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Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12. By: Kelly Gallagher. Nichole K. Enos & Amanda Hunt. Why Reading Is Like Baseball?. Baseball has different levels:
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Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts, 4-12 By: Kelly Gallagher Nichole K. Enos & Amanda Hunt
Why Reading Is Like Baseball? Baseball has different levels: • Surface Level - You have a pitcher that throws the ball, batter that tries to hit the pitch, and if the pitch is hit you run to as many bases as safely possible. • Deeper Level - Watching for secret signs (Do I have permission to try to steal 2nd base? What type of pitch should I throw?), these signs are changed before every pitch, and you may notice players getting nervous as they become aware of another player about to steal base. Your understanding can improve from a surface level to a deeper level as you are taught skills to help you read. This skill is not acquired spontaneously or randomly, but must be learned.
You can assign a reading, give students an assessment, and students pass them. On the surface everything looks fine: Students read the text and can answer the questions. But do they really understand what they have read? If you ask them to evaluate, to analyze, to synthesize, they can't do it. We want students to be able to read between the lines, we want our students to become readers who can move beyond the literal and who can interpret the text.
Building Scaffolds As teachers we need to provide the instructional scaffolding, the guidance, for our students. An example is if we assign writing instead of teaching students how to write, we'll get poor writing. If we assign reading instead of teaching students how to read, we'll get poor reading.
Focus Your Reader • Read Through the Text for the First Time • Re-read the Text to Deepen Comprehension – In any well-crafted text there are often layers you do not see on your initial reading. • Collaborate – The richer the text, the harder it is for a single reader to uncover it all on a first reading. It is important that you give your students time to discuss what they discovered while reading.We remember10% of what we read20% of what we hear30% of what we see50% of what we both see and hear70% of what we talk about with others ~Edgar Dale~Collaboration itself raises the reading comprehension of each student in the class, that’s why it’s important for meaningful collaboration time amongst students. • Use Metaphor to Deepen Comprehension – An exercise you can do to introduce metaphors is to explain to your students what “intangible” means. Brainstorm and create a list of intangible items. Ask students if they can now infer what “tangible” means. Create a list. Have students complete the following sentence by selecting on intangible item and on tangible item and then explore the relationship between the two:(Intangible item)is like a (tangable item) because……An example: Friendship is like a driver’s license because it will expire if you do not renew it. • Lead Students to Meaningful Reflection – Have students reflect on the reading and answer what this book says to them today. It’s important to get to what the story means to us now.
Why should you focus your readers?When you start your car on a freezing morning, it’s best to let it warm up for a few minutes before your drive. It is better for the car and provides a smoother ride. This is also true for students when reading an article for the first time or even if they’re in the second week of reading a novel. As class begins, they are thinking of other things. • Why first-draft reading?Even students reading at or above grade level often need help, especially if the text is unfamiliar or complex. Telling a student to read a text without giving them any other direction or support can produce poor reading. • Why read a second time?This introduces students to the idea that rich text is layered and that even expert readers need more than one reading to help comprehend a story. • Why collaborate?Students’ thinking improves when they share ideas. • Why use metaphor to deepen comprehension?Metaphor enables readers to: Make much more complex connections when they read; understand abstract material as well and as rapidly as literal language; enhance their thinking processes by encouraging students to seek out associations and connections they would not ordinarily make; and gain insight into relationships among ideas that help to forge a more thorough understanding of new learning.
Focusing the Reader • Cold Reading can often be a bad idea. Before asking students to read an unfamiliar and complex text, consider how much meaningful prior knowledge they have. The Educational Research Service has published three types of prior knowledge that are considered important for students as they read content-area texts: (1) Knowledge about the topic(2) knowledge about the structure and organization of the text(3) knowledge about vocabulary. There are two key points according to Sousa that can help our students make connections.Key Point1→ If we expect students to find meaning, “we need to be certain that today’s curriculum contains connections to their past experiences, not just ours.”Key Point 2 → “How a person feels about a learning situation determines the amount of attention devoted to it.” Students need to care about what they are reading and see the relevance of the assignment. If they ask themselves, “What’s in it for me?” they need to be able to answer it.
