CrowdED Topic Two: Comprehension

Good Morning, Jeff, and thank you continuing our discussion, Build Your Own Toolkit With CrowdED Learning. I am excited to learn about the resources available for comprehension instruction!

Colleagues – I invite you to join in this discussion to share your insights, as well as to learn about new resources for comprehension instruction.  However, don’t forget to revisit the first discussion thread that introduced us to CrowdED Learning.

Jeri

Comments

Welcome to the second topic of our 10-week event, Build Your Toolkit for Adult Learning with CrowdED Learning! For the past two weeks, you explored and discussed the general range of resources made available on CrowdED Learning’s website. We are now ready to dive more deeply into resources that are ideal for specific components of reading and writing instruction. 

For the next two weeks, we will be examining freely available resources that support the development of reading comprehension skills and strategies with adult learners. During Week 1 of this topic, we will explore a selection of freely available resources that are particularly well-suited for developing reading comprehension skills and strategies with students at multiple levels. 

The following resources will be used for this week’s exploration:

  • Notetaking Tool | Use this notetaking tool as you explore the resources being featured this week. (Note: This tool includes an extensive set of questions to guide your exploration and evaluation of the resources being featured. So, I highly encourage you check it out!) 

  • Video | A slight wifi issue has delayed my ability to post the video….so please stay tuned for the  video overview for this topic—coming ASAP! My apologies—I’m on the road and am having wifi issues! I will post separately as well as update this post once the video has been successfully uploaded.)

Resource Exploration Overview

The resources we will explore as part of this topic are all freely available and include expansive libraries of high-interest readings at multiple levels. All of the resources lend themselves particularly well to developing comprehension skills and strategies: 

CrowdED Learning has developed premade search filters for CommonLit and ReadWorks that will yield results for passages that are at recommended Lexile levels for Levels A–E of the College and Career Readiness Standards. In addition, the CommonLit alignment doc includes filters for passages as organized by domains (Key Idea and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas) and the associated reading anchor standards. 

CCRS Domain 

Reading Anchor Standards

Key Idea and Details

R1, R2, R3

Craft and Structure

R4, R5, R6

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

R7, R8, R9

These aligned filters can be found on the CrowdED Learning website by navigating to the SkillBlox tab and clicking on the reading icon. Here is a link directly to that page

Exploration Focus

The goal of this week’s exploration is to investigate the various features and tools available within each of the resources, consider how these are helpful for developing skills and strategies for reading comprehension, and to share out what you find within the discussion. If you currently use any of the resources, your sharing will be particularly valuable to your colleagues to get a clear sense of how these resources work “in action” with adult learners. 

All of the tools have a number of similar features and focus on reading comprehension skills and strategies while aligning to the Reading Anchor standards. However,  certain differences amongst these resources might make one better suited for certain learning settings/learner dynamics over others. 

As you explore, consider what features of these resources might be particularly well-suited for the students with whom you work. The notetaking tool for this week’s exploration includes a great set of guiding questions (related to content, ease of use, accessibility, and more) for you to consider as you examine the resources. 

Discussion Questions

Before you post your comments, thoughts, and ideas,  please use these questions to organize your thoughts and to guide your exploration of this week’s resources. 

  • After exploring the resources, combined with whatever experience you have using the featured resources, what specific features (text types, media, leveling, reporting, etc.) do you feel are/would be most beneficial to your students? Why?

  • Important to learner engagement with text is providing authentic, relevant texts that are of interest to students. How do you currently provide this for your students? After exploring the resources featured this week, what are your thoughts on how your learners would respond to the text options provided?

  • All of the resources featured this week have leveled reading options, which can allow for students at multiple levels to be focusing on the same reading skills/strategies (i.e, Key Idea and Details, Sequence, etc.). How do you currently provide instruction aimed at developing learners’ comprehension skills and strategies while including differentiated, leveled reading opportunities for them to apply these skills? How might using any of the resources featured this week help you provide increased opportunities for differentiation?

  • What additional comments/ideas do you have related to developing comprehension skills and strategies with your learners? Are there other freely available resources you have found particularly effective? 

Happy exploring!

