Download - Andrew watson scaffolding reading 2013
BBELT 2013 workshop
Scaffolding Reading Experiences: Easing The Trauma Of Tackling English Literature
Mexico DF, 25th January 2013
Reading Comprehension
Comprehension is the process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning through interaction and involvement with written language.
It consists of three elements:
The text The reader The activity or purpose for reading
Before During After
Why Scaffold Reading?• Assist students in comprehending texts (Graves
and Graves, 2003)
The theory comes from:
• scaffolding (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976)
• zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978)
• notion of success (Pressley, 2006).
• gradual release of responsibility (Campione, 1981; Pearson & Gallagher, 1983)
• What should happen before, during and after reading?
Wikimedia Commons
Before readingIf students understand meaning of critical
vocabulary, comprehension will be enhanced.
• Tier One: Basic words
chair, cats, door
• Tier Two: Words in general use, but not common
waistcoat, curtsey, passage, red-hot poker
• Tier Three: Rare words limited to a specific domain
latitude, longitude, antipodes
Before readingGive student friendly explanations
Dictionary Definition
Relieved – (1) to free wholly from pain, stress, pressure. (2) to lessen or alleviate, as pain or pressure
Student Friendly Explanation
When something that is difficult is over or never happened at all, you feel relieved.
Before Reading
During reading
• Asking students questions during passage reading has been demonstrated to improve comprehension
• Queries, or discussion questions, encourage students to engage with ideas in text to build meaning
• Queries help teachers facilitate group discussion and student-to-student interaction
During reading Why do you think the author used
the following phrase?
‘The Antipathies, I think’ page 5
What is the author trying to say?
Alice began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way,
“Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?” and sometimes, “ Do bats eat cats?” page 6
During ReadingGraphic organizers can improve the reader’s memory for the content.
(Dickson, Simmons, & Kameenui, 1998)
After reading • Teaching students discussion behaviour can
increase their depth of text processing and subsequent comprehension.
Looks Like Sounds Like
Facing peers Using a pleasant voice
Making eye contact Sharing opinions and supporting facts
Participating Sharing positive comments
Listening Staying on topic
After reading
• Writing about what you have read can improve comprehension.
• Expressing ideas in writing helps the reader organize ideas.
e.g., Short Tale / Tall Tale
How would your life be different if you were very tall or very small? What kind of adjustments would you have to make, if it happened to you very suddenly, like Alice?
Finally …
Students should Read, And read, And read, And read, And read some more!