A website I would highly suggest checking out is the International Reading Association's page. On this site, each year the current hottest topics dealing with literacy are posted. Here is the link to 2009's current issues in reading: IRA Hot List 2009. The list may not reflect the topics that are currently being discussed at your school, but they are interesting to see what other schools are discussing.
As stated on the IRA site: "The 'very hot' topics for 2009 are: adolescent literacy, English as a second language/English-language learners, high-stakes assessment, literacy coaches/reading coaches, and RTI. Of these, the hottest of the 'very hot' topics were adolescent literacy and RTI." I know at my school all of these topics except adolescent literacy (I teach at an elementary school) are issues that we discuss. As a professional, I feel that it is important to stay current in the issues that are affecting teaching.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Adolescent Literacy
A huge problem as students progress through the grade levels is that more and more of them begin to hate reading. About two-thirds of our 12th graders and about 70% of our 8th graders in the United States do not read at grade level. Many students report that they do not read for pleasure on a regular basis. Reading is a process where we need practice to improve. If students are not reading on their own, then they are not gaining practice in using the strategies and skills taught at school.
One way to help adolescents to begin to enjoy reading is by finding interesting books based on their hobbies and interests. This can be daunting for teachers who have a diverse range of students within their classrooms each with individual interests and at differing reading levels. A website that may be of interest is the Ohio Resource Center. This website provides books that catch the attention of adolescents and many of the books are recommended by adolescents.
Another tool to use with teenagers is technology. Teenagers spend a lot of time online. Creating an online scavenger hunt where students have to go to given websites to read information about a topic and record their responses is one way to help them learn using one of their favorite activities. This would give you the opportunity to find websites at various levels to help those students who are not at grade level and who would struggle reading the social studies or science text book for the topic.
Another tool to help teenagers, not as much with motivation but more so with comprehension, is a comprehension connector. This is a simple graphic organizer designed or chosen by the teacher to have the students fill out as they read. This helps students to focus on what is most important in the text and to record their thinking. As with all assignments, teachers should model how to use the comprehension connector before having students work individually with the comprehension connector. Some examples of comprehension connectors can be found at: Choice Literacy.
One way to help adolescents to begin to enjoy reading is by finding interesting books based on their hobbies and interests. This can be daunting for teachers who have a diverse range of students within their classrooms each with individual interests and at differing reading levels. A website that may be of interest is the Ohio Resource Center. This website provides books that catch the attention of adolescents and many of the books are recommended by adolescents.
Another tool to use with teenagers is technology. Teenagers spend a lot of time online. Creating an online scavenger hunt where students have to go to given websites to read information about a topic and record their responses is one way to help them learn using one of their favorite activities. This would give you the opportunity to find websites at various levels to help those students who are not at grade level and who would struggle reading the social studies or science text book for the topic.
Another tool to help teenagers, not as much with motivation but more so with comprehension, is a comprehension connector. This is a simple graphic organizer designed or chosen by the teacher to have the students fill out as they read. This helps students to focus on what is most important in the text and to record their thinking. As with all assignments, teachers should model how to use the comprehension connector before having students work individually with the comprehension connector. Some examples of comprehension connectors can be found at: Choice Literacy.
RTI
Response to Intervention or RTI is a big topic of discussion lately. With the NCLB act causing schools to look at how well they are meeting the needs of all of their students, RTI is one method that schools rely on. In RTI, students are placed into one of three tiers. The first tier is where the majority of the students are placed. In tier one it is the classroom teacher's responsibility to provide the best classroom instruction and differentiate to help all students learn. If a student is not progressing in tier 1, then the RTI committee may deem to move the student into tier 2. In tier 2, the child receives small group instruction from trained individuals to help the student start progressing and hopefully be returned to tier 1. If a student is still not progressing in tier 2, then the child may be moved into tier 3. In some schools this is special education and in other schools this may be one-on-one tutoring before moving on to special education.
The purpose of the RTI system is to help students get the instruction they need before they fall too far behind. RTI places more responsibility on the teacher in providing the best curriculum and instruction. RTI also helps ensure that students are not being placed into special education without other interventions being tried first. With how complex RTI can be, I would suggest checking out the following website: RTI Action Network. This website helped clear up some the questions that I had about RTI and may do the same for you. RTI Action Network also has a blog, discussion board, newsletter, and allows you to send in your own questions about RTI.
