Using Guided Reading, Literacy Centers, Literature Circles and Other Research Based Strategies to Help Your Students Be More Successful Readers

December 5, 2007

Binghamton Holiday Inn Arena

Presented by Bev Bain

 

 

The Bookworm's Feast by Jay Patrick Lewis (Great poem about voyage by books)

 

Poem read by Bev to open up the conference

 

Her job is to give us lots of ideas and my job is to pick and choose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three most important things that I can do in the classroom to help children become life time readers

Think Pair Share

1.   Read, read, read, to them ~ have as many positive experiences as possible

2.   Have conversations about struggles, successes, and what effective readers do

3.   Fill their tool box with tools that will help them

4.   Model a passion for reading

5.   Strategies

6.   Variety of genres

7.   Give students time

 

secret ~ have students match their interests with their personal reading

 

I'm Allergic to School by Robet Pottle (poetry book to buy for class)

 

Bev points out that we can teach all the guided reading we want but if students don't have independent time to practice then it's not worthwhile.

 

When introducing non ficition one strategy is to give students an overview of the book

 

Page 3 venn diagram

Heather and I had a chance to talk about what we have in common and the differences.  This activity leads into helping students build connections with texts.

  Heather and I have many things in common.

 

   On the other hand, there are many unique features about us

 

Students then work with one another to fill in a graphic organizer and then take it to the writing process.

 

Heather and I ...

 

On the other hand...

 

Now they are to make text to text connections with a character in a book.  Example:  Student compares himself to Matt in the Sign of the Beaver.

First teach this strategy with a partner then use

 

Classroom Instruction that Works (9 Most important Strategies to Teach in a classroom)

1.  Compare, Contrast, Metaphors, Classifying, Analogies (Today's metaphor~ Voyage through Books)                                    45% Gain

2.  Summarizing and Notetaking                                                                                                                                           34% Gain

3.  Reinforcing and Praise for Effort                                                                                                                                        29% Gain

4.  Homework and Practice Homework needs to eminate what has been taught in class, not just a packet sent home              28% Gain

5.  Non linguistic representations  Acting, using charts, graphs, diagrams,                                                                               27% Gain

6.  Cooperative Learning                                                                                                                                                        27% Gain

7.  Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback                                                                                                                         23% Gain

8.  Generating and gtesing Hypotheses                                                                                                                                   23% Gain

9.  Questions, Cues, and Advance Organizers                                                                                                                          22% Gain

 

How has this changed me?  How does this influence my instruction?

 

Turn to a partner to discuss what you think Guided Reading is

   Give them the strategies on how to read while they are reading... designed to help individual students and increase understanding and fluency.

 

Comprehension Strategies

 

Check out the instructional videos used for Professional Development...

   Using GUided Reading iwth non fiction

   Text on Spiders

 

Strategy: Asking Questions

Ellen the teacher:  Script of the video

How well are the 2 studnent reading?

What is the teacher doing and saying?

 

Teacher at a table with small group of students

Are you thinking of a question? 

Supporting student

Try again... that's a good question

Can you answer it?

 

Second student... let's turn that into a quesiton right away.

Following through the sentence and turning into a question... Note to self:  Sounds a lot like Better Answers

What were the other students doing at the table during this instruction?  They were reading silently...

stop round robin reading (I haven't done this since my first year of teaching)

... reserach is clear that comprehension takes place silently in the upper elementary students.

They read outloud to us individually.

 

Model how to ask questions: A tremendous amount of modeling how to ask questions.

 

Reflections on the video we watched

What concrete evidence does the teacher have to group these students?  Analyze their fluency, use running records, observational or through or discussion, previous small group situation, testing from other content areas, anectdotals,

Through observations take anectodatal and then after some time find skills in common that will help to form an instructional group

Have students write a letter and use this as an assesment to see what they are good at not so good at.

 

Note to self:  You need to constantly assess to find out what students need.

 

Whisper pipes?

 

Mosiac of Thought: The Power of Comprehension Strategy Instructiong  Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmermann

 

Strategies that Work Second Addition by Harvey and Goudvis

 

Teaching for Comprehension and Fluency by Fountas and Pinnel

 

Scientific Reading Assessment Targeted Intervention Maryann Manning

 

Discussion on Just Right books and SSR

How to find JR books using the inside flap, 5 finger rule

Pull up reluctant readers first...

meet with a reluctant reader to make sure that they have a JR book

keep track of their own reading

 

Staple 10 calendars in a folder to record what they are reading in SSR

Record reading in their calendars in the back of their agendas  Note to self:  Check to see if this is true for our agendas

 

Book projects every couple of weeks that involve the retelling of a story

 

In the calendar you can inspect genre and how many pages per day they read

 

Open House

1 minute read to their parents outload from their independent reading book

typically they are reading 1 page per minute

They should read about 20 pages per day

Could need instruction on fluency or focus

 

Note to self:  Change reading log to include page numbers, create a calendar method rather than a list!

