Week of March 6: "Author Say, I Say" --Guiding Comprehension of Texts

We are entering our second week thinking about guiding comprehension, and I wish we had eight weeks for this extensive topic! Last week Buehl, Alvermann and others outlined the idea of text frames, and how each content discipline uses them in both informational and narrative texts. We learned that with explicit instruction, particularly how we pay attention to the language of the text, we can help students use these “mental frameworks” to frame their purposes for reading, such as,

“I’m reading this text to compare and contrast types of governments”,

as well as the kinds of questions they need to be asking, such as,

“How do they differ in giving power to the people? Why? What is the author trying to say about governing power, its strengths and its weaknesses?"

Using a frame to focus their reading will help them question and understand the authors’ intentions, as well as locate important key words (differs, contrasts, comparable) instead of wandering about looking for “the point” of the text.

 

One of the questions that came up was how we can introduce these common frames of thinking (like compare and contrast) to emergent and developing readers through objects, experiences like flower-arranging, and trade picture books and other accessible materials-some of you seemed worried about the Venn Diagram in the article as a dependable option. Our presenters in KA gave us some great choices, and we can certainly bring in more over the next few weeks if you need ideas. In our KB class we looked at Buehl's "problematic situations" with the Hoot literature study, where student moves from discovering problem in a narrative to then moving on and researching the problem of specific habitat endangerment. This is where motivation helps them over the hump towards more difficult research!

 
This week, Buehl’s Chapter 4 builds further upon these MENTAL FRAMEWORKS we find in texts, arguing that teachers need to take time to analyze instructional texts (along with essential knowledge for the SOLS) to determine where and how the central concepts are laid out, as well as what “ factlets” and supportive (but secondary) language might be making it hard to prioritize and comprehend the most important ideas.

 

Buehl’s discussion of essential questions that focus on the bigger ideas, generalizations and conclusions will help keep students from getting mired in detail. Next Week (Questioning / Inquiry Week) you will read an additional handout by Wiggins and McTighe (2005, mentioned by Buehl on page 32) to help you distinguish Essential Questions from other types, such as literal, “factlet “ questions-- “Where did Abraham Lincoln get shot?” with questions such as “Why was President Lincoln’s role so important to our legacy as a democracy? The latter focus on essential knowledge as well as critical thinking processes like synthesizing and inferencing. To use Buehl’s metaphor, we are trying to guide them through the forest without getting stuck at every little sapling and thus, losing our way. Because essential questions are “arguable”,rather than merely a "yes or no" answer, conversation (involving connections, inferences, summary of main point, synthesis toward new ideas, more questioning) is required to participate in the inquiry.

 
Organizing our discussion about the upcoming assignment, the Content Inquiry, around Buehl’s pyramid structure will help us all think about the relationship between comprehension processes like inference and synthesis of different perspectives so that we can discover“the gist”, and how reading logs (double entry, interactive, Author Say I Say, Say Something!”) and other study strategies help to organize student responses to your content texts. I would even recommend using the pyramid structure to set up your inquiry topic as you think about the big ideas / essential knowledge you want to highlight, and then what short term, background knowledge can be offered by your resources to help you get at those big ideas.


Our peer presenters will help us understand the Subtext Strategy as a dramatic, multimodal way to guide students in making more intimate connections with the "hidden knowledge" of a text in ways that will extend the working memory and keep texts alive. What I find most compelling about this strategy is that empathy, a type of comprehension that had lost its footing in SOL-based teaching, is beginning to make a comeback.

Have a great week! Stephanie


GLOSSARY:

Hierarchy of Knowledge: (Buehl, 31) This template references Bloome's Taxonomy of higher order thinking tiers, beginning with literal ("factlet")searching or questioning (who tried to eat the three little pigs?) on up through determining purpose, to synthesis and evaluation of big ideas(how is the three little pigs a reflection on childhood storytelling, or why is this story considered a classic when others fade away?)

Working Memory: (Sousa, 2005) What we call the part of the memory that holds short-term information, to be flushed and ready for more immediate needs.

Essential Questions vs Leading/Guiding Questions: (Buehl, 33) Whereas leading questions are teacher directed towards a set answer/ clue, essential questions provide a larger context for student inquiry and independent research. Essential questions are not yes or no, they offer possibility of "argument" (thus, higher order thinking) AND they can provide the teacher with a way to frame an entire unit for both frontloading, guiding, and reflecting on comprehension of concepts.

FACT Pyramids: (Buehl, 33) A great tool for organizing learning priorities and opportunities (for teachers and students, with teachers and students!) as teachers determine "shortcomings" in resources, and help students sift through text for what is essential (lasting and meaningful, like causes, effects, impact/consequences), what is short term info we might need to secure understanding of essential knowledge, and what is background detail that provides "depth" but isn't necessary on its own. These are often good to develop before students do something like an I-Chart (Buehl, 101), if they are determining research topics, questions around a unit inquiry.