The purpose of the RTI system is to help students get the instruction they need before they fall too far behind. RTI places more responsibility on the teacher in providing the best curriculum and instruction. RTI also helps ensure that students are not being placed into special education without other interventions being tried first. With how complex RTI can be, I would suggest checking out the following website: RTI Action Network. This website helped clear up some the questions that I had about RTI and may do the same for you. RTI Action Network also has a blog, discussion board, newsletter, and allows you to send in your own questions about RTI.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Reading Conferences
Reading conferences are a great way to motivate students to read. Having one-on-one attention can really allow your students to open up to you and help you to get to know them better. This in turn will allow you to recommend books at your students' reading levels that would interest them. You can also introduce them to new genres that they have not tried reading before. Just having the chance to talk about the book that they are reading can help a child to complete the whole book and comprehend it better.
If you are new to reading conferences, then you may want to check out some of the videos found on the Daily Cafe at: http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/main.cfm. This website does require you to pay for access to some of its resources, but there is still a lot of free information on the site too. You should check out the site and if you like what you see, then consider becoming a member. Conferencing with students is a great way to see how they are progressing as readers.
If you are new to reading conferences, then you may want to check out some of the videos found on the Daily Cafe at: http://www.thedailycafe.com/members/main.cfm. This website does require you to pay for access to some of its resources, but there is still a lot of free information on the site too. You should check out the site and if you like what you see, then consider becoming a member. Conferencing with students is a great way to see how they are progressing as readers.
Reading Logs
Reading logs are a wonderful tool to monitor what students are reading, a starting place for reading conferences, and a way for students to see how much they have read over the course of a school year. At my school we have a million word campaign to encourage our students to read at least a million words a year. For my fifth graders, that equates to about six chapter books a quarter. Ten picture books or newspaper/magazine articles equals one chapter book. I encourage my students to read daily and record in their reading log each time that they read. I try to check reading logs at least once a week to see how students are progressing towards their million word goal.
On the reading log we have a chart that includes: the date, title, author, type of book, pages read, genre, rating, and parent's initials. The students mark for type of book whether it was a chapter book, picture book, or article. For genre, we use the following codes: HF-historical fiction, RF-realistic fiction, I-information, B-biography, M/H-mystery/horror, NF-nonfiction, F-fantasy, SF-science fiction, P-poetry. Our rating scale is: 4-awesome, 3-very good, 2-okay, 1-not that good. We use a smiley face rating scale for the primary grades.
One site that has examples of reading logs is: http://www.countryclipart.com/ReadingLogs/readinglogs.htm. I liked the sixth reading log best on that page, but the others may fit your students better. Another website that has some sample reading logs is: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/reading-logs.htm. Reading logs are a great way to see what your students are reading and how frequently that they are reading.
On the reading log we have a chart that includes: the date, title, author, type of book, pages read, genre, rating, and parent's initials. The students mark for type of book whether it was a chapter book, picture book, or article. For genre, we use the following codes: HF-historical fiction, RF-realistic fiction, I-information, B-biography, M/H-mystery/horror, NF-nonfiction, F-fantasy, SF-science fiction, P-poetry. Our rating scale is: 4-awesome, 3-very good, 2-okay, 1-not that good. We use a smiley face rating scale for the primary grades.
One site that has examples of reading logs is: http://www.countryclipart.com/ReadingLogs/readinglogs.htm. I liked the sixth reading log best on that page, but the others may fit your students better. Another website that has some sample reading logs is: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/reading-logs.htm. Reading logs are a great way to see what your students are reading and how frequently that they are reading.
Classroom Library
It is very important to have a large classroom library full of books of different genres at different reading levels. When students see the wide range of books, they know that you value reading and want them to find books that they will enjoy. I use the Scholastic bonus points to order books for my classroom. The Scholastic Book Club website can be found at: http://teacher.scholastic.com/clubs/. When I started teaching fifth grade, I had many books at level M or higher in my classroom. Sadly, I had students reading lower than that. I then made it my mission to continue to collect books at the lower levels so that all my students could read good books at their reading level. Besides using Scholastic book clubs, I also spent time looking at thrift shops. Often if you tell the cashier at the thrift shop that you are a teacher, they will give you a discount. I would go to my local thrift shop every other Saturday and leave with two boxes worth of books only having spent two or three dollars.
