1. Reading in the Content Areas Working together to help our kids become better readers.

2. Why Focus on Reading? According to Doug Lemov, author of Teach Like a Champion, “Reading is the skill. Teaching students to unlock the full meaning of the texts they read is the single most important skill a teacher can foster. If your students can read well, they can essentially do anything.” Lemov goes on to make the case that “If you teach, no matter the subject, you have the opportunity and the obligation to ensure that your students read more (and better). This opportunity will result in their being both more informed regarding the topic of your instruction and more effective assimilators and analyzers of information – better readers – in the future. It’s a double investment paying both short- and long-term results.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Page 249

3. Sadly, the problem’s so big… it’s going to take all of us. “The ability to read and understand complicated information is important to success in college and, increasingly, in the workplace. An analysis of the NAEP long-term trend reading assessments reveals that only half of all White 17 year olds, less than one-quarter of Latino 17 year olds, and less than one-fifth of African American 17 year olds can read at this level.” “By age 17, only about 1 in 17 seventeen year olds can read and gain information from specialized text, for example the science section in the local newspaper.” “This includes: – 1 in 12 White 17 year olds, – 1 in 50 Latino 17 year olds, and – 1 in 100 African American 17 year olds.” Haycock, Kati and Sandra Huang, Are Today's High School Graduates Ready?, Thinking K-16, Vol. 5, Issue 1, The Education Trust, Washington, DC, 2001.The Education Trust

4. It’s Not a Pretty Picture… “The American Institutes for Research (AIR) reports that only 13% of American adults are capable of performing complex literacy tasks.” “The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows that secondary school students are reading significantly below expected levels.” “The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) finds that literacy scores of high school graduates have dropped between 1992 and 2003.” Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

5. …Getting Worried Yet? The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) reports a continuing and significant reading achievement gap between certain racial/ethnic/SES groups. The Alliance for Excellent Education (AEE) points to 8.7 million secondary school students— that is one in four— who are unable to read and comprehend the material in their textbooks. The 2005 ACT College Readiness Benchmark for Reading found that only about half the students tested were ready for college-level reading, and the 2005 scores were the lowest in a decade. Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

6. How Can Content Area Reading Help? Again, according to Doug Lemov, “…Untapped opportunities to read more effectively occur throughout every corner of the building…The overall value of the additional high-quality reading you could do in a typical school day could equal or possibly exceed the value of what happens in designated reading classes. When you stop to consider how much high quality reading students might do outside reading class, the untapped potential is massive, but for now, most students simply don’t read much.” He goes on to explain that…”We are what we have read and how we read it, and no other single activity has the capacity to yield so much educational value. And yet students in many schools spend precious little time actually reading. Likely, they read for less than an hour a day. Even in their reading or literature classes, they are as likely to talk about a reading or respond to what they may (or may not) have read as they are to actually read.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 250-251

7. New “Common Core” Benchmarks The new benchmarks increase emphasis on: o Close/Attentive Reading o Critical Thinking Skills o Higher Level Reasoning Skills o Reading Informational Texts “[The benchmarks are based on an] assumption that literacy is a shared responsibility.” "Common Core State Standards Webinar." Interview. Video blog post. Webinar. Scholastic, 25 Oct. 2010. Web..

8. New “Common Core” Benchmarks These new benchmarks include: o Reading Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies 6-12 o Reading Standards for Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects 6-12 o Writing Standards for Literacy in History, Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects 6-12 "Common Core State Standards Webinar." Interview. Video blog post. Webinar. Scholastic, 25 Oct. 2010. Web..

9. New “Common Core” Benchmarks The new benchmarks redefine what our students should be reading… 1)They call for a dramatic increase in informational reading. 4 th Grade: 50% Literary50% Informational 8 th Grade: 45% Literary55% Informational 12 th Grade30% Literary70% Informational 2)They call for a dramatic increase in the “lexile” difficulty of student texts. "Common Core State Standards Webinar." Interview. Video blog post. Webinar. Scholastic, 25 Oct. 2010. Web..