How to access a shared Google Doc in “View Only” mode

The notetaking tool for this week’s exploration is a Google Doc that has been shared in “View Only” mode. Regardless of whether you have or use Google Drive or Google Docs, you can access an editable version of the document to help organize your thinking. 

If you have Google Drive and want to work within your own version of the Google Doc, you have the ability to make a copy of the file that will be saved as a separate version in your Google Drive. To do so:

  1. Open the document by clicking this link.

  2. Go to the “File” menu.

  3. Select “Make a Copy” and you will be prompted to indicate where in your Drive the copy should be saved. 

Once you’ve completed these steps, you will be able to directly edit within the document. 

If you do not have Google Drive or if you don’t want to work in Google Docs, you can still view the file on screen and then download it in a number of formats, including as a Word doc (editable) or a PDF (not editable). To do so:

  1. Open the document by clicking this link.

  2. Go to the “File” menu.

  3. Click “Download” and you will see the list of file formats in which the document can be downloaded and saved. 

Once you’ve completed these steps, you will have your own version of the document—in whatever format you selected—on your computer or device.

  • Commonlit: This has been a favorite of mine for a while. The library is AMAZING and I love the questions that come with the lessons. I also appreciate the recommended videos and related reading material. By far one of my favorite features is the ability to filter by grade level, standards, topic, etc. I feel this is a very beneficial tool for students, at least for reading content. I have, however, as recently as last night, had some struggle with the student's digital platform. If you create and assign readings to your students, you definitely want to test it out first. While they have some super cool new features (annotating and highlighting text), I have experienced some inconsistencies when I assign the guided reading (which is my favorite feature). It appears some students had the feature while others did not. Sometimes the student login is less than smooth as well. So, if you have a low-tech group of students, you may want to proceed with caution before using digital class feature. Regardless, it's an amazing resource and I highly recommend it to adult educators for the content if nothing else!

Ashly! Thanks for the great details....and very helpful info re: potential challenges with students using it. Along those lines....based on what you shared—it sounds like you have your students go to the site on their own to find readings of interest? If that's the case, I'm interested in hearing how you provide initial guidance for how to search/filter within the platform to find readings that are both of interest and at the appropriate level?

Actually, I have not had students do that... yet. What I was referring to is when you create online classes on Commonlit and then assign the reading lessons, guided practice, and assessments to the online classes. 

To answer your question, however, I think I would have them go to the library, and filter by grade (depending on the class - this could be tricky with some lower level adult students), theme, and genre. For example maybe have them find an historical document, news, or informational text to read, analyze and then share their findings in a presentation (may a Wakelet!) or something like that. I guess you could try subject searches as well. I think there is a lot of opportunity for exploration on that idea. I had thought of doing something like that before, but I always seen to run out of time to do all the cool things I think about!

  • Readworks was one of the first reading sites I came across when I became a teacher. Along with Commonlit, it is still one of the top three reading resources I use for my HSE class. Readworks has come a long way since I first encountered the website. They now have a pretty nice, easy-to-use digital platform where students can engage online as well as on paper if you prefer. The questions and vocab elements are also fantastic. I REALLY like the feature where you can project the reading material on the projector and then highlight words as you go through a lesson. And of course, the accessibility features, which Commonlit has as well, are fantastic. I don't think their library is quite as dynamic as Commonlit, but still relevant for adult ed programs. The one time I tried the Article-a-day, it took MUCH longer than 10 minutes, so like anything else, it's really important to know your students and their levels when preparing reading lessons. 
  • Readytheory is a great site to help students develop their reading levels. In my opinion, there is a time and a place when it should be used, however. It is fantastic for individualized reading develop. It starts by giving the students pre-reading tests to see where they are at the beginning, and then the lessons increase reading intensity as the students' skills improve. I have seen this site help countless students (especially ABE students), but like I said, it is individualized. So, my recommendation is to encourage students to use it for independent study and/or homework, but I do not recommend using it for in-class lessons. The lessons are determined by Readtheory, thus the teacher does not control which passages the students read. 

Ashly, thanks for your comment. This is a great point to make....of the three resources, this one in particular is best suited for individualized practice. It would seem to me, then, that any instructor could make this available to all students simply by creating an account.....the challenge then is getting learners to work independently. 

