Build on Best Practice, Know the Research , and Use Programs as a Resource

At the beginning of this chapter the author is talking to a group of frustrated teachers at a reading conference.   The teachers were frustrated because although they felt they knew what their students needed, they were mandated by the school where they were teaching at to teach a particular structured and scripted program.  They were mandated to use this programs because it was a scientifically, research-based program that was guaranteed to help their students succeed and was promoted by the National Reading Panel.  Now this next part really surprised me, the professionals who serve on the National Reading Panel only include one middle school reading teacher, the additional members are a physicist, a chancellor, an educational psychologist, an accountant and several other members who have never taught or have much experience in a classroom!  They use a scientific process to analyze data and as teachers very well know when it comes to a classroom, every classroom, every day is a different group of children and different circumstances.

When looking for a new reading program to adopt be involved and look at the research, just because a company says that the program is research based doesn’t necessarily mean that the research took occurred with English Language Learners, struggling students or students with disabilities.  It may just have occurred with normal progressing students.

In addition to basal reading programs, the trend is to purchase software for tens of thousands of dollars were students read leveled books, then are tested for comprehension on the computer.  When students were asked in-depth or open-ended questions about the book they were unable to answer the questions.  Also, using a program where students receive points for correctly answering questions gives students extrinsic motivation for reading.  Instead students should be intrinsically motivated and read for the joy of reading and learning.  Teachers may use these computerized programs as a supplement to the reading program, but it should in no way be the reading program.

An effective reading program is led by effective teachers whose students:

·         Spend about 50 percent of their time reading and writing,

·         Spend enormous amounts of time reading texts which are easy so they can read successfully with fluency, accuracy and comprehension.

·         Receive well crafted, explicit demonstrations during all aspects of reading, including independent, small group and whole group instruction.

·         Are involved in open-ended talk about a book that is conversational rather than interrogational.

·         Are assigned meaningful and challenging tasks which students have choice and integrate several content areas.

·         Work is evaluate more on improvement and effort than achievement using a rubric that students were involved in creating.

Routman ends the book with a reminder that we need not only need to take the time to ensure that every precious moment we spend with our students is valuable, educational, and ensuring their success, but we also need to take time for ourselves and our families.  Coordinate your classroom schedule so that students are doing more reading and getting more out of their reading.  Remember, more worksheets does not necessarily mean students are learning more. 

Examine Guided Reading

Routman defines guided reading as building on student’s strengths, supporting the student and demonstrating in order to move a student toward independence.  Guided reading can be helping a student choose a book, decoding text, making sense of the text, defining words, building fluency, monitoring comprehension, and determining author’s purpose.  Guided reading groups should not be grouped by ability past second grade.  Instead they should be in flexible groups such as literature circles, literature studies, reading and discussing a story that has already been read, reading with a partner, read a small passage or chunk or reading that was begun in class, engaging in reciprocal teaching or rereading part of a familiar text such as reader’s theatre.

The quality of books should be examined before being used for guided reading.  Ask yourself these questions when examining a book:

·         Will this book adequately support the student as a reader?  Consider:

o   The size, placement, and appearances of print, including spacing between words and lines, and page layout.

o   Pronounceable words and repetition of common words.

o   Number of unique words compared with familiar words.

o   Sentence patterns and language sophistication.

o   Degree of predictability.

o   Familiarity with vocabulary and concepts.

o   Degree of support provided by illustrations/visuals.

o   Genre and content.

o   Length of book.

·         Does the book support reading for meaning?

·         Will the student enjoy the text?  Is it interesting and relevant?

Establish a workable schedule.  In primary grades students should meet with the teacher every day.  In grades 3-6 students only need to meet with the teacher 2-3 times per week.  Ensure that guided reading does not dominate your schedule, allow enough time for daily independent reading.  Shared reading should take up 10 minutes, guided reading 20 minutes and independent reading 30 minutes.

What should the other students be doing?

