so early in the school year are my students

academically prepared? Many come in not knowing

letters/sounds. Is my action research topic

appropriate? (if not reading independently, can I still

provide interventions to support comprehension of

stories being read TO students?

-Can I keep student data anonymous? RTI cases?

-Most effective and efficient way to collect data?

-Getting routine established for kindergarten students

prior to data collection

-Will I have access to certain tests (ex: WJ III Passage

Comprehension test

Randi- Reading Specialist (in school)

Jacqueline- Reading Specialists (different school)

Heather/ J.Z- speech and language pathologists

Sally- principal

-making predictions about character behaviors

- identifying reasons for character actions

-limited life experiences/understandings (some S not aware of what a skunk/hippopotamus/ambulance is)

-limited vocabulary

Small Group- Shared Reading - extended read alouds for non readers (focus group for actual data collection), Guided reading for readers

Assessment: Fontas and Pinnell Benchmark Reading Assessment

fluency, accuracy and comprehension. Phonemic Awareness/Blending/Segmenting/Rhyme/ Onset&Rime.

Delacruz, S. (2013). Using interactive read-alouds to increase k-2 students' reading

for students to be actively engaged in their

reading. This could be useful during RTI or

other small group /station time.

determine the reading strategies used. K-1 students, frequently responded with

using pictures, words, and sounding out words to regulate their reading. The study found

that additional support is needed in supporting students in using a variety of strategies

to monitor their reading comprehension.

Martin, L. E., & Kragler, S. (2011). Becoming a self-regulated reader: A study of primary-grade 

students' reading strategies.Literacy Research and Instruction, 50(2), 89-104. Retrieved from 

http://search.proquest.com/docview/1283767712?accountid=28829

2) How does vocabulary size affect students comprehension?

3)Would student comprehension be positively impacted by utilizing manipulatives

to support interactive read alouds ?

4) What strategies do teachers use to model appropriate comprehension techniques during interactive read aloud time?  (See Using Interactive Read Aloud to Increase K-2 Students' Reading Comprehension for more information)

3 obstacles to improving reading in primary grades: 1) a short-term orientation toward instruction and instructional reform- spending large amount of time phonological awareness/alphabet knowledge/ and work reading and be done quickly and easily. Comprehension/acquired vocabulary and conceptual knowledge are harder to measure/achieve (p.66) 2) teacher expertise. Teacher knowledge in how develop vocabulary/comprehension skills and conceptual/content knowledge cannot be scripted or achieved through curriculum alone (p. 66) 3) Time- "it remains the case that the expectations for what students should know and be able to do by the end of each of the primary grades are greater than they have ever been. Yet the amount of time students spend in school has been essentially unchanged for generations" (p.67)

Article suggests spending more time on vocabulary development and verbalization of comprehension strategies as used to provided students with tools to self monitor in their reading.

Duke, N. K., & Block, M. K. (2012). Improving reading in the primary grades. The Future of

Explicit Instruction:teachers plan lessons based on clear objectives that progress purposefully from less challenging to more challenging skills and content. Direct explanations and modeling of concepts, skills and strategies, along with extended opportunities for guided and independent practice with clear corrective and positive feedback. Emphasizes synthetic phonics instruction (teaching individual sound-spelling correspondences and encouraging children to "sound out" words. (p. 269)

Guided Reading: goal is to promote students' silent/independent reading in increasingly challenging texts. Consists of small group lessons in which the primary activity is text reading and instruction is focused on primarily on reading for meaning. Teachers teach and prompt students to use reading strategies that involve three sources of text information: meaning cues from background knowledge and text context, cues derived from students' understanding of English syntax, and visual information derived from print (including sound-symbol relationships and sound-spellings associated with larger orthographic units such as onsets and rimes)(p.269)

Typical School Instruction: reading instruction as dictated by building/district. Students received school provided supplemental instruction if deemed eligible. (p. 278)

Reading comprehension was measured using the WJ III Passage Comprehension subtest--cloze based assessment where students read brief sentences or paragraphs and supply the missing word, and the Gates- MacGinitie Reading Comprehension subtest-- reading a passage and answering multiple choice questions.

