Module Three Activity

Comprehension Vocabulary Grades 3 - 5

 http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/case_studies/ICS-007.pdf

       The first strategy is direct instruction.  In direct instruction the teacher teaches the directly teaches the pronunciation and vocabulary of new words in a highly organized manner.  The teacher also directly teaches comprehension strategies in an organized manner.  This strategy has been proven effective when teaching students with disabilities.

A Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA) is a strategy that links a student’s prior knowledge with new information and new words by showing the relationships between words in a specific topic.

A metacognitive strategy is one that assists students in the monitoring of their own learning and by asking themselves questions as they read a passage.  The purpose of this instruction is to provide students with metacognitive strategies they can use on their own. 

2.       For direct instruction Antonio’s teacher could pre-teach vocabulary before the story is read. This would great help Antonio to memorize his vocabulary words because you are constantly reviewing and working with them.  He will also have examples and non-examples and have to recite the definition of the words back to his teacher giving him repeated exposure to the definition.   An easy way she can do this is state the definition of the word and then have students repeat the definition after her.  Then provide the student with an example and a non-example.  The teacher will then review the new words that are learned along with the ones that are already learned.  To help students learn the new words the teacher can use a graphic organizer like the one on page 9 of http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/case_studies/ICS-007.pdf.

For SFA Antonio’s teacher can use an SFA Grid which is a seven step process.  The first step is to select a category you will be teaching about such as types of rocks.  The students then list three or four words that are related to the category down the left side of the grid.  For our rock category students may have chosen words such as granite, sandstone, pumice, or shale.  Students then have to list three or more features across the top of the grid.  As students are writing this discuss it with them and encourage them to add other features.  Features for our grid might include igneous, metamorphic, or sedimentary.  When students have finished creating their grid they are going to use a “+” if the word has that feature, a “-“if the word does not have that feature, and a “?” if they are not sure of the relationship between the objects and features to complete their grids.  Students are encouraged to suggest additional words and features as they go.  When students are finished they have the grid to discuss and see the relationships of the words.  Antonio’s teacher could use this strategy to help him specifically because it would help to expand his vocabulary because he could see the relationships between words in an easy to see format.

A metacognitive strategy that Antonio’s teacher can implement to help both Antonio and his classmates is POSSE (Predict, Organize, Search, Summarize, and Evaluate).  This strategy is able to be used with students who are in fourth grade or higher.   The object and predict steps are done by the teacher before the students read.  In the predict section students are cued by saying “I predict that…..” or “I’m remembering…..”. In the organize stage students are organizing their thoughts by saying “I think one category may be…..” and making a semantic map.  During the search and summarize phases a group leader is chosen and a section of the passage is read out loud and added to the new semantic map under search.   At this time the leader asks questions to generate supporting details.  In the evaluation section of the strategy students are comparing, clarifying, and predicting.  They are comparing the map under “Organizing your thoughts” to the map under the “summarize phase” and students are clarifying any new vocabulary or anything that is unclear under the section “does anything need to be clarified”.  Students then predict what will happen next.   

This will help Antonio because it allows him to work in a group setting to work out the meanings of the unknown words. Antonio can start off by predicting what he might think the word means and then follow the steps of the strategy to figure out what the word means. This strategy also makes him think through and analyze the unknown things such as the words he is unfamiliar with.  He can then put down his thoughts about the word from looking at context clues in the sentence or surrounding sentences of the word and come up with his own definition of what the word might mean. 

3.       The two strategies that would greatly benefit Pablo in his learning are graphic organizers and metacognitive strategies.  Graphic organizers are visual displays that help the students to organize their understanding of words or written passages.  The types of graphic organizers that would help Pablo in his education are story maps and a story matrix.  A story map is a simple visual diagram used to help students in organizing and recalling important story elements.  A story matrix is for when students are reading chapter books and this helps them to link their comprehension of the story between all of the chapters.

4.       Literal comprehension is identifying facts from a passage.  Evaluative comprehension is when a student can make judgments about the passages content.  Inferential comprehension shows that a student understands how the passage’s content relates to other passages or to other situations.

5.       The graphic organizers that Pablo will use to start out in the beginning are the simple story map of the components of a story.  This will help him to organize all of his thoughts and see how a story is laid out.  He will easily be able to see the characters in a story, the setting, the problem, the action, the outcome, and the prediction he made before reading the story.  With help from his teachers Pablo will be able to fill out the map after reading the story and then be able to review it as he re-reading the story to help build his skills in understanding the main components of a passage.  As he gains strength in this area he can use the story matrix for chapter books; but not until he is ready for this next big step.

