THE MORE YOU READ THE MORE YOU KNOW

THE MORE YOU READ, THE MORE YOU KNOW. 21 ST CCLC LITERACY SERIES OCTOBER 2016 EARLY LITERACY SPECIALISTS, MARSHALL UNIVERSITY

EVERYONE KNOWS KNOWLEDGE PLAYS A ROLE IN COMPREHENSION, BUT HOW BIG OF A ROLE?

“THE BASEBALL STUDY, ” RECHT & LESLIE (1988)

“THE BASEBALL STUDY, ” RECHT & LESLIE (1988) • Compared reading comprehension for four categories of students: High reading ability High knowledge of Low knowledge of baseball Low reading ability High knowledge of Low knowledge of baseball

Measure of Comprehension 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% high reading low reading ability & high ability & low knowledge

A STUDENT DOESN’T HAVE JUST ONE LEVEL. EACH STUDENT HAS MANY LEVELS DEPENDING ON TOPIC & KNOWLEDGE.

• Students cannot build knowledge and vocabulary without a high volume of reading. • Most words are learned through reading or being read to. • Building knowledge helps level the playing field for students.

NOT ALL HIGH-VOLUME READING IS EQUALLY EFFECTIVE • Research by Landauer and Dumais shows that students learn new words up to four times faster when they read a series of related texts. • Reading a number of texts within a topic grows knowledge and vocabulary far faster than any other approach

ONE WAY TO READ AROUND A TOPIC… Text Sets! achievethecore. org

TEXT SETS: THE SPECS 1. Collection of resources organized for students to build knowledge about a specific topic 2. Glossary of terms to help students access challenging vocabulary 3. Suggested activities to help students capture and express their learning

THEME VS TOPIC • Theme • Central concept • Friendship, family, loyalty, etc. • Topic • Specific • Plants, Adaptation, Climate, etc. • Repeated vocabulary terms • Technical vocabulary

MONEY AND SPENDING EXPERT PACK

INTEREST INVENTORIES Ø Administered at the beginning of the program and repeated periodically throughout the year Ø Make sure students answer honestly without penalty Ø Constructed response inventories give a deeper understanding of each student Ø Grade and age-appropriate

A PICTURE OF KNOWLEDGE • Works well with resources that provide a lot of varied information • Resources that provide an overview of a topic • Resources that contain many facts and basic information

NEXT STEPS • Interest inventory • Plan a field trip to the library • Plan an expert visit • Collect resources around topics and encourage students to read, read!

NEXT STEPS • Do you need a copy of a sample interest inventory? We will provide you with one! • What TOPICS do you have in mind? • Answer these two questions via e-mail to Josh Asbury at: jmasbury@k 12. wv. us