Agenda for Monday, Oct. 4• Mini-Lesson

• “The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently” by Tom Luxo Pointing

• Struggling/Dependent/Inexperienced Readerso Kylene Beers video clip

• Teaching Reading Comprehension

• Excerpt from The Human Conditiono Reading Lessons from Subjects Mattero Interrogating your own reading process

• “What Good Readers Do” / “How Smart Readers Think”

• Practice thinking aloud

Struggling Readers

When are you a struggling reader?Turn and tell your elbow partner

“ . . . anyone can struggle given the right text. The struggle isn’t the issue; the issue is what the reader does when the text gets tough.”

~Kylene Beers, When Kids Can’t Read,

What Teachers Can Do, p. 15

“Struggling Readers”

• Dependent vs. Independent Readers

~Kylene Beers

• Inexperienced vs. Experienced Readers

~Carol Booth Olson

• Kylene Beers video clip

The “Matthew Effect”

When the text gets tough . . .

Independent Readers• Figure out what’s confusing

them

• Set goals for getting through the reading

• Use many strategies for getting through the text

• Know how to make the mostly invisible process of comprehension visible

Dependent Readers• Stop

• Appeal to the teacher

• Read on through

• Keep the mostly invisible process of comprehension at the invisible level

~Kylene Beers, p. 16

A Literacy Crisis

Students in the bottom quartile are 20 times more likely to drop out of high school.

30% of high school students drop out; that’s 7,000 per day.

38% of high school students graduate unprepared for college and/or job demands.

The #1 community college class is remedial reading.

~Reading Next

*See NAEP Report

Moving Dependent Readers Toward Independent Reading

Cognitive aspects of reading:

comprehension, vocabulary, decoding, word recognition

Affective aspects of reading:

motivation, enjoyment, engagement

~Beers, p. 13

What Dependent Readers Need

• The ability to decode print

• The ability to comprehend language

• The ability to transact with text

• The motivation to read—authentic texts and choice, classroom climate of respect for peers and for cultural and linguistic differences

~Building Reading Proficiency at the Secondary Level

What Dependent Readers Need

• Dependent readers need to develop cognitive confidence, social and emotional confidence, text confidence. ~Kylene Beers

• Inexperienced readers need teachers who foster their competence and confidence and help to heighten their emotional and cognitive engagement.

~Carol Booth Olson

Willing and Able Willing but Unable

Unwilling but Able Unwilling and Unable

The goal of reading is comprehension.

Comprehension is a complex,

abstract activity.

~Kylene Beers, p. 38

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny ipormetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

From Deeper Reading by Kelly Gallagher

There are tork gooboos of puzballs, including laplies, mushos, and fushos. Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they do not grunto any lipples. In order to geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples, you should bartle the fusho who has rarckled the parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.

1. How many gooboos of puzballs are there?There are tork gooboos of puzballs.

2. What are laplies, mushos, and fushos?Laplies, mushos, and fushos are tork gooboos of puzballs.

3. Even if you bartle the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the pern, they will not what?They will not grunto any lipples.

4. How can you geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples?You should bartle the fusho who has rarckled her parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.

The Blonke

The blonke was maily, like all the others. Unlike the other blonkes, however, it had spiss crinet completely covering its fairney cloots and concealing, just below one of them, a small wan. This particular blonke was quite drumly – lennow, in fact, almost samded. When yerden, it did not quetch like the other blonkes, or even blore. The others blored very readily. It was probably his bellytimber that had made the one bloke so drumly. The bellytimber was quite kexy, had a strong shawk, and was apparently venenated. There was only one thing to do with the venenated bellytimber: grive it in the flosh. This would be much better than to sparple it in the wong, since the blonkes that were not drumly could icchen in the wong, but not in the flosh.

The Blonke

• What three words do you most need to know how to figure this out?

• Which words do you need least?

• What cuing systems did you most use to figure this out?

• What is the passage about?

• How did it feel to not know what this meant?

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Comprehension

The complex cognitive process involving the intentional interaction between reader and text to convey meaning

~Big Ideas in Beginning Reading, University of Oregon CTL

The complex process of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning from and with text

~Sweet & Snow, Rethinking Reading Comprehension, 2003

Find your partner

① Take turns as you read aloud “Tuning,” from The Winter Room by Gary Paulsen

② Talk about the last line.What does this mean to you?