Results for reading Comprehension indicate that explicit, systematic instruction in listening and reading comprehension may produce better outcomes (p. 289)

A more explicit approach is associated with stronger effects on students' phonemic decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension. Students with learning difficulties may benefit from instruction in listening/reading comprehension that is more structured, sequential, and explicit that is typically provided. (p. 290)

Denton, C., Fletcher, J., Taylor, W., Barth, A., & Vaughn, S. (2014).  An experimental evaluation of guided reading and explicit interventions for primary-grade students at-risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness,7(3), 268-293. doi:10.1080/19345747.2014.906010

"Following each critical sentence [marked by the green traffic light], the child manipulated toys as directed by the sentence, whereas children in a control condition read and reread critical sentences. The manipulation should ensure indexing of words to objects as well as requiring the child to mesh affordances as directed by syntax to accomplish the appropriate operations on the toys. Compared to the children who reread, the children using manipulation remembered more, answered inference questions more accurately , and provided better justifications for their answers to the inference questions. (p. 391)

"The data are quite clear: physical manipulation has a profound positive effect on students' reading performance when executed in small groups. Importantly, physical manipulation enhanced children's performance to a comparable degree on questions pertaining to critical sentences that either they or others manipulated. (p. 396)

Concerns/Issues with this article: The students were already reading at or above grade level-- what would this have shown had at-risk or below grade level readers had been involved?

What about whole group manipulation- felt story board, puppets, student theater?

Glenberg, A., Brown, M., & Levin, J. (2006). Enhancing comprehension in small reading groups using a manipulation strategy. Contemporary Educational Psychology,32(3), 389-399.  

doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2006.03.001

Teacher used (teacher selected) read alouds to model oral reading, encourage discussion of text and connect to students' individual reading and writing.  Followed a consistent pattern of discussing concepts about print, doing a picture walk - students are encouraged to make predictions based on what they see in pictures- asked open-ended questions throughout reading, capitalized on student experiences to make connections to event(s) in the book. (pp. 433-434)

Utilized student turn-and-talk with partners and the teacher used a written component to extend student thinkings (could be related to the story read at the time or connected to another text- acts as a "springboard" to writing. (p.435)

"Interactive read alouds gave the teacher opporunities to extend student literacy understanding within the context of authentic literature" (p.435)

4 key aspects of teacher's discourse (pp. 435-437)

1. Confirming- throughout the read aloud the teacher would address each student's contribution to the discussion. This promoted a positive atmosphere where students felt free to share their thoughts and ideas. It also led to important discussions regarding students interpretation of literature. Teacher and students alike provide feedback regarding the topics of conversation. Confirming student contribution doesn't have to occur immediately after a comment is made- but can be revisited throughout the read-aloud. Teacher is able to guide students in the process of building meaning of the selected read aloud story-- students present ideas and teacher is able to shift them appropriately.
2. Modeling- "The teacher can make certain ways of thinking and comprehending explicit by modeling how to read, understand, and analyze a story". Teacher is able to seamlessly insert predictions, questions character actions/events in the story or clarify parts of the story that could be difficult and request more information. Teacher demonstrates how to use the pictures as clues and making connections to personal experiences or other read texts. Modeling is a great time to pair comprehension strategies to their actions while conducting and interactive read aloud.
3. Extending- "the teacher takes what the students know and guides them to a deeper meaning, sometimes by focusing on an important theme or idea that might not have been discussed by simply facilitating the students' comments." Extend student understanding by making connections to whole class or individual experiences, make connections to other texts, or events in the community/world. Teacher could select a main theme/topic of the story and encourage discourse through questioning.
4. Building- An interactive read aloud allows for teachers to help students build meaning [of a text] together and also learn together as they read the story. This includes generating idea on unfamiliar vocabulary words and provided student-friendly explanations. "In a transactional exchange of ideas, it is significant to have many opportunities for the students to be able to guide the conversation and contribute to the meaning as it is for the teacher to direct the way the books are discussed. The student centered approach to reading and learning reflects the power of the interactive read alouds- to engage and motivate childrens' involvement in the reading process" (p. 437).

Wiseman, A. (2010). Interactive Read Alouds: Teachers and Students Constructing Knowledge and Literacy Together. Early Childhood Education Journal,38(6), 431-438. doi:10.1007/s10643-010-0426-9

thoughtful questions prompting students to recall a story in some way within a reasonable time frame, etc (pp. 742-743)

This article focused on the use of sophisticated stories as well as non fiction books in Pre-K and K. Sophisticated stories include moments when readers have to infer character emotion/motive, have rich vocabulary.

Text talk (Beck and McKeown, 2001, p. 743): as the teacher reads, draw attention to new or unfamiliar words by inserting a short definition or explanation. ask open ended questions where children must provide an explanation as opposed to one or two word responses.

"The way books are shared with children matters" (p. 742) "Analytic talk involves making predictions or inferences that explains a character's motivation or connect events from different parts of the story" (p. 742).

