DeVries Chapter 9-Comprehension of Informational Text Please follow the blog criteria for this course and don't forget to reply to a peer for the full points!
This chapter is based on comprehension of informational text. In this, it talks about the fourth grade slump which is many reading complications coming together to become and even bigger deal when they need to learn "dense new content material"(p. 217). I have heard of the fourth grade slump but didn't know what it was until reading the chapter. It does make sense and is something that needs to be addressed early on before becoming the forth grade slump. On page 217 the chapter discusses factors which affect comprehension. There are many things to consider when it comes to the facts and these are based on factors within the reader, factors from the reading environment, and factors of the reading text. In factors within the reader's environment, this includes home, school, and community. While reading about this it got me thinking about a previous idea I had. I want to do this with my tutoring students but the library is way across town and think it would be too much of a hassle. Plus I don't want the liability of driving the students to the library. Anyways, my idea was to take the students to the public library, show them how to find books, use the computers, what they can do at the library after school or on the weekends, and why it is a good place to visit. I would do this all in hoping that they could use it efficiently in the future and feel comfortable with the library as well as grow a love for books and reading. I do want to do this with every class I have when I start teaching. The students can be introduced to the library staff as well. Another idea I had for this was to invite the students' parents, grandparents, etc. who ever they want to join them. This way the guardians or important family member knows about the library as well and all the resources that can be found at the library, as well as the fact that all these resources are free! By doing this, I can't help but wonder if this would create more family time, more reading time, and so much more. I used to love going to the library with my parents when I was little. Anyways, back on topic, when reading about the environmental factors, I thought this would be a great way to connect home, school, and the community.
On page 219 there is a list of unskilled and skilled readers' characteristics. I liked this list because I always remind my students during tutoring what we are going to be working on and strengthening. Looking at the list of skilled readers characteristics also helps me pin point what I need to make sure my students can do.
Another part of this chapter that I really related to and at the same time made me giggle was on page 224. I find myself not choosing a book or closing out of a website if it is not eye appealing to me. I always thought that was very immature of me, however while reading the chapter I discovered this is something many readers do! On page 224, there is a list to consider when choosing eye appealing text for our readers. This does make sense because if you have ever gone to the library with young kids, you see them pull a book off the shelf, look at the cover, then put it back, instead of opening it up and seeing if it is interesting.
I can say this is the first time I've ever heard of the "fourth grade slump," but can really understand how it can happen. I tutor lower level 4th graders and see firsthand just how far behind a couple are due to being pressed on without the phonics skills needed. I think parents and the home are very crucial in helping build knowledge of things when it comes to these types of texts. I was one of those students that did not hardly leave town or go to the library when I was a child and I struggled mightily with some informational texts. Good point on your last paragraph. It is funny to watch students at a library constantly grabbing and books and putting them back just based on the cover. It kind of reminds me of adults picking out birthday cards or something like that. LOL. Good post.
I read this and laughed! Time and time again I have seen students in the school library judging a book by it's cover! Today I did the same but with a birthday card! Parents are crucial to expose their children to as much text as possible. At home with my 3 year old I have cut cereal boxes, pop-tarts and other cardboard food items for her to "read". Also I have her name hanging up and the alphabet. She was tested at her preschool a couple of weeks ago and know almost every letter and sound!
Chapter 9 talks about comprehension of expository and informational texts. There is quite a bit of difference between narrative and informational texts and students must know this and learn to adjust how they comprehend it when reading these types of texts. The chapter encouraged using trade books along with or over textbooks. These types of books can present more detail and challenges for the reader, making them think more critically.
An important part of understanding informational texts is by having a background knowledge of what is being read. The chapter gave a great sample with a few students with different levels of knowledge. Students get most of their background knowledge from home and parents need to understand that reading informational texts is also very important during the early years of there lives.
There are eight different types of organizational structures of texts. Teachers need to help students understand these structures and help them see what organizational structure is being used in a text to help them comprehend it. The chapter gave a good list on how teachers should help students understand, see, and use these structures for comprehension. Graphic organizers from the intervention section also would help greatly in this matter.
The assessments and much of the interventions were similar to what has been seen in other chapters. Many of the same strategies can be used in informational texts that are used in narrative texts, just in different context.
I can personally say that I did not enjoy informational texts as a child and never really read them. Textbooks were very hard for me and I usually just didn't read them or study because they were so frustrating and mundane to me. I can see just how important it is for parents and teachers to start students on these types of texts early and to make sure they are targeting their interests. I think a big part of informational texts for students is the interest level. Many old textbooks don't interest most students in my mind. Using trade books and technology were great ideas for helping spark interest of students. The chapter, like all chapters in this book had some great strategies and ideas to help struggling readers decipher informational texts.
I never enjoyed textbooks as a younger student and still find a lot of them "hit or miss". I always had a hard time following the information and found them boring. As you mentioned, I think bringing in trade books and technology in addition to quality textbooks are a great way to get students interested. Both of my tutoring students are really into animals, insects, and dinosaurs and I have found that using expository texts with them dramatically increase their interest level in reading during our guided reading. I have used several kids magazines such as Ranger Rick, Big Backyard, and Kids National Geographic for our sessions. I never thought I would stray from narrative texts, but have found that it really helps my students and I think they are quite interesting as well! This week our guided reading is about orphan elephants in the elephant nurseries in Africa and we had the greatest discussion and guided reading session of the whole semester!
Chapter 9 was a great chapter and provided a lot of good and useful information for informational texts. From the very beginning of the chapter, I related to the “fourth grade slump”. I have found a lot of textbooks over the years and throughout my education that are difficult to read and comprehend. I don’t remember many textbooks in elementary school, but can only imagine the frustrations it can bring on if they are not good quality or the child doesn’t have the skills necessary to comprehend the information. The chapter discusses the factors that the student does need to comprehend informational texts and those are factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. One of the factors that stood out the most to me was the home factor of the reader’s environment. I know how important the home environment is to reading but I thought the connection to informational texts and comprehension was very interesting. Books, magazines, newspapers, internet, and educational programming on T.V. are all important for building background knowledge and rich language knowledge for a child. It is very important for parents to expose their children to all of these things and to have discussions with their children. It makes me sad to know that there are children out there whose parents don’t have the resources or take the time to give their children these opportunities. The “factors within the reader” involve skills that are necessary for comprehension of all types of text; it is not limited to informational text. So they must contain basic skills such as recognizing sight words, decoding skills, read at an adequate rate, predict, summarize, connect prior knowledge, and choose comprehension strategies. For informational texts they must also have additional skills such as the knowledge of organizational patterns, background knowledge, related vocabulary terms, analyze the authors purpose, and have the ability to synthesize similar information from various resources. For a new or struggling reader these are not easy tasks and as educators we need to know how to teach comprehension strategies, use assessments, and choose the correct strategies for each student. I really liked figure 9.1 and how it tells you what to look for or how to distinguish between skilled and unskilled readers. The other big part of the chapter was knowing the organizational structures of expository texts and they are chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. One of my favorite things in this chapter was the graphic organizers for each organizational structure. It was listed as an intervention strategy and was figures 9.13 through 9.21. As a teacher it is also important to know how to select and analyze appropriate informational texts. Some things to look for include eye appeal, illustrations, pictures, charts, table of contents, glossary, and highlighted vocabulary terms. The active learning box example on page 240, vignette 2, reminded me exactly of one of my students. Like George, she cannot sit still and stands while reading or just gets up and walks away or sits down on the floor; I just have a really hard time getting her to focus. And again, just as the other student does, she also skips lines and omits words and doesn’t like to write. Surprisingly enough, her comprehension skills are very good. I have found some management strategies that work very well for her; I just wish I had started them sooner! I have used several different informational/ expository texts in my tutoring sessions, as they seem to be more interesting and enjoyable for my students. With the help of another person in this class (Thank you, Amy!) I was introduced to the magazines Ranger Rick and Big Backyard and have found some excellent articles for my second graders to use for guided reading. It really does make a difference when they enjoy what they are reading!
I have also marked page 239 for future reference and love the ideas, activities, and book suggestions for science and math. I am happy with any way that I can integrate subjects and get more accomplished. I will definitely use these in the future! There were some other activities that I thought would be really good, but they were more geared toward older students so I will have to tuck them away as well since they are a tad advanced for my second graders. I think I say this every chapter, but I love the technology resources each chapter gives us. I am starting to find some that I have already used and love, as well as some new ones I can’t wait to check out. [I didn't realize I wrote so much and it wouldn't let me get it all on one post! Sorry for the "book"!]
You brought up a good point about textbook quality, or rather readability. Over the course of our education classes and after reading this chapter, sometimes I feel as if textbooks should be more of a supplement to instruction instead of the focus of instruction. I feel this way especially because students need more than just reading to understand a concept, especially when so many struggle with reading skills. I know this is a class about reading, but supplementing reading with multimedia resources really helps students make better connections. I guess my point is that as long as students learn concepts, it doesn't matter if they are reading them, watching a video, or doing a project. Make sense?
Building background knowledge it important! In one classroom I have seen menus, comic books and science books as options for students to read. I really liked that the teacher gave the student multiple options of text to read. It helped these students build a background and improve their language knowledge.
Chapter 9 was all about comprehension strategies for informational text. This topic shares some similarities with comprehending narrative text: useful before, during, and after reading strategies; emphasis on vocabulary; connecting prior knowledge to texts; visualizing; use of graphic organizers to aid understanding; importance of readability; similar assessment formats/strategies; and the need for critical literacy. However, there are a few key differences between the two genres. First, expository texts have different organizational structures, such as chronology, classification, listing, cause/effect, persuasion, and problem/solution. Sometimes these formats must be taught explicitly to struggling readers. Next, there is an increased emphasis on vocabulary, particularly that technical terms are explained appropriately within the text and that students don’t have to go look up new words. In narrative text, a student’s existing vocabulary is what aids in comprehension. Last, nonfiction writers assume a certain amount of background knowledge from the reader.
I have an issue with the example the author uses to describe the importance of prior knowledge and experience. George, who has visited castles abroad, is able to describe a moat and provide more information about why castles were built in certain locations (defenses). Hello? I don’t think many students at either of my internships schools have left the state, let alone the country. I even wonder how many have been to a zoo. So while I am very happy for George, I hope the author tells us how to help build background knowledge for those not lucky enough to have visited Europe. After reading the whole chapter, I realize I will have to refer back to MY background knowledge of building background knowledge to answer my own questions.
Another thing that caught my eye was a list of good teacher qualities on p. 220. It makes it look so easy to be a wonderful teacher! The characteristic that stood out most to me was the one that said do not assign blame for students’ lack of skills. This means a lot to me because one of the schools I am interning at is a high poverty school that buses in kids from the adjacent Indian Reservation. Yes, the situation these kids come from is sad and most of us (middle-class white people) can’t understand why Native Americans can’t or don’t try to change their situation and break the poverty cycle. In my opinion, it doesn’t do any good to wonder why or lament the fact that these kids come to school with so little background knowledge and poor vocabulary. You just have to think about what you CAN do – things like providing a safe, stable, and consistent learning environment; being each kid’s biggest cheerleader; creating a literacy rich classroom; and developing as many hands-on, vicarious, and other experiences as possible. DON’T assume every kid will be a struggling reader.
One thing that struck me as odd was that the textbook used some of the same trade books to illustrate both good and bad examples of expository writing. For example, the author used Seymour Simon’s Whales to demonstrate both good description and a writing style that has too many ideas in one paragraph. That was a little confusing to me!