10. New “Common Core” Benchmarks Target date for the creation of new national assessments tied to the “common core” benchmarks: 2014 "Common Core State Standards Webinar." Interview. Video blog post. Webinar. Scholastic, 25 Oct. 2010. Web..

11. NCTE Targets: “Research offers many effective strategies that promote and increase adolescent literacy. Reforming programs of adolescent literacy demands strategies that target… Motivation, Comprehension, and Critical Thinking.” Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

12. Methods of Increasing Motivation Strategy Instruction: “Teaching students to monitor their own literacy practices, to look for information, to interpret literature, and to draw on their own prior knowledge enhances motivation” (Guthrie et al., 1996). Diverse Texts: “Sustained experience with diverse texts in a variety of genres that offer multiple perspectives on life experiences can enhance motivation, particularly if texts include electronic and visual media” (Greenleaf et al., 2001). Self-selection of Texts: “Many texts must be read in common by an entire class, as the curriculum dictates, but allowing some discretion for students to choose their own texts increases motivation, especially because these selections can help students make connections between texts and their own worlds. Of course, reading self-selected texts also increases reading fluency, or the ability to read quickly and accurately” (Alvermann, etal., 2000; Moje et al., 2000). Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

13. Methods of Increasing Comprehension Vocabulary Development: “Reading, writing, speaking, and listening can all contribute to vocabulary development. Since each discipline has its own vocabulary, students need both direct and indirect instruction to actively learn new words” (Dole, Sloan, and Trathern, 1995.) Discussion-based Approaches: “Making meaning from texts is crucial to reading comprehension, and focused discussions about academic texts can help students learn to read better at the same time that they learn more about a specific field. (Applebee et al., 2003). Strategies like reciprocal teaching, question generating, and summarizing can foster discussions.” Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

14. Methods of Increasing Critical Thinking Self-monitoring: “Focused instruction can teach students how to consider their own understandings of a text and learn how to proceed when their understanding fails” (Bereiter and Bird, 1985). Interpretation and Analysis: “A successful program of literacy education enables students to dissect, deconstruct, and re-construct texts as they engage in meaning making” (Newmann, King, & Rigdon, 1997). Multi-disciplinary: “Critical thinking takes slightly different form in each discipline, andeffective instruction for adolescent literacy helps students develop capacities for critical thinking in each discipline” (Greenleaf et al.,2001). Technology: “Many adolescents are drawn to technology, and incorporating technology into instruction can increase motivation at the same time that it enhances adolescent literacy by fostering student engagement” (Merchant, 2001). Publication. NTCE Principles of Adolescent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010..

15. Key Components of Reading Decoding – “The process of deciphering written text to identify the spoken words it represents.” Fluency – “consists of automaticity, the ability to read at a rapid rate, plus expression, the ability to group words together into phrases to reflect meaning.” Vocabulary – “a student’s base of word knowledge: how many words she knows, and how well she knows them.” Comprehension – “how much of what’s written a student understands.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 251 & 252

16. 9 Simple Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Readers 1.Teach/Model reading strategies 2.Read aloud to your students 3.Have your students read out loud to you 4.Assign more reading…go beyond the textbook 5.Use graphic organizers that encourage critical thinking or encourage kids to “mark-up” the text 6.Teach summarizing vs. retelling 7.Actively teach vocabulary 8.Use “Evidence-Based” questioning techniques 9.Encourage the kids to make “better connections”

17. Teach/Model Reading Strategies Make sure the kids know what to do when the going gets tough.

18. Reading Strategies What Good & Struggling Readers do Before Reading Good Readers: Think about what they already know/search their prior knowledge. Identify a purpose for reading the text. Make predictions. Have a sense of how major ideas may fit together. Struggling Readers: Read without thinking about what they already know. Don’t know why they are reading a text. Make no predictions. Don’t have an idea how the major ideas fit together. Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 103

19. What can I do? 1.Get kids thinking about what they already know. (Activate Prior Knowledge) 2.Help the kids identify a purpose for reading the text. 3.Encourage the kids to make predictions about what they will be reading. 4.Preview the text for the kids -- Hint at the major ideas and how they might fit together

