Promoting Strong Reading

1. Promoting Strong Reading Strategies for the Content Areas

2. Promoting Strong Reading • Agenda • Humor • Pre-reading/During Reading strategies to engage students in reading & foster reading comprehension • Short Video: Why Reading Matters

3. Humor Stadium Pal David Sedaris

5. Instructional Strategies for Reading Engagement

6. Helping Students WITH Reading REMEMBER THE THREE MOST IMPORTANT WAYS TO HELP STUDENTS BECOME STRONGER READERS: B-D-A • Before • During • After Good reading instruction assists students in all three areas because meaning-making is taking place during all three times.

7. Helping Students WITH Reading B-D-A • Before: Think of a time when you really anticipated something (say a movie, especially one created from a favorite book OR think about a trip to a new and exotic locale or a hobby/project you wanted to undertake). How did your anticipation help prepare you for your experience? What kinds of questions did you have? • Trailer 1 • Trailer 2 • Trailer 3

8. Helping Students WITH Reading B-D-A • Before: Think of a time when you really anticipated something (say a movie, especially one created from a favorite book OR a trip to a new and exotic locale, or a project you wanted to undertake). How did your anticipation help prepare you for your experience? What kinds of questions did you have? • During: Now think of any ways that your ideas were complicated during the experience. Were there things you didn’t understand? Did something happen during the event to change your perception (better or worse)? Were there times that you were uncomfortable? • Consider how a character map, a chronology, or contextual information might have helped you understand that movie, text, experience, etc.

9. Helping Students WITH Reading B-D-A • Before: Think of a time when you really anticipated something (say a movie, especially one created from a favorite book OR a vacation to a new and exotic locale or a project you wanted to undertake). How did your anticipation help prepare you for your experience? What kinds of questions did you have? • During: Now think of any ways that your ideas were complicated during the experience. Were there things you didn’t understand? Were there times that you were uncomfortable? • After: Did you leave the experience thinking about it? Did you ever have to reconsider your own judgments for thoughts based upon other’s feedback, experiences, further knowledge? • This is also known as socially-constructed or socially-mediated learning: we shape what we know based upon our contexts and interactions with others

10. Strategies to Enhance Reading Engagement and Comprehension Scaffolding Texts

11. Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) • Students need to be taught (and you need to model) that there are different kinds of questions that necessarily require different kinds of answers. • The kind of answer one gives—and where one goes to find the answers themselves—depends upon the questions.

12. Question-Answer Relationships Students can benefit from learning about different kinds of questions and how one goes about finding answers to such questions. • In the text/verbatim: Factual questions that can be found in the text, usually with the question containing similar wording to the answer and vice versa • Think and Search: The answer is in the text but it is worded differently; it requires the reader to think and extrapolate information • Author and Reader: This requires the reader to use prior knowledge to connect information with what the author says to find the correct answer • Text-Generated Thought Questions: The text gives information that prompts further thinking, but the ‘real’ or expected answer cannot be found in the text. Requires prior knowledge and critical thinking.

13. Today’s Text • Read the short passage below:

14. Question-Answer Relationships In the text/verbatim: Factual questions that can be found in the text, usually with the question containing similar wording to the answer and vice versa What “turned bad” in the 1930s? When did new farming techniques (machines for example) start to appear on western farms? What were the western lands primarily used for in the 1930s?

15. Question-Answer Relationships Think and Search: The answer is in the text but it is worded differently; it requires the reader to think and extrapolate information What was the major occupation of people in the western states in the 1930s? Why did farmers have so little luck growing foods? Define “dust bowl”

16. Question-Answer Relationships Author and Reader: This requires the reader to use some prior knowledge to connect information with what the author says to find the correct answer; it is largely about inference. What else happened in the early 1930s that caused families hardships? How did banks and loans affect farmers in the 1930s? Might the “dust bowl” been avoided? How?

17. Question-Answer Relationships Text-Generated Thought Questions: The text gives information that prompts further thinking, but the ‘real’ or expected answer cannot be found in the text. Requires prior knowledge and critical thinking. What do you think happened to farmers who lost their homes? Can you think of modern examples of people losing their homes due to circumstances largely beyond their control? Explain. Explain how cumulative effects caused the dust bowl. Can you think of a modern analogy? What might you do were you and your family faced with losing your livelihood, your home, etc. and having no backup support (family, government, etc.)?

18. Question-Answer RelationshipsExample 2

19. In the Text/ Verbatim This art comes from what era? Who created this art? Who destroyed this art?

20. Think & Search Where was this piece of art from (location found)? What do we know about Banksymus Maximus?

21. Author and Reader What is this kind of art in reality (what is this form of art called)? What other kinds of art might “zealous municipal officials” have destroyed? What does “moniker” and “daubing” mean?

22. Text-Generated Thought Questions What is the artist trying to say in this piece? Explain your answer? What is the artist saying about what “counts” as art to most people? How is the author being facetious in his use of artistic eras? Why?

23. Question the Author (QtA) • This strategy is one that good readers do often. You question the author’s purpose, point, style, opinion/bias, etc. • Questioning the author demonstrates a) a deeper level of engagement with the text (beyond merely reading for facts) and b) metacognition (the reader is connecting information from the text with prior knowledge).

24. Question the Author (QtA) • PROCESS: • Choose readings that convey ideas that students can question • Locate the major issues or potential problems with a text • Think about logical places where students should stop their reading to contemplate questions • Model by developing questions for students to show possible ways to question the author

25. Question the Author (QtA) What is the author’s purpose here? How does this form of writing differ from textbooks and from newspaper articles? Do you agree or disagree with his premise? Why? What questions do you have for the author of the text above?

