Reading text comprehension - ACER Research Repository

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Australian Council for Educational Research

The role of evidence in teaching

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evidence-based practice

integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external evidence from systematic research

Sacket et al, 1996

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1. establishing and understanding where

students are in their learning

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If I had to reduce all of educational psychology to just one principle, I would say this:

The most important single factor

influencing learning is what the learner already knows. Ascertain this and teach him [or her] accordingly.

Ausubel, 1968

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Ascertaining where individuals are

in their learning is made especially

important by the fact that learners

of the same age are at very different

points in their learning.

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2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0

Y e a r

Yr 9 Yr 7 Yr 5

Yr 3 9 0 0

8 0 0

7 0 0

6 0 0

5 0 0

4 0 0

3 0 0

2 0 0

1 0 0

least advanced

10%

advancedmost 10%

Mean

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Learning is maximised when students

are provided with learning opportunities at an appropriate level of challenge

– teaching targeted on learning needs

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Establishing where individuals are in their learning depends first on understanding what long-term

progress in a learning area looks like.

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The science of learning to read is

providing a deeper understanding of how reading develops.

eg, Castles et al, 2018

Reading

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text comprehension

• negotiating increasingly complex written language and using metacognitive skills such as self-monitoring of comprehension

• drawing inferences from complex text

• integrating background knowledge, language knowledge and vocabulary knowledge to understand meaning in text

fluent word reading

• recognising words rapidly and automatically alphabetic decoding

• reading aloud regular but unfamiliar words

• reading aloud letters pre-reading

• understanding that written symbols represent sounds

• using visual cues; rote learning; guessing

Reading Acquisition

expert

novice

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Interrogate complex texts

Interpret many aspects of complex texts Interpret texts with substantial complexities Interpret texts with a key aspect of complexity

Interpret some complexities & manage competing information Make inferences and manage low-level competing information Make simple interpretations of simple texts

Locate information using synonyms

Locate information using direct word matching Read some sentences

Read some words and the pictures Read the pictures

Recognise familiar print Notice print

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Level 8

- match synonymous words to locate information

- link information across sentences and make simple inferences when clues are prominent, in a range of simple texts

- make plausible predictions and interpretations

- explain the purpose of familiar text types and recognise obvious reasons for a writer's choice of words

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reading aloud

8

retrieving information

8

interpreting information

8

reflecting on text

8

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reflecting on text reading

aloud

8 8 8

interpreting skills include

- link pieces of related, prominent information in several adjacent sentences (when there is a little competing information) to

compare or generalise about events or ideas

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aloud

8 8 8

example Tooh

I usually take leftovers for my lunch.

Mum makes a little more for dinner in the evenings and there is some food left for my lunch next day.

I don’t mind eating leftovers cold.

Question

When does Tooh’s mum make the food for his lunch?

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aloud

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aloud

Assessment is the process of drawing

inferences about where individuals are

in their learning from samples of their

performance/work.

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Students’ performances on

online Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT Reading) can be used to draw inferences about the reading levels individuals have reached.

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scores between

110 and 119 on the PAT Reading scale

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Year 4 Year 7

distributions of

Australian Year 4 and Year 7 reading levels

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Year 4 Year 7

Analysis of the details of an individual’s

performances can provide diagnostic

insights into why they are not further

advanced.

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summary

evidence-based teaching depends on information about where students are in their learning (and why)

– to identify next steps

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2. meeting learners’ needs with

targeted teaching strategies

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There is considerable research evidence from

randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that letter-sound knowledge and phonemic awareness are crucial

foundational skills for reading comprehension.

For beginning readers and students with low levels of reading comprehension, the systematic teaching of these skills is likely to be beneficial.

Reading

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There is also considerable evidence from randomised controlled trials that vocabulary (word knowledge) and general (oral) language skills are crucial to the

development of reading comprehension.

For students who have mastered reading aloud skills, the systematic teaching of language skills (including the use of grammar, syntax, inferences, etc) is likely to promote improved reading comprehension.

Reading

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aloud

4

Students at level 4 often have difficulty distinguishing a

familiar word from other words with similar features.

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example

Level 4

63% 21% 15% na 1%

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Level 4 – targeted teaching

Systematic phonics instruction

TEACH letter-sound correspondence by introducing single letter sounds (eg, ‘b’, ‘t’, ‘d’) and then blending letter sounds (eg, ‘sh’, ‘th’, ‘ing’) – ‘synthetic phonics’.

USE visual, auditory and kinaesthetic resources (eg, letter tiles) for simple word building.

ENCOURAGE students to discuss similarities and

differences between simple words (eg, bill, bag, tag, hand).