The hard part about getting books at the thrift shop is then it takes time to level all of them. With using Scholastic, most of the books are already leveled. With used books you have to look up the level unless you already have the book in your class and are familiar with the level. Scholastic does have a leveling site that may have some of the books' levels on it. This site can be found at: http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do?ESP=TBW/ib//acq/tbw_slimnav_Teachers///nav/txtl////. I am also fortunate that my school has a few copies of the Fountas and Pinnell leveled books guide. You may check to see if your school or local library has a copy of this useful book. You may also pay the $15.00 to use the Fountas and Pinnell online leveling account found at: http://www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com/default.aspx. I have not personally use the website, but I have had colleagues who used it and suggest it. If you have a classroom that has no leveled books, this may be a worthwhile investment to leveling your classroom's books.
Another way, but a very time consuming way, is to do a google search on each book title and author. I have done that with older books that I pick up at the thrift shop. Sometimes I am successful at finding a level, other times I am not. I would also suggest having some of your brighter, helpful students be in charge of leveling the books. They enjoy looking up the books and writing the level on them. If you teach in the primary grades, then maybe you can get one of your students' older siblings or a previous student to come and help with the leveling process. Having books at each reading level is very important for motivating and helping your students find books that interest them that they are able to read.
The hard part about getting books at the thrift shop is then it takes time to level all of them. With using Scholastic, most of the books are already leveled. With used books you have to look up the level unless you already have the book in your class and are familiar with the level. Scholastic does have a leveling site that may have some of the books' levels on it. This site can be found at: http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do?ESP=TBW/ib//acq/tbw_slimnav_Teachers///nav/txtl////. I am also fortunate that my school has a few copies of the Fountas and Pinnell leveled books guide. You may check to see if your school or local library has a copy of this useful book. You may also pay the $15.00 to use the Fountas and Pinnell online leveling account found at: http://www.fountasandpinnellleveledbooks.com/default.aspx. I have not personally use the website, but I have had colleagues who used it and suggest it. If you have a classroom that has no leveled books, this may be a worthwhile investment to leveling your classroom's books.
Another way, but a very time consuming way, is to do a google search on each book title and author. I have done that with older books that I pick up at the thrift shop. Sometimes I am successful at finding a level, other times I am not. I would also suggest having some of your brighter, helpful students be in charge of leveling the books. They enjoy looking up the books and writing the level on them. If you teach in the primary grades, then maybe you can get one of your students' older siblings or a previous student to come and help with the leveling process. Having books at each reading level is very important for motivating and helping your students find books that interest them that they are able to read.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Roald Dahl Author Study
Roald Dahl is a great author for an author study for the 4th through 6th grades. I have done an author study of Roald Dahl the last two years with my fifth graders and they love reading his books!
The first thing in setting up for an author study is making sure that you have enough books to divide the students into groups of three to four. I used my scholastic bonus points and looked at thrift stores to collect enough Roald Dahl books for my author study. On the first day of the author study introduce Roald Dahl and then give short book talks on each of the books that the students may choose to read. The books that I like to use are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Danny The Champion of the World, The BFG, and The Witches. This year I was able to get a classroom set of The Witches, so I am using that for my read aloud and modeling how I want the small groups to talk about the Roald Dahl books. You may also choose to include some of the other Roald Dahl books that are at an easier reading level. For example, one of my lower reading groups is reading George's Marvelous Medicine which is more at an early third grade reading level.
