Ch. 17 Multiple Paths to Literature

1. Ch. 17 Multiple Paths to Literature • Literature studies should bring together three elements: • 1.Shared experiences: students enjoy a common experience from which they can learn and construct understanding together. • 2. Rich text: The text provides students with opportunities to form interpretations across layers of meaning • 3. Personal Responses. Each child’s unique response to a text is important to the discussions. Readers learn to value their own responses to text, share them with others, and expand their understanding.

2. Reading Aloud & What a Reader’s Notebook should Include • Creating a community of readers • Stop at important intersections to discuss questions, locations and charters in the story. • Create an interesting environment that supports reading. • Weekly letters to teachers • Sketches, art, diagrams, notes about topical discussions • KWLs

3. Multiple Paths to Meaning • (while talk is always central, there are four paths to meaning:) • Talking: the most natural and easiest way to communicate meaning in literature. • Writing: for example journaling, short-writes (impromptu responses)… • Reading: author study • Visual and performing art: drama (plays etc.), story map, letters to characters • See page 278 for further information, and the helpful chart on page 279.

4. Criticism and Analyzing • Students come up with their own critiques. • Teachers can generate a question to prompt a response • Questions for informational text should focus on comprehension • Questions should generate conversation and not interrogate children

5. Questions to support comprehension • The text offers question to support comprehension in the following areas: fiction, nonfiction, and biographies. • The questions cover different categories such as setting, characters, plot, theme, perspective, language, illustrations, genre, author/illustration, content, etc.

6. Understanding the reading process Students need to prepare for text that will continually increase in difficulty, structure and content. An effective reader: Maintains focus on meaning Uses language structures to anticipate text. Processes print with fluency. Recognizes words automatically. For complete list refer to page 303 in text. Ch. 18

7. Accessing students’ reading abilities includes both silent and oral reading. “Students reads aloud, accurately (in the range of 85-90%)” Self-correcting when subsequent reading indicates an earlier miscue; Using a range of cuing systems, e.g. phonics and context clues, to determine pronunciation and meaning; Reading with rhythm, flow, and meter that sounds like everyday speech. Oral Reading is Important to Assessment

8. Strategies-are in head actions taken by readers to help them read accurately with understanding. We can observe these strategies when in action. Although advanced readers may have less visible strategies. Constructing meaning from Words Three boys were present at the game. I received a present for my birthday. Students need to pay attention to vocabulary and context when reading and using their strategies. Strategies

9. Life experience– Our life experiences enable us to infer from texts, to extend beyond the meaning, and apply the understandings in new and novel ways. Literary background– our experience with texts over time. World knowledge —The understandings we have about the world and about others. Constructing meaning

10. Language structure • “The semantic system refers to the meaning of language—the words and parts of words that convey meaning as well as the way sentences, paragraphs, and whole texts are interpreted by listeners and readers.”

11. Syntactic system • Syntactic system refers to the patterns of rules by which words are put together in meaningful phrases and sentences.

12. Phonological system • Refers to the sounds of the language—how the sounds we make are related to meaningful units. Sounds alone mean next to nothing, but when combined they have deeper meanings.

13. Phonemes are categories of sounds that can be hear separately. For example, eight has two phonemes, /a/ and /t/. Cognitive actions—are what readers do in order to understand text, but they are abstract notions. Usually occurring unconsciously. Strategic Action

14. Sustaining Reading Solving words, Monitoring and Correcting, Searching for and using information, summarizing, maintaining fluency, adjusting Expanding Meaning Predicting, Making connections (personal, world, text), inferring, synthesizing, analyzing & critiquing Strategic Actions for Processing Written Text

15. Systems of Strategic Actions for Processing Written Information • Predicting—To say in advance what one believes will happen. • Connecting—To show or think of how two or more things as related. • Inferring—To arrive at a decision or opinion by reasoning from known facts or evidence. • Synthesizing—To bring together parts or elements to form a whole.

16. Cont. • Analyzing-to separate and break up a whole into its parts to find out their nature, proportion, function, interrelationship, or properties. • Critiquing-To make judgments through analyzing

17. Chapter 19 • Teaching for Comprehending Written Text: Across the Language and Literacy Framework

18. Organizing Thought That Might Come to Mind While Reading • Examples of thoughts: Solving words, Monitoring/Correcting, Gathering, Predicting, Adjusting, Making Connections, Inferring (Why did the character do that?), Summarizing (The important things I learned are….), Synthesizing (I understand this in a new way), Analyzing (What a complex plot!), Critiquing (I don’t believe this!)

19. Teaching for Strategies Across the Literacy Framework • “Reading aloud Interactively-Reading aloud certainly doesn’t stop when children enter the upper elementary grades.” • It is important to create shared literary experiences in the classroom on occasion. This can generate meaningful discussion and help student analyze the material together.

20. Making Connections • Connections to our lives • Connections to other books • Connections to what we know about the world. • Creating Connections creates better understanding!