When planning literacy centers for students you are not working with in guided reading groups ensure that students are spending most of the time reading or doing activities related to reading such as writing a response to their writing, raising questions for an upcoming discussion group, writing a book review for the class, advertising or promoting a book for peers and performing reader’s theatre.  Make sure students know that you are not to be interrupted when you are working with a guided reading group.  Create expectations about how students should work such as whispering, staying on task, and have students take turns being a monitor.  The monitor should quietly remind other students of expected behavior.

What does a guided reading group look like?

·         Choose a book or text that offers support and a few challenges.

·         Briefly introduce the book to the students by previewing, providing background knowledge and key vocabulary and read the first few pages aloud to get students interested in the text.

·         Have the students read the book or text silently.

·         Monitor comprehension by checking to see if students are rereading, checking words against pictures, or using other strategies.

·         Have students read silently looking for a particular answer and then write responses in journals.

·         Support and teach as necessary.

·         Have students read on with partners.

·         Occasionally extend and respond through reader’s theatre, reading response logs or illustration for certain scenes.

Emphasize Shared Reading

When I was going through my teacher preparation program our instructors asked for us to share a child’s book with the class during a read-aloud we had every morning.  I was scared to death to do this.  Fast-forward 12 years later; it is the part of my job I enjoy the most.  I enjoy making various voices for the characters, thinking aloud about what I’m reading and predicting what is going to be happening next.  After reading this chapter I am pleased to note that is exactly what should be happening.  The goal of a whole-class read aloud is to demonstrate and discuss, fluency, the author’s craft, how to figure out vocabulary, character motivation and behavior, confirm predictions and vocabulary, how to read nonfiction, how texts work, summarizing, predicting, asking questions, making connections, inferring, learning new information and to enjoy reading.

Below is a framework for shared read-alouds for all grades:

Teacher:

·         Selects engaging unfamiliar nonfiction or fictional text.

·         Chooses appropriate points which to stop and discuss what is read.

·         Makes transparencies or copies of the pages for students to follow along.

·         Provides an introduction: discusses the cover, does a picture walk, makes predictions.

·         Reads aloud in an expressive voice.

·         Highlights features of text.

·         Poses questions for discussion.

·         Demonstrates his or her thinking while reading.

·         Observes student’s responses and behavior and determines next steps.

Students:

·         Read the text silently or orally along with the teacher.

·         Learn to give and take in small-group discussions.

·         Listens to and talks with one another about the story.

·         Think about what’s happening in the text or story.

·         Respond orally as a class after talking in small groups.

Text

·         Is highly engaging, informative, entertaining.

·         Is close to the reading level of the majority of students.

·         Is visible to all students.

·         Contains elements that support fluent reading.

·         Connects to students’ interests, needs, culture, and curriculum.

·         May connect to other texts.

·         Lends itself to high-level thinking and comprehension.

Purposes

·         Engages students through participation, not just listening.

·         Gives all students a chance to be successful.

·         Gets students thinking about what’s happening in the story.

·         Confirms or invalidates thinking.

·         Demonstrates how reading words-the skills, strategies, and behavior of good readers.

·         Makes reading an enjoyable experience.

Advantages

·         Goes beyond listening to read aloud or following a text visually.

·         Encourages all the voices to be heard.

·         Moves at a brisk paced that helps students stay engaged and focused.

·         Provides lots of teaching and practice in a short period of time.

·         Can be used effectively for teaching and learning across the curriculum.

·         Is a good prelude to small-group literature conversations.

·         Raises expectations for what’s possible for students to do.

·         Builds confidence and competence in struggling readers.

The book goes on with an example of a shared read aloud.  Routman began with setting the purpose, and giving students the background knowledge they need to understand.  She then stops to check comprehension and allow time for small group discussion.  She continues to read and stops to ask where in the reading and find an answer to the question.  Reading continues and the students are stopped to predict, and so forth.  The teacher stops and makes comments of her own, confirms her predictions  and models other methods of comprehension.

Teach Comprehension

In recent years there has been a strong push for a return to phonics in the classroom.  Teachers are now concentrating on having students decode words.  We are creating a generation of decoders who can read words, but they cannot necessarily understand what they are reading. 

Strategies which proficient readers exhibit include:

·         Making connections within this text, to another text, from known information to new information, to your life and to the world.

