The Summer Slide- Reading and Math

While we are looking forward to summer, it can be a bit disheartening to think about all of the hard work we've poured into helping our students make gains slip away with each day of summer. So let's talk today about how we can set students up to begin their next grade level as close as possible to where the left the last.

While researching the summer slide, I came across some interesting statics.

• Income level makes an impact on how much is lost over the summer
•  Middle and low income students lose about 2 1/2 months of math skills over the summer because both groups are equally unlikely to practice math at home
• While low income students lose about three months of reading, middle income students actually make slight gains in the summer months

With that information in mind, it is necessary to stress to parents the importance of practicing both reading and math over the summer months.

Here are a couple of ideas to share with parents to make integrating reading and math practice fairly painless in June and July.

• bedtimemath.org is a website that has a nightly riddle with questions at various levels (wee ones, little kids, and big kids) so the entire family can participate. The site also includes resources for teachers, parents, libraries and volunteers.
• You know kids are going to be watching some TV over the summer, but turn it into reading practice by turning the sound off and the closed captioning on. 
• Cook together! Children can write the grocery list and read the recipe (in a book or on the box) to help their families with meals.
• Give each student a stamped/addressed (use the school address) postcard or envelope. Encourage them to write to you about how their summer is going. 
• Or ask for a weekly email update on how summer is moving along. 
• Check in on students with Study Island. Since they will have access over the summer, they will be able to work on both math and reading. Give a prize when school is back in session for the student that spent the most time on the island over the summer.

Small things make a big difference. Reading just 4-6 books over the summer helps to prevent the summer reading decline. One of the biggest things to stress to parents is that giving children time to read and letting their children see them read is a powerful motivator.

What other ideas have you used with students in the past to keep them off the summer slide?

Sources:

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/summerslide

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/get-ready-summer-ideas-teachers-share-families

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/summer-loss

What I'm Reading Wednesday: Ways with Words

I have a stack of books that I bought for a college course that I never ended up taking. So in an attempt to not let that money go to waste, I've decided to wade my way through them. I am starting with Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms by Shirley Brice Heath. Originally published in 1983, my copy is from the 18th printing in 2009.

From the back cover:

Ways with Words is a classic study of children learning to use language at home and at school in two communities only a few miles apart in the south-eastern United States. 'Roadville' is a white working-class community of families steeped for generations in the life of textile mills; 'Trackton' is an African-American working-class community whose older generations grew up farming the land, but whose existent members work in the mills. In tracing the children's language development the author shows the deep cultural differences between the two communities, whose ways with words differ as strikingly from each other as either does from the pattern of the townspeople, the 'mainstream' blacks and whites who hold power in the schools and workplaces of the region. Employing the combined skills of ethnographer, social historian, and teacher, the author raises fundamental questions about the nature of language development, the effects of literacy on oral language habits, and the sources of communication problems in schools and workplaces.

I'm about a third of the way through and have already learned quite a bit.  It is interesting to see the contrast between how the two communities view language, education, and child development. I enjoy the perspectives into each communities' point of view Heath provides through interviews with individual community members.

Some interesting things from the chapters on how the children of Trackton and Roadville learn to talk:

• In Trackton, children are not seen as sources of information, so generally, they are not asked questions. The exception would be "What do you want?" type of questions.
• Children from Trackton had difficulty when Heath asked how and why questions because they had almost no experience with those types of questions.
• When children in Trackton began to "babble," adults did not assign meaning to the utterances. For example, if a child said "da da da," the adults did not proclaim "Peanut just said daddy!!" as would likely happen in a Roadville home.
• Babies in Roadville are spoken to in "baby voices" from the start. Usually when being spoken to in a baby voice, the adult doing the speaking is attempting to convey a message to another adult in the room. For example, a grandmother might say "Bobby, it your tum-tum empty? Your momma need to give you a wittle bottle?" While she's saying this to the baby, she clearly is trying to tell the mother to feed her child.

The first few chapters of this book read a bit like a history book, as the backgrounds of the towns and people are recounted in a narrative style. At first, it was a bit confusing to keep all of the "characters" straight because so many are introduced. But, just as with most books, the deeper I have gotten into it, the more invested I become and am able to keep the stories straight.

It is interesting to me that a book first published in the 80's about two communities in the 60's and 70's was assigned in a class taking place in 2012.  But the further I get into the book, the more relevant it seems. If nothing else, it is a reminder that we (and our students) don't all learn language the same way- everything from the perspective of our parents to the values of our community and culture can play a role in language development.

I excited to get to the chapters about school to see how the different language development effects student learning and views of education.

Who else has read Ways with Words? Any thoughts?