Six Degree’s of Reading What this means is that you follow a path that brings a book into your hands. Something in each book sparks a readers interest and leads them to a book on a topic they read about in a previous book.An example is maybe you read a book on The Civil War In this book you may read about the famous Battle of Gettysburg that was part of the Civil War. So now you’ll look into a book on Gettysburg.When reading about Gettysburg you will hear about General Ulysses S. Grant, so you’ll then go out and get a book on him. This is your “Reading Path.”
Reading Branches When you look up a book online at amazon.com you will get a section that reads, “Customers who bought this book also bought…” Amazon.com understands the importance of prior knowledge when it comes to selling books and it is in this way that Amazon appeals to its customers’ reading branches. A reading branch shows the types of books a person likes to read. The more branches you grow, the easier it will be to add new ones. Here’s an example of a Reading Tree and it’s Reading Branches. Each branch shows the different types of books a reader likes: History Humor Mystery Fiction Sci-Fi * Everyone’s tree will look different and have a different amount of branches. Poetry Teacher Books
How to consider what books to teach and which not to teach…. Carol Jago, in Classics in the Classroom (2004, p.47) suggests we choose books that: • Are written in language that is perfectly suited to the author’s purpose • Expose readers to complex human dilemmas • Include compelling, disconcerting characters • Explore universal themes that combine different periods and cultures • Challenge readers to reexamine their beliefs • Tell a good story with places for laughing and places for crying
Framing the Text • What you do, or don’t do, before your students read a literary work will determine their level of motivation and interest. • Perils of Assumicide: Assumicide is the death of a book that occurs when it is assumed that students possess enough prior knowledge, connections, and motivation to make higher-level reading possible. • Framing Activities to Use Before Reading: • Web Searches • Anticipation Guides → These can be used to frame major ideas and themes students will encounter in the book. • Theme Spotlights → This activity focuses students’ attention to one major theme to study. • Focus Poems → Read thematically related poems beforehand. • K-W-L-R Charts → Before reading have students identify what they know (“K”) about the topic. Write down everything that is brainstormed, even if it is incorrect (Students will confirm facts through reading or find information that shows what they believed is incorrect). Brainstorm what they want (“W’) to know by the time they are done reading the book. Use “L” to list what was learned while reading. “R” is used for questions that were unanswered and will become the basis for post-reading research.
Framing Activities to Use While Reading: • Daily Focus Questions → Text-dependent questions (They require students to have read the text before they can answer it) and text-independent questions (Students consider an idea that will help them prepare for what will be found in the reading that day). • The Word Game → Write a single word on the board and have students explain the significance of that word to the chapter they read the day before. • Interrupted Summary → Choose a student at random and give them a starter sentence. After 1-2 sentences interrupt him by calling out another student’s name. They pick up where the previous student left off. This keeps everyone attentive because they don’t know who will be called on next to continue the summary. • One Question and One Comment → Students come to class with one question and one comment generated from their reading assignment. • Word Scramble Prediction → Before reading a climactic chapter have students predict what will happen. Give them a list of words they will find in the chapter they will read and then give them five minutes to write a prediction of what will happen in the chapter.
First Draft Reading • Student anxiety can be lowered by telling them that the initial reading of a text is a “first-draft” reading. This first draft reading can help students get the basics of the text down – familiarizing themselves with the characters, recognizing significant plot points, getting used to the language and structure of the novel. • How can you help make the first-draft reading as meaningful as possible? Consider these four key questions: 1. Do your students have a reading focus? 2. Are students willing and able to embrace confusion? 3. Can your students monitor their own comprehension? 4. Do your students know fix-it strategies to assist them when their comprehension begins to falter?
Ways to create a reading focus: • Help students get an idea of what they are looking for in order to reduce frustration. Students can create questions based on the chapter title or heading. They will now be reading with a purpose, hoping to find the answers to their questions. • The first chapter is usually the most confusing and a place where a reader can lose focus. Have students generate questions after reading the first chapter. This can teach them to read closely and helps to focus students as they read the rest of the book. • Place students in groups and provide each group with a specific focus. • Character Charts – This can help keep characters straight. • Shift Charts – Students write adjectives describing the character early in the novel, providing passages from the text with page numbers as evidence. After the character has undergone change students will choose a new adjective to describe the character and provide passages that not what caused the change.