·         Monitoring your reading for meaning.

·         Determining what’s most important in the story, distinguishing main ideas from details.

·         Visualizing the story.

·         Asking questions.

·         Making inferences, predicting, wondering and assessing what’s going on.

·         Synthesize and applying new knowledge to what is known and generating new ideas.

When teaching reading comprehension strategies, do not just teach the strategy, but teach students how to use the strategies.  Routman states, on average students need 20 percent of the classroom time on explicit strategy instruction and 80 percent on applying the strategy.  Effective strategy is developing readers who can monitor and regulate comprehension through predicting, questioning, creating images, seeking clarification and constructing summaries.

Know What You Do As a Reader

Take an article or passage that you have been reading and read it.  Identify what you took away from the reading of the article.  Notice and write down the strategies you used to help you comprehend as you read the text.  With a partner or a small group talk about what you found.  Listed below is a list of strategies which you may have used:

·         Reread (This is always the most frequently mentioned strategy.)

·         Highlight

·         Write comments or questions in the margins.

·         Survey the first paragraph, the first pages to get an idea of what will be mentioned.

·         Connect to past experiences or prior knowledge in order to understand ideas or figure out vocabulary.

·         Monitor your reading (adjust pace, pause and think, subvocalize, read aloud, talk to yourself).

Take what you just learned about your own reading comprehension and model it for your students.  Students and especially struggling students are more likely to increase their reading comprehension when we show them how to comprehend what they are reading.

Teach Rereading as the Single Most Useful Strategy

To do this:

·         Read aloud a short but challenging piece of nonfiction.  Retell what you read in front of the students.  Reread the piece, retell it again and rate your comprehension.  The students will witness your comprehension increasing. 

·         During shared reading and writing as well as during guided reading, demonstrate how you reread to monitor and maintain comprehension.

·         Model rereading with a partner.  Encourage partners to ask a peer to reread when meaning is lost.

·         Demonstrate how you reread charts, graphs and captions to improve comprehension of a text.

Teach Self-Monitoring as Crucial to Understanding

Have students ask themselves, does this make sense? Does this sound like language?  Do I know what is happening?

Provide students opportunities for students to talk with others about what they read through interactive reading, shared reading, and literacy conversations.  Ensure that students and not the teacher are doing a majority of the talking and model what conversations about text sound like.

Make Assessment Instruction’s Working Partner

As a current teacher in the classroom sometimes it feels like all we do is assess our students.  In my classroom we currently use our reading series placement assessment, the DIBEL’s Assessment, and MAPs.  It’s a wonder we even have time for instruction.  However, if we do not use the assessments to change instruction it is no good to us.  In the previous blogs I have written about the benefits of independent reading to both proficient and struggling readers, but it is the way an independent reading program is set up with an excellent classroom library and assessments by teachers of the reading program that define its success.

As you analyze your classroom assessments ask yourself the following questions about the assessments:

·         Is this a valid and useful assessment for this student, for the curriculum and standards, to inform my teaching and to share with students?

·         How am I using this assessment to note and celebrate the student’s strengths, to build on those strengths, to note weakness, to inform and determine instruction?

·         What goals am I setting for myself, the student and with the student?

·         Who else do I need to inform, the principal, parents, support personnel?

Make assessment and evaluations part of the daily routine.  This can be done through conferences, shared writing, shared reading or word work.  In this way lessons can be adjusted to meet the interests and needs of the students.  Regularly evaluate students regarding the texts they are reading during independent reading time.  Do this in an informal manner and with all students.  During the conference make sure the student has his or her book with them at the conference.  Questions to ask during the conference are:

With fiction:

·         What’s the problem in the story so far?

·         What’s the main character like?

·         Tell me about the setting, where the story is taking place.

·         What’s your favorite part so far?

·         What’s happening in the story right now?

With nonfiction:

·         What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned so far?

·         What’s your favorite part?

·         What else are you hoping to learn?

·         How is this book organized?

Answer to these questions will help you figure out whether or not the student understands the book.

Child-Friendly Read Goals

·         Reread when meaning is unclear, when something doesn’t make sense.

