The Comprehension-Wise™
Course is a 24 - 30 hour enrichment course designed to build and enhance the reading comprehension skills of 4th, 5th or 6th graders. This course is based on current research, fine-tuned in the classroom and provides practical concepts, skills and strategies to help students succeed. This course is a supplement to any reading program currently being taught. The primary goals are to get readers to think when they read, to develop an awareness of their thinking, and to use strategies that help them comprehend the reading material. One of the strategies taught is for students to become aware of when and where they do not understand what they are reading, and to use the appropriate fix-up strategies to repair these comprehension breakdowns.
The skills and strategies presented in the Comprehension-Wise™ Course are those frequently identified in reading programs, literature books, content area textbooks, standardized reading tests as well as the National Reading Panel. The course provides information for the teacher to demonstrate, model or guide the students to think as they read and use effective and efficient strategies while reading. The course uses direct, explicit instruction using step by step strategies to help students successfully read and understand material. It especially focuses on the two sometimes forgotten, but very important areas, informational reading and reading test reading. Information reading is reading to learn information. In the Information Age the importance of being able to read informational texts critically and well cannot be overstated. Also, standardized reading comprehension tests are using more and more informational material as opposed to narrative material. In fact, these reading tests are comprised of 50 to 85 percent informational material.
The other important area concerns reading comprehension tests. As we know, these tests are quite common. This course teaches the students to use a “game plan” when taking reading comprehension tests. The course provides tools to help students show what they know on reading comprehension tests. It also teaches the language of tests (test-specific vocabulary) so students can use this to their advantage. Many researchers have stressed the importance of helping students learn and understand these test-specific terms. (Allen, 2002, Green & Milton, 2007, Calkins, Montgomery and Santman, 1998.) The Comprehension-Wise™ Course also teaches strategies to help the students avoid the common traps and distracters on multiple-choice reading comprehension tests --both standardized and classroom. Brain-compatible games and activities are included to help students with various learning styles.
The Comprehension-Wise™
Course helps students become SAFE Readers - Strategic, Active, Flexible and
Efficient.
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Strategic Reader: |
Makes and uses a “reading game plan” each time he/she
reads. Knows how and when to use effective strategies when
reading. |
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Active Reader: |
Thinks while reading. Continuously interacts with the text by
visualizing, making connections, having mind conversations,
asking and answering questions, predicting and highlighting. |
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Flexible Reader: |
Changes strategies depending on what he/she is reading and
the purpose for reading it. Knows how and when to read at
different speeds. |
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Efficient Reader: |
Balances speed and comprehension when reading. |
Each school year students are expected to read and comprehend more and more material, are exposed to more difficult content and are required to become more independent learners. In today’s fast-paced “Information Age” students must have the comprehension skills necessary to understand, process and evaluate the reading material they encounter both inside and outside the classroom.
The purpose of the Comprehension-Wise™
Course is to allow students to internalize a solid set of strategies they can apply independently in various reading situations. This is done through the use of strategy lessons and reading activities. The art of teaching is to create in the student a need for the skills and strategies we want them to learn, then engage them in interesting ways to acquire and practice these skills and strategies so that they achieve a level of mastery. For the learner, need and |
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| interest must come first in order to make learning as easy as possible. These lessons show students how the strategies learned apply to the reading they encounter in daily life. There are some students in every classroom who are avid, strong and thoughtful readers and yet they receive standardized test scores that do not reflect this. The Comprehension-Wise™ Course includes the language of tests to explain how the strategies may be applied in a test format. This provides authentic practice and leads to improved performance on the reading comprehension section of standardized tests such as the ITBS, SAT, CTBS, or CTP IV, as well as state administered tests. |
“The general finding is that when readers are given cognitive strategy instruction, they make significant gains on measures of reading comprehension over students taught with conventional instructional procedures.” Pressley, et al., Rosenshine and Meister; and Rosenshine, Meister and Chapman, National Reading Panel, 2000.
