BEST Ideas: Teaching Text Features

 Dear readers,

I thought I updated this post a number of days ago, however, it seems I did not save it. The creator of the "Text Features" unit requested that I delete this post and access to the unit. Brenna has updated the unit and is now offering it on the "Teachers Pay Teachers".

Please go to this website for more information: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Informational-Text-Features-Unit-151323 

Thank you, 

Renae

BEST Practices: More SSR Details from Dr, Linda Gambrell

Dear Friends,

In November I shared some highlights from UCIRA, using my notes as the main source. I tried to create a detailed summary with enough information that blog readers could try the suggested strategies in their classrooms. Fortunately, I recently received copies of Dr. Linda Gambrell's PowerPoint presentations, and so I am pleased to pass them onto you as they provide additional and important points.

Dr. Gambrell, editor of Best Practices in Literacy Instruction, writes that her "current interests are in areas of reading comprehension strategy instruction, literacy motivation, and the role of discussion in teaching and learning" (p. v). As you peruse the slides of her presentation, you'll review how she uses discussion as a valuable post-silent reading tool.

Here are some important points to attend to:

•  How scaffolding influences motivation
  
• The 3 principles of intellectual engagement
• The benefits of social interaction
• The components of Monitored Self-Selected Reading (MSSR)
• Number of books students need during silent reading
• Post-reading activity
  

(Click HERE to review Dr. Gambrell's presentation:

"Mission Possible: Reaching ALL Readers.")

Additionally, the PowerPoint details "Text Cues: An Intervention Strategy for Struggling Readers" to improve reading comprehension. This strategy requires that teachers create text clues to support struggling readers in retelling what they have read. Note, however, that a gradual release of responsibility moves that task from teacher to students over the course of time.

(Click HERE to check out this important intervention strategy.)

REMEMBER: Depending upon the text, ANY reader can be a struggling reader! Hopefully, these resources can help you help your students. AND, if things don't work out the first time, don't give up. Successful implementation takes practice.

Take care, All!
Renae

BEST Practices: Rethinking Reading Motivation

Motivating students to read is ALWAYS a tough challenge, and Dr. Ray Reutzel addressed this challenge at the UCIRA November conference. To review what we know about the research, click HERE to study his summary of research findings concerning motivation in general.

Recently, I also introduced you to Dr. Ray Reutzel's research concerning the effectiveness - or lack thereof - of Sustained Silent Reading as it is REGULARLY practiced in most classrooms: students choose books; students read books or pretend to do so; teachers read books for 15 to 30 minutes. Dr. Reutzel's research resulted in recommending that teachers "scaffold" sustained silent reading in order to monitor students' progress.

Today, I want to introduce you to another of Dr. Reutzel's studies that examines specific motivational "paths" teachers use to motivate students to read. Among the most popular are tracking the number of minutes, pages, books, AR points, etc. After completing the prescribed requirements, students are usually rewarded with prizes ranging from pizza to an assembly where the principal has is head shaved.

Again, Dr. Reutzel conducted the research in elementary classrooms, but the results and recommendations are of interest to secondary teachers as many offer various extrinsic rewards to students who reach reading goals. In the past, research in this area focused upon the rewards rather than upon the paths leading to those rewards, Dr. Reutzel decided to examine the 4: number of BOOKS or PAGES, or MINUTES or GENRES read.

As you examine the details of his study, note the effect size of the results, the limitations of the study, AND the benefits of the different paths. The following is a list of questions about both sets of slides. Can you predict the answers to these questions?

• What can teachers do to help motivate the UNmotivated?
• What, if any, are the most motivating rewards for reaching reading goals?
• Which path had the largest effect size in improving Gates-MacGinitie Reading scores? Pages? Minutes? Books? Genres?
• Which path had the largest effect size in improving attitudes towards recreational reading? Pages? Minutes? Books? Genres?
• Which path had the largest effect size in improving attitudes towards academic reading? Pages? Minutes? Books? Genres?
• What path offers the broadest benefits for supporting readers?
• What do you think were the limitations of this study?

(Click HERE to review the "Differing the Paths" study.)

Accumulation of Accelerated Reader points was not researched, but there are some studies that look at this program. Finding research that is not an INhouse study is important in determining the effectiveness of AR. Concerns that any incentive program contributes to the "Matthew Effect" - good readers get better and poor readers get worse - is a the strongest complaint.

Before I sign off, I have to tell you about South Jordan Middle School's WILDLY SUCCESSFUL incentive program implemented during first semester. Each student who reached their Accelerated Reader goals, earned a RUBBER DUCKY and had their picture taken with their little buddies. Kids LOVED the program! BUT rubber duckies cost money, and so the program is not being continued.

