Pulling it All Together- Effective Reading Instruction

1. Pulling it All Together- Effective Reading Instruction Amber Blume Instructional Coach SFSD

2. Dates/Times/Credit • Sept 8, 13, 15, 20 3:30-6:30pm • 1 credit- CEU or College Credit • Class fee payable to SFSD $40- everyone • CEUs will be automatically sent to you if you do not sign up for college credit- no cost. • College credit can be received from either USF or Augie. Fill out card and write check for $40 to the college of your choice.

3. Agenda Items we will cover during this class… Common Core Standards New Essentials Guides Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller Mosaic of Thought Comprehension Strategies Daily 5/Café Reading Conferences and whatever else is needed!!

4. Quote… Classroom practice must be based on richly understood and deeply held beliefs about how children learn to read. In other words, what teachers say and do and how they engage children in reading acts much have theoretical underpinnings. Their practice is not based on a publisher’s set of teacher directions or a handbook filled with teaching tips, but on concepts they themselves have examined carefully. (Shelley Harwayne, 2000, 207)

5. What are your beliefs? Let’s take a look at what Debbie Miller’s beliefs are…. (see handout)

6. ENVIRONMENT!! “I believe that classroom environments are most effective when they are literate and purposeful, organized and accessible, and, most of all, authentic.”

7. Meeting Area Uses • Explicit teaching, modeling, and teacher/student demonstration, often within the context of shared reading, read-alouds, think-alouds, and interactive read-alouds • Classroom discussions, turning and talking in twos and threes, getting eye-to-eye and knee-to-knee for focused discussions • Kids and teachers to reflect, share, and teach each other what they’ve learned about themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians, and scientists that day • Partner and small-group work, conferring, and independent practice, when we’re not using it in the ways previously described

8. Small Group Area Uses • When the whole class is working in small groups in response to a particular text, topic, theme, or problem • For teacher-guided, needs-based groups • For book clubs or literature circles, both formal and spontaneous • When kids decide to work together for a specific purpose • For partner reading/partner work • As quiet workplaces for those who need them Working independently doesn’t always mean working in isolation!!

9. Library Area • The library could be the WHOLE room • Books organized in small plastic tubs • Tubs shouldn’t bee too full or too heavy for kids • Tubs labeled in variety of ways…author, series, genre, topic, level- no right or wrong way • Not enough just to organize a library…need book talks and lessons on how to choose books

10. Quote on Environments… “Classroom environments are organic—they grow as we do. The best of them reflect the hearts and souls of those who inhabit them. They’re never really finished. They’re never really “done.” How could they be, when every day students and teachers learn something new?” -Debbie Miller

11. Thoughts…

12. How do we teach reading?? • A large part of reading is thinking!! • SO…How do we create cultures that support and promote student thinking?? • BY… • Putting our thinking on display • The intentional use of language • Making thinking visible, public, and permanent

13. Quote… “Consider how often what we learn reflects what others are doing around us. We watch, we imitate, we adapt what we see to our own styles and interests, we build from there. Now imagine learning to dance when the dancers around you are all invisible. Imagine learning a sport when the players who already know the game can’t be seen. Bizarre as this may sound, something close to it happens all the time in one very important area of learning; learning to think. Thinking is pretty much invisible…As educators, we can work to make thinking much more visible than it usually is in the classrooms. When we do so, we are giving students more to build on and learn from. By making the dancers visible, we are making it much easier to learn to dance.” (David Perkins, 2003)

14. Examples http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/AnchorChartPhotographsfromKellyandGinger/index.html Anchor charts can be made on the spot or the teacher can take notes and make them later. Several different kinds of Anchor Charts: Strategy, Process, Content, Genre

15. What do we teach? “The point isn’t about finding the perfect lesson or progression of lessons to follow exactly. The point is to know who you are and what you’re about when you’re teaching based on your beliefs, your students, and the environment you are creating.” (Debbie Miller)

16. Analyzing Lessons See handout for questions to ask yourself when analyzing lessons.

17. Think-Alouds “The research on comprehension strategy instruction provides powerful evidence that most struggling readers (and many not so struggling readers) benefit enormously when we can construct lessons that help make the comprehension process visible. Many students only develop the strategies they need with much instructional support…these students need demonstrations of effective strategy use and lots of opportunities to apply the demonstrated strategy over time.” (Richard Allington 2005, 98)

18. Make your Think Alouds Better! DO YOUR HOMEWORK!! • Decide on strategy to be taught • Think about what you really want your students to know about the strategy ~write a definition of the strategy ~decide on desired outcome at end of study ~decide on tentative time line for study (how long depends on when applied by students or when boredom sets in) ~decide on authentic assessments to use (written response, listening in on conversations, etc.) • Plan ahead ~think about the strategy to be taught ~pick a text ~identify the central concept and/or key themes in the text ~think about your own experiences related to the concept/themes ~identify where you might pause and think aloud for your students (use post-it-notes to mark, ~ remove during lesson and stick on back of the text where you will be able to refer to it)

19. Think Aloud Tips • Share inferences from the cover, title, and pictures as well as the text. • Model the connections we make when we read. Ling our prior knowledge and information to new information in the text • Share the questions we have when reading • Verbalize confusing points (monitoring ongoing comprehension) • Demonstrate fix-up strategies

20. How to Choose a Good Think-Aloud Text • A short selection or excerpt from a book that provide natural stopping points for the teacher to pause • An interesting, perhaps provocative text in which children are likely to be engaged in the topic • A text that is more challenging than on that all the children would be able to read independently • A selection from a student’s own writing that is conducive to thinking aloud about a particular strategy • For later stage in the strategy study, a variety of genres in which the teacher/students can think aloud about how to apply the strategy differently

21. Let’s Practice • Pick a book and pair up. • Read a portion of the book together and discuss when you could stop for some “think-alouds” if you were reading with your students.

22. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model • TEACHER MODELING • GUIDED PRACTICE WITHIN THE LESSON • GUIDED PRACTICE BEYOND THE LESSON • INDEPENDENT PRACTICE • APPLICATION - See handout

23. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model TEACHER MODELING • Teachers explain the focus of the lesson and why it’s important. • Teachers demonstrate how they use this skill or strategy. • Teachers think aloud to make their thinking visible.

24. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model GUIDED PRACTICE WITHIN THE LESSON • Teachers engage students in focused discussions. • Teachers and students practice together. • Teachers scaffold students’ attempts. • Summation (What did we learn?) focuses on content and process.

25. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model GUIDED PRACTICE BEYOND THE LESSON • Teachers scaffold students’ attempts as children work together to apply new learning in pairs and small groups. • Teachers encourage and support student work and thinking, giving feedback that honors the child and the task. • Students share their learning and thinking processes with each other.

26. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model INDEPENDENT PRACTICE • Students work to apply and refine new learning independently. • Students continue to receive regular feedback from their teacher and peers.

27. Gradual Release of Responsibility Model APPLICATION • Students apply the new learning in authentic situations. • Students transfer learning from one situation to another. • Students synthesize content and process.

28. Workshop Format Example

29. Example Lesson Comprehension Strategy Lesson Plan INFERRING- Grade 3 Goal: TLW make connections through the use of oral language, written language, and media …. Obj. 3.1 Respond to fiction, nonfiction, poetry… by …making inferences and drawing conclusions about characters and events.

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34. Assessments etc. for lesson http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/Inferring%20lesson%20plan-grade%203%20from%20Elouise.pdf