1. Thinking About our Thinking Strategies That Make A Difference Keith Pruitt, Ed.S Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting www.woweducationalconsulting.com

2. Brain Gym Im going to ask a question. The first hand I see go up to answer correctly, wins. What was the first capital of ..Tennessee? Correct answer: Knoxville 3. Independent Time 1. In the area of teaching comprehension and writing, what is the one thing you feel you need to change? 2. Please share with a colleague. 4. If Teaching Children Were Like This 5. --Christopher Morley When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life. 6. Turn and Talk Tell your elbow partner about a book that made a lasting impression on you. 7. No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance. 8. The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. - Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!" 9. We speak to a deeper appreciation or closer reading of text. How would I know when a student is close reading? Turn and Talk 10. Big Things Come From Small Beginnings 11. What is at stake? 12. Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting. - Edmund Burke So How Do We Get Students To Think About Their Thinking? 13. Strategy 1 Picture Talk 14. Fundamental Concepts 1. One has to accept the idea that literacy involves having conversations about text. (Donald Graves) Float the learning on a sea of talk. --James Britton Who does most of the talking in your classroom? Whoever it is, theyre also doing most of the learning. 15. Lets Look At an Example 16. Fundamental Concepts 1. One has to accept the idea that literacy is about having conversations about text. (Donald Graves) 2. Regardless of the level of language, acquisition takes place in listening to talk and in viewing pictures. 17. 1. Start with a story 2. Then show the picture 3. What do you think happened to this horse? Turn to your partner and tell them what happened? 4. Ask a couple of children to share out what they think happened. 5. Let students know that they just created their own story. 6. On a large sticky note, craft a bit of a story while the children add details. 18. In using this method, you have used the element of: 1. Auditory experience with language 2. Visual representation 3. Imagination and creative abilities 4. Listening and Speaking skills 5. Vocabulary development 6. Elements of story 7. Transference to writing This is what CCSS is about! 19. In using this method, you have used the element of: 1. Auditory experience with language 2. Visual representation 3. Imagination and creative abilities 4. Listening and Speaking skills 5. Vocabulary development 6. Elements of story 7. Transference to writing This is what CCSS is about! Compare to: open to page 3 and start reading 20. Fundamental Concepts 1. One has to accept the idea that literacy is about having conversations about text. (Donald Graves) 2. Regardless of the level of language, acquisition takes place in listening to talk and in viewing pictures. 3. One must learn to listen to the children with a view to understand them. Mary Ellen Giacobbe, Children Want to Write 21. Tell Me More About That 22. Strategy 2 Getting Into Character 23. While it is important that students hear language, it is even more valuable that they engage with that language. Plays Readers Theatre Enactments Living Museums Dramatic Reads These can be done in conjunction with metacognitive instruction. 24. Abraham Lincoln Comes Home What I Know About Lincoln What I Learned Questions? 1. He was President Which one? 2. 16th What else? 3. President during Civil War 4. From Illinois 5. Had a beard 6. Assassinated By whom? Dont know John Wilkes Booth He was an actor and southern sympathizer 7. Buried in Springfield, Il. 1. 16th President of United States 2. President During Civil War 3. Assassinated by Booth who was a Southern Sympathizer 1. How Did he come to be President? 2. Why did Booth Kill the President? 3. Where did this happen? Concept from Harvey and Goudvis, Comprehension Toolkit 25. Now instead of reading this story to you, Im going to step into character and tell you the story of Luke OBrien. 26. Strategy 3 Changing Our Questions 27. Players and fans were keeping cool with soft drinks and ice cream on the hottest day of July and the first day of the Little League tournament. Brett, an outfielder, was watching the game from the bench. Crack! Fans erupted in a chorus of cheers. Cheers for someone other than me, came a small voice from beside Brett. Brett was surprised to see that the speaker was Omar, one of the younger boys on the team. The few times Omar had spoken at all, his words usually consisted of yes, no, coach, or some combination of the three. What time of year is it? What is a tournament? What prepositional phrase helps me understand the word erupted? From Journeys, Grade 4, page %12,T13 Sideline Support 28. Excuse me? said Brett, still not positive the words had come from Omar. Ive had it. Frustration was obvious from the peculiar strain in Omars voice. Just being here now puts me in a bad mood. I show up to every practice. I do whatever Coach asks. And where am I during the games? On the bench! Why is that? Does Coach think the other players try harder or have more talent than I have? Are they simply more advanced than I am? Dont be silly! laughed Brett. I played less than you during my first year, and I didnt even know how to hold a bat properly! And you know what? I had a blast. Its just a matter of looking at the situation differently. My Dad would call it an attitude tune-up. Why does Brett tell Omar about having an attitude tune-up? Turn to your elbow partner. 