Leah Davis~Reading Specialist

Reading Comprehension Strategies When attempting to teach reading comprehension strategies, our overall goal to equip them with the learning skills to carry across the content areas and throughout life. If we are successful we gain literate, productive leaders of the future.  Below are some strategies to help engage students in thinking about texts even on the most difficult of days. Bio-Impressions This strategy (McGinley and Denner, 1987) works well with biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs. The  teacher writes five to ten words all connected in a line with arrows pointing downwards between each word. All the words are relevant to the text and the person of interest. The words range from important people or events in their life, to concepts or vocabulary words for focus. After providing adequate time to Think-Pair-Share, students write a paragraph about the person making sure to include all listed words. After reading the text, they rewrite their ...

Reflection/DB#4 The QFT process Students Improve Questions Closed- and Open-Ended Questions “The construction and phrasing of a question shapes the kind of information you can expect to receive” (Rothstein and Santana, 2011). Open-Ended Questions Question Starters: Why, How + What, Who, Where, & When It is important with open-ended questions  to be specific because sometimes they can be too broad. Wording is equally important. Closed-Ended Questions Question Starters: Is, Do, & Can + What, Who, Where, & When Three types of Closed-Ended Questions: (1) check-in questions (2) confirming questions (3) permission-seeking questions Closed-Ended questions require a specific answer and may not lend themselves to lengthy discussion. Questioning is important and may determine the quality of the answers.  Students Prioritize the Questions Analysis and Convergence “ Prioritization may be one of the greatest thinking challenge...

Rothstein and Santana Post/LDavis The Question Formulation Technique Question Focus Produce, Improve, Prioritize It has a clear focus It is not a question It promotes and stimulates new lines of thinking It does not reveal teacher bias or preference Rules for Producing Questions (5-7 minutes) Ask as many questions as you can (gives permission to ask) Do not stop to answer, discuss, or judge any question (safety & protection) Write down every question exactly as it is stated (respect and voice) Change any statement into a question (consistency in wording) The types of thinking for question formulation. Divergent Thinking: The ability to generate a wide range of ideas and think broadly and creatively. Convergent Thinking: The ability to analyze and synthesize information and ideas while moving toward an answer or conclusion. Metacognition: The ability to think about one’s own thinking and learning (Rothstein and Santana, 2011, p...

Vocabulary Building Strategies Integrating What We Know into Our Teaching According to Blachowiz and Fisher (2000), there are four basic guidelines for vocabulary instruction. In order to integrate our knowledge of vocabulary instruction into our teaching, we must put theory to practice in our classrooms (McLaughlin, 2015). Be actively engaged in understanding words & related strategies Personalize vocabulary learning Be immersed in words Develop vocabulary through repeated exposure from multiple sources Our students learn vocabulary best through explicit instruction. Context clues Definition clue-connections made between known words and unknown words example/illustration clue-model or picture that depicts the meaning of the word compare/contrast clue- providing information about word by using examples and nonexamples related to the unknown word Logic clue-the use of common sense or context connection to the word cause/effect clue-reason ...