Strategies for Teaching Students to Extend Comprehension during Research

There are 6 Extending Comprehension Strategies. These 6 broad strategies are used to extend comprehension as students read print, text books, video, web and database materials, CD ROM's and other resource formats. As students research information for various learning purposes they will, with increasing sophistication and independence, learn to use the extending comprehension strategies in the contexts of their subject specific courses. We are not all trained experts in the teaching of reading; however, we can include reading supports to help ensure student reading success and independence in our subjects.

• Visualizing
• Making Connections (between what I know and what I am learning)
• Questioning
• Inferring
• Determining Importance
• Synthesizing

In this short session we will focus on Visualizing and Making Connections when reading to research. We'll also examine the text features of various resource formats. Student knowledge of and capacity to use text features supports their understanding of how texts are organized and how the information content can be accessed.

Visualizing is one of the Big 6 Extending Comprehension strategies. Visualizing is the creation of images in the mind as the student prepares to read,  reads, and processes/recalls what has been read. Visualizing a picture of the meaning of the words and phrases allows the reader to organize the ideas, to see the relationships among the ideas, and to make an affective connection with the ideas. Using visualization in a conscious way and discussing the pictures they create in their heads support increased reader comprehension.

Some students visualize more readily than others. At the junior and senior high school levels, most students still need to learn to improve visualization as they encounter increasingly complex ideas and more information texts.

Opportunities for students to discuss and share their visualizations of texts help them to:

• bring personal prior knowledge to the forefront (Making Connections)
• check their visualizations against the text for discrepancies and detail to gain a more complete understanding
• attach language to their imagery and therefore improve their processing of  the ideas
• connect affectively to what is read (Making Connections)
• assist other students who are less sophisticated users of visualization, to improve.

Graphic organizers assist students to visualize the relationships among ideas. Graphic organizers such as

• concept maps
• outlines
• charts
• numbering
• clustering techniques

organize information, support students to connect the new information to the known, and show the relationships among ideas so that students learn from the content they read.

• What do I expect students to learn as they read this text and how will I let the students know this expectation?.
• What background information, experience or knowledge will students need in order to successfully read and make sense of this text (Making Connections)?
• How will I build, provide or activate this background?
• What challenges will my students encounter with this text and how will I alert them to strategies to cope with this text? For example: concepts, vocabulary, complex charts or graphs, complex sentence structure.
• When students' prior knowledge, understanding and interest have been activated, how will I identify any major conceptual or information gaps they have and which need to be addressed prior to reading. Is there a vital concept, piece of information or word definition which they need in order for the text to "make sense
• How may I group students who are better readers to help their fellow students as they read?
• What explicit teaching or guidance in the use of the text features might students require so that they can be increasingly independent readers in my subject area?

When researching, students need to navigate a text book, or information research resource such as a web site or CD Rom to identify information to answer the research question. Students should be taught to use:

• headings, subheadings, text links to other pages, definitions, animations and sound, pictures, video
• links or buttons to move to other sections of a web site
• cue words, boldface print, colour print, italics, bullets to locate key concepts and ideas
• colour choices for page backgrounds and text (can support or defeat readability)
• fonts
• pictures
• charts
• maps
• tables
• captions and labels
• graphic layout
• linear and non-linear organization of information
• site or CD search engine, index and table of contents

Before Reading

Set a Purpose for Reading

Before students read, it is important to set a purpose for reading. Tell students what you want them to understand as a result of their reading. This allows students to have a focus and supports them to identify the large ideas and the supporting detail; the main idea and the illustration or explication. In research, this purpose is the well-crafted research question.

Assist students to activate their prior knowledge and understanding of and interest in what is to be read. 
Do this prior to reading. For example:

• Lead students through an examination of the the text section to be read.
• What chapter name, headings and subheadings, callouts, bolding, images, graphics and charts are present? 
• What do these text features communicate about the content to be read.
• Learning to habitually consult the features of the text, assists comprehension.
• Ask students what they already know about the topic. (Making Connections)
• Ask students to identify what they think the text might be about. (Making Connections)
• What questions do they have about the topic prior to reading? (Making Connections)

Prior to reading a weekly news magazine story about the possibility of war between the United States and Iraq, a few minutes of discussion to learn what students already know about this issue and what questions and concerns they have can frame a purpose for reading the article.

Consider where the article is published and its author. How might student knowledge of the publication and the author inform them about the possible message? For example:

• What differences might you expect in articles about the possible war in Iraq written by American, British, Canadian, and Iraqi investigative journalists in major weekly news magazines from each country.
• Why is it important for students to consider both the author's knowledge and experience background, his or her news magazine's place on a spectrum of right and left wing editorial policies, or the country of origin of the news magazine?

