Guided Practice 1

Guided Practice: Guiding Questions to Improving Reading Comprehension Skills

Brett Ilie
Manhattan College: Education 360

Guided Practice 2
Abstract
This paper entails the 10 hours of time I spent at a middle school in the Bronx. While I
was there I observed a 7th grade E.L.A. classroom and noticed that some students had problems
with reading quizzes after spending 20 minutes each class on silent reading. I worked with three
students in order to try and help them progress in their reading comprehension skills. When
developing my plan I researched ways in which students were able to attain as much knowledge
from readings and able to improve their reading skills. I came up with five questions that I
believe to be universal for all reading material and will help them be able to fully understand
what they had just read. After being tested a few times on reading quizzes each student was
successful and improved on the quizzes. I believe these steps taken can be very beneficial with
students who have a hard time with reading comprehension.

Guided Practice 3
Guided Practice: Guiding Questions to Improving Reading Comprehension Skills
Introduction
When I was observing Ms. Jones and Ms. Berardis 7th grade E.L.A. classroom at a
middle school in an urban setting, I found that a few of the students had problem with reading
comprehension. The students were un able to understand the plot in the classroom reading of the
book A Long Walk To Water which is a required book to read and is a 7th grade reading level.
The students were not doing well on the weekly quizzes on the two chapters they had to read for
that week and I decided to look for possible causes. I think the problem the students were
experiencing was that they were not at the expected reading level for their grade and they were
not being helped for that problem. When doing research I thought the first thing I could do was
give the students more attention, to help them focus and try and stay on task. Once that was not
working because the students still did not understand what they read, I tried pointing out key
information myself from each chapter, trying to remind them of what happened. But that then
failed as well; the students were unable to remember specific parts of the chapters. From there I
came up with five guiding questions that would be universal to each chapter. My hypothesis was
that the reading material was too difficult for the students to comprehend, so I chose to break
down the reading and have students go through chapter by chapter with guiding questions.
Research
In the first study that I read, Think Aloud: Modeling the Cognitive Process of Reading
Comprehension by Beth Davey, Davey discusses five main problems students have when
reading. The first point is that students are unable to make hypotheses on the reading material
before they start read. The students needed to learn how to predict what they were reading based
on the title in order for them to get a basic comprehension of what is being read. The next

Guided Practice 4
problem students had was that they were unable to organize information mentally into images in
their heads. Students could not picture what was going on, leading them to confusion of what is
happening. The third problem students faced were unable to activate prior knowledge. Not
connecting prior knowledge to the material they are reading hinders students from fully
understanding the material. The fourth problem was that as students read, they do not take a
break and monitor (1983 Davey) what they are understanding as they are reading. Then lastly
the fifth problem students had was when being faced with comprehension problems, they were
unable to understand or answer the question. It is suggested for each problem, that each student
think aloud the information in the reading in order to become better readers. First the teacher
shows the students how, then they work in partners, and lastly they are able to do it on their own.
The second study focuses on the differentiation between good, average, and poor 9th
grade readers. The study had 102 students participating and where broken up into the three
categories. They were rated and put into categories based on standardized test sore and teacher
ratings. In the study there were two passages that the groups of students had to close read. One of
the readings was defined as the type of reading every 9th grader should be able to read; it was a
9th grade reading level passage. The next passage was one of a higher grade such as 11th grade
which made it more difficult to understand. Then the next two following weeks the students of
each group were asked to write down as much information as they were able to remember as best
they can with words from the text. As speculated, the above average recalled more in both
passages, although in the more challenging passage a significant amount forgot most of the
material. The same results were in the average and poor groups just on a lesser level. Bonnie J. F.
Meyer, Brandt, D. M., & Bluth, G. J.. (1980).

Guided Practice 5
The last study was a study that had 1265 participants ranging from grades 2-5 in 19
different schools. More than have the students were ELL students with a wide variety of
ethnicities. There were two groups set up a control group and a reading partner group. In the
control group, students learned reading comprehension in the normal classroom and or working
on their own. Then the reading partner group the students were set up with a partner reading,
learning, and the same material as the control group. Each group was tested in the Fall, Winter,
and Spring on evaluating the progression of the students learning from each groups. Towards the
end of the study, notes, test scores, and observations showed that reading partner groups
benefited more in their reading.
Making My Plan
When starting my plan it was like trial and error, finding out what fit best with the
students. I thought that the students needed more supervision or acknowledgment from an adult
in the classroom. Since that did not work, I decided I wanted to help the students pick out key
information from each chapter. I wanted to sit down in a group with the three students and
together pull apart what happens in the text, trying to get them to write down the information
from that chapter. I started off just talking about main events with the students, but noticed they
would not write down what we talked about, maybe because they thought they could remember
it. Anyways, I came up with questions that would help the students understand. I did research
and much of the material I found suggested that students work with guiding questions and in
groups/with partners. I decided to device questions that I found would present the students with
better ways to look at the text and pull information. In total there were five universal questions to
help each student grasp what they just read and fully understand it. The first question I asked was
what information was presented in the beginning, middle, end of the chapter? This question led

