Setting up your classroom and students for success
"What will effective comprehension strategies/lessons look like in your classroom?"
VCOP WALL
The aim of the VCOP program:
-Vocabulary: Unfamiliar/WOW words added by students and the definitions written on the back of each word along with who found that word and then added to the VCOP wall
-Connectives: Different connectors found in reading that can be helpful when doing writing tasks
-Openers: A variety of different ways to open a sentence
-Punctuation: Looking at punctuation in reading and writing, what we use and why, and having a punctuation pyramid on the wall so students can refer to if needed
The aim of the VCOP program:
- To provide differentiated lessons and activities to help increase enthusiasm and raise standards in writing, particularly in boys.
- To provide a simple, sequential
approach, that supports teachers and students in developing higher level writing skills. - To help teachers and students create specific and meaningful writing goals.
- To develop the fundamental skills of writing, by going ‘back to basics’
- To support teachers and coordinators in monitoring progress towards attainment of targets.
- To provide a criterion-referenced
framework for the assessment of writing, in line with the Australian National Curriculum. - To advise on processes to standardise assessments of attainment.
(www.vcop.com.au)
-Vocabulary: Unfamiliar/WOW words added by students and the definitions written on the back of each word along with who found that word and then added to the VCOP wall
-Connectives: Different connectors found in reading that can be helpful when doing writing tasks
-Openers: A variety of different ways to open a sentence
-Punctuation: Looking at punctuation in reading and writing, what we use and why, and having a punctuation pyramid on the wall so students can refer to if needed
CAFE reading literacy program
The CAFÉ literacy program (Boushey & Moser, 2014) is an effective teaching tool that aims to improve comprehension skills, accuracy, fluency, and to expand vocabulary. This program serves as an effective way to ‘support teachers and students from all over the world’ (Boushey & Moser, 2014). There is a chart on the wall of the classroom with all the different types of reading strategies listed under the different categories. C for Comprehension, A for Accuracy, F for Fluency and E for Expand Vocabulary. During reading workshops, students refer to their name tag which is placed on a focus strategy that they are going to work on for that session. Some students need guiding as to which strategie they need to be focusing on in order to develop their comprehension skills.
Some of the strategies listed within this literacy program are as follows;
· Use prior knowledge to connect with text
· Make and adjust predictions; use text to confirm
· Infer and support with evidence
· Make a picture or mental image
· Monitor and fix up
· Check for understanding
· Back up and reread
· Ask questions throughout the reading process
· Use text features(titles, headings, captions, graphic features)
· Summarize text; include sequence of main events
· Use main idea and supporting details to determine importance
· Determine and analyse authors purpose and support with text
· Recognize literacy elements (genre, plot, character, setting, problem/resolution, theme)
· Recognize and explain cause and effect relationships
· Compare and contrast within and between
(Boushey & Moser, 2014, Daily CAFÉ comprehension strategies)
It is vital that each of these comprehension strategies are explicitly explained, modelled, used together as a class, practiced, and then used for independent use. They should not be used as a standalone program, and should be taught within a meaningful context. ‘Students need to be taught comprehension strategies to enable them to become executive readers and fully understand text’ (Winch, 2010, p.8). There are many potential lessons to be developed by in the classroom, that would be beneficial for the whole class's comprehension skills
Not only is the CAFE literacy program an excellent teaching tool for the whole class, but can be developed for group tasks; grouping students who need to improve in a certain aspect of their comprehension, or individual tasks; setting goals and conferencing with students one-on-one about what they are going to be focusing on with their strategies.
‘Executive readers’ use sophisticated techniques to comprehend the text such as predicting, skimming, scanning and correcting (Winch, 2010, p.92).
Posters and visual prompts around the classroom can aid in students practice of comprehension skills, and allow them to develop personal learning goals about what they are going to be developing.
