Teacher Inferencing
Be sure your students know what inference is (and what it isn't)
Inference is using facts, observations, and logic or reasoning to come to an assumption or conclusion. It is not stating the obvious (stating the obvious: that girl is wearing a fancy dress and carrying a bouquet of flowers. inference: that girl is a flower girl in a wedding). It is not prediction, though the two are definitely related. Remind your students that inference asks "What conclusions can you draw about what is happening now?" Prediction asks, "What will happen next?"
Show them they are experts already! Ask them questions where they have to infer. "What do you think my favorite color is?" What do you think my parents look like? How old do you think I am? How do you think I feel?
Inference is using facts, observations, and logic or reasoning to come to an assumption or conclusion. It is not stating the obvious (stating the obvious: that girl is wearing a fancy dress and carrying a bouquet of flowers. inference: that girl is a flower girl in a wedding). It is not prediction, though the two are definitely related. Remind your students that inference asks "What conclusions can you draw about what is happening now?" Prediction asks, "What will happen next?"
Show them they are experts already! Ask them questions where they have to infer. "What do you think my favorite color is?" What do you think my parents look like? How old do you think I am? How do you think I feel?
Definitions
Phonemic Awareness = hear and manipulate
Phonics = see and hear, organize
Phonics = see and hear, organize
Non-Fiction Te
http://kristinmjordan.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/non-fiction-text-structures/
Dibbles- read about it if you/I are/am interviewing outside of MOCO!
ORF
Portfolios
Need to start these from the beginning!
When I say beginning I mean K or 1st grade!
There needs to be a developmental phase for students to learn how to do them.
At 2nd grade they should be familiar with them and the tasks with them.
It is RISKY to introduce them midstream and you have to think of the payoff for this situation.
Checklists: can be a form of portfolio
- need to be gradual/scaffolded
- Should be started young and school wide
- Go from novice use to expert use
- Can, for summative assessment, create a list of things you do NOT want students still doing
- Proof of Agency
- Responsibility for it
- Motivation and engagement from students
- social processes as they share them
- cognitive growth
- self-assessment (checklists)
- internalization of assessment routines
- if new students come in, not from your school, they will be lost
Reading Inventories
- Benefits of using them
- Get to know class, monitor progress, make reading groups, are they maintaining?
- Word lists
- Use these for more than just grading them (6th grade etc). You can tell if things are sight words OR if they have good phonics scales! IF they fly through = sight words, if they eventually with struggle get to the right pronunciation then they are good with phonics.
- Role of teacher?
- keep written records
- make sure use the assessments
- make sure useful
- make sure not negative!
- Retelling in an inventory
- their tangents are not signs of mis-comprehenions
- if they forget things, you should have some questions ready to beef-up their memory
- more of a way to help them gather their thoughts without the pressure of questions yet
- Analyzing their inventories! (REMEMBER their prior/background knowledge, their attitudes, their interest level, and their nerves and view of how this is "graded" can alter their inventory score!)
- Reading slow, what does it mean? They could have no prior knowledge and therefore not be able to decode! They could just be a generally bad decoder. Could be very good at self-monitoring!
- Low answers for comprehension, what does it mean? Maybe they are sacrificing decoding for comprehending it. Maybe they are not interested in it! Maybe they have no prior knowledge!
- High comprehension? They are good readers! They have a vast amount of prior knowledge and it works out this time. They have good memory.
- Read fast? They have fast prior knowledge of the sight words. They could have good fluency.
(Reading inventories continued)Consequences
Usefulness
Roles and responsibilities
Reliability
Validity
Consequential Validity
Do NOT let students see that they are below average!
Reading groups are BAD (kind of). If students know they are in the low reading group it is detrimental.
Reading groups are BAD (kind of). If students know they are in the low reading group it is detrimental.
QUICK ASSESSMENT plus more ideas
Ask students what are the important words in the book and explain why they are important.
Depending on what they are focusing on you can assess their understanding.
If they are focused on "the" or "girls" or something this could be bad.
If they are focused on the high frequency this should be a red-flag too, because this is not always the main idea or most important!
Ask "If you took that out of the book would you still understand it?"
You could have them listen to story, then write on post-its all the info they can, and then narrow it down (THIS COULD BE A SUMMARIZING LESSON), and throw out some post-it notes one at a time and see if they can still gain meaning.
Depending on what they are focusing on you can assess their understanding.
If they are focused on "the" or "girls" or something this could be bad.