Phonemic Awareness vs. Phonics

I think the only people that know how to pronounce phonemic awareness are elementary school teachers and education professors. Well, probably those in the speech and language field, as well. But definitely not a lay person. And even fewer of the people within these groups know what phonemic awareness is- speaking from experience as someone who couldn't have explained the difference between the two up until a few years ago.

So, what is phonemic awareness? And how does it compare to phonics? Let's explore what these are, why kids need them, and how to develop them.

Here is a quick breakdown of the two:

So, phonemic awareness has to do with what students hear.  And you can bet that if a kindergartner or first grader cannot segment and blend sounds, they will struggle with learning to read. Some activities to promote phonemic awareness are:

• Rhyming activities! Here is a great site with a lot of simple rhymes you can do with your students whole group, small group, or individually. Poetry and nursery rhymes are a great resource for rhyming activities.
• Segment syllables and words. FCRR has great games for segmenting sentences, syllables, and words- whichever fits your students' needs.
• Distinguish between different sounds. This Reading Rockets article has a progression of phonemic awareness activities- from distinguishing sounds to rhyming and then breaking down the syllables and phonemes of a word.

Once students are phonemically aware (do you think that is a real phrase? Phonemically aware...), then we can bring phonics into the mix. That means students need to start recognizing the relationship between the sounds they hear and the letters they see. Phonics is a foundational reading skill that researchers have found should be taught directly and explicitly through a variety of practice activities in order to reach students with various learning styles. Here are some resources for phonics activities:

• Ten Simple Phonics Activities Requiring Little Preparation
• How to Match Books to Phonics Features
• Phonics activities from FCRR

TL; DR- Phonemic Awareness is sounds you hear, phonics is connecting sounds to print. 

What are some engaging activities you do with your students to promote phonemic awareness or teach phonics?

Spotlight On: Motivating Readers with Goal Setting

Several of our teams chose goal setting as a grade level priority for the 2014-2015 school year. AVID training provided a framework for students to set SMART goals for academic and extracurricular goals. To piggyback the previous post on Independent Reading, I thought I would summarize and review an article in the latest issue of The Reading Teacher that focused on motivating readers through setting and attaining personal reading goals. I was pretty excited because the teacher they work with in the article is from my hometown…I didn't know her, which was shocking due to the fact that I come from a tiny Indiana town. But I digress.

Let’s quickly review the benefits that research has revealed about setting goals:

• ·      Goals enhance motivation
• ·         Goals improve performance
• ·         Goals have an energizing result and have an effect on persistence

Of course, goals must have guidelines to be most effective. While AVID goals are SMART (specific, measurable, action-oriented, reasonable and timely), the reading goals in the article focused on specificity, proximity, and difficulty. Keeping these three attributes in mind is important when beginning to set goals with students, adding in measurable and action-oriented as you and your students become more comfortable with the process.

Kid friendly definitions of goal setting attributes (Cabral-Marquez, 215)

Guiding Students in Setting Goals

Since goal setting has been found to be most effective when some level of autonomy exists, Independent Reading is the perfect place to put reading goals in action as it provides a time for students to have a choice in what they read. Not surprisingly, students must be taught how to set goals. Below you will find an example of a procedure for teaching goal setting to students (Cabral-Marquez, 2015).

1. Ask students if they have a goal they would like to achieve.
2. If necessary, provide some examples of personal goals (i.e. rearrange bookshelves in the classroom, be more physically active, obtain a degree)
3. Explain that some goals are achieved in a short time while others take longer. Rearranging the classroom bookshelves can take a few hours, getting in shape for a race will take a few months, and obtaining a college degree takes a few years.
4. Ask students how long they think their goal will take to attain.
5. Explain that some goals can be more difficult than others. Organizing the bookshelf is easy, running a race is challenging, but obtainable...though taking more steps than a certain 2nd grade teacher in a day is nearly impossible.
6. Ask students to evaluate the difficulty of their goals.
7. Explain that goals can be general or specific. A general goal would be to get in good physical shape, while a more specific goal would be to walk 10,000 steps a day.
8. Ask students to think of one personal reading goal and the characteristics described. Goals should be specific, challenging but achievable, and attainable in a maximum of two weeks.
9. After allowing time for students to think of a personal reading goal, ask some to share.
10. Have students set four personal reading goals that meet the characteristics discussed. 
11. Conclude by having students share their goals and allowing the rest of the class to provide feedback on how the goals meet the criteria for specificity, proximity, and difficulty.

Here are some samples of reading goals for students to set: 

Cabral-Marquez 2015

Helping Students Meet Their Goals

In order to keep students on track to meet their goals, it is essential to have regular meetings to check up on their progress.  Think about starting with an initial conference to ensure the student's goals are specific, timely and attainable. Talk with students about the goal they would like to work on first, and assist them in securing the resources they will need to be successful.