In order to facilitate teaching and learning of reading comprehension, teachers must be aware of the personal and environmental factors that contribute to reading success (Wooley, 2008). These factors combine with the direct teaching strategies to build on the child’s reading comprehension level. From observations of classroom teachers and our own practice, we have noted that classrooms where effective comprehension teaching occurs are set up to foster the learning of the students. By taking the time initially to set up your preferred method of teaching for reading comprehension, you will build a routine that the students are able to settle into, to self-manage to a certain degree, and to practice their comprehension strategies with a variety of texts in a variety of contexts. Konza (2011) states that good readers are purposeful, they understand the purpose of the text, and they continuously monitor their comprehension (adjusting their reading strategies when necessary). This active engagement in reading is the aim for teaching and learning reading comprehension (Konza, 2011).
So, how to set up the classroom to foster comprehension learning? Obviously this will be quite different depending on the teacher, but below we have outlined a few ideas to get you started.
· Decide on your structure. Will you use your own ideas or take advice from one of the many programs available? Literacy Centres, VCOP Wall and CAFÉ are two such programs that we have seen used to great effect.
· Bring this structure into the daily routine. By implementing a routine, the students will know what to expect from the day. Using a table to show the group rotations throughout the week or an activity board for individuals will enable the students to focus on their comprehension strategy or individual goal.
· Be prepared with your resources. This makes the session easier to set up and again helps the children to work more independently. One method that worked very well was using clearly labelled boxes to hold all the necessary equipment for each literacy centre. The students each had a folder with their individual resources inside it. Each session could be quickly and easily set up, even by the students themselves.
· Clearly define your expectations and activities in the beginning. Unfortunately sometimes implementing a new program does not coincide with the beginning of the school year. However, students should not have an issue with new programs so long as they are concisely explained. Run through the activities with all of the students so that they understand the goals behind each one. Describe and model the level of work you would expect to see, answer questions, make the sessions very explicit in their workings.
· Build your structure into your lesson planning. There is no point in setting up a structure if you do not make time to implement it. Build in specified time for reading comprehension in your lesson planning. Even though the activities themselves may not take up much actual planning time if they are being sourced from a book, use the time to write down the learning goals and assessment targets of the children for that lesson. If you make an anecdotal checklist for comprehension with your lesson plan, you will also have a way of conducting ongoing formative assessment.
· Change activities to meet the needs of your students. Know the learning needs of your students and change up the routine. The last thing you want is students to become bored and disengaged with the program and their reading. They need to be extended, not stagnated.
· Follow through with your chosen structure. Do not drop the structure you chose to implement a couple of weeks from starting. The students will take a while to become accustomed to the program, and to start using what they are learning. Persevere!
So, how to set up the classroom to foster comprehension learning? Obviously this will be quite different depending on the teacher, but below we have outlined a few ideas to get you started.
· Decide on your structure. Will you use your own ideas or take advice from one of the many programs available? Literacy Centres, VCOP Wall and CAFÉ are two such programs that we have seen used to great effect.
· Bring this structure into the daily routine. By implementing a routine, the students will know what to expect from the day. Using a table to show the group rotations throughout the week or an activity board for individuals will enable the students to focus on their comprehension strategy or individual goal.
· Be prepared with your resources. This makes the session easier to set up and again helps the children to work more independently. One method that worked very well was using clearly labelled boxes to hold all the necessary equipment for each literacy centre. The students each had a folder with their individual resources inside it. Each session could be quickly and easily set up, even by the students themselves.
· Clearly define your expectations and activities in the beginning. Unfortunately sometimes implementing a new program does not coincide with the beginning of the school year. However, students should not have an issue with new programs so long as they are concisely explained. Run through the activities with all of the students so that they understand the goals behind each one. Describe and model the level of work you would expect to see, answer questions, make the sessions very explicit in their workings.
· Build your structure into your lesson planning. There is no point in setting up a structure if you do not make time to implement it. Build in specified time for reading comprehension in your lesson planning. Even though the activities themselves may not take up much actual planning time if they are being sourced from a book, use the time to write down the learning goals and assessment targets of the children for that lesson. If you make an anecdotal checklist for comprehension with your lesson plan, you will also have a way of conducting ongoing formative assessment.
· Change activities to meet the needs of your students. Know the learning needs of your students and change up the routine. The last thing you want is students to become bored and disengaged with the program and their reading. They need to be extended, not stagnated.
· Follow through with your chosen structure. Do not drop the structure you chose to implement a couple of weeks from starting. The students will take a while to become accustomed to the program, and to start using what they are learning. Persevere!