To Understand: What Matters Most in Literacy Teaching and Learning

Ellin Oliver Keene

ellinkeene@earthlink.net

Three Questions to Guide our Inquiry Today

How can we raise expectations by rethinking our definition of comprehension? (pg. 3 – 7)

What matters most in literacy learning? (pg. 8 – 22)

What do effective comprehension teachers do? (pg. 23 – 36)

How can we raise expectations by rethinking our definition of comprehension?

We can begin by asking: What does it mean to understand?

Jamika’s question – what does make sense mean? Too often, we think of comprehension as:

Answering questions, Retelling, Teaching comprehension strategies

Is this definition worthy of our students’ intellectual capacity? Are we teaching comprehension or are we testing

comprehension? Is the text we’re using more appropriate for fluency instruction

or comprehension instruction? What does it mean to understand deeply? What are the indicators that we understand deeply?

Celebration of the Human Voice/2Their hands were tied or handcuffed, yet their fingers danced, flew, drew words. The prisoners were hooded, but leaning back they could see a bit, just a bit, down below. Although they were forbidden to speak, they spoke with their hands. Pinio Ungerfeld taught me the finger alphabet which he had learned in prison without a teacher:

“Some of us had bad handwriting“ he told me. “Others were masters of calligraphy.”

The Uruguayan dictatorship wanted everyone to stand alone, everyone to be no one: in prisons and in barracks and throughout the country, communication was a crime.

Some prisoners spent more than ten years buried in solitary cells the size of coffins, hearing nothing but clanging bars or footsteps in the corridors. Fernandez Huidobro and Mauricio Rosencof, thus condemned survived because they could talk to each other by tapping on the wall. In that way, they told of dreams and memories, fallings in and out of love; they discussed, embraced, fought; they shared beliefs and beauties, doubts and guilts, and those questions that have no answer.

When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say to others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven, by others.

Eduardo GalleanoThe Book of Embraces

Pg. 37

Comprehension strategies are tools we use in all genres in order to understand more deeply

Proficient readers: Monitor for meaning, Ask questions, Use schema, Infer, Create sensory and emotional images, Determine importance Synthesize

in order to develop:

In our minds. . . (pg. 4)

Empathy -- a belief that the reader is actually a part of the setting, knows the characters, stands alongside them in their trials, brings something of himself to the events and resolution -- emotions are aroused

Darrell determining importance in Dear Mr. Henshaw “It’s me in there.”

In our minds. . .

Experience a memorable emotional response – the sense that what the reader feels may be part of his/her emotional life for a long time

Raj inferring in Remember “Kids here may not know that people around the world have been segregated.”

In our minds. . .

A sense of the aesthetic – a desire to linger with portions of the text or linger with the events the reader finds beautiful, original, funny or moving – the desire to experience the text again

Gigi using schema in If You’re Not From the Prairie “I know how I like to do it. I just have to read it again and again to feel that way.”

In our lives. . . (pg. 6)

The behaviors associated with understanding (what we might observe in the classroom when children are understanding deeply)

In our lives. . .

A desire to act – children may act in some way to mitigate or resolve related conflicts in the world

Hannah synthesizing in Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge “We gotta get over there right now!”

In our lives. . .

We concentrate intensively, we are fervent – we lose ourselves in the experience of thought, the world disappears and we work hard to learn more, we choose to challenge ourselves on topics about which we are passionate

Kevin and The Stranger

In Our Lives. . .

We struggle for insight, we savor and learn from the struggle itself, we take ventures into new learning territory and fight the debilitating influence of judgment

Kevin and The Stranger

Buying time: What matters most in literacy learning?

A Starting Premise People learn (retain and reapply) best when

they: Focus on a few concepts, Of great import, Taught in depth, Over a long period of time, Applying them in a variety of texts.

Currently, our curricula and standards aren’t focused on what’s essential

What’s Essential?

