Comprehension Essentials for Gifted Readers

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Comprehension Essentials for Gifted Readers

• http//aea11gt.pbworks.com

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Is he comprehending?
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How advanced is his comprehension?
Moby Dick
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Intellectual Needs of Gifted

1. Pace of learning
2. Complexity of material
3. Being with other bright learners
4. Higher levels of thinking

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NOVEL TO ROUTINE

• From infancy on, high IQ individuals
• are attracted to novelty
• habituate rapidly
• return to novelty seeking
• Results in large foundation of factual knowledge

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NOVEL TO ROUTINE
Sousa, 2003
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THINKING SKILLS

• Gifted kids have same range of strategies as
  others.
• Choose more sophisticated strategy or more
  complex version of strategy only in the face of
  significant challenge.
• Skill develops only when the challenge is
  present.

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PROBLEM SOLVING

• Gifted kids are
• more aware of problem solving strategies
• more likely to switch strategies
• likely to invent a strategy when the going gets
  tough

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Reading Is

• a process (tool) to help kids comprehend
  content. (content literacy)
• an amalgam of thinking skills.
• a portal to new knowledge and deeper
  understanding.
• a brain-changing experience!

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What does a gifted reader look like?
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An Advanced Reader

• Understands the nuances of language
• Uses multiple strategies to create meaning
• May focus on a single strategy
• Reads beyond their chronological age
• Enjoys reading a wide variety of material
• Is voracious

• Looks at books to solve problems
• Wants to choose books
• Has a wonderful vocabulary
• Reads quickly
• Relates literature to their own lives
• May be an insightful reader

Richards, 2007
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Language Related Abilities

• The ability to retain a large quantity of
  information.
• Advanced comprehension.
• Varied interest and curiosity.
• High levels of language development.
• High levels of verbal ability.

• Unusual capacity to process information.
• Process thoughts at an accelerated pace.
• The ability to synthesize ideas in a
  comprehensive way.
• Ability to see unusual relationships and
  integrate ideas (p. 57)

Clark, 2002
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Gifted Kids Struggle With

• sameness
• repetitive content and practice
• boredom
• --RtI for the Gifted Student by Celia Boswell
  and Vowery Carlile
• H.O.T.S. not M.O.T.S!

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The Trouble with Basals
Baskin, 1998
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Explicit Instruction
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General Instructional Principle

• Instruction needs to be at the students
  knowledge/skill level

Higher Prior Knowledge
Lower Prior Knowledge
Needs Complete, Explicit, Systematic
Can Profit from Implicit, Less Structured
Reschly, 2008
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Phases of Learning
Explicit
Facilitated
Acquisition Fluency Generalization Adaptatio
n
Rahn-Blakeslee 2010
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Intensity is

• of an extreme kind (dictionary.com)

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Intensifying Instruction

• The Big Five
• More Explicit
• More Modeling
• More Systematic
• More Opportunities to Respond
• More Review

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Intensifying Instruction for Gifted

• The Big Five
• More challenging complex text
• More homogeneous grouping
• More choice control
• More higher-order questions/tasks
• More non-fiction informational
• text

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Ascending Levels of Intellectual Demand

• Provide more/fewer examples
• Be more/less explicit/inductive
• Provide simpler/more complex problems and
  applications
• Vary the sophistication level
• Provide lengthier/briefer texts
• Provide more/less text support
• Require more/less independence or collaboration
• Require more/less evidence
• Ask for/provide analogies
• Teach to concepts before/after examples
• Teach principles before/after examples or
  concepts

• Vary the depth
• Adjust the abstraction
• Change the complexity
• Make contexts and examples more or less novel or
  familiar
• Adjust the pace
• Use more/less advanced materials and text
• Provide more/less scaffolding
• Provide frequent/intermittent feedback
• Provide/let students infer related strategies
• Infer concepts from applications and problem
  solving

From The Parallel Curriculum. Tomlinson, et. al.
2002. Corwin Press
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Ask Yourself

• For the content
• To teach a specific reading skill
• To illuminate a larger concept

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Questions About Content

• What is worth thinking about for an extended
  period of time?
• Is there personal meaningfulness for readers in
  the text?
• Is the subject robust and does it have societal
  significance?
• Is the language of the selection rich, varied,
  accurate, precise, complex, and exciting?
• Is the content complex, ambiguous, provocative,
  and/or personally or emotionally challenging?

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Grouping

• ability grouping has minimal effects, either
  positive or negative, on the achievement of
  average or below-average students. Substantial
  evidence shows, however, that ability grouping
  has a positive effect on the achievement of
  gifted students.
• --Kerr, 1991

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Comprehension
Successful Readers Struggling Readers
Continuously monitor reading for understanding. Fail to use meta-cognitive strategies as they read. May not be aware when understanding breaks down.
Link content with their prior knowledge. May lack subject-specific prior knowledge. Do not readily make connections between what they are learning and what they already know.
Use a variety of effective reading strategies before, during, and after reading. Have limited knowledge and use of strategies for gaining information from text.
Set a purpose for reading and adjust their rate and strategy use depending on the text and content. Often do not enjoy reading and lack understanding of the utility of reading.
(Boardman et al., 2008. Adapted from Denton et
al., 2007 Pressley, 2006.)
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Comprehension
Gifted Readers Successful Readers
Use metacognitive strategies when text is sufficiently challenging to require them to slow down their thinking. Continuously monitor reading for understanding.
Link content with their prior knowledge and make connections across disciplines. Link content with their prior knowledge.
Apply effective strategies unconsciously on unchallenging text. Adjust strategies or invent new ones when challenge is present. Use a variety of effective reading strategies before, during, and after reading.
Purpose goals for reading are more sophisticated when content ideas are challenging. Set a purpose for reading and adjust their rate and strategy use depending on the text and content.
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Research SaysFehrenbach, 1991

• Effective Strategies G/T Ave.
• Rereading 118 61
• Inferring 92 37
• Analyzing Structure 42 10
• Predicting 37 10
• Evaluating 28 8
• Connecting to Content 27 1

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Metacognition

• Gifted kids arent consistently better at
  metacognition
• Simple content doesnt require planning,
  monitoring, or evaluating thought processes
  (fix-up strategies)
• Challenging content necessitates practicing
  metacognitive skills
• Metacognition predicts school success better than
  IQ

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Instructional Practice 4 Increase
Collaboration During Reading
Collaboration increases the number of
opportunities struggling readers have to respond.
(Guthrie Humenick, 2004)
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Instructional Practice 4 Increase
Collaboration During Reading
Collaboration with those of like ability
stimulates gifted readers to create more
sophisticated connections and engage in more
complex processes and higher-order thinking.
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The Strategic Spirit

• The tendency to invent and use thinking
  strategies in response to challenging situations.

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So what should we do?

• Determine instructional level
• Be clear on reasons for reading
• Adjust groupings
• Provide alternative texts at higher levels of
  challenge and sophistication
• Let student interests guide choices
• Consider characteristics and needs

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• Mary Schmidt
• Gifted Education Consultant
• Heartland Area Education Agency
• mschmidt_at_aea11.k12.ia.us
• 515.270.0405 ext. 14375
• 800.255.0405 ext. 14375