Know Better, Do Better | Professional Book

THE SCIENCE OF READING IN PRACTICE

DAVID & MEREDITH LIBEN

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language COMPREHENSION

To all the teachers who, in the hardest of times, continue to give so much so generously

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ............................................................................................... 5 Foreword by Margaret G. McKeown . ................................................................ 6 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 8 PART I: WHAT KIDS NEED TO KNOW TO COMPREHEND TEXTS CHAPTER 1: The Role of Knowledge . .................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2: Vocabulary: Meaningful Words . ..................................................... 38 CHAPTER 3: Morphology and Etymology: The Structure and Origin of Words ................................................. 55 PART II: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO FUEL THE READING BRAIN CHAPTER 4: Comprehension: An Overview ........................................................ 66 CHAPTER 5: Comprehension: A Deep Dive . ........................................................ 71 PART III: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO FUEL THE READING BRAIN CHAPTER 6: The Power of Questions and Centering the Text . .......................... 92 CHAPTER 7: The Power of Close Reading . ......................................................... 111 CHAPTER 8: Writing to Learn, Writing to Comprehend .................................... 131 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 144 Resources ........................................................................................................... 151 References . ....................................................................................................... 154 Index . ................................................................................................................. 158

“ Reading comprehension is not an observable skill. It’s not even a cluster of observable skills.... Cognitive scientists refer to comprehension as ‘representation,’ meaning it is represented in our minds as a set of understandings. ”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We’ve learned so much from so many. Foremost, the great Walter Kintsch. His patience with all our “what-if” and “what-about” questions knew no bounds. He died before this book came out; we hope he’d approve. “Reading has a lot to do with words!” We’re indebted to Chuck Perfetti for our deep understanding of that observation. His work with us in establishing the ladder of text complexity created the opening that helped move us away from the tyranny of leveled reading. Chuck reintroduced us to Moddy McKeown, our keenest-eyed reader. We’ll forever be grateful to Moddy for seeing what we were trying to do and claiming we accomplished it in her beautiful foreword. We were already big fans of her and Isabel Beck’s sweeping body of work. Thank you. We’re grateful to Keith Stanovich who, with Anne Cunningham, penned the best title ever for a piece of reading research: “What Reading Does for the Mind.” They established the importance of a volume of reading and how much it benefits even weak readers. To E. D. Hirsch, first in the literacy world to insist on the key role knowledge has in literacy. He trod a rocky road and smoothed it for the rest of us. Thanks to Sean Morrisey, who generously shared passion and ideas with us. Hugs to our fellow Vermonters, Joey Hawkins and Diana Leddy, who have collaborated with us on some of the best work we’ve gotten to do. Chapter 8 exists because of Joey’s feedback (“I know it’s a reading book, but…”). They remind us writing and reading are forever intertwined. Gratitude to Judith Hochman, first for Windward and helping us do better for our students and child. Then to Natalie Wexler and you for sharing those practices with the world. To Lily Wong Fillmore for insisting English language learners have as much curiosity and language aptitude as anybody. Thank you for juicy sentences and so much more. Eternal thanks to Sue Pimentel. Your dedication to equitable literacy and your friendship mean the world. Hugs to our patient editor, Ray Coutu, who managed to deliver sharp feedback with a velvet touch. To the talented educators who read early drafts closely: Julie Brown, Tori Filler, Callie Lowenstein, Jodi Rabat, Julie Robinson, and the oh-so-sharp crew at Imagine, Carey Swanson and April Thorburn. We appreciate you.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

FOREWORD by Margaret G. McKeown

I n this book, David and Meredith Liben gather the full force of their experience and knowledge to tackle the complex topic of reading comprehension. And they do it with aplomb, bringing wisdom and clarity to explanations of the reading brain’s workings and recommendations for instruction. David and Meredith are amazing educational professionals, not only because they have years of deep experience in teaching, school administration, and curriculum development, but also because they stay close to the research. They have investigative minds, realizing that knowing and understanding are ongoing processes. That spirit of investigation—that openness to not knowing, but working to find out—runs through what they have done in classrooms and what they recommend for teachers, including the approaches in this book. A strong motivation for writing this book came from the Libens’ deep concern that conversations about the science of reading (SOR) are dominated by foundational skills, and broader processes are being neglected. This book aims to change that by showing what else is crucial to reading success. Using clear, accessible language, the authors explain how processes work in the brain during reading, and how to use that understanding to create optimal instruction. In the Introduction, they share an anecdote that illustrates how language comprehension processes are a natural part of how we make sense of the world. They make the point that reading instruction needs to be grounded in how comprehension actually occurs, rather than in isolated routines to apply to texts. In Part I, the Libens lay the groundwork for comprehension with a discussion of the essential roles of knowledge and vocabulary. One notable knowledge-building recommendation is having all students at every reading level engage together in learning about the world. The authors explain how to build text sets that capture a range of complexities and allow even struggling readers to have access to the same core text as everyone else. In their discussion of vocabulary, the authors explain why building depth, not just breadth, is essential and how both operate to ensure comprehension. A compelling