When you discussed the list of good teacher qualities (which I also seemed to think was easy to do as well!), I was amazed on how well you stated your point. You said everything perfectly and I can totally relate! Focus on things we can do to help these kids, instead of what they won't/can't do. I interned at a school with very low poverty and the teacher had a totally different way to discipline the students, talk to the students, and everything! At first I was stunned and not sure I wanted to be in the class, however, after learning more about the students, I realized this is how they are used to being talked to at home and its a way for the teacher to get through to them. She talked to me about this and said at first it was hard for her to understand the students and why they couldn't do something. Then she realized she had to make her classroom for them, do what she can do to make it a safe, consistent classroom, and find something fantastic about each student.
Amy- I too thought visiting a castle was a poor example of prior experience. However, think of it this way...you are going to be talking about goods and services with your second grade class. You talk about how the farmer is performing a service to bring food (goods) to the supermarkets or farmer's market. You work in an inner city school and the children come from a low socioeconomic background and haven't even been taking to a pumpkin patch before, let alone seen a farm. In order for the students to make a connection to the lesson and text that goes with it, it is our job to make that connection and build background knowledge. Through books, pictures, websites, field trip, or virtual field trips we can give them the experience they have never had and build their background knowledge.
Chapter 9 was about comprehension of informational text. It stated that factors that affect the comprehension of the text are, "(1) factors within the reader (2) factors within the reader's environment and (3) factors with in the text." (DeVries, pg 217). The first factor that affects the comprehension of informational text is whether the reader has the basic skills to read various types of text. Factors within the reader's environment is what the reader has been exposed to like for example, at home or school. What students are exposed to helps them build prior knowledge. The more prior knowledge students have the more successful they are at comprehending texts. The third factor that affects comprehension of information text is factors within the text. Students need to be able to understand and organize the structure of informational text. Ways to help organize the structure of expository text include listing, cause and effect and classification. I did not have any questions about this chapter. I did like that it games strategies to help students organize expository text. This chapter made me look differently at the importance of students being able to comprehend various types of text. Honestly, I haven't put much thought into the importance of this. I got several good ideas from this chapter to use when I am a teacher! One item that I can connect to myself is classifying informational text. I have seen my son have to do this as homework for his science class. I think that it helped him understand the chapter better because he classified the information. My son is a visual learner and having a list of classifications helped him remember the information.
Having students be able to classify their reading material to their real life situation, especially towards things they find interesting, is vital to their excitement and interest in learning. I think if growing up I was given this tool I would have found it more exciting and fun to read. I will be teaching a math lesson next Monday about money. Although it is not ‘reading’ that I am teaching – I am still integrating how they use money in their own lives, put them into real life situations that they may have experienced, and have them give examples about when they have used money – how they have to work for money. Good post. Jennifer
I too look at how students comprehend different types of text differently now. I never knew that there was different ways for each. I feel that after reading this chapter I can now give my own children a better chance at comprehension by giving them a better background knowledge.
Chapter 9 – Comprehension of informational Text: This chapter definitely highlighted on some great aspects on how students can better comprehend text by the way it is presented in books, words, grade appropriate, activities, and more. This chapter really captured a lot of different factors but I will only focus on a few. Such as the factors that affect comprehension. 1. Factors within the reader 2. Within the readers environment and 3. Within the text. These factors can ultimately affect a student’s ability to recognize and comprehend information. Prior knowledge is another attribute to helping students comprehend and understand what they read. It is important because it helps the student gain a broader view of the subject or topic at hand. When students find something interesting they will better be apt to comprehend the information. Positive attitudes within the child, family, and community are also attributes and factors that play a role in how a student comprehends information. These are also known as, factors within the environment. When a parent has a positive attitude towards learning, school and reading – the student will too. Parents, community, and family greatly influence a student in reading – this can be done by explaining a video, website, reading stories, or having other interesting discussions. As a child I had a great family environment and a mom who read to me every night. However, because of my own IEP I struggled at reading and got discouraged from my own great efforts that resulted in poor scores. It had nothing to do with my home life. As a teacher I will take what I learned from this chapter and realize that it is important to help encourage not only my students to read but try in many ways to get my parents involved with their students education and reading curriculum. I will do this by having a blog and sharing our weekly lessons, websites that parent and student can do together for more practice, lists of books that would be great reads for their grade/skill level, reading logs, and so forth. by jennifer willcott
Jennifer, I loved what you had to offer on your opinions of this chapter. I especially liked how you wanted to get your parents involved in the childs learning by creating a blog and sharing your weekly lessons on a website. I think this is great for parent motivation. It'd be great if on that blog or website you include simple activities for parents to do with their children that will support what you taught that week.
Chapter 9- Comprehension of Informational Text was a chapter that for me thinking back to my childhood days I struggled with. I was always a struggling reader as a child and I know how text books can easily be over a childs head. However, chapter 9 explains how we can build up knowledge and give students the tools so that they can learn from the text instead of be intimidated by it. A few of the factors needed to comprehend all types of text that the book describes are: -ability to recognize a large bank of sight words. -ability to decode unknow one-syllable words. -analyze words with multiple syllables. -read at an adequate rate. -choose an appropriate strategy when comprehension breaks down. ability to summarize. The list goes on and on, but as a future teacher I need to be able to give all these tools to each of my readers. To start off students need to be able to access prior knowledge so they can tie the reading into what they've learned previous to what they are about to read. Then attitude and interests also play a role in reading. If they have a positive attitude toward learning and reading that is key to being a successful lifelong learner. However, I feel as though students get burned out from learning because the expectations put upon them are huge in their first years of learning. It's important for their parents to be involved and be a support for them as well as their teachers. A students home environment affects reading comprehension and provides the foundation upon which attitudes toward reading are built. This is why it's important as a future teacher to be brainstorming ways to get parents involved in their childs learning. I think that having a reading night is a great way to do so as well as having a bulletin board in your classroom dedicated to parents and having the weeks plans on that board and activities that they can complete with their children at home as well as educational website that they can utilize. This chapter then discusses the organization of the expository text. Organization within the text comes in several forms such as; chronology or sequence, description, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparision/contrast, problem/solution, and so on.
Kendra- I enjoyed reading your post and liked what you said, but I also think that one important part you forgot to make (especially at the beginning) is that not only do you need all those factors you listed to comprehend all types of text, but this chapter I felt really hit hard on making that connection to the text through experiences and background knowledge. With a nonfiction story you comprehend more about feelings, the message, the characters, setting, and plot. However, with expository text, you have to make a connection to it to comprehend what it is going over. Good job.
This week Chapter 8 discusses comprehension of informational text. Often this type of text is the most difficult for a struggling reader not only because they need a large bank of sight words they need to recognize and have the ability to decode unfamiliar words, but they also need prior knowledge and experience to make a connection to the text. These experiences can come from the students home, community, or school. The child’s home most affects their reading comprehension and provides the foundation upon which attitudes toward reading are built. Unfortunately, not all students have language-rich environments at home. Unlike nonfiction, expository text does not have a setting, characters, a plot, or conflicts to be resolved. Expository text has 8 common organizational patterns: chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. Assessments are important so the teacher can determine where the deficit is and can assist the readers as they build the skills that are necessary to be able to master expository text. I think that interest in the topic is important when reading expository text for students. If I give students information on rebuilding cars, many boys will love it, some won’t like it, and probably all the girls will hate it. Just with this one piece of text I have lost half of my student’s interest and focus. Now, take a struggling reader and give them information text like this and they have totally fallen off the boat. I feel when reading informational text it is more important than ever to do an interest inventory. You also have to think about your student’s background and home life. If the background knowledge is not there for the topic, the teacher must help build that background knowledge so they can make a connection to what they are going to be reading.
I really like your interpretation of the importance of doing interest inventory on the students. I was looking at this chapter as more of a guiding resource for Science/Social Studies, but I see the importance for selecting informational texts for Reading as well. I have been trying to vary my read alouds and guided reading for my tutoring group based on the interests they put on enrollment forms and what I have gained from getting to know them. Again, I liked your point about using those interest inventories to find text that your students can connect to. Great post!
After reading about comprehension of narrative texts last week in Chapter 8, this week was focused on comprehension of informational texts in Chapter 9. I have seen a lot of great strategies in place at the school that I work at, but having this chapter to give me background knowledge of this type of comprehension was a necessity. The chapter begins be talking about the factors that students need to have in place in order to comprehend information texts. Some of those factors included decoding skills, broad vocabulary, ability to summarize, understand author’s purpose, prior knowledge and more. The book takes a lot about how a students prior knowledge that they get from their parents, their interests, their community can have such a huge impact on helping them comprehend informational texts better. The chapter then gets in to discussing how informational texts can be arranged such as sequence of events, descriptive, classification of relationships among concepts, compare and contrast, cause/effect, problem solution, etc. The chapter concludes by sharing several great techniques for breaking down the text to increase comprehension. Many of the ideas revolve around graphic organizers to show relationship, classifications, sequence and more.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
After reading through this chapter, I have come to realize the importance of activating prior knowledge when going over information texts and connecting the topics to the students. I know that families and parents play a huge role in this prior knowledge and that helps them extend and grow their vocabulary and understanding of the world around them. My major contradiction to this would be that many students in a lower SES community or in a small, rural town have limited access to many other cultures and events that could increase their knowledge. I feel like students living in the city have many more opportunities to learn about other cultures and attend a variety of events and attractions, while those in rural communities do not get subjected to that and may not be able to afford to travel much. My question would be how do you help get some prior knowledge built up. I was thinking virtual field trips and interest based learning.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I have seen the importance of graphic organizers and some of the other strategies in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades while working at school. This chapter gave me some additional ideas about some graphic organizers and activities that could help increase comprehension.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
In the 5th grade classroom that I spend a lot of time in, I have been seeing the students really improve their summarizing and presenting skills. I am in the classroom during Social studies and Science and see the students struggling to keep up with all of the information being thrown at them. The Social Studies teacher likes to do a lot of projects, so I think this really helps them understand the main concepts better. In addition, this week she put in summarizing graphic organizers in which they picked up main ideas about sections of the text and summarized from those main ideas. The students worked in small groups and shared/presented with the class. I thought this was an excellent way to improve comprehension and the students really excelled at it!
I like you had also experienced much of this material in the classroom. For me it did help when reading the chapter to have had experience with the classroom. I was glad that you included information on prior knowledge, this is so important for students. I have also used graphic organizers when working with students and find that it really helps!
I feel like I also learned a lot about the important role that activating prior knowledge plays in the comprehension process. There are so many resources out there that I really didn't even realize until reading this chapter. I think that because I am the type of person that thrives on learning as much as I can, I will be the type of educator that really stresses the importance of developing a rich vocabulary and background knowledge on many topics within my classroom. I guess I really never thought about the importance of environmental factors, such as the home,and community, in regards to comprehension. This really opened my eyes as both a parent, and a future educator.
Chapter 9 Blog Chapter nine discusses comprehension of informational text. The three factors that affect the comprehension process of informational text are: 1) factors within the reader, 2) factors within the reader’s environment, and 3) factors within the text. These factors will then help the teacher better understand why a student may be struggling with comprehension. Basic reading skills are necessary to comprehend all types of text. I think this is very true. I can see how much the tutoring in phonics can improve the fluency in comprehension in just the short amount of weeks. The three environments that most students inhabit are home, community, and school. The home environment affects reading comprehension the most. This was something new to me, I had not known this previously. This is why it is so important to read to children at home. I have had teachers say that they can tell a child who has been read to at home and a child who has not been read to. Expository text can be a challenge for some who have difficulty with narrative text because of the structure. The eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository texts are chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. I have not seen so much of expository text for first grade students but I have experienced all of these organizational patterns when I had my internship in a fifth grade classroom. The chapter brought a great deal of information together and it helped to have some experience with this material in the classroom.
I really liked the suggestions in this chapter. One of my favorite tools is the graphic organizers because they provide a visual map of what is happening. When we can map out what we are learning it gives a clear picture and is more likely to stay with the reader. I agree that the home is the most influential in reading comprehension. Some do not have the opportunities and so it is essential to take our students on field trips so they can build experience and background knowledge whenever we can.
