Teaching and Reading with a Purpose

In Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey’s Rigorous Reading, they claim that student learning increases by the simple act of explicitly stating the lesson’s purpose beforehand and revisiting it after the fact.  The practice has become more common in our classrooms, but I believe we can continue to improve with how we begin our lessons and how we assign our texts. 

I think we all fear that moment when a visitor to our classrooms pulls a student aside and asks, “Tell me what you’re learning today in this class?” I often hold my breath when the question comes out, not entirely confident that the students know or that I’ve been clear enough in explaining it.  Still, taking a few moments each day to establish the purpose and how it relates to the broader ideas of the course is important.  I suspect that many of us do this in a general sense, though fewer of us take the time to write out or read that specific learning purpose for the day. 

This is not to say that merely having a purpose ensures that students will internalize or even remember it.  However, for many of our students, especially for those who struggle, making plain the purpose of the lesson is important.  Providing a list or an agenda is not enough for students to answer the “what are you learning” question because lists may not provide the actual purpose for the lesson.

Provided here is a link to a video that shows how teachers in one building have established their purposes.  (www.corwin.com/rigorousreading click on Chapter Resources, Chapter 2, Videos and then look for “A Collection of Purpose Statements in Secondary Classrooms.)  You will see short clips from a biology teacher, a math teacher, an English teacher, and a FACS teacher all going through the process.  Notice that in each case, they have offered two purposes: one related to content and the other related to language.  The first is related to the concept of the day, but the second relates to the way students are asked to communicate their understanding of that concept. 

Beyond just establishing the purpose of our classes, I suggest that we do the same for our readings.  My concern is that we typically give readings to students and simply tell them to read

it for the next day’s quiz.  Or that we offer them a study guide for them to fill out as they read.  But we don’t necessarily set up the reading in terms of what we want them to know, learn or look for.  Like a good lesson, we need to explicitly state, “this is what I want you to look for in today’s, or tonight’s reading.”   Too often, I worry that we make “finding the main idea” a game, whereby we send our student on a mission to guess the point of our assignment on their own. 

There are a number of ways that we can establish the purpose of our readings.

First, we can write it out on the board or slide.  In writing the purpose, keep it simple and clear.  Avoid writing it as an objective, which has become the language of teachers.  A well-state purpose is crafted in language that students can understand, not something that would look good in a curriculum guide.

Second, in some cases, I will incorporate the purpose at the top of the reading itself.  In the times when I do this, I read it to students or point it out to them so that they see it.  I do this specifically because I worry that they might see it as “optional text” and skip right over it when they go to read it.  If I read it aloud to them, at the very least, I know that they have been exposed to it at the start. 

Third, I might print it off on a separate slip of paper and send it along with students.  This happens in cases where students are reading from a textbook or something I cannot manipulate. 

Establishing a clear purpose isn’t easy.  While they should be explicit and clear, they also can’t be strictly literal.  In those cases, the purpose statement doesn’t really provide students a means to think about the text.  Instead of stating that the purpose is to learn about the steps of photosynthesis for example, tell students that the purpose of the reading is to learn the process of photosynthesis.  For fiction, instead of asking students to look for the moral or theme, I would give them the moral of the theme and tell them to look for how that moral or theme is communicated.  “Class, the purpose of this reading is to show you the influence of grief on a person’s life.  So look for that grief and come prepared tomorrow for a discussion on examples of grief throughout the story.” 

We tend to assume that all students know the general purpose of things in our classes.  For struggling students in particular, this may not be the case.  Taking just a few moments to set the purpose—both with the lesson and with the readings—we can provide students with a critical tool to use for their readings.  

For the full newsletter, click here. 

November newsletter--Close Reading

An anchor standard of the Common Core asks students to “read closely to determine what the text says explicitly” and implicitly.    While the phrase “close reading” has become fashionable within our curriculum discussions, it is perhaps necessary to discuss what is actually meant when we use that phrase and, just as importantly, how do we foster that habit.

