Reading in the Content Area

Presenter Debra Massey, Program Developer and Training Specialist North East Florida Educational Consortium

Readers may be divided into four classes: 1. Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2. Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3. Tea-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4. Diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Question for Discussion

1. What does a struggling reader look like in your classroom?

2. Is there a “profile”?

3. How do you know a student doesn’t understand the content?

Truth About Struggling Readers

There is no single template for the struggling reader. Anyone can struggle with reading given the right text. The struggle isn’t the issue. The real issue is what the reader does when the text gets tough.

One of the great tragedies of contemporary education is not so much that many students leave school unable to read and write, but that others graduate with an antipathy to reading..despite the abilities they might have.

Aliteracy

Independent VS Dependent

Independent Readers Dependent Readers •Figure out what’s confusing them •Set goals for getting through the reading •Use many strategies for getting through the text •Know how to make the mostly invisible process of comprehension visible •STOP •Appeal to the teacher •Read on through •Keep the mostly invisible process of comprehension at the invisible level

Confidences Readers Need

Social and Emotional Confidence Allows Students to…

• Be willing and active participants in a community of learners • Read for enjoyment and information • Have a positive attitude toward reading and other readers

Cognitive Confidence Allows Students to…

• Comprehend texts • Monitor their understanding • Determine meaning of words • Read with fluency …Be An Independent Reader

Text Confidence Allows Students to…

• Develop the stamina to continue reading difficult texts •Find authors and genre that interest them

Independent readers use many strategies for getting through the text and knows how to make the mostly invisible process of comprehension visible.

Strategies to build Cognitive Confidence:

Before – During – After Reading Explicit Vocabulary Instruction Questioning the Author Use of Alternative Texts and Materials

Before Reading Activating Prior Knowledge

Schema What is it?

How do we explain it?

How can we activate it?

Rock Hip Hop Classical RAP Country

How can we get students to build it?

How do we explain it?

Classic Rock Soft Rock Heavy Metal Hard Rock

ZZ Top Eric Clapton Jefferson Starship

KANDINSKY

Wassily Kandinsky

•Russian •Artist •1866- 1944 •Influenced by Music

Prior Knowledge - How do we activate it?

Front Loading Meaning – Using KWL(G) “Problems for Oceans”

What We Know What We Want to Know Where Do I GO to find the answers?

Pollution is rampant.

Oil Spills are occurring threatening sea life.

Global Warming Ice caps are melting and temp. getting higher in some oceans. What is the pollution doing to the sea life?

Why do they spill oil on the oceans? How is it cleaned up?

How is the warming of the northern oceans affecting migration patterns of marine life?

Prior Knowledge - How do we activate it?

Front Loading Meaning – We Think Statements 1. Decide what phrases, sentences, or single words you want to place on index cards related to the content you’re introducing. Use multiple phrases and statements. 2. Distribute the cards or let students draw a card. 3. Discuss their card with as many other classmates as possible, how might these cards be related, speculate on what these cards, collectively might be about. 4. The group the students together to discuss what they all heard from others and create a group “WE THINK” statement to share with the class. 5. Make sure you ask them to explain how they reached their predictions about the statement.

Bombing - Japan Starvation Animals in a zoo Cages broken dangerous animals escape “He buried his head in his arms and cried, beating the desk top with his fists.” Faithful / Trusting

We think that this text is about the bombing of Japan and how the zoo was affected by the bombing. We think that some of the animals escaped and had to be killed.

Faithful Elephants

A story of animals, people and war.

By Yukio Tsuchiya ISBN: 0-395-86137-3

High Frequency Words are Critical

Of the 600,000 plus words in English:

13 words account for over 25% of the words in print.

a, and, for, he, is in, it, of that, the, to was, you 100 words account for approximately 50%. The Dolch Basic Sight Vocabulary contains 220 words (no nouns), was generated over 40 years ago, and accounts for 50% of the words found in textbooks today.

Front Loading Meaning – Questioning the Vocabulary

Directions: First, read the words at the bottom silently or together. After you read each one, write the words from the bottom in the column that best describes what you know about each one.

Don’t know at All Have seen or heard – don’t know meaning.

I think I know the meaning.

I know a meaning.

Waste – corrosion - deliquescence – preclosure – repository – brine – facilitate sodium chloride – geochemical – seepage – thermal – tunnels - capillary

Many dependent readers think of comprehension only as answering questions correctly after reading . That’s too late. Pre-reading strategies help struggling readers do what good readers do…think all throughout the reading process , not just at the conclusion.