While incentive programs may motivate students to read more over the short term, the lasting effects are minimal. My final question to you is this: How can we promote reading, instill a respect, if not a love, for reading WITHOUT counting pages, points, books, or minutes and WITHOUT dangling donuts, pizzas, or candy bars in front of our young readers and non-readers?

Till tomorrow,
Renae

BEST Practices: Re-examining Sustained Silent Reading

Dear Colleagues,

During a recent workshop, a participant who teaches special education asked the class about the value of Sustained Silent Reading in the classroom. He had recently learned that there is insufficient research to warrant its implementation. Our colleague's observation is correct, and Dr. Ray Reutzel of Utah State University and the International Reading Association (IRA) board addressed that topic last November at UCIRA.

(If you can't wait, click HERE to review the PowerPoint of Dr. R's keynote address, BUT if you want a PREVIEW before you REVIEW, read on!)

While Dr. Reutzel's research in this arena focuses on elementary students, his remarks were to k-12 teachers, and he addressed secondary concerns and needs which include the following:

• Lack of sufficient research about the effectiveness of Sustained Silent Reading
• National Reading Panel's determination that evidence which does exist demonstrates "insignificant or mixed effect for SSR on students' reading achievement/growth"
• Lack of student motivation/engagement during SSR
• Lack of accountability for students' reading during SSR
• Problems associated with students' reading selections in conjunction with their reading abilities/levels

Sometimes I am concerned that we secondary teachers only pay attention to research conducted in the secondary world. Instead, we should review relevant elementary studies and ask if we don't encounter the same issues in middle and high schools. If we do, then perhaps we should examine that research and the recommendations, regardless of grade levels studied.

While studying Dr. Reutzel's PowerPoint that summarizes his research and recommendations, secondary teachers might determine which findings apply to their students and how they might incorporate the recommendations into the curriculum to fit the needs of older students.

For example, Dr. Reutzel introduces Scaffolded Sustain Silent Reading (ScSSR) which includes several structured steps that a secondary teacher could implement in the secondary classroom. One critical component of ScSSR is Individual Monitoring Conferences (IMC). Rather than reading WITH students, teachers conduct short meetings to discover important information ranging from fluency to comprehension levels.

Some teachers may feel they cannot implement the recommendations with exactness, but may want to adapt or adjust suggestions. While such changes will not support the research, teachers can conduct action research to determine whether or not the ScSSR, as they implemented the program, is more effective than traditional SSR.

The main point is that SSR is a practice lacking effectiveness for MANY students. While teachers try a variety of plans to improve the results, it is important that we start with ideas that emerge from research.

After reviewing Dr. Reutzel's PowerPoint, I would appreciate your feedback. I also hope that you will find ways to scaffold the sustained silent reading that occurs in your classroom, based on the best research currently available. : D

BEST wishes!
Renae

Greet 2010 in the BEST Way!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, Colleagues!

I am a big fan of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)! In November I joined nearly 30,000 others in posting every day for 30 days. What makes NaBloPoMo unique is the chance to do that every month on a different theme. No one in their right mind would WANT to post EVERY day EVERY month, but when a theme hits home, I found it's a great way to organize and share thoughts and ideas on a blog - which is short for weB LOG!

BEST is the theme for the month of January, and it caught my fancy. (Oops! There goes a cliche'!) I decided it would be a great challenge to apply that main idea to Link 2 Literacy topics: BEST practices, BEST ideas, BEST tips, etc. So with that challenge, I PLAN to succeed in posting on L2L EVERY DAY this month. What a great way to start the year, don't you think?

I hope your holiday break was a great one. Mine certainly was - a perfect mix of work, play, and rest. Now I'm anxious to make the BEST of 2010 by doing my BEST.

BEST wishes,
Renae

UCIRA Conference: Highlighting Linda Gambrell

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

Before you head off for feasting, I thought I'd share the HIGHlights of the Utah Council of the International Reading Association (UCIRA) conference that I attended on Friday and Saturday. WoW! What a conference ~ one of the best that I have attended here in Utah. The keynote speakers were informative AND entertaining - always nice! The authors were inspiring AND humorous - always appreciated! And the breakouts helpful AND funny - NOT always! 