The expression “close reading” means that a reader will look deeply into the meaning of a text.  It includes comprehending the intended (and sometimes unintended) messages of texts.

A close read examines what is said and what is implied, and it requires readers to contemplate how the text is constructed.  Close reading differs from basic comprehension which asks only for the main idea and supporting details of a text.  Close reading  suggests that the text is more complex and requires readers to dig out a deeper understanding.

Too often, we treat texts as though they merely present facts and details.  We expect students to essentially go on “fact finding” missions within the reading to pull out details we want them to know or remember. However, this is a low level process that encourages students to skim texts for explicitly stated answers versus a high level process that encourages them to think more critically about what is—and even is not—being said.

One way to foster closer reading is to re-think how we use texts within a classroom.  Under the traditional model, texts are simply the transmitter of information.  But, we now know that simply passing information onto students is not very effective, it’s kind of boring, and it doesn’t create critical thinkers.  Close reading involves a mental shift on the part of both teachers and students. For teachers, it means that we have to be more thoughtful about what we want students to “get” from a text, focusing on big ideas and the relationships of those ideas versus focusing on the details, dates and facts.  For students, it will mean that they will have to invest more thought into what they are reading.

The big question is how do we foster deeper reading in our classrooms?  While study guides can help students navigate difficult readings, they generally don’t require students to think more deeply about the text.

So here are some helpful hints.

First, start with the big question you want students to contemplate or consider when they approach the text.  It should be a higher order question, one that doesn’t ask students to simply restate what they read but rather to conceptualize, evaluate or synthesize the ideas.

           This gives teacher license to be creative with how they assess student understanding of texts.  Posing hypotheticals is one way to do this.  Tell students, “John created this brochure on photosynthesis. Based on the information from our chapter on photosynthesis, evaluate how he did with his brochure.  Please focus on content, but also consider how he organized the information and formatted the visual elements of this topic to communicate the ideas.”

           An important practice of close reading is re-reading.  A common close reading exercise is to choose specific passages from the assigned reading to which you want to draw the students’ attention.  This requires students to return to the texts to take a deeper look at what it says.  In doing this, you can simply ask students, “Why is this passage important to the reading?”   You could also challenge the word choice of that particular passage.  In other words, ask students if the meaning of the text would be substantially changed if one key word was changed to another.  Another popular close reading activity is “Cloze Reading.”  For this you will take out ever seventh word of a text and leave them as blank.  Then ask students if they can fill in the blanks.

           Tea parties are also a good way to have students read texts more closely.  Again, you will pick four or five key passages from the day’s reading.  Print them out on slips of paper.  Hand them out randomly to students as they enter the room.  At the start of class, ask students to read the passage silently and to consider first what the text says, and second, why it might be important to the reading.  Then, have students get up and visit with at least three other people.  In each visit, they should read the passage and discuss the importance of the text.

           Paired readings are also a good way to help students read texts more closely.  They require more set-up and practice over time.  In a paired reading, students are paired with a partner.  They are assigned a section of text and told to read it aloud together.  They alternate reading aloud every two or three paragraphs or so.  But as they read, they must stop at least once a paragraph and allow their partner to respond to the text.  The partner can make a prediction, summarize what has been read, ask a question,  make a connection, or evaluate.  This exercise takes time.  And it is one that may take a good deal of modeling and practicing before students get the hang of it.  But the rewards are pretty substantial, for these cognitive processes are the types of things that all good readers should do as they consume texts.

           Close reading, as a whole, takes practice.  Typically, students avoid looking deeply at texts because they either don’t want to invest the time or they are overwhelmed by the volume of what they have to read.  Still, as the saying goes, a rushed and sloppy job often means that you will have to do it twice.  So invest effort and energy the first time to ensure that you don’t have to do it again.

What exactly is a Reading Coordinator?

When introducing myself, I often get a funny look when I mention my job title, Reading Coordinator. I admit, it feels like an odd title. I’m waiting for someone to ask, “What exactly do you coordinate? Tea?”