During Reading Making Sense of the Information

Information

What is it?

How do we decide what’s important?

How do we organize it?

How can we get students to build it?

Information/Content – What do we do with it?

Think Aloud – requires lots MODELING!

TEXT “Think Alouds” “My name is Rose Blanche. I live in a small town in Germany with narrow streets, old fountains and tall houses with pigeons on the roofs. One day the first truck arrived and many men left. They were dressed as soldiers. Winter was beginning. “ “The trucks are fun to watch. We stand in the doorway as they pass. We don ‘t know where they’re going. One day a little boy jumped from the back of a truck and tried to run away but the mayor stopped him. “ How old is Rose? I think one of the big wars was with Germany? Aren’t they also called Nazis? From the picture, Rose is holding a flag with a swastika. Is her family a Nazi family? Are the soldiers volunteering or forced to serve?

I think I know where they’re taking the people in the trucks. I think they’re Jews and they’re going to concentration camps. I wonder if the soldiers would have shot the boy if the mayor hadn’t stopped him?

“Suddenly, electric barbed wire stopped me. Behind it were children standing still. I didn’t know any of them. The youngest said they were hungry. I handed them a piece of bread through the pointed wire. “ The people behind the wire look sick. What’s the yellow star on their shirts? What did they do wrong? Why are they hungry? I wonder why nobody stopped Rose from being so close to the wire?

Rose Blanche

A Story of the Holocaust By Roberto Innocenti ISBN: 1-56846-189-5

Think Aloud – requires lots MODELING!

As you model think alouds to students, remind them that what you’re also doing is trying to predict what might happen, what important points are, to tell themselves… “I need to reread that section.” The purpose of this activity is to help students understand that this is what is happening inside the head of an independent reader as they move through the text.

It’s like having a conversation in your mind.

Think Aloud – requires lots MODELING!

As you model think alouds to students, remind them that what you’re also doing is trying to predict what might happen, what important points are, to tell themselves… “I need to reread that section.” The purpose of this activity is to help students understand that this is what is happening inside the head of an independent reader as they move through the text.

It’s like having a conversation in your mind.

Think Aloud – requires lots MODELING!

Did you know that it takes 4 – 8 weeks of consistently using a strategy before students will internalize it and use it independently?

Information/Content – What do we do with it?

Power Stickies – Note Taking is an Art Form Provide or require students to have sticky note pads.

Have them do their “think alouds” on their sticky notes.

They can manipulate their stickies on top of their desk to organize their thoughts.

They can place their stickies on the page that they read that generated the thought. Have them go through math and science texts with a sticky pad. As they read or work, have them write down words they don’t know.

Have them write down confusing chapters, paragraphs or pages. They can get in groups with students who have “same” stickies.

Logographic Cues – They convey meaning.

W Logographic Cues – Students can design their own to help them visualize their understanding of the text.

I need to re-read this section with someone else. Important fact or idea. Come back and read again. What does this word mean? Add it to my vocabulary list.

I have a question about his sentence, paragraph, or word.

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Logographic Cues – Students can design their own to help them visualize their understanding of the text.

He was in a precarious position as he balanced on the edge of the cliff.

Precarious “The Land that Time Forgot” p. 151 • Unstable • Unsteady • Unsure

Information/Content – What do we do with it?

Building Vocabulary as you read with Book Marks

Mark my words

A bookmark for recording interesting, unusual words, or words critical to understanding while you read. Every five or ten days spend ten minutes reviewing what words students have recorded. Chart them, put them up, discuss what they mean.

Marking Time

Take notes chronologically. This is great for: •Sequence of events in reading •Timelines in history • Steps in math • Processes in science.

Question Mark

These bookmarks are for students to record their questions as they read. Make sure they put the page number by the question so they can revisit that part of the text to see what caused the question.

Mark the bold

Excellent for students to use while they read their content area texts. As students come across a boldfaced word, they record that word on the front of the bookmark. They turn it over to the back and

write what that

term means in their own words.