How to help students embrace confusion: • Don’t hide your own reading difficulties from students. Let your struggles be visible so they can see that reading can be hard for adult readers as well. • Get students to understand that confusion is natural. • Let students know learning begins when we encounter confusion. How students can monitor their own comprehension: • When reading a challenging text, students can often tell that they are getting lost. They need to take action before the situation turns hopeless. • If a student says they don’t understand a reading, ask them which part they didn’t understand. If they say they don’t get any of it ask if they understood the first word, then if they understood the first sentence, and then the first paragraph. Continue this process with the student until you find where their comprehension begins to break down. • To help students get an idea of where they are struggling with comprehension, have them read an excerpt from an article. Break the article into sections and as they read each section, ask them to score their level of comprehension on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being no understanding, 10 meaning you thoroughly understand). Students then focus on passages that received the lowest scores.
How students can monitor their own comprehension continued… • Give students two highlighters. Use one color to highlight words, phrases, sentences, or entire passages that they understand. Use the other color for everything they don’t understand.Benefits of color-coding are:1. Provides readers with a focus.2. Motivates readers to concentrate so that they can come up with as few passages highlighted in the color that means they don’t understand.3. It shows the reader where to slow their pace.4. It alerts readers to the importance of context in trying to make meaning.5. Encourages the reader to revise their comprehension while reading. • Trouble slips → Cut scrap paper into bookmark sized strips. Students use these to make notes, flag words and passages that are giving them the hardest time. Students should also use these for their homework.
Fix it strategies to assist students with their comprehension when it falters… • There are two questions to ask: 1. Where exactly do you feel you do not understand?2. How many times have you read it? • Search Prefixes/Suffixes/Roots for Partial Meanings → Ex. When asked to define the word malpractice students know that mal means bad. This helps them to make an educated guess as to the correct answer. Another example is the word unenviable. Un means not, able means able to. Once again, instead of guessing or blindly selecting a choice, students have a better chance of answering the question correct. • Figure Out Sound-Alikes → Take the word patricide for example. Very few people are familiar with the word but, they may be familiar with the suffix –cide. Ask where this suffix has been heard before. Words that might come up are: suicide, homicide, and genocide. Once this connection is made, students can derive at lease a partial meaning and make an educated guess to the actual meaning.
Second-Draft Reading • On your second read through take notice of what the text doe not say. Train your students to not just notice what is said but to also infer what is left unsaid. Students should be able to look under the surface. This is important because students are willing to accept whatever they read. They should know that this is a dangerous way to read your way through life. “I want them to realize that every time something is said, something remains unsaid, and that every time something is written, something remains unwritten.” – Kelly GallagherAn example is a table printed in a local newspaper in California that said: 10 Lowest Orange County API Scores, 2002. The article is printed with the schools and their scores. What the table doesn’t say is:- The schools have a high percentage of non-English-speaking students.- Students come and go frequently- Schools are located in low-income neighborhoods.- The schools suffer from high absenteeism.- Students come from print-poor home environments.- Many of the students do not have a quiet place to study at home.None of this information was given with the table that was printed in the paper to help readers accurately infer as to why the scores were low.
Three Key Questions • There are three questions that need to be ask after students have read a text:1. What does it say? Students should be able to support their statements by returning to the text and providing strong textual evidence.2. What does it mean? 3. What does it matter?Reading literature provides people with a practice ground to explore issues by asking them, “What does it matter?” We help students see the relevance of the great themes found in classic literature.
Strategies to Achieve Deeper Comprehension… • Say/Mean Chart → This is a t-chart where students are asked on one side to write what the passage says (Literal comprehension) and on the other side what they think the passage means (Inferential comprehension). • Multi-Layered Time Lines → Develop a time line of events. This is especially useful for a novel or play that has an intricate plot or many characters to keep track of. • Literary Dominoes → Plots of novels, plays, and stories are like dominoes. Ahappens, which causes Bto happen, which in turn causes Cto happen. An example is with the play “Romeo and Juliet.” Provide students with the last three dominoes in the chain. You know the play ends in tragedy, but what specific actions lead to this conclusion? Students must identify all the key events in the chain that led to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. • Flip Side Chart → Every positive has a negative. Everything has a flip side. This can help students become critical readers, especially when reading nonfiction.