The title dates back to our first reading specialist, who preferred “coordinator” versus “specialist”. The label seemed to suggest a more systemic approach to literacy and reading versus a small, scale technical one. In other words, a reading specialist might know the nuances of helping an individual student overcome reading difficulties. A reading coordinator works to develop literacy practices across the entire school by working with teachers as well as students.

My responsibilities typically get evenly divided between teaching reading intervention courses, assessments, and staff development. For my first AVReading Newsletter of the year, I would like to briefly outline some of the literacy resources I can make available to you this year.

AVReading Newsletter and Website: On—or around—the first of each month, you will receive a digital copy of my newsletter. In it, you will find literacy related news and
information along with various lesson plans and strategies. Newsletters are also posted at avreading.org where you can find back issues from previous years.

Assessments: I have access to all sorts of reading data that might help you plan your classes or plan your approach with an individual student. In cases where we have little or insufficient reading data, I administer both informal and formal reading assessments. If you have a section that seems to really struggle, you can forward me your roster and I can send you the reading data on your students with some general observations about those numbers.

Coaching: After reading a newsletter, you might be interested to see how one of my strategies looks in front of a class. You can either visit one of my classes in the Reading Lab (Room 132) or we can schedule a day for me to do the activity with a section of your class. Or you can invite me into your class to watch a literacy strategy to get feedback.

Textbook and Text Analysis:
Whenever your department considers the purchasing of new texts, I can help you determine which of those texts is the best one for your purposes. I have rubrics for both print texts and for digital online texts.

Developing Classroom Libraries: As we explore more inquiry based approaches, the need for classroom libraries grows. A critical component of a good classroom library is finding books that will be accessible to the many different levels of your students. I help teachers find the right books for their various themes and offer assistance in the ordering and maintenance of those libraries.

Curriculum Writing: Engagement is an important element of creating a dynamic educational environment. I frequently meet with teachers across the curriculum to discuss ways to design units or lessons that might engaged all students, but especially those who have been traditionally disenfranchised. I am especially interested in finding innovative ways to reach students and help them to be more involved in their academic growth.

Literate Space: A bulletin board between Room 132 and 133, while designed more for students, can also be a good place to find new reading strategies and approaches.

Literacy Planning Committee: The Literacy Planning Committee is a group of content area teachers from across the disciplines, who meet to study and discuss ways that our school and our classrooms can improve literacy instruction. Each year, we choose a theme of study (ie. Vocabulary, homework, comprehension strategies) and make that our concentration for the year. This year, since AVID is implementing a reading program called AVID Weekly, we will join forces with them. All are welcome to the group. See me for more details about how to join.

While I hope to have a chance to speak to the full faculty a little later this year, do not hesitate to stop by Room 132 to say “Hello” and to tell me a little about what you are currently teaching and how it is going. Best of luck on the new school year! Know that you do not need to face it alone.

See the full issue of AVReading here.

The Living Backchannel

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AVReading Newsletter May 2014

Our classrooms, much like society at large, operate under a type of social contract, whereby teachers and students make a type of implicit agreement.  The teacher agrees that she / he will work to foster the growth of student learning in exchange for the student’s willingness to participate and learn.  It’s an agreement that we rarely state explicitly, but it is the foundation of much that we do.  When the contract breaks down, teachers assume that students are not willing to play their part or students assume that the teacher is not providing a meaningful or relevant learning experience.   

Inquiry learning strengthens that social contract by bolstering both the teacher (who is responsible for generating the inquiry) and the student (who must seek the answer to the question).  Under an inquiry model,  teachers guide students on inquiries that relate to the lives of students and the immediate world around them. And students in turn, come to trust that short term sacrifices they make will be for long term benefits.

Challenging students with questions and tasks that not only keep them interested and involved but that  also relate to their lives and experiences, strengthens the bonds of our contract.  It sends a message to our students that we do care about them, and we are interested in the question and concerns that drive them.  This philosophy is at the root of inquiry learning and is the predominant reason I believe it holds promise for our classrooms today.

