The document discusses seven cognitive strategies that proficient readers use to interact with and comprehend texts: questioning, think-alouds, using prior knowledge, inferencing, visualizing, determining importance, and synthesizing. It provides explanations and examples of classroom activities for explicitly teaching each strategy to students through modeling, guided practice, and independent application. The goal is to help students improve their reading comprehension by learning how to enact these cognitive processes automatically.

1. Comprehension– that’s what it’s all about: Teaching students HOW to interact with texts across the curriculum Melissa Horn Katie Laver Jody Shaughnessy

2. Proficient readers use a number of different cognitive strategies in the process of interacting with texts and constructing meaning. (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000) Constructing meaning refers to building knowledge and promoting understanding. (Harvey and Goudvis, 2000) What Research Says

6. What is it? Strong readers ask questions before, during, and after reading. Why is it important? The questions clarify our understanding and focus our reading. They also help us to move forward and dig deeper into the text. Questioning

9. Listing and Categorizing questionsQuestioning

11. Wonderbooks

14. Effective way to open a window into students’ reading processes.

15. Different types:

16. Oral Think- Aloud- student reads or listens to you read a text.

17. Written Think-Aloud

18. Why is it important?

19. Helps determine what students do and don’t do as they read. Reveals what strategies they use while reading and ways to improve. Think Aloud

20. Say Something Ask the Author Hand Gestures (DVD) Think Aloud Activities

21. What is it? Helping students recall information from their own experiences to make connections to texts. Why is it important? Making connections from the text to prior knowledge helps integrate new information with what is already known. Uses Prior Knowledge

22. “I Can Tell Because…” Beginning to Make Connections: It Reminds Me of… KWL Plus Extended Reaction Guide Uses Prior Knowledge Activities

24. Inferencing is combining schema and background knowledge with clues provided in the text to form a new idea

25. Why is it important?

26. Inferential comprehension includes a number of skills under one umbrella:

27. Prediction

28. Drawing conclusions

29. Prior knowledge

30. Context clues

31. Figurative language

32. http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/Inferring%20lesson%20plan-grade%203%20from%20Elouise.pdfInferencing

33. Possible Sentences Exchange Compare Writing Probable Passages Story Impressions Inferencing Activities

35. I wonder…

36. What is really going on?

37. What evidence does the author provide to support_____?

38. What clues did the author give that led to your conclusion?

39. How do you know that?

40. How do you think the character feels?

41. How do you combine the clues in the paragraph with what you already know to draw a conclusion?Questions to ask for an Inference Lesson

43. Why is it important?

44. Combining the author’s words with our background knowledge allows students to create mental images that enhance our understanding of the text and bring life to reading.

45. When we visualize, we are inferring, but with mental images rather than words and thoughts; like creating a movie in our mind.Visualizes

46. Talking Drawings IEPC: Imagine, Elaborate, Predict, Confirm Visualizing Activities

49. Reading for Answers to a Specific Question (nonfiction)

50. Think –aloud for fiction

51. Think-Alongs

52. Topic vs. Detail (nonfiction, notetaking)Determining What’s Important –Classroom Strategies

54. Reading Opposing Perspectives (Nonfiction)

55. Open Mind Strategy- students with partners and teacher observesDetermining What’s Important- Classroom Strategies Continued

57. Readers create original insights, perspectives, and understandings by reflecting on texts and merging elements from text and existing schema.

58. Put the pieces together to see them in a new way.

59. Synthesizing can be compared to a journey. The student begins with prior knowledge of the topic, gains new knowledge about that topic from a variety of sources, combines and analyzes this information, and as a final destination makes an evaluation and forms an opinion. Synthesizes

60. Why it’s important? Enhances understanding and better constructs meaning. What students say: “When I synthesize my mind is changing, my ideas are changing, my thinking is changing.” “When you synthesize you say in your head, I used to think this but now I’m thinking this.” Synthesizing

61. http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/synthesizing/syn_lessonplans.html Creating a play Three Little Pigs Miss Pingels Synthesizing Activity GIST Double Journal Entries Writing from a different person’s perspective Synthesizing Activities

62. Melissa.horn@kannapolis.k12.nc.us Katie.laver@kannapolis.k12.nc.us Jody.shaughnessy@kannapolis.k12.nc.us Harvey, S. & Goudvis, A. 2007. Strategies that Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Beers, K. 2003. When Kids Can’t Read: What Teachers Can Do. A Guide for Teachers 6-12. Wood, K. 2001. Literacy Strategies Across the Subject Areas. Oczkus, Lori, 2009. Interactive Think Aloud Questions. http://www.kbumreading.com/index.html Laverk.wikispaces.com login: laverk password: SBBulldogs Bibliography