Maria LeFort 1 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

SERIOUS STUDY OF A TEXT REQUIRES A PENCIL IN HAND Irving Howe 2 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

1. How do we get ALL teachers to become teachers of reading? ◦ What do teachers do when students won’t/can’t read? ◦ Small group discussion around quotations from the text (handout) ◦ Reading Essentials (PowerPoint) 2. Follow-up by discipline (handout) 3 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

What do teachers do when students won’t/can’t read a text? 4 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

I Read It, But I Don’t Get It Chris Tovani Discussion Points (handout) 5 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

I Read It, But I Don’t Get It Chris Tovani “Reading must be about thinking and constructing meaning.” 6 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

7 with the INTENT to GAIN MEANING! M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

8 PURPOSE: To construct meaning from a difficult and inaccessible text FORM: Think – Pair - Share TEXT: “Di Tri Berrese” TIME: 10 minutes M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

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10 Identify 3 READING STRATEGIES you used to construct meaning. BE PREPARED TO SHARE! M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

So, how does one construct meaning?  Use existing knowledge to make sense of information  Ask questions about the text before, during, and after reading  Draw inferences from the text  Monitor comprehension  Use “fix-up” strategies when meaning breaks down  Determine what is important  Synthesize information to create new thinking 11 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

“Teachers don’t have to be reading specialists to teach comprehension strategies. They simply have to be aware of their own processes as readers. They can notice their own thinking as they read, determine what they do to make meaning, and pass these techniques on to their students.” 12 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

13 Reading Strategies are TOOLS that can help improve students’ comprehension. They are NOT a quick fix. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

HOW DO WE GET OUR STUDENTS TO DO THIS? 14 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

MODEL 15 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

16 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

17 we show students which tools are most useful in accessing our content material, as well as, help students develop their use of these tools. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

18 OFTEN we feel as though we must choose between Student comprehension of content and Teacher coverage of content. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

19 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

20  Is it interesting and pertinent to the instructional goal?  Is it at the reading level of the students, or is it too difficult? If it is too difficult, consider how you will make the text accessible? M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

21 As an expert reader of your content, identify what you do to make sense of the text. Share that information with your students. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

22 Gives students insight into how good readers and writers make sense of text. Allows students to see options that are available to them. Students can see how good readers and writers decide what to do. Helps students understand the complexities of reading and writing and that they are ongoing thinking processes. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

23 1. Identify what they are struggling with. 2. Put yourself in a similar situation and see how you as a good reader would negotiate the difficulty. 3. Share your experience with your students and have them practice this thinking. REMEMBER OUR GOAL is to show our students how an expert APPROACHES and THINKS in this content. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

24 Depending on the text, you might model how you…  Determine what is important  Recognize and repair confusion  Stick with a text even when it gets boring  Preview a text  Use graphics, subtitles, etc.  Remember key words in previous chapters and use them in subsequent chapters  Figure out unknown vocabulary  Remember what you read  Understand a word problem  Infer meaning  Recognize and use literary devices M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

25 To help students have a clear reason for their reading and writing. To help students know how the information they read and write will be used. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

“A reader’s purpose affects everything about reading. It determines what’s important in the text, what is remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader uses to enhance meaning.” 26 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

27 1. It determines the speed of the reading. 2. It determines what the reader will remember. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

28  How do you want students to respond to the text before, during, and after the reading? M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

HOLDING THINKING  Marking a text  Highlighting  Post-it Notes  Double Entry Notes/Interactive Notes  Reading Log  Foldables 29 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

30 Some examples are:  Ask a question  Make a connection to something familiar  Give an opinion  Draw a conclusion  Make a statement  Draw a diagram  Use or create a graphic organizer M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

31  We have to be clear in our reasons for assigning the reading.  Use the instructional focus sheet as a tool to help you think through what is most essential. M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

1. Instructional Purpose (What is essential for students to know?) 2. What two places may cause students difficulty? 3. What will you model that will help students negotiate the difficult parts? 4. What do they need to do with the information they are reading? 5. How will they hold their thinking? 32 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

33 “Learning happens fastest when the novices trust the setting so much that they aren’t afraid to take risks, make mistakes, or do something dumb… Even learning the role that making mistakes plays in learning is best learned by observing experts making mistakes.” ~Deborah Meier, from In Schools We Trust M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

“It takes time to teach kids how to share their thinking about a piece of text, and it can be frustrating at first. But this idea that thinking while reading HAS to be made visible or held in some way is very important.” Chris Tovani 34 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

DISCIPLINE SPECIFIC STRATEGIES TO HELP STUDENTS READ A TEXT  Objectives:  To identify types of texts and thinking skills required in a specific discipline  To clarify purpose for reading a text in a specific discipline  To develop strategies that students can use to “hold their thinking” ◦ Identify types of texts that students read or could read in your content area. ◦ Identify different types of thinking skills required in your content area. (e.g. analyzing graphs, questioning author’s bias, predicting, applying logic, etc.) ◦ In small groups complete the focus sheet with discipline specific text. (Suggestions for forming groups: course, level, text, grade, etc.) ◦ Groups present their work to the department. The goal is to clarify the purpose for using a particular text, and to provide teachers with additional strategies to help their students access the difficult text.  Develop a departmental list of strategies to help students “hold their thinking” to remember and reuse the information from the text  Activity 35 M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1

36 Please state the following: Three things I’ve learned about teaching reading in my content area: Two things I could implement in my classroom: One question I still have: M. LeFort - Teaching Reading Across the Curriculum - Part 1