Strategies That Work is a book I have been wanting to read, and I am glad that I finally had the "excuse" to dedicate time to reading it. There are so many great ideas, some of which I have already tried, and others which I will try in the future.
I agree with Michelle, however, that on the downside the amount of skills and ideas covered was overwhelming. The more I read this book, the more I started to feel like I wasn't doing anything right in the classroom!!! No matter how much I do, there's always more to be done.
With that in mind, I think this book is better to be used as a resource, and not as a cover-to-cover read. If you have a particular skill that you'd like to focus on, this book can give you several ideas to try. Instead of trying them all, it would be great to focus on one. I think using this book as a reference would be less overwhelming and more specific.
I do feel that this is a book worth having, or at least taking a peek at. It will have a great home on my curriculum shelf at school, and I am looking forward to trying at least one new thing from the book next year. I figure that as long as I do one thing better each year, I am on the right track!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Michelle's Summary Reflection
“Strategies That Work” has made me consider and evaluate how I am employing comprehension strategies in my classroom. This book has helped me to see ways and give strategy lessons that I can use to further teach questioning, inferring and connecting strategies in the classroom. It reinforced in my mind how important comprehension is for every student and how they need to make meaning for themselves.
I did find the amount of strategy lessons to be a bit overwhelming. However, at the same time, a teacher at every grade level would be able to find a strategy lesson that they could use to develop every area of comprehension. I plan to keep this book as a resource for future teaching if I ever wind up teaching another grade level. In addition, if I find my students struggling with a certain area of comprehension then I will use this book to further delve into a specific comprehension strategy.
I did find the amount of strategy lessons to be a bit overwhelming. However, at the same time, a teacher at every grade level would be able to find a strategy lesson that they could use to develop every area of comprehension. I plan to keep this book as a resource for future teaching if I ever wind up teaching another grade level. In addition, if I find my students struggling with a certain area of comprehension then I will use this book to further delve into a specific comprehension strategy.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Jamie's Summary/Reflection of the book
Reading this book has challenged me to reevaluated the way I currently teach kids how to read. Last year, I focused mostly on skills, not strategies. This year, I have decided to shift focus and emphasize reading strategies to my classes. I post them on the classroom wall and do mini-lessons on a weekly basis. This book has emphasized that reading is strategic, and effective strategy instruction can improve students' ability to read. The strategies improve self-confidence because they give the students "ammo" to use when they get stuck. The kids don't feel stupid or embarrassed. I have utilized many of the ideas from this book and have noticed much improvement. Monitoring comprehension is probably the chapter that was the most helpful because my students have much difficulty in this area. I plan to continue implementing the ideas from the chapters. Overall, I have learned...if all else fails...use sticky notes!
Chapter 9--Last Chapter for the Semester
Chapter 9 discusses strategies that teachers can use to teach students how to infer and visualize.
--This chapter contains an excellent definition of "inferring". Jamie stated that she has difficulty explaining what an inference is to her students. She tells her students to "read between the lines", but not all of them understand this phrase. She plans to use the book's definition from now on. It says, "inferring involves merging background knowledge with text clues to come up with an idea that is not explicitly stated in the text." Does anyone else explain it differently to their class? Any suggestions would be great!
--The chapter also explained that visualizing is like "making a movie in your mind". This is a great way to explain it to kids! It helps them understand what they are reading. Lauren explained that when kids watch movies that are based on a book, it ruins their image of the characters. The picture that readers create in their mind usually doesn't match how the movie portrays the characters. It leaves the reader confused and/or disappointed. For example, Bridge to Terabitha is one of Jamie's favorite childrens book. She was ecstatic to go see the movie when it came out, but it ended up being an enormous let down. The characters and setting were not what she had been visualizing in her mind all these years. Many times teachers show the movie of a book after reading it in class. If this is the case, we suggest doing a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the characters from the book and movie. The teacher should remind the students that the people in the movie are only actors. How do you feel about watching a movie that is based on a book? Do you watch the movie before reading the book?
