In… sp …eye…ring LITERACY

1. In…sp…eye…ring LITERACY Getting your kids engaged with and EXCITED about reading

2. Reading is important • Well duh, but the key is teaching it so that your students are engaged and interacting with the process authentically. • Assigning independent reading is often not enough, especially with students who are not interested or inspired by reading

3. Rate of Return • Lemov talks about how teachers need to evaluate the rate of return on their teaching investment. When do students show the most growth? • He believes that this will happen when students are being actively taught reading skills and as many students as possible are engaged in the process.

4. Control the Game • Lemov believes that students should begin the process of reading mastery in group read aloud sessions. • The arrangement of this group is not explained, but is implied to be whole class reading. • What Lemov believes meaningful reading is “reading that is accountable, moderately expressive and highly leveraged.”

5. What does that mean? • Accountability: • Students are rapidly assessable by the teacher for their participation and understanding. • Moderately Expressive • Students are imbuing the words with a voice that conveys a deeper understanding of the text. • Highly Leveraged • The more students who are engaged in reading along the better for all students’ learning.

6. How do we do this? • Don’t announce read aloud length for a student. • When students don’t know how long to read for, all students need to follow along. • Don’t call on students for a specified length of text. • Use quick transitions between students (“thanks, go John.”) to maintain class comprehension. • Unpredictably call on students to read. • Don’t call on students in a pattern, they will only wait until their moment to read. • If they don’t know when they will read, they will follow along. • This allows you to adjust the reading based on students’ reading skills and also maintain the flow of the story better.

7. Keep your transitions quick and smooth. • Corrections of students, new students reading, and questions should happen quickly so that sutdentsdo not lose the pace of the story. • Read aloud between students, unpredictably. • This demonstrates to students “master” reading and voice in the story. • It also allows the pace of the story to continue quickly. • Employ oral cloze techniques • Leave out the last word or two in a sentence you read aloud so that students must offer the words to you (allowing a quick assessment of who is following along).

8. Moving Beyond • Eventually your students will become more self sufficient with reading practice times and you can transition away from Control the Game, but Lemov says that we should not hurry into this process too quickly. Gradual release of responsibility will allow for observation and control of student reading behavior and practices.