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

aspect of their approach is placing awareness, investigation, and discovery at the heart of teaching vocabulary. They illustrate, through classroom anecdotes, how the best approach to promoting depth is devoting attention to, and use of, words throughout the school day. In fact, throughout the book, the Libens offer wonderful peeks into classrooms. The vocabulary chapter opens with a lovely portrait of a word-focused community, along with an example of a word-focused read-aloud that makes me want to race out and discuss a good book with kids! Part II focuses on the main attraction: comprehension. The foundation—for the Libens and for the field at large—is the Kintsch model of comprehension. That model is explored deeply and clearly here, taking the reader through concepts such as local and global cohesion, textbase, situation models, and standard of coherence, and showing how they matter to comprehension and instruction. They show how the processes that frame Kintsch’s model can and should also frame instructional decisions related to comprehension. At the heart of Part III is the Libens’ version of close reading—a discussion-based, interactive approach, with artful questioning at its core, that aligns with the research on how reading processes work. Artful may sound daunting, but it means a simple pattern of following the ideas, information, and connections across a text. The authors acknowledge a small role for standards and strategies, but explain that relying on them pulls attention away from the text and places it on the standard or strategy. The book’s focus remains on how aspects of the comprehension process operate under real conditions, and they provide powerful examples of encounters with text—examples that are clearly grounded in the authors’ experiences. Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension offers a perfect balance of research findings, instructional recommendations, and suggestions for resources to build and enhance classroom reading experiences. What makes the book refreshing to read, and valuable to classroom practice, is that the authors never lose sight of the goal of reading for understanding, and supporting students in doing that. And they emphasize the importance of undergirding that support with a sense of wonder and curiosity about the world, language, and what can be learned from reading. —Margaret G. McKeown Clinical Professor Emerita of Education, University of Pittsburgh Member of the Reading Hall of Fame

FOREWORD

Introduction

I n the decade David was principal of the Family Academy, the public elementary school that we established in New York, he often took the M10 bus at 113th Street and 8th Avenue down to the district office. Meetings were always scheduled right after the school day started and during rush hour, which promised lots of interesting people and things to observe on the way.

One morning, David noticed a mother and daughter sitting near him. The little girl looked about age four, dressed for school as her mother was for work. At one point, the girl looked around, pointed to the sign over the windshield, and asked her mother, “What’s that word after ‘NO’?”

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

“Spitting,” her mother responded.

“EWWWWW!” the girl said. After a minute of studying the sign and mouthing “no spitting,” she went on, “You mean some people need to be TOLD that?”, looking at her mother in disbelief. Clearly, this little girl came from a household where nobody had to be reminded that buses were not places to spit.

Her mother replied, “Yes. Some people haven’t been taught not to spit in public.”

A moment of silence passed while the girl absorbed that fact. Then she asked, “Who put that sign on the bus?” The mother explained it probably wasn’t the bus driver, but people who make the rules for the city, including the buses. The girl, New York City kid that she was, announced, “I don’t think a sign will stop people like that from spitting. Some kind of officer on the bus might, but not a sign!” As they departed at the next stop, they left David thinking about their lively exchange.

Why are we telling you this story?

Fueled by her curiosity and the inquisitiveness nurtured by her mother, this preschooler had just engaged in many of the same activities that we use with students to achieve reading comprehension. Let’s take a look at what she did to comprehend the text over the windshield. • First, she “read closely to determine what the text says.” Sound familiar? That’s because it appears in many standards documents and, more importantly, it is what proficient readers do to understand a text’s message: read closely. • Then she asked a clarifying question: “What’s that word after ‘NO’?” After being told the word in question was “spitting,” she scowled and said “EWWWWW!” It’s safe to say she was visualizing, another process that readers naturally do (and that we spend inordinate time trying to teach). • Next, she asked, “You mean some people need to be TOLD that?” Here she was, once again, asking a question, and making a “text to knowledge” connection (e.g., no one in her world would do that).

