For me, the during reading concept often seemed to be the trickiest of the before, during, and after reading options. With before reading, you’re setting up the reading and providing the background information needed to make sense of the text. After reading, you’re checking for what they understood. So what’s up with this during reading stuff? If you stop and have students do something while they’re reading, wouldn’t that technically be considered an after reading activity since they had to stop reading? It all eventually made sense to me…with during reading process, we’re responsible for teaching the students HOW to read the text.
On page 137 Beers writes, “Students often don’t know how to do all this thinking. For too long we’ve told them to ‘think carefully’ about what they’ve read without showing them how to do that thinking.” When using during reading strategies, it’s more of a formative assessment, so we can see where student thinking breaks down. If students aren’t using good reading strategies, they’re going to have difficulty understanding what they’ve read. The problem is that many students don’t know what they should be doing as they read, so it’s our responsibility to show them. And of course this goes back to why all content area teachers are teachers of reading—most English teachers would not be very proficient at explaining what thoughts should be going through one’s mind when reading a lab report or a word problem, just as the math or science teacher would probably struggle to analyze a poem or piece of prose.
So…questions, questions, questions. Which of the during reading strategies from Beers and/or Daniels did you try? What material were you using as your anchor text? How did your students do with it? Do you think it was helpful? What would you do differently next time?
Be thinking about these strategies and which one you’d like to use with your new book club. The role sheets we used last time were intended as a training ground of the types of things you should be thinking about as you read. I was going to choose the Post-It note strategy for us all to do with our next book club, but after further reflection, I think I’ll let y’all decide as individual groups which strategy you’d like to use. Be sure to bring your textbooks to class, so you can refer to them in your groups!
On page 137 Beers writes, “Students often don’t know how to do all this thinking. For too long we’ve told them to ‘think carefully’ about what they’ve read without showing them how to do that thinking.” When using during reading strategies, it’s more of a formative assessment, so we can see where student thinking breaks down. If students aren’t using good reading strategies, they’re going to have difficulty understanding what they’ve read. The problem is that many students don’t know what they should be doing as they read, so it’s our responsibility to show them. And of course this goes back to why all content area teachers are teachers of reading—most English teachers would not be very proficient at explaining what thoughts should be going through one’s mind when reading a lab report or a word problem, just as the math or science teacher would probably struggle to analyze a poem or piece of prose.
So…questions, questions, questions. Which of the during reading strategies from Beers and/or Daniels did you try? What material were you using as your anchor text? How did your students do with it? Do you think it was helpful? What would you do differently next time?
Be thinking about these strategies and which one you’d like to use with your new book club. The role sheets we used last time were intended as a training ground of the types of things you should be thinking about as you read. I was going to choose the Post-It note strategy for us all to do with our next book club, but after further reflection, I think I’ll let y’all decide as individual groups which strategy you’d like to use. Be sure to bring your textbooks to class, so you can refer to them in your groups!
11 comments:
Andrea Baker; Media Specialist
Blog Due Monday, January 22
When Kids Can’t Read (pp. 127-137)
Subjects Matter (pp. 114-122)
What about the Honors or AP student who encounters a word and is unsure of the meaning? In Andrea Mitchell’s memoir titled Talking Back:… to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels, Mitchell’s exemplary vocabulary jumps off the pages of the book and challenges even the most proficient reader. For example, she reminisces about an event that occurred when Dick Cheney and an entourage of reporters went to the Middle East. The female reporters quickly discovered they could not travel freely without a male relative. Cheney signed a fiat that quickly made a male reporter in the entourage the “brother” of several female reporters. If the student is reading this memoir for independent reading, one way to decipher the meaning of the word fiat might be a take-off on “Mark My Words” and “Mark the Bold” (When Kids Can’t Read … pp. 131-132). Using www.dictionary.com and Kylene Beers’ beloved Post-It notes, suggest the student write unknown vocabulary on the Post-It and go to the web and snag the dictionary.com definition in order to construct meaning. FYI I refer students to this website frequently. There is a method to my madness. The student makes meaning of what is being read AND becomes adept at using a searchable database on the web. Yeah… a two-fer!
I have used several of these strategies before, but I definitely have my favorites! I like using the sticky notes because it gives them a somewhat ownership of the book itself: they get to write on the sticky note and put it in the book to mark the spot. They use them during discussions or when I'm asking specific questions for clarification. Another strategy I've used is double-entry journal. I like how the columns are labeled "Notes from Text" and "My Thoughts." I haven't labeled a double entry this way before. I think these labels would help the students understand more of what it is that I want them to do.
I want to use the logographics with my English II students as we read Swallowing Stones. I think just listing the 5 stages of grief isn't enough for some of these students. I think visualizing the process will help some of the students who have never encountered a tragedy before to truly see what Jenna and Michael are going through - each in their own right. I am going to try this Thursday - wish me luck!