As Banchi and Bell (2008) have suggested, inquiry learning can take on many different looks:  confirmation inquiry, structured inquiry, guided inquiry and open inquiry.  Essentially, they define inquiries by four components:  the question, the process and the answer.  So for example, a confirmed inquiry is one where the teacher provides the question (most likely without the input of students), they provide the process for answering the question, and they have a predetermined answer they want students to know.  Structured inquiry involves a predetermined question and process provided by the teacher, but not an answer.  In fact, these inquiries typically do not have a specific or correct answer.  In a guided inquiry, the teacher provides the questions and the students must both determine the process and the answer on their own.  While, an open inquiry is a learning environment where students design their own units of inquiry, their own process for discovering that information, and their own answers to their questions.  

Another model, which would be a hybrid of the open and structure inquiries, allows students to help construct the inquiry or guiding question.  They work together to determine the type of inquiry they want, while the teacher offers a structure for the process of researching, a skill that many younger students do not possess.  Again, the answer would be open ended and might have many different potential answers.    

As you design your units, think about how that unit might be resituated as a more general question.  Can it be linked to something timely that might help students connect with it or understand it.  Wilhelm (2007) offers numerous examples of how one might reframe topics as questions.

Industrial Arts:  What makes a good house?

Civics:  What is a responsible community?

Government:  Is it ever right to resist an established government?

Biology:  How does flight influence and change behavior (for birds, for humans)?

Physics:  How can we create the best device for seeing in the dark?  

Whatever the model that one chooses, inquiry holds promise as a way of recasting the learning experience.  It challenges, yet again, the “transmission” model of learning (where teachers serve as the transmitters of knowledge) and repositions curiosity and collaboration as the true motivators within the classroom.  

CIA Presentation

Find today's presentation here. 

Senior Speech Examples

Here are some samples of past commencement addresses.
2014
2013 

Reading the Word and the World

In his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire entreats us to address the broader nature of literacy. He states that educators must do more than just teach students how to decode words in decontextualized text, but that we must teach them to read both the word and the world. While his original intent was to challenge educators to take a more active stance in addressing the inequities of our world, the phrase “reading the word and the world” has been watered down considerably. Today, the phrase represents the idea that reading involves much more than the comprehension of printed text. We read the world when we study graphs and charts. We read the world when we analyze the validity of data and statistics. We read the world when we study news broadcasts and documentaries for bias. We read the world when we evaluate the credibility of websites. We read the world when we study relationships and how they are defined by power. We read the world when we study paintings and the stories they tell. And, of course, we read the world when we pick up novels, memoirs, and biographies to discover a little something about empathy and the people around us. I have been thinking a lot of Freire’s challenge recently as I have asked my students to look beyond the texts of our books to the texts that surround us. How do we decode our world, challenge it, question it, and change it, or hold it accountable. Recently, as a class, we read Veronica Roth’s new science fiction novel, Divergent. While the story is a fun action adventure with a bit of romance, the underlying message is neither new nor trite. Set in a dystopian community that uses both soft and hard forms of social control to manipulate people, the story underscores some concerns that we tend to have as a society. Fears that surface in not only the rhetoric of our political pundits but on our editorial pages in our headlines and in advertisements and commercials. Connecting the dots between the narratives of our entertainment and the narratives of our society is an important skills for students and citizens of a functioning democracy. And it is all part of learning to read the word and the world. So what does this look like across the content areas. How does it translate to other classes. The answer for social sciences and civics is fairly self evident. It is an emphasis on teaching the central ideas of our world versus the route memorization of names and dates, battles and wars. Instead, it is an unforgiving examination of the historical contexts in which these events occurred and a willingness to connect dots to contemporary instances. For the sciences, teaching the word and the world involves examining the ethical questions that arise-- or have arisen-- from research in the various disciplines and the studies that we are currently doing. Beyond that, it involves the need to discuss the controversies within science and those between science and culture. In math, it is a willingness to tie abstract world of numbers, logic and spatial reasoning to real life applications. Even when the numbers may not immediately apply to the immediate lesson or unit, the potential for a meaningful experience is substantial. Lessons could range from statistical analysis that doesn’t quite add up to the misuse or abuse of graphs and charts to visualize data, Of course, teaching the word and the world is not new. It has appeared as culturally relevant pedagogy and authentic assessments. But, seeing the same concept evolve through times only underscores how fundamental it must be to innovative and transformative educational experiences.