Make students more accountable for their indpendent reading... great point

 

Leveled Books for Reader Grade 3-6 Fountas and Pinnel (Look up a book to see if it at students level)

 

lexile.com internet site that will level a book when you type it in

 

 

Now that we have assessed students we are ready to begin Guided Reading

 

Possibilities found on page 16

 

Reading workshops ~ her mini lessons are really maxi lessons and moved away from this a bit

 

Not sure about this section:  I will have to go back through the book she gave us to reference to this.

Literacy Centers ~ 10 students are working on centers

Guided Reading ~

Literature Circles ~  children are working lit circles.

 

Each center there is only one student at.  The noise level is down

 

Showing us a schedule for Literacy Block 2.5 hours a day.  WOW!

20 minutes ~ word work/spelling/ phonic

 

40 minutes ~ Core novel or Core Literature Book.  Everyone has a copy of the book.  Teaching strategies whole class

Mon: 

Whole Class Introducing Stories

Read 1/2 tape or teacher

Discuss while reading

 

Tuesday:

Finish story

 

Wed/Thur/Fri

Small groups

 

This is really a CA model that may not work in my class

 

Teacher's write the letter and the students write back

Interest supercedes level

 

Finished up the first session with a poem  This Book by Avis (Super poem)

 

 ------------------- After Break ------------------

 

Cornell Notetaking?

 

Choral reading of Comprehension

 

Comprehension is the ability ot interact with the word and ideas...

 

The Struggling Reader Interventions that Work by Scholastic

 

 What strategies should we teach?

Make connections

Visualize

Ask Questions

Draw Inferences

Summarize

Distinguish important from less important

Synthesize information

Monitor the adequacy

 

page 30 is the most important page for guided reading

 

Latin and Greek roots, shift from just spelling to meaning as well.  page 124

Word webs ~ small groups

 

    graph = means to write

    autograph

 

socius - used a web

created a jeapardy style game using greek roots but the students create the game and the definitions. 

Note to self:  This could be used for one of our spelling challenge activities.

 

To Root, to Toot, to Parachutearachute by Brian P. Cleary (Teaching verbs)

 

 

Dearly Nearly Insicnerley What is an Adverb  Brian P. Cleary

 

teach prepositions using a chair...

on the chair,

off the chair,

behind the chair,

 

Children's version of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss (Use to teach commas)

 

Good Reader's Make Connections

Text to Text and Text to World

Text to Text could be text to tv or movie, or another book

 

Help students make connections to their worlds not just other books.  Bev's story of students renting 4-5 videos over the weekend.

Note to self:   Do I know my students well enough to help them make connections to their world?

 

 

Synetics ~ Putting two things together that ordinarily would not go together.

How is the mall like the circulatory system?

 

Force students to make connections with a character in one of their stories...

How does your connection help you understand the story better? 

 

Connections Strategy

Books to help Students Make Connections

Reluctant boys ~ get them hooked on Dan Gutman

The Million Dollar Shot Dan Gutman

The Million Dollar Soccer Kick

Shoeless Joe and Me

Satch and Me

The Homework Machine

 

Andrew Clemens is another author to get reluctant readers hooked on

No Talking

 

Barnstormers (Mystery series at a third grade level)

 

Joey Pigza Swalled the Key by Jack Gantos

I Am Not by Jack Gantos

 

lazyreaders.com website that recommends books that are fun, easy reads for kids that are reluctant.

 

SpiderWick Series

Series of Unfortunate Events

 

Audience Drives Quality ~ Share their projects with a real life audience

Note to self:  This is why we are blogging and have epals.

 

Liftoff by John Glenn

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni (Story about Rosa Parks)

 

Nonfiction Text

TFK Biographies (This looks like an outstanding resource to add to the classroom)

Sacagawea (Learn the whole Westward Movement with Lewis and Clark)

Moses story about Harriet Tubman Harold Witherford

 

Lucy Calkins reference...benchmark book.  Our own workshop instructors have said this as well!

 

teach the strategy outside the content first then use the strategy

 

Heather shared a story where she helped students make connections to the read aloud A Wrinkle in Time by bringing in a picture of herself that looked like the main character of the story.

Note to self:  Let students know me as a person as well as a teacher.  Great idea Heather.