Because I'm basically Pollyanna Salisbury, who believes participants can ALWAYS dig SOMETHING out of the most dismal presentation, I won't examine lowLIGHTS - tempting as that sometimes is. Here goes:

LINDA GAMBRELL ~

• Mission Possible: Reading All Readers - Keynote Speech, Friday morning
•  MONITORED SELF-SELECTED READING (MSSR)
  
•  During SSR students should have a CHOICE of reading materials, so give each one a large ziplock bag, and instruct them to place 3 books inside: 1. the book he/she is reading now; 2. the book she/he will read next; 3. some easy or escape reading like a favorite magazine - People? Hot Rod? Horse and Hound?
• At the end of SSR, students should be able to take a few minutes to share what they read that day with a partner. Such sharing expands background knowledge of both partners AND previews another book for each as well.
  
• Text Clues: An Intervention for Struggling Readers - breakout session
• Retelling is a good assessment tool to check comprehension, but students need to learn how to retell and summarize. Learning this strategy helps memory retention. 
• Retelling: 
• Provide words or lines from the text in the order they appear in the story or article, and then have students use those clues to help them retell.
• Move them to creating their own retelling clues.
  
• Summarizing:
• Students need to know characteristics of a good summary, so show them 3 different summaries and discuss which is the best and why.
•  After learning characteristics, teach students to write good summaries through modeling and then sharing text clues.
• Give them the first and last line of the summary and then direct them to fill in the middle 3 to 5 sentences.
• Next provide the first OR the last line and instruct them to complete the 4-6 lines the follow or precede those lines. 

I have lots more to share, but rather than write too lengthy of a post, I'll add more later. I KNOW I always write that, and then you never see part 2, but maybe this time I'll surprise you!

ENJOY your LONG weekend, and leave SCHOOL at SCHOOL.

Best wishes,
Renae

Challenging the Way We Teach Reading

I'm not sure which has been crazier - my work life or my personal life! Either way, I feel like I'm that chubby little gerbil running insanely in place on the wheel of life, wondering if I'm really making any progress on any front. The only solace is that I know I have many friends and colleagues who completely empathize as they are racing around their own gerbil world!

With that confession off my mind and just in time for Halloween, I want to share some insights I gained from reading Kelly Gallagher's latest book with the freaky title, Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It. I first "met" Kelly via his book Reading Reasons: Motivational Mini-Lessons for Middle and High School - a must for your professional library - and have followed him ever since. (Not "followed" as in stalking, but as in Googling for updates about his work.)

Kelly Gallagher is a practitioner with more than 22 years experience in teaching and inspiring students and teachers alike. While some may challenge his credentials as lacking research experience, that does not mean Mr. G. doesn't do his homework. He backs up his opinions by quoting the research of education heavy weights as well as sharing teacher research from his own classes. Additionally, he is not hesitant to challenge poor programs or ill-advised ideas, be they from the US Department of Education or best-selling practitioners like himself. Because of these reasons, I value his insights.

While Readicide is a bit unnerving, the pages substantiate what many educators believe but no longer practice in light of the pressure of student performance - aka NCLB and standardized testing. Kelly's book maintains that schools are killing off the love of reading, often through the "mind-numbing practices" found inside classrooms. While we may be driving up test scores, we're lynching life-long reading, which is defeating the purpose of teaching and supporting reading in school.

The author reiterates the importance of reading through graphs, charts, and quotations from reported research. The strongest argument in my mind, however, is his concern over the lack of "knowledge capital" in the lives of so many of our students. "Knowledge capital" is what readers bring to the page - schema, background knowledge, prior knowledge are possible synonyms for the term. Kelly reminds us of "the large wealth of knowledge capital that comes from the voluminous reading of books, newspapers, blogs, and magazines" (p. 38).  If the systematic annihilation of the love of reading continues, so will knowledge capital dwindle.

What then are the factors contributing to the state of affairs? Kelly lists six:

• There is a dearth of interesting materials in our schools.
• Many schools have removed novels and other longer challenging works to provide teachers and students with more test preparation time.
• Students are not doing enough reading in school.
• The overteaching of books prevents our students from experiencing the place where all serious readers want to be - the reading flow (when a reader is so engrossed, he is oblivious of anything else going on around him.)
• The overanalysis of books creates instruction that values the trivial at the expense of the meaningful.
• The overteaching of academic texts is spilling over and damaging our students' chances of becoming lifelong readers.

What can be done to stem the tide? Kelly declares that if students are to "discover what it is like to come up for air while reading, if they are to have any chance of becoming lifelong readers, they will need what all readers need when they read: access to great books and large doses of uninterrupted time to read them" (p. 73). Sounds simple, doesn't it? Raises lots of questions, too, right?

If you're interested in some of Kelly's suggestions for ending readicide, check out Literacy Link Up!

What are your thoughts about the way educators teach reading? What do you think we can do to restore the love of reading AND teach students what they need to KNOW and DO to become proficient readers?

Please respond; you have my attention!

Renae