I agree Zoe; just working on Phonics with my 3rd graders has really helped with comprehension in this short period of time. I came from a split family and I moved back and forth most of my early elementary years, so I agree with the text when it states that the home environment affects reading comprehension the most. I did not read well because I did not have times that I read to my parents nor did I have literature around the house. My mom was in survival mode and my dad was always gone when I lived with him. This chapter helped me to see how beneficial expository text is. Before it was not my favorite to read, teach, or discuss but now I can see how many things I can do with it to promote comprehension and how it can be fun.
Informational texts are more difficult to read than narrative texts in general. Today, there are more resources to choose from, but for struggling readers, we must teach strategies that help with decoding, vocabulary and other skills (217). There are many factors that contribute to comprehension of a text. Our text mentions prior knowledge and experience, interests and attitudes, the reader’s home environment, their community and their school. The structure of the text is also very important. One of the most important factors in informational texts is the eye appeal. If we want the reader to become interested in the text, it has to be appealing to look at to grab their interest. Some other important details include a table of contents to aid in organizing and a glossary that helps identify new words and the writing style which can be at the reader’s level or makes it difficult to read and understand. Graphic organizers are very helpful when reading expository texts. If a student can use a graphic organizer, it can help to clear up any confusing ideas. It is important to assess where our students are at so that we can help them move forward. In the intervention section the author’s focus is on teaching reading strategies and modeling these strategies. One of my favorites is the use of graphic organizers. It is a map of the ideas in any book, article or site.
I did not have any questions about the reading.
I really like the activity TEXTMASTERS on page 238. This is suggested for grades 4-8. This is a great way to get each student involved in their own learning. They are also given the responsibility to teach it to others. Each student has a given job and they are more likely to really learn about the topic instead of just sitting back and listening to the teacher lecture. I can see this as a great classroom activity that would make students excited about what they are learning. We could also introduce an enrichment activity to go along with the text and allow time for students to share what they learned about the topic outside of class. On page 239 there are several books listed that sound like great resources. On pages 242-245 there are different graphic organizers and ideas to use.
Now, we use KWL charts in a lot of our classes and it helps in the end to see personal growth and what was actually learned through the semester. I think this is a great thing for students. It would be a fairly easy way for students to see what they have learned throughout the year in our classrooms. I know when I ask my own kids what they did today; they shrug and say, “I don’t know.” They are learning, but it is so gradual that they don’t even think about how much they have actually learned.
I agree with you that graphic organizers are a great teaching tool to use in the classroom to help build comprehension skills. I have noticed that many of the classrooms I am in as a Para educator, teachers typically have their favorite selected few graphic organizers that they use to teach with. I guess I am a different type of educator because I am always looking for different resources to bring into a lesson. There are so many different, really neat graphic organizers that can be used in teaching. In most classrooms that I have worked in it is usually the Venn Diagram, which compares and contrasts. Although I think it is a great graphic organizer to use, I always find myself sitting there thinking of others that can be used as well.
This week we are reading in chapter 9 about comprehension of informational text. I thought the reading went in depth about the factors that affect comprehension, the organizational structures that can be used to help students with comprehension skills, the analysis of informational text, choosing the proper informational text for students, and the assessments that revolve around comprehension skills. I really enjoyed learning about the factors that affect the comprehension process. I guess I didn’t realize the impact that the reader’s environment plays in this process. Although, it makes perfect sense because the student’s home, community, and school, are the only environments that student’s inhabit. The chapter explains that the role that the parent plays in creating children that are good at comprehending skills is crucial. It says that children that have parents who love to read and discuss many different types of texts, and have different reading materials available in the home provides a great prior knowledge from which to draw in regards to comprehension of informational texts. I sat and thought about that after reading it and realized that I am one of those parents. I love to read and learn, and I am always discussing and sharing with my kids things that I have learned either through reading, internet, or otherwise. In fact, my husband tells me repeatedly that he has never met someone so full of useless knowledge. Ha-ha….but, I don’t view any knowledge as useless! In reading this chapter it was discussed that students living in a smaller community, such as the Noread that is discussed, can develop students who struggle with comprehension of informational text because they either do not have the resources or perhaps their resources are out dated. I do agree that there are communities that do not have leaders who see the importance of widening their children’s horizons in reference to outside enrichments. However, I also believe that there are many resources that these children can find on the internet to help enrich their background knowledge and encourage them to read more. My question is when you live and teach in communities such as the one discussed in the reading, what types of things can you, as a parent and educator, do to encourage more resource opportunities? This chapter has given me some great insight in regards to the many different types of activities and teaching ideas to use to help build prior background knowledge, and encourage children to want to read and enrich their comprehension. It helped provide different types of teaching strategies in order to reach every student, instead of a selected few. As a Para educator I am in a 5th grade classroom where the students are learning about a lot of informational text. I am observing a lot of reading, teacher discussion, and then doing worksheets. Although that is this teacher’s teaching style, I am quite the opposite. I am a very visual learner and I learn by seeing. When I become a teacher I know that I will use many different types of teaching strategies in order to meet all of my student’s needs. I learned some great activities and this reading gave me some great ideas to incorporate into my classroom.
Charelle, I think you are right on. There must be some prior knowledge for the students to help them. The more knowledge parents can provide the better. I think that not only the experiences for reading but for life in general are always beneficial. Ricky
Chapter 9 Comprehension of Informational Text When I read the Scenario on page 216 I was reminded of my niece in Texas that was told she had to take Summer School because she had not passed the TASP (I think that is what it is called) test. At the end of summer school she had to take it again. She became very anxious and depressed. However, in the end she did pass it but what about all those other students that did not? I wonder how many where ELL students that could have used a reading specialist to help them? I will say this though; they must have been targeting instruction because she did raise her score enough to pass so that is a good thing. I have seen some summer schools that are just all fun hands-on-learning with no direct targeted instruction for those with specific needs. It is always good to hear the factors that affect a skill so that we know where to begin. Factors that affect comprehension are factors within the reader such as prior knowledge and experience or interest and attitudes. The reader’s environment (home, school, and community) is another factor, for instance is it a language rich environment. Also factors within the text affect comprehension. Figure 9.1 is good for helping to teachers to understand the difference between skilled and unskilled readers. Chapter 9 focuses on all the different types of organizational patterns in expository text such as chronological order or sequence, description, listing, classification, persuasion, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. I liked the idea Mrs. Stoppel had in her lecture, to do the Found Poem for expository text organizational patterning. The text also discusses interest inventories in the assessment section. I did interest inventories for my Title 1 students and they loved it! I was able to find out what type of books they love to read and help them choose appropriate leveled reading material. I have found choosing informational text is their least favorite. I agree with the text when it states that the best way to assess your student’s growth is through long periods of observation. That is why it is so important that teachers are doing Guided Reading. Many of our teachers at our school do not participate in Guided Reading. How will they ever really address their student’s needs if they don’t hear them read on a consistent basis? My favorite Graphic Organizer was figure 9.15. I think the younger kids would really like that one. I also thought that figure 9.2 was a very helpful tool.
When looking at Chapter nine and comprehension of informational text I think there are a lot of comparisons that can be made to narrative text. Yet, there are also many differences that must be discussed. Students take in and must process informational text differently. The text cited many different factors that affect comprehension that have to do with the reader. Some instances are the ability to read at an adequate rate, ability to summarize, and the ability to self question. Other things that readers must have are knowledge of the information or some kind of background and any specific terms that are needed to understand the text. I have always found that past experiences and background information is extremely important. Not just for reading purposes but for many different things. The more students see and do in their young lives the more they should take in as they experience. From this experience is knowledge. If a student has heard a work because of a experience when they see it in writing they will at least hopefully know what it means already. All of this goes hand in hand The text also talked a lot about the organization of the text. From recordings this week we already know that how something is organized can mean a lot. Sometimes certain organizations may be easier or harder for a students to understand. The text cited organization could mean things like a comparison and contrast scenario or a persuasive piece. I have always found the organization type of chronology somewhat easier to understand. It puts things in a straight forward way that is usually easier to understand and put in an order.
I agree. After reading this chapter I feel that I am better equip to teach the different types of text to my children and my future students. This chapter, really this whole book, is very educational and one that I will keep in my personal library.
Chapter 9 is about comprehension of informational text. There are many factors that affect reading comprehension. The text list the home as one of the biggest factors that contribute to children’s comprehension. When parents read and talk to their children about the different types of text they are more likely to better comprehend. Readers also need to be able to recognize large banks of sight words, have decoding skills, be able to make predictions, and analyze words with multiple syllables. With informational text readers should also have organizational patterns of expository text, background knowledge, be able to analyze the author’s purpose, and synthesize similar information. The text states a sequence for teaching expository text to students. Introduce the organizational pattern, point out the key words, model ways readers can determine text structures, introduce graphic organizers, read aloud, and have students listen for key words in the story. To me this chapter has it all laid out how we are to instruct students on reading expository text. There were many things that I did not know to be included into comprehension. I found that the home was the most encouraging thing when it came to comprehension. Children are surrounded by their family and when parents have many different reading materials available for their children to read with and discuss this helps them to comprehend more than I originally thought. The reading affected me by realizing that I should always talk about what I read to my children every time we read. In my house we read a lot but it is always based on fluency, or knowing the words for them to be able to read. I have a complete understanding of the whole process of reading and the many different aspects that is associated with it. I feel that after reading these chapters that I can better give my sons more prior knowledge just by discussing our readings and viewings.
In reading this chapter I too was really touched by the idea of talking to students/children about what we read each time we read. Sometimes I feel like my lesson plans are a bit silly when I am writing them (sorry Professor, I mean no disrespect!) because we ask so many questions in each section. However, I know that in practice it helps my students in so many ways. I have noticed that I have started doing it more with my kids too. I have also noticed that I have started stopping in the middle to ask them to predict and have started asking them BEFORE we read what they think the book will be about and AFTER what it was about. I honestly feel like being in school to be a teacher might be making me a better parent too.
Chapter 8 in our text reviews the issues around comprehension of informational text. For many students who struggle with reading this type of can be the most difficult. Struggle readers are often missing the bank of site words and lack the word attack skills or decoding skills to decode the text. Sometimes they have limited fluency or comprehension or are lacking the ability to summarize what they have just read. In addition to this they are often have difficulty connecting prior knowledge or lack the knowledge to connect. The students that I am working with this semester and two of the students that I worked with extensively in my reading and language arts methods class/internship have difficulty with informational texts. I think that for many of them it was not only that they lack/lacked the skills listed above but that it was also that they did not have in interest in the text. Since working with my tutoring group I have found it hard to balance not only reading level/ability and interest and to intertwine it with books that work in the internship setting. This last week I hit the jackpot. I was able to find a book about the Titanic that my students loved and with a lot of vocabulary and subject review beforehand my students were able to master.
I did not have any questions about this chapter other than I thought there should have been more suggestions at the end of the chapter! I find this this is typically my favorite part of the reading each week but that most of the activities and suggestions were one I have already done. I wanted more!
Jessica, I enjoyed reading your thoughts regarding chapter 9. I agree the combination of student's lacking interest and reading skills correlates with a issue in comprehension. This chapter highlights how comprehending informational text can be a struggle with students. I can relate to your struggle with finding interesting text that appeal to the students I am tutoring. The first text I selected was a informational text on chocolate since on both the interest surveys the students commented on liking chocolate I thought it would be perfect but they lost interest quickly. I incorporated a variety of activities such an art activity that aided with maintaining their interest. I wanted to share my experiences with you and congratulate you on hitting the "jack pot".
