READING COMPREHENSION – NEW & UPDATED CONTENT
I’ve recently updated this content here and here. And I now have a separate eBook out that takes a much more comprehensive approach. Click the link below or scroll to the end.
Reporting back
Just a quick post to report back on my Reading Hacks. I had the opportunity to try out my prototype template the other day. The participants were a group of graduates from our training. They all had their NCALNE (Voc) and are involved in workplace literacy around the country.
Our focus for the training day was a refresh of the big picture for embedding literacy and numeracy as well as a specific examination of what they could be doing to strengthen reading comprehension including working with workplace texts.
I’ll do another post on the big picture stuff that I’m currently using as I only want to talk about my approach to reading comprehension. If you missed it the template and a summary is here.
What did we do?
Very simple…
- The participants, who are all training facilitators, sat a paper-based version of the reading comprehension assessment generated by their organisation. This is a standardised assessment, and they sat a “dummy version” but essentially similar to what their own learners have to sit. Part of their work is to administer this.
- We had some discussion around how you sell this assessment process to learners. It was a timely discussion due to the compliance requirements involved. These trainers have already thought through some of the psychology behind how you talk to learners about this and will continue this discussion internally.
- I then asked them to then do a quick analysis of the reading test using my template and have a go at coding the questions according to the list. They worked in pairs and small groups to do this with some guidance from me as necessary.
- We reviewed the results together. There were some differences around how a few items had been coded. We agreed that it’s a subjective process sometimes and that the actual analysis was probably less important than what they do with it afterwards.
- From there I handed out some workplace forms they use in their own training and made them generate questions in the style of the standardised test that they had just sat and then analysed. They did this in pairs so they could bounce ideas off each other.
- We finished it up with a review of what question items each pair had generated including discussion around what aspects of the question made it more or less difficult for potential readers.
The results
I don’t have copies of what these participants actually generated as these are specific to their own texts and organisation. However, my reflection was that it worked really well.
The list isn’t perfect and you have to “interpret” some of the questions creatively in places, but it’s a short list and did the job in a short time frame (about 2.5 hours).
They came up with preliminary lists of their own question items and I finished off by giving them some standard question wording “in the text…”, “according to the article…”.
Next steps
This group agreed that they would continue with the question item generation beyond our workshop. I’m hoping that they will also internalise the question generation process so that they can generate verbal questions “on the spot” as generated by needs or other analysis.
I think that they actually do this already, but my point was to shift this to a much more explicit process. At the moment this is mostly automatic and intuitive and the idea with the NCALNE (Voc) training is to keep shifting people to a more explicit model of delivery when it comes to the embedded literacy and numeracy.
From my side, it was a great place to start a conversation around teaching inferencing skills. When I do this again I’ll pay more attention to inferencing in particular. Inferencing is hard to teach and it was a helpful process for the group to code a question as requiring inferencing or deciding if the information was explicit in the text.
One of the things that we didn’t do was link the questions they were generating to specific steps on the Learning Progressions framework that we use in New Zealand. I deliberately avoided this as I didn’t want to get bogged down in minute details. I’ll probably have a go at this soon, but it was good to keep things simple first time around.
Let me know what you think in the comments. How would you use the template or this approach to dealing with reading comprehension? Do you think the questions need to be directly linked to steps on the progressions? Does it actually matter?
Reading Between the Lines – The Secret Guide to Hack Reading & Listening Comprehension
Discover how to hack reading and listening comprehension so that you can check if people really understand what the hell it is you’re saying
I can show you how to hack reading and listening comprehension. This will help you if you are a teacher, trainer, course writer or salesperson who relies on content.
Once you’ve been through this guide you will understand:
- How to write assessment items for any reading or spoken text
- How to structure your questions or assessment items so that they are easy to use with online platforms that allow you to write self-marking quizzes
- The difference between a question that relies on explicit knowledge versus a question that requires the reader to “infer” the answer
Most online courses are rubbish. They’re just an information dump. The same thing happens with classroom and online teaching. If you want your people to actually learn your content or you care about whether they understand what you’re saying to them, then this is for you. You can read more here.
