Saturday, April 10, 2010

Language Arts


Literacy/ How we learn = reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing

**Reading is not a subject area.  It is a tool to learn.**


WILL:  Building a LOVE of reading:  
  • Readers have both the SKILL and WILL to read.  We have to teach and nurture and assess both.  
  • WikiHOW - how to love reading.

PROFESSIONAL READINGS:


Readers' Workshop:

READING PROCESS:
  1. Reading Process - A very comprehensive site (with videos) describing the process and strategies.
  2. Reading Process - A site with many aspects that affect a reader's success. 
  3. A slide show about the Reading Process
  4. Another site....   
  5. Wikipedia on Reading Process (I know...but it's good!)
  • Glogs that help teach Reading & Writing Strategies
  • Remember, writing about reading creates a deeper level of synthesis.

The CCSS calls for CLOSE READINGS - Rereading:
Why Reread?

You see things to which you were previously blind; you uncover a play on words, assonance, alliteration, analogies. It is for this reason, I believe, that the great Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov declared that there’s actually no such thing as reading — there’s only re-reading. (“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader,” Nabokov wrote in his Lectures on Literature.)

The same holds for TV shows and movies: you see so much more on a second, third and fourth viewing. You don’t truly see anything the first time you watch it. And, in my experience, this applies no less to music: hearing something for the first time is more akin to hearing it not at all than to truly hearing it. The work is too new, too unknown, to us; we can’t make heads or tails of it because we suffer from sensory overload. Quite simply, there’s too much going on for us to get anything but a glimpse of the work’s essence.
It’s only with multiple readings, viewings and hearings, then, that we actually begin to understand, see and hear. We’re deaf and blind in our first encounters with things.




Websites:


Blogs:



READING Instruction:


SHARED READING:  Check out Poetry Pairings (Poetry + Other genre), Longform.org, ProPublica.org, "The Best American Science and Nature Writing"
Reasons to use short stories:  (find more reasons and example short stories here.  Check out Literature for Life - powerful stories and art for ALL students)
  1. to introduce readers to different cultures and their customs
  2. to provide natural lead-ins to historical studies
  3. to begin exploring new genres in the study of literature
  4. to develop critical and evaluative responses to literature
  5. to serve as models for student writing

 ASSESSMENT:  

  • Reasons to Confer with Kids:
  1. Ongoing - check in, assess progress
  2. Teacher and student identify teaching/learning point
  3. Student learns to articulate learning and learning issues
  4. to differentiate instruction in the moment
  5. prepare student(s) for learning at later date
  6. Demonstration of learning after an assignment or project is complete
  7. Student defends what they have learned
  • Retelling Rubric (from Middleweb) that could be used to assess notes taken while paying attention to Text Structures.
  • Page margin assessments - see how kids talk to and back to the text.  
  • Annotating text... "Successful readers talk back to the texts they read.  They annotate, underline, highlight, and write in the margins, particularly when they are dealing with information that is dense or unfamiliar.  They note important ideas and key facts.  They jot questions and comments in the margins.  They place stars beside some information, exclamation points and questions marks next to others.  This commentary provides a road map of sorts to their thinking when they go back to reread (22)."  
  • Text-boxes - CD / CM for each section 
  • Text-brackets - line paper up with margin of the text book and draw brackets to indicate each paragraph  or figure.  (You can fold paper into 4 columns and create a space for 4 pages.)  This could also be a "guide on the side" - helping students to read
 INDEPENDENT READING:
  • Just Right Book OR "I Pick"
    • I choose
    • P - Purpose - Why should I read it?  (C:  all shoes have different purposes - cleats)
    • I - Interest - Why do I want to read it? (C:  shoes come in different styles)
    • C - Comprehension - Do I understand what I'm reading? (C: They fit, but feel good?)
    • K - Know the Words - Do I know the words?  Can I read it?  (C:  Do they fit?)
  • Why reading is not "just reading" - video  - A great video on the importance of reading by Dana Gioia
  • Which book - amazing way to find books!
  • What I should read next - another great site. 
  • Review of 75 great books for teens - last part very good for middle school!
  • http://lazyreaders.com (short books for reluctant readers)
  • This Year's Best Reads for Teens - from NPR
  • Scholastic Website - lists created by topic, level, and based on the books you like
  • Extra reading - quick reads
  • Good Reads...way to find book recommendations based on what you've been reading ALSO a way to record books read...
  • Fluency check:  sit with a group - tap once, they begin reading aloud where ever they are, tap again and they go back to reading to themselves.