Positive-Negative Chart → A way for students to track specific literary elements in a novel or play. - Positive vs. negative behavior by the character: Students chart both positive and negative behaviors of the character.- Positive or negative influence other characters have on the main character: Students pay attention to and chart the influence other characters have on a given character. - Highest or lowest point in the story: Students mark the high and low points of the story for a given character.Positive-negative charting activities work best when students are able to share, discuss, and argue about them. • Reading Symbols → Students write reflections in their reading logs. Some ideas are: Make predictions, recognize when the author uses literary devices, make connections, make judgments, and challenge the text. After writing their reflections students trade logs and look for evidence of the element. This gives them a double dose of deeper reading reinforcement. • Responsibility Pie Charts → Students consider which characters or people are most responsible for the book’s outcome. Ex. Elie Wiesel’s “Night,” a nonfictional account of the Holocaust. At the end of the unit students brainstorm various people and groups who played a role in the genocide of World War II. It’s easy for students to blame Hitler, but you want them to realize that he needed a lot of help to murder millions of people. As a class brainstorm all the people and groups who played a role in the Holocaust and students then create a pie chart to visually represent culpability. The higher the percentage on the chart, the more responsible a person is. Students must then defend their charts.
The Importance of Collaboration • You can comprehend a text the first time you read it, but deeper comprehension is more likely to occur when a reading is discussed with others. An ex. Of how students can discuss a reading is Book Club. • Collaboration plays an important role in raising levels of comprehension. • Hitchhiking → Unfortunately, just putting students in groups and giving them time to talk doesn’t automatically result in higher-level thinking. Adolescents when given the chance will often “hitchhike” in groups which means they’ll go along for the ride and not pay for the gas. Group students in a way that encourages meaningful discussion. Here are two questions to consider for grouping: 1. What conditions are desirable to help create effective groups?2. Once groups are created which strategies are most effective in creating higher-level thinking.
Building Effective Groups • Size Matters → The smaller the size of the groups the better! A good number is three because that will encourage participation from everyone in the group. • Ethnicity and Gender → Honor as many experiences your students bring to the discussion. You want students to hear as many different perspectives as possible and this can be achieved by mixing both gender and ethnicity when forming groups. • Time and Task → Students can be slow to get started. To prompt them to begin immediately, set a time limit! If you’re not sure how long it will take students to complete a task, try to err on the side of not giving them enough time. You can always adjust and give them extra time if they are working diligently. Trouble occurs when students have too much time to complete the task at hand. • Specific Roles → Having a role provides each student with a focus and gives the group a framework. • Accountability → Can be applied to individuals and groups.- Individual Accountability: Each student has to produce a product. Students can have the same job.- Group Accountability: Everyone is required to share their group’s work and the person selected to stand in front of the class to do so will be chosen at random.
Rules to Govern Collaboration • No hitchhiking. Everyone participates. • Be critical of ideas, not people. Disagreement is necessary. • Everyone is in it together, we are a community of learners. • Restate what someone said if it is not clear. • If there are two sides to an issue, try to understand both sides. • Listen to everyone’s ideas, even if you do not agree with them. It often takes more skill to listen than it does to share. • Let all ideas emerge.
Strategies to promote higher-level thinking in small-group settings • Silent Exchange → Students read a passage or chapter and write a question at the top of the paper. The question has to be open-ended. In groups of five, students pass the papers to one another and have two minutes to write a response to that question. There is no talking and when the time is up students sign their name and pass the paper to the next person. When the rotation is complete, each student has multiple responses to his or her question. • Save the Last Word for Me → Students copy a passage they find thought-provoking. The other group members try to guess why the passage was chosen, or they can discuss why it is important. The person who selected the passage gets the last word. • Trouble Slips → Slips of bookmarked size papers are handed out. Students take notes of their trouble spots as they read – places where comprehension falters. In groups students share these spots with peers. • Double-Entry Journals Plus → A t-chart where on the left side is a passage the student found compelling and on the right they write a response to the passage. • SOAPS → Much like a literature circle, students are provided with roles to help them discuss texts.Subject(s): Identifies the subject and main idea(s)Occasion: Discusses context of text (Setting, circumstances, events, era, historical or cultural context.Audience: Identifies intended audience and discusses why they were targeted.Purpose: Analyzes author’s purpose for composing the piece.Speaker: Determines the tone of voice and why this tone was used.
