The Reading Strategies Book Online Book Club: Chapter 5

 I am so excited to have guest, Jenny Gribble facilitating and sharing information on Goal 5!!  Please be sure to respond to Goal 5 in the comments section below the post!

Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction

  Weak comprehension is an issue that is older than I am,,,ha!  I love, love, love how Jennifer focuses, by level, on developing comprehension.  I so wish I had the strategies she offers YEARS ago.  I am excited to use this book to help support teachers in consistently supporting comprehension strategies throughout all grades.  I really believe that we teach comprehension strategies in a way that we feel like the students have it.  We model during read alouds and we plan vocabulary focuses for guided reading. 

  What I feel we are not doing a good enough job with is teaching the students how to think for themselves so that, when support is not provided, they have the skills to do the monitoring and not just call words.  The old quote “You have to learn to read before you can read to learn” has crippled us in a way because that is how many readers develop but they struggle when it is time for them to comprehend on the level that is required on the EOG.     

    I really like how all of Jennifer’s strategies focus on teaching the reader that it is their job to recognize when something is not making sense to them and how to independently work on it!  My favorites are 5.1 Lean on the Pictures and 5.4 Uh-oh…Phew for the lower levels.  Really love 5.24 FQR for higher levels because it tells students to jot down questions when things are confusing and encourages them to use the text to make sense of things!  

  My plan is to work with teachers on think alouds in all grades to support constructing meaning from the text.  This needs to occur before, during and after reading with individuals, small groups and whole class.  The point is to slow down the reading process to allow for monitoring and a deeper understanding of the text.  

Here is a great link to Think Alouds by Reading Rockets:

http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds

The Reading Strategies Book Online Book Club: Chapter 4

I am so excited to have guest, Christy Mattison, facilitating and sharing information on Goal 4!!!  Please be sure to respond to Goal 4 in the comments section below.

Goal 4: Teaching Fluency Reading with Phrasing, Intonation, and Automaticity

 This goal is all about fluency! One "ah ha moment" that I had was that it is possible to be a fluent reader and not comprehend. I love this quote, “It’s important that in our attempts to teach children to read fluently, we don’t send the message that reading is just about performing.” I think we often time tell students to read it smooth, but are we prompting them to read it smooth and understand it? 

I liked the breakdown of the parts of reading fluency.  I feel like I need to focus more on expression and emphasis.   I think my “go to” prompts are always for phrasing, automaticity, and pace.

I also liked that she clarifies that students working in levels A-C will not be reading fluently. She suggests beginning to look for pacing around level D, phrasing and intonation in levels E-G.

She cautioned getting students to read with stop watches. This made me think about our Dibels measures and how they focus on “fluency”. 

She recommends documenting fluency during a running record.  (mark pauses with a slash mark)

Here are some of the lessons that I really liked:

Partners Help to Smooth it Out

I love the idea of being a “ghost partner”. Many students do not know how to give positive feedback. This way the teacher can help guide students’ language when giving feedback. 

Warm-Up Phrases

This made me think about something that our CARE teachers shared with me from a Jenn Jones conference. After students have mastered reading one word fast, she moves to phrases. They use index cards, punch 2 holes in the cards, and flip through the cards while the student reads them.  Here is an example of some possible phrases. 

So, when thinking about fluency, what ways do you help students with fluency?

The Reading Strategies Book Online Book Club: Chapter 3

I am so excited to have guest, Lindsay Pahe, facilitating and sharing information on Goal 3!!!  Please be sure to respond to Goal 3 in the comments section following her post.

Goal 3: Supporting Print Work

I have to say that this has been my favorite goal so far. Maybe because I’m a running record nerd who loves taking them, analyzing them, and using them to teach my students based on their specific needs. Maybe it’s because I’m so passionate about trying to get other teachers to see how important this is and what a difference it can make for our young readers!!! Maybe it’s because I felt like she was speaking my language with terms like self-extending system, running records, cross checking, and three sources of information. On top of that she is continuously referring to Clay’s work, which lets me know this author is one smart chick. Yes, I do believe that makes me a literacy nerd!!