Parenting Lesson

Video #1-- Reading to Children (33:00)
Video #2-- Beatrice Doesn't Want To  (12:00)

AVReading Newsletter February: 21st Century Literacies

The book study for this year’s Literacy Planning Committee is Adolescent Literacy: Turning Promise into Practice. This month’s reading, written by Jim Burke focuses on 21st century literacies-- the skills and processes we believe the coming years will ask of our students. The term “new literacies” --or 21st century literacies-- is by no means new. Coined by a group of academics in the early to mid 90s, it’s very definition has become difficult to pin down. Leu et al. (2004) suggest that a hard definition for new literacies will always be elusive since they are constantly changing with the new affordances of emerging technologies. However, they do offer a running list—of sorts—that outlines some of the processes of reading as defined by this field. “The new literacies of the Internet and other ICTs include the skills, strategies, and dispositions necessary to successfully use and adapt to the rapidly changing information and communication technologies and contexts that continuously emerge in our world and influence all areas of our personal and professional lives. These new literacies allow us to use the Internet and other ICTs to identify important questions, locate information, analyze the usefulness of that information, synthesize information to answer those questions, and then communicate the answers to others.”(1570) Social commentators, like Thomas Friedman and Daniel Pink, often dabble with the idea of new literacies in their writings on workers of the coming years. In all honesty, both the ideas of 21st century literacies and new literacies have been greatly abused, in the sense that they become the wish list of everything we hope our students can do or become. And in some cases, by designing these laundry lists of our expectations, we forget that many of these qualities are just repackaged ideas of the past, all piled up into one big mess. In fact, it could be argued that our expectations of students today far surpass the expectations of our students from past eras. And while it seems to be the common convention to berate schools, teachers, and students for being less capable today (often indicated by the skewed presentation of test data), those notions of incompetence and negligence do not really withstand the scrutiny. With that said, our evolving standards of students should be in line with what we do within our classrooms. For this month’s newsletter, I would like to briefly offer three learning areas outlined by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: Information and Communication Skills, Thinking and Problem Solving, Interpersonal and Self-Directional Skills. First, students and workers of the 21st century must be comfortable with their ability to both process and present information from a broad array of sources and mediums. This is as close as the Partnership gets to the traditional notions of reading and writing. Notice, however, that we no longer expect students to merely comprehend text and compose letters to elected officials-- which have traditionally been the benchmarks of work-- but rather we expect them to integrate, analyze, access, and manage data, no matter the form and medium. Second, students and workers of the 21st century must be able to employ thinking and problem solving skills. Whereas the traditional conceptualization of school has been a focus on drilling and memorization (ie. What were the dates of the Civil War? What are the six stages of mitosis? What is a noun?), learning today has become more about developing critical thinking skills, evaluating problems and situations, determining creative approaches to complex situations, and fostering one’s intellectual curiosity. Finally, students and workers of the 21st century need to develop interpersonal and self-directional skills. I don’t believe that this is anything new. Teaching students to work cooperatively has a long history in American schools. But the socially connected environments of the digital age have changed things slightly. People need to know how to manage professional relationships and networks both in real time and in virtual space, where the rules are slightly different. They will be asked to work in new environments, at keyboards and desktops, where their duties will demand more self-directional responsibilities. Inherently, what we know of students and how they learn has not fundamentally changed. Instead, 21st century literacies asks us to consider the changing world and workplaces around us, to promote and emphasize ways of knowing and working that will enable students to be successful in a rapidly evolving landscape. View the full newsletter here.