INTRODUCTION

• She then inferred there must be people in the world who weren’t like her or people she knew—people who need to be told not to spit on the bus. • Again, she asked another question: “Who put that sign on the bus?” • Making yet another inference: If there are people who would spit on the floor of a city bus, a sign wouldn’t stop them. • This preschooler had synthesized so much information: If there’s a “No Spitting” sign, some people must be spitting on a bus. But a sign won’t work for those types of people, and a different solution to the problem is needed. In a few short moments, she made a number of inferences, questioned the text and its premises, evaluated it critically, synthesized it, and came to a conclusion. She fully comprehended ”no spitting,” in other words. She didn’t need strategy instruction, which has dominated comprehension instruction for nearly half a century. From working with and observing hundreds of children, we know they think strategically about a wide variety of things, all the time. So why do we still teach them, painstakingly, how to do that? This question will be explored more later.

Children are inferring all the time.

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

Why We Wrote This Book In Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension , we show you how processes work in children’s minds when they are reading. And we show you how to use that understanding to create conditions for every one of your students

to experience seamless interactions with texts—texts far more complex and rich than “no spitting.” We want your instruction to grow out of the research on how comprehension actually happens, which is not by having students learn and apply a bunch of isolated strategies. “Reading comprehension” is a term we all use all the time in school. But what is it, really? And how do we ensure that all students achieve it? We wrote this book to answer those questions.

We want your instruction to grow out of the research on how comprehension actually happens, which is not by having students learn and apply a bunch of isolated strategies.

How This Book Is Organized Our discussion is structured this way:

• Part I focuses on the role of knowledge, vocabulary, morphology, and syntax, which, in essence, is an investigation of what lies underneath successful reading comprehension. We examine the importance of those ingredients and how to make sure you’re teaching them in vibrant ways. • Part II opens with a brief road map of the nature of reading comprehension, along with, in Chapter 4, a glossary of essential terms. In Chapter 5, we present the dominant research-based model of comprehension and what happens in the mind as we read. It’s the essential information you need to become an informed and effective teacher of reading comprehension. It also sets you up to make the best use of the practical applications we recommend in Part III. • Part III explains practical approaches to ensure your students’ steady growth in comprehension. Chapters 6, 7, and 8 show you how to make sure everything you do is working to develop students’ mental abilities before, during, and after reading.

And all along the way, we focus on the importance of motivating your students and developing their identities as readers, as well as your own.

INTRODUCTION

We also include stories in every chapter, incorporate snippets of relevant research, and turn quickly to practical application. For example, we show you a simple way to hold your students accountable for independent reading in ways that won’t tax your energy. We show you high-value writing activities that help students unpack the wide variety of sentences they encounter in texts. Our primary audience, as always, is you, the teacher, who works so hard to ensure every student is learning to read well and with confidence. We show you how to help each student thrive as a reader. We argue for the value of curiosity and how to notice what your students need so they can build and sustain the genuine pleasure that bubbles up when one’s curiosity is sparked through reading. And we show you what it can look like when a classroom—or a whole school— celebrates words, texts, and learning. Doing all those things fuels students’ reading growth until comprehension becomes every student’s superpower, rather than their problem. We’ve been worrying—a lot—that essential aspects of reading other than foundational skills are being neglected in conversations around the science of reading. So, with this book, we reenter the conversation and broaden it. We lay out, in the same friendly manner of our first book, what else is crucial: comprehension. Our Core Beliefs Over the years, we’ve made mistakes that have informed our core beliefs. Those in turn have shaped our teaching of children, our teaching of teachers, and, now, this book. We assure you, our own journey to solid outcomes for our students was uneven and downright rocky at times. “Know better, do better” applies to us as much as it does to any other practitioner. The parents of our students helped us toward success by forcing us to justify our decisions when they didn’t understand them, especially when our school got the lowest reading scores in the city. We’ve learned—painfully—that failure is opportunity if we take the chance to do things differently.

Doing all those things fuels students’ reading growth until comprehension becomes every student’s superpower, rather than their problem.

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

We made plenty of mistakes, even when we were on the right track. Here are some of our whoppers: • We didn’t provide enough texts reflecting the full range of our students’ identities, nor did we do enough to celebrate their cultures. • Our students should not have been reading only fiction in literature groups. • Despite learning much about the world from our curriculum, our students didn’t read full-length books to study history and science. That was a missed opportunity. • Though many of our students read books on their own, not all did. We never achieved the kind of high-volume independent reading we wanted for our students. We’ve learned a lot since then, so we’ve folded what we’ve learned into this book, as we did with foundational-skills practices in our first book, Know Better, Do Better: Teaching the Foundations So Every Child Can Read .

Foster curiosity and wonder!