Besides the initial conference, meet with students on a regular (every two weeks or so) basis to review, revise (if necessary), update, and track progress of the goals. These meetings should be brief. The intention is help students maintain focus, ensure the goal is a good fit, and assist with materials. 

I know- TIME! It would be ideal if these conferences were held one on one, but I wouldn't be shy about meeting with small groups. If you announce to everyone you know that you are going to run a marathon, you better do it. Same with reading goals- making them somewhat public has self-reinforcing effects.

How have you been successful with keeping your students motivated to read? Any success stories or strategies?

Source: Cabral-Marquez, C. (2015) "Motivating Readers: Helping Students Set and Attain Personal Reading Goals" The Reading Teacher (68:6). Pages 464-472.

Independent...Not Solitary...Reading

Who's up for some Balanced Literacy talk? As the district begins plans to roll out some training, I thought I would go ahead and do some Balanced Literacy Blogging. First up (because it is the piece I am in charge of and researching...) Independent Reading!

Don't be fooled by the word Independent! This important component of Balanced Literacy requires the teacher in order to be successful. Ready for the breakdown?

Why Independent Reading? 

Research has shown over and over that the more a child reads, the better they will be at reading. Providing a block of time for students to practice reading will help them become better readers.

When should Independent Reading take place?

After a mini-lesson, in which students are given a purpose and the teacher has modeled the expectations (be it a ritual/routine, reading strategy, etc.).

What are the important elements of Independent Reading?

• Choice in text selection: Studies have shown that students who are able to select their own reading material are more motivated to read and engaged in reading 
• On level reading material: Students who are practicing in books that are too hard or too easy do not show the same gains as those who read on level texts.
• Independent from adult assistance with solving reading problems: This is an opportunity for students to test their wings with reading.
• Accountability: Students can keep reading logs, participate in book talks, or write about the strategies they used during independent reading.

How do I support my students during Independent Reading?

Despite the title "Independent Reading," teachers play a very important, hands on role. 

• Choice: While students should have choice when it comes to book selection, they must be taught HOW to pick just right books. In addition, teachers should encourage/require students to read from a variety of genres and provide suggestions.
• Behavior Support: Teachers should explicitly teach what Independent Reading should look and sound like- from choosing a reading spot to monitoring comprehension and even what they should do if they need to use the restroom.
• Conferring: Listen to individuals read to ensure they chose an appropriate leveled text, have conversations about the text and what it means, make note of how students solve reading problems, and discuss the student's goals and growth as a reader.

Check out these resources for further Independent Reading support:

Lesson Plan: Choosing the Right Book-Strategies for Beginning Readers

Article: Independent Reading

Professional Book Chapter: Plan for and Monitor Independent Reading

What are some strategies you have for keeping students engaged and motivated during Independent Reading? 

What's Your Number?

I recently stumbled upon this list of the 100 books everyone should read before they die.

It was fun to look through the list to see which I had read (The Thorn Birds, The Time Traveler's Wife), which I will probably never read (The Hobbit, The Odyssey), and which to add to my summer reading list (The Poisonwood  Bible, The Handmaid's Tale).  My total number is 61/100.

What's your number??

Challenge Accepted: Science in the Literacy Block

There is not enough time in the day to teach every subject with the rigor and fidelity that is expected. So what are classroom teachers to do?? That's right- integrate. Integrating Science and Social Studies into the literacy block can be a challenge. Luckily, The Reading Teacher once again came to the rescue with an article titled Instructional Challenges in Developing Young Children's Science Concepts: Using Informational Text Read Alouds (Hoffman, Collins, Schickedanz, 2015).  In the article, the authors discussed why informational text is more appropriate to use during the read aloud, and four guiding principles/practical challenges for teaching science concepts in read alouds.

First off, why not use narrative texts? I found their explanation interesting. The point of narrative texts are to relate to human experience. The focus is on character thoughts and emotions, events and plot, which just does not mesh with teaching scientific concepts.  If the focus is on the scientific concept, comprehension of the story breaks down.  Without understanding the story, students cannot fully grasp the scientific concept. In addition, narratives rarely provide enough information about the science concept to fully teach it to the students. Informational texts, on the other hand, are suited well for science concepts since their main purpose is to relay information. For the record, I'm not saying "never use narratives to teach science or social studies concepts..." I'm just relaying the authors' ideas. ;)

When choosing informational texts, don't do it willy nilly. The authors suggest the following four guiding principles.

Select high quality informational texts.

