Mora, 

 

I also used to think that passages on tests were really boring. But I think
that part of the problem is that on a test, the passage is disconnected from
any kind of experience or meaning, outside of testing, which is boring. 

 

Much of the meaning that we draw from reading is because of the context or
purpose. When reading for pleasure, we select texts that are interesting to
us, when we read for information, we have a goal and choose texts that we
believe will help us to reach that goal. Teachers select texts that meet
some instructional goal, so there is a meaningful context for them (anyway,
don't students always complain that texts they read in class are boring?). 

 

Passages on tests are also selected to be equally accessible to all test
takers, so (this is really just a wild guess) perhaps they lose some of our
interest as more controversial passages are rejected. 

 

I would encourage test takers to do one of 2 things: Either try to find the
meaning in the text for them- think about why this text was selected for the
text or how it can connect to their own lives. Or forget about boring, but
aim to pass the test, using the text to help them find the answers to the
questions that follow.

 

Molly Elkins
Literacy Specialist
Douglas County Libraries
Phillip S. Miller Library
  100 S. Wilcox Street
  Castle Rock CO 80104
  Map
<http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=addr
ess&searchtype=address&cat=&address=100%20S%20Wilcox%20St&city=Castle%20Rock
&state=CO&zipcode=80104%2d1911&search=Get%2bMap> 
Direct Phone: (303)688-7646

Alt Phone: (303) 791-READ

Fax: (303) 688-7655
Email: melkins at dclibraries.org
Web: www.DouglasCountyLibraries.org <http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/>


  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Charlotte Learning
Center
Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 9:35 AM
To: 'The Family Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1060] Re: Story Grammar and Expository Structure

 

Gail,

Thanks. That ERIC article was informative. 

I have another question: I have heard students ask, "Why are the passages on
tests so boring?"  What does an instructor do to help?

 

Thanks again,

Mora 

 

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Gail Price
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2008 10:22 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1053] Story Grammar and Expository Structure

 

Mora,

 

I certainly am not an expert on either story grammar or expository
structure, but I will give you my thoughts and perhaps some other
subscribers will jump in and correct me or offer further explanation.
Perhaps there are some who will share their personal experiences in working
with these ideas with their students. 

 

 

I think story grammar is often used to refer to narrative story
structure-those elements a reader can expect to find in a story. Narrative
story structure would include many types of stories, i.e., fiction, fairy
tales, mysteries, plays, and real life adventures.

 

The following explanation of story grammar comes from an ERIC Digest
article, "Strategic Processing of Text: Improving Reading Comprehension of
Students with Learning Disabilities," by Joanna P. Williams. 

 

"Probably the most effective of strategies has been teaching story grammar
to use as an organizational guide when reading. Story grammar refers to the
principal components of a story: main character, action, and outcome. This
technique has been applied by using story maps and by asking generic
questions based on story grammar. It has also been used to move beyond the
plot level of stories to teach students with disabilities to identify story
themes, a more abstract comprehension level than is typically taught to
students with learning disabilities."

 

You can access the article at
http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-4/reading.html

 

Expository structure has to do more with informational texts, such as
content area material, i.e., science and social studies. It would involve
how the text is organized to help readers identify key ideas and make
connections between ideas. This is where using skills, such as reading
headings and subheadings, reading graphic information, and understanding
sequence, comparing and contrasting and classification would come in handy.

The idea is that understanding the structure of stories or expository text
increase comprehension. 

Mora and I would love to hear from others.

 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

 

Join us for the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy!
"Literacy Grows Families and Communities"
March 30, 31, & April 1, 2008-Louisville, KY
Register online at www.famlit.org/conference

 

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Charlotte Learning
Center
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 1:06 PM
To: 'The Family Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1050] Re: Comprehension
MonitoringStrategiesDiscussion

 

When instructors list under comprehension strategies "work with story
grammar or expository structure", I am interested to know more in detail. I
am doing a seminar on using story and test structure and would love to hear
from practitioners. 

Mora Doherty

Charlotte Learning Center

 

 

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Gail Price
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 3:24 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1049] Re:Comprehension Monitoring
StrategiesDiscussion

 

The following is posted on behalf of Molly Elkins. 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

 

Join us for the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy!
"Literacy Grows Families and Communities"
March 30, 31, & April 1, 2008-Louisville, KY
Register online at www.famlit.org/conference

 

  _____  

From: Molly Elkins [mailto:melkins at dclibraries.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 2:05 PM
To: 'The Family Literacy Discussion List'
Subject: RE: [FamilyLiteracy 1009] Re:Comprehension Monitoring Strategies
Discussion

 

In our classrooms we used to use what we called metacognitive thinking
strategies, in other words, thinking about thinking. The goal of our
activity was to make readers aware of the conversation they were having in
their head while they were reading (or perhaps to encourage them to have the
conversation in their head at all). These were the strategies: 

Visualizing 

Questioning 

Paraphrasing

Evaluating 

Summarizing 

Predicting

Connecting text to self 

Connecting text to world 

Connecting text to text

 

First, as teachers, we would model our thinking as we read aloud. Then for
fun, we would put a little sticky note in the text (since we couldn't make
marginalia in the text). Next, we would read aloud a text with the class,
and encourage students to model their thinking as well. Finally, learners
could fill the texts with their own little sticky notes. 