INTRODUCTION

All Students Deserve Language-Rich Classrooms Effective instruction for multilingual learners is fun and lively, rich in discussions and student exchanges. It places a high value on the spoken word. Further, there are many approaches to teaching multilingual learners that

have universal application. The label “English learner” covers a lot of ground, from students who are new to English to those who are fluent in English. Of course, because students come from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences, designing instruction for universal application is simply good design. Here’s more proof of that. Julie Washington has been researching language and dialect for decades, considering those points and many other related ones for years. Her recent work with Mark

Students need to see themselves as valued and present in the books they’re reading to develop a sense of self as readers.

Seidenberg (Washington & Seidenberg, 2021) makes clear that there’s a lot of overlapping benefit to language-rich approaches for anyone who speaks a home language that differs from the one they are exposed to at school, as is the case for many Black children, Indigenous children, or any students being raised in non-mainstream regions of the country, such as Appalachia. We’ve always believed learning at school should be fun and student-oriented and when there’s a compelling research base that proves its effectiveness, well, that’s about as good as it gets.

Reading and Writing, Speaking and Listening, Must Fill the School Day

The other compelling reason we emphasize language-rich classrooms is because of the considerable overlap between spoken English and written English. To us, it’s clear both forms of language should be leveraged to maximize all students’ learning. We’re not alone. According to Seidenberg and Borkenhagen (2020), “Reading depends on spoken language. A child doesn’t re-learn a language when they learn to read; they link what they’ve learned from talking and listening to what they’re learning about print.” We want to make sure students are learning a lot from reading and writing, talking and listening, and doing a lot of it.

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

Students Must See Themselves and Others in the Literature They Read

Students need a variety of texts and topics in their reading diet. We often think about that as offering a variety of genres and text structures. But that’s only part of it. The topics, authors, characters, settings, and ideas students

encounter should vary widely, too. Students also need to see themselves as valued and present in the books they’re reading to develop a sense of self as readers, an ingredient, we argue, that is crucial to the outcomes we’re all looking for. Furthermore, they need access to books with characters that look and live like them, but also with people, settings, and cultures that are unfamiliar to them. That’s the right and equitable thing to do, so everyone has access to books with characters that look and live like them and everyone also gets to read about people, settings, and ways that are completely unfamiliar. But there’s even more to this. When readers are familiar with a book’s topic or setting, it’s easier for them to make the crucial connections that lead to comprehension. You’ll learn about that in Chapter 1: “The Role of Knowledge.” Readers don’t have to work as hard to make connections because they’re swimming in familiar and comfortable waters. That’s good because it builds confidence and is an important assist to comprehension. But reading for deep understanding is often hard work. In supportive ways, we need to provide all students with frequent opportunities for productive struggle. Otherwise, we won’t build their reading muscles and capacity to hang in there when the going gets tough.

A Note on Teaching Multilingual Learners In educational settings and in instructional materials, the needs of English language learners are often marginalized. We don’t do that in this book. We weave in frequent modifications that support multilingual English learners— and everyone else—through a universal design approach to teaching ELA. We’re fans of “designing at the margins,” the idea that when designing systems, accounting for the needs of the group(s) furthest away from the center of our attention will end up serving everyone better, and often in unexpected ways. That’s definitely true when it comes to teaching multilingual learners (MLs). The language-rich practices we include help MLs learn to speak and understand what they read in English in order to thrive alongside their peers—while making learning more vibrant for all students.

When we introduce such a practice, we call your attention to it with this blue symbol:

INTRODUCTION

Foundational Skills Undergird Everything We Say, But They Aren’t Our Focus We were surprised by the positive reception of Know Better, Do Better: Teaching the Foundations So Every Child Can Read. A lot of teachers have told us that they found it friendly and helpful. They’ve told us it doesn’t make them feel guilty for the things they didn’t know. They’ve told us it laid the groundwork for learning about reading. And that’s gratifying. We suspect their response was largely due to how forthright we were about overhauling a public school, and highlighting the mistakes we made. Between the two of us, we’ve worked in schools for more than 50 years. That’s a lot of time to make mistakes! But that book was only about one aspect of reading: foundational skills. Though we don’t discuss those skills in this book, their importance is hovering in the background. When students haven’t attained solid foundational skills, you can still build their comprehension and confidence, and we show you how. Foundational skills, essential as they are, are just part of the reading story. This book tells the rest of the story. In Closing... In Part I, we show you how to punch up students’ knowledge of the world, vocabulary, and understanding of how words and sentences work—the essential building blocks of reading comprehension.

KNOW BETTER, DO BETTER: COMPREHENSION

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