1 minute 29. Old Structure versus Common Core Here is the conversation of Comprehension as traditionally taught Here is the Conversation of Comprehension based on Common Core Who were the main characters in Charlottes Web? Where did they live? When animals are given human characteristics it is called _______________. Can you think of a time when animals influenced how you felt about something? What descriptions are used by the author to indicate that Wilbur is growing lonelier at the Zuckerman farm? What is the main point of the friendship of Charlotte and Wilbur? How does the author let us know that Fern has grown disinterested in Wilbur? 30. What Kind of Questions Do We Ask? Take the question worksheet in your packet. Think about these typical questions from current texts. Categorize them. In general, the largest percentage of questions come from what category in Blooms? 31. In thinking about questioning, do a brief self-evaluation of the type of questions most frequently asked in your classroom. 32. Strategy 4 Forming Comparisons 33. 1. Read through lenses. What characters/people: say/do/think Relationships Setting descriptions Time Period Etc. 2. Use Lenses to find patterns. What details fit together? How do they fit together? 3. Use the patterns to develop a new understanding of the text. Looking at a specific aspect of characters, themes, etc. p. 12, Falling In Love With Close Reading 34. Put directly, close reading is something we should teach students to do, rather than something we just do to them. Falling in Love with Close Reading, Lehman & Roberts, p 4 35. How to Know When Students Are Reading Closely 1. They refer often to the text when discussing their ideas 2. They double-check and revise their ideas by looking back at the evidence in the text --p. 13, Falling in Love with Close Reading 36. An Example How does Jessie Oliver Aarons character change during the story? 37. Lets Look Through the Lens of Word Choice with this memorable commercial 38. Words Impact Idea Strong Shows that the farmer Hard Work God made a farmer 39. The Lenses We May Look Through Lenses are determined based on the type of work we are doing with a text We may support close reading when considering the following: 1. Text Evidence 2. Word Choice 3. Structure 4. POV and Argument 5. Reading Across the Texts 40. Word Choice In Narrative or Informational Text Types of Lenses *Words that evoke: strong emotions, strong images, a clear idea *Words that reveal style: informal tone, formal tone, a clear voice *Particular kinds of words: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs Types of Patterns *Which words fit together? *How do they fit together? Types of Understandings *An authors tone, purpose, relationship to the subject/theme *Texts central ideas, issues, lessons, symbols/metaphors/motifs, themes 41. With a Partner Examine books thatare on your table. Listat least two differentlenses through whicheach book may be viewed. 42. Strategy 5 Exploding the Vocabulary 43. So excite becomes Excites Excited Exciting Excitable Excitement Enlivens Animates Enthuses Enthusiasm Magnetic Thrills Arouses Soothes A Word Tree Starts with Base Word 44. Teaching Prefixes Suffixes And Roots Keith Pruitt Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting www.woweducationalconsulting.com Based on the work of Patricia Cunningham 45. One way to greatly enlarge the vocabulary of students in very short order is through teaching prefixes, suffixes and root words. Knowledge of these areas will help to greatly expand student vocabulary. Lets first explore the nature of compound words. 46. Compound Words When we add two words together, we form compound words. These may be easily taught to students. Patricia Cunningham suggests doing word sort activities by categorizing compounds. Apple + sauce Earth + quake Draw + bridge Brain + storm Basket + ball Pan + cakes Ear + rings Finger + prints 47. Prefixes Un-, re-, in-, dis- are the most common prefixes and when students have learned their meanings, they can learn more than 1500 words easily. Start instruction with un- Read a selection Explain that un carries the opposite meaning of the word to which it is added. 