Uses a series of 3 read alouds on 1 book- 1 to 2 days between readings (Table 1, p. 747)

1st R.A-- book intro, vocabulary support techniques (body movements, quick/simple), analytical comments/questions, and after reading "why" questions. (advised to avoid Concepts about Print in book intro)

2nd R.A-- enrich children's comprehension of the story and provide further opportunities for children to engage in analytic talk. continue to highlight new vocabulary words-- verbally define more words (provide more concrete examples of new words), ask more frequent questions to encourage students to make inferences (focus on other characters besides main) , ask questions that explain motives/emotions

3rd R.A-- integrate a guided reconstruction of the story with the teacher reading some of the story while students retell the story based on the previous readings. *Reconstructions are retellings of story events along with explanations about what caused those events and what character are thinking during the event.* Two prompts: "Whats happening here?" and "do you remember what will happen next?" Prompt students to tell important details as seen on the cover, recalling title with out teacher involvement. Teacher continues to insert verbal explanations of words, point to illustrations, and make dramatic motions.

The repeated interactive read aloud approach requires that teachers study closely each book they read. They must craft effective comments and questions and be able to respond on the spot to children's answers, which often indicate misinterpretations and misunderstandings. (p. 750)

I.R.A integrates vocabulary expansion and comprehension strategies across many readings. Students would be encouraged to name strategies as they are used ( ex: making connections, retelling, visualizing, asking questions, making predictions, inferences, etc)

McGee, Lea M., & Schickedanz, Judith A. (2007). Repeated interactive read-alouds in preschool and kindergarten. The Reading Teacher. 60(8), 742-751. doi:10.1598/RT.60.8.4

"higher-order processes go beyond lower-ower processes such as perception, memory and association, by requiring combinations of cognitive actions and use of information beyond what is given" (p. 521). 

Both conditions begin with a read-aloud (3 pre-selected texts) and providing definition of 10 target words. Target words are Tier 2 words (words that are more often seen in text than used in conversation). 

• Students from the Repeated condition( R.C) were read the story and when a target word was read, the teacher stopped and provided a student friendly definition. 5/10 target words were presented and the next 5 words were presented the next day. for the duration of that reading, definitions were paired with the target word. Students were engaged in activities to practice the friendly definitions. Activities focused on learning and practicing the meaning of the target words (memory games, verbally answering yes/no to word and definition pairing, etc) (p.523).
  
• Interactive Condition (I.C) students were read the story once without interruption. the next day, 5/10 words were introduced and defined with a student-friendly definition and followed same 7 day reading schedule as R.C. Follow up activities were designed to prompt students to think about and respond to situations with the taught words Students had to indicate if the example the teacher provided was an accurate use of the target word. Students were asked to use words/create and explain using the context of the words. (explaining why a sentence using the target word made sense or not) (p.523)

4. production measure- this measure was a picture of a scene that is designed to prompt use for the target word for that particular cycle.

Findings: both approaches showed significant advantages over no vocabulary exposure during read alouds. I.C better enabled students to integrate words into context and to produce words associated with a picture, relative to the repetition and control conditions.

McKeown, M., & Beck, I. (2014). Effects of vocabulary instruction on measures of language processing: Comparing two approaches. Early Childhood Research Quarterly,29(4), 520-530. 

This article cited Bernardo and Dougherty (2005) as having said, "Teachers who implement interactive read-alouds in their classrooms tend to foster comprehension, promote independent thinking, and improve thinking through discussion.  

Traditional R.A is a two-step process 1) teacher reads to the students while they listen then guides discussion after the reading. I.R.A encourages student discourse through meaningful questioning and talking. Teacher has a clear teaching point with both fiction and nonfiction texts. Teacher identifies key areas of story/areas of potential confusion/etc and marks with post it notes.

Being read to is essential is the success of readers. A study was cited as stating "benefits are greatest when the child is an active participant, engaging in discussions about stories, learning to identify letters and words, and talking about the meaning of words" (Anderson, et al. 1985, p. 23).

Key benefits of I.R.A (p.21):teacher modeling of literacy skills, the ability to use analytic talk and an increase of student awareness related to genres and content knowledge.

Vital that teacher selects books that are of high interest, have rich language, and multiple layers of meaning. Teachers can use these read alouds to teach fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary development. As students are exposed to I.R.A - they are a valuable resource in selecting books of interest. 5 areas of focus in comprehension: noting the big idea, making predictions, making connections, asking questions, and summarizing.

Findings: students reading scores increased over the course of the 9 week study (by at least 1 level) comprehension was positively impacted by I.R.A. Used DRA for data collection.

Delacruz, S. (2013). Using interactive read-alouds to increase k-2 students' reading