--There are some excellent graphs and charts in this chapter that can be used to teach inferencing. For example, you could divide paper into 4 columns to help infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word. First the student lists the unfamiliar word from the text. Then, he writes the inferred meaning. Next, he writes the clue that he used to help him come up with the meaning (i.e. picture, reading on). Lastly, he writes a sentence using the word. Another chart that can be created contains 3 columns. Students can list their background knowledge (first column) and text clues (2nd column). Then, they create the inference (3rd column). Does anyone else have suggestions? Please share...
--This chapter contains an excellent definition of "inferring". Jamie stated that she has difficulty explaining what an inference is to her students. She tells her students to "read between the lines", but not all of them understand this phrase. She plans to use the book's definition from now on. It says, "inferring involves merging background knowledge with text clues to come up with an idea that is not explicitly stated in the text." Does anyone else explain it differently to their class? Any suggestions would be great!
--The chapter also explained that visualizing is like "making a movie in your mind". This is a great way to explain it to kids! It helps them understand what they are reading. Lauren explained that when kids watch movies that are based on a book, it ruins their image of the characters. The picture that readers create in their mind usually doesn't match how the movie portrays the characters. It leaves the reader confused and/or disappointed. For example, Bridge to Terabitha is one of Jamie's favorite childrens book. She was ecstatic to go see the movie when it came out, but it ended up being an enormous let down. The characters and setting were not what she had been visualizing in her mind all these years. Many times teachers show the movie of a book after reading it in class. If this is the case, we suggest doing a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the characters from the book and movie. The teacher should remind the students that the people in the movie are only actors. How do you feel about watching a movie that is based on a book? Do you watch the movie before reading the book?
--There are some excellent graphs and charts in this chapter that can be used to teach inferencing. For example, you could divide paper into 4 columns to help infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word. First the student lists the unfamiliar word from the text. Then, he writes the inferred meaning. Next, he writes the clue that he used to help him come up with the meaning (i.e. picture, reading on). Lastly, he writes a sentence using the word. Another chart that can be created contains 3 columns. Students can list their background knowledge (first column) and text clues (2nd column). Then, they create the inference (3rd column). Does anyone else have suggestions? Please share...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Chapter 8- Questioning: The Strategy That Propels Readers Forward
This chapter begins by discussing curiosity and how curiosity leads to questions and questions lead to understanding. These questions will lead us into deeper reading to have our questions answered. The authors comment that by nature we are driven to find answers to our questions and to make sense of the world around us.
As adult readers, we know that we have questions as we are reading. But the authors remind us that kids don’t grow up knowing that good readers ask questions ( they just think good readers know all the answers). In school, it often seems that we are more concerned with anwers than questions. I know we have discussed this before and how in a perfect world we would be able to answer all the questions of our students. However, it is good to be reminded that our students need to know that their questions are important and that they matter. We need to model asking questions and finding answers for them. So that our students will ask questions and find answers to their own questions. This is important because when our students are doing this they are monitoring their comprehension and connecting with the text to make meaning. Ultimately, as reading teachers, this is the goal of our reading instruction as we work to develop our students into good readers.
The authors include many strategy lessons in this chapter to help students develop this questioning strategy. A few lessons that caught our attention were: to develop an I Learned/ I Wonder Chart in the classroom listing questions about a particular unit of study that would be answered over the course of the unit. Also, instructing our students in the difference between thick and thin questions by using sticky notes for the thick questions and sticky flags for the thin questions. The idea being that the answer for the questions should be able to fit on the opposite side of the sticky depending on the type of question that it is. Lastly, question webs are a great way to using a questioning strategy in the content areas for small groups to form into research teams and answer questions regarding a particular topic of study.
The chapter closed by talking about three different types of questions: researchable questions, lingering questions and authentic questions or assessment questions. The authors suggest that you tell your students when you are asking assessment questions to differentiate between questions that you already know the answer to and questions that need further research. Authentic questions, on the other hand, are usually open-ended and encourage higher-level thinking skills. The authors suggest using the following questions to help your students develop their thinking in the classroom.
*What makes you think that?
*Why do you say that?
*Can you elaborate on that?
*Can you tell me more about your thinking?
*How did you come up with that?