You know, my students might really like a short story about chocolate or a student lead research assignment with a hands on learning project (ie making or doing something with chocolate) I have been doing more hands on projects because they seem to love it and learn better from it but finding the right combo can be hard. I talked to a few librarians and they suggested to books we read of the Titanic and this next week will be my second run: we are going to do a set of Pompeii. I'm in hopes they love it too. I will post how the chocolate unit goes once we do it!
Chapter 9 highlights the importance of not letting children fall behind why there is a need for individualized instruction such as tutoring. I had never heard of the fourth grade slump until this week's live meeting and until reading Chapter 9. However it does make sense to me. DeVries reiterates ways of motivating students who hit the "slump" by keeping them engaged with interesting reading materials and varying the grade levels of the books. This chapter also provides great information on teaching comprehension of informational text because it varies for comprehension of narrative text. There are three areas students comprehension of information text can be affected: 1.) factors within the reader, 2.) factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. The reader has to be able to recognize sight words, decode words, and have the ability to summarize among many other skills. There are a number or students who are not exposed to a language rich environment at home or a home environment that encourages reading. There many text that require more skills from the reader, especially when there are a variety of different resources. Students have to be able to using critical thinking skills. As a future educator I need to be aware of the 3 areas or comprehension of informational text and what each of them entail. DeVries does a positive job providing this information in great detail. The information provided by DeVries on the organization of informational text and the different forms of informational was also beneficial. After reading the information from chapter 9 it only becomes more apparent to me how knowing my students and finding text that appeals to the reader is going to assist me with teaching comprehension skills. The activities provided towards the end of the chapter were again very help like in the previous chapters. I enjoyed activity two where the activities such as science experiments and crafts can be implemented to assist with understanding and maintaining focus within a lesson.
Jade, I too was unaware of the"fourth grade slump" before reading this chapter and it does just reinforce how important it is for us to get to know our students , assess them and provide for them with a language -rich environment with a variety texts for them to choose from.
Chapter 9 is about comprehension of informational text. The beginning of the chapter discusses the “fourth grade slump.” Fourth grade is the year that students who have struggled with vocabulary, reading comprehension, and lack motivation when it comes to reading hit this slump when it comes to content-area reading. To help students get through this slump it is important to find out their interests, have an abundance of interesting texts of varied reading levels and continue to work with them on reading strategies. There are three factors that affect the comprehension process and they are factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. Factors within the reader would be the basic reading skills needed to understand texts. Prior knowledge and experience are also very beneficial to the reader in helping them to understand informational text. When it comes to factors within the reader’s environment it includes home, community and school. The home environment is the most influential on a student and influences their attitudes about reading. I can definitely see a difference in those students who live in a more language –rich environment compared to those who do not. In the interventions and strategies section in this chapter they listed several different types of graphic organizers that would be very beneficial for students to use to help them understand the text. I also think that the use of K-W-L charts are helpful for students of all ages. The text said it is best used for grades 2- 6, but I have used this with kindergarteners and it was helpful, and it is something we use in this class as well. Page 256 lists some websites that are great resources to use for expository texts. I was aware of some of these sites but there are a few of them that I had not heard of before and I am anxious to check them out.
Many addressed the "fourth grade slump". While I am currently in my last semester of internship classes, I have observed this slump several times. Students that have not fostered the key components of reading such as vocabulary, decoding, phonics, and other areas, have a hard time reading in math, social studies, and other content areas. This is extremely sad! How is the child expected to learn if they are struggling with the word themselves? My husband and I currently had a discussion about every teacher being a reading teacher. He is a math teacher and one that never has enjoyed english, reading, or anything associated with the language arts. He admitted though, that it is so important for students to be able to read word problems and instructions or math becomes and even harder subject. We all need to be fostering a love for reading in children at as young of age as possible!
I had never heard of the "fourth grade slump" before reading the text. I was not surprised to hear that though because I have observed some fourth and fifth graders and they seem to be very lost and not even sure they are paying attention. It is sad that there are those students that fall through the cracks.
Chapter 9 was about Comprehension of Informational Text. This chapter had a lot of useful information that I did not know before reading the book. The beginning of the chapter discusses the different factors that affect the comprehension process. It says that there are factors within the reader themselves that can affect their comprehension skills. It also says that factors within the readers environment and factors within the text can also affect their comprehension skills. One of the factors that I was not aware of was the factors within the reader’s environment: Community. I would not think that this would affect a student so much but I have definitely seen students struggle for all sorts of reasons. I really liked figure 9.1 on page 219 that talks about Skilled Readers and Unskilled Readers. I think it is an excellent way for new teachers to recognize those that are struggling and then be able to know where to go from there in matters of teaching to their learning style and level. The strategies and activities to use before, during and after reading were very helpful and I found some great ideas to use in the future. I particularly liked Partner Reading and Content too (PRC2) where two English Learns read a text together and the teacher observes. I like this strategy because it will give the students confidence in reading and it helps them to not feel like they are in this alone. I also liked Graphic Organizers. I have used a couple of different Graphic Organizers in my tutor sessions and my students really love getting involved and they especially like it when I write what they have to say, they feel very important.
I like that you talked about graphic organizers in your post. It is great that you use them in your sessions! Graphic organizers can be extremely beneficial to students. They are a great way to get students involved when you use them like you do. I like that the book showed so many different examples of graphic organizers. All the different types gave me lots of ideas I can use in my classroom.
Comprehending informational text is one of the hardest skills to master in my opinion. It is a skill that is very important and one that will be used often though. As students move through the educational system, they will encounter more and more informational texts. After completing their education, most professions require job training and professional development at some point in their career. This is another form of informational text. In the United States, it is very likely that a student could come in to contact with informational text a majority of days of their lives. Along with the basic skills that a students needs to read, five more skills are needed in addition to read informational text. Students must know the organizational patterns of the expository text, have background knowledge of the topic, know key terms associated with the topic, posses the ability to analyze the author’s purpose and credentials, and possess the ability to synthesize similar information from various sources. Having prior knowledge and experience with the informational text topic is a key component to a student succeeding. As we saw in the scenario, when Malcolm did not have the amount of experience with the English language to successfully understand tests and texts. Experiences such as these can be built up in the home, community, and school environment. Another thing that helped me while reading this text was referring back to the recording this week. As discussed, informational texts contain many features that help a reader gather knowledge. A few examples of these are the table of contents, glossary, and vocabulary terms. Many terms are pointed out by making the text bold or highlighting in a color such as yellow. In my experience, students benefit greatly from this. I was pleased during my social studies internship when the students broke into three groups to complete a research project over their region of Native Americans. I was shocked, however, that most of the 5th grade students did not know how to look up terms in the glossary or themes in the table of contents. I had to show them several times that if they wanted to look up weapons, all they had to do was flip to the back of the back of the book, find weapons under the W, and then go to the corresponding page numbers. I hope these skills are being taught to our students young so they can continue to practice and refine their skills for projects and assignments!
Hanna, I agree with you for me, informational texts are the hardest for me to grasp. I seem to get all of the information mixed up and can’t keep it straight. You brought up some great strategies to help you with this and I hope you share this information with your future class. I am also surprised that 5th graders did not know how to use a glossary. This just goes to show that as teachers we need to make sure we are teacher the skills necessary for our students to one day become independent learners.
Chapter nine was over comprehension of informational text. The book mentioned that there are three sources that affect how we process informational text. They are the factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and fators within the actual text. When the book discussed factors within the reader, it mentioned that it is important to activate prior knowledge. As candidates, it is important for us to activate prior knowledge in almost everything we teach, so I am used to doing this. I really enjoyed reading through the section that covered the analysis of informational texts. I can really relate to the section over “eye apeal”. I can remember examining books to see the things like the print size, white space, graphics, and so on when I was young. In fact, I still do this. I never have really thought about other people doing the same thing as me, because I like to read text that is usually a little different from everyone. As we all know, vocabulary plays a huge role in the ability of students being able to comprehend texts. The chapter stressed that it is important for students to look up unfamiliar vocabulary words before reading a passage. I think this is important because without doing this, students are bound to struggle. If a student understands the vocabulary words in a passage, they will be able to read more fluent.
I agree that students need to look up unfamiliar words and extend their vocabulary. I also think that it is a great opportunity for the teacher to explain the unfamiliar words and help the students understand the vocab words in context.
Chapter 9 covers informational text and how teachers can better equip their students with strategies that will help them become better readers. On a personal stand point I have never been a great informational reader and find it much easier to understand fictional stories. My son however seems to absorb informational text. He can be read a fact out of one of his text books one time and remember those facts days or even weeks later when he needs to recall it. He has an amazing capacity to organize all of the little tidbits of information’s into a way that helps him quickly retrieve it. He does not have the same level of comprehension for non informational text and I feel that it is because he is not interested in reading stories. He would rather have me read a “physics” book to him then a story like “Nate the Great”…It is so painful to read to him sometimes The text gives teachers great tools to help guide us in the right direction when we are trying to help our students understand what we are teaching them and why it is important. I think the key is to find some way to relate the information to something that they are interested in so they will have a vested interest in what they are learning. It’s all in how you present then information.
Cathryn, I agree with what you have mentioned I think that some people are better with different kinds of read. Myself for example I never was really go at reading informational text by my fiance on the other hand he saids the he has always been good at informational text and really enjoyed it.
1. Chapter nine of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses understanding informative text. This chapter discusses the major factors that can affect the comprehension process which is very important for teachers to remember because comprehension is such an elaborate process. According to the textbook there are “factors within the reader”, “factors within the reader’s environment”, and “factors with in the text” (Devries, 217-220). This chapter also explains the “organizational structure of expository text” (Devries, 220-224). The difference between informational text and other texts is important for readers to understand because they can be difficult to understand for new readers in different ways.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue. None at this time
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I really enjoyed learning about the factors that contribute to comprehension on pages 217-220 of Devries textbook. It is important to take all these factors into consideration because they are all contributing factors. I also liked how it discussed the readability of the text because some informational text can be difficult for students to understand. The intervention strategies were also great to learn about because of the example of the activities that can be used in the classroom.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience. I remember when I was younger informational text was always hard for me to read because I did not have a lot of the background knowledge that I needed to understand the material. This is exactly what is mentioned on page 217 of Devries textbook as well. I think that informational text can be fun for student to read and study if the text is relative to the student. The text needs to be something that they want to learn about so that the student will to in the information.
I also enjoyed pgs. 217-220 providing contributing factors. I think that along with being difficult to read, sometimes students don't find an interest in informational text.
Chapter 9 discussed the comprehension of informal text. I enjoyed the paragraphs on prior knowledge of the subject. As I read I realized how important it is for the teacher to use the essential questions prior to opening the text for the students to read. Another favorite part of the chapter I had was the discussion on the home environment. Through the opportunities that I have had working with students, I realize that the students that have reading support at home are much better off than those that aren’t exposed to reading at home! This chapter also did a great job of outlining the structure of the expository text. I appreciate the review of how to use graphic organizers to relay the important information that the students will read or are reading. This chapter provided great information and left me without any questions. I would agree that it is a struggle sometimes to find informational text to hold the interests of our students. This chapter stressed the importance of introducing information and keeping the reading interesting!
This chapter is based on comprehension of informational text. In this, it talks about the fourth grade slump which is many reading complications coming together to become and even bigger deal when they need to learn "dense new content material"(p. 217). I have heard of the fourth grade slump but didn't know what it was until reading the chapter. It does make sense and is something that needs to be addressed early on before becoming the forth grade slump.