Mark My Words Mark My Words Mark My Words

Marking Time First – Then – Next – After that – Furthermore – Then – Next – Marking Time First – Then – Next – After that – Furthermore – Then – Next – Marking Time First – Then – Next – After that – Furthermore – Then – Next – Finally – Finally – Finally -

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Question Mark

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Page ____

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Question Mark Page ____

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Question Mark Page ____

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Page ____ Page ____

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Page ____ Page ____ Page ____ Page ____ Page ____

Mark the BOLD Mark the BOLD Mark the BOLD

1. _________________ 2. _________________ 3. _________________ 4. _________________ 5. _________________ 6. _________________ 7. _________________ 8. _________________ 9. _________________ 10. _________________ 1. _________________ 2. _________________ 3. _________________ 4. _________________ 5. _________________ 6. _________________ 7. _________________ 8. _________________ 9. _________________ 10. _________________ 1. _________________ 2. _________________ 3. _________________ 4. _________________ 5. _________________ 6. _________________ 7. _________________ 8. _________________ 9. _________________ 10. _________________

Okay, that’s all very nice, but………..

What do I do with students who lack word recognition skills?

Teach them… CHUNKING LONG/SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS PREFIXES / SUFFIXES / ROOT WORDS QUICK ASSESS / REVIEW RECORDS TEACH DERIVATIONAL CONSTANCY

What do I do with students who aren’t successful with the strategies because they are so far behind?

Working with adolescents who have difficulty with word recognition is difficult even on good days, beyond frustrating on bad days. ~ Kyleen Beers (When Kids Can’t Read) •Give them opportunities to read at their instructional and independent levels.

•Give them repeated chances to hear us read aloud while they follow along.

•Come to terms with the fact that your goal is not to improve word recognition with the text but to focus on what you CAN do with that text.

•Struggling readers can glean a large majority of content information from rich and frequent discussion about the content.

Don’t Water Down Curriculum High school students aren’t stupid and they know when you’ve lowered your expectations for them. Communicate your high expectations and your belief that they can achieve beyond other’s expectations for their performance.

Shared or Partner Reading Teacher reads aloud some sections, stopping to direct note taking through modeling or think alouds. Have students keep double entry journals.

Have students jigsaw reading and use a shared note taking system.

Encourage students to take risks.

Use alternatives to the text.

Allow for more time to internalize content.

After Reading Assessing Student Understanding

Assessing

What is it?

How do we decide what’s important?

What could it look like?

How can we get the most out the content?

Assessing Student Understanding Begin with the end in mind.

1. Letterman’s Top Ten: What 10 key pieces of information do you want students to know after this unit of study is over?

2. Know your student’s abilities before you plan, include some of the strategies that will help struggling readers. Plan from the beginning to use possible alternative methods of assessment for some students.

Evaluate your grading policy / procedure and communicate it clearly.

1. How are you assigning value to the work? 2. Don’t assign value to factors not directly related to the top ten. For example: 20% of the grade will come from keeping your folder in order. Are you assessing content knowledge or organizational skills. Let those types of items be separate and unrelated to the content. Perhaps bonus points are given instead of punitive points taken.

Assessing Student Understanding Break free from paper and pencil!

1. Use Venn diagrams comparing two points or pieces of information.

2. Allow students to use notes. Is it about memorization skills or application of knowledge? (This encourages good note taking.) 3. Have a debate. Ask students to choose a side and defend it with evidence from their studies. • Science debates on process and conclusions • • Historical points of view Best possible mathematical approaches to solving mathematical problems. 4. Narrative writing on lessons learned from this unit of study. Have students include examples and evidence. 5. Pop quiz – Jeopardy style games. 6. Don’t wait until the unit is over. Use sticky notes yourself to make ongoing observations of students.

Assessing Student Understanding Power of Student Self Evaluation Have students evaluate their own understanding either individually or in group discussions. Students who feel they are not processing enough information to select either a 4 or 5, should be allowed more time with the content.

Couldn’t explain any of this information to anyone else

1

Self Evaluation / Quick Check I could recall the top ten facts from this unit of study w/ help.

3

I could explain this unit of study to someone else with full details.

5

Assessing Student Understanding Revisiting the “L” from the KWL

What We Know

Pollution is rampant.

What We Want to Know (Guided by your Top Ten)

What is the pollution doing to the sea life?

Oil Spills are occurring threatening sea life.

Global Warming Ice caps are melting and temp. getting higher in some oceans. Why do they spill oil on the oceans? How is it cleaned up?

How is the warming of the northern oceans affecting migration patterns of marine life?

What I learned!

What I Learned… Example…

Contact Information

Debra Massey

Program Developer and Training Specialist North East Florida Educational Consortium 3841 Reid Street Palatka, FL 32177 386-329-4885 [email protected]