26. Opinion Pages Florida Times Union Question the Author (QtA) What might be the author’s bias? How do you know this? What things might the author not be taking into consideration? What questions do you have for the author of the text above?

27. KWL Charts • K – W – L Charts are the most commonly used form of reading engagement strategy, in part because they are simple to create and use.

28. KWL Charts • K – W – L Charts are the most commonly used form of reading engagement strategy, in part because they are simple to create and use. Makes students consider their findings/original thoughts in light of new evidence Provides synthesis and closure CONFIRMATION & CLARIFICATION Helps problematize text Helps reader focus on what is important for coming reading PREDICTIONS Sets the stage and gives context for what is to follow Cooperative Learning & Sharing of Information PRIOR KNOWLEDGE

29. Quick K – W - L • Simple example for our class Choose an example of an upcoming event, movie, television show, etc.

30. Discussion Webs • Discussion webs are study guides that help to generate discussion about an area of text/reading • Discussion webs are very good for generating critical thinking about readings and making readings ‘come to life’ - they prompt student reaction and some competition/debate • They can be done individually, within groups, by competing groups, or as an entire class

31. Discussion Webs • Discussion webs prompt students to: A) problematize texts & form hypotheses • weigh the facts (and discussthe facts) and • draw conclusions. Discussion webs can be done individually, in groups, or as a whole-class activity.

32. Discussion Webs – Simple

33. Discussion Webs – Simple and Complex

34. Activity: Class Discussion Web • Volunteer to take notes on board • Class selects a topic (controversial topics OK)

35. Guided Reading Procedure • Guided Reading Procedure is similar in many ways to ReQuest (Vacca & Vacca, Chapter 6). • The purpose is to tell students what to look for or concentrate on during a selected reading and then to check—with them—to see how much they can recall. • It is a form of informal reading assessment and modeling. • It shows students where they were strong and where they were weak (via the teacher’s expectations and compared to other students)

36. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.)

37. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.) • Have students read selection (500-900 words middle grades; 1,000-2,000 words high school)

38. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.) • Have students read selection (500-900 words middle grades; 1,000-2,000 words high school) • Record on whiteboard/overhead everything that students remember

39. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.) • Have students read selection (500-900 words middle grades; 1,000-2,000 words high school) • Record on whiteboard/overhead everything that students remember • Create an outline (with the class) to categorize information

40. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.) • Have students read selection (500-900 words middle grades; 1,000-2,000 words high school) • Record on whiteboard/overhead everything that students remember • Create an outline (with the class) to categorize information • Make note of areas that need further clarification or elucidation—redirect students to find that information

41. Guided Reading: Steps • Prepare students for reading with good reading strategies (vocabulary development, prior knowledge generation, etc.) • Have students read selection (500-900 words middle grades; 1,000-2,000 words high school) • Record on whiteboard/overhead everything that students remember • Create an outline (with the class) to categorize information • Make note of areas that need further clarification or elucidation—redirect students to find that information • Give feedback, activity, or reinforcement

42. Activity: Guided Reading • Context: • The passage is from a book called Stumbling on Happiness • by Daniel Gilbert, a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. • The book is generally about how modern humans (namely those in advanced industrial societies) are prone not toward feeling happy (and being “in the moment”) but focus instead on the future and on the uncertainties therein. Read the following passage and try to remember the important points. Try to determine new vocabulary from context. When you are done, turn the sheet over and look up. As a group, we will take down the important points on the board.

43. Guided Reading Step 1: Throw out any information or facts about the reading

44. Guided Reading Step 1: Throw out any information or facts about the reading Step 2: Looking at the reading, did you forget or leave out any important facts?

45. Guided Reading Step 1: Throw out any information or facts about the reading Step 2: Looking at the reading, did you forget or leave out any important facts? Step 3: Is there any additional information (namely from the text) that the teacher can add to what you have already noted? This is best done via questioning about the text!

46. Guided Reading Step 1: Throw out any information or facts about the reading Step 2: Looking at the reading, did you forget or leave out any important facts? Step 3: Is there any additional information (namely from the text) that the teacher can add to what you have already noted? This is best done via questioning about the text! Step 4: How might we organize these materials (group them, label them, put them into ordinate and subordinate categories)?

47. Guided Reading Step 1: Throw out any information or facts about the reading Step 2: Looking at the reading, did you forget or leave out any important facts? Step 3: Is there any additional information (namely from the text) that the teacher can add to what you have already noted? This is best done via questioning about the text! Step 4: How might we organize these materials (group them, label them, put them into ordinate and subordinate categories)? Step 5: Engage students to think more critically about the text, to find analogies, to extrapolate that information to other contexts, etc.

48. Intra-Act • Intra-Act requires students to discuss issues with each other, to read critically, and to consider each other’s views • Students get to predict what other students will think of a particular issue • Intra-Act makes a game of such predictions

49. Intra-Act • Form small groups of students (mix the student groups up frequently throughout the semester/year) • Create a chart for students to use, using either Agree/Disagree or Yes/No • Create issues: Teacher can put categories into chart for struggling / lower-level readers (to help prompt them where to focus during reading) OR teacher can allow students to fill in the categories (higher-level readers) • Students predict how their peers will react

50. Intra-Act Also see example, Vacca & Vacca, p. 228