Mystery Envelopes→ Each group gets a “mystery envelop” with an index card with a question for the group to answer. Here are a few examples of some questions: - What lesson(s) have we learned from a specific character? - This chapter doesn’t have a title. What should the title be? Why? - Which character is most (least) believable? Why? • Group “Exams” → Gauge students’ understand by having them produce essays or responses to open-ended question. Multiple-choice exams can be useful review tools in group settings to help students prepare for the “real” assessment essay. • Group Open Minds → Students are grouped and asked to analyze a character using an open mind. They are directed to draw metaphorical representations to illustrate what is going on in the characters head. If there are multiple characters, each group can have a different character. • Conversation Log Exchanges → Logs are provided for each student. This method could be used with students in middle school and up. Students write anything they want in the log and do not sign their names. During second period class, students pick up the notebookthat corresponds with their number and they write back to the personanonymously. This is repeated again for third period class. After the bookis done students can reveal their identity.
Using Metaphor to Deepen Comprehension... • By developing your students ability to think metaphorically, you help them to reach deeper levels of comprehension. • Bringing metaphorical thinking into the teacher of literature has two benefits: 1. Students are more readily able to reach deeper levels of comprehension when they understand metaphor in challenging text. 2. Repeated practice recognizing and analyzing metaphor enables students to generate their own metaphorical connections to the text and to the world. This in turn can sharpen their higher-level thinking skills. • The OWL (Online Writing Lab) recommends students be taught the value of metaphorical thinking for three reasons: 1. Metaphors enliven ordinary language 2. Metaphors require interpretation (Higher-level thinking) 3. Metaphors create new meanings. • Strong metaphors bring writing alive. • Interpreting rich metaphor usually requires second-draft reading. • Metaphors create new meanings
An iceberg is a good metaphor to use when studying a specific character. Like an iceberg, part of a character is easily visible; but at the same time there might be a part, sometimes a large part, of the character that remains unseen.
Metaphorical Graphic Organizers to Analyze Characters • Square Peg, Round Hole → Students should consider both society’s expectations on a character (the round hole) and the character’s needs (square peg). • Brake Pedal, Accelerator Pedal → Consider the forces (people, places, things) that slow a character down as well as the forces that accelerate a character’s thinking or behavior. • Ingredients Listing → Students list the character’s “ingredients” (traits), with the most important first and the leaset important last. • Archery target → Students determine how close a character came to reaching his or her goal (hitting his or her target). • Wallet/Purse → You can learn a great deal about a person if you were permitted to examine the contents of her purse or the contents of his wallet. Assuming the character did have one, what would be in it? What could we learn about a given character from the items found in that character’s wallet or purse?
Metaphorical Graphic Organizers to Analyze Plot, Structure, and Setting • Pencil, Eraser → A pencil has two ends, one for writing and the other for erasing. On the writing end of the pencil, students note the actions that character wishes he or she had done. On the eraser end, students consider what actions the character wishes he or she could erase. • Snow Globe → Capture the setting in a five inch sphere. This represents a challenge because a setting can be vast so students need to pick and chose what they want to incorporate. • Time Capsule → If you were to fill a time capsule to give a reader a sense of that time period and place for a specific novel, what would go in it? • Backdrop, Props → Carefully consider what you would use as a backdrop for the staging of a scene.