After giving the book talks, have students write down their top three preferences of which Dahl books to read. If they have read all the books already, ask them to put the list in order from the one that they read the longest ago up to the most recently read book. Ideally keep groups to 3-4 students, but you may have to go up to 5 students in some groups depending on the amount of each book that you have and the preferences of the children. Decide if you will allow students to read the books together or if you would prefer them to read the books separately and then come to discuss the books. I left this up to my students. Almost all groups chose to read the books together. I make the rule that students are allowed to pass if they do not want to read. I think this helps my lower readers feel more comfortable in their groups. With my inclusion classroom, my special education teacher takes one of the lower groups of students and reads the book to them since they are reading at the first grade level. My student teacher or I take the other lower group to monitor how they are doing more frequently. I also like to move between groups to make sure that the students are stopping to discuss the book as well.
With my students, I create a large chart on butcher paper to record the similarities and difference between the Roald Dahl books. Each group is looking for the main character, helpful or kind characters, mean or evil characters, setting, author's message, interesting words, new words, similes, and metaphors. This is only a sample list of some of the items you may have your students look for and discuss as they read. Each group has a recorder that writes down their part of the chart to share at closing time so that the class can compare the books.
Students greatly enjoy reading the Roald Dahl stories. I have other Roald Dahl stories out for students to borrow to read as well. Once they see how enjoyable one Roald Dahl book is, then they are hooked into wanting to read more of the stories.
One website that I suggest checking out if you would like to do a Roald Dahl author study is The Roald Dahl official site found at: http://www.roalddahl.com/. At this site, there are pictures of Roald Dahl that the students may enjoy seeing. There are also more ideas, and templates for recording items from Roald Dahl stories. You may find these useful.
Another site to check out is the Activity Village page dedicated to Roald Dahl at: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/roald_dahl.htm. This website has additional crafts and activities to go along with the Roald Dahl stories. It also has links to additional Roald Dahl sites.
The first thing in setting up for an author study is making sure that you have enough books to divide the students into groups of three to four. I used my scholastic bonus points and looked at thrift stores to collect enough Roald Dahl books for my author study. On the first day of the author study introduce Roald Dahl and then give short book talks on each of the books that the students may choose to read. The books that I like to use are Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, Danny The Champion of the World, The BFG, and The Witches. This year I was able to get a classroom set of The Witches, so I am using that for my read aloud and modeling how I want the small groups to talk about the Roald Dahl books. You may also choose to include some of the other Roald Dahl books that are at an easier reading level. For example, one of my lower reading groups is reading George's Marvelous Medicine which is more at an early third grade reading level.
After giving the book talks, have students write down their top three preferences of which Dahl books to read. If they have read all the books already, ask them to put the list in order from the one that they read the longest ago up to the most recently read book. Ideally keep groups to 3-4 students, but you may have to go up to 5 students in some groups depending on the amount of each book that you have and the preferences of the children. Decide if you will allow students to read the books together or if you would prefer them to read the books separately and then come to discuss the books. I left this up to my students. Almost all groups chose to read the books together. I make the rule that students are allowed to pass if they do not want to read. I think this helps my lower readers feel more comfortable in their groups. With my inclusion classroom, my special education teacher takes one of the lower groups of students and reads the book to them since they are reading at the first grade level. My student teacher or I take the other lower group to monitor how they are doing more frequently. I also like to move between groups to make sure that the students are stopping to discuss the book as well.
With my students, I create a large chart on butcher paper to record the similarities and difference between the Roald Dahl books. Each group is looking for the main character, helpful or kind characters, mean or evil characters, setting, author's message, interesting words, new words, similes, and metaphors. This is only a sample list of some of the items you may have your students look for and discuss as they read. Each group has a recorder that writes down their part of the chart to share at closing time so that the class can compare the books.
Students greatly enjoy reading the Roald Dahl stories. I have other Roald Dahl stories out for students to borrow to read as well. Once they see how enjoyable one Roald Dahl book is, then they are hooked into wanting to read more of the stories.
One website that I suggest checking out if you would like to do a Roald Dahl author study is The Roald Dahl official site found at: http://www.roalddahl.com/. At this site, there are pictures of Roald Dahl that the students may enjoy seeing. There are also more ideas, and templates for recording items from Roald Dahl stories. You may find these useful.
Another site to check out is the Activity Village page dedicated to Roald Dahl at: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/roald_dahl.htm. This website has additional crafts and activities to go along with the Roald Dahl stories. It also has links to additional Roald Dahl sites.
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