If they are focused on the high frequency this should be a red-flag too, because this is not always the main idea or most important!
Ask "If you took that out of the book would you still understand it?"
You could have them listen to story, then write on post-its all the info they can, and then narrow it down (THIS COULD BE A SUMMARIZING LESSON), and throw out some post-it notes one at a time and see if they can still gain meaning.
Context
Context is based on (usually) a perceived time period or genre.
Let students know what the context is OR ask them AND/OR have them explain.
This could alter their comprehension and decoding!
If they think they are
Let students know what the context is OR ask them AND/OR have them explain.
This could alter their comprehension and decoding!
If they think they are
Monitoring
Build in comprehension monitoring into strategies/lessons
Reading Angels
they sit on your shoulder, when you do things well it doesn't say anything
Comprehension Strategies
Paraphrasing
Underline key words or ideas
Use context
re-read
Varied rate of reading
Focus the known
Visualizing
Underline key words or ideas
Use context
re-read
Varied rate of reading
Focus the known
Visualizing
Skills vs. Strategies
Skills are automatic
Strategies are deliberate
Strategies are deliberate
Great Books List
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4N4lpu/www.stanford.edu/~bkunde/best/bl-crank.htm/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1k59Ie/www.literatureproject.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1k59Ie/www.literatureproject.com/
+ Also, activate prior knowledgeTo
- Intro
- Modelling (think aloud)
- guided Practice
- Independent practice
Comprehension Strategies
- Asking Questions
- Making Connections
3 kinds. 1. Text to text, relating to another book. 2. Text- to-world, relating to general things they know about the world. 3. Text-to-self, relating to a personal experience.
- Visualization
Link past experiences.
Readers learn to place themselves into the story.
- Making Inferences
Make it a game. The author has hid things within their story and we have to be detectives and find these things out.
- Determining Importance
Students will be distracted by shiny things!
Maybe slowly remove sentences from the text and ask if we can still understand what is going on. Do this until find important things and not interesting things.
- Synthesizing
Let students build upon what they read until the very end.
Reading Circles!
- Starting by trying to sell the books. Give a summary. Get them excited!
Question the Author
What is the author trying to tell you?
Is it said clearly? Does this make sense to you?
Why is the author telling you that?
How could the author have said things more clearly?
What would you want to say instead?
Is it said clearly? Does this make sense to you?
Why is the author telling you that?
How could the author have said things more clearly?
What would you want to say instead?
Question Answer Relationship
If you teach students about the types of questions they will come in contact with they will be able to answer them better.
There are 4 kinds
In the Book Questions
There are 4 kinds
In the Book Questions
- Right There- the answer is in one place in the text. (ONE PLACE!)
- Think and Search - the answer is in several places in the text.
- Author and You - the answer in not in the text. Think about what the author says and what you already know. What is in the story, what do we know? Ex. What are some reasons why penguins can go extinct? Answer- they use what is in their head, their background knowledge and what the author tells them about.
- On my Own - the answer is not in the text. Make Connections. Ex. Do you like penguins, why or why not?
- IDEA! To teach this you could give them questions, or have them write their own. And then group them! Hopefully they will put them into the 4 categories. And then discuss on how to answer. And then lebel.
Teaching Comprehension
- Modeling. READING ALOUD IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE
- This is what good readers do.
- Teach them the strategies and the skills to comprehension!
- Discussions are great for this!
- Reading Circles!
- A skill is something you teach a child to do. Very task oriented. Like Cause and Effect, Compare and Contrast. Narrative Arc is a skill. It can be text specific.
- A strategy deals with how you think. Things good readers do all the time, without thinking about it. Like how we make predictions. We are asking questions. We visualize. Infer, make connections, determining importance, synthesizing, monitoring. We need to let students know that they can and should think differently about what they read. What to do when you do not understand is a very important strategy! Make students learn that there will not be a teacher around.
- A skill what you do, a strategy is what you think.
Materials that Affect Comprehension
# of unfamiliar words
Length of Sentences
Syntax
Length of Sentences
Syntax
DRA Closure => quick, what did we learn, what do good readers do?
Teaching Comprehension
Cannot just have students read a text and then answer questions. THIS IS ASSESSMENT NOT INSTRUCTION!
DRA
Benefits
- sets a purpose fer reading
- activates studets' prior knowledge
- deamns the use oif texts on students' inturciontal level
- suited for use with ficiton and nonfiction texts
- provides a framework for fdirst ksiull and trstegy insturicotn
- Pre-reading Questions
- Make Predictions
- RIVET- Hangman!
