Understanding How To Improve Reading Comprehension Outcomes Catherine E. Snow Harvard Graduate School of Education Massachusetts Reading First, August 2008 Outline Pessimism about comprehension A closer look at comprehension across grades Reasons for hope Lessons from Reading First Lessons for Reading First Reasons for pessimism Poor performance of U.S. students in international comparisons at grade 8 and up Lack of improvement on NAEP after age 9 Rising demands Universalized standards and expectations Workplace literacy Citizenship literacy Limited vocabulary and background knowledge of urban students NAEP Trend Scores Middle Class Access • Read at the high school level • Do math at the high school level • Write and speak • Solve problems, test hypotheses • Work in diverse groups • Use a computer On-the Job Lexile Requirements Constru1,500 1,400 1,300 1,200 1,100 1,000 900 800 Lexile Adult Literacy Study 1992 International Center for Leadership in Education 2006 2005-06 Lexile Framework® for Reading Study Summary of High School Textbook Lexile Measures 800 1000 1400 1200Text Lexile Measure (L) ELA Science Social Studies Arts CTEMathSubject Area Textbooks 1300 1100 900 Interquartile Ranges Shown (25% -75%) Urban Grade 8 students’ vocabulary Grade 8 %correct transfer 82% collapse 81% impact 80% react 80% substitute 80% release 80% abandon 80% enormous 80% cycle 77% route 76% suspend 75% conflict 74% analyze 71% promote 71% reveal 71% acknowledg 70% indicate 67% hypothesis 67% monitor 64% exhibit 63% bulk 61% decade 59% contribute 58% prohibit 56% diverse 49% project 48% interpret 45% culture 45% sufficient 41% dramatic 35% Outline Pessimism about comprehension A closer look at comprehension across grades Reasons for hope Lessons from Reading First Lessons for Reading First Sample and data Children from low-income families Followed from three years of age Observations at home and preschool Interviews with parents, teachers, the studentsthemselves +/-yearly assessments of language, literacy, school progress Predicting kindergarten literacy skills from home and preschool Exposure to rare words Involvement in extended discourse Presence of a cognitive curriculum in preschool Support for literacy at home Dickinson & Tabors, Eds. (2001) Beginning literacy with language, Brookes Publishing. Predicting Receptive Vocabulary: Home Environment Variables 18 23 34 32 44 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 *Significant variables Controls Controls + Extended Discourse (ED) Controls + Rare Word Density(RWD) Controls + Home Support forLiteracy (HSL) Controls+ED+ RWD+HSL Predicting Receptive Vocabulary: Preschool Environment Variables Significant variables Controls* Controls + Extended Teacher Discourse (ETD) Controls + Classroom Curriculum (CC) Controls + Exposure to RareWords (ERW) Controls + Predicting Receptive Vocabulary: Home and Preschool Environment Variables *significant increment to R-squared Controls Controls + Home Environment Controls + School Environment Controls + Home + School Environments PPVT Estimated Growth Trajectories by Grade and Rare Word Density at Home (Density Above Mean in Broken Line, Below Mean in Solid Line) 0.00 20.00 40.00 60.00 80.00 100.00 120.00 140.00 160.00 Kindergarten 2nd Grade 4th Grade 6th Grade PPVT Raw Score Early rare word exposure predicts later vocabulary Early home support for literacy predicts later academic language Academic Language Estimated Growth Trajectories by Grade and Home Support for Literacy (Home Support Above Mean in Broken Line and Below Mean in Solid Line) 14.00 12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0.00 First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Academic Language Scores Early rare word exposure predicts later literacy (WRAT) WRAT Estimated Growth Trajectories by Grade and Exposure to Rare Words in the Preschool Classroom (Rare Word Scores Above Mean in Broken Line, Scores Below Mean in Solid Line) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 4 Raw WRAT Scores Kindergarten vocabulary predicts later comprehension Estimated Comprehension Trajectories by Grade and PPVT Score at Kindergarten (PPVT Above the Mean in Broken Line, Below the Mean in Solid Line) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 Fourth Grade Seventh Grade Tenth Grade CAT Raw Score Continuity in comprehension Reading Comprehension Percentile Scores for Focal Children Elementary through High School 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 4th Grade 7th Grade 10th Grade CAT Percentile ScoreJames Ethan Rashida Sample Teachers' Educational Expectations for Focal Students in Elementary and Middle School 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 6th Grade 7th Grade Expected Educational Attainment James Ethan Rashida Sample College High School Continuity in teacher expectations Grade Point Averages for Focal Students in Middle and Early High School 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 6th Grade 7th Grade 9th Grade James Ethan Rashida SAMPLE B A C D Continuity in academic development? Continuity in academic development? 