This goal starts out by stating what we all know to be true: “In order to construct accurate meaning from a text, children need to read words correctly, integrating 3 sources of information: meaning, syntax, and visual. We all know that just how IMPORTANT it is for our readers. I sometimes get frustrated with other folks who don’t put enough emphasis on something that is so basic, yet so IMPORTANT.

Jennifer goes on to say “Sometimes, as children are learning to read, they overemphasize on one or two of the sources of information or use each inconsistently. This affects their accuracy rate and often ultimately limits their comprehension of the text”. I think we all see this when we are using one of the sources as part of a teaching prompt. It’s easy to get caught up in “makes sense, makes sense, makes sense” and forget to emphasize “makes sense AND looks right”. Our students then become more focused on the source that we are emphasizing and this results in the overemphasis of one or two of the sources. Reading this sentence confirms what we already know but also reminds us how important it is to emphasize a balance for our students so that they will use all three sources together and independently. It also reminds us that in order for our students to reach the ultimate goal of reading (comprehension) we must emphasize all 3 sources equally.  I love how she refers to it as juggling 3 balls in the air. How true is that – if you are juggling you are always using ALL of them and you can’t stop to just use one.

Serravallo also points out that the strategies in this chapter are best taught in combination with a systematic word study/phonics program and reiterates that “isolated phonics skill work without the application in books is show to be of limited effectiveness”. Again, a reminder that balance is key.

 While I could go on and on probably about most strategies in this chapter I will try to limit myself to 2. 

The first one I will talk about is 3.1: Check the Picture for Help. 

I think this is something we all encourage our students to do when we tell them to check their picture first and then keep their eyes on the words. What stood out to me here was that Serravallo really limited checking the picture for help to 2 levels: A and B. She says that “for children reading at level C and beyond, this is an important strategy to balance with explicit strategies to decode the print”. I think that it is important for us to remember that some strategies are a better fit for certain levels and in this particular example, starting at Level C students need to do more than just check the picture to be successful.

I think what I love most about 3.10: Juggle all Three Balls is the chart provided.

 I’m definitely going to create an anchor chart just like this. I love the language here where Jennifer says “When you get to a tricky word you don’t know, it’s important that you do more than just try to sound the word out”. Exactly! You have to be thinking about what makes sense, sounds right, and looks right – WAAAAYY more effective!!

QUESTION: So, as you were reading this chapter what really got you excited?? What specific lesson language and/or prompts did you read about that you can try to incorporate more effectively? 

The Reading Strategies Book Online Book Club: Chapter 2

GOAL 2: Teaching Reading Engagement

WOW!!! That is all I could say when I read that first paragraph for Goal 2. Did you feel that way too?

Jennifer states, "You could be the most eloquent teacher, the best strategy group facilitator, the most insightful conferrer. But if you send your kids back for independent reading and they don't read, then they won't make the progress you are hoping and working for. To put it another way, 'Without engagement, we've got nothing'" (pg 44). 

I immediately thought about teachers who "teach" Read to Self in Daily 5 and complain about their kids just sitting there, looking around, playing with fuzz balls on the rug etc. Hmmmm! Maybe this isn't you, but how many times 

have you felt like beating your head against the wall because you have analyzed assessments, differentiated instruction, delivered awesome lessons, but then BAM... some of your students don't progress like you thought they would? Well then maybe reading engagement is the missing link!!!

I really like the idea that Jennifer says that students are likely more engaged readers if they are interacting with others. Think about yourself. Don't you find that when you read something, but then have the opportunity to talk about it, you walk away with a better understanding OR new ideas to think about and ponder? The first two ideas that came to my mind regarding interacting with others were the following:

2) Literature Circles

1) Daily Five's "Read to Someone"  

I know many teachers often delay or take out "Read to Someone" in their Daily 5 rotations fearing that students will not be on task. However, are we missing the boat? Shouldn't we be teaching mini lessons to address that issue if indeed it is happening in the classroom? Are we selling students short?