- List-Group-Label: tell me everything you know about ____________. Write it down first or shout it out. Send them off into group and categorize them into groups with labels. Activates prior knowledge.
- Picture Walk- show them the pictures in the book and have them give predictions.
- Anticipation Guides- read serious of statements read before the book and then read after the book. Say what they agree with and disagree before and after.
- NO MORE ROUND ROBIN! Makes students think about the paragraph that they will be reading later. THEY DO NOT LISTEN! Comprehension is out the window.
- Observe reading behaviors. Read silently. (Whisper Read), tap in and have the student whisper her part for you.
- Can read all together. Or pop-corn reading (still not ideal). Depends on your reading group.
- Watch what they do as they read! Just observe. Gives a lot of information.
- DRTA (directed reading thinking activity): Sample the text. Make predictions. Sample the text to confirm or correct previous predictions. (Specific to only predictions)
- Everyone read to.......
- Graphic Organizers!
Narrative Text G.O.
|
Expository Text G.O.
|
- Expository Text- figure out what text structure it is for the use of G.O.
- Summarization
- completion of G.O.
- Closing Discussion- CRUCIAL
- personal response
- written explanation of strategy or skill understanding
- reading response journal
Cambourne's Conditions of Learning
- Immersion- get all up in it, just do that, only think about that
- Demonstration- needs to be someone who knows what they are doing to set you on your way and explain how to do it etc
- Engagement- surround self with activity but actually have get in and try (need resiliency, where things can go awry, this is where kids tend to quit)
- Expectation- to be learned and to be learned well, there has to be someone who expects that you can do it, they need to set the expectation and then you will believe you can. "I will not give you anything you cannot handle (with guidance) and I expect you to be able to do this and I know you will"
- Use- do it again and again, need opportunities for practice
- Approximation- will mess up and make mistakes, will come as close as can to new task, when do your best to create the product that will demonstrate the learning
- Response- if someone sets the expectation, their response is critical, find what works, find their strength, praise it and offer them their next step, PROVIDE THEM A WAY TO KEEP GOING.
Read Aloud
- Variety of genres
- model fluency and reading behavior, show how to be a proficient reader
- get the benefits of them reading but the burden of decoding is off their shoulders. It constructs meaning through think-alouds and offer children time and tools to do the same.
- Builds a community
- show our own love of reading and learning
Preparing a Read Aloud
- Select text, one I like etc. One I enjoy and want to share, make sure it reflected your students' interests, are a mix of fiction and nonfiction, picture and chapter books, and are at a high listening comprehension level
- Preview and practice!
- Establish a clear purpose
- Model fluent reading
- Use animation and expression- act like you are loving it so they love it too!
- Plan for discussing the text (before, during and after reading)
- Before Reading- activate background knowledge. Discuss cover and title
- During Reading- Read and stop in appropriate pauses for student conversation (need multiple ones to talk), turn to neighbor and talk about it. engage learners in the thinking and meaning making process. Model comprehension strategies through the "read/" according to what makes sense given the text
- After Reading- facilitate conversation using talk techniques regarding thoughts, opinion, and new learning regarding the book. "How do you fell now?" "And new thoughts?"
Talk Techniques
Turn and Talk
- some share with whole group
- can just start reading as they finish talking
- encourage meaningful conversations
- choose one "juicy" idea and talk for t
DRA
Before-
- activate prior know (activate schema, so when they think about x first they have it there when they start to read)
- setting a purpose
- create interest
- introduce new vocab.
- directed silent reading (portions of text)
- what kind? reading an INSTRUCTIONAL level book for them 91-94% accuracy, need a little big of struggle that you can get them through, struggle-new learning
- comp. check and discussion
- directed oral reading (if necessary)- to check that they are on the level you want, check their fluency and decoding. Do the 'tap', if you tap in front of them they whisper read to you
- setting new purpose based on discussion
- Reading wrong- does that look right, sound right, make sense? Ask these 3 questions when they decode wrong.
- follow up activities
- build and extend skills
- enrich students' understanding
- review necessary concepts
- closure that goes back to the purpose
- Do this at your seat, then go to your centers. And then you/I take the next group
DRA Before ACtivities
List a bunch of random words from the book and have the students place them in categories CHARACTER, SETTING, PROBLEM, SOLUTION. Or make your own categories.
DRA During
Have the students read parts of the text silently and then answer questions that I make and also making their own predictions and questions.