20. Reading Strategies What Good & Struggling Readers do During Reading Good Readers: Pay attention to meaning/are able to identify key information. Monitor comprehension while reading. Stop and use “fix-up” strategies. Visualize while reading. Make inferences. Make connections both inside and outside of the text. Have a high tolerance for ambiguity Ask questions of the text. Are active and engaged. Struggling Readers: Overattend to individual words/are often unable to make meaning. Do not monitor comprehension while reading. Are unaware of “fix-up” strategies.” Are unable to visualize while reading. Cannot make inferences. Are unable to make connections, both inside and outside of the text. Do not ask questions of the text. Are passive and unengaged. Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 103

21. What can I do? 1.Assign graphic organizers to help the kids identify key information, make inferences, make connections, ask questions etc. 2.Teach kids to keep reading when confused…often the confusion will clear up as they keep reading (Teach them to “tolerate ambiguity”.) 3.Help kids find what “fix-up” strategies work for them!

22. Fix-up Strategies Argue with the author Ask about the author Ask questions Ask when the text was written Attack unfamiliar words by looking at context Attack unfamiliar words by looking at prefixes, suffixes and roots Change position in chair Change speeds “Chunk” the text Comment Consider how the time frame influenced the author Consider the author’s intended audience Consider the author’s purpose Draw conclusions Evaluate the author’s ideas Examine the text structure Highlight area of confusion Live with ambiguity Make connections to books Make connections to films Make connections to personal experience Make connections to real-world events Make note of italics Make note of headings Notice how punctuation was used Paraphrase Pay close attention to Syntax. Prediction Read around non-essential clauses Reread Search prior knowledge Skim when the reading gets easy Skip Ahead Skip hard parts and return to them later. Slow down when difficulty increases Stop and think about the passage Sub-vocalization (Read quietly aloud) Summarize Tell themselves to focus Track with finger Use context to clear confusion Visualization Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 103

23. Once Kids are aware of all the Fix-up Strategies, help kids figure out what works best for them! Everyone is different, and that’s OK! Argue with the author Ask about the author Ask questions Ask when the text was written Attack unfamiliar words by looking at context Attack unfamiliar words by looking at prefixes, suffixes and roots Change position in chair Change speeds “Chunk” the text Comment Consider how the time frame influenced the author Consider the author’s intended audience Consider the author’s purpose Draw conclusions Evaluate the author’s ideas Examine the text structure Highlight area of confusion Live with ambiguity Make connections to books Make connections to films Make connections to personal experience Make connections to real-world events Make note of italics Make note of headings Notice how punctuation was used Paraphrase Pay close attention to Syntax. Prediction Read around non-essential clauses Reread Search prior knowledge Skim when the reading gets easy Skip Ahead Skip hard parts and return to them later. Slow down when difficulty increases Stop and think about the passage Sub-vocalization (Read quietly aloud) Summarize Tell themselves to focus Track with finger Use context to clear confusion Visualization Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 103

24. Reading Strategies What Good & Struggling Readers do After Reading Good Readers: Can summarize Understand how ideas fit together Can answer implicit, explicit and application questions Can revisit the text and make deeper meaning Struggling Readers: Are often unable to determine the main idea(s) Focus on unimportant or peripheral details Are unable to answer comprehension questions at various levels Are unable to revisit the text to make deeper meaning Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 103

25. What can I do? 1.Require kids to summarize what they read. Please note: Summarizing is not retelling…make them highlight main ideas and prioritize information. 2.Make sure to ask implicit, explicit and application questions to accurately gage comprehension. 3.Plan to revisit the text with the kids to build on their understanding.

26. Read Aloud to Your Students. Help them train their “Expressive Ear”

27. The Case for Reading Aloud to our Students In 1985, the Commission on Reading, organized by the National Academy of Education and the National Institute of Education found that: – “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading, is reading aloud to children.” – “It is a practice that should continue throughout the grades.” “In reading aloud, we… – Condition the child’s brain to associate reading with pleasure; – Create background knowledge; – Build vocabulary; – Provide a reading role model.” Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

28. Why is Reading Aloud to our Students so Important? Low desire to read, limited background knowledge and weak vocabulary skills are three main causes of achievement gaps. Consistent & conscientious reading aloud addresses all three issues.

