Now We Get It!: Boosting Comprehension with Collaborative Strategic Reading

Part I: Getting to Know Collaborative Strategic Reading

CHAPTER 1

How CSR Works

Of probably all of the things I have done, with pre-AP or the differentiation or the other things the district has thrown at me in seven years, this is probably the only one I will keep and I’m hard to convince. I’m hard to convince and this one has.

—MIDDLE SCHOOL LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER

I think CSR is wonderful. It’s an excellent program. It’s practical; it focuses kids; it has all the elements in reading that they need and it’s lifelong.

—MIDDLE SCHOOL READING INTERVENTION TEACHER

CSR is an excellent technique for teaching students reading comprehension and building vocabulary and also working together cooperatively. I think it is wonderful. We have been using it with the science text and it’s turned out beautifully.

—FIFTH-GRADE TEACHER

In this chapter, we describe CSR. We discuss each of the strategies and provide examples of students working together in small groups. CSR strategies occur before, during, and after reading (see Figure 1.1).

FIGURE 1.1. CSR Comprehension Strategies

Reprinted with permission from the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk (2009). CSR strategies. Austin, TX: Janette Klingner and Sharon Vaughn.

Before Reading: Preview

Students preview the entire passage before they read each section. The goals of previewing are (1) for students to learn as much about the passage as they can in a brief period of time (two to three minutes), (2) to activate their background knowledge about the topic, and (3) to make predictions about what they will learn. Previewing serves to motivate students’ interest in the topic and to engage them in active reading from the onset. Preview also provides opportunities to help students develop background knowledge about the reading, and build vocabulary and concepts to enhance their understanding of the passage.

When students preview before reading, they should look at the following:

The passage’s title

Any headings

Words that are bolded or underlined

Any pictures, tables, graphs, and other key information

This will help them do two things:

Brainstorm what they already know about the topic

Predict what they will learn about the topic

The teacher leads the preview portion of CSR. In previous versions of CSR,¹ students conducted a student-guided preview while working together in their small groups. Over the years, we have found that students do not always have sufficient background knowledge about a topic or sufficiently understand how the topic of the day’s reading connects with other lessons. This is especially true when students begin a new unit of study. Therefore, we now ask teachers to facilitate the Preview. That way, the teacher can preteach a few key vocabulary words; provide a short video clip, pictures, chart, or diagram to help build background knowledge about the topic of the passage; and give students feedback on their brainstorms and predictions, helping them to make connections. While leading the Preview, the teacher asks students to write their brainstorm statements and predictions in their learning logs and to share with one another (either with a partner or in small groups) (see Figure 1.2).

FIGURE 1.2. The Preview Process

In the following example, students from an eighth-grade language arts class are sharing their predictions while reading The Odyssey:

Gabrielle: Do you guys have what you think might happen today?

Nate: I have mine.

Cassidy: Yes, me too, I have it.

James: Mmm, I don’t know … 

Gabrielle: Well, I thought that we might learn about his journey from Achilles, because I looked ahead and I got to see the picture.

Cassidy: Mine is sort of like yours. I said that I think he [Ulysses] is going to be learning about, um, the land of the dead, because that is obviously the title, and that can help, so that’s what I think it’s about.

In the next example, seventh-graders are sharing their predictions about an article that describes the melting of the polar ice cap. The teacher has already conducted a whole-class Preview and has asked students to share their predictions. David is an English language learner (ELL) with learning disabilities who reads at about a second-grade level.

Cinthia: Okay, I think that I might learn what is happening in the North Pole and the effects of the ice melting and what it can do and what can happen.

David: Good job, Cinthia.

Cinthia: Thank you.

Laura: I might learn about the topic, how to help the environment and how to keep the ice, keep it safe. David?

David: I think I’m gonna learn how to find out what the climate is and how it is changing.

Katy: Okay, I put that I think that we will learn about how to prevent this and what we can do about it.

Although David might not be able to read every word in the passage, he was able to glean enough about the passage from previewing it and from hearing his peers’ predictions to come up with his own prediction.

During Reading: Click and Clunk

Students Click and Clunk while reading each section of the passage. One section of a passage typically consists of one to three paragraphs. Sometimes sections of text in a textbook are set off by subheadings that make it easy to separate them. At other times, the teacher decides where to separate the passage. Three sections of text for one day’s reading works well. Students learn to think about what they are reading and to determine if there is a word or concept that they do not understand. They learn to refer to this as a clunk. Students are then asked to underline or write down their clunks.

