedia
Awareness or analysis of one's own learning or thinking processes-Merriam Webster
Strategies that Increase MetaCognitive Thinking
Retelling
Jill Hansen (2004) advocates a developmental approach to retelling
instruction. At each developmental level, teachers guide students toward
the next, deeper level.
Teaching Reading Sourcebook, 2nd Edition; Honig, Diamond & Gutlohn, 2008
Developmental Retelling Levels

Emergent Level
Focus on event listing and sequencing
Introduce basic story elements

Early Fluent Level
Help students apply the basic story elements in oral and written retellings
Introduce identifying main events that lead the main character from the problem to the
outcome
Model and guide retelling events in sequence and integrating story elements, using story
maps

Fluent Level
Introduce plot summary—retelling key events in chronological order
Practice to refine sequencing and story elements in retellings
Retelling Feedback Form
Did my partner tell about…
Retelling Feedback
Form for Narrative
Text
As students learn to retell
through teacher modeling and
guided practice it is important
to move them toward working
with each other. Paired
retelling sessions are more
effective, especially if the
listener is providing feedback.
The setting?
Yes or No
The characters?
Yes or No
The problem?
Yes or No
The attempts to solve
the problem?
Yes or No
The outcome?
Yes or No
The story events in the
correct order?
Yes or No
_________________________________________
The best part of the retelling was…
After reading the text (or hearing text
read out loud) have students:
3
Retelling
Informational Text
3-2-1
Strategy
List three things they learned
2
Write about two things they found
interesting and
1
Write one question they had
For younger children you can have them
draw pictures, or retell what they heard
to a partner
Practice
1.
Partner #1—Look over the information on retelling narrative text,
focusing on the grade level you are teaching this year
2.
Partner #2—Look over the information on retelling informational
text, focusing on the grade level you are teaching this year
3.
Teach the assigned retelling technique to your partner
Visualization
Visualizing helps to build reading comprehension and promote higher
level thinking. It prompts students to ‘think about their thinking’. When
visualizing students are tapping into prior knowledge, making
connections, inferring information and paying attention to details.
Visualization Steps
1. Establish the Purpose
• It is important for readers to create pictures in their mind as they read
• You can remember better if you let your imagination help to create the
story
• Visualizing helps you do have a better understanding of the
words/story
2. Give Directions
• Listen as I read __________
• Write about what you see as you hear the words
• Use pictures, words, phrases or sentences—or combine them all
• Draw or write as you see it in your mind. There are no right or wrong
answers.
3. Begin Reading
• Begin to read the book aloud, at a moderate pace
• Do not show the students any of the illustrations in the book
• Pause and give students time to put their pictures on paper
• Clarify difficult vocabulary and check for understanding when needed.
Reread when necessary
• Let the students take some time to put color in their pictures
4. Partner Work
• Two students should be paired together to talk about their pictures
using ‘sentence stems’
• The sentence stems could include:
 Tell your partner what you saw in your mind
 What did you see/visualize while you were listening to the story?
 Tell your partner about your picture and what you saw/visualized
 How are your pictures alike?
 How are your pictures different?
• Choose some partners to share their answers with the whole group to
show similarities and differences. This will indicate again that there are
no right and wrong answers.
5. Practice, practice, practice…
• Connect this skill to students independent reading by reminding them
to visualize daily
• Scaffold the skill by moving from pictures on paper, talking to partners
about what they see, to making pictures in their head
6. Formative Assessment
• Use visual pictures to check for understanding of how to use
visualization
• Listen to pairs as they are talking to each other
• Ask individual students what they are seeing while practicing
Adapted from Making Pictures
in our Minds:
www.scholastic.com/teachers/
top_teaching/2010/11/visualiz
e-teaching-readers-to-createpictures-in-their-mind-
Practice
Inference
Inferences are things that we figure out based on past experiences and the
information that we have in front of us right now. Making inferences
improves reading comprehension in all content areas. It is a complex skill
that will develop over time, but can be taught. Practicing making inferences
requires higher order thinking skills.
Teaching Inferencing-First Strategy
As the teacher is reading out loud he/she should do a Think Aloud to model this strategy.
Four Questions to Pose—
1.
What is my inference?
This helps students become aware that they have made an inference.
2.
What information did I use to make this inference?
Model your own thinking regarding the information that was helpful to you, then ask the
students what information they used as they are working on the skill.
3.
How good was my thinking?
The question to ask here is the consideration of other possible scenarios to explain the text.
4.
Do I need to change my thinking?
Stress that there is no right or wrong answers when beginning the reading and making inferences.
However it might be necessary to change your ideas based on updated information.
Robert Marzano, 2010
Teaching Inferencing-Second
Strategy
The first strategy presented for teaching Inferencing may be too difficult
for early elementary. Using a graphic organizer might work better for the
younger students.
It Says…
I Say…
And So…
Graphic
Organizer
www.readingrockets.org/strategies/
inference
Fix Up
Strategies/SelfMonitoring
“Readers sometimes get stuck when they read, not understanding a word or losing the train
of thought. The difference between a good and a poor reader is that the good reader
realizes that comprehension has broken down, and knows what strategy to use to fix
it. Many students do not realize they are not understanding what they read, so teachers
must help them become so engaged in the text that when they veer off course, they
realize it and immediately know how to correct it.”
West Virginia Department of Education
Giving Students the Tools to Self-Monitor
Borrowing from Anita Archer and Kevin Feldman, teachers should use the following
strategy to help their students master Fix Up Strategies. There are so many steps that
it will be difficult for young students to know what to do. It may be necessary to
teach the skills individually.
I Do It
Teachers should model the skill/skills that are being taught, using a Think Aloud to
make their reasoning clear to their students.
We Do It
The students should be practicing the skill at the same time that the teacher is
modeling.
Y’All Do it
The students are practicing the skill while the teacher walks among them, checking
for understanding. If fewer than 80% of the students are doing it correctly, the skill
should be retaught.
You Do It
Remind the students to use the skill while reading independently. Move around the
room to be available as they are working. Check to see if they are attempting to use
the skills that have been taught.
Fix Up Strategies