Five Considerations... Metaphorical graphic organizes need to be used with careful consideration. To achieve maximum effectiveness, consider the following: • Use Metaphor to Interpret Metaphor → Make sure a metaphorical graphic organizer is completed in metaphorical terms. • Don’t Turn Graphic Organizers into Worksheets → Use it for a specific complex character, don’t use it repeatedly for any and all characters. • Keep the “Newness Factor” in Mind When Assigning Metaphorical Graphic Organizers → Don’t use the same organizers, create new ones as you go through the school year. • Have Students Create and Draw Their Own Metaphorical Graphic Organizers →(Character name) is like a _______________ because __________________________ .This sentence can be worded in multiple different ways:The chain of events in this novel is like a ____________________ because _____________________ .The mood in this novel is like a _________________ because _____________________ .The writing style in this novel is like a _______________________ because ______________________ .The novel is built (put together) like a _________________________ because ______________________ . • Use Metaphorical Graphic Organizers as a Springboard to Writing
Meaningful Reflections… • Reading is rewarding. • Reading builds a mature vocabulary. • Reading makes you a better writer. • Reading is hard, and “hard” is necessary. • Reading prepares you for the world of work. • Reading well is financially rewarding. • Reading opens the door to college and beyond. • Reading arms you against oppression. • Reading makes you smarter. • Reading develops a moral compass • Mini-lessons are motivational for students to reach reading goals. • When students are aware of the reasons that they should be a good reader, help them to develop positive reading behaviors
Students should analyze texts by means of the following… • Characterization: How does the author develop the characters? What is the difference between “flat” and “round” characters? Which minor characters play important roles? How do the characters advance the plot and the conflicts? • Time and Sequence: How does the author develop time and sequence? Is foreshadowing used? Flashbacks? How does the author craft these time shifts? How do these time shifts advance the telling of the story? • Themes: Which themes emerge from the book? Is there an overriding theme? Do minor themes emerge? How are these themes developed? • Author’s purpose: Why do you think the author wrote this book? What did he or she really want to say? What was the historical context in which this book was written, and how did this influence the author? Who is/was the author’s intended audience? • Diction: How does the author’s choice of words advance the story? Is dialogue used effectively? Does the diction ring true? Does the author effectively use figurative language—metaphor, simile, and allegory?
Symbolism: How does the author effectively use symbolism to advance the story? How do these symbols enrich the novel? • Voice: Who is telling the story? Which point of view has the author used? How are the other literary elements revealed through the use of narration, dialogue, dramatic monologue, or soliloquy? • Setting: Where is the story set? How does this setting affect the story’s development? • Conflict: What are the central conflicts in the work? How does the author develop these conflicts? Are the conflicts primarily internal or external? • Irony: How is irony used in the story? What kinds of irony (verbal, situational, dramatic) are used? How does the use of irony advance our understanding of the characters? • Tone: What is the author’s attitude in this work? How and where is it revealed?
Strategies to encourage reflection… Reflection begins with the self. First students think about what this book means for themselves,and then once they are aware of the answer, they can then dive into the meaning of the book itself and reflect upon it in means of others. • Three degrees of:This strategy incorporates having students think about a central theme within the text and then break that theme up into three degrees in relation to the contemporary world. For example, degrees of Racism. • The most valuable idea:This strategy has students come up with what the most valuable idea was from the text.- At the top of the paper, students write what they think is the single most important idea found in the book. This idea must be written in a complete sentence.- In the left-hand column, students find an example in the real world that illustrates this idea.- In the right-hand column, students explain the connection between the idea found in the book and the real-world example. 3. Theme notebooks 4. Hunt for authors purpose 5. Casting Calls - Role play
Reading the World Critical Thinking Skills- • Give students more exposure to a curriculum that, when taught with rigor, provides them with richer opportunities to think critically. • Students should be able to analyze literature in the class, but the bigger goal is that they develop these cognitive skills to a level where they may be transferred beyond the classroom. “Loaded” Language- • Euphemism: the use of a mild or indirect expression instead of one that is harsh or unpleasantly direct—from the World Book Dictionary) • Euphemisms can be used by giving students a list of euphemisms and having them think of what the actual word might be • Be sure to discuss and reflect on the purpose of euphemisms with students • Another example of “Loaded” Language is how people manipulate words to benefit themselves • This idea of manipulation of language can be taught by using Personal Want Ad’s, specifically the dating section. • Discuss with students how someone might manipulate language in a dating ad to make them more interesting or attractive to the reader. For example the word affectionate might really mean needy. Reading Political Cartoons- • Analyzing political cartoons takes a lot of work and thought from students • It is important to conduct a very close first read by examining the cartoon and listing everything they see. (Who, What, When, Where , How) • After that, asking students deeper questions about the cartoon can be conducted, such as, what is the subject? What is the context? What is the purpose? Who is the audience? What is not said or what is left unsaid in the cartoon? • The next step into deeper reading of political cartoons is to show opposing cartoons that contain two opposing views.