 

Molly Elkins
Literacy Specialist
Douglas County Libraries
Phillip S. Miller Library
  100 S. Wilcox Street
  Castle Rock CO 80104
  Map
<http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&formtype=addr
ess&searchtype=address&cat=&address=100%20S%20Wilcox%20St&city=Castle%20Rock
&state=CO&zipcode=80104%2d1911&search=Get%2bMap> 
Phone: (303)791-READ 

Fax: (303) 688-7655
Email: melkins at dclibraries.org
Web: www.DouglasCountyLibraries.org <http://www.douglascountylibraries.org/>


  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of jalsails at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 12:52 PM
To: familyliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1009] Re:
ComprehensionMonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

 

Susan,

According to our research (using the CORI during 10 minute observations) in
elementary school classrooms, 3rd grade teachers who do address
comprehension are four times (on the average) more likely to direct students
to practice comprehension strategies than to model it. 

I agree with you that it's hard to explicitly model comprehension strategies
with large groups of adults who have diverse reading abilities. It's a
stellar strategy for tutoring and working with small groups of beginning
(adult) readers.

Jeri Levesque, Ed.D.
Evaluator, LIFT
St. Louis, MO

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan McShane <smcshane at famlit.org>
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List <familyliteracy at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 1:18 pm
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1008] Re:
ComprehensionMonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

That's interesting Jeri. One of the things we've found we really have to hit
hard is the need for explicit instruction. Most often in adult education
settings, that's not done, and it can be hard to manage in a multi-level
group, especially when people are also studying math and writing, etc. The
researchers I worked with in writing the book suggested that a teacher could
introduce a strategy to the whole group and then have them practice with
different materials at their own reading levels. I agree it's a good idea,
but I think it's easier said than done in some classrooms and programs.

 

What do you think, Jeri? And can we hear from others about their experiences
in managing comprehension-monitoring instruction? And how about that idea of
modeling your own strategies by reading and thinking aloud? 

 

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
<mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov?> ] On Behalf Of jalsails at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 1:35 PM
To: familyliteracy at nifl.gov
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1005] Re:
ComprehensionMonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

 

Susan,

Good point about teachers explicitly modeling their comprehension strategies
while reading with students. We use an instrument called the Classroom
Observation of Reading Instruction (CORI) <Levesque & Drew> to document
direct and explicit instruction across the five essential reading
constructs. For comprehension instruction (Teacher models/demonstrates),
during a ten minute observation we track the number of times a teacher
describes and names a specific comprehension strategy and expounds on its
value. The strategies we tract are

*	Prereading comprehension strategies
*	Describing comprehension strategies

*	retelling
*	sequencing
*	drawing conclusions
*	predicting
*	text connection (self, world, other text)
*	summarizing

*	generating/answering own question
*	re-reading for meaning
*	confirming/rejecting predictions

*	work with story grammar or expository structure

The parallel column of the CORI tracks: Teacher Directs Students to
Practice: literal recall of text, using context clues (pictures, format etc)
and all the other ones above.

Jeri Levesque, Ed.D.
Evaluator, LIFT
St. Louis, MO

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Susan McShane <smcshane at famlit.org>
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List <familyliteracy at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thu, 7 Feb 2008 11:02 am
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1004] Re: Comprehension Monitoring Strategies
Discussion Begins Today

Thank you, Aaron, for sharing those experiences. Stopping and
restating/summarizing is among the research-based monitoring strategies.
Asking yourself questions is another. Has anyone else used these approaches?


 

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov
<mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov?> ] On Behalf Of Kohring, Aaron M
Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2008 11:04 AM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 1002]
Re:ComprehensionMonitoringStrategiesDiscussionBegins Today

 

Susan,

 

I have experienced what you mention working with some students in the past-
where we discovered their decoding/word analysis skills (for the level of
text we were using) had improved to the point where their oral fluency was
good.  But they had very little comprehension of what they had just read.
So we introduced & taught students to use a comprehension strategy-
summarization, for example- and asked them to stop after a few sentences or
a paragraph and summarize what they had read.  Later, we'd add another
strategy- such as a graphic organizer- and practice using that as a
comprehension strategy.

 

Another great activity was to extend the question generating/answering
strategies for comprehension and have students do this themselves in pairs
or groups.

Aaron

 

 

Aaron Kohring

Research Associate

UT Center for Literacy Studies

600 Henley St, Ste 312

Knoxville, TN 37996-4135 

Ph: 865-974-4258

Main: 865-974-4109

Fax: 865-974-3857

akohring at utk.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gail J. Price

Multimedia Specialist

National Center for Family Literacy

325 W. Main Street, Suite 300

Louisville, KY 40202

gprice at famlit.org

502 584-1133, ext. 112

 

 

Join us for the 17th Annual National Conference on Family Literacy!
"Literacy Grows Families and Communities"
March 30, 31, & April 1, 2008-Louisville, KY
Register online at www.famlit.org/conference

 

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