ELA Updates:K-2

Revisiting Daily Instructional Practices

and An Introduction to Close Reading -

The “How” and the “When”

Diocese of AllentownSt. Mary’s, Hamburg

August 12, 2015Dr. Joanne LoFaso

Today’s Objectives1. Provide a brief introduction of the close reading

routine

2. Taking a closer look at a few effective and not so effective reading practices

3. View of a video clip of a primary close reading lesson using an expository text (if time permits we will view a clip of a teacher modeling comprehension strategies)

4. Analyze a close reading example using a fictional text

5. Working in small groups, participants will engage in a close reading activity using a text-based seminar format

Academic Vocabulary: A Good Place to Start

• Words that are traditionally used in academic dialogue and text (e.g. glossary)

• Words that are not necessarily common or that children would encounter in conversation (e.g. suitable)

• Words that often relate to other more familiar words that students use (e.g., watch rather than observe)

• Words that help students understand oral directions and classroom instructional dialog

• Words that help students to comprehend text across different content areas (e.g. social studies, science, mathematics)

Poetry for Struggling Readers: Some Benefits

Poems for children are relatively short in length

Poems are fun to read

The predictable and rhyming nature of most children’s poems adds to their ease of learning

Because most poems rhyme, they contain many instances of word families that are a productive way of teaching phonics

Poems are meant to be performed

Poems are meant to be shared

A poem a day… Find a weekly theme around a poem

Baseball and patriotic poems can be fun and relevant (e.g., Independence Day)

Students and teachers choose interesting poem words for word study

The brevity and practice factor associated with poems can make even the most challenging ones accessible

A poetry lesson does not take long (20-25 min)

As new poems are added to the student’s repertoire, poems from previous lessons continue to be read and enjoyed daily

The Interactive Read-AloudGoal: To Build Stronger

Comprehension Provide fluent models of reading

Make the comprehension processes visible through thinking aloud (view clip on a teacher modeling comprehension strategies)

Reading is NOT about getting all the words RIGHT and FAST

Encourage before, during, and after comprehension behaviors and strategies

Use open-ended questions to encourage students to actively process the content

An Interactive Read-Aloud is not…

A quick read

Reading a story and then asking students questions at the end

“Such routines embrace a close-ended, lower-level questioning phase that develops a ‘right-wrong’ framework in lieu of meaningful discussions where multiple answers are possible (Hilden & Jones (2013).”

Benefits of the Interactive Read-Aloud

Multiple Exposures can act as a scaffold to deeper comprehension

The interactive read aloud can help boost student strategy use, critical thinking skills, and the love of good books

The interactive read-aloud is effective when students run to choose the same books for independent reading time

Persistent Practices Assigned decoding worksheets

remain in many classrooms

Worksheets (according to Adams) are largely worthless and contribute to the "inherently intractable, slow, inefficient basic phonics curriculum”

What Does Work? Providing explicit instruction

Providing guided practice

Maintain a gradual release of responsibility model (I do – we do – you do)

Relate strategies to one another or make their impact on reading clear

A note on independent reading

“The most important activity for developing literacy is that of inducing students to read independently. Yet when a text is too difficult for children, they comprehend little , learn little and tire quickly.”

Adams, 1990

What is close reading?

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Anchor Standard 1 Read closely to determine

what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions from the text 13

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Anchor Standard 1: Expectations for Literature and

Informational Texts by Grade Level

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Grade K – With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in text.

Grade 1 –Ask and answer questions about key details in text

Grade 2- Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why and how to demonstrate understanding

Grade 3 –Ask and answer questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the basis for the answers.

Grade 4 – Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from text.

Grade 5 – Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

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Close Reading: Purpose Intention (to drive students deeper into the text, and not

to simply draw on surface comprehension)

Foster critical-thinking skills for deeper comprehension (a key purpose of close reading is to encourage students to examine in detail what the text has to say)

BEGIN IN KINDERGARTEN (it doesn’t matter how tall a ladder is if the first few steps are not solid)

Use a worthy text

A close reading lesson should be no more than 15 minutes

Limit Frontloading

Use repeated readings

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Close Reading in the Primary Grades

There is a wide gap between the level of texts, K-2 students can read independently and those texts they can read with teacher support

http://www.corwin.com/rigorousreading/chapter.htm

Close Reading with Young Readers

You may “jot down” your thoughts as you observe

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Six Practices of Close Reading for Young Readers

Use short, worthy readings that are complex due to structure, or use of language conventions, levels of meaning or knowledge demand (or content)

This requires the text to be reread several times throughout the lesson

Frames discussion and deepens student understanding of the text through the use of Text-Dependent Questions

Relies on after-listening tasks that require students to draw on knowledge of the text

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Quick Review: Universal Annotation Marks: Read with a

Pen Grades K-2 - Use Wiki sticks, sticky notes,

charts, model your thinking

Grades 3-5 Underline the major points, words or phrases that are confusing to you

Use a ? and write out your question

Use a ! for things that surprise you

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Close Reading for Young Readers

Exposure to complex texts challenges students’ thinking

There are two instructional practices for close reading (close listening):

Interactive Read-Alouds (Fisher, Flood, Lapp & Frey, 2004) provide examples of: a short, worthy text; text-dependent questions; after-listening tasks that refer to the text; no annotation

Shared Reading with simple annotation and after-listening tasks

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Guiding Readers with Questions and Prompts

Questioning is at the core of instruction

Questions used when scaffolding your instruction aim to address students’ misconceptions and errors while reading

Questioning is a time to clear up errors and misunderstanding, not the time for assessment

Retelling a story is at the literal level and is associated with comprehension

Teachers should invite students to retell a story and encourage them to use their text to support their retelling (figure 3.3)

