The NYS-MEP Comprehension Professional Learning Community met on November 18, 2021 for the second meeting in the series. Please see the topical outline below of content discussed, as well as pre-reading, meeting materials, and additional reading resources and references.
I. Surface features (Chi & Van Lehn, 2012) - Information that is directly stated in text (facts, events, characters, setting).
II. Deep structure (Chi & Van Lehn, 2012) - Information that is implied in text (concepts, themes, categories, situations, etc.).
III. Concepts are abstract, implicit, and often unstated. Mental representations of a person’s “organized information about objects, events, actions, qualities, or relationships” and include ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving.
- Big ideas/concepts/themes
- Universal ideas in social studies (immigration, migration, representation, governance...)
- Universal ideas in science (habitats, water cycle, adaptation...)
- Universal ideas in ELA (greed, honest, acceptance...)
Students require prior knowledge of the concepts in order to comprehend what the text means. The problem occurs when students have not yet learned an important concept. Without adequate prior conceptual knowledge, their comprehension of the information remains only of what the text says (or textbase). Students need to know to look for the deep structure.
IV. Revisit text-based representation and situation model
V. Revisit transfer
VI. Text complexity
- Quantitative Dimension
Measures that determine readability such as a Lexile measure. Quantitative aspects of text include word length, sentence length, vocabulary and others.
- Qualitative Levels (See Handouts 1, 2, and 3)
- Purpose/Meaning
- Text Structure
- Language Features
- Knowledge Demand
Summary:
- Learner processes information: Text-based (what the text says) and situation model (what the text means)
- Text presents information: Surface features (stated) and deep structure (unstated concepts)
- Learner – requires prior knowledge of the concept and must attend to relevant information so that transfer occurs
- Text has layers of complexity
- Instruction in civics and history provide many opportunities to build knowledge of recurring transferrable concepts
Pre-Reading
- ReadWorks, A Tea Party in Boston
Meeting Materials
- Glossary
- PowerPoint
Additional Reading
- Shanahan On Literacy - Planning Lessons with Complex Text
- Reading Rockets Blogs about Literacy: Shanahan on Literacy - Eight Ways to Help Kids Read Complex Text
- Reading Rockets Blogs about Literacy: Shanahan on Literacy - A Fine Mess: Confusing Close Reading and Text Complexity
- Letting the Text Take Center Stage - How the Common Core State Standards Will Transform English Language Arts Instruction
- Council Of Chief State School Officers (CCSO) - Supplemental Information for Appendix A of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy New Research on Text Complexity
- Handout 1 - Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric (Informational Text)
- Handout 2 - Text Complexity: Qualitative Measures Rubric (Informational Text)
References
Bransford, J.D. (1984). Schema activation and schema acquisition: Comments on Richard C. Anderson’s remarks. In Learning to read in American Schools: Basal readers and content texts (pp. 259-272). Lawrence Erlbaum Publisher.
Chi, M. T. H. & VanLehn, K. A. (2012). Seeing deep structures from the interactions of surface features. Educational Psychologist, 47, 177 – 188.
Donovan, M.S. & Bransford, J.D. (2005). Introduction. In M.S. Donovan & J.D. Bransford (Eds.), How students learn: History in the classroom (pp. 1-26). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Ferretti, R. P., MacArthur, C.A., & Okolo, C.M. (2007). Students’ misconceptions about U.S. westward migration. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 40, 145 – 153.
Keeley, P., Eberle, F. & Dorsey, C. (2008.) Uncovering student ideas in science (Volume 3). Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association Press.
Kintsch, W. (1998). Comprehension: A paradigm for cognition. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Lord, K.M. (under revision). Disciplinary concepts: Fourth graders’ comprehension of recurring history concepts. Journal of Research in Childhood Education.
Lord, K.M. & Noel, A.M. (under review). Civic concepts: Opportunities to deepen elementary students’ knowledge of democratic governance and citizenship.
Lord, K.M., Noel, A.M., & Slevin, B. (2016). Social studies concepts: An analysis of the NAEP and states’ standards. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 30, 389-405.
McCrudden, M. T., & Schraw, G. (2007). Relevance and goal-focusing in text processing. Educational Psychology Review, 19, 113– 29.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018). How people learn II: Learners, contexts, and cultures. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: https://doi.org/10.17226/24783.