 

We want kids to be able to make all kinds of connections

 

Page 50   teach kids how to talk about books.

Lit. Circles like an Oprah book Club.

 

Abuela by Arthur Dorros is a picture book that can be used to teach students how to talk about books.  Lucy Calkins benchmark book.

 

I am imagine all of us in jail after referring to typing a story that is copyrighted

 

pg. 51 is reference to help students talk about books.

Ways to Respond to Literature #18 Relfecting upon Learning

 

Quote, sentence, phrase, or dieas from story.

"Mangos, banana, papayas

 

Response:  I am thankful that the author had us learning spanish words.....

AFter students do this make two piles, those who get it and those who do not.

 

Note to self: I am going to have to go back and review this, not quite sure yet?  Quote is on the left and writting is on the right.  This will translate into students taking this on independently at lit circles to be able to make connections.

 

Questioning Strategy

 page 59

 page 68 is the most important page for Questioning

Good readers ask questions

Elizabeth Beck  Improving Comprehension with Questioning the Author

 

focuses on studetns understanding a certain text. Construct meaing not to get information.

what is the authors message?

what is thei author trying to say here?

what is the author talking about?

 

Above the surface Questions

Who what when where

 

Below the Surface Questions

Why, Would, Could, Should, How

 

Questioning Strategy modeled using Winn Dixie found on page 61

 

To help teach students how to ask questions one student stands and asks from a bank of quesitons found on page 68.  Student asks question and then calls on someone who then stands as well.  Two students standing and the focus in on those standing.  After the student answers the qeustions then they get a chance to ask a question to someone els who ultimately stands as well.  Each student asks a different qeustion from the bank of quesitons found on page 68.  Make a copy of these questions to then handout to students...  Model, model, model, this will then be used as way to have students do this in lit circles.

 

can you elaborate on your answer or can give evidence from the text

 

Ending poem for the second session before lunch

Marian Wright Edelman...Bev read a short piece from Marian

 

A school teacher said...popsicles before supper.  commit ot advocate for children who can't ... pictures aren't on dressers.  Let us commit to those children who throw temper tamprums... go out and accept responsibility and commit to those students who cry themselves to sleep, for those who don't want to be carried, let us fight for those children...what do you think would happen if everyone of us reached out and grabbed the hand of the child and see that no child is left behind, everything depends on us commiting how to we can not leave any child left behind. 

 

 

Inferencing Strategies

 

Good Dog Carl

 

Flotsam

 

Tuesday

 

Concept Formation ~ Instructional Strategy

Characters, Settings, Problems, and Events. 

Create a list of words from a story that can be arranged under the heading above.

 

Kinesthetic part with this is the secret ~

They cut up the words and organize them under the heading.

Ask questions like, why did you put that word here?

This is a front loading strategy to help the predict the story.

This happens before the story is read...

 

Summarizing Strategies

We do this the most

Denise the Menace Cartoon

 

Retelling vs. Summarizing

Retelling is longer

Summarizing is more succinct.  Can be one sentence of the whole book.

 

Hoot by Carl Hiaasen

Flush by Carl Hiaasen (Can be used to teach summarizing)

 

The inside page of Flush has a one sentence summary... show students this and discuss what is in the sentence.  Characters, problem, setting.

Then use a bin of books that show a one sentence summary. 

This sounds like Text tapping.  If you want students to write a summary then show them several examplars of this.

 

To help students retell refer to page 75

Give me 5

1. Five important elements, facts, or words.

 

Somebody/Wanted/But/So/Then

 

Somebody - characters

Wanted - Action

But - The Problem

So - Beginning fo the events

Then - Solution

 

This could be used to help students retell what has happened in their story they read.  Can be used during SSR, previous nights reading.

 

Video Lesson Using Fiction

What are the words and directiosn that the teachers gives to support the reader? 

The teacher is using the burner covers on the stove and magnets

 

I have these little magnets, quickly writes what the magnet I am aksing for.

setting where and when, (She was specific with time and place)

if you get setting then you tell me

another one is the events

just the major things

what happened first, second third

Start with characters

Who are your main characters?

First part, you talked about was the where or when? (Asked the student to clarify where or when)

Problem

Before we look at solution let's look at the events 1,2,3

And then they went looking for them, right?

 student responds, yeah.

And that would be the...

 

Direct teaching

What lesson preceded this?  Story Elements

The difficult portion was determing the events... 2 of the 3 students identified the solution instead of the events.

 

What data would the teacher have to be able to call up these kids?  What concrete evidence?

During a conference in silent reading time.  Retell what you have read so far...