The goal of teaching students about Click and Clunk is to get them to monitor their understanding while they read and to determine whether they have meaning breakdowns. In other words, Click and Clunk helps students develop the metacognitive awareness that is so important for successful reading.

Many students with reading difficulties fail to adequately monitor their understanding while they are reading. Click and Clunk is designed to serve as a trigger for monitoring their understanding. Clicks refer to portions of the text that make sense to the reader: click, click, click—comprehension clicks into place as the reader proceeds smoothly through the text. When students come to a word, concept, or idea that does not make sense, they are taught to think of that as a clunk, a bump in the road where comprehension breaks down. Initially, the teacher asks, Is everything clicking? Who has clunks about the section we just read? Students know that they will be asked this question and are alert to identify clunks during reading. Over time, students take on the responsibility for identifying their own clunks. See Figure 1.3 for a summary of Click and Clunk.

FIGURE 1.3. The Click and Clunk Process

Learning to identify clunks is important. But what do students do after they determine that there is a word or concept they do not know? Students use fix-up strategies to figure out the meaning of clunks. The first two fix-up strategies rely on context clues, or reading around the word or words in question. The second two fix-up strategies require looking within the word. One relies on studying word parts (i.e., morphology) and the other asks students to consider if there are cognates in another language that can help. Here are the four strategies to fix up a clunk:

Fix-up strategy one: Reread the sentence with the clunk and look for key ideas to help you figure out the word. Think about what makes sense.

Fix-up strategy two: Reread the sentence with the clunk and the sentences before or after the clunk looking for clues.

Fix-up strategy three: Break the word apart and look for a prefix, suffix, or a root word.

Fix-up strategy four: Look for a cognate that makes sense.

After reading a section of text, the Leader in a CSR group asks everyone to write down any clunks they have. Then the Leader asks, Clunk Expert, please help us out. The Clunk Expert then asks if anyone in the group knows the meaning of the clunk. If that is the case, the student who knows the meaning of the word or concept explains it and makes sure everyone understands. Before moving on, students reread the sentence with the clunk to make sure the definition makes sense. If no one in the group can explain the meaning of the clunk, then the Clunk Expert guides the group through the application of the fix-up strategies as they try to solve the clunk. If they are still stuck, the Leader asks for the teacher’s assistance.

In the following example, students in a seventh-grade class are helping one another figure out the meaning of a clunk, noxious. Two of the students are struggling readers (Julie and Michael) and two are average to high achievers (Cinthia and Raul). Note that it was an average to high achiever who came up with the clunk.

Cinthia: Noxious.

Julie: Do you know; does anyone know what this clunk means?

Michael: What’s your clunk?

Cinthia: Noxious.

Raul: Isn’t it a feeling you get when like … 

Cinthia: That’s nauseous (laughing).

Raul: Oh.

Cinthia: Nauseous is, like, when you want to throw up.

Michael: It’s, like, a chemical—

Julie: —a chemical that kills.

Raul: OK, let’s reread the sentence, come on. "Cotton plants, for instance, are often smothered with noxious chemicals to keep away bugs and weeds." Noxious.

Julie: So, it kills, so it’s a chemical.

Cinthia: So, it’s like something bad if it kills the bugs and weeds.

Julie: It’s something that kills—

Raul: —bad for the environment.

Michael: Yeah.

Cinthia: It’s something that’s not good.

Michael: It’s something that kills.

Raul: It’s like toxic.

The following example is from a fifth-grade class. Students are using CSR while reading their science textbook. Diana is the Leader and Greg is the Clunk Expert. Pablo is an ELL with learning disabilities. Greg offers procedural and conceptual explanations and checks for understanding:

Diana: Click and Clunk?

Pablo: Calcium.

Greg: Try to read sentences in the back and in the front to try to get a clue. Think if you see any sentences in the back or in the front that can help you. Did you get anything?

Pablo: No.

Greg: OK, now I do, I get something. It is a tiny crystal-like mineral. Do you know what a mineral is?

Pablo: Yeah.

Greg: What is it?

Pablo: It’s like a kind of vitamin.

Greg: OK, calcium is a type of element that there is in the bones. And, the bones need that. Calcium helps the bones in order to make them strong. Do you now understand what calcium