 Reading PrePlan:
  • F - format/genre
  • A - audience/ Who will you talk about this book with?
  • T - Topic of book
  • P - Purpose for reading:  
  • P - Publish - how will you publish your thoughts after reading this book?  Library blog, letter to the author, action taken, etc...
  • G - Goal

 Reading Strategies:

  • Strategies to improve THINKING TOGETHER:
    • Turn and Talk
    • Read with the question in mind
  • Strategies to improve CAPTURING a RESPONSE:
    • Annotate
    • Text coding
    • Sketching through text (sketch, reread and add to sketches, compare/contrasts sketches)
    • 2 Column notes
    • Reading a visual image (view by quadrant - SIGH and then SIGH for each quadrant)
  • Strategies to improve COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS:
    • Think aloud - students think aloud!  (preread, think aloud, compare/contrast)
    • Pair Read - (read a paragraph, summarize, DWI, share ideas and connections)
    • Save the Last Word
    • Conversational Questions - fat vs skinny (pair, turn and talk, highlight fat questions, take to group)
  • Strategies that move thinking TOWARD DEEPER THINKING:
    • Support your position - (author's supports --> Author says, I think, so...)
    • Written discussion / Silent Conversation
    • Text on Text (poster with text in the center, all read together and annotate, annotate other annotations)
    • Alternate Perspective Writing (compare/contrast writing...what distinctions do you find or can you create?)
    • POV annotation (read as "you" - annotate, reread after taking on a different role, not what did you notice that you didn't before?)
    • Argue both sides (side #1, side #2, side #3.... = bias rating)
  • Strategies to MOVE THE CONVERSATION:
    • Where do you stand?  (4 corners)
    • Gallery Walk (each group own poster same topics - how do we represent the same thing?)
    • Carousel Brainstorming (multiple topics, groups rotate)
    • Tableaux or "Frozen Scene" - close read, create the scene, justify with text
    • Quotation Mingle - (Pre-read activity:  give each student a quote or line from the text, they have to mingle to hear all quotes, PTT:   putting all the quotes together, determine what the article is about.  Share...   Read the article code with check or X.  Discuss after.)
  • Strategies to think ACROSS TEXTS:
    • Jigsaw


 Lit Elements:
  • Great spot for concise definitions of theme, plot, structure, character, etc from Literary Visions
Writing About Reading:
  • Readers' Notebook:  check out F&P's notebook.  The different sections are interesting.

Narrative Text:
  1. Learning Clubs (for both reading and writing)
  2. Reading, Writing, Thinking - amazing GO's for immediate use (QAR, Story Plan)
  3. Ton of stuff: Reading Rockets, Reading Lady - comprehension strategies
  4. Hmmm...http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng391/crit.html
  5. Just Read Now! A lot of strategies with quick explanations.
  6. Reading Matrix
  7. Reading Process - pre/during/after

Lit Circles:
  1. Moderator (Bring questions)
  2. Lexicographer (Vocabulary)
  3. New Critic (Identify key passages)
  4. Character Analyst (What do we know about the characters?)
  5. Biographical Critic (What do we know/learn about the author?)
  6. Psychological Critic (Analyze motivations)
  7. Director (for drama) (Give instructions to actors for key passages)
  8. Engineer (Identify physical and/or logical structures)
  9. Historian (Information and inferences about history)
  10. Anthropologist (Information and Inferences about culture)
  11. Narratologist (Identify authorial strategies)
  12. Stylist (Sentence-level strategies)
  13. Feminist (What is stated/implied about the role of women?)
  14. Devil's Advocate (Identify and attack weaknesses)
  15. Cinematographer (How would this work as a movie?)
  16. Philosopher King (What are the themes/big ideas?)
  17. Musician (Where is this language most pleasing to the ear?)
  18. Egotist (What's in this for me?)
  19. Artist (How would this translate into a picture?)
  20. READING AS A FILM CREW - from Read, Write, Think


What’s New After 25 years of Literature Circles (From Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels' book - Inquiry Circles in Action; more info found at www.litcircles.org):


  1. ·             De-emphasis on role sheets.  Instead, capturing kids’ responses using Post-its, text annotations, bookmarks, journals. 
  2. ·             More use of drawn or graphic responses to text.
  3. ·             More explicit teaching of social skills.
  4. ·             Not just novels.  More use of short text – picture books, stories, poems, articles, charts, graphs, cartoons.
  5. ·             More nonfiction text, from articles through adult trade books.
  6. ·             Reaching out across the curriculum:  book clubs in science, social studies, and so on.
  7. ·             Sparking or supplementing out-loud discussion with written conversations.
  8. ·             Multitext literature circles (jigsawed text sets, theme sets, multigenre inquiries)
  9. ·             New forms of assessment.  Fewer book reports and more critical book reviews.  More performances (readers’ theater, tableaux, drama, song lyrics, etc.).
  10. ·             Moving from books to topics and from literature circles to broader inquiry circles….and back. 

Post Reading Activities:

  1. Write the author - Lesson, list of addresses,
  2. Cool post reading programs/sites from Read, Write, Think
  3. Great ideas for different books
  4. Consider theme of a book/story 
  5. Recently I've read more and more articles about the value of memorizing passages. (Matt also sent an article out a while ago).  This is an interesting twist on the book report...