29. Reading Aloud Teaches Fluency “In the standard definition, fluency consists of automaticity (the ability to read at a rapid rate without error) and expression (the ability to group words together into phrases to reflect meaning, emphasize important words, and express tone and register).” “You could argue, however, that fluency consists of automaticity plus expression plus comprehension. That is, to read a text expressively, the reader has to comprehend it. What is the register, tone and mood like? Which words deserve special emphasis? How does the punctuation shape the meaning?” “In short, fluency [is] more than fast reading, it’s reading with meaning made audible.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Page 276

30. Reading Aloud to Our Students Helps Kids Develop an “Expressive Ear”. True expressive and fluent reding demonstrates comprehension – in some cases, more efficiently than talking about or describing that understanding. It embeds understanding in the action of fluent reding.” “…While many teachers think of fluency as a skill that’s most relevant in the elementary grades, the opposite may be true. “Developing student’s ability to comprehend the full amount of information carried within the text relies on an ‘expressive ear’ that can extract meaning from subtext, tone, register, innuendo and analogy.” “Mature books rely even more heavily on their meaning of the portion of the argument carried by these subtextual elements. Unlocking those forms of meaning must be continually practiced and modeled even, and especially, in the later years.” “Show some spunk. Read to aloud to your students regularly. When you do, model strong reding and expressive emphasis… not only will you show them how to unlock the expressive parts of language, you’ll make it safe for them to take the risk of reding with spirit and vigor.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 276 and 277

31. Have Your Students Read Aloud in Class. Actively work on decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension skills.

32. The Case for Having our Students Read Out Loud Students reading aloud = “meaningful reading”. Lemov: “I define meaningful reading as reading that is accountable, moderately expressive and highly leveraged.” “By accountable, I mean that teachers are able to reliably assess whether students are actually reading (rather than, say, looking at picture or out the window daydreaming when they are supposed to be reading, and reading effectively (decoding and reading words correctly and diligently, for example rather than reinscribing errors such as ignoring suffixes or skipping over difficult parts of the text). “By moderatly expressive, I mean that students demonstrate the capacity to embed meaning in words as they read, to show in their inflection that they are processing the words at a level beyond the most basic level. “Many teachers scorn the idea of allowing a single student to read aloud during class time…[but] in meaningful reading…[the other students] are also reading – to themselves, in step with the student reading aloud. I call the degree to which the other students are reading ‘leverage’ and it’s the third critical element of meaningful reading. Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 255 & 256

33. Having our Students Read Out Loud Helps Kids Develop an “Expressive Ear”. Remember this stuff? It still applies! True expressive and fluent reding demonstrates comprehension – in some cases, more efficiently than talking about or describing that understanding. It embeds understanding in the action of fluent reding.” “…While many teachers think of fluency as a skill that’s most relevant in the elementary grades, the opposite may be true. “Developing student’s ability to comprehend the full amount of information carried within the text relies on an ‘expressive ear’ that can extract meaning from subtext, tone, register, innuendo and analogy.” “Mature books rely even more heavily on their meaning of the portion of the argument carried by these subtextual elements. Unlocking those forms of meaning must be continually practiced and modeled even, and especially, in the later years.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 276 and 277

34. How to “Control the Game” When Students are Reading Aloud Keep Durations Unpredictable Keep the Identity of the Next Reader Unpredictable Keep Durations Short Reduce Transaction Costs (Keep interruptions brief.) Use Bridging to Maintain Continuity (Jump in to read short segments yourself with a lot of expression. This models good reading technique for the kids.) Oral Cloze (Trail off before a word you want students to add. Example: Teacher: “This process is called…” Students: “Mitosis” Rely on a Placeholder when Discussion is Needed (Have kids mark the place you left off in the book with a finger [“finger freeze”] close the book, and look up as you discuss important parts of the text.) Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 257-259.

