Strategy Demonstration #1

Making Connections: Linking Prior Knowledge and Experience to our Reading Tracy Roberts University of New England

EDU 742 Prof. Courtney Giraffes September 15, 2012

Strategy Demonstration #1 ! David E. Rumelhart quoted that the problem facing a comprehender is

analogous to the problem that a detective faces when trying to solve a crime...in both cases, there is a set of clues (Rumelhart, 1984). These clues unlock a whole new world of reading and they must be taught to students in order to truly experience the value of a great book and become procient readers who are capable of handling any text across the curriculum. These clues, otherwise known as strategies are making connections, visualizing, inferring, asking questions, determining importance, and summarizing. For the Strategy Demonstration #1, I chose to highlight Making Connections.

How would you teach this strategy in the classroom (under what context)? ! Using schema, prior knowledge, and experience is something that can carry

weight across every academic content area. Students learn best when they are connecting what they already know and making meaningful associations to new learning. For that, I would teach making connections in a variety of ways. Students can connect life experiences to everything from science or social studies content to their ction stories in their browsing boxes. I think one of the main ways that I would teach students how to make connections while reading ANY text is through frequent thinkalouds. Think-aloud research contributed much to what we know about about the reading comprehension process. Expert readers were asked to think aloud as they read a text, thus making their comprehension strategies visible (Alvermann, 2004, p. 21). These think alouds could take place in a whole group setting or through smaller

Strategy Demonstration #1 instruction, such as Guided Reading groups. This method would model the strategy and then students would be given a chance for guided and independent practice.

What resources would you need? ! In order to effectively teach students how to make meaningful connections while they read, we would need quality text in both ction and nonction. This classroom library would be utilized for read aloud, small group instruction, buddy reading, and independent practice. A resource that is exceptionally concrete for teaching comprehension strategies is the professional text Comprehension Connections: Bridges to Strategic Reading by Tanny McGregor. Students can also use sticky post-its for tagging or marking their thinking while they read, Reader"s Notebooks for jotting down their thoughts, and chart paper for whole group instruction. Alvermann suggests that schemata are developed from various sources, such as one"s personal experiences, experiences of others, books, television, movies, music, newspapers, magazines, artwork, and websites (Alvermann, 2004, p.23). With this idea in mind, I would also encourage new connections by providing students with an environment that is rich of experience! A vibrant science center, nature walks, hands-on math activities, newspaper clippings, viewing of videos...all of which students could add to their academic repertoire or schema.

Strategy Demonstration #1 How would this promote active engagement in reading? ! ! As with all comprehension strategies, students must delve deep into their

thinking and actively engage in their reading to create meaningful experiences. Harvey and Goudvis state that true comprehension goes beyond literal understanding and involves the reader"s interaction with text. If students are to become thoughtful, insightful readers, they must extend their thinking beyond a supercial understanding of the text. (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000). Making connections to a text solidies that engagement by holding readers accountable and helps to deepen their understanding of a text, make predictions, know what to expect in terms of text structure, genre, format, author, cue words, writing style, and literary features, thus improving comprehension, understand a character"s feelings, motivations, actions, learn new information, evaluate the meaning of a text, remember what they read, enjoy reading a text, and want to learn more (Alvermann, 2004, p.23). The strategy of making connections, by nature, provides students with a sense of involvement to text and a gives them a reason to relate.

How does this relate to the research on procient readers? ! The comprehension strategy of making connections aids in the process of becoming a procient reader because it helps them to understand confusing parts or challenging text. Every student has their own set of experiences and background knowledge and by bringing it to their reading, they are able to comprehend, internalize text, and begin to explore the idea of navigating through text for a purpose. Alvermann mentions reading research conducted in the 1980"s where schema theory helped shed more light on the

Strategy Demonstration #1

reading comprehension process. From this theory grew the notion that comprehension is a complex, interactive process in which readers construct meaning by (1) connecting what they know (schema) to what is written in a text and (2) engaging in discussions with other readers in a variety of contexts and for a variety of purposes. All of these things---the reader"s own knowledge, other"s knowledge, the context in which reading takes place, and the purpose for reading--inuence a reader"s comprehension of a text (Alvermann, 2004, p.21). With greater comprehension, students open the gates to higher-level thinking and enhanced learning opportunities through text. How does this relate to the reading that you have done for this class? ! ! This relates to the reading that we have done in several ways. In Chapter 9,

Alvermann discusses the importance of creating a literacy-rich environment for young students and how organizing that space is key. The author denes content area literacy as the ability to use reading, writing, speaking, listening, representing, viewing, and other sign systems to construct meaning with print and nonprint texts (Alvermann, 2004, p4). We"ve taken a close look at integrating literacy instruction into content areas using informational text, photographs, magazines, and other media. When you are incorporating a vast array of text such as those named above, it"s crucial that students are able to comprehend what they are reading and learn to examine the text"s unique features. How can this strategy instruction be used to differentiate instruction to meet a variety of learners including students who are ELL, students with exceptionalities, gifted students, and/or students with different learning styles?

Strategy Demonstration #1 With any comprehension strategy, it can be used to differentiate instruction to meet all learners because it"s adaptable and accommodating. The strategy can be taught with leveled text, so that it can be broken down at any ability. A student reading higher-level text can work on advanced thinking strategies, such as making deep and meaningful connections, using inferential clues and diving further into text. They can also think about complex text to world connections and tie that into their content area studies. A struggling reader can receive more support and guidance with their connections. Alvermann suggests that one reason some children may struggle with comprehension is that they do not have the background knowledge about topics they

read about. To build students" background knowledge about the rainforest, for example, provide students with experiences in which they explore artifacts, examine photographs, and view videos. Then explicitly model the connections you make with these experiences as you read aloud and explain how these connections help you understand what you read (Alvermann, 2004, p26). This modeled scaffolding can also work for students who are ELL and may have schema from another culture or language. Another way that the strategy of making connections can be modied and tailored to meet the needs of all students is through the instruction itself. Whole-group can model thinking for all students, while small-group and independent practice may provide a chance to really hone in on the skills at hand.

It is not enough to simply teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading. Something that will stretch their imaginations-something that will help them make sense of their own lives and encourage them to reach out toward people whose lives are quite different from their own. ! ! ! ! -Katherine Patterson

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References

Alderman, D. E., J. Sward, and M. K. Monitor. Content Area Instruction for the ! Elementary Grades. Boston: Pearson, 2004.

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies that work: Teaching for understanding ! and engagement (2nd ed.). Portland, ME: Steakhouse.

Rumelhart, D.E. 1984. Understanding understanding. Understanding Reading Comprehension. Newark, DE: International Reading Association