Expository Text

Do you have students who struggle with the reading and writing needed to develop concepts and content knowledge in your discipline? If so, this section of Literacy Matters offers you "the best of the best on the Web"—web sites containing background information, research-based instructional strategies, lesson plans, sample activities, guidelines, book lists, and resources to strengthen your students' literacy skills, and thus, strengthen their content learning.


Ideas to think about:


  • Reading to learn takes time!
  • Are you looking at the page?  Yes = reading, No = content
    • When we give content support, students read to learn TODAY.  When we teach them to read, they learn to read.
  • How do we understand something we have no prior knowledge for?  (Break down this skill)

 Expository Text Structures and the CCSS:
  • GREAT LINK - expository text structure described, example articles from the Times, list of cue words, and graphic organizer

Information:
Lessons:
  • Expository Text Structures:
  • Navigating Informational Text (From Stuck in the Middle):  break the text into 3 parts - front matter, middle matter, and end matter. 
    • Front matter:  introductory materials - copyright, table of contents, preface, dedication, acknowledgements... all things that situate the author in a time and place (habit of mind for history and science readers).  The table of contents will show what information will be available via this reading.
    • Middle Matter - salience devices (features that augment the text to make it clearer, or more salient) - font type, headings and subheadings, side notes, endnotes, summary and check up sections, pictures and captions, charts, diagrams, and maps.
    • End Matter - references:  glossary, index, works cites/bibliography, and appendixes.
  • Reciprocal Teaching Plus, which I recently developed based on the Reciprocal Teaching activity (Palinscar & Brown, 1984). Reciprocal Teaching is a strategy that focuses students on four aspects of their reading: making and revising predictions, asking questions, clarifying difficult points and vocabulary, and summarizing the material. In the beginning, the teacher models Reciprocal Teaching with the students, demonstrating how to use the four parts of the strategy, eventually moving students toward using the strategy in peer-led small groups or pairs. My adaptation takes this very effective strategy and incorporates critical literacy perspectives. In addition to the four elements, Reciprocal Teaching Plus asks students to address a fifth element, to evaluate a text critically, identifying the author’s perspective and analyzing what points of view are left out of the current text. Prompts that teachers can use to help students with the fifth element–analyzing the perspective of the author and text—include:
    • Identify the perspective(s) of the author (Whose story is being told?)
    • Evaluate the author’s identification of his/her own perspective (Is the author consciously representing a particular world view? Is this disclosed openly to the reader?)
    • Describe what other perspectives there might be on this text (Whose story is not being told? Why?)
    Reciprocal Teaching Plus models how students can be text participants, text users, and text analysts simultaneously (Freebody & Luke, 1990).

  • Sticking Points - choose only 5 sticking points for each reading.  This has kids move and remove sticky notes as they read to determine the 5 biggest sticking points.
    • This is important..., This will be on the text..., This is confusing - I need to talk about it..., This explains why..., Inference..., I had to read this mutliple times..., This chart is important..., Notice shift in information - doesn't fit or changes ideas..., Why do you think they didn't... (from Stuck in the Middle)
  • Vocabulary Words:  
    • About the Word:  Definition, Synonyms or Highly-related words, Examples, Looks Like
    • Anticipations:  You will encounter these words in the text: (list)  Before reading, take your best guess and place them in the boxes below.  Under which of the following headings will these words occur?  (Headings from the reading)
    • BDA Reading:  Before you look up the definitions, take a guess and deposit the word in the word bank into the column at the left with the best matching definition.  After you use your glossary and textbook to define these words, put the correct words from the bank into the matching column on the right.  Discuss the words you didn't predict correctly...
    • Leveling Words:pull out words from a text.  When you are finished - level them based on characteristics your create.  Rules for creaing meaningful groupings of words:
      • The words in each group must relate to each other in some meaningful way.
      • Each group must have at least 3 words.
      • All words must be used.
      • Words can appear in more than one group.
      • Best guesses are encourages if you don't know for sure.
  • Writing:
    • Written Conversation
    • Poetry - acrostic poems about content (page 81in Stuck in the Middle)
    • Octofacts:  pass your paper until you have 8 facts on the paper
    • Learning Logs OR Exit tickets:
      • What did you learn today?
      • 3- 2 - 1 (3 things I learned, 2 things that were confirmed, 1 question I have)
      • Write a paragraph to defend your choice.
      • Create a diagram (with pictures and words) that outlines the process...
      • Read this quote - how would you rewrite it? shorten it? clarify it?  say it another way?
      • Write a caption for this cartoon, map, diagram, etc...
      • 1 minute - write down everything you remember that we learned today.
      • Top 10 facts about... (David Letterman)
      • Other:  I still wonder... I don't understand... I had the feeling that... This reminded me of... If I had been there, I would have.... I was surprised.... Maybe... What is....  I liked... This got me thinking about... What if... I used to think..., but now I know...  A strategy I used was...  To better understand this, I need....
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