Case Study: Orlando
This case study is about a 7 year old boy name Orlando who is in first grade. He enjoys attending school and learning activities that include singing and drawing. Orlando’s teacher became concerned of Orlando’s lack of progress in the area of reading comprehension skills. The teacher has discussed her concerns with the school’s reading specialist, who has suggested the implementation of specific reading strategies such as graphic organizers, repeated readings and predictions.
Comprehension Strategies:
Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyze it, make sense of it, and make it their own. The following strategies can be used to help struggling students such as Orlando. Repeated reading, Graphic organizers, and comprehension stratgies. With these strategies, teachers are able to help their students understand the story. This way they can answer the who, what, when, where, why and how?
Reading strategies are techniques a reader uses to gain meaning from the text. The purpose of instructing these techniques is to give the students tools that they can use on their own. Here are some strategies that can be used to help struggling students:
-
Predictions: Predicting is thinking about what may happen next
(Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). While reading stories we make predictions all the time about what we think is going to happen next or to a particular character. SO showing the cover of the book to Orlando and allowing him to hear the title along with looking at the pictures and giving him the opportunity to predict what the story is about, would help Orlando evaluate what he already knows about a story and allow him to contemplate upon different scenarios which help him gain a deeper understanding of the story as it is read to him or as he reads it. While Orlando is doing a picture walk and making predictions, is when he should be prompted with the who, what, when, where how and why questions. Doing this while Orlando is making his predictions can with some background knowledge.
-
Summarizing - According to Fountas and Pinnell (2011), “We are always storing the information we gain from reading.” As we read a text, it is natural for us to summarize the information we just learned in our memory bank. This helps us understand the story as we read on. ” When Orlando listens to the story he can remember the important details and can determine the main ideas and the most important supporting details of texts. When students can summarize what they have read, the are able to understand the main idea of the story. One way the teacher can help the students summarize stories is by reading a short passage and asking the students to sum up the passage. By doing this Orlando will learn how to summarize correctly so he can benefit from it upon other readings.
-
Retelling – Allows students to retell what they have read or listened to and help teachers understand the students understanding of the story. It helps readers recall what is happening in the story, develop a sense of sequencing the story After being taught this strategies I feel Orlando would be able to show better comprehension. This way Orlando should able to recount main ideas of each short passage, which will give him the ability to retell the story back to his teacher. This will help his teachers understand what Orlando is getting from the story and to see if he can recall the story in chronological order, characters, settings, and main events(Wilson, 2002).
-
Rereading – Teaches children reading strategies follow up question. If they don’t have the answer they can go back in the story to find it. Through rereading, Orlando can begin to self-correct and monitor his understanding of what he has read. Orlando may enjoy group work, by using the turn and talk strategy (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). During a read aloud, Orlando can share his thoughts with the class or the teacher can pair them up for discussion. Research Pappas (1991) found that children asked more questions and engaged in more dialogue when they listened to repeated readings of the same story. This concept has students reading the same book more over and over to increase their understanding and reading fluency (Bos & Vaughn, 1998). Research has suggested that rereading can help students gain more reading fluency and increase their comprehension knowledge. Orlando should read the story at least twice a week, so he can retell the story without manipulatives. It is said that children learn from each other. Therefore, Having someone from the class that has a high comprehension skill can help others with understanding the story (Levy et al., 2002). Orlando’s teacher could ask a peer to work with Orlando when it comes time to reading a story.
-
Another strategy that can improve Orlando’s reading comprehension is by acting the story out. In the video Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher Mrs. Davis reads a book to her students called Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. It was clear that the students were already introduced to the reading because Mrs. Davis asked the recalling questions such as “Who is this, starts with a J”. The students than recall the name of the characters from the story and as she reads, the students were able to retell the story along the way. This is a good strategy to use with Orlando, because hearing the story for the second time will allow Orlando the ability to recall what he remembers from the first reading.
-
Shared book reading according to the article Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading is “an interactive way of reading books aloud with children that gives them Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading 555 a chance to be active participants in the reading session, thus providing a meaningful experience that stimulates learning. Numerous studies (CrainThoreson & Dale, 1992; DeTemple, 2001; Dickinson, 2001a, 2001b; Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Wasik & Bond, 2001) have shown that a critical factor in shared book reading is the discourse, or verbal interaction, between adults and children.” Dialogic reading, first described by Whitehurst et al. (1988), is a particular type of shared book reading that includes strategic questioning and responding to children while reading a book. The technique involves multiple readings and conversations about books with children in small groups. Asking meaningful questions is more difficult than it may seem and less common than might be imagined. McKeown and Beck (2003) found that adults often did not prompt children to process and connect ideas or to express their understanding of the story.