I just read everyone else's posts before I started typing mine, and I was so excited about all that is going in other classes. Annette, great idea about "It Says, I Say" for HSAP Constructed Response. Diane, I think that's kind of like the handout you put together last semester for HSAP review. I will put both of those ideas to use. As far as strategies are concerned, I like using the Coding Text activity. My Academic Support II students (sophomores) used this when reading the Fake ID article that Andrea provided us. Also, they used this strategy on an article written by Rick Reilly (awesome writer for Sports Illustrated) about a student who is disabled and marches,with the help of his father, in the University of Louisville band. When I taught middle school, I used "Say Something" often when we were reading poetry. If you write the poem on a piece of chart paper, students can work in groups and move around the room to add comments and reply to comments from other groups. The paper ends up looking like the class example of "think silently" that is on p. 128 of the Beers book.
When Kids Can’t Read p. 127-137
Subjects Matter p. 114-122
I found the reading in this entry to be especially useful as you could immediately incorporate the strategies into any discipline! Even though I have my students complete their bell-ringer activities in their journals daily I had never thought to do a double-sided journal and thought the idea was neat. I liked that it could be used as an entire class activity as Pam mentioned, or an individual activity. I have used the post-it notes a few times now and like Lola I love to highlight, underline and make notes in the margins of my books so I thought this was especially useful for my students who are not allowed to write in their textbooks. Students also like the idea that they are getting credit for not even writing in complete sentences!
The legograph appealed to me as well because using the visual cue to demonstrate critical thinking seems to be an effective way for kids to learn. I thought about this especially in my psychology classes when we are going through particularly intense sections of the unit on the brain and the students are struggling to keep all of the terms straight. I also thought that the book clubs in my psychology would like to create book marks while they are reading each day to be able to quickly point out to the words that are new and different.
I am going to be teaching a section on Hamilton and Jefferson with the Federalists and Antifederalists and thought the ABC’s of comparing and contrasting characters would be a new and different way to present the material to my students. I am like Joni in that much of this is new to me and I think it will benefit my students tremendously to implement some of these ideas.
I just taught the kids the colonial period and used the poem Huswifery and low and behold if it wasn’t an example in the Beers book using the skill of re-reading. This is something that good readers do automatically but weaker readers don’t tend to see the value in it. I think rather than having my questions aiming at teaching the students to do critical thinking with analysis of the poem then next time I’d have them demonstrate a complete understanding before hand through the use of re-reading.
When Kids Can’t Read p. 127-137
Subjects Matter p. 114-122
I found the reading in this entry to be especially useful as you could immediately incorporate the strategies into any discipline! Even though I have my students complete their bell-ringer activities in their journals daily I had never thought to do a double-sided journal and thought the idea was neat. I liked that it could be used as an entire class activity as Pam mentioned, or an individual activity. I have used the post-it notes a few times now and like Lola I love to highlight, underline and make notes in the margins of my books so I thought this was especially useful for my students who are not allowed to write in their textbooks. Students also like the idea that they are getting credit for not even writing in complete sentences!
The legograph appealed to me as well because using the visual cue to demonstrate critical thinking seems to be an effective way for kids to learn. I thought about this especially in my psychology classes when we are going through particularly intense sections of the unit on the brain and the students are struggling to keep all of the terms straight. I also thought that the book clubs in my psychology would like to create book marks while they are reading each day to be able to quickly point out to the words that are new and different.
I am going to be teaching a section on Hamilton and Jefferson with the Federalists and Antifederalists and thought the ABC’s of comparing and contrasting characters would be a new and different way to present the material to my students. I am like Joni in that much of this is new to me and I think it will benefit my students tremendously to implement some of these ideas.
I just taught the kids the colonial period and used the poem Huswifery and low and behold if it wasn’t an example in the Beers book using the skill of re-reading. This is something that good readers do automatically but weaker readers don’t tend to see the value in it. I think rather than having my questions aiming at teaching the students to do critical thinking with analysis of the poem then next time I’d have them demonstrate a complete understanding before hand through the use of re-reading.
The strategy I really enjoy using with my students is the Double-Entry Journals. I have used this strategy when I am reading a novel with my students as another alternative to reading responses. When I start this with my students I give them a few quotes from the book we are reading and ask them to write their response to the quote. What it means to them, how it relates to the book, etc. After the students get the hang of it I try to have them choose their own quotes from the book. It takes some modeling but eventually the students do a decent job of pulling quotes and making connections.
