Welcome to class!

1. Welcome to class! • Write some quick reflections on the readings: • What are some strategies you think would work best with using computer books? • Why should readers write? • What are some writing activities you have used? (personal journals? Dialogue journals? Learning logs? Copy change?) **Then share with a shoulder partner.

2. Ways to Keep Current Professionally • Professional organizations, journals • Professional books • Web sites (ReadingRockets, LDOnline, etc.) • Conferences • Book discussions at school • Other?

3. Research/Strategy Presentations

4. Ivey and Fisher article: Learning From What Doesn’t Work • Strategies and what works…..

5. Personal Spelling and Writing • Personal spelling list for high frequency words • Research (Richgels, 1995) found that goo invented spelling is associated with skill in learning to read. Some have concerns that invented spelling might interfere with development of conventional spelling and reading---opposite is true!

6. Mneumonics for helping children edit their writing • Cognitive Reading Strategies Program teaches students SPACES S=spaces P=predicate A=all the words C=capitals E=end of sentence punctuated S=spelling Children should go over this one item at a time. **You can also use COPS C=Capitals O=Overall appearance P=Punctuation S=spelling

7. More on Spelling • Developmental Spelling Assessments (Ganske) are, “powerful data to expose teachers to the very real instructional needs of their children --- should not be underestimated” • Children who struggle with spelling need the kind of developmentally appropriate instruction (word study) so they can increase their knowledge of how words work and expend less energy on this aspect of their writing. • Takes a long time to develop word knowledge • Spelling conscious is an awareness that spelling does indeed matter; correct spelling enhances communicative effect of writing. • Students should be held accountable for all the words they know how to spell • High frequency words on weeks with less than five days • Students with spelling conscious can refer to personal spelling lists for accurate spellings • Could use index cards or bookmarks with high frequency words; a personal dictionary; handheld spell checker; “desk pyramid” or “can” for table groups with content vocabulary

8. Soundfield FMsInterview with Carol Flexor • http://www.lightspeed-tek.com – see interview with audiologist Carol Flexor • Purpose of classroom amplification is to “improve overall intelligibility of teaching speech by improving signal to noise ratios, especially in higher frequencies.” • Children have to hear all spoken instruction –loudest are high frequency vowel sounds, but 90% of intelligibility is higher frequency. We need to boost softer sounds and reduce energy in low frequency sounds.” • “phonetic markers to distinguish one word from another and correct pronunciation of unknown words” are critical for reading

9. “Hearing is the primary channel for learning…the more children hear, the better they learn.” -Dr. Mark Ross • The clearer the auditory distinctions, the better opportunity to read; literacy positively impacted with sound fields. • All students benefit! The research is compelling! • Critical time is PreK through third grade, but it’s important for everyone. • Classrooms now have more student, more second language learners, more information delivered faster and at younger ages, different teaching styles and student seating configurations and multiple activities!

10. Comprehension Activity • Gradual release of responsibility: • Teacher demonstrates (“I do it”)-thinking alouds, reading and writing aloud, direct explanations • Teacher and students share in a demonstration (“We do it”)-shared reading and writing, interactive reading and writing, shared read aloud • Guided practice (“We do it”)-guided reading and writing experiences, partner reading and writing, reciprocal teaching, literature conversations • Independent Practice (“You do it”)-independent reading and writing, informal conferences, homework, assignments • Attribution training for motivation – “The research demonstrates this really works…..”

11. Connecting Writing to Reading • Double entry journals – journals in which the pages are divided into two columns; one column the student writes a quote from their reading; in the other they write their reaction. • Double entry journals encourage students to respond to events, characters, or new information in their reading by relating it to their own lives or the world. • Look for: does the personal response show elaboration/over time? Is there a pattern to the types of quotes selected? Do responses encourage the reluctant student to share more? • Double entry journals can be: • I Predict/What Happened • I Want to Find Out/What I Learned • Math Problem/What I Did to Solve It • What I Thought about the ending/What ____ thought about the ending • What I did in the experiment/What I discovered • How a Character Looks/What the Characters’ Actions Are

12. Steve Graham’s work on writing:Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) • We could implement these strategies in the writing workshop for writers who struggle. He taught strategies for completing an academic task and also self regulating procedures like goal setting, self-monitoring and self-instruction and had students paired with buddies to support them! • He did research study with 2nd and 3rd graders and some who struggles (definition: bottom 25% on standardized measure) did better with SRSD • Taught third graders specifically how to plan and write stories and persuasive essays • Taught second graders how to select a topic, organize ideas into a plan and use and upgrade the plan as they wrote

13. Self Regulated Strategy Development for Writing • He had genre specific questions. For stories: Who were the characters? What did they want to do? For persuasive essays, Tell what I believe, Why I believe this and Do I have good reasons? • He taught children self-talk to facilitate performance and had their writing buddies support each other with this talk • Taught student pairs to set goals to write complete papers • For third graders, planning was the focus of instruction • SRSD is more explicit and systematic than other instruction and peer support was advantageous • Graham tied performance to effort (This is similar to Michael Pressley’s motivation strategies!) • He encouraged students to maintain and generalize strategy use – discussing when, where, how to use the strategy! • Peers working together to support the strategy use was a strong part of the program. • In the study, poor and average writers demonstrated positive results with this additional explicit and systematic teaching and the peer monitoring.

14. Writing Supports • Lucy Calkins – Writing Program (K-5) • Ralph Fletcher – Teaching the Qualities of Writing • Writer’s Notebook information (handouts) • Notebook Know How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook (Aimee Buckner and Ralph Fletcher) • Don’t forget: Steve Graham will be at Reading Rockets Teleconference on Feb. 13th/topic is writing!

15. December 11th Case Study • 5% of grade only • Case Study with response • Activity Scoring Rubric • Questions? • Next time will be only Research/Strategy Presentations and time for response (very brief!)

16. Strategic Writing Instruction • Identify a strategy • Introduce the strategy by modeling it • Help student try out the strategy at Writer’s Workshop • Help students move toward independence in use of the strategy through repeated practice.

17. Writer’s Notebooks • Helps struggling writers develop written fluency through short, focused writing • Kids make a list of things they know a great deal about for their notebooks • Ask students to choose one thing from their list and use it to decide on a topic • Do a ten minute quick write on the topic in the journal • Allow a brief sharing period so students can see what others are writing about – this can help them add more topics to “I Can Write About List”.

18. Instructional Readers • Transitional Reader: explores new genres, reading growth occurs more slowly, still needs time to build fluency • Focus on silent reading and comprehension • Instructional typically in 4th – 6th grade • Word recognition and spelling and focused on polysyllabic words • Reading rates at 200 wpm • Can they read the text? Do a running record. • Do they have word recognition? Listen to a student read a word list • How is their spelling? Score and interpret an inventory • Can they comprehend what they read silently and write? Give a written summary. • For instructional reading needing fluency? Give reading in independent level text, choral reading, timed repeated reading, readers’ theater • For instructional reader’s comprehension? Give KWL, directed reading and thinking activity, reciprocal teaching, reading workshop, literature circles, other comprehension strategies • Writing – genre studies, connecting reading and writing, writing across the curriculum, spelling, long vowel study, homophones, word sorting, word study notebooks

19. Course Evaluation