35. How to Work on Fluency When Students are Reading Aloud Ask for Some Drama: “Just as your reading expressively is good for students, so to is asking students to read expressively. It forces them to practice looking for the depth of meaning in words. To make oral reading more systematically effective, try the following:” – “Identify (by telling students or helping them to infer it) the kind of expression your students should impart to the passage and ask them to apply it.” – “Call students’ attention to dialogue tags and their role as ‘stage directions.’ … You can make this technique even more effective by modeling the applicable tone when you read the dialogue tag and asking student to apply it to the sentence they are writing.” – “Ask students to identify the two or three most important words in a sentence (or the two or three most important ideas in a passage) and place special emphasis on them.” – “Ask students to add or extract something particular to or from the text by choosing a key descriptive word from the surrounding passage, or even a vocabulary word and asking students to read the passage in a way that emphasizes that word.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Page 279.

36. Assign More Reading 1.Go beyond the Textbook! 2.Let the kids self-select some pieces! 3.Use technology to hook them!

37. National Assessment of Reading Progress: Long-Term Reading Assessment Levels Level 150 - readers can follow brief written directions, select words, phrases, or sentences to describe a simple picture, and interpret simple written clues to identify a common object. Level 200 - readers can locate and identify facts from simple informational paragraphs, stories, and news articles. Level 250 - readers can search for, locate, and organize the information they find in relatively lengthy passages and recognize paraphrases of what they have read. Level 300 - readers can understand complicated literary and informational passages, including material about topics they study at school. Level 350 - readers can extend and restructure the ideas presented in specialized and complex texts. Our Kids aren’t getting out of the red – in fact only top students ever crack 300. More “content area reading” can help kids reach higher levels of reading ability. Haycock, Kati and Sandra Huang, Are Today's High School Graduates Ready?, Thinking K-16, Vol. 5, Issue 1, The Education Trust, Washington, DC, 2001.The Education Trust

38. Kids who read more at school are better readers… 302 for students who read more than 20 pages a day in school and for home work (22% of students), 292 for students who read 16 to 20 pages (14% of students), 292 for students who read 11 to 15 pages (17% of students), 285 for students who read 6 to 10 pages (24% of students), and 273 for students who read 5 or fewer pages (24% of students). …but, clearly, students are still not where they need to be. Get them reading!!! Campbell, Jay R., Catherine M. Hombo, and John Mazzeo, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance (PDF file), U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Washington, DC 2000.National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance

39. More Reading Can Help Close Achievement Gaps. “People who are undernourished need good food. Readers who are under-nourished need good books. Lots of them.” Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 32

40. Use Graphic Organizers or Require Students to “Mark-Up” the Text. Make sure: 1.Students Actually Read. 2.Students Actively Read..

41. Types of Graphic Organizers Cause/Effect Charts Comprehension Constructors Decision Charts Double Entry Diaries Highlight and Revision Charts Inquiry Charts KWL Charts Opinion-Proof Charts Problem/Solution Charts QCOP Charts Question and Connection Charts Question, Connection and Main Idea Charts “So What” Charts SWBS Charts Obviously, there are many different types of graphic organizers. Find one (or more) that works for you & your subject! I can e-mail you samples of the graphic organizers on the left – feel free to modify them to meet your needs & share them with your colleagues.

42. “Mark it Up” Strategies for Kids Read first and then underline selectively. Make conscious decisions about what to underline and limit the amount. Too much underlining is difficult to study later and often becomes a mechanical process that requires little thought. Read a section of material first and then go back and underline only the words and phrases that most accurately state what that chunk of material is mainly about. [Suggestion from Mrs. B = Stop to underline after reading fairly small “chunks” of material. Pick a “chunk” that works for you ~ 2-3 paragraphs, a text book sub-section, a novel page etc. Don’t wait until the end of a chapter to underline; you’ll miss a lot of important ideas!] Box transitions and number important ideas. Making transitions stand out in the text helps you locate the ideas. When you box such words as first, for example, next or finally, you not only locate