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!

Rereading

I do use a strategy for rereading with the older kids who are very reluctant to read anything once, much less twice! I use POETRY. We read a poem aloud and I have them write down their reaction to the poem and rate their understanding on a 1 to 5 scale. Then, I tell them to read the poem again, silently, and add anything new to their interpretation and rate their understanding after the second read. Lastly, I have them pair with another person to discuss the poem and rate understanding a third time. Poems just seem like an easier vehicle for making the point, and they like doing this exercise. It inevitably leads to a "deeper" understanding and a rich whole group discussion.

I do remember Lauren sharing her story about the high school teacher that made her highlight her text and how much she appreciated being taught that strategy. I have encouraged it ever since. As a matter of fact, this year, when I visit classrooms for HSPA practice, I have them trained to not even bother to read without a pencil in their hand. They told me they did not think they were allowed to mark the test--what a great discovery. And the post-its--even the older kids love them. I think post-its are some of the best money spent in the classroom. They will not only use them--they ask for more because they "will be reading ahead." Again, those little notes in the book lead to very rich whole group discussion. I love it!

Chapter 4 Post

Chapter 4: Tools for Active Literacy: The Nuts and Bolts of Comprehension Instruction

This chapter begins with an interesting quote from Cris Tovani who says “Schools should not be places where old people go every day to do the work for young people. Isn’t it interesting how when the bell rings at 3:00 P.M. on Friday afternoon, the kids bound out of the room like so many Bambis, as we teachers drag our exhausted rear ends out the door. The kids should be dead tired, and we should be ready for a 5:00 P.M. power yoga class!” We all commented on how true this is in our classrooms. We as teachers work so hard on stuff that the students should be doing themselves. How many of you can relate to this excerpt?

The chapter moves on to discuss options for explicit instruction in teaching reading comprehension through eight different strategies.
Think- alouds
Read-alouds
Interactive read-alouds
Lifting text
Guided discussion
Anchor lessons and anchor charts
Rereading for deeper meaning
Sharing our own literacy by modeling with adult literature

We discussed Interactive Read-Alouds and Lauren shared that she does this in some of the content areas of study in her classroom. She still felt that her students could me more involved in the instruction by giving each of her students a packet of stickies and having them write down their thinking while she is reading. We all felt that during these Interactive Read-Alouds that you as the teacher were probably only really interacting with six or seven of the students in your class. However, by giving each of them a packet of post-its, you now have everyone in the classroom interacting with the text being read aloud.

We also discussed the topic of Rereading for Deeper Meaning. Some of our questions were “How can this be done?” and “How many times should you reread?”. Jamie shared that in her classroom she has her students first read a story in guided reading groups, again with partnered reading and finally by independent reading. We also talked about how to motivate our students to reread text by charting their fluency and timing them and having them compete against their time. Do any of you have ways that you work on fluency and rereading in your classroom that you would like to share?

There was also an interesting portion in this chapter about annotation. The authors took a paper given to incoming freshmen at Harvard University and shared how it is important to write down your thinking as you are reading a text rather than just highlighting. We all talked about how we wish we were given more instruction in this manner in high school in preparation for our college experience. Lauren shared how her 6th grade teacher really got her started reading this way by requiring her students to underline as they were reading and to write notes in the margin of their books. We felt that this type of instruction would be beneficial for all of our students but especially for that 30% who need any strategy that they can get.

Ultimately, this chapter reinforced that the reason behind our explicit instruction in reading should guide our students into becoming learners who are thinking about what they are reading and working out their thinking to construct meaning.