Enhancing Reading Comprehension within Core Instruction

11 March 2009, 3:00 PM EDT

This Talk has concluded.

Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to view the questions that were asked and Dr. Palincsar's answers.

Designing learning environments that support self-regulation in learning activity is critical within RTI, especially for children who experience difficulty learning in school. Join Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D., Jean and Charles Walgreen professor of reading and literacy at the University of Michigan, during our next RTI Talk as she answers your questions about how children who struggle with academic learning can be supported to be successful in the context of ambitious science instruction.

Dr. Palincsar will provide information from case studies of students in upper elementary classrooms, describing how general educators adapted the instruction and the instructional context to support these students. She will also describe how guided inquiry science experiences can provide an important opportunity to use reading, writing, and oral language.

Read more about Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.

Transcript

Evelyn Stephens:

I'm a sixth grade teacher in a rural setting, and we only have 1 hour a week for science. How do I give up some of that time to teach reading?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

The point of my research is that science instruction is a powerful context in which students can learn to interpret and learn from text. So, I am advocating that teachers increase the time they spend teaching content courses, such as science. In the course of science instruction, students learn: (a) how to learn from informational text; (b) how to interpret graphical information, (c) new vocabulary, and (d) background knowledge that will assist them in multiple ways. Nancy Romance and Michael Vitale also found this in their work; teachers who spent more time on science instruction improved reading achievement scores for all of their students, in some cases closing achievement gaps.

William Oglethorpe:

Is there any advantage to using non-fiction or content area text to teach reading skills?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

Yes, in fact it is very important that teachers teach reading using informational text. In contrast to narrative (or story-like) texts, students have more difficulty reading exposition. Content area texts have many more structures (compare/contrast, problem/solution, scientific argumentation) than do narratives. They have many different features that students need to learn how to use (e.g., tables of content, glossaries, captions, graphics). They are typically more dense, and are more likely to include unfamiliar vocabulary. Another reason to teach reading with non-fiction texts is that some children prefer reading them!

Marjorie:

What are guided inquiry science experiences and how do they relate to reading?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

Please see the power point listed below in the additional resources for a graphic that depicts one image of guided inquiry science experiences. There are many ways in which students use reading in the context of these inquiry experiences; they read to learn about the phenomenon they are investigating; they read their own notebook entries, as well as others' to understand the claims they want to make about the data they have gathered; they read the data charts that they have prepared; and they read how scientists have explained the phenomena they are investigating.

Mindy Gardzinski:

As an administrator, can you give specific hands-on tips of ways to improve the core?
Thanks

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

Some of the slides in the power point listed in the additional resources below speak specifically to this question, as applied to science teaching and learning. The slides describe the kinds of opportunities and challenges in guided inquiry science,and there are also slides describing some of the "advanced teaching practices" that teachers have engaged in to improve the engagement and learning of students who struggle academically.

Joyce Miller:

How do you accommodate different levels of reading ability within one content area class using one text?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

This is a great question. If a teacher chooses to teach content using one text for all, and has students who read at various levels, then, it will be necessary for the teacher to engage in one or more of the following practices: (1) reading aloud from the text; (2) having students engage in partner reading, where one student who is more fluent reads to another; (3) ordering the book on tape and having students listen to the book at a listening station.

If the text is almost within the grasp of the students, the teacher can support students by "pre-teaching" with the text; for example, having the students preview the topics as they skim the chapter headings, referring the students to the illustrations and other graphics that may be useful, anticipating the vocabulary demands of the text and familiarizing the students with vocabulary they will encounter (this is especially important for students who are learning English as a second language). Another - more promising - alternative is to gather a literacy library in which the same topic is covered in an array of texts that are written at different levels.

Jackie Brown:

What kind of supports are needed within the classroom to help teachers cover content while helping struggling students?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

We actually did quite a bit of research on this very issue. We studied the supports it took for students who were identified as having special needs, as well as students who were low-achieving. We found that "advanced teaching practices" were necessary for identified students, and, in fact, all students realized benefits from these practices.

For example, to help with print demands,teachers posted terms that students would find helpful; they used sentence starters to help students prepare written responses; they permitted students to dictate their answers to a writing buddy. To assist with group work, they modeled how to work effectively together; they assigned students to groups to maximize the contributions students could make (e.g., distributing strong readers across groups, distributing strong writers across groups, distributing students who are good at getting work done); they also monitored small group work to be sure that all students were particiapting well. To help with conceptual demands, they spent time conferring with individual students about their understanding of the ideas.

Ann Stroer:

How can I help language impaired children in the general ed classroom? Once the teacher starts talking, these students are lost.

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

At the risk of sounding flippant, one suggestion is to find ways for the teacher to talk less and children to be engaged in learning - and demonstrating their learning - by engaging in activity, using demonstrations, preparing illustrations. Another suggestion that emerged from the research we did with teachers was to carefully attend to teaching the vocabulary that would be important to teaching the key ideas. In addition, teachers provided graphic information (e.g., diagrams) to complement their oral instruction.

Janet A. Gallant:

In my district, I have 3 grade levels and 4 reading teams. Each reading team has one certified reading teacher and one teaching assistant. How would you envision the use of the reading teams in tiered intervention using push-in and/or pull-out models of instruction?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

Since my topic pertains to core instruction, one suggestion I would have is that the reading support team coordinate their efforts on behalf of students, with the classroom teacher, so that they can reinforce the teacher's efforts. This is probably an obvious suggestion, but I have been surprised how rarely I see this done. If the support team understands the curriculum deeply, they can support the teacher in substantive ways; for example, selecting texts that will enhance students' background knowledge, teaching particular writing forms and features, teaching students to interpret particular graphics (like charts and diagrams), and teaching content specific - and appropriate - vocabulary. I hope that these are useful examples.