-
Questioning – Is extremely important in comprehending text of any kind. It insures the students are understanding the text that is being read to them. By using questioning technique Orlando, would be able to have a better understanding of the story.
Predictions: Predicting is thinking about what may happen next (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). While reading stories we make predictions all the time about what we think is going to happen next or to a particular character. SO showing the cover of the book to Orlando and allowing him to hear the title along with looking at the pictures and giving him the opportunity to predict what the story is about, would help Orlando evaluate what he already knows about a story and allow him to contemplate upon different scenarios which help him gain a deeper understanding of the story as it is read to him or as he reads it. While Orlando is doing a picture walk and making predictions, is when he should be prompted with the who, what, when, where how and why questions. Doing this while Orlando is making his predictions can with some background knowledge.
(Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). While reading stories we make predictions all the time about what we think is going to happen next or to a particular character. SO showing the cover of the book to Orlando and allowing him to hear the title along with looking at the pictures and giving him the opportunity to predict what the story is about, would help Orlando evaluate what he already knows about a story and allow him to contemplate upon different scenarios which help him gain a deeper understanding of the story as it is read to him or as he reads it. While Orlando is doing a picture walk and making predictions, is when he should be prompted with the who, what, when, where how and why questions. Doing this while Orlando is making his predictions can with some background knowledge.
Summarizing - According to Fountas and Pinnell (2011), “We are always storing the information we gain from reading.” As we read a text, it is natural for us to summarize the information we just learned in our memory bank. This helps us understand the story as we read on. ” When Orlando listens to the story he can remember the important details and can determine the main ideas and the most important supporting details of texts. When students can summarize what they have read, the are able to understand the main idea of the story. One way the teacher can help the students summarize stories is by reading a short passage and asking the students to sum up the passage. By doing this Orlando will learn how to summarize correctly so he can benefit from it upon other readings.
Retelling – Allows students to retell what they have read or listened to and help teachers understand the students understanding of the story. It helps readers recall what is happening in the story, develop a sense of sequencing the story After being taught this strategies I feel Orlando would be able to show better comprehension. This way Orlando should able to recount main ideas of each short passage, which will give him the ability to retell the story back to his teacher. This will help his teachers understand what Orlando is getting from the story and to see if he can recall the story in chronological order, characters, settings, and main events(Wilson, 2002).
Rereading – Teaches children reading strategies follow up question. If they don’t have the answer they can go back in the story to find it. Through rereading, Orlando can begin to self-correct and monitor his understanding of what he has read. Orlando may enjoy group work, by using the turn and talk strategy (Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011). During a read aloud, Orlando can share his thoughts with the class or the teacher can pair them up for discussion. Research Pappas (1991) found that children asked more questions and engaged in more dialogue when they listened to repeated readings of the same story. This concept has students reading the same book more over and over to increase their understanding and reading fluency (Bos & Vaughn, 1998). Research has suggested that rereading can help students gain more reading fluency and increase their comprehension knowledge. Orlando should read the story at least twice a week, so he can retell the story without manipulatives. It is said that children learn from each other. Therefore, Having someone from the class that has a high comprehension skill can help others with understanding the story (Levy et al., 2002). Orlando’s teacher could ask a peer to work with Orlando when it comes time to reading a story.
Another strategy that can improve Orlando’s reading comprehension is by acting the story out. In the video Interactive Read Aloud, the teacher Mrs. Davis reads a book to her students called Joseph Had a Little Overcoat. It was clear that the students were already introduced to the reading because Mrs. Davis asked the recalling questions such as “Who is this, starts with a J”. The students than recall the name of the characters from the story and as she reads, the students were able to retell the story along the way. This is a good strategy to use with Orlando, because hearing the story for the second time will allow Orlando the ability to recall what he remembers from the first reading.
Shared book reading according to the article Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading is “an interactive way of reading books aloud with children that gives them Promoting emergent literacy and social–emotional learning through dialogic reading 555 a chance to be active participants in the reading session, thus providing a meaningful experience that stimulates learning. Numerous studies (CrainThoreson & Dale, 1992; DeTemple, 2001; Dickinson, 2001a, 2001b; Dickinson & Smith, 1994; Wasik & Bond, 2001) have shown that a critical factor in shared book reading is the discourse, or verbal interaction, between adults and children.” Dialogic reading, first described by Whitehurst et al. (1988), is a particular type of shared book reading that includes strategic questioning and responding to children while reading a book. The technique involves multiple readings and conversations about books with children in small groups. Asking meaningful questions is more difficult than it may seem and less common than might be imagined. McKeown and Beck (2003) found that adults often did not prompt children to process and connect ideas or to express their understanding of the story.