The metacognitive strategies that will help Pablo paraphrasing.  Paraphrasing helps students recall the main idea and details of a passage they have read. Students use the mnemonic RAP which includes: Read paragraph by self, Ask yourself what are the main idea(s) and details, and Put the main ideas and details in your words.  If students did not understand what they read the first time they go back and read the paragraph again and try to answer the two questions when they have finished.   This would greatly help Pablo because he will be reading the passage and asking himself questions as he is reading.  If he can see he does not understand what he has read he will go back and read it again.  This strategy also helps to work on his literal and evaluative comprehension skills.

6.       I would address Jose’s goal of when given a reading passage on his instructional level he will answer inferential and evaluative comprehension questions first.  My reasoning behind this is that the scenario states that Jose has difficulty answering questions that require reasoning and total understanding of the story.   If he can get help in understanding what he is reading his grade in reading will most likely improve.  Having Jose understand what he is reading is more important than having him understand the parts to a story. 

7.       The strategy I would teach Jose for learning to use inferential and evaluative questions is direct instruction because it is highly structured and does not allow him to personalize the content he is reading.  The teacher can show him specifically teach him to how to infer and evaluate what he is reading.  The teacher can also teach him to use a graphic organizer that has the evaluative and infer part already on it where Jose has to fill it in.

The second strategy I would have Jose do is RAP and a story map for recalling main story elements.   I will have Jose use RAP because it makes him focus on what he is reading and ask questions as he is reading that will help him with learning to evaluate and infer what he is reading as well as figuring out what the main story elements of a story are.  When Jose is asking himself questions after each paragraph such as what did I just read?, was this part of the problem of the story?, and other questions he will gain understanding of how the elements of story fit together and what they are.  Before Jose does the strategy by himself the teacher will give him many examples and work with him together with the story maps so he can get the concept down.  

8.       Direct instruction can assist Jacob in reaching his goal because the teacher is directly teaching what the word is and what the word means.  There is no deviation from this and the teacher models exactly what the students are to be learning.  This could greatly help Jacob because the model could help him how to find meaning of the words in the context of what he is reading.  Direct instruction while teaching new material such as new vocabulary words is also reviewing old material that was already learned so students keep getting exposure to it.   A graphic organizer such as the “Word in Context” graphic organizer sheet may help Jacob in understanding the meaning of words.

Semantic Feature Analysis would greatly help Jacob in learning new vocabulary words because using this strategy he can link his new learned vocabulary words to his previous knowledge to help him learn what the words mean.   An activity for Jacob and his class to help learn vocabulary words is an SFA grid.  This allows the students to see relationships among words.

9.       One way I would involve Jacob’s parents is by first explaining to them what we are doing in class to help learn our vocabulary words each week.  I would explain specific strategies I am working with Jacob on such as direct instruction and SFA and explain each to the parents and how this would be likely to help him.   To help Jacob his parents can review any of the vocabulary work we have done that day and anything done previously.  Perhaps when reviewing vocabulary make a game out of it like a crossword puzzle or even a memory match game.  Since Jacob loves sports perhaps come up with a sports game together you create to practice your vocabulary words.  The goal is for him to have learn vocabulary and have fun doing it.  If he is having fun he will not even realize he is learning.

10.   Goal one:  When given new vocabulary Beth will be able to define it and use it in a sentence.

Goal two:  Given a reading passage on her instructional level Beth will be able to be able answer evaluative questions.

Goal three: Given a reading passage on her instruction level Beth will be able to answer inferential questions.

11.   The strategy I am using for Beth to address goal one is direct instruction for to improve her vocabulary skills.   The benefits of using this strategy are that the teacher specifically teaches the vocabulary to the students by saying the word and definition and having the students repeat it back.  There is nothing else but the vocabulary terms being learned.  The teacher may use flash cards or a graphic organizer to help Beth sort out the definitions of the words.   Another benefit is that since Beth listens and participates in oral reading activities she will catch on to this when it is done orally.

To address goals two and three I am using a metacognitive strategy. Since Beth listens well during reading the teacher can model specifically how to ask questions of oneself as you are reading using specific strategies such as self-questioning and paraphrasing what was read.   This would benefit Beth because when she is using these strategies she is focused on asking herself questions about the story such as what are the main ideas, why am I studying this passage, and being forced to put the passage into her own words. 

12.   To help with her vocabulary at home I would suggest practicing with her parents in a game of memory each night.  They make up the cards at the beginning of the week and then play a game of memory together where they have to match the definition card to the vocabulary word.  Perhaps the parents can come up with a small reward for Beth if she completes the game successfully in a certain amount of time. 

A hands on activity that will her with her reading comprehension is reading a story with a partner or small group and taking turns paraphrasing the story and asking each other inferential or evaluative questions about the story.  When students are done then can share with the rest of the class what they have learned.