I attended a session at CSI on Literature Circles and revisiting this topic made me also realize the power in discussion of the text...yes a conversation...not merely assigning roles to students and reading off the information you found that matched their role.

So we know the importance of engagement, and we know that interactive with others can be beneficial, but you may have been wondering what other strategies you can use to reach this goal!

Boy was I excited when I saw this goal and so many great strategies that Jennifer discusses, 27 to be exact, to help us foster reading engagement with our students!  The hard part was selecting just a few to discuss here. I think they all ROCK but these really stuck out to me!

2.1 A Perfect Reading Spot

This sounds so simple, yet do we really assist students with finding their "best" reading spot to focus and engage with text? I love the anchor chart that Jennifer provides because I know I am guilty of not taking several factors into consideration like the lighting or the type of surface. I typically only think about noise level and which classmates around them who may be distracting. One thing I never really put too much thought into was different spots for different genres. Though Jennifer doesn't really address this, this strategy made me think about how I choose different places to read depending on the purpose or genre. For example, if I am reading a fiction novel for mere enjoyment, I may read in my bed with dim light or in the sun beside the pool. If I am reading non-fiction, I am often sitting more upright at a table, especially if I am intently trying to learn something. I think it is our responsibility to help students find their best reading spot(s) to focus and become engaged with the text!



2.14 Track Progress on a Stamina Chart

I love the use of the stamina chart as long as students feel ownership and value it's importance. When teachers first began Daily 5 at the school where I teach, I can remember the disbelief when their students (even in kindergarten) began building their stamina while reading independently. Having the chart as a visual really seemed to help students (and teachers!) get an idea of their current level of reading engagement as well as to help set goals. I also like how Jennifer cautions teachers about helping students recognize the value of building stamina but without making the task seem like a "chore". 


2.17 Visualize to Focus + 2.27 Hear the Story

After reading about these 2 strategies, I felt how closely they related. When students read, you want them to really see and hear what is happening in the story. Jennifer even talks about using  all of your senses so that you can see the characters, hear their voices and states, "Creating a picture in your mind that shifts and changes is essential to staying focused" (pg 64). That word ESSENTIAL is really sticking out to me! I am the first one to plead guilty for not spending time to teach students how to visualize and tap into all of their senses. You and I do it naturally but not everyone knows how to do this. We've got to help them begin to see these pictures in their minds. 

2.16 Choose Books with Your Identify in Mind

I love this strategy and what's even better is seeing Jennifer actually show how this works. A couple of weeks ago, a quick video clip showed Jenn working with a small group of students...all whom seemed to be having difficulty with reading engagement and finding "just right" books. And the "just right" books didn't merely mean a book at the student's instructional reading level. It also meant a book or genre that the student was interested in, and determining what made that text interesting. 

Boy I could go on and on about the wonderful strategies that Jenn shares. There is one strategy that I wasn't quite sure about and would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. This is 2.11 Purposes for Reading: Go/Stop Mat. PLEASE SHARE on the Book Buddies Post :) I can't wait to hear all of your ideas about this chapter, goal and strategies!!!

The Reading Strategies Book Online Book Club: Chapter 1

Hello Book Buddies! I am excited about the start of our online book study of Jennifer Serravallo's The Reading Strategies Book. If you haven't checked out the preview/introduction post, you can find it on the Book Buddies facebook page!  And if you haven't purchased the book yet, you can click here for a quick link to Heinemann!