ReplyDeleteOn page 217 the chapter discusses factors which affect comprehension. There are many things to consider when it comes to the facts and these are based on factors within the reader, factors from the reading environment, and factors of the reading text. In factors within the reader's environment, this includes home, school, and community. While reading about this it got me thinking about a previous idea I had. I want to do this with my tutoring students but the library is way across town and think it would be too much of a hassle. Plus I don't want the liability of driving the students to the library. Anyways, my idea was to take the students to the public library, show them how to find books, use the computers, what they can do at the library after school or on the weekends, and why it is a good place to visit. I would do this all in hoping that they could use it efficiently in the future and feel comfortable with the library as well as grow a love for books and reading. I do want to do this with every class I have when I start teaching. The students can be introduced to the library staff as well. Another idea I had for this was to invite the students' parents, grandparents, etc. who ever they want to join them. This way the guardians or important family member knows about the library as well and all the resources that can be found at the library, as well as the fact that all these resources are free! By doing this, I can't help but wonder if this would create more family time, more reading time, and so much more. I used to love going to the library with my parents when I was little. Anyways, back on topic, when reading about the environmental factors, I thought this would be a great way to connect home, school, and the community.
On page 219 there is a list of unskilled and skilled readers' characteristics. I liked this list because I always remind my students during tutoring what we are going to be working on and strengthening. Looking at the list of skilled readers characteristics also helps me pin point what I need to make sure my students can do.
Another part of this chapter that I really related to and at the same time made me giggle was on page 224. I find myself not choosing a book or closing out of a website if it is not eye appealing to me. I always thought that was very immature of me, however while reading the chapter I discovered this is something many readers do! On page 224, there is a list to consider when choosing eye appealing text for our readers. This does make sense because if you have ever gone to the library with young kids, you see them pull a book off the shelf, look at the cover, then put it back, instead of opening it up and seeing if it is interesting.
I can say this is the first time I've ever heard of the "fourth grade slump," but can really understand how it can happen. I tutor lower level 4th graders and see firsthand just how far behind a couple are due to being pressed on without the phonics skills needed. I think parents and the home are very crucial in helping build knowledge of things when it comes to these types of texts. I was one of those students that did not hardly leave town or go to the library when I was a child and I struggled mightily with some informational texts. Good point on your last paragraph. It is funny to watch students at a library constantly grabbing and books and putting them back just based on the cover. It kind of reminds me of adults picking out birthday cards or something like that. LOL. Good post.
DeleteI read this and laughed! Time and time again I have seen students in the school library judging a book by it's cover! Today I did the same but with a birthday card! Parents are crucial to expose their children to as much text as possible. At home with my 3 year old I have cut cereal boxes, pop-tarts and other cardboard food items for her to "read". Also I have her name hanging up and the alphabet. She was tested at her preschool a couple of weeks ago and know almost every letter and sound!
DeleteChapter 9 talks about comprehension of expository and informational texts. There is quite a bit of difference between narrative and informational texts and students must know this and learn to adjust how they comprehend it when reading these types of texts. The chapter encouraged using trade books along with or over textbooks. These types of books can present more detail and challenges for the reader, making them think more critically.
ReplyDeleteAn important part of understanding informational texts is by having a background knowledge of what is being read. The chapter gave a great sample with a few students with different levels of knowledge. Students get most of their background knowledge from home and parents need to understand that reading informational texts is also very important during the early years of there lives.
There are eight different types of organizational structures of texts. Teachers need to help students understand these structures and help them see what organizational structure is being used in a text to help them comprehend it. The chapter gave a good list on how teachers should help students understand, see, and use these structures for comprehension. Graphic organizers from the intervention section also would help greatly in this matter.
The assessments and much of the interventions were similar to what has been seen in other chapters. Many of the same strategies can be used in informational texts that are used in narrative texts, just in different context.
I can personally say that I did not enjoy informational texts as a child and never really read them. Textbooks were very hard for me and I usually just didn't read them or study because they were so frustrating and mundane to me. I can see just how important it is for parents and teachers to start students on these types of texts early and to make sure they are targeting their interests. I think a big part of informational texts for students is the interest level. Many old textbooks don't interest most students in my mind. Using trade books and technology were great ideas for helping spark interest of students. The chapter, like all chapters in this book had some great strategies and ideas to help struggling readers decipher informational texts.
I never enjoyed textbooks as a younger student and still find a lot of them "hit or miss". I always had a hard time following the information and found them boring. As you mentioned, I think bringing in trade books and technology in addition to quality textbooks are a great way to get students interested. Both of my tutoring students are really into animals, insects, and dinosaurs and I have found that using expository texts with them dramatically increase their interest level in reading during our guided reading. I have used several kids magazines such as Ranger Rick, Big Backyard, and Kids National Geographic for our sessions. I never thought I would stray from narrative texts, but have found that it really helps my students and I think they are quite interesting as well! This week our guided reading is about orphan elephants in the elephant nurseries in Africa and we had the greatest discussion and guided reading session of the whole semester!
DeleteChapter 9 was a great chapter and provided a lot of good and useful information for informational texts. From the very beginning of the chapter, I related to the “fourth grade slump”. I have found a lot of textbooks over the years and throughout my education that are difficult to read and comprehend. I don’t remember many textbooks in elementary school, but can only imagine the frustrations it can bring on if they are not good quality or the child doesn’t have the skills necessary to comprehend the information. The chapter discusses the factors that the student does need to comprehend informational texts and those are factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. One of the factors that stood out the most to me was the home factor of the reader’s environment. I know how important the home environment is to reading but I thought the connection to informational texts and comprehension was very interesting. Books, magazines, newspapers, internet, and educational programming on T.V. are all important for building background knowledge and rich language knowledge for a child. It is very important for parents to expose their children to all of these things and to have discussions with their children. It makes me sad to know that there are children out there whose parents don’t have the resources or take the time to give their children these opportunities. The “factors within the reader” involve skills that are necessary for comprehension of all types of text; it is not limited to informational text. So they must contain basic skills such as recognizing sight words, decoding skills, read at an adequate rate, predict, summarize, connect prior knowledge, and choose comprehension strategies. For informational texts they must also have additional skills such as the knowledge of organizational patterns, background knowledge, related vocabulary terms, analyze the authors purpose, and have the ability to synthesize similar information from various resources. For a new or struggling reader these are not easy tasks and as educators we need to know how to teach comprehension strategies, use assessments, and choose the correct strategies for each student. I really liked figure 9.1 and how it tells you what to look for or how to distinguish between skilled and unskilled readers. The other big part of the chapter was knowing the organizational structures of expository texts and they are chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. One of my favorite things in this chapter was the graphic organizers for each organizational structure. It was listed as an intervention strategy and was figures 9.13 through 9.21. As a teacher it is also important to know how to select and analyze appropriate informational texts. Some things to look for include eye appeal, illustrations, pictures, charts, table of contents, glossary, and highlighted vocabulary terms.
ReplyDeleteThe active learning box example on page 240, vignette 2, reminded me exactly of one of my students. Like George, she cannot sit still and stands while reading or just gets up and walks away or sits down on the floor; I just have a really hard time getting her to focus. And again, just as the other student does, she also skips lines and omits words and doesn’t like to write. Surprisingly enough, her comprehension skills are very good. I have found some management strategies that work very well for her; I just wish I had started them sooner!
I have used several different informational/ expository texts in my tutoring sessions, as they seem to be more interesting and enjoyable for my students. With the help of another person in this class (Thank you, Amy!) I was introduced to the magazines Ranger Rick and Big Backyard and have found some excellent articles for my second graders to use for guided reading. It really does make a difference when they enjoy what they are reading!
I have also marked page 239 for future reference and love the ideas, activities, and book suggestions for science and math. I am happy with any way that I can integrate subjects and get more accomplished. I will definitely use these in the future! There were some other activities that I thought would be really good, but they were more geared toward older students so I will have to tuck them away as well since they are a tad advanced for my second graders. I think I say this every chapter, but I love the technology resources each chapter gives us. I am starting to find some that I have already used and love, as well as some new ones I can’t wait to check out. [I didn't realize I wrote so much and it wouldn't let me get it all on one post! Sorry for the "book"!]
DeleteAbbie,
DeleteYou brought up a good point about textbook quality, or rather readability. Over the course of our education classes and after reading this chapter, sometimes I feel as if textbooks should be more of a supplement to instruction instead of the focus of instruction. I feel this way especially because students need more than just reading to understand a concept, especially when so many struggle with reading skills. I know this is a class about reading, but supplementing reading with multimedia resources really helps students make better connections. I guess my point is that as long as students learn concepts, it doesn't matter if they are reading them, watching a video, or doing a project. Make sense?
Amy
Building background knowledge it important! In one classroom I have seen menus, comic books and science books as options for students to read. I really liked that the teacher gave the student multiple options of text to read. It helped these students build a background and improve their language knowledge.
DeleteChapter 9 was all about comprehension strategies for informational text. This topic shares some similarities with comprehending narrative text: useful before, during, and after reading strategies; emphasis on vocabulary; connecting prior knowledge to texts; visualizing; use of graphic organizers to aid understanding; importance of readability; similar assessment formats/strategies; and the need for critical literacy. However, there are a few key differences between the two genres. First, expository texts have different organizational structures, such as chronology, classification, listing, cause/effect, persuasion, and problem/solution. Sometimes these formats must be taught explicitly to struggling readers. Next, there is an increased emphasis on vocabulary, particularly that technical terms are explained appropriately within the text and that students don’t have to go look up new words. In narrative text, a student’s existing vocabulary is what aids in comprehension. Last, nonfiction writers assume a certain amount of background knowledge from the reader.
ReplyDeleteI have an issue with the example the author uses to describe the importance of prior knowledge and experience. George, who has visited castles abroad, is able to describe a moat and provide more information about why castles were built in certain locations (defenses). Hello? I don’t think many students at either of my internships schools have left the state, let alone the country. I even wonder how many have been to a zoo. So while I am very happy for George, I hope the author tells us how to help build background knowledge for those not lucky enough to have visited Europe. After reading the whole chapter, I realize I will have to refer back to MY background knowledge of building background knowledge to answer my own questions.
Another thing that caught my eye was a list of good teacher qualities on p. 220. It makes it look so easy to be a wonderful teacher! The characteristic that stood out most to me was the one that said do not assign blame for students’ lack of skills. This means a lot to me because one of the schools I am interning at is a high poverty school that buses in kids from the adjacent Indian Reservation. Yes, the situation these kids come from is sad and most of us (middle-class white people) can’t understand why Native Americans can’t or don’t try to change their situation and break the poverty cycle. In my opinion, it doesn’t do any good to wonder why or lament the fact that these kids come to school with so little background knowledge and poor vocabulary. You just have to think about what you CAN do – things like providing a safe, stable, and consistent learning environment; being each kid’s biggest cheerleader; creating a literacy rich classroom; and developing as many hands-on, vicarious, and other experiences as possible. DON’T assume every kid will be a struggling reader.
One thing that struck me as odd was that the textbook used some of the same trade books to illustrate both good and bad examples of expository writing. For example, the author used Seymour Simon’s Whales to demonstrate both good description and a writing style that has too many ideas in one paragraph. That was a little confusing to me!
When you discussed the list of good teacher qualities (which I also seemed to think was easy to do as well!), I was amazed on how well you stated your point. You said everything perfectly and I can totally relate! Focus on things we can do to help these kids, instead of what they won't/can't do. I interned at a school with very low poverty and the teacher had a totally different way to discipline the students, talk to the students, and everything! At first I was stunned and not sure I wanted to be in the class, however, after learning more about the students, I realized this is how they are used to being talked to at home and its a way for the teacher to get through to them. She talked to me about this and said at first it was hard for her to understand the students and why they couldn't do something. Then she realized she had to make her classroom for them, do what she can do to make it a safe, consistent classroom, and find something fantastic about each student.