9th Grade GPA by PPVT Percentile: 3 students with high vocabulary scores who are at risk for school failure A+ F 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 PPVT Percentile Grade Point Average James Ethan Rashida Literacy academic achievement? Dropout High School Graduate Attending College Degree Status by CAT Percentile 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 10th Grade CAT Percentile Score What went wrong? Family disruptions School disruptions Decreasing motivation Loss of purpose Failure to find a supportive adult Failure to find a fascinating topic Failure to find a reason to care Some interim conclusions Solving literacy challenges is necessary but not sufficient to educational success Embedding literacy in engaging learning would help We can’t treat ‘literacy’ as just about reading—it encompasses learning and living But James, Ethan and Rashida may have been the lucky ones—at least they can read! Outline Pessimism about comprehension A closer look at comprehension across grades Reasons for hope Lessons from Reading First Lessons for Reading First Lessons from Reading First It is possible to change practice to get to A coherent program Supportive professional development Assessment-driven decision-making Differentiated instruction If extra resources are available Lessons from Reading First: Latino-Anglo gap Lessons from Reading First: Black-White gap Lesson from Reading First Reading First: the existence proof Consistent and sensible instructional practices Distribution of instruction guided by assessment Professional development Well defined and high standards [Sticking with it!] [Continual improvement] Reading Next: the challenge Lessons from Reading First Reading Next: the challenge Both instructional programs and multipleinterventions needed Assessments to guide instruction needed Professional development for all content-area teachers Reorganizing schools to prioritize literacy Improving preservice preparation Maintaining high and rising standards The Nature of the Challenge letters phonemes spelling rules vocabulary reading vocabulary phonological representations meaning argument structure comprehension world knowledge The Tripartite Challenge Rebalancing the focus in preK-3 by adding Oral language Background knowledge Writing Engagement with important ideas Ensuring attention to new skills for all in 4-12 More complex texts Deeper comprehension Content-area learning Engagement with important ideas Addressing the needs of struggling readers ingrades 4-12 Outline Pessimism about comprehension A closer look at comprehension across grades Reasons for hope Lessons from Reading First Lessons for Reading First Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Actually teach comprehension Use assessment data systematically Provide interventions and test their effectiveness Incorporate literacy into content teaching and vice versa Learn from successes Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Actually teach comprehension Using read-alouds and oral discussion in primary grades Modeling attention to language of the text as the key to comprehension Use text read as source of vocabulary to teach, but not as only teaching opportunity Modeling learning as the point of comprehension Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Use assessment data systematically Literacy and language assessments Attention to domains of need for whole class as well as for small groups Think about the 12th grade test, not the 3rd grade test Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Provide interventions and test their effectiveness Prevention, prevention, prevention Ensure a team approach to reading difficulties Keep and use the data on individuals and on programs Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Incorporate literacy into content teaching and vice versa Good literacy instruction does not drive outscience, art, or social studies Good science, art, social studies, and mathinstruction incorporate literacy Students would rather read about thingsthey care about Teaching technical vocabulary isunsuccessful if students don’t have generalacademic vocabulary Lessons: What can teachers and schools do? Learn from successes Keep track of programs, strategies, approaches that work Take advice from students about what to read aloud, discuss, spend more time on Use TLCs to discuss and learn from test data Use TLCs to discuss and learn about new practices Lessons: What can states do? Develop a comprehensive literacy plan Specify literacy within content standards Require content literacy courses for certification Introduce more expository reading and writing on state tests Lessons: What can researchers do? Develop better oral language, writing, and comprehension assessments Provide guidelines for the use of expository texts in primary grades Continue to study the challenges of content area texts Provide well-designed tools for teaching embedded vocabulary Work with districts and schools rather than on them Lessons: What can researchers do? Perhaps modify the discourse? Inoculation fitness Reading first learning first Literacy as a goal literacy as a tool Teaching vocabulary teaching content Content-area literacy deep disciplinary knowledge