I'm interested in hearing how teachers introduce ReadTheory to students and how they encourage students to work independently on reading within it or similar style programs. I know it has some great reporting for both learners and instructors to track progress and gains....do instructors find this provides enough motivation to learners to read more + challenge themselves? 

I, personally, have not used ReadTheory since teaching ABE classes, which has been a couple years now. When I was using it, I initially introduced it to the class as a lesson to get them familiarized with it. I then encouraged them to work on it for the first 30-45 minutes of class as a warm-up before we started class.  We actually did this for several months, which was pretty effective as the serious students started using at home. I really loved the reports because within moments I could see who was working on it at home, who had made the most progression in their reading levels, who still needed to work, etc.

This was an extremely useful reading assessment tool to use outside of our traditional state tests. Like anything else, a handful of students responded favorably while others seemed to only do it if instructed to do so.  I noticed that students seemed more likely to use it when they realized they could use it on their mobile device. Since that time, I have referred struggling readers who come to our program to work on it independently between meeting with tutors or their classes. I also refer those students who come to me seeking extra help with their reading skills. I have found quite a few students continue to use it several years after being referred to it, so I believe once they see the benefit, many students feel motivated to use it on their own.

My personal favorite free reading tool is Actively Learn, which is a reading platform that allows students to read for depth as it helps them to understand, retain, and enjoy what they read. The platform is easy-to-use both on the teacher and student side as it provides high quality content in ELA, science, and social studies. Teachers have access to 10,000 fiction, nonfiction, and text book units, and most come with standards-aligned instruction. What I really like about Actively Learn is the fact, that pre-made lessons come with editable questions, so that I have control over what questions my students are given. So, if I don't think the questions are appropriate or I want to add my own, I can. Teachers can add elements such as video, images, notes, polls, and questions throughout the reading, allowing for a highly engaging reading lesson. Student reading is stopped until they answer the questions, which enhances their focus and comprehensions levels. The media helps them to visualize, understand, and make the reading more real for them. Furthermore, as students work on the reading lessons, not only can teachers see their work and provide feedback, but students are able to annotate, highlight, and have discussions with one another as well. Like Readworks and Commonlit, Actively Learn offers accessiblity tools which include font and color changes, read aloud text, dictionary, and translation options. I could probably go on and on about this tool. The only downfall is that you can not print the material, but really the purpose of this digital tool is to create a deep, engaging learning experience for students, so a device is really necessary. If students don't have devices, you can always go through the lesson in "student mode" on an overhead, which is still an engaging and usually a fun lesson. 

Jeff,

I have used Readworks in the past, however I am not familiar with CommonLit or ReadTheory.  I look forward to diving deeper into these resources.  Thank you for providing the links and the notetaking tool.  It will be very helpful as we all navigate through these resources!

Jeri

Hey everyone!

So, this week's convo got off to a bumpy start for a couple reasons. First, I was in a wifi dead zone at a conference so I was unable to record my video for this week. Second, the initial thread got posted in two different places, so you will notice one thread is in the Reading + Writing community and the other thread is in the Integrating Tech, Professional Development, and ELA communities. 

Jeri and I will be transferring people's comments between the two threads so that they remain parallel....just possibly not in real time. However, I'm interested in experimenting with a solution to gather information by sharing what you know (CROWDSOURCING) in one place!

Please continue to post in either thread your thoughts and/or experiences with using ReadTheory, ReadWorks, and CommonLit....it's so helpful to learn from one another's experiences, and there are some great shares already. However, I'd also like to invite everyone to contribute what they know about these programs into this shared doc. The idea is simple—in the doc, you will see there are a bunch of features/characteristics listed in the left-hand column for both the content within these three great resources and the technology aspects (ease of use, accessibility, etc.). As you explore, or based on your experience using these tools, please add what you know to this doc so we can capture all of the distinct features and tools for each of these resources all in one place. There is also space at the bottom for you to add whatever additional features you feel it is important for people to know about. If we each contribute a little bit to the doc, the end result will be a comprehensive overview of the features for each tool, created by adult educators who currently or are interested in using them! I've started the process by entering in some things I know about each.....

Happy exploring, and share share share! :)