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aloud

4

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aloud

9 Students at level 9 often

have difficulty drawing an inference by linking several

dispersed clues in a short piece of text that includes competing

information.

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example

I use chalk to play lots of games outside. You can play four square if you have a ball.

Ask your grandmother about hopscotch. My favourite game is drawing obstacles that my friends and I have to ride

around on our bikes. We love swerving around man-eating sharks and long-toothed

alligators.

Ashran

What are the man-eating sharks Ashran talks about?

A toys B friends C models D pictures na Level 9

16%

7%

60%

1%

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example

alligators.

Ashran

inference

The connection between drawn obstacles and sharks is not stated directly.

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example

alligators.

Ashran

inference

The connection between drawing and sharks is not stated directly.

Inference instruction has been shown to benefit the ability to draw inferences as well

as general reading comprehension.

(Elleman, 2017)

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inference: Jo got on the bus

Source: PAT Teaching Resources

Finally the bus came over the hill. Jo was soon on her way to the city.

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EXPLAIN to students what inference means: that

sometimes the connection between events is not directly stated. It is just suggested.

ASK students to identify what can been inferred from this text… We could also infer that Jo had been waiting a long time.

POINT OUT that adding the information, ‘Jo got on the bus and was soon on her way to the city’, removes the inference. Now the information is clearly stated.

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aloud

9

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aloud

Students at level 10 10 often have difficulty relating pronouns and nouns in dense and unfamiliar texts.

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example

Constellations are imaginary pictures people make in the night sky by joining stars together. The constellation Crux (Latin for cross) is the smallest of the constellations, but also one of the most

distinctive. It is more

commonly known as the Southern Cross. Acrux is the principal star in Crux. It is at the bottom of the cross. Acrux is actually a double star, but the two stars are so far away that we see them as one.

Acrux is the fourteenth

brightest star in the whole sky.

Gacrux

Gamma Crucis

Mimosa

Beta Crucis

Delta Crucis

Hadar

Beta Centauri Acrux

Alpha Crucis

Rigil

Kentaurus

Alpha Centauri

Southern Cross is another name for A Crux

B Acrux C Mimosa D Centaurus na

81%

10%

3%

Level 10

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When John arrived, he noticed that the door was open.

When he arrived, John noticed that the door was open.

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Italy is a country in Europe. Italy has many ancient

Roman monuments. There are lots of old and beautiful churches in Italy. Italy is shaped like a long boot. Off the coast near the toe of the boot is the island of Sicily.

Pizza and spaghetti are famous dishes from Italy.

DISCUSS the effect of having Italy repeated too often.

ASK students to improve the text by using some pronouns while also maintaining the meaning.

DISCUSS how the meaning has changed if students say

‘Pizza and spaghetti are famous dishes from there’.

Encourage students to identify that this sentence now means the pizza and spaghetti come from Sicily because Sicily is the last mentioned place.

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Building professional capacity

PAT Professional Learning is a series of

online courses designed to build teachers’

skills in ascertaining where students are in their learning, targeting individual learning needs and monitoring growth over time.

Targeted teaching

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summary

evidence-based teaching depends on

the use of targeted teaching strategies

– to address individual learning needs

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3. monitoring student progress

over time

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Year

95 80 50 20 5

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Dear Parent

Henry is now reading at Level 6.

He has made excellent progress over the past six months. There have been improvements in the fluency of his reading and in his ability to scan text and recognise words. He can read and understand short stories with simple sentences and familiar words.

Henry enjoys reading story books and should be encouraged to read at home, although he may need help with more difficult words such as

‘does’, ‘laugh’, ‘again’, ‘because’

and ‘should’.

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In England, PAT Reading is being used to measure the reading progress of 6000 children from the beginning of Year 2 to the end of Year 3.

This is part of a randomised controlled trial by RAND Europe (funded by the Education Endowment Foundation) of a whole-school approach to training, preparing and

deploying teaching assistants.

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In Australia, PAT Reading* is being used by

Jenny Gore and colleagues to monitor student progress as part of the evaluation of their

Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) program.

This is part of a randomised controlled trial involving 30 000 educators funded by the Australian Research Council, New South

Wales Department of Education and the Paul Ramsay Foundation.

* and PAT Mathematics and PAT Science

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ACER is collaborating with the UNESCO

Institute for Statistics to explore the use of these reading levels as a frame of reference for monitoring improvements in reading performance in developed and developing countries.

This work – funded in part by the

Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade – is being undertaken in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (2030).

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summary

evidence-based teaching depends on the ability to monitor student progress – to evaluate learning success and

teaching effectiveness

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The role of evidence in teaching

● to establish and understand where students are in their learning

● to meet learning needs with effective, targeted teaching strategies

● to monitor student progress over time and to

evaluate teaching effectiveness