DeleteAmy- I too thought visiting a castle was a poor example of prior experience. However, think of it this way...you are going to be talking about goods and services with your second grade class. You talk about how the farmer is performing a service to bring food (goods) to the supermarkets or farmer's market. You work in an inner city school and the children come from a low socioeconomic background and haven't even been taking to a pumpkin patch before, let alone seen a farm. In order for the students to make a connection to the lesson and text that goes with it, it is our job to make that connection and build background knowledge. Through books, pictures, websites, field trip, or virtual field trips we can give them the experience they have never had and build their background knowledge.
DeleteChapter 9 was about comprehension of informational text. It stated that factors that affect the comprehension of the text are, "(1) factors within the reader (2) factors within the reader's environment and (3) factors with in the text." (DeVries, pg 217). The first factor that affects the comprehension of informational text is whether the reader has the basic skills to read various types of text. Factors within the reader's environment is what the reader has been exposed to like for example, at home or school. What students are exposed to helps them build prior knowledge. The more prior knowledge students have the more successful they are at comprehending texts. The third factor that affects comprehension of information text is factors within the text. Students need to be able to understand and organize the structure of informational text. Ways to help organize the structure of expository text include listing, cause and effect and classification.
ReplyDeleteI did not have any questions about this chapter. I did like that it games strategies to help students organize expository text.
This chapter made me look differently at the importance of students being able to comprehend various types of text. Honestly, I haven't put much thought into the importance of this. I got several good ideas from this chapter to use when I am a teacher!
One item that I can connect to myself is classifying informational text. I have seen my son have to do this as homework for his science class. I think that it helped him understand the chapter better because he classified the information. My son is a visual learner and having a list of classifications helped him remember the information.
Having students be able to classify their reading material to their real life situation, especially towards things they find interesting, is vital to their excitement and interest in learning. I think if growing up I was given this tool I would have found it more exciting and fun to read. I will be teaching a math lesson next Monday about money. Although it is not ‘reading’ that I am teaching – I am still integrating how they use money in their own lives, put them into real life situations that they may have experienced, and have them give examples about when they have used money – how they have to work for money. Good post. Jennifer
DeleteI too look at how students comprehend different types of text differently now. I never knew that there was different ways for each. I feel that after reading this chapter I can now give my own children a better chance at comprehension by giving them a better background knowledge.
DeleteChapter 9 – Comprehension of informational Text: This chapter definitely highlighted on some great aspects on how students can better comprehend text by the way it is presented in books, words, grade appropriate, activities, and more. This chapter really captured a lot of different factors but I will only focus on a few. Such as the factors that affect comprehension. 1. Factors within the reader 2. Within the readers environment and 3. Within the text. These factors can ultimately affect a student’s ability to recognize and comprehend information. Prior knowledge is another attribute to helping students comprehend and understand what they read. It is important because it helps the student gain a broader view of the subject or topic at hand. When students find something interesting they will better be apt to comprehend the information. Positive attitudes within the child, family, and community are also attributes and factors that play a role in how a student comprehends information. These are also known as, factors within the environment. When a parent has a positive attitude towards learning, school and reading – the student will too. Parents, community, and family greatly influence a student in reading – this can be done by explaining a video, website, reading stories, or having other interesting discussions.
ReplyDeleteAs a child I had a great family environment and a mom who read to me every night. However, because of my own IEP I struggled at reading and got discouraged from my own great efforts that resulted in poor scores. It had nothing to do with my home life.
As a teacher I will take what I learned from this chapter and realize that it is important to help encourage not only my students to read but try in many ways to get my parents involved with their students education and reading curriculum. I will do this by having a blog and sharing our weekly lessons, websites that parent and student can do together for more practice, lists of books that would be great reads for their grade/skill level, reading logs, and so forth.
by jennifer willcott
Jennifer, I loved what you had to offer on your opinions of this chapter. I especially liked how you wanted to get your parents involved in the childs learning by creating a blog and sharing your weekly lessons on a website. I think this is great for parent motivation. It'd be great if on that blog or website you include simple activities for parents to do with their children that will support what you taught that week.
DeleteChapter 9- Comprehension of Informational Text was a chapter that for me thinking back to my childhood days I struggled with. I was always a struggling reader as a child and I know how text books can easily be over a childs head. However, chapter 9 explains how we can build up knowledge and give students the tools so that they can learn from the text instead of be intimidated by it. A few of the factors needed to comprehend all types of text that the book describes are:
ReplyDelete-ability to recognize a large bank of sight words.
-ability to decode unknow one-syllable words.
-analyze words with multiple syllables.
-read at an adequate rate.
-choose an appropriate strategy when comprehension breaks down.
ability to summarize.
The list goes on and on, but as a future teacher I need to be able to give all these tools to each of my readers. To start off students need to be able to access prior knowledge so they can tie the reading into what they've learned previous to what they are about to read. Then attitude and interests also play a role in reading. If they have a positive attitude toward learning and reading that is key to being a successful lifelong learner. However, I feel as though students get burned out from learning because the expectations put upon them are huge in their first years of learning. It's important for their parents to be involved and be a support for them as well as their teachers. A students home environment affects reading comprehension and provides the foundation upon which attitudes toward reading are built. This is why it's important as a future teacher to be brainstorming ways to get parents involved in their childs learning. I think that having a reading night is a great way to do so as well as having a bulletin board in your classroom dedicated to parents and having the weeks plans on that board and activities that they can complete with their children at home as well as educational website that they can utilize. This chapter then discusses the organization of the expository text. Organization within the text comes in several forms such as; chronology or sequence, description, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparision/contrast, problem/solution, and so on.
Kendra- I enjoyed reading your post and liked what you said, but I also think that one important part you forgot to make (especially at the beginning) is that not only do you need all those factors you listed to comprehend all types of text, but this chapter I felt really hit hard on making that connection to the text through experiences and background knowledge. With a nonfiction story you comprehend more about feelings, the message, the characters, setting, and plot. However, with expository text, you have to make a connection to it to comprehend what it is going over. Good job.
DeleteThis week Chapter 8 discusses comprehension of informational text. Often this type of text is the most difficult for a struggling reader not only because they need a large bank of sight words they need to recognize and have the ability to decode unfamiliar words, but they also need prior knowledge and experience to make a connection to the text. These experiences can come from the students home, community, or school. The child’s home most affects their reading comprehension and provides the foundation upon which attitudes toward reading are built. Unfortunately, not all students have language-rich environments at home. Unlike nonfiction, expository text does not have a setting, characters, a plot, or conflicts to be resolved. Expository text has 8 common organizational patterns: chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. Assessments are important so the teacher can determine where the deficit is and can assist the readers as they build the skills that are necessary to be able to master expository text.
ReplyDeleteI think that interest in the topic is important when reading expository text for students. If I give students information on rebuilding cars, many boys will love it, some won’t like it, and probably all the girls will hate it. Just with this one piece of text I have lost half of my student’s interest and focus. Now, take a struggling reader and give them information text like this and they have totally fallen off the boat. I feel when reading informational text it is more important than ever to do an interest inventory. You also have to think about your student’s background and home life. If the background knowledge is not there for the topic, the teacher must help build that background knowledge so they can make a connection to what they are going to be reading.
LeAnn,
DeleteI really like your interpretation of the importance of doing interest inventory on the students. I was looking at this chapter as more of a guiding resource for Science/Social Studies, but I see the importance for selecting informational texts for Reading as well. I have been trying to vary my read alouds and guided reading for my tutoring group based on the interests they put on enrollment forms and what I have gained from getting to know them. Again, I liked your point about using those interest inventories to find text that your students can connect to. Great post!
Carissa
1. Analysis of the reading/issue.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading about comprehension of narrative texts last week in Chapter 8, this week was focused on comprehension of informational texts in Chapter 9. I have seen a lot of great strategies in place at the school that I work at, but having this chapter to give me background knowledge of this type of comprehension was a necessity. The chapter begins be talking about the factors that students need to have in place in order to comprehend information texts. Some of those factors included decoding skills, broad vocabulary, ability to summarize, understand author’s purpose, prior knowledge and more. The book takes a lot about how a students prior knowledge that they get from their parents, their interests, their community can have such a huge impact on helping them comprehend informational texts better. The chapter then gets in to discussing how informational texts can be arranged such as sequence of events, descriptive, classification of relationships among concepts, compare and contrast, cause/effect, problem solution, etc. The chapter concludes by sharing several great techniques for breaking down the text to increase comprehension. Many of the ideas revolve around graphic organizers to show relationship, classifications, sequence and more.
2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
After reading through this chapter, I have come to realize the importance of activating prior knowledge when going over information texts and connecting the topics to the students. I know that families and parents play a huge role in this prior knowledge and that helps them extend and grow their vocabulary and understanding of the world around them. My major contradiction to this would be that many students in a lower SES community or in a small, rural town have limited access to many other cultures and events that could increase their knowledge. I feel like students living in the city have many more opportunities to learn about other cultures and attend a variety of events and attractions, while those in rural communities do not get subjected to that and may not be able to afford to travel much. My question would be how do you help get some prior knowledge built up. I was thinking virtual field trips and interest based learning.
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I have seen the importance of graphic organizers and some of the other strategies in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades while working at school. This chapter gave me some additional ideas about some graphic organizers and activities that could help increase comprehension.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
In the 5th grade classroom that I spend a lot of time in, I have been seeing the students really improve their summarizing and presenting skills. I am in the classroom during Social studies and Science and see the students struggling to keep up with all of the information being thrown at them. The Social Studies teacher likes to do a lot of projects, so I think this really helps them understand the main concepts better. In addition, this week she put in summarizing graphic organizers in which they picked up main ideas about sections of the text and summarized from those main ideas. The students worked in small groups and shared/presented with the class. I thought this was an excellent way to improve comprehension and the students really excelled at it!
I like you had also experienced much of this material in the classroom. For me it did help when reading the chapter to have had experience with the classroom. I was glad that you included information on prior knowledge, this is so important for students. I have also used graphic organizers when working with students and find that it really helps!
DeleteCarissa,
DeleteI feel like I also learned a lot about the important role that activating prior knowledge plays in the comprehension process. There are so many resources out there that I really didn't even realize until reading this chapter. I think that because I am the type of person that thrives on learning as much as I can, I will be the type of educator that really stresses the importance of developing a rich vocabulary and background knowledge on many topics within my classroom. I guess I really never thought about the importance of environmental factors, such as the home,and community, in regards to comprehension. This really opened my eyes as both a parent, and a future educator.
Chapter 9 Blog
ReplyDeleteChapter nine discusses comprehension of informational text. The three factors that affect the comprehension process of informational text are: 1) factors within the reader, 2) factors within the reader’s environment, and 3) factors within the text. These factors will then help the teacher better understand why a student may be struggling with comprehension. Basic reading skills are necessary to comprehend all types of text. I think this is very true. I can see how much the tutoring in phonics can improve the fluency in comprehension in just the short amount of weeks. The three environments that most students inhabit are home, community, and school. The home environment affects reading comprehension the most. This was something new to me, I had not known this previously. This is why it is so important to read to children at home. I have had teachers say that they can tell a child who has been read to at home and a child who has not been read to.
Expository text can be a challenge for some who have difficulty with narrative text because of the structure. The eight commonly used organizational patterns in expository texts are chronology or sequence, description or enumeration, listing, classification or hierarchy, comparison/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution, and persuasion. I have not seen so much of expository text for first grade students but I have experienced all of these organizational patterns when I had my internship in a fifth grade classroom. The chapter brought a great deal of information together and it helped to have some experience with this material in the classroom.
I really liked the suggestions in this chapter. One of my favorite tools is the graphic organizers because they provide a visual map of what is happening. When we can map out what we are learning it gives a clear picture and is more likely to stay with the reader. I agree that the home is the most influential in reading comprehension. Some do not have the opportunities and so it is essential to take our students on field trips so they can build experience and background knowledge whenever we can.