③ Read your quotation.How does this connect to the ideas in the passage you just read?

④ Jigsaw – share your quotes and your ideas with others

’Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every text is a lazy machine asking the reader to do some of its work.

~Umberto Eco

Reading a book is like rewriting it for yourself . . . You bring to a

novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you

read it in your own terms.

~Angela Carter

Reading is a creative activity.

~Madeleine L’Engle

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

~Edmund Burke

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Comprehension

Reading is a social process, an interactive activity, one in which readers create meaning through transactions—interactions—with the text, their prior knowledge, the context, and other readers.

~Kylene Beers, p. 38

What Good Readers Do

• Recognize that reading is a meaning-making process

• Use a variety of comprehension strategies (predict, summarize, question, visualize, etc.)

• Make a range of inferences• Use prior knowledge• Monitor their understanding of the text• Question the author’s purpose and point of

view

What Good Readers Do

• Use text features (headings, bold, italics, charts, graphs, etc.)

• Evaluate their engagement and enjoyment

• Know meanings and use context clues, root words, affixes

• Recognize most words automatically, read fluently, vary their reading rate, and “hear” the text as they read

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.Prior knowledge is the main determinant of

comprehension.

*Kelly Gallagher podcast

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Comprehension

Reading is a complex, purposeful, social and cognitive process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning.

~A Call to Action: “What We Know About Adolescent Literacy and Ways to Support Teachers in Meeting Students’ Needs,” NCTE

The Batsmen were merciless against the Bowlers. The Bowlers placed their men in slips and covers. But to no avail. The Batsmen hit one four after another along with an occasional six. Not once did their balls hit their stumps or get caught.

1. Who were merciless against the Bowlers?

2. Where did the Bowlers place their men?

3. Was this strategy successful?

4. Who hit an occasional six?

5. How many times did the Batsmen’s balls hit a stump?

The ProcedureThe procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their makeup. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell.

(from John D. Bransford and Nancy S. McCarrell, “A Sketch of a Cognitive Approach to Comprehension”)

Doing LaundryThe procedure is actually quite simple. First you arrange things into different groups depending on their makeup. Of course, one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo any particular endeavor. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important, but complications from doing too many can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. The manipulation of the appropriate mechanisms should be self-explanatory, and we need not dwell on it here. At first the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another facet of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then one can never tell.

(from John D. Bransford and Nancy S. McCarrell, “A Sketch of a Cognitive Approach to Comprehension”)

Reading Lessons

Reading is more than “decoding.”Reading is an active, constructive process.Good readers have a repertoire of thinking

strategies they use to comprehend texts.Prior knowledge is the main determinant of

comprehension.Reading is a staged and recursive process.

~Harvey Daniels & Steven Zemelman, Subjects Matter, ch. 2

Teaching Tips

• Introduce just one strategy at a time.

• Model the activity yourself, as you explain to students how to use it.

• Practice the strategy first as a whole class.

• As student make use of the strategy during in-class reading time, move around the room to observe, facilitate, and help.

Teaching Strategies

• Showing kids how smart readers think

• Before: activities that prepare students to read

• During: helping students construct, process, and question ideas as they read

• After: guiding student to reflect on, integrate, and share the ideas when they’re finished

• Learning vocabulary

Why Think Aloud?

Much of what happens with texts in classrooms gives students the mistaken impression that reading comprehension happens by magic. To begin to build a repertoire of activities for reading comprehension, students need to have the reading process demystified. They need to see what happens inside the mind of a proficient reader, someone who is willing to make the invisible visible by externalizing his or her mental activity.

~Reading for Understanding, p. 212

My students were completely amazed that I, as a mature, adult reader, would find some texts challenging. They delighted in watching me struggle to understand the texts they brought me, recognizing the feeling of being lost, but surprised by my patience and tenacity, by my vigorous search for handholds and willingness to stretch for any shred of meaning. Many found strategies like using the pictures, slowing down, breaking it into chunks, using my knowledge of Spanish, thinking about what the root of a word might mean, wondering about meanings in new contexts, flat-out guessing, etc., to be a complete revelation.

~Gayle Cribb, high school social studies teacher, quoted in “Apprenticing Adolescents to Reading in Subject-Area Classrooms,”

Phi Delta Kappan, October 2003