It is essential to use additional prompts and cues – not provide answers when learners make errors or have misconceptions (figures 3.4 & 3.5 –see handout)

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The Lion and the Mouse

A small mouse crept up to a sleeping lion. The mouse admired the lion's ears, his long whiskers and his great mane. "Since he's sleeping," thought the mouse, "he'll never suspect I'm here! "With that, the little mouse climbed up onto the lion's tail, ran across its back, slid down its leg and jumped off of its paw. The lion awoke and quickly caught the mouse between its claws. "Please," said the mouse, "let me go and I'll come back and help you someday. "The lion laughed, "You are so small! How could ever help me? "The lion laughed so hard he had to hold his belly! The mouse jumped to freedom and ran until she was far, far away. The next day, two hunters came to the jungle. They went to the lion's lair. They set a huge rope snare. When the lion came home that night, he stepped into the trap.He roared! He wept! But he couldn't pull himself free. The mouse heard the lion's pitiful roar and came back to help him. The mouse eyed the trap and noticed the one thick rope that held it together. She began nibbling and nibbling until the rope broke. The lion was able to shake off the other ropes that held him tight. He stood up free again! The lion turned to the mouse and said, "Dear friend, I was foolish to ridicule you for being small. You helped me by saving my life after all!

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Sample Text Dependent Questions for

The Lion and the Mouse General understandings: What happened? Tell me

the story using your own words.

Key Details: How did the lion help the mouse? How did the mouse help the lion?

Vocabulary and Text Structure: What does the mouse mean when he says, “Perhaps I might be able to do you a turn one of these days (you might reread the story after posing this question)?

Author’s Purpose: What is the moral of the story that Aesop wants us to know?

Inferences: Why is the lion so surprised at the idea that a mouse could help him? What does the lion say and do that helps you answer this question?

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Modeling Comprehension

Questioning strategies – to predict, anticipate, solve problems and to clarify

Summarizing strategies – to identify information and RECOUNT a text

Inferencing strategies – to “read between the lines” to identify clues in the text

Self-monitoring strategies – to determine when readers understand what they have read and notice when they have not

Connection strategies – to integrate what a reader has experienced and learned with the information being read

Analysis strategies – to identify literary devices, determine the author’s purpose and evaluate texts

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Scaffolding Instruction:Be Mindful

Round robin reading is ineffective.

Choral reading is NOT appropriate for close reading instruction.

Small groups, no more than six, are not static; they should be flexible and change based on ongoing assessments.

Instruction in small groups is about 10-20 minutes, based on the needs and stamina of students.

It is cognitively demanding time.

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Scaffolding Instruction:Be Mindful

All students benefit from scaffold instruction, not just your struggling readers

Lessons are tailored to group needs, based on recent assessments.

Teachers provide more support for students than in a close reading lesson

Questions are essential to scaffolded instruction

When prompts and cues are exhausted and misconceptions remain, provide a direct explanation.

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Activity: Practice a “close reading” of a short, worthy

text1. Read, “Round-Robin Reading Never! (McLaughlin,

2013)”then discuss in your group the following questions:

2. What statement or section in this article strikes you most dramatically?

3. What is the single most significant theme of this article and where is it stated?

4. What statement, idea, process, practice, strategy, theme do you disagree with most (if any)?

5. What actions would flow from this article?

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Text-Based Seminar:Guidelines

Purpose: To enlarge and extend the

Participants’ understanding of a text

Read the article closely (annotate,

underline, circle, highlight, etc.)

Ground Rules: Listen actively

focusing on mutual sharing

Build upon what others have to say

Let the conversation flow without

raising hands

Speak directly with each other

Make your assumptions clear and explicit

Strive for clarification and implication of ideas

Watch your own “air” time

Refer to the text using page numbers and paragraph location

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Extended Practice: Your Exit Ticket

Develop a lesson plan that includes the close reading routine

Download a copy of Appendix B from the CCSS-ELA

Appendix B contains actual Text Exemplars and Sample Performance Tasks

You may use these resources or your own curricula and instructional materials to design your lesson

Share an electronic version of your lesson plan with your colleagues

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References

Adams, M.J. (1990). Beginning to read:Thinking and learning about print. Cambrige, MA:MIT Press

Allington, R.L. & McGill-Franzem, A. (2013). What really matters in working with struggling readers. The Reading Teacher, v.66 (7). IRA

Betts, E.A. (1946). Foundations of reading instruction. New York: American

Frey, N. & Fisher, D.(2013). Rigorous Reading: 5 Access Points for Comprehending Complex Texts. Corwin Press: CA

Toregeson, J.K. (2004). Lessons learned from research on interventions for students who have difficulty learning to read. In P.McCadele & V. Chhabra (Eds.) The voice of evidence in reading research (pp.355-382).

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NOTES① Scaffolding - First introduced by Wood, Bruner, and

Ross (1976), the concept of scaffolding likens the process of building a concept or skill within a child to the kind of temporary structure that supports the construction of a house.

Although at present, this concept is used in a fairly broad sense and is often synonymous with “teaching,” the original analogy refers to a learning situation in which there is a gradual release of responsibility to the learner, as the learner becomes more responsible for his/her own learning and able to maintain a new skill. The teacher gives hints and prompts to support the learner and then gradually withdraws these supports, as the learner performs with increasing independence. Scaffolding in its many forms plays an important role in the Tools of the Mind curriculum

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NOTESZone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is the best known Vygotskian concept. To successfully apply it in a classroom, it is important to know not only where a child is functioning now and where that child will be tomorrow, but also how best to assist that child in mastering more advanced skills and concepts. This is where scaffolding comes in. Although not used by Vygotsky himself, the concept of scaffolding helps us understand how aiming instruction within a child’s ZPD can promote the child’s learning and development.

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