Chapter 8-Reading Informational Text

Kira Kalepp                        Week 10                 ENGED 463

Reading Informational Texts

• Informational Texts provide focused instruction using leveled books for excellent opportunities to expose students to informational texts as stressed by the Common Core State Standards. The CCSS defines “informational text” as a broad category of nonfiction resources, including: biographies; autobiographies; books about history, social studies, science, and the arts; technical texts (including how-to books and procedural books); and literary nonfiction.
• Reading informational text requires many of the same strategies required in reading stories
• Students must accurately and fluently identify the words and access meanings for key vocabulary words and phrases
• Reading informational text requires the same comprehension strategies we use as we read stories
• When we read informational text, we…
  • Call up and connect relevant prior knowledge
  • Predict, question and wonder about what will be learned
  • Visualize and imagine
  • Monitor and use fix-up strategies
  • Summarize the most important ideas
  • Draw conclusions and make inferences
  • Evaluate and make judgements
• Reading informational text requires all these strategies and more
• We need to do close reading so that we learn not only the big ideas but the facts and details that support those big ideas
• Informational text has 3 common text structures
  • Descriptive
  • Sequential
  • Comparative
• They also have special features
  • Maps
  • Photos
  • Charts
  • Graphs
  • Headings
  • Bold words
  • Etc.

Lesson Frameworks for Close Reading and Making Inferences

• Close reading-students are expected to be able to explain what the text says explicitly and to draw inferences from the texts
• Guess Yes or No-focuses students’ attention on important details in informational text by having them predict, before they read ,which statements are true and which are false.  Some of the statements require them to make logical inferences the teacher follows the ‘gradual release of responsibility model’ when teaching comprehension lessons.  The class will watch and listen as she models how to figure out whether the first two statements are true or false.  They will help her figure out the text two, then students will work together to complete the final statements

• Find it or Figure it out-figuring out something based on information from the text is called inferring.  This lesson framework you can use to teach your students how to use the information in the text and their prior knowledge to figure things out

• Lesson frameworks for text structures-comprehending informational text requires all the strategies required for comprehending stories.  Readers must also be able to follow the 3 different text structures commonly found in informational text and use the special features of informational text.  Many informational texts follow a descriptive text structure, where they focus on a single topic and several main ideas.  The next compares and contrasts various members of a category.  Lastly, they organize ideas or events according to the sequence in which they occur.
• Main Idea Trees-informational texts usually have several main ideas about a single topic.  A tree can help children visualize and organize information.  The topic you are learning about is the trunk of the tree and the main ideas about the topic are the large branches and details are the small branches

• Time Lines-help us organize information in which the sequence of events is what is important
• Compare/Contrast bubbles– Similarities and differences between two things can be demonstrated and organized in a Venn diagram or double bubble.  This type of graphic organizer is very versatile and can be used to teach students to compare and contrast two things-setting, characters, themes, versions of same tale and other traits
• Preview-Predict-Confirm-teaches students to use the visuals in an informational text to build vocabulary and to predict what they will read
• Text Feature Scavenger Hunts-learning how to read visuals, pictures, maps, charts, graphs, and how headings, highlighted words, and other informational text features help us is not something most elementary children get excited about.  The questions on the scavenger hunt direct students’ attention to different text features of specific texts’

Classroom Application:  After reading this chapter, I learned that using effective instructional strategies in vocabulary or comprehension can improve students learning of subject matter.  Comprehending informational text requires the same word identification accuracy and fluency, meanings for key words and comprehension strategies required for stories.  Students need to do close reading and draw inferences so that to follow information presented in the three common text structures and use the special features of informational text.   My future instruction can help all children learning how to comprehend informational text by teaching students how to make inferences when reading and use evidence to support them, to organize information when reading texts’ that have several main ideas, how to organize information in which the sequence of events is important/happens, how to organize information when two ideas or topics are being compared and contrasted, focus students’ attention on how to use the visuals and special features of informational test and gradually release the responsibility to provide scaffolding to students so they can eventually work independently.

Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension

• Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension. These seven strategies have research-based evidence for improving text comprehension
  • Monitoring comprehension-Students who are good at monitoring their comprehension know when they understand what they read and when they do not. They have strategies to “fix” problems in their understanding as the problems arise. Research shows that instruction, even in the early grades, can help students become better at monitoring their comprehension.
  • Metacognition-Metacognition can be defined as “thinking about thinking.” Good readers use metacognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading. Before reading, they might clarify their purpose for reading and preview the text. During reading, they might monitor their understanding, adjusting their reading speed to fit the difficulty of the text and “fixing” any comprehension problems they have. After reading, they check their understanding of what they read.
  • Graphic and semantic organizers-Graphic organizers illustrate concepts and relationships between concepts in a text or using diagrams. Graphic organizers are known by different names, such as maps, webs, graphs, charts, frames, or clusters. Regardless of the label, graphic organizers can help readers focus on concepts and how they are related to other concepts. Graphic organizers help students read and understand textbooks and picture books.
  • Answering questions- The Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) encourages students to learn how to answer questions better. Students are asked to indicate whether the information they used to answer questions about the text was textually explicit information (information that was directly stated in the text), textually implicit information (information that was implied in the text), or information entirely from the student’s own background knowledge.
  • Generating questions- By generating questions, students become aware of whether they can answer the questions and if they understand what they are reading. Students learn to ask themselves questions that require them to combine information from different segments of text. For example, students can be taught to ask main idea questions that relate to important information in a text.
  • Recognizing story structure-In story structure instruction, students learn to identify the categories of content (characters, setting, events, problem, resolution). Often, students learn to recognize story structure through the use of story maps. Instruction in story structure improves students’ comprehension.
  • Summarizing-Summarizing requires students to determine what is important in what they are reading and to put it into their own words.

Effective comprehension strategy instruction is explicit

• Research shows that explicit teaching techniques are particularly effective for comprehension strategy instruction. In explicit instruction, teachers tell readers why and when they should use strategies, what strategies to use, and how to apply them. The steps of explicit instruction typically include direct explanation, teacher modeling (“thinking aloud”), guided practice, and application.
  • Direct explanation-The teacher explains to students why the strategy helps comprehension and when to apply the strategy.
  • Modeling-The teacher models, or demonstrates, how to apply the strategy, usually by “thinking aloud” while reading the text that the students are using.
  • Guided practice-The teacher guides and assists students as they learn how and when to apply the strategy.
  • Application-The teacher helps students practice the strategy until they can apply it independently.
• Effective comprehension strategy instruction can be accomplished through cooperative learning, which involves students working together as partners or in small groups on clearly defined tasks. Cooperative learning instruction has been used successfully to teach comprehension strategies. Students work together to understand texts, helping each other learn and apply comprehension strategies. Teachers help students learn to work in groups. Teachers also provide modeling of the comprehension strategies.

Strategies that Promote Comprehension

General instructional activities

• To correspond with a typical reading lesson, comprehension strategy instruction can be organized into a three-part framework, with specific activities used before, during, and after reading.
• Providing instruction such as the following example allows students to see, learn, and use a variety of comprehension strategies as they read. Note, however, that the framework is a general one and represents an array of strategies. All of the strategies in this framework do not have to be used with every text or in every reading situation.

Before Reading

Teachers…

• Motivate students through activities that may increase their interest (book talks, dramatic readings, or displays of art related to the text), making the text relevant to students in some way.
• Activate students’ background knowledge important to the content of the text by discussing what students will read and what they already know about its topic and about the text organization.

Students…

• Establish a purpose for reading.
• Identify and discuss difficult words, phrases, and concepts in the text.
• Preview the text (by surveying the title, illustrations, and unusual text structures) to make predictions about its content.
• Think, talk, and write about the topic of the text

During Reading

Teachers…

• Remind students to use comprehension strategies as they read and to monitor their understanding.
• Ask questions that keep students on track and focus their attention on main ideas and important points in the text.
• Focus attention on parts in a text that require students to make inferences.
• Call on students to summarize key sections or events.
• Encourage students to return to any predictions they have made before reading to see if they are confirmed by the text.

Students…

• Determine and summarize important ideas and supportive details.
• Make connections between and among important ideas in the text.
• Integrate new ideas with existing background knowledge.
• Ask themselves questions about the text.
• Sequence events and ideas in the text.
• Offer interpretations of and responses to the text.
• Check understanding by paraphrasing or restating important and/or difficult sentences and paragraphs.
• Visualize characters, settings, or events in a text

After Reading

Teachers…

• Guide discussion of the reading.
• Ask students to recall and tell in their own words important parts of the text.
• Offer students opportunities to respond to the reading in various ways, including through writing, dramatic play, music, readers’ theatre, videos, debate, or pantomime.

Students…

• Evaluate and discuss the ideas encountered in the text.
• Apply and extend these ideas to other texts and real life situations.
• Summarize what was read by retelling the main ideas.
• Discuss ideas for further reading.

Activities and procedures for use with narrative texts

• Retelling
• Story Maps
• Story Frames
• Direct Reading and Thinking Activity (DRTA)

Activities and procedures for use with expository text

• KWL charts
• Question the Author
• Reciprocal Teaching
• Transactional Strategy Instruction
• The I-Chart Procedure