Guided Practice 6
students to go back to the beginning, middle, and end to try to find key information that mattered
for the story. The second question I asked was what was described in detail? This question
provoked students to close read and see what had detail compared to what did not. The third
question I asked was what did I learn from this? The purpose of this question was for the
students to be able to see what they learned and understood from the text. The fourth question
asked was how did the characters or the new information change what is happening? This led
students to look back and then foreshadow what is to come next. Then lastly I asked how does
this connect to you? In order for students to fully internalize the information, they needed to be
able to connect the information to themselves and see how they are alike or unlike from the
character. I figured each of these questions helped the students draw information, understand the
information, and then connect the information to get a full round knowledge of what they read.
Execute The Plan
On my first day of starting my plan, I gave extra attention to the students in order to help
students focus; the constant adult supervision made them actually read. Then I pointed out key
events that occur in the chapter so the students can see what is important to look at. Lastly, I
created guiding questions to help them understand what to ask when they read. At first the
students did not understand what I was doing, they seemed confused and were not sure how they
can pull out information themselves. The first day that I gave the guiding questions I worked
with them reading and answering the questions like in a discussion. The next few times I let them
try and solve it on their own. If they needed help, by asking for help, then I would step in or ask
one of the other students to help by pointing out events or trying to guide them in the right spot
of the chapter. Towards the end they were mainly able to answer the questions on their own. The

Guided Practice 7
first two weeks the students definitely had trouble answering the questions because they have not
done anything like this before. Previously they just read and were quizzed on the chapter.
After a few weeks of this, I noticed one of the three students was not advancing like the
other two. Two of the students improved substantially on their reading quizzes. The one who was
not doing well was very quiet and did not like to answer the questions in the group, but take the
answers for himself. I then had him read the chapter to the group and then try to answer the
questions out loud. I wanted him to be able to use this technique on his own and be able to pull
out the necessary information. After doing it on his own in the group and on his own for
homework, he was successfully able to start doing it all on his own. The last two quizzes he took
he advanced up to where the other students had advanced to.
Personal Reflection
When I was making my plan I was worried that it would not work. It was broken into
three parts because the original attention did not work The second phase, the discussion, helped
but still students struggled. In the third phase students were able to read and write down the
needed information, while discussing it. They were learning a new way to view texts, how to
understand what was going on in the reading, and I had to get them comfortable with what I was
doing. After noticing that the students were unable to concentrate, or did not remember the
information we discussed previously, I made up the questions to help them. I was nervous that
the initial research did not help me so I needed to follow up with more research. I was content
with the improvement the students had shown butI am also worried they can forget it since I am
gone.
As we were going through my plan, I noticed that on the next two quizzes, two students
did a lot better. They went from failing the first quiz to getting a 70 and 75 percent. They needed

Guided Practice 8
the extra attention, break down of the chapter, and guiding questions to help them understand
what the chapter was about. In order to help the students, I think this would need to be
implemented for every chapter throughout the book. Students will then be able to pick out the
importance of the chapters because they are used to the guiding questions. I knew it was working
because before I knew it, I let the students start to answer the questions on their own and tell me
what happened in the chapter without me helping them.
I think I should have started off with the guiding questions first. I thought that the extra
attention and then the support from me pulling out information would be a good example for
them to learn. Instead, they just needed guidance, like questions, to help lead them through each
chapter. The students needed the structure in order to help them learn. They now have a strategy
that they can use whenever the read any book or passage. I definitely think in the future I need to
focus more on guidance and structure rather than attention. The students could have benefited
more from the beginning if their situation was closely monitored before I came. Now that I know
students can benefit from the questions, I think I will definitely be able to use this in my own
classroom. It took a lot of research and thinking, but eventually I devised a plan to help students
gain information from the material they read.
The strategy of guiding questions certainly helps a lot with novels and books, but some of
the questions will help with articles later on. I think my plan helped the students a lot because by
the end of my work with them, I did not have to help them and they were improving on their
reading quizzes. The students were able to work on their own, or with each other, to fill out and
discuss the main parts of the chapter, what they learned from it, and the connections between
them and the characters. I think as a teacher I will definitely be using a plan like this in my
classroom.

Guided Practice 9
Conclusion
In conclusion, students who struggled from lack of structure and guidance led to the
failure of their reading comprehension. Reading comprehension is crucial when it comes to
E.L.A. and the students were struggling. The students problems were not monitored and handled
properly, leading them to be behind on their reading level. Once they have a certain structure, the
students are able to fill in needed information. The plan I came up with was a success, leading
students to improve their reading skills and reading comprehension abilities. Students in the
future need to have their reading comprehension skills monitored and dealt with properly for the
success in any class, especially E.L.A. This method, because of the research, and time spent on
devising the plan, proved that students with structure and guidance can help students succeed.
Once students reading comprehension improved, they can achieve anything in their class.

Guided Practice 10
Bibliography
Bonnie J. F. Meyer, Brandt, D. M., & Bluth, G. J.. (1980). Use of Top-Level Structure in Text:
Key for Reading Comprehension of Ninth-Grade Students. Reading Research
Quarterly,

16(1), 72103. http://doi.org/10.2307/747349

Davey, B.. (1983). Think Aloud: Modeling the Cognitive Processes of Reading Comprehension.
Journal of Reading, 27(1), 4447. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/40029295
ERIC - Exploring the Implementation, Effectiveness and Costs of the Reading Partners Program,
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, 2015. http://eric.ed.gov/?
id=ED562165