Examine Text Features Prior to Reading

Prior to reading, scan the article for pictures, graphics, charts, callouts, heading and sub-headings. Spend a few minutes having the students discuss the meaning, context and point of view of these features of the text before they embark on the reading of the article.

Have students make a prediction about the messages in the article based on their initial look at the text features which structure, organize and punctuate the text. What do you think the article might be about?

Reading the Text

As students read, ask them to monitor

• the questions which they ask themselves
• the connections they make to what they already know
• the images they create in their minds as they read
• the predictions they make as they read
• what information they encounter which answers the research question

When students have read the section, have them

• determine whether the text provides information relevant to the research question
• work with a partner to create a concept map of the relevant ideas
• create jot notes of main ideas and details relevant to the research question
• complete a KWL chart 
• otherwise graphically organize the information
• identify new questions raised in the text
• identify any ideas that are still unclear
• compare their understanding and point to the text which supports their understandings

Organizing Information Gathered from the Reading

In pairs, have students use a concept map or other graphic (visual) organizer to identify the key ideas of the text. Give students a research task when reading to focus their attention. For example: 

• In a text section, ask students to identify the X# major sources of ground water pollution in Nova Scotia and Y# consequences over the short and long term. Provide the students with a sample graphic concept map such as the one below. Indicate that this is a starter web. They should add the relevant information to the web. This example was created using the software, Inspiration 6, found on every IEI computer in Nova Scotia schools. An electronic copy of the web template could be given to each pair or small group of students to complete.

Making Connections for Increased Understanding

Text to Self Connections

When students read, they naturally look for connections between the texts they encounter and their own lives, feelings, values and experiences. When students make a personal connection to their lives, the new information becomes personally important and understandable.

Text to Text Connections

When reading, students ask themselves how the new information connects to what they have already learned about the research topic.  They consider how the information connects to and is consistent or inconsistent with their current knowledge about this topic.

Text to World Connections

Often when new topics of research are introduced, we note that the topics and ideas are unfamiliar to students. Some students who have background knowledge have an advantage in that they can connect the new ideas to what they already know. Having students who have a connection share that connection with other students builds all students background and supports them as they begin to develop a connection to the topic. Students with no direct experience of war may begin to connect to that experience empathetically by hearing how a parent or grandparent experienced war. Students with little knowledge of nuclear fission may be able to make a text to world connection when they are helped to consider that nuclear fission is the basis for the explosion of an atomic bomb. Students who make that connection may now be able to see a reason to be interested in why the behavior of atomic particles is meaningful.

Activities

Activity #1 - 15 minutes

Learning to Use Text Features to Support Independent Reading in My Subject Area

1.    In pairs, select a conceptually or otherwise difficult chapter in a text book with which you will work for 15 minutes.

2.    Examine the chapter to identify the text features students can use to help them understand how the chapter is organized and what the chapter is about.

3.    Use the paper KWL (Know, Want to Know, Learned) chart to identify what you think students

• already know about how the text features communicate what the chapter is about and how the chapter is organized.
• want or need to know about the text features of the chapter in order to answer what the chapter is about and the big ideas of the chapter.
• will have learned about the topic to be studied as a result of your guidance in the use of the text features of that chapter prior to assigning the chapter to be read.

4.    How will you explicitly teach your students to use the text features of your text?

Activity #2 - 15 minutes

Visualizing and Making Connections to the Reading Text

1. Select a section of the chapter with which to work.

2. Read the section.

3. Develop a good research question about the section content which will give students a purpose for reading.

4.  Review the section to identify how visualizing could assist learners to understand the section and to answer the question.

5. How might a short whole class or small group discussion of the research question activate prior knowledge in some students and help others to build enough background knowledge so that they can make a connection prior to reading the text?

6. What text to self, text to text, and text to world connections could students make independently with the research question as the only guide?

7. How might a graphic organizer help students to organize and learn what they have read? What graphic organizer would you select and why?

Activity #3 10 minutes

Herding Cats

1. Review the text features of Video.

2. Setting the Purposes for Viewing: RESEARCH QUESTION: How is Herding Cats like the Work of EDS?

3. View the video 1-2 time to gain the overall message of the video.

4.  Make jot notes to record specific occupational health and safety issues experienced by Cat Herders and to list the analogies of Cat Herding to the business of EDS.

i.e.

• What are the Occupational Health and Safety Challenges of Cat Herding?
• What is EDS and what is its business function?

5. Complete the graphic (visual) organizer to answer the research question.

6. Compare and contrast your findings with a peer.
    What similarities and differences did you find in your charts?
    Revise your chart (and view Herding Cats again if necessary) to make it as accurate as possible.