Evaluation of current strategies &
practice.
What works?
National Reading Panel, 2000
Three key factors in developing comprehension:
1. Learning about words - vocab development
2. Having access to adults who make the reading process visible by
explicit modelling & teaching of comprehension strategies
3. Interaction / response / engagement - active readers
Shared and group work are the obvious contexts for teaching comprehension
- we model whole class and then practise and apply in group work, where we
strengthen and develop skills in a more focused, precise and personalised
way.....
this is where guided reading fits.
NB. - Which should be purpose driven not process driven
The Place of ‘Talk’
Pardo (2004)
Reading comprehension is... “ a cognitive process in which readers construct
meaning by interacting with the text through a combination of prior
knowledge and previous experience, information in the text, and the stance
the reader takes in relationship to the text.”
How?
Reading talk = high quality classroom talk
•develops active construction of the meaning of a text
•supports the learning of new vocabulary and syntax
•develops critical thinking and associated language skills
•encourages ‘reading motivation’ and a joy of reading
•provides opportunities for the explicit teaching
of comprehension skills
What do good readers do?
Illya Prigogine has demonstrated that when an
‘open system’, one which exchanges matter and/ or
energy with its environment, has reached a state of
maximum entropy, its molecules are in a state of
equilibrium. Spontaneously small fluctuations can
increase in amplitude, bringing the system into a
‘far from equilibrium’ state. Perhaps it is the
instability of sub-atomic particles (events) on the
microscopic level that causes fluctuations on the
macroscopic level of molecules.
G
Good readers have key strategies
They can :
Graham 2011:
..if children do not make
connections between the
lives they live, both
physically and
emotionally, and the lives
portrayed in books, the
chances are that books
will remain peripheral to
their lives
•Activate prior knowledge
•Predict
•Question and clarify
•Visualise, imagine and empathise
•Summarise
•Infer
•Monitor and check their own understanding
How are we explicitly teaching, practising and
embedding these strategies?
Guided Reading ?
Wh
What is its job? Is it doing its job?
“A recent development in reading has been the emphasis on Guided
Reading in schools. This is a potentially useful strategy. However,
inspection evidence suggests that it should complement rather than
replace the different approaches mentioned earlier. Many primary
schools in particular appear to believe that guided reading in itself will
improve standards although few have clear approaches to evaluating
the impact of the sessions. The important question for schools is not
whether they make use of a guided reading approach but how effective
it is…”
Moving English Forward 2012
And again …
•
The main vehicle for the teaching of reading in Key Stage 2 in
all schools visited was a guided reading session. The sessions
observed varied hugely in quality and effectiveness.
…However, there was no evidence that senior leaders in schools
where reading standards were not yet good had evaluated or
investigated the impact of teaching in the guided reading sessions.
Ready to read? How a sample of primary schools in Stoke-onTrent teach pupils to read
June 2014
Beware:
> testing comprehension v teaching comprehension
> Q & A - drawing out what children already know rather than
the explicit teaching strategies and developing skills to support
these strategies.
Guided Reading :
It has been called ‘…Guided Reading to emphasise the importance of
the teacher’s role; it is what the teacher does that makes guided
reading effective. By guiding their pupils reading, the teacher is
enhancing their reading strategies so that they will be able to
internalise these approaches and apply them when reading
independently. By reading with a guide, pupils will be able to read with
more awareness and understanding and will bring these skills to bear
when they tackle texts alone.’
Hobsbaum et al (2006), Guided Reading. Institute of Education.
This however is just one vehicle for teaching comprehension –
> What else are we doing to develop comprehension?
> Where else can we develop the skills of being a good reader?
> Are there more effective engaging ways?
Putting talk and the pupils at the heart
>Activate prior
knowledge
> Predict
> Question and
clarify
> Visualise,
imagine and
empathise
> Summarise
> Infer
> Monitor and
check their own
understanding