Questioning – Is extremely important in comprehending text of any kind. It insures the students are understanding the text that is being read to them. By using questioning technique Orlando, would be able to have a better understanding of the story.
Graphic Organizers:
Graphic organizers are another set of tools that assist students in organizing and recalling elements from stories they have listened to or read themselves. The use of graphic organizers can help Orlando develop his reading comprehension skills. Simple story maps and sequence charts can help him summarize and retell stories. When the teachers do Read-Aloud of several versions of a familiar story, Venn Diagrams can be used to compare and contrast characters, settings, of the two or more different stories or texts.
One thing that Orlando might benefit from by using graphic organizers is that he might begin by just drawing in his answers, since it was mention in the scenario that he enjoys art.
The book I chose as an example for Orlando is “The Gingerbread Boy” by Paul Galdone and a similar version “The Gingerbread Man” by Karen Schmidt. After a repeated reading of The Gingerbread Boy, Orlando could complete a simple story map with just illustrations and in the future or using a word bank Orlando could be able to use his own words to retell the story.
Repeated Reading:
Repeatedly reading the same text allows a reader to read with fluency a familiar text. Some of the activities that could help Orlando to develop his reading comprehension skills are shared reading; this could help him with his confidence(Fountas, I.C., & Pinnell, G.S, (2011).p.125)
Another activity that would be beneficial for Orlando's comprehension skill is acting out the story a story. Just like in the video from this module showed the students acting the story out with the use of props Orlando would benefit from taking part in this type of 
.
These four strategies can truly help students like Orlando understand the meaning and ideas of stories. Without being able to comprehend what we read, students will not be able to succeed in school. By incorporating these strategies within the classroom, teachers will be able to help their students. With the support of his teacher and implementing these strategies Orlando should be able to improve his reading comprehension skills.
References
Fountas, I.C., & Pinell, G.S., (2001). Literacy Beginnings: A Prekindergarten Handbook. Pourtsmouth, NH
http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/Early reading Level A. Case 4
The Reading Teacher Vol. 59, No. 6 March 2006
Babyak, A E , Koorland, M , & Mathes, P G (2000) The effects of story mapping instruction on the reading comprehension of students with behavioral disorders Behavioral Disorders, 25(3), 239–258.
Bos, C S , & Vaughn, S (1998) Strategies for teaching students with learning and behavior problems (4th ed ) Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Levy, S , Coleman, M , & Alsman, B (2002) Reading instruction for elementary students with emotional/ behavioral disorders: What’s a teacher to do? Beyond Behavior, 11(3), 3–10.
Mathes, P G , Fuchs, D , & Fuchs, L S (1997) Cooperative story mapping Remedial and Special http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu.
Pellegrini, A.D., & Galda, L. (1982). The effects of thematic-fantasy play training on the development of children’s story comprehension. American Educational Research Journal, 19(3), 443–452.
Welsch, J. G. (2008). Playing Within and Beyond the Story: Encouraging Book-Related Pretend play. The Reading Teacher , 138-148.
Wilson, K. (2002). Bear Snores On. New York City: An imprint of & Schuster Children's Publishing
.
I enjoyed reading your insight on different comprehension strategies. I like your different graphic organizers for each story. Summarizing is very important for comprehension because the reader is restating in his or her own words what they just read. I liked your idea of the summarizing chart because it can be an interactive tool for small group or whole group.
ReplyDeleteHello Shisele, First let me start by saying that I love the Interactive Read-Aloud video you posted. It shows a great example of children sharing thoughts about the book with their peers. Orlando will definitely benefit from this strategy. As per the star sheet, Orlando has difficulty with simple comprehension questions and this read-aloud shows that he can learn information that he may not understand from the story by discussing with a partner or in group setting.
ReplyDeleteThe interactive read aloud video is awesome! The strategies you posted will definitely benefit Orlando and help his teacher document progress. I am a firm believer that peer interactions assist tremendously when trying to assist students with comprehension issues. Thank you for your insight.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog! You have great visuals and I really like the organizers for Dr. Seuss. The story hat map can really be a great support or anchor for a child when summarizing the book. The interactive read aloud is informative and gives a great representation on how effective a read aloud can be!
ReplyDelete