·         Think about what you are reading and what’s happening.

·         Make sure you can decode and understand the words in the books you select.

·         Think about why characters act and behave the way they do.

·         Make connections to your life and what you already know to help you understand the story.

·         Read in your mind. Don’t move your lips.

·         Make a picture in your mind to help you understand.

·         Try reading in another genre.

·         Read more, at least thirty minutes a day at home, plus thirty minutes in school.

·         When you don’t know what a word means, use surrounding words or read the next sentence or two to help you figure it out.

·         Use the pictures (graphs, charts, visual aids) to help you get meaning.

·         Other goals may include, read in a specific genre, become familiar with specific authors, or increase vocabulary.

·         For younger students add goals related to handling books, understanding concepts of print and use phonics strategies and other cueing systems.

Teach intentionally to the state standards.  For example, if part of the state standard for student to be able to use and understand the main idea or essential message of a story ask them “What is the main idea or essential message of the story?”

Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading

As we have reached a time in education where there is such an emphasis on standardized test scores many teachers have come to a point where there is so much focus on guided reading and using a structured reading program and activities and little time is actually spent on students practicing what they are learning, which is to read.  As with anything that we want to be good at we must practice and teachers need to allow 20-30 minutes per day for students to practice reading independently. 

Independent reading as we will talk about today does not mean allowing students to choose any book of their liking and then read or pretend they are reading without being closely monitored by the teacher.  Teachers must plan for and monitor students reading throughout the independent reading time.  This varies from silent sustained reading in that in independent reading a students are allowed to choose any book to read, but teacher may guide selection.  Students are reading 30 minutes or more versus 10-30 minutes in a silent sustained reading program.  In an independent reading program there is an excellent classroom library.  Students are reading mostly “just-right” books, teacher monitors comprehension, student keeps a reading record, teaching occurs during a conference and the teacher and student set reading goals.

Connect what students are reading with teaching and evaluating.  As students are reading ensure students are:

·         Matched with a book (or other reading material) they can read and understand.

·         Reading a text they enjoy.

·         Practicing and trying out strategies that have been demonstrated and working on in class.

·         Being monitored, assessed, and evaluated on the books they are reading.

·         Being taught strategies and how to apply them to problems solve and read independently.

·         Setting and working on goals to further improve their reading comprehension.

Occasionally, you may want to direct independent reading by offering and then following up and evaluating the following examples:

·         Try using the strategy we’ve been working on.

·         Notice how your character is behaving and what makes him behave that way (for fiction).

·         Visualize a setting the author describes.

·         Make a connection to your life.

·         Be on the lookout for a strong chapter lead- an enticing beginning.

·         Reread when you lose meaning.

·         Use what you already know to figure out what words mean.

·         Note how an illustration or visual helps your understanding.

Use structured partner reading as part of an independent reading program.  By participating in partner reading, students become less dependent on the teacher.   Partner reading increases reader involvement, attention and collaboration.  Model with another student what partner reading looks like and great guidelines such as:

·         The reader holds the book.

·         Sit close enough so both partners can see the words.

·         Take turns reading.

·         Go back and reread if you don’t understand.

·         Turn and talk.

·         Problem solve with your partner.

·         If your partner is stuck on a word:

o   Give your partner time to think

o   Go back and reread.

o   Read past the work and come back.

o   Slide through it.

o   Put in what makes sense.

o   Sound it out with your partner.

o   Look at the pictures.

o   Ask if they would like your help.

o   Tell your partner what the word is.

·         Enjoy Reading!

Also, create with your students criteria for “just-right” books.  A “just-right” book for 1^st grade may be the following:

·         I like it.

·         I can read most of it.

·         I can understand it and tell someone what it’s about.

A “just-right” book for a grade 4-5 class may be the following:

·         It’s interesting; you like it!

o   The title is appealing.

o   You know and like the author.

·         You are comfortable reading!

o   The print is the right size.

o   You like the illustrations.

o   Some places are smooth; some are choppy.

·         You can read it!

o   You understand the plot and can predict.

o   You can tell others what it is about.

o   There are only a few words per page you don’t know.