So, keep asking questions and give your students time to ask questions too!
As adult readers, we know that we have questions as we are reading. But the authors remind us that kids don’t grow up knowing that good readers ask questions ( they just think good readers know all the answers). In school, it often seems that we are more concerned with anwers than questions. I know we have discussed this before and how in a perfect world we would be able to answer all the questions of our students. However, it is good to be reminded that our students need to know that their questions are important and that they matter. We need to model asking questions and finding answers for them. So that our students will ask questions and find answers to their own questions. This is important because when our students are doing this they are monitoring their comprehension and connecting with the text to make meaning. Ultimately, as reading teachers, this is the goal of our reading instruction as we work to develop our students into good readers.
The authors include many strategy lessons in this chapter to help students develop this questioning strategy. A few lessons that caught our attention were: to develop an I Learned/ I Wonder Chart in the classroom listing questions about a particular unit of study that would be answered over the course of the unit. Also, instructing our students in the difference between thick and thin questions by using sticky notes for the thick questions and sticky flags for the thin questions. The idea being that the answer for the questions should be able to fit on the opposite side of the sticky depending on the type of question that it is. Lastly, question webs are a great way to using a questioning strategy in the content areas for small groups to form into research teams and answer questions regarding a particular topic of study.
The chapter closed by talking about three different types of questions: researchable questions, lingering questions and authentic questions or assessment questions. The authors suggest that you tell your students when you are asking assessment questions to differentiate between questions that you already know the answer to and questions that need further research. Authentic questions, on the other hand, are usually open-ended and encourage higher-level thinking skills. The authors suggest using the following questions to help your students develop their thinking in the classroom.
*What makes you think that?
*Why do you say that?
*Can you elaborate on that?
*Can you tell me more about your thinking?
*How did you come up with that?
So, keep asking questions and give your students time to ask questions too!
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Chapter 7: Activating and Connecting to Background Knowledge
Being that the chapter is about activating and connecting background knowledge, the main purpose of the chapter was to provide strategies that can help readers think as they read, and connect the information to their prior knowledge. The authors give examples of how students can begin to make connections as they read. Throughout the chapter, the authors recommend using “text coding,” where students record their thoughts and reactions as they read on post-it notes which they place on the pages of the book. Some of the codes they use are R (reminds me of), T-T (text to text), T-S (text to self), or T-W (text to world).
It seems in this book that the authors REALLY LOVE post-its! I am thinking of trying this with my high reading group at school (I am feeling guilted into it…) but have any of you actually tried this before? Do you have some helpful hints that work?
While the author’s have mentioned these text codes before, we thought that one thing that was new and interesting was the idea of distracting connections. We all make connections as we read, but sometimes the connections we make lead our thoughts on tangents, instead of adding to our comprehension. We liked the idea of using a think aloud to model to our students what we do when this happens as we read.
In addition, not all connections that we make add to our reading comprehension. Students are likely to make connections like “The character is a boy and I’m a boy!“ or “The girl in the book has a grandfather, and so do I!“ While these connections (which the authors call “connections in common”) might add to the students’ personal interest and motivation, they are not likely to add valuable comprehension information. The authors had a great recommendation for helping students sort through their thoughts so that they can recognize the value of their connections:
Use a 3 column chart with three headings: My Connection, Important to Me, and Important to Understanding the Text. When students make connections they list them, and then decide how important they are to the text itself. In this way it still values their thinking, but forces them to evaluate their thinking.
It seems in this book that the authors REALLY LOVE post-its! I am thinking of trying this with my high reading group at school (I am feeling guilted into it…) but have any of you actually tried this before? Do you have some helpful hints that work?
While the author’s have mentioned these text codes before, we thought that one thing that was new and interesting was the idea of distracting connections. We all make connections as we read, but sometimes the connections we make lead our thoughts on tangents, instead of adding to our comprehension. We liked the idea of using a think aloud to model to our students what we do when this happens as we read.