Think about what makes
sense

Get my mouth ready

Look for a chunk

Look at the picture

Sound out the word

Read it again


Read on
Ask for help from my
partner

Think about words I know

Ask for help from my
teacher
Keep reading!
Practice
1.
Read the Awakenings handout until you are told to stop
2.
As you are reading pay attention to the Fix Up Strategies you are
using and note them on the paper
3.
When prompted, share the strategies you used with your partner and
see if you used the same or different strategies
Reciprocal TeachingEffect Size 0.74
Reciprocal teaching can be used to teach students how to coordinate the use of
four comprehension strategies:
1.predicting,
2.clarifying,
3.generating
4.and
questions,
summarizing.
First Steps

Teacher models one of the skills necessary for Reciprocal Teaching, using the
materials and Think Aloud strategy. The amount of text will vary based on the
age and skill levels of your students. Do this as many times as you need until
the students appear to be understanding the task.

Read the next portion of text out loud. Have the students practice the same
strategy that you just modeled for them and share their response with a
partner. Walk around the room to check on what they are saying, giving
specific feedback.

Ask for any questions and have a few of the groups share their responses with
the whole group. Give feedback, being specific about the quality of responses
they are giving. Model your own responses. Continue to have the students
practice until there is at least 80% success, then move to another skill.
Repeat the process.

Do this with all four skills, monitoring consistently. When the class has
mastered this routine for each skill they students can be put into groups of
four, and each group member having their own role in the group.
Group Work/Practice

Read the material from the Reading Rockets handout. Look up when
you are finished.

Each member of the group choose one (or more) of the Note Cards.

Read the excerpt from Visible Learning for Teachers by yourself and
use the time to prepare for your role. You can be writing on the text,
using sticky notes, drawing pictures, etc.

Follow the directions on the Reading Rockets handout. In addition,
each member of the group should be filling out the Reciprocal
Teaching Worksheet. (The worksheet can be used to check for
understanding, provides formative assessment, connects reading with
writing and/or can be used as notes for future reference)
Wrap Up
To implement the strategies we have been talking about it is important
for teachers to:
• Select carefully the text to use when first beginning to teach a given
strategy
• Show students how to apply the strategies they are learning to different
texts, not just to one text
• Ensure that the text is appropriate for the reading level of students
• Use direct and explicit instruction for teaching students how to use
comprehension strategies
• Provide the appropriate amount of guided practice depending on the
difficulty level of the strategies that the students are learning
• When teaching comprehension strategies, make sure students understand
that the goal is to understand the content of the text
“
All students can be taught to practice and concentrate,
provided the notions of success are transparent, that
there is much formative feedback to move forward, and
that there is modification and reteaching provided during
this practice.
Visible Learning for Teachers, Maximizing Impact on Learning; Hattie, 2012
”
The goal for all of our instruction is to provide the tools for students to face
academic challenges with confidence. Using these tools and their meta-cognitive
skills they will be successful.
Learning Targets Revisited
Learning Targets
At the end of this afternoon you will be able to:

Talk about John Hattie’s work, explain the concept of a meta-analysis, and know
how his work relates to best practices in raising educational achievement.

Understand effect size and what strategies will result in the most growth for
students.

Understand the concept of meta-cognition and how it relates to higher level
thinking skills.

Be able to use the following reading strategies to increase higher level thinking
skills and reading comprehension

Retelling

Visualization

Inferencing

Fix Up Strategies/Self-Monitoring

Reciprocal Teaching
Thanks for all you do.
Have a great year! If you have any questions please feel free
to contact me.
Melanie Kahler
Literacy Consultant K-12
Ingham ISD
[email protected]
(517)244-1244