A strategy I am going to have copied tomorrow (thanks to J.C.’s entry!) is the ABC’s of Comparing and Contrasting. I am reading novels with all three of my classes (two different novels) and I agree that this is a wonderful way to keep track of the characters and their traits as well as how the characters may change throughout the book.
I have always relied heavily on strategies I learn about in workshops, but I think I have found a keeper. I used the roundtable handout that Diane gave us to explore an essay "What is an American?" written in colonial times. First, we read the essay as a group, then we divided into groups of four. They elected a spokesperson to lead the conversation, and I walked around the room listening. If a group seemed stuck, they called me over. I asked questions such as: What is the author's purpose? What inferences can you make about the essay? Can you tell what the author feels about his topic through the tone? Do you detect bias? Students chose a question, then they wrote from different points of view. They presented their ideas through the spokesperson, others asked questions, and we all clarified what we had learned. "What is an American?" was written by a Frenchman who bought land in the colony in 1750. I was surprised to learn that the majority of students arrived at the same question: "What does a Frenchman know about being an American?" We discussed the time period, we decoded the archaic language, we looked at his biographical information, and we discussed again. Students were able to talk freely, openly, honestly, and no one put down another's student's ideas. I'm glad we used this strategy early in the semester. Now we don't need the handouts to guide conversations of interest. We just circle the chairs and discuss....
When Kids Can’t Read pp 127-137
Subjects Matter pp 114-122
What great strategies! I personally love the coding the text strategy, especially for informational text, like articles and essays. I used it several times last semester after Diane had us do it in class. I have to admit that even though I am an English teacher, I had never used the sticky notes strategy before. Now I have. We ran into some problems though because I had my kids reading Alex Flinn novels for independent reading. They didn’t have their own copies so it was confusing making sure the same kid got the same book each day. I figured out how I’ll do it differently next time. I just wish we had a ton of money so we could buy enough copies for all our kids to have copies of the books they’re reading (no more class sets). I think the next new strategy I’ll try is the Mark My Words strategy. What a great way to have students be active in logging unfamiliar words while also marking the page where they end reading for the day.
When Kids Can’t Read pgs. 127-137/Subject Matter, pgs. 114-122
I have never tried any of the strategies that were listed on these pages. I know that my class is not a traditional class, however, my students do use a different type of strategies. They use pencils daily to mark their music.
They mark problem areas, rhythms, rests, and entrances to mention a few. They also draw symbols to identify these same areas and to help them visually understand what is happening in the music.
My students also look at my music to see the areas that I have marked. Sometimes, looking at my music really opens their eyes to what they should be looking for. We have used Venn diagrams in my class also. This seems to help when we are studying music from 2 different time periods. One other strategy that we use is to record our music.
We record on a cassette and a video tape. My students listen to or watch the recordings and make comments on what they have seen and heard. After doing so, we discuss the comments in class and make changes to our music accordingly. These are the strategies that work best for us. We are reading everyday as we use these strategies, but we are reading twice as hard as we read words, rhythms and notes on a page.
Subjects Matter:
I have used two of the strategies discussed in this book. They are Thinking Out Loud and Anticipation Guide. In Thinking Out Loud, the teacher reads a passage and stops during the reading to share thoughts about the passage. I have found that this is an excellent way to keep the students attention. Next, I have used a version of the Anticipation Guide. In the future, I will use true/false questions that are more general and less factual.
When Kids Can’t Read:
The strategy that caught my attention was Probable Passage. I will practice using this strategy with my Oral Reading Group. In Probable Passage, the teacher chooses words about characters, settings, problem, outcomes and/or unknown words. The students place the words in the correct labeled box then they write a gist statement. This is an excellent way to introduce the vocabulary and to help them predict the story.
I have also used Word Splash several times with my students. It is fun having them guess the story from the words splashed on the board. Also, with this strategy the students write a prediction.
I like the double entry journal technique, for me (as for students as well), I need to be reminded of exactly what the text says and how I felt about it at that moment so that I don’t loose that later. I am also a HUGE fan of post-it notes! They are easy to do, small, and I can put them in the book where the actual passage is so that I don’t have to “hunt” for that passage later. This is great for those who struggle with remembering specifics and who have a hard time recalling information. The little flags also (at least for me) give me a feeling of accomplishment when I see them throught the book and how far I have gotten in the book. I think the visual of seeing some accomplishment literally sticking out of the book is a very positive feeling.
The role sheets are GREAT!!!! I really need them to help me know about what to think when I am reading. I know that I can get side tracked easily and by having that sheet infront of me (especially the bright color - because my eyes keep going back to it) I am constantly reminded of what I really need to write about.
Coding text seemed pretty hard for me. I like the idea of it, but it was a lot of information to try to remember (which code means what and where to put it) while reading and then having to go back and once again remember exactly what that code meant.
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