DeleteI agree Zoe; just working on Phonics with my 3rd graders has really helped with comprehension in this short period of time. I came from a split family and I moved back and forth most of my early elementary years, so I agree with the text when it states that the home environment affects reading comprehension the most. I did not read well because I did not have times that I read to my parents nor did I have literature around the house. My mom was in survival mode and my dad was always gone when I lived with him. This chapter helped me to see how beneficial expository text is. Before it was not my favorite to read, teach, or discuss but now I can see how many things I can do with it to promote comprehension and how it can be fun.
DeleteInformational texts are more difficult to read than narrative texts in general. Today, there are more resources to choose from, but for struggling readers, we must teach strategies that help with decoding, vocabulary and other skills (217). There are many factors that contribute to comprehension of a text. Our text mentions prior knowledge and experience, interests and attitudes, the reader’s home environment, their community and their school. The structure of the text is also very important. One of the most important factors in informational texts is the eye appeal. If we want the reader to become interested in the text, it has to be appealing to look at to grab their interest. Some other important details include a table of contents to aid in organizing and a glossary that helps identify new words and the writing style which can be at the reader’s level or makes it difficult to read and understand. Graphic organizers are very helpful when reading expository texts. If a student can use a graphic organizer, it can help to clear up any confusing ideas. It is important to assess where our students are at so that we can help them move forward. In the intervention section the author’s focus is on teaching reading strategies and modeling these strategies. One of my favorites is the use of graphic organizers. It is a map of the ideas in any book, article or site.
ReplyDeleteI did not have any questions about the reading.
I really like the activity TEXTMASTERS on page 238. This is suggested for grades 4-8. This is a great way to get each student involved in their own learning. They are also given the responsibility to teach it to others. Each student has a given job and they are more likely to really learn about the topic instead of just sitting back and listening to the teacher lecture. I can see this as a great classroom activity that would make students excited about what they are learning. We could also introduce an enrichment activity to go along with the text and allow time for students to share what they learned about the topic outside of class. On page 239 there are several books listed that sound like great resources. On pages 242-245 there are different graphic organizers and ideas to use.
Now, we use KWL charts in a lot of our classes and it helps in the end to see personal growth and what was actually learned through the semester. I think this is a great thing for students. It would be a fairly easy way for students to see what they have learned throughout the year in our classrooms. I know when I ask my own kids what they did today; they shrug and say, “I don’t know.” They are learning, but it is so gradual that they don’t even think about how much they have actually learned.
Patti,
DeleteI agree with you that graphic organizers are a great teaching tool to use in the classroom to help build comprehension skills. I have noticed that many of the classrooms I am in as a Para educator, teachers typically have their favorite selected few graphic organizers that they use to teach with. I guess I am a different type of educator because I am always looking for different resources to bring into a lesson. There are so many different, really neat graphic organizers that can be used in teaching. In most classrooms that I have worked in it is usually the Venn Diagram, which compares and contrasts. Although I think it is a great graphic organizer to use, I always find myself sitting there thinking of others that can be used as well.
This week we are reading in chapter 9 about comprehension of informational text. I thought the reading went in depth about the factors that affect comprehension, the organizational structures that can be used to help students with comprehension skills, the analysis of informational text, choosing the proper informational text for students, and the assessments that revolve around comprehension skills. I really enjoyed learning about the factors that affect the comprehension process. I guess I didn’t realize the impact that the reader’s environment plays in this process. Although, it makes perfect sense because the student’s home, community, and school, are the only environments that student’s inhabit. The chapter explains that the role that the parent plays in creating children that are good at comprehending skills is crucial. It says that children that have parents who love to read and discuss many different types of texts, and have different reading materials available in the home provides a great prior knowledge from which to draw in regards to comprehension of informational texts. I sat and thought about that after reading it and realized that I am one of those parents. I love to read and learn, and I am always discussing and sharing with my kids things that I have learned either through reading, internet, or otherwise. In fact, my husband tells me repeatedly that he has never met someone so full of useless knowledge. Ha-ha….but, I don’t view any knowledge as useless! In reading this chapter it was discussed that students living in a smaller community, such as the Noread that is discussed, can develop students who struggle with comprehension of informational text because they either do not have the resources or perhaps their resources are out dated. I do agree that there are communities that do not have leaders who see the importance of widening their children’s horizons in reference to outside enrichments. However, I also believe that there are many resources that these children can find on the internet to help enrich their background knowledge and encourage them to read more. My question is when you live and teach in communities such as the one discussed in the reading, what types of things can you, as a parent and educator, do to encourage more resource opportunities? This chapter has given me some great insight in regards to the many different types of activities and teaching ideas to use to help build prior background knowledge, and encourage children to want to read and enrich their comprehension. It helped provide different types of teaching strategies in order to reach every student, instead of a selected few. As a Para educator I am in a 5th grade classroom where the students are learning about a lot of informational text. I am observing a lot of reading, teacher discussion, and then doing worksheets. Although that is this teacher’s teaching style, I am quite the opposite. I am a very visual learner and I learn by seeing. When I become a teacher I know that I will use many different types of teaching strategies in order to meet all of my student’s needs. I learned some great activities and this reading gave me some great ideas to incorporate into my classroom.
ReplyDeleteCharelle, I think you are right on. There must be some prior knowledge for the students to help them. The more knowledge parents can provide the better. I think that not only the experiences for reading but for life in general are always beneficial.
DeleteRicky
Chapter 9 Comprehension of Informational Text
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the Scenario on page 216 I was reminded of my niece in Texas that was told she had to take Summer School because she had not passed the TASP (I think that is what it is called) test. At the end of summer school she had to take it again. She became very anxious and depressed. However, in the end she did pass it but what about all those other students that did not? I wonder how many where ELL students that could have used a reading specialist to help them? I will say this though; they must have been targeting instruction because she did raise her score enough to pass so that is a good thing. I have seen some summer schools that are just all fun hands-on-learning with no direct targeted instruction for those with specific needs.
It is always good to hear the factors that affect a skill so that we know where to begin. Factors that affect comprehension are factors within the reader such as prior knowledge and experience or interest and attitudes. The reader’s environment (home, school, and community) is another factor, for instance is it a language rich environment. Also factors within the text affect comprehension. Figure 9.1 is good for helping to teachers to understand the difference between skilled and unskilled readers.
Chapter 9 focuses on all the different types of organizational patterns in expository text such as chronological order or sequence, description, listing, classification, persuasion, compare and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. I liked the idea Mrs. Stoppel had in her lecture, to do the Found Poem for expository text organizational patterning.
The text also discusses interest inventories in the assessment section. I did interest inventories for my Title 1 students and they loved it! I was able to find out what type of books they love to read and help them choose appropriate leveled reading material. I have found choosing informational text is their least favorite. I agree with the text when it states that the best way to assess your student’s growth is through long periods of observation. That is why it is so important that teachers are doing Guided Reading. Many of our teachers at our school do not participate in Guided Reading. How will they ever really address their student’s needs if they don’t hear them read on a consistent basis?
My favorite Graphic Organizer was figure 9.15. I think the younger kids would really like that one. I also thought that figure 9.2 was a very helpful tool.
Literacy
ReplyDeleteChapter 9
When looking at Chapter nine and comprehension of informational text I think there are a lot of comparisons that can be made to narrative text. Yet, there are also many differences that must be discussed. Students take in and must process informational text differently. The text cited many different factors that affect comprehension that have to do with the reader. Some instances are the ability to read at an adequate rate, ability to summarize, and the ability to self question. Other things that readers must have are knowledge of the information or some kind of background and any specific terms that are needed to understand the text. I have always found that past experiences and background information is extremely important. Not just for reading purposes but for many different things. The more students see and do in their young lives the more they should take in as they experience. From this experience is knowledge. If a student has heard a work because of a experience when they see it in writing they will at least hopefully know what it means already. All of this goes hand in hand The text also talked a lot about the organization of the text. From recordings this week we already know that how something is organized can mean a lot. Sometimes certain organizations may be easier or harder for a students to understand. The text cited organization could mean things like a comparison and contrast scenario or a persuasive piece. I have always found the organization type of chronology somewhat easier to understand. It puts things in a straight forward way that is usually easier to understand and put in an order.
I agree. After reading this chapter I feel that I am better equip to teach the different types of text to my children and my future students. This chapter, really this whole book, is very educational and one that I will keep in my personal library.
DeleteHanna Haraughty
ReplyDeleteReading Corrections
Blog – Wk. 10
Chapter 9 is about comprehension of informational text. There are many factors that affect reading comprehension. The text list the home as one of the biggest factors that contribute to children’s comprehension. When parents read and talk to their children about the different types of text they are more likely to better comprehend. Readers also need to be able to recognize large banks of sight words, have decoding skills, be able to make predictions, and analyze words with multiple syllables. With informational text readers should also have organizational patterns of expository text, background knowledge, be able to analyze the author’s purpose, and synthesize similar information. The text states a sequence for teaching expository text to students. Introduce the organizational pattern, point out the key words, model ways readers can determine text structures, introduce graphic organizers, read aloud, and have students listen for key words in the story.
To me this chapter has it all laid out how we are to instruct students on reading expository text. There were many things that I did not know to be included into comprehension. I found that the home was the most encouraging thing when it came to comprehension. Children are surrounded by their family and when parents have many different reading materials available for their children to read with and discuss this helps them to comprehend more than I originally thought.
The reading affected me by realizing that I should always talk about what I read to my children every time we read. In my house we read a lot but it is always based on fluency, or knowing the words for them to be able to read. I have a complete understanding of the whole process of reading and the many different aspects that is associated with it. I feel that after reading these chapters that I can better give my sons more prior knowledge just by discussing our readings and viewings.
In reading this chapter I too was really touched by the idea of talking to students/children about what we read each time we read. Sometimes I feel like my lesson plans are a bit silly when I am writing them (sorry Professor, I mean no disrespect!) because we ask so many questions in each section. However, I know that in practice it helps my students in so many ways. I have noticed that I have started doing it more with my kids too. I have also noticed that I have started stopping in the middle to ask them to predict and have started asking them BEFORE we read what they think the book will be about and AFTER what it was about. I honestly feel like being in school to be a teacher might be making me a better parent too.
DeleteChapter 8 in our text reviews the issues around comprehension of informational text. For many students who struggle with reading this type of can be the most difficult. Struggle readers are often missing the bank of site words and lack the word attack skills or decoding skills to decode the text. Sometimes they have limited fluency or comprehension or are lacking the ability to summarize what they have just read. In addition to this they are often have difficulty connecting prior knowledge or lack the knowledge to connect.
ReplyDeleteThe students that I am working with this semester and two of the students that I worked with extensively in my reading and language arts methods class/internship have difficulty with informational texts. I think that for many of them it was not only that they lack/lacked the skills listed above but that it was also that they did not have in interest in the text. Since working with my tutoring group I have found it hard to balance not only reading level/ability and interest and to intertwine it with books that work in the internship setting. This last week I hit the jackpot. I was able to find a book about the Titanic that my students loved and with a lot of vocabulary and subject review beforehand my students were able to master.
I did not have any questions about this chapter other than I thought there should have been more suggestions at the end of the chapter! I find this this is typically my favorite part of the reading each week but that most of the activities and suggestions were one I have already done. I wanted more!
Jessica, I enjoyed reading your thoughts regarding chapter 9. I agree the combination of student's lacking interest and reading skills correlates with a issue in comprehension. This chapter highlights how comprehending informational text can be a struggle with students. I can relate to your struggle with finding interesting text that appeal to the students I am tutoring. The first text I selected was a informational text on chocolate since on both the interest surveys the students commented on liking chocolate I thought it would be perfect but they lost interest quickly. I incorporated a variety of activities such an art activity that aided with maintaining their interest. I wanted to share my experiences with you and congratulate you on hitting the "jack pot".