Supporting Informational Text Literacies- teachers should intentionally and skillfully guide students' understanding through discussion...and stay focused on the science concept. This is done through identifying:

• Vocabulary integral to understanding key concepts
• Areas of the text difficult to comprehend due to content or language segments
• Text structures and how they will affect comprehension
• Text features and how they will affect comprehension
• Discussion, discussion, discussion to guide students' understanding

Connections to the Content Area Curriculum- informational text should complement hands-on science investigations and not be a replacement for these experiences. Also, no need to read an entire text to explain a concept- feel free to focus on just the parts of the text that apply to the what you are teaching.

Teacher's Conceptual Knowledge. Obviously, the more the teacher knows about the concept, the better she will be able to teach it. The authors suggest building your background knowledge by reading books on the subject, watching documentaries, visiting science exhibits, talking to local experts, and creating hands-on experiments for yourself...you know, in all your spare time.

My take aways? While some of these seem like common sense (ahem, teacher's conceptual knowledge and choosing high quality text), I appreciated the author's breakdown for picking high quality text. Also, I like the point that the books should complement the hands-on projects being completed in science class. You cannot rely on text alone to teach the concepts if you want students to really have a deep understanding.

How have you been integrating science and social studies into your literacy block? Any tips? Struggles? 

Read the Most Day

Friday, February 27th is Renaissance Learning's 4th Annual Read the Most Coast to Coast. Tweet @teamAR360 with the hashtag RTM2015 to have the books being read in your classroom included in the live ticker featured on their website.

What are you reading today? I just started The Girl Who Came Home, an historical fiction novel about a survivor of the Titanic.

Spotlight On: Close Reading

All the buzz this year is about "Close Reading." Students are expected to read and reread a text closely in order to go beyond surface level understanding and deeply analyze different aspects of the text, including vocabulary, tone, word choice, and levels of meaning over multiple instructional lessons. And teachers are supposed to be doing this with even our youngest readers. Yikes!

This week we will take a close look at close reading- how to scaffold and what to do when students just aren't getting it. Strategies and ideas are all adapted from Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey's article "Contingency Teaching During Close Reading" in the December/January 2014/15 issue of The Reading Teacher.

Let's start with scaffolds teachers can use with students during close reads.

• Repeated Reading: In order to maintain student engagement during a second and third reading of the same text, it is important to give students a new purpose for reading, or ask new questions. Students can also reread to provide evidence to an answer. Awesome side effect? Improved reading fluency through repeated reads.
• Text Dependent Questions: Teachers should have A LOT of questions on the ready, even though they won't all be used. Think of the following levels of complexity when composing questions- What does the text say? How does the text work? What does the text mean?

Text Dependent Questions (based on the book Tops and Bottoms).

• Collaborative Conversations: Close readings should not be silent or independent. They are a great opportunity for students to voice their ideas, provide evidence, learn from others, and take ownership of the content. 

• Annotations: Students should write annotations that relate to the central idea or confusing parts. They can include questions, summaries, or inferences in their own words. This is even possible when students are reading text on a tablet with the help of an app called "Skitch."

So you've done all this wonderful scaffolding and your students still just aren't getting it. Here are a couple of contingency plans that teachers have found to be effective when these breakdowns occur.

• Re-establish the purpose: For those times when students are on a tangent or get caught up on an issue they can't resolve, remind students of the purpose or question of this particular reading. Students (and teachers) sometimes tend to do too much with a reading, and re-establishing the purpose helps keep everyone focused on the day's task.
• Analyzing Questions: Clear up the confusion by reminding students to think of the QAR strategy to determine if the question is Right There, Think and Search, You and the Author, or On Your Own. Analyzing the question has been proven to be an effective strategy, so it definitely has a place in cold reads.
• Prompting and Cueing: Instead of telling students what you're thinking, use prompts and cues to get them back on track.

• Modeling: Many of us are familiar with modeling our thinking BEFORE setting students out to work on their own, but modeling can also be effective during the close reading lesson.  Here are a couple of modeling strategies:
• Model that which is difficult for the students
• Model ways to resolve problems
• Model how you interact with the text
• Analyzing Annotations: It is ok to stop the lesson, collect text, and analyze annotations to figure out the students' breakdown in thinking. After analyzing the annotations, a new instructional plan can be put in place to address the difficulties or misconceptions of the students.

So, how have close readings been going in your classroom? Have you had success with any of the above mentioned scaffolding or contingency strategies? Or are there other strategies that you have found to be more effective? Let us know in the comments!

Want to dig deeper? Check out these resources:

• Lesson Plan: Amelia Bedelia Up Close! Closely reading a classic story 
• Video: 4th Grade Close Read
• Video: The Omnivore's Dilemma- Close Reading of a Nonfiction Text (5th grade)
• Blog: Examples of Close Reading Questions