Maybe she gave an assignment that students don't understand it.

 

page 79 ~ projects based on retelling.

Storyboard ~

Teach how to use a storyboard to the whole class use whatever book I am reading to the class

Groups of four

Last frame is used for the theme

First frame and then the second to last frame (Sounds like an event frame)

 

page 80

 

Content ~

Form ~ how it looks

Correctness ~Spelling and Punctuation

 

for these projects the biggest difference is conferencing with them during SSR.  If not, the do nothings do nothing.

 

page 82 Cereal Box

Bev has a list of Book Projects to use to have students retell the story.

Take a look at these through her book, they start on page 76

Windsock

Game Board

StoryBoard

Scrapbook

Fraction Wheel- have students identify number 1,2,3,4,5

 

Think about how to enable students to share.  Bev mentions going to the cafeteria and have students with projects raise their hand to signal that they are ready to share.

 

Differentiation in Practice

 

Students need to spend 80% of the time on their independent readling level where they are reading with fluecny and 20 of thei time on their instructional level.

 

The Fabled Fourth Graders of Aesop Elementary School by Candice Fleming

 

this book is a group of Fables with funny names throughout

 

Books being read by students independently

Worth by A. LaFaye

Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (1 page of text then 7-8 pages of illustrations to move the plot along.  Check this out)

 

use picture stands to put their books on their tables. 

 

Third grade teachers have the awesome responsibilty of having students read with fluency

 

The Zack Files

Shredder Man by Wendelin Van Draanen

 

NakedReading talks about the importance of reading aloud. 

 

Reading Doesn't Matter Anymore by David Booth

 

Literature Circles

The typical teacher has chidren doing a lot lof stuff.  How is what I am having chidren do creting readers and writers?

 

Lit Circles may be the most authentic teaching we can do.

 

Lit. Circle is mostly done in class, that which is not finished in class is for homework but is included in their 30 minutes of reading a night.

 

 

What are lit. circles?

4-6

4 is too few

6 is too many

5 is the magic number

 

What are we trying to accomplish? Trying to get a dining room table about books.  Grand conversations.

In the begining it was bland conversation where students were just reporting out.

 

Students can meet daily, or one or two three times a week.

 

Students meet to talk about how many pages they are going to read.   Guided by the teacher.  20 pages ...

 

It is dependent on having multiple copies of books.

 

what kind of books?  Christopher Mouse by William Wise, The Captain Underpants

 

If you have never done Lit Circles before read over Literature Circles by Harvey Daniels

Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles by Harvey Daniels

 

When students are not in Lit Circles they are working in centers...After centers they have one minute to share. 

Lit Circles are usually homogenously grouped.  The only time in the day where this is the case.

 

Takes Sept./Oct to teach roles, mgt. Response strategies

Nov.Dec.Jan Begin Lit. Circles with Roles

Refer to book Bev gave us as to how she sets this up.

 

Page 151 is a copy of the Lit Roles

 

Kids who read 65 minutes a day outside of school score in the 98 percentile

 

Illustrator ~ Save the last word for me... the illustrator

8 Drawings no words.  This makes it become a discussion not a telling.  Have students create a ying and yang positive and negative draw pictures.

Illustrator holds them up and everyone discusses them and the illustrator get's the last word.

 

Connector ~ good readers make connections between important ideas in the story.

Double entry journals ~ what is this?  Bev mentions Abuela as the benchmarked story.

You have to find something that everyone will talk about... or no one wil have anything to say

 

Vocabulary Enricher choose words that they don't know

choose words that is worth knowing

They come with the word, page number, paragraph number, read the sentence

 

Passage Master ~ refer back to page 30 in column three, metaphors, similes,

They set this up the same way as a double entry journal.

 

Discussion Leader ~ The most important role. refer to page 153 for open ended questions.  Also look back to page 68 and use these questions to have students stand to ask questions...

Better to leave it open ended rather than have the student write the answer to the question down.  This will allow for a conversation and not stop when another student gives the right answer.

 

 If someone came into my class today would someone see my students doing the things that real readers do?

Real readers don't fill in worksheets

Real readers don't answer comprehension questions.

Real readers have conversations about their books, meet with friends and talk about what they have read, real readers share the stories they are reading with others.

 

 

Students sit on the floor throughout the room so they are not talking during the center work.

 

What is the purpose of centers?  To teach students to a variety of genres

 

Page 170 shows a graphic of the class.  Groups of desks and where she meets for guided reading, lit circles, and centers.

You need time to work with small groups of kids.

 

Because I am a teacher by Jane Hancock