In addition, not all connections that we make add to our reading comprehension. Students are likely to make connections like “The character is a boy and I’m a boy!“ or “The girl in the book has a grandfather, and so do I!“ While these connections (which the authors call “connections in common”) might add to the students’ personal interest and motivation, they are not likely to add valuable comprehension information. The authors had a great recommendation for helping students sort through their thoughts so that they can recognize the value of their connections:
Use a 3 column chart with three headings: My Connection, Important to Me, and Important to Understanding the Text. When students make connections they list them, and then decide how important they are to the text itself. In this way it still values their thinking, but forces them to evaluate their thinking.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Chapters 5-6
Chapter 5 discussed the fact that choice makes a difference when motivating children to read and comprehend text. The authors explained that school reading should more closely reflect the reading done outside of school when choice is allowed. As adults, how often do we actually sit down to read novels? Not often these days except in the summer! We don't have time! We read short text...magazines, cook books, newspaper articles, travel brochures, etc. The authors explain that we should advocate that more short-text instruction be utilized in school. They add that short-text is effective for teaching comprehension strategies! About 80% of the reading kids do in school is with long text according to the authors.
We thought the authors had a great idea when they encouraged the readers to cut and collect short, compelling, descriptive text to utilize in their classroom. The text could come from travel brochures, cook books, magazines, etc. Anything that captures our attention should be filed away.
Using picture books is a great way to motivate reluctant readers and ESL students. They need the extra picture support to use as context clues. As a middle school teacher, Jamie has noticed that lower level readers really do enjoy reading picture books despite their age. Sometimes they don't like the higher level readers to see them reading these books though. It makes them stand out as unsuccessful readers. It is important for teachers to promote an atmosphere of acceptance in their classroom. Although, there are some picture books that are just too "babyish" for older students. We've all seen books that include baby talk and pathetic illustrations. There does seem to be a fine line. We must be careful not to offend our older students.
We really liked the quote by C.S. Lewis that says, "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty". A good book is a good book. Good books transcend age we believe. Any opinions?
Also, C.S. Lewis (our new idol) says, "The best reason of all to read a picture book to a group of students is simply because you love it." As reading teachers, this quote really struck us! Why can't we just read a book to our class because we love it? We can!?! That's what the authors say. Reading for pleasure! What a concept! What if there weren't so many standards we had to accomplish each year? What if we could actually enjoy reading each and every day in our classroom? Would our students hate reading so much? Would they be so bad at it as they are now? Just some thoughts to ponder! (not trying to be pessimistic!)
Another good strategy that we learned is to post a chart in our classroom where the students can list books that they are interested in. Then we can go buy those books. It keeps us up to date with their interests.
Please give us some feedback! We'd love to hear your thoughts!
We thought the authors had a great idea when they encouraged the readers to cut and collect short, compelling, descriptive text to utilize in their classroom. The text could come from travel brochures, cook books, magazines, etc. Anything that captures our attention should be filed away.
Using picture books is a great way to motivate reluctant readers and ESL students. They need the extra picture support to use as context clues. As a middle school teacher, Jamie has noticed that lower level readers really do enjoy reading picture books despite their age. Sometimes they don't like the higher level readers to see them reading these books though. It makes them stand out as unsuccessful readers. It is important for teachers to promote an atmosphere of acceptance in their classroom. Although, there are some picture books that are just too "babyish" for older students. We've all seen books that include baby talk and pathetic illustrations. There does seem to be a fine line. We must be careful not to offend our older students.
We really liked the quote by C.S. Lewis that says, "No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty". A good book is a good book. Good books transcend age we believe. Any opinions?
Also, C.S. Lewis (our new idol) says, "The best reason of all to read a picture book to a group of students is simply because you love it." As reading teachers, this quote really struck us! Why can't we just read a book to our class because we love it? We can!?! That's what the authors say. Reading for pleasure! What a concept! What if there weren't so many standards we had to accomplish each year? What if we could actually enjoy reading each and every day in our classroom? Would our students hate reading so much? Would they be so bad at it as they are now? Just some thoughts to ponder! (not trying to be pessimistic!)
Another good strategy that we learned is to post a chart in our classroom where the students can list books that they are interested in. Then we can go buy those books. It keeps us up to date with their interests.
Please give us some feedback! We'd love to hear your thoughts!
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