DeleteYou know, my students might really like a short story about chocolate or a student lead research assignment with a hands on learning project (ie making or doing something with chocolate)
DeleteI have been doing more hands on projects because they seem to love it and learn better from it but finding the right combo can be hard. I talked to a few librarians and they suggested to books we read of the Titanic and this next week will be my second run: we are going to do a set of Pompeii. I'm in hopes they love it too. I will post how the chocolate unit goes once we do it!
Chapter 9 highlights the importance of not letting children fall behind why there is a need for individualized instruction such as tutoring. I had never heard of the fourth grade slump until this week's live meeting and until reading Chapter 9. However it does make sense to me. DeVries reiterates ways of motivating students who hit the "slump" by keeping them engaged with interesting reading materials and varying the grade levels of the books. This chapter also provides great information on teaching comprehension of informational text because it varies for comprehension of narrative text. There are three areas students comprehension of information text can be affected: 1.) factors within the reader, 2.) factors within the reader's environment, and factors within the text. The reader has to be able to recognize sight words, decode words, and have the ability to summarize among many other skills. There are a number or students who are not exposed to a language rich environment at home or a home environment that encourages reading. There many text that require more skills from the reader, especially when there are a variety of different resources. Students have to be able to using critical thinking skills. As a future educator I need to be aware of the 3 areas or comprehension of informational text and what each of them entail. DeVries does a positive job providing this information in great detail. The information provided by DeVries on the organization of informational text and the different forms of informational was also beneficial. After reading the information from chapter 9 it only becomes more apparent to me how knowing my students and finding text that appeals to the reader is going to assist me with teaching comprehension skills. The activities provided towards the end of the chapter were again very help like in the previous chapters. I enjoyed activity two where the activities such as science experiments and crafts can be implemented to assist with understanding and maintaining focus within a lesson.
ReplyDeleteJade, I too was unaware of the"fourth grade slump" before reading this chapter and it does just reinforce how important it is for us to get to know our students , assess them and provide for them with a language -rich environment with a variety texts for them to choose from.
DeleteChapter 9 is about comprehension of informational text. The beginning of the chapter discusses the “fourth grade slump.” Fourth grade is the year that students who have struggled with vocabulary, reading comprehension, and lack motivation when it comes to reading hit this slump when it comes to content-area reading. To help students get through this slump it is important to find out their interests, have an abundance of interesting texts of varied reading levels and continue to work with them on reading strategies.
ReplyDeleteThere are three factors that affect the comprehension process and they are factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and factors within the text. Factors within the reader would be the basic reading skills needed to understand texts. Prior knowledge and experience are also very beneficial to the reader in helping them to understand informational text. When it comes to factors within the reader’s environment it includes home, community and school. The home environment is the most influential on a student and influences their attitudes about reading. I can definitely see a difference in those students who live in a more language –rich environment compared to those who do not.
In the interventions and strategies section in this chapter they listed several different types of graphic organizers that would be very beneficial for students to use to help them understand the text. I also think that the use of K-W-L charts are helpful for students of all ages. The text said it is best used for grades 2- 6, but I have used this with kindergarteners and it was helpful, and it is something we use in this class as well. Page 256 lists some websites that are great resources to use for expository texts. I was aware of some of these sites but there are a few of them that I had not heard of before and I am anxious to check them out.
Many addressed the "fourth grade slump". While I am currently in my last semester of internship classes, I have observed this slump several times. Students that have not fostered the key components of reading such as vocabulary, decoding, phonics, and other areas, have a hard time reading in math, social studies, and other content areas. This is extremely sad! How is the child expected to learn if they are struggling with the word themselves? My husband and I currently had a discussion about every teacher being a reading teacher. He is a math teacher and one that never has enjoyed english, reading, or anything associated with the language arts. He admitted though, that it is so important for students to be able to read word problems and instructions or math becomes and even harder subject. We all need to be fostering a love for reading in children at as young of age as possible!
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ReplyDeleteI had never heard of the "fourth grade slump" before reading the text. I was not surprised to hear that though because I have observed some fourth and fifth graders and they seem to be very lost and not even sure they are paying attention. It is sad that there are those students that fall through the cracks.
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 was about Comprehension of Informational Text. This chapter had a lot of useful information that I did not know before reading the book. The beginning of the chapter discusses the different factors that affect the comprehension process. It says that there are factors within the reader themselves that can affect their comprehension skills. It also says that factors within the readers environment and factors within the text can also affect their comprehension skills. One of the factors that I was not aware of was the factors within the reader’s environment: Community. I would not think that this would affect a student so much but I have definitely seen students struggle for all sorts of reasons. I really liked figure 9.1 on page 219 that talks about Skilled Readers and Unskilled Readers. I think it is an excellent way for new teachers to recognize those that are struggling and then be able to know where to go from there in matters of teaching to their learning style and level. The strategies and activities to use before, during and after reading were very helpful and I found some great ideas to use in the future. I particularly liked Partner Reading and Content too (PRC2) where two English Learns read a text together and the teacher observes. I like this strategy because it will give the students confidence in reading and it helps them to not feel like they are in this alone. I also liked Graphic Organizers. I have used a couple of different Graphic Organizers in my tutor sessions and my students really love getting involved and they especially like it when I write what they have to say, they feel very important.
ReplyDeleteI like that you talked about graphic organizers in your post. It is great that you use them in your sessions! Graphic organizers can be extremely beneficial to students. They are a great way to get students involved when you use them like you do. I like that the book showed so many different examples of graphic organizers. All the different types gave me lots of ideas I can use in my classroom.
DeleteComprehending informational text is one of the hardest skills to master in my opinion. It is a skill that is very important and one that will be used often though. As students move through the educational system, they will encounter more and more informational texts. After completing their education, most professions require job training and professional development at some point in their career. This is another form of informational text. In the United States, it is very likely that a student could come in to contact with informational text a majority of days of their lives.
ReplyDeleteAlong with the basic skills that a students needs to read, five more skills are needed in addition to read informational text. Students must know the organizational patterns of the expository text, have background knowledge of the topic, know key terms associated with the topic, posses the ability to analyze the author’s purpose and credentials, and possess the ability to synthesize similar information from various sources. Having prior knowledge and experience with the informational text topic is a key component to a student succeeding. As we saw in the scenario, when Malcolm did not have the amount of experience with the English language to successfully understand tests and texts. Experiences such as these can be built up in the home, community, and school environment.
Another thing that helped me while reading this text was referring back to the recording this week. As discussed, informational texts contain many features that help a reader gather knowledge. A few examples of these are the table of contents, glossary, and vocabulary terms. Many terms are pointed out by making the text bold or highlighting in a color such as yellow. In my experience, students benefit greatly from this. I was pleased during my social studies internship when the students broke into three groups to complete a research project over their region of Native Americans. I was shocked, however, that most of the 5th grade students did not know how to look up terms in the glossary or themes in the table of contents. I had to show them several times that if they wanted to look up weapons, all they had to do was flip to the back of the back of the book, find weapons under the W, and then go to the corresponding page numbers. I hope these skills are being taught to our students young so they can continue to practice and refine their skills for projects and assignments!
Hanna, I agree with you for me, informational texts are the hardest for me to grasp. I seem to get all of the information mixed up and can’t keep it straight. You brought up some great strategies to help you with this and I hope you share this information with your future class. I am also surprised that 5th graders did not know how to use a glossary. This just goes to show that as teachers we need to make sure we are teacher the skills necessary for our students to one day become independent learners.
DeleteChapter nine was over comprehension of informational text. The book mentioned that there are three sources that affect how we process informational text. They are the factors within the reader, factors within the reader’s environment, and fators within the actual text. When the book discussed factors within the reader, it mentioned that it is important to activate prior knowledge. As candidates, it is important for us to activate prior knowledge in almost everything we teach, so I am used to doing this.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading through the section that covered the analysis of informational texts. I can really relate to the section over “eye apeal”. I can remember examining books to see the things like the print size, white space, graphics, and so on when I was young. In fact, I still do this. I never have really thought about other people doing the same thing as me, because I like to read text that is usually a little different from everyone.
As we all know, vocabulary plays a huge role in the ability of students being able to comprehend texts. The chapter stressed that it is important for students to look up unfamiliar vocabulary words before reading a passage. I think this is important because without doing this, students are bound to struggle. If a student understands the vocabulary words in a passage, they will be able to read more fluent.
I agree that students need to look up unfamiliar words and extend their vocabulary. I also think that it is a great opportunity for the teacher to explain the unfamiliar words and help the students understand the vocab words in context.
DeleteChapter 9 covers informational text and how teachers can better equip their students with strategies that will help them become better readers. On a personal stand point I have never been a great informational reader and find it much easier to understand fictional stories.
ReplyDeleteMy son however seems to absorb informational text. He can be read a fact out of one of his text books one time and remember those facts days or even weeks later when he needs to recall it. He has an amazing capacity to organize all of the little tidbits of information’s into a way that helps him quickly retrieve it. He does not have the same level of comprehension for non informational text and I feel that it is because he is not interested in reading stories. He would rather have me read a “physics” book to him then a story like “Nate the Great”…It is so painful to read to him sometimes
The text gives teachers great tools to help guide us in the right direction when we are trying to help our students understand what we are teaching them and why it is important. I think the key is to find some way to relate the information to something that they are interested in so they will have a vested interest in what they are learning. It’s all in how you present then information.
Cathryn,
DeleteI agree with what you have mentioned I think that some people are better with different kinds of read. Myself for example I never was really go at reading informational text by my fiance on the other hand he saids the he has always been good at informational text and really enjoyed it.
1. Chapter nine of the textbook Literacy Assessment & Intervention by B. Devries discusses understanding informative text. This chapter discusses the major factors that can affect the comprehension process which is very important for teachers to remember because comprehension is such an elaborate process. According to the textbook there are “factors within the reader”, “factors within the reader’s environment”, and “factors with in the text” (Devries, 217-220). This chapter also explains the “organizational structure of expository text” (Devries, 220-224). The difference between informational text and other texts is important for readers to understand because they can be difficult to understand for new readers in different ways.
ReplyDelete2. Questions and/or contradictions about the reading/issue.
None at this time
3. How did the reading reflect you or allow you to look at an issue differently?
I really enjoyed learning about the factors that contribute to comprehension on pages 217-220 of Devries textbook. It is important to take all these factors into consideration because they are all contributing factors. I also liked how it discussed the readability of the text because some informational text can be difficult for students to understand. The intervention strategies were also great to learn about because of the example of the activities that can be used in the classroom.
4. Connecting the reading to you. Examples of your own experience.
I remember when I was younger informational text was always hard for me to read because I did not have a lot of the background knowledge that I needed to understand the material. This is exactly what is mentioned on page 217 of Devries textbook as well. I think that informational text can be fun for student to read and study if the text is relative to the student. The text needs to be something that they want to learn about so that the student will to in the information.
I also enjoyed pgs. 217-220 providing contributing factors. I think that along with being difficult to read, sometimes students don't find an interest in informational text.
DeleteChapter 9 discussed the comprehension of informal text. I enjoyed the paragraphs on prior knowledge of the subject. As I read I realized how important it is for the teacher to use the essential questions prior to opening the text for the students to read. Another favorite part of the chapter I had was the discussion on the home environment. Through the opportunities that I have had working with students, I realize that the students that have reading support at home are much better off than those that aren’t exposed to reading at home! This chapter also did a great job of outlining the structure of the expository text. I appreciate the review of how to use graphic organizers to relay the important information that the students will read or are reading. This chapter provided great information and left me without any questions. I would agree that it is a struggle sometimes to find informational text to hold the interests of our students. This chapter stressed the importance of introducing information and keeping the reading interesting!
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