Research also shows the importance of modeling the comprehension processes for students and providing cues to help them understand what they are reading. It also stresses the need for the students to learn to think about their own thought processes and to verbalize and clarify how they approach a strategy. These and other important methods are used in teaching the Comprehension-Wise™
Course. Readers who are not explicitly taught these procedures are unlikely to learn, develop or use them spontaneously.
| Unit 1 |
Orientation and Evaluation |
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Orientation
Comprehension-Wise Pre-Test |
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| Unit 2 |
Learning to Become a SAFE Reader |
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Comprehension-Wise Survey
What is Reading?
Reading Is Thinking
Characteristics of an Excellent Reader
A SAFE Reader (Strategic, Active, Safe and Efficient)
An Active Reader
Visualizing (MTV)
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| Unit 3 |
Locating Information or Answers
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Using Active Reading Techniques (Visualizing, Making Connections, Having
Mind Conversations)
Scanning to Quickly Locate Information or Answers
An Efficient Reader
Balancing Speed and Accuracy When Locating Information or Answers
A Strategic Reader
Using Shortcuts
Using a Signal Word
Proving Answers
Avoiding Traps and Throat Grabbers
Using Accuracy Tips |
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| Unit 4 |
Textbook Reading |
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A Game Plan for Reading
Using Textbook Shortcuts to Answer Questions
Steps to Use When Answering Textbooks Questions |
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| Unit 5 |
Determining Main Ideas |
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Main Idea of a Paragraph
Main Idea of a Whole Passage
Directly Stated Main Idea
Unstated Main Idea
Proving the Main Idea by Weighing the Evidence
Avoiding Traps and Throat Grabbers |
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| Unit 6 |
Making Inferences / Drawing Conclusions |
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Inferences That are Weak, Strong or Totally Wrong
Answering Inference Questions
Checking for Accuracy When Answering Questions
Using Evidence
Making Inferences About Characters
Character Clues
Making Inferences About the Setting of a Story
Predicting Outcome
Avoiding Traps and Throat Grabbers |
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| Unit 7 |
Using Context Clues |
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Using Context
Inferring the Meaning of a Word
Where Context Clues May Be Located
Proving by Plugging in the Answer
Traps and Tips |
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| Unit 8 |
SAFE Reading Strategies |
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An Efficient Reader
Reading and Reviewing Novels
Reading Selections on Standardized Reading Tests (Test-Taking Strategies) |
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| Unit 9 |
Review and Evaluation |
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Review Pages
Comprehension-Wise Post-Test |
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The Teacher’s Manuals for the Comprehension-Wise™ Course have over 450 pages of easy to follow, teacher-friendly and detailed lesson plans, plus transparencies or a Power Point CD. The course includes pre-tests and post-tests, surveys, modeling, explicit teaching of strategy lessons, think-alouds, discussion, as well as student participation in fun-filled activities and games. These brain-compatible activities and games benefit students with various learning styles. The Teacher’s Manuals use direct, explicit instruction. The step by step approach focuses the students’ attention on an immediate goal - mastery of one targeted strategy at a time. There are in-depth explanations and examples for each of the targeted skills. The Comprehension-Wise™ Course Teacher’s Manuals provide specific information for the teacher to use to demonstrate, model or guide the readers in their acquisition and use of the comprehension strategies. When introducing a new concept or strategy, the most student friendly and easily understood material is used so grasping the strategy is relatively easy for the majority of the students.
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This course emphasizes the practical application of the skills taught. Each student receives a 173 page Comprehension-Wise™ Course Notebook that includes relevant information and practical activities to practice, reinforce and improve the skills and strategies. Including the optional activities provided, the course can be scheduled in a variety of ways such as once a week for almost the entire school year or everyday during a nine week grading period. |
The Comprehension-Wise Pre-Test and Post-Test:
Students read five reading selections and answered six comprehension questions for each selection for a total of 30 questions. The average results are as follows:
| Pre-Test |
Post-Test |
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| 63% |
84% |
Upon completion of the Comprehension-Wise™
Course, one group of students made significant gains on the Reading Comprehension sub-test of the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. This group had been earmarked as having considerable problems with reading comprehension. In this group of students 18 out of 24 improved their national percentile scores by at least nine points or more. The improvements ranged from nine percentile points to 45 percentile points with an average improvement of 25 percentile points.
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