Reading Strategies for High School Students: A Review of the Literature

1
Reading Strategies for High School StudentsA
Review of the Literature

• Bill Muth
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium
• Policy Planning Council Meeting
• Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

2
National Assessment of Educational
ProgressVirginia 8TH Grade Reading
3
Performance of NAEP Reporting Groups Virginia
2007 -- 8th Grade Reading
Group Pop Ave Score Below Basic Basic Proficient Advanced
Male 49 262 26 74 28 2
Female 51 272 16 84 39 4
White 61 273 15 85 40 4
Black 26 252 36 64 16 --
Hispanic 6 258 33 67 25 3
Asian/Pacific 5 280 10 90 54 5
4
proficient readers

• fluent
• deep and broad vocabularies
• read strategically
• self-directed and engaged

5
what works
Kamil et al. (2008)

• explicit instruction vocabulary
• explicit instruction comprehension strategies
• extended discussions of text
• student engagement
• intensive interventions for struggling readers

6
explicit vocabulary instruction

• 3,000 new words per year, grades 3-12
• extensive reading, but
• direct instruction
• new words
• Tier 1,2,3
• How to learn words independently
• ? word consciousness

7
explicit vocabulary instruction

• multiple exposures in multiple contexts
• strategies
• semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping
• games
• running records
• word-rich classrooms
• dictionaries, thesauruses, word walls, crossword
  puzzles, Scrabble and other word games,
  literature, poetry books, and word-play and joke
  books

8
direct instruction of comprehension strategies

• active comprehension monitoring fix-up
  strategies
• graphic and semantic organizers story maps
• question generation
• summarization and paraphrasing
• selective rereading

9
direct instruction of comprehension strategies

• content reading strategies
• win-win solutions
• boost discipline learning and general reading
• explicit instruction
• demonstrations (e.g., teacher think-alouds)
• Discussion
• professional development support.

10
extended discussion of text

• engage students in
• predicting
• questioning
• clarifying
• summarizing
• interpreting
• connecting to prior learning
• examples
• anticipation Guides
• directed reading and thinking activities
• reciprocal teaching

11
extended discussion of text

• students scaffold each other
• model literate thinking
• ? Comprehension of difficult text
• adjustments to curriculum
• tension between depth and breadth

12
motivation and engagement

• interesting and relevant content
• goals tied to big picture
• being challenged (academic press)
• examples
• range of choice and autonomy
• hands-on learning experiences
• interesting and accessible tests
• collaboration through discussions and assignments.

13
motivation and engagement

• understanding the potential of non-canonical
  literacies
• canon of methods
• ELLs funds of knowledge
• girls portrayed in traditional pop culture
• African American boys and masculinity
• digital literacies

14
intensive interventions

• struggling readers triaged
• those with word-level proficiency
• content area reading support for vocabulary,
  fluency and comprehension.
• those lacking word-level proficiency
• specialized intensive help
• if significantly behind, (e.g., 2 years)
• system approach such as Response to Intervention

15
intensive interventions

• all learners, including ELLs and struggling
  readers,
• benefit from
• formative assessment
• differentiated instruction

16
formative assessment differentiated instruction

• rich questioning discussion to uncover student
  thinking
• comment-only marking
• sharing (co-constructing) scoring and grading
  criteria
• ? opportunities for peer- and self-assessment.
• group review of outcomes from tests.

17
formative assessment differentiated instruction

• differentiation starts with accurate assessment
• FA starts with clear knowledge of standards
  tasks.
• classroom-based FA
• unpack State standards
• butsome literacy standards point to competencies
  that have less well-developed theory of task
• e.g., describe the relationship between theme,
  setting, and character

18
formative assessment differentiated instruction

• differentiation starts with accurate assessment
• FA starts with clear knowledge of standards
  tasks.
• intervention classrooms
• targeting word-level skills (e.g., phonics)
• maintain meaningful purposes for reading
• NAEP is insensitive to instructional needs of
  struggling readers
• NAEP treats literacy as general skill, not
  content specific

19
formative assessment differentiated instruction

• challenges changing attitudes and instructional
  practices
• tensions between teachers and administrators
• educators attitudes beliefs about indicators
  of student success
• teachers need concrete FA examples
• assessment exemplars
• discussion questions
• think alouds
• text sets
• student-constructed rubrics

20
other findings

• integrate SOLs essential knowledge with
  instruction
• buy-in at all levels
• teachers focus on no more than 2-4 strategies
• content teachers need incentives PD
• content teachers need to know what is and is not
  expected of them
• each discipline needs to define its own essential
  literacy skills.

21
conclusions

• fostering
• deep knowledge of the tasks
• deep understanding of our students
• making connections between the two