Instructional focus on 3 surface structure and 3 deep structure systems

Instruction in text structures and elements An environment that invites rigor,

intimacy and inquiry A wide variety of genres and text level

How do we know what’s essential for children’s literacy learning?

Research has fairly clear answers We understand that effective literacy learning

(reading, writing, speaking and listening) is dependent on our use of 3 surface structure systems and 3 deep structure systems

We need to seek a balance between surface and deep structure instruction: 50/50 balance in primary grades 20/80 balance thereafter

A Closer Look at the Systems (pg. 12 – 22)

Surface Structure Systems (word identification, fluency related to the visible, audible aspects of language)

Grapho Phonic Letters, sounds, alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, decoding,

encoding – pronouncing words for the first time Lexical

Instantaneous word recognition, visual memory for words, spelling – up to 300,000 words in our lexicon – pulling up words in our “mind’s eye”, teaching students to store words in their lexicon

Syntactic Understanding and using language structures at the word, sentence

and whole text level – using our “mind’s ear” to hear when words, sentences and longer text sound like language

A Closer Look at the Systems (pg 12 – 22)

Deep Structure Systems (creating meaning using the invisible/inaudible aspects of language)

Semantic Understanding word meanings ~ word usage, building

associations and memories related to new words ~ incidental and intentional acquisition of new words

Schematic Understanding ideas, themes, connecting existing

schema to new information, creating schema, writing and speaking meaningfully

Pragmatic Using what one understands to interact with others and/

or deepen understanding, writing and speaking tailored to a particular audience or purpose

Cognitive Strategies – Text Elements and Structures

Narrative Text Elements (character, setting, conflict, sequence of events, resolution)

Expository Text Structures (cause/effect, compare/contrast, descriptive, chronological, enumerative, problem/solution)

Expository Text Hurdles

What is essential: classroom climate and environment

Rigor, Inquiry and Intimacy Authentic experiences for children based on our

own literate lives Thinking aloud, modeling and demonstrating Time for independent reading and writing Providing opportunities for readers and writers

to interact with one another and work with ideas

What is essential: Text levels and genre

Text Genres Teaching key features and elements from a

wide variety of genres

Text Levels Consider students’ needs in both surface and

deep structure learning Leveled text for surface structure learning More challenging text for deep structure learning

Focus is essential

We need to compare our current curricula and standards to the research-based list of what’s essential

We need to deemphasize or eliminate those skills and strategies that don’t correlate with research

We need to direct our focused attention and instructional artistry to that which is most essential

Teaching Tactics

What do effective comprehension teachers do?

The most effective teachers. . .

Focus comprehension instruction on strategies known to be used by proficient readers, thinking aloud to reveal their own thinking, then gradually release responsibility to students to use the strategies independently.

A close up look at comprehension strategy instruction (pg. 29 – 36)

Think Aloud (pg. 23) Focus on the strategy – keep the language and expectations lofty

Ask students to share initial use of strategy (written, oral, artistic) from a read aloud

Invite students to apply the strategy independently in their own text (pg. 27 – 28)

Confer to assess Invite students to “teach” others

Your turn. . .

Choose one comprehension strategy

Reread Celebration of the Human Voice

Think aloud with a partner, staying focused on the strategy, listen as your partner does the same

The most effective teachers. . .

Use a wide variety of texts including leveled texts to develop fluency (word learning) and texts rich in ideas to develop comprehension;

Teach text elements and text structures to help children navigate different genres;

The most effective teachers. . .

Set aside daily time to confer with students;

Emphasize scholarly oral language interactions;

Create a classroom environment conducive to scholarly oral interactions and long-term study of comprehension strategies;

The most effective teachers. . .

Are themselves readers and avid learners, constantly scrutinizing their own reading and understanding processes in order to provide the most precise and responsive instruction;

Focus instruction on comprehension strategies, but press further to explore where comprehension strategies lead with their students and colleagues.

The most effective teachers. . .

The single most important thing effective literacy teachers do. . . . Provide lengthy (and growing) periods of time

for students to read and write independently every day.