Engaging Today’s Students in Texts William McBride Independent Reading Consultant, Author of “Entertaining an Elephant

1. Engaging Today’s Students in TextsWilliam McBride Independent Reading Consultant, Author of “Entertaining an Elephant” Pupils as Passionate Learners

2. How Can We Use Brain Research to Help Students Pay Attention and Retain Information?

3. What Keeps Our Attention? • Choice (content, process, resource, environment) • Relevance (personal, in context) • Feedback (as immediate as possible) • Engagement (emotionally, physically, verbally)

4. How Humor Promotes Retention Endorphin Surge Oxygen Mental Health Gets Attention! Discipline Positive Climate Increases Retention

5. “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer” Matthews Effect: Average Reader Poor Reader 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. Variation in Amount of Independent Reading Minutes of Reading Per Day Words Read Per Year Percentile Source: adapted from Anderson, Watson, and Fielding, 1998

7. Rank of “Rare” Words in Spoken & Written Language Source: adapted from Anderson, Watson, and Fielding, 1998 Communication Medium Rank of Median Word Rare Words per 1000 Frequency Ranking of 86,741word forms where the word “the” ranks #1 in usage, “pass” ranks #1,000, “vibrate” ranks #5,000, “shrimp” ranks #9,000, and “amplifier” ranks #16,000.

8. Vocabulary Facts “If most vocabulary is acquired outside of formal teaching, then the only opportunities to acquire new words occur when an individual is exposed to a word in written or oral language that is outside his current vocabulary. This will happen vastly more often while reading than while talking or watching television.” Source: Cunningham and Stanovich. “What Reading Does for the Mind,” American Educator, (Spring/Summer, 1998) .

9. Vocabulary Facts 17.0% 14.4% 13.1% 1982 – 2002 Age Groups Source: Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2002

10. Brain-based Teaching Primacy-recency effect Prime-time-1 Prime-time-2 Degree of retention Practice & Review New Content Down-time Sense & Relevance 0 10 20 30 40 Time in minutes

11. Before Reading Predicting ABC’sPredicting Vocabulary TOPIC: A-B C-D E-F G-H I-J K-L M-N O-P Q-R S-T U-V WXYZ

12. Vocabulary Development What Works • Extensive Reading • Direct Instruction in Word Meaning • Direct Instruction in Morphology • Direct Instruction in Context Usage • Diverse, interesting, fun activities

13. Preview Maps

15. Before Reading Preview MapsPreviewing Texts What it looks like: The Americans, The Divisive Politics of Slavery What is the title? What is this list? Whose American story is told? What is in the purple block of text? Whose picture is shown? Rewrite first major heading as a question? Rewrite the first subheading as a question?

16. Brain-based Teaching Primacy-recency effect Prime-time-1 Prime-time-2 Degree of retention Practice & Review New Content Down-time Sense & Relevance 0 10 20 30 40 Time in minutes

17. P.L.A.N.PredictLocateAddNote

18. P.L.A.N. The Living Constitution – Article 2. The Executive US Map p. 256 picture Four Years w/ V. Pres. ! X Equals # of Senators and Reps Terms of Office Electoral College ? Election Day The Executive, p. 256 ? Qualifications Salary + Natural-born citizen – p. 257 ? ! Oath of Office Succession Affirmation p. 257 Legend: X = familiar / ? = unfamiliar / ! = surprising / + = important

19. What Did I Read?

20. During Reading What Did I Read?Guided Reading What it looks like: Teacher says: “Class, remember that the Middle Ages were filled with war and disease. Now we are going to see a big change in Europe. Follow along as I read and take notes.” Teacher Reads Aloud: The years 1300 to 1600 saw an explosion of creativity in Europe. Historians call this period the Renaissance. The term means rebirth—in this case a rebirth of art and learning. The Renaissance began in northern Italy around 1300 and later spread north. One reason northern Europe lagged behind is that France and England were at war. Teachers says: “What did I read? Everyone take two minutes to make some notes about what I just read.” Teacher says: [after two minutes] “Steven, what did I read?” Steven says: “Renaissance means rebirth. A rebirth or art and learning.” Teacher says: “Good. Maria, What did I read?” Maria says: “It started in Italy and spread north. The north had been having a war.” Teacher says: “Good. Kim, what did I read? Kim says: “The war was between France and England.” Teacher says: “Good. Kevin, what did I read? Kevin says: “The Renaissance lasted between 1300 and 1600.” Teacher says: “Good. Anyone have anything else? (No answer) Then let’s go to the next section.”

21. P.L.A.N. + What Did I Read? The Road to Lexington and Concord Legend: X = familiar / ? = unfamiliar / ! = surprising / + = important

22. Compare/Contrast Y Notes

23. During Reading Compare/Contrast “Y” Notes Summarizing Differences and Similarities What it looks like: Topic:______________ Topic:______________ Similarities:

24. During Reading Compare/Contrast “Y” Notes Summarizing Differences and Similarities What it looks like: Topic: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates S. Douglas A. Lincoln Topic:______________ Topic:______________ Ran for US Senate in 1858 Against popular sovereignty Against slavery Distorted Douglas’s views Dramatic speaker Former Whig For Popular Sovereignty Plain and direct language Distorted Lincoln’s views Against slavery Incumbent Senator Ran for US Senate in 1858 Similarities: Ran for US Senate in 1858 Against slavery Distorted Lincoln’s views Distorted Douglas’s views

25. Words to Remember The systems you have in place are perfect for the results you are getting.

26. Contact Information Bill McBride 432 Vicksburg St. San Francisco, CA 94114 Phone/Fax: 415.826.2310 E-mail: billmcbride@ionix.net Workshop Info: www.entertaininganelephant.com

27. Teacher Price-$6.36 Half the proceeds go to charity. To order call 1-800-525-2125 For Workshops or KeynotesSpeeches Go to: www.entertaininganelephant.com