48. Prefixes UN- Which of these are prefixes and which are not? Unemployed Uncle Unstable Unbroken Unicorn Unhealthy Unlucky United 49. Prefixes Re- Can mean back or again Which are these? And which are not a prefix? Rearrange Refund Reply Review Refrigerator Relocate Reporter Rewrite 50. Prefixes In- Dis- Opposite or not, but words with in are irregular Do sorting exercises with prefixes, not prefixes including the irregular spellings. Inspire Irrational Immigrant Improve Dislike 51. Prefixes Less common prefixes include in, mis, non, pre, en, over, under. misinform Inside Preview Overdone Preteen Nonliving Nonrenewable Underhand Understand 52. Suffixes Often just called endings the most common are s (plural forms), er (relating to a person or thing that does something), ful, less, able, ible, ist. What do these words mean when the suffix is added? Fighter Folder Helpful Visitor Doubtful Powerless Suitable Gullible Persist 53. Suffixes Here are words using less meaning without Here are words using ful meaning full or having Do the same exercise with -ment, -ance, -ness, -tion. Write riddles of what word am in with several. I end in tion. We need to do this in math. What am I? 54. Roots Here are some common roots and their meanings. What words could be taught? Give two examples of each. Dict= say Duct=lead Fac/fec=do, make Ject=throw Loc=place Meter=measure Micro=small Phon=sound Photo=light Port=carry, take Press=press Scrib=write Sens=feel Spec=look Struct=build Tele=far Tract=drag, pull Vis/vid=see Voc=voice, call 55. If we will spend just a few moments a day working with these words, we can seriously impact the knowledge base of each student. 56. In this way, you are laying the foundation for further understanding by giving the students a vast array of words with which to work. I know there are voices who say do not tell students what words mean or to not pre-teach words. Im telling you that isnt sound pedagogy! Just let them figure it out is not a sound strategy for students and especially not struggling students. 57. The Importance of Asking Questions Keith Pruitt, Ed.S www.woweducationalconsulting.com Strategy 6 58. Make as many words as you can in one minute from the following word. Pronunciation 59. Types of Writing in Common Core State Standards Response to Literature Process Writing 60. Exemplar Rubric Text Today before we had writing groups Mrs. John read us a story about frogs. We had to write about frogs. We had a tadpole in the science center. It has two back legs and when it has two front legs its tail disappears and it cannot eat when its mouth is changing. Then the skin gets too little and the frogs pull off their skin and they eat it. Some fo the frogs blow bubbles. Frogs laid eggs that look like jelly and the fish eat some but some hatch to tadpoles. It grows bigger and bigger and bigger. 61. One of the strategies with which we find success in comprehension instruction is the usage of questions. May I suggest that asking questions in writing will help create better writers. 62. Turn to a partner Write three questions prompted by this picture These questions now become the beginnings of a narrative. 63. What We Think We Know What We Learned 64. I Learned I Wondered? Coast redwood trees are the tallest trees on earth. How tall is the tallest redwood? Some redwood trees are among the oldest living things on earth. How old is the oldest redwood tree reported to be? The tallest is reported to be 350 feet tall. That is like a 35 story building. The oldest redwood tree lived to be about 2000 years old. That means it first took root when Julius Caesar ruled Rome 65. A Method to Strengthen Writing We went to the store. We bought some clothes. We had fun. Who Went to the store? How did you go? What store did you go to What kind of clothes did you buy? What was there about this that was fun? When did you go to the store? 66. Now We Have Carlos, Maria, and I went to the Wal-mart on Thursday evening. Maria drove us in her Mazda convertible. Carlos bought some new shirts to wear. Maria bought a new dress. I bought a new pair of boots to wear to work. We had a lot of fun at the Wal-mart. I like being with my friends. We tell jokes and like being together. What was it like inside the store? Did you have the top down? What was the weather like? Describe the shirts, dress and boots. What color were they? 67. By just asking questions, you can flesh out a very simple form of writing to give it more meat and build its volume. 68. Considerations in Writing Write Often, Model Often, Release Often Use a learning progression in working with writing (James Popham, 2007), building blocks Design a continuum of writing for assessment (www.readingandwritingproject.com) 1. Use an on demand benchmark to begin measure 2. Compare to your continuum 3. Monitor their progress over time compared to the continuum 4. End the year by an on demand piece and show the progression Provide students with clear goals and effective feedback 69. In Process Writing: 1. Target the instruction- dont try to get all the lions out of the jungle the first day 2. Offer constant feedback, but let the children do the work (they dont learn from what you do, but what they do) 3. Use a writers workshop model with six trait writing 70. In this workshop we have looked at six strategies that are tested and tried with students and that have been used successfully with all students. I hope you will take them for a spin in your classroom. 71. It becomes about Teaching children how to learn 72. Is It Worth The Struggle? 73. Please turn to a colleague and tell them something youve learned today that you want to use in your classroom next fall. 74. Thank You Keith Pruitt, Ed.S Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting www.woweducationalconsulting.com