Cradle-to-Grave Consumerism- • The common goal: to get you to identify with their brand from an early age so that you develop a sense of nostalgia for the brand—nostalgia that will keep you coming back as a lifelong customer. • “According to Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, 96 percent of American school children can identify Ronald McDonald, and the Golden Arches now have a higher degree of recognition than the Christian cross” • Children begin distinguishing brands during their preschool years. Six-month-old babies can recognize corporate logos and mascots. • Brand loyalty begins as early as age two. • The average three-year-old recognizes 100 different brand logos. • Toddlers cannot distinguish a commercial from a television show. • It isn’t until age eight that kids begin to realize that advertising can be untruthful and misleading • Explaining this consumerism communication and dialogue to students will allow for them to become aware of this propaganda, how it is used and how language plays a big role in it. Read All About It- • The younger you are, the less likely you are to read the newspaper • Reading the newspaper is crucial in students reading the world and preparing for adulthood • Students should become informed members of society • 3 Activities to get students interested in reading the newspaper • Its a Wacky World- Find old newspapers that you have laying around and find hot topics or events from way back when. Anything interesting, crazy, unbelievable, tragic, happy, that will catch students attention. • Scavenger Hunt- Help students get an idea and become familiarized with how the newspaper is sectioned and how to read the newspaper in such ways. • Newspaper Reading Minute- Spend the first minute of every day (for one month) sharing an interesting newspaper article that the student has found. Assign one student for each day of the month to do so. Challenge students to find and bring in the MOST interesting article
Overall: • Provide students with real world practice: • Identifying euphemisms • Critically read advertisements • Newspaper Articles • Political Cartoons • Statistics • Make the time to incorporate Reading the World into the curriculum • It prepares students for college and career readiness and the common core is pushing this concept for students to be prepared and ready for the demands of the world beyond the classroom.
Teaching Deep Reading Questions to consider… • How can we design classroom lessons that help our students reach deeper meaning when they read??? • Without my assistance, what will my students take from this reading? • With my assistance, what do I want my students to take from this reading? • What can I do to bridge the gap between what my students would learn on their own and what I want them to learn? • How will I know if my students “got it”? Assessment methods: Use the backwards design • The assessment should drive the teaching. • When teacher and students know the assessment beforehand, more focused teaching and learning result.We should start every unit with a “backwards design” approach in mind (Wiggins and McTighe 1998). *Writing tests after the reading is completed creates a guessing game and should be avoided.
What you test is what you get • When considering a reading assessment, it helps to remember an acronym coined by Jim Cox, formerly the director of assessment in my school district: WYTIWYG (pronounced “witty-wig”), which stands for “What you test is what you get.” • measure students thinking through assessments that require deeper thinking, and receive deeper thinking from them • The multiple-choice questions value shallow thinking, and so they inspire surface-level thinking. • The essay questions value deeper thinking, and when they are used in assessment, they move students to a deeper level of comprehension.
Dangers! Key thoughts to keep in mind when implementing Deep Reading strategies Danger 1: Overteaching the Book Danger 2: The student becomes over reliant on the teacher
How we felt about the book… Pros Cons • Multiple activities are discussed to help with comprehension. There are also images and charts visually show you what is being discussed at times. • The book has multiple headings and subheadings that easily help you locate information you are interested in. • It can help open your eye’s to perspectives you may not previously have thought of. • Can help to encourage higher critical thinking with your students through uses of the strategies and activities it discusses. • On Amazon.com the book is rated 4.9 out of 5 stars (out of 34 votes). You can read feedback from other teachers that discuss how useful the book was in their classroom. • Repetition → An element may be discussed briefly in a section, but later in the book it will have an entire section to itself. It would be helpful if the two were near each other instead of separate. • Almost all of the activities were well explained, there were occasionally a few that could be hard to understand and may require re-reading.
