Reciprocal Teaching and Critical Thinking for MCA Reading Success

1. Reciprocal Teaching and Critical Thinking for MCA Reading Success Risa Cohen Irondale High School New Brighton, MN August 2, 2012

2. Today’s Agenda • Reading as Progressive Mastery • Reciprocal Teaching for Progressive Mastery • Classroom practices - ART • arT - Critical Thinking to demonstrate reading comprehension

3. How can this picture be a good metaphor for reading?

4. Is this a better metaphor for reading?

5. What is Reciprocal Teaching? • Research based and supported by NRP • Palincsar and Brown (1994) • Pressley and El-Dinary (1997) • Students use a set of reading strategies consistently • Students engage with text and set a purpose for reading • Students apply strategies independently as needed when confronting complex text

6. Progressive mastery:a strategic approach • progressive mastery • ART • routine large group instruction • engaging non-fiction texts • independent practice • daily reading and thinking about text

7. What is ART? • Activate background knowledge • Refocus questions to set a purpose and create a schema for learning • Translate understanding

8. Activating background knowledge • Background Knowledge is more than subject based • personal associations and experiences • cultural • rhetorical • Background Knowledge creates a framework to • classify concepts • remember information • fill in the gaps in text

9. Activate • Identify key words • Create associations • Brainstorming • Model academic talk • Provide additional information

10. Key terms: weak economy back-to-school shopping tougher for parents

11. Refocus Questions • Going beyond factual questions • Interpretive – Why and How questions • specific to the topic and inferential • what you know + what you want to learn • more than one answer • Students ask questions and read to find the answers

12. What is a weak economy? • Why can't parents buy supplies? • What happens to students who don't have supplies? • What happens if parents can’t afford to buy supplies? • How do parents afford school supplies? Key terms: weak economy back-to-school shopping tougher for parents

13. Translating Understanding • Highlighting • Summarizing • Critical Thinking

14. Please take five minutes to read and highlight the answers to the pre-reading questions • What is a weak economy? • Why can't parents buy supplies? • What happens to students who don't have supplies? • What happens if parents can’t afford to buy supplies? • How do parents afford school supplies?

17. Translate UnderstandingSummarizing The economy is bad so parents don't have enough money to buy clothes and supplies. They look for bargains, send kids to school without the supplies, or get used clothes from the thrift stores. Without supplies, teachers have to spend more of their own money.

18. Think Pair Share • Let’s take a three minutes to share a question you have about ART with your neighbor. • Listen to your neighbor’s question and try to answer it. • Any unanswered questions will be collected at the end. Answers will be posted on my blog at http://art2read.org.

19. Practicing T: Critical Thinking Apply, Analyze, and Evaluate to determine the best choice • Analyze type and purpose of question • What is the question asking you to do? • Where can the answer be found? • Close Reading • paraphrase of passage • demonstrate reasoning

20. MCA Grad Test Questions • Detail • Main Idea • Author’s Purpose • Inferential • Vocabulary in context

21. Detail What job did Elders hold immediately before becoming Surgeon General of the United States? • Director of the Arkansas Department of Health B. Professor of medicine at the University of Arkansas C. Director of physical therapy in the United States Army D. Pediatrician at a medical center in Little Rock

22. Main Idea What is the main idea of this article? A. Dr. Joycelyn Elders used her time as Surgeon General to improve people’s lives by working for better medical schools. B. Dr. Joycelyn Elders was accepted to the University of Arkansas Medical School and soon after was named Surgeon General. C. Because of her father’s financial support, Dr. Joycelyn Elders was able to become one of the first female African-American doctors. D. Through hard work and determination, Dr. Joycelyn Elders overcame many obstacles to become Surgeon General.

23. Inferential Joycelyn Elders was successful because she • did not allow difficulties to discourage her. B. served longer than any other Surgeon General. C. did not say things that would anger people. D. was encouraged by other female medical students.

24. Author’s Purpose (AP) The author’s main purpose is to A. inform the reader about the accomplishments of Jocelyn Elders as surgeon general. B. describe the career of Jocelyn Elders as a surgeon general. C. inform the reader about the duties of a surgeon general. D. describe the obstacles faced by Jocelyn Elders before she became surgeon general.

25. Vocabulary in context In paragraph 6, the word residents refers to people who A. are training to be doctors. B. live in a place permanently. C. are traveling as part of a job. D. come from a particular country.

26. Thank You! • Please visit my website at art2read.org • comment on my blog • email any questions and comments to: rcohen@art2read.org

27. Bibliography