GOAL 1: Supporting Pre-Emergent and Emergent Readers

So, as I began to preview Chapter 1/Goal 1, I immediately felt like this chapter was going to be a chapter of confirmations because after all, most of my professional career has been dedicated to this very goal. But as I began to dig into chapter 1,  I felt like someone was hitting me on the head like in those commercials that say, "You should have had a V8"! I bet you were feeling that way too, especially when Jennifer states, "We can meet students where they are, and help them engage with, and enjoy books, make meaning, acquire vocabulary, use text features to understand, connect the pages, respond to texts by writing and talking, practice their fluency, and perhaps above all, develop identities as confident, engaged, joyful readers even without decoding"(pg 20-21).

 Of course we teach many of these 20 strategies provided,,,yes Jennifer offers 20 different strategies to select from for teaching these beginning readers!!! But remember, one of her colleagues compared these strategies to recipes in a cook book. You don't need to use them all with every student in a particular order. Instead, you select the ones that will work best to meet each student's needs. As for me, I like to compare these strategies to a shoe closet full of awesome choices (heels, flats, wedges, flip flops, sneakers, boots). No one pair of shoes is going to be perfect to wear during all seasons with all wardrobe choices, and for every activity. You have to select what shoes you need for a specific occasion. Get it?


So here is a glance at those 20 strategies provided on pg 23: (photo taken from http://literacylovinggals.blogspot.com/ )

Though I could surely go on and on about all 20 strategies, I am going to pick out three that stood out to me. These may be the same ones you were really drawn to, or maybe a different strategy stuck out based on your own experiences. 

  

1.6 Characters Do, Characters Say

"Strategy-On every page, try to sound like a storyteller. You can look carefully at the picture to say what the character is doing and what the character is saying" (pg 29).  I love how Jennifer even includes the language you can use to introduce this strategy in order to help students not only think about WHAT the character is doing on that page, but also WHAT the character may be saying. This will enable students to become better at storytelling with details but also, it would seem as though it could help later with using appropriate intonation and expression as well as leading up to inferring how a character acts!!! Think about how students are expected to do this skill later down the road. Wouldn't this be a GrEaT start to laying that foundation?!?!

1.16 What I see/What I Think

"Strategy-Reading is Thinking! When you read a page, you can read from the page and say what you see. Then, you can say what's in your mind, or what you think" (pg 39). Ok so how many times have you dipped in to hear a little one reading along and you ask a question or attempt to have a discussion about what was read and the student looks up at you like a deer in headlights? Come on...I know I am not the only one. Well, maybe this strategy is a great "go to" for that. If we can start off with a strategy like this in the emergent stage, think about how beneficial this will be in helping students see that in fact "reading IS thinking" (39). This will pay off in helping students to notice when their reading does not make sense (monitor) as well as learning how to read between the lines (infer).  

1.19 Connect the Pages

Oh holy cow did I need to read this one! So many times I have worked with students who may be thinking about what makes sense ON THAT PAGE, but they do not use this information to help drive the rest of their reading throughout the book. They are not taking the information presented to infer or to synthesize their thinking. I love how Jennifer provides these prompts: 1. "Think about how these pages connect"

                                        2. Say, 'And then...'

                                        3. Say, 'Another thing is...'

                                        4. "How does what you learn on this page fit with what you 

                                             learned on that page?"

                                        5. "How did the character get from here to there?"

And don't forget, this strategy can be used with emergent readers (levels A-C). I am thinking about those first simple texts that we use and getting them to understand how this strategy works early!!!

Jennifer gives us great advice on pg 22 when she states, "It will be helpful for you to watch your students read books that are familiar and unfamiliar, those that are fiction, nonfiction, or others that don't fall into either category, and notice what they (students) do as they read from the pictures across the pages of a book".  We have to take the time on the front end to really observe our students to determine their strengths and needs in order to select the most appropriate strategy and promote effective reading behaviors. We have to foster literacy skills that will enable students to become successful readers and writers! 

Question: Which strategy stands out the most to you for Goal 1 and why? You can post your response in our closed Book Study Group on Facebook (Book Buddies)!