CHECK OUT READING BETWEEN THE LINES: THE SECRET STEP BY STEP GUIDE BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about Reading Between The Lines: The Secret Step-By-Step Guide.
Literacy & Numeracy – It’s Not Rocket Science
Learn the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy with Graeme Smith
Discover how to be more successful in your teaching journey. I’ll introduce and explain some of the fundamentals of adult literacy and numeracy.
Once you’ve finished reading, you will have a better understanding of the basics including how to integrate or embed literacy and numeracy into your teaching. This includes with technical and vocational education. You can read more here.
Now bundled wth two free printable resources – a place value chart and hundreds grid.
CHECK OUT LITERACY AND NUMERACY: IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about Literacy and Numeracy: It’s Not Rocket Science.
The Educator Entrepreneur – Don’t Bring a Whiteboard Marker to a Knife Fight
Learn how to think like an Entrepreneur with Graeme Smith
Education is a tough business to work in. And that’s true regardless of whether you are a teacher, a trainer or any kind of specialist educator. But what if you’re a business owner AS WELL…!
If you’re like me, most days you’re probably pretty excited about what you do. But some days… Some days I can’t understand why anyone would want to work in education. But I learned to survive and thrive and you can too. Teach yourself a lesson and start thinking like an entrepreneur. Read more here
CHECK OUT THE EDUCATOR ENTREPRENEUR – DON’T BRING A WHITEBOARD MAKER TO A KNIFE FIGHT BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about The Educator Entrepreneur – Don’t Bring a Whiteboard Marker to a Knife Fight
What is Learner-Centred Teaching – 12 Concepts from Te Ao Māori You Should Embrace to Create Learning Success
Discover time-honoured approaches to learner-centred teaching
What if I told you that there were time-honoured approaches to teaching and learning you can use to create the conditions for learning success. Imagine if your teaching really connected with your learners… What if your classroom or training environment was a place where your learners felt like they belonged and wanted to learn?
Here’s a secret. It’s totally possible if you discover and embrace time-honoured concepts from Te Ao Māori – the Māori world. This book is for you if you want to teach or train in a way that is more learner-centred or if you want to learn to think in a more holistic way. Read more here
CHECK OUT WHAT IS LEARNER-CENTRED TEACHING? 12 CONCEPTS FROM TE AO MĀORI YOU SHOULD EMBRACE TO CREATE LEARNING SUCCESS BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about What is Learner-Centred? 12 Concepts from Te Ao Māori You Should Embrace to Create Learning Success
Three Simple Approaches You Need for Learner-Centred Teaching
Find out more about three of the fundamentals of adult teaching
Have you ever thought about how to improve your teaching? Have you ever wondered what it takes to create learner success in any teaching environment? Well, you need three things. Make that four things… You need to:
- Understand what people mean when they talk about “learner-centred” teaching.
- Know how to leverage your learners’ prior knowledge.
- Have simple ways of increasing the motivation of your students.
- Know what learner agency is and how to develop it.
Read more here.
CHECK OUT THREE SIMPLE APPROACHES YOU NEED FOR LEARNER-CENTRED TEACHING BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about Three Simple Approaches You Need for Learner Centred Teaching – Proven Ways to Use Prior Knowledge, Increase Motivation and Develop Learner Agency to Pave the Road to Learning Success
Writing
How To Not Suck At Writing More Than 280 Characters
Learn strategies taught in university and college writing courses
So you can write 280 characters. So can a lot of people. But what happens beyond that? What happens if you want – or have to – write something longer?
This is where it gets tricky for some. Discover you you can write long-form content like blog posts, articles and books. Read More Here
CHECK OUT HOW TO NOT SUCK AT WRITING MORE THAN 280 CHARACTERS BY GRAEME SMITH
Click the link below to find out more about How to Not Suck at Writing More than 280 Characters.
Appreciate this post. Will try іt out.