Thursday, September 23, 2010

Reading Comprehension: Building Reading Comprehension Strategies

Reading Comprehension Success Using Academic Vocabulary

Reading comprehension and literacy is developed by connecting meaning of
graphemes, characters, signs, or glyphs to auditory or visual meaning. Students
in countries with character-based language do not have the ability to use
alphabetics or phonemics to bridge the reading gap and are reliant on
developing sight reading ability without phonemic awareness. The west
may have placed undue weight and reliance on teaching alphabetics and
may have hindered the process of reading or made it confusing for
some early readers.

The Secret To Building Reading Comprehension Fast

Learn the 1000-2000 most used words or characters using sight methods.
Learn the 200 most used sayings, metaphors, expressions, cognates, and phrases.
Learn the words and phrase by sight, sound and articulation through repetition.

Reading Boot Camp is used during the first 20 days of school to learn the
basics of English literacy. We spend 120 hours reading, singing, articulating,
writing, and focusing on building the foundations in word and phrase knowledge.
The Program is fast, rigorous, challenging, and fun.

My dyslexia was so severe as a child I never mastered alphabetics and
had to learn English as a character based language. The methods that
I mastered as a struggling reader are the foundations of Reading Boot Camp.
I teach reading and English exactly like a charterer based language like Chinese
or Japanese. We make meaning from the whole word not the syllables or
phonemes. Students map on phonemic rules through the repetition of
the lessons and songs.

Reading Comprehension Results: 20 Days!

Students growth, 31% POINTS in reading(NWEA MAP), Boot Camp ran longer than
normal, twenty five days because I had more students on IEPs and English Language
Learners than last year and the behavior was far from ready for instruction. The class 
is know 74% at or above the mean in reading in all domains, and 87% of students are




reading at grade level in the domain on reading comprehension (NWEA MAP)! 



Reading Boot Camp Overview

Purposes 1) Launch students into the rigorous and intensive
reading and writing program that is taught throughout the year:
 2) Accelerate the closure of the academic achievement
 gap in lowest quartile students; and 3) Teach the students
 school etiquette, classroom manners, discipline, responsibility
 and a foundations in classic children’s literature...

The 20 Day Intervention Is Fast, Rigorous, Enriching, and Fun.

Quick Look

Reading Vocabulary Word Walls
Academic Vocabulary Word Walls
Poetry Reading
Buddy Reading
Music and Lyrics
Chapter Books
Whiteboard E-books and Librivox Audio Books
Fluency Drills
Comprehension Building Games
American Juku
Recitation
Peer Tutoring
Fireside Book Club
Reading Master By Grade Competition
Reading Journals


World Class Education

Students and parents may not expect much from public school these
days, my class is the exception, studensts receive a world class
college preparatory experience from the rigorous demanding
curriculum to the high expectations of meticulous manners and
politeness.

Old School Decorum


We learn old school social etiquette and manners as soon as students
enter the class. We start with students standing for visiting dignitaries
(parents or teachers), cordial professor and student salutations, and
professor-student colloquy. Students are looking for direction and
purpose in life and learning social etiquette, manners, and protocol
give them a sense of honor and virtue. Sorry for the multisyllabic
verbiage but we are talking old school decorum. Students who
shine and take to the superior manners are given the job of class
prefect to help students acquire needed politeness.

Teach students school etiquette, classroom manners, discipline
and responsibility during literacy instruction by literary examples
and class modeling. Students begin reading manors and etiquette
stories within minutes of entering class the first day. They
learn very quickly that the purpose of school is reading,
writing, character, manners, and Literacy. The first four
weeks are dedicated to teaching the reading and writing process
and studenting skills needed for success. We select an award--winning,
high-- interest book for the entire class, usually one grade above
what is normally taught, to insure all students are challenged. Begin
by pairing a high-quartile student with a low-quartile student
( sometimes the groups must include three or four students to
ensure a high performing student in every group). The class is
introduced to the book and given instruction on the process of
journaling.  The teacher reads the first two pages, stopping to
show the students the Metacognition of reading and the analysis
that competent readers demonstrate. Students always have a
book in hand when the teacher  is reading, to ensure that students
see and hear the words. Students are never read to. They must
have the book to read along with the teacher or their partners.
The teacher rereads the two pages to the class, then to identify and
review interesting vocabulary, and to explain complex passages.
Student volunteers are asked to follow the teacher’s example
and read and then reread with comprehension checks. The
paired students are always looking to see if their partners
are on task and following the reading. The entire chapter is read and
reread in this exemplar by the class and teacher before students are
dismissed to follow the teacher’s example in their paired reading groups.

Results!

Reading and Language Percentile Growth:
READING(from 31.7% to 67.9%),
LANGUAGE (from 38.8% to 72.3%),
and stanine growth READING (3.8 stanines), 
and stanine growth LANGUAGE(3.5 stanines). 
This is for a population where 86% of the students 
were SLL, SEI, LD, and at-risk.

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