Kathleen Green MA:

How do you get past the walls that older struggling readers create?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

I imagine that you are thinking about students whose motivation seems to be flagging; and the teacher may experience difficulty engaging the student. To get past this "wall," it is helpful to think about the role that repeated failure may be playing. We all do our best work when we feel sufficiently challenged - but also sufficiently supported.

So, as educators, we need to bring adjustments to both aspects of our instruction. We can reduce the level of challenge, and we can also increase the amount of, or nature of the support we are providing. It is also useful to remember that even students who have a long history of academic challenge can catch fire when they are provided the opportunity to learn about content that is of interest to them.

H.T. Smith:

How does one develop effective reading comprehension skills with children who have significantly limited background knowledge?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

This is certainly one of the more challenging aspects of teaching children to read for meaning, but it is really the essence of comprehension instruction. When we are reading text about a topic for which we have considerable background knowledge, we are "reading with recognition." When we are reading text on a topic with which we are unfamiliar, we are, in contrast, having to work harder to construct the meaning of the text.

We do this by relying more on the content of the text; making and testing inferences about the ideas in the text; and thinking about related knowledge that will be useful to our understanding. Talking with children about the ideas in texts can be very helpful to getting a window into their thinking and giving them a window into comprehension.

For example, even when students are reading about a topic for which they may have little background knowledge specific to that topic, they may well have knowledge that is relevant to the topic, so activating what knowledge students might have can be very useful. By eliciting what students know - or think they know - the teacher can also be listening for naive conceptions that students are bringing to the reading; with this information in hand, the teacher has a better idea of what students are likely to find challenging in the text, and can support students with those ideas in the text.

Joseph Small:

Where can we go for some additional resources on enhancing reading comprehension in content area classes?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

My colleagues, Don Deshler, Gina Biancarosa, and Marnie Nair recently completed a volume [Deshler, D., Palincsar, A. S., Biancarosa, G., & Naire, M. (2007). Informed choices for struggling adolescent readers: A research based guide to principles and practices. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association], in which we reviewed a number of curricula and programs that were designed to enhance reading comprehension. This volume might be useful to you because it: describes the curriculum or approach, identifies the target learner(s) for the program, indicates what kinds of research evidence has been accrued for that program, and includes a large number of references.

Joseph Small:

Besides the classroom teacher and reading specialist, are there other educational professionals who can support reading comprehension within core instruction?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

One idea that comes to mind, in terms of additional educational professionals, would be speech and language clinicians, who are increasingly interested in literacy learning. Oral language is the foundation for all reading competence, and speech and language specialists know a lot about the teaching of oral language. In addition, special education teachers can partner with classroom teachers to support the teaching of reading comprehension.

Special educators have typically been prepared to think about the processes students engage in while learning; they can be helpful in teaching students to be more self-regulating in their reading of text. That is, they can teach students how to monitor their reading to be sure they are understanding. Special educators can also teach students "fix-up" strategies that they can use to restore comprehension, when they are not understanding. Finally, paraprofessionals and lay-people (like volunteers) can be very helpful supporting reading comprehension activities.

Sue Smith:

How can teacher consultants motivate teachers to try the various strategies you've suggested?

Annemarie Palincsar, Ph.D.:

This is an excellent question. I think it is key that the teacher sees the relationship between the strategy(ies) the consultant is advocating for and their own instructional goals. There are enormous pressures on teachers to cover a lot of content; they need to be assured that the strategies will not detract from their teaching of content. In addition, teachers are more likely to adopt strategies if they are comfortable enacting them; this is why teacher consultants do such things as demonstration teaching, or co-teaching, or coaching, so that the teacher is supported to learn to use the strategy well, and sees the pay-off in their own instruction. Above all, I think teacher consultants have to be respectful of the expertise of classroom teachers and recognize the multiple demands on them; if the teacher consultant is genuinely interested in learning from the teacher, I believe that the teacher will reciprocate and want to learn from the consultant.

That concludes our RTI Talk for today. Thanks to everyone for the thoughtful questions and thanks to our expert, Dr. Annemarie Palincsar, for her time today.

Related Reading from RTINetwork.org:

Classroom Reading Instruction That Supports Struggling Readers
by Carolyn A. Denton, Ph.D.

Classroom Reading Instruction That Supports Struggling Readers: Key Components for Effective Teaching by Carolyn A. Denton, Ph.D.

Additional Resources:

Enhancing Reading Comprehension within Core Instruction PowerPoint Presentation

The GIsML Project

The International Reading Association

National Center on Response to Intervention

Deshler, D., Palincsar, A. S., Biancarosa, G., & Naire, M. (2007). Informed choices for struggling adolescent readers: A research based guide to principles and practices. Newark, Delaware: International Reading Association.

Hapgood, S., Magnusson, S. J., & Palincsar, A. S. (2004). Teacher, text, and experience mediating children's learning of scientific inquiry. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 13 (4), 455-506.

Hapgood, S. & Palincsar, A. S. (2006). Where literacy and science intersect. Educational Leadership, 64 (4), 56-61.

Palincsar, A. S., Magnusson, S. J., Collins, K. M., & Cutter, J. (2001). Promoting deep understanding of science in students with disabilities in inclusion classrooms. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 24 (1), 15-32.

Palincsar, A. S., Spiro, R..J., Kucan, L., Magnusson, S. J., Collins, B., Hapgood, S., Ramchandran, A., and DeFrance, N. (2007). Research to practice: Designing hypermedia environment to support elementary teachers’ learning of robust comprehension instruction. In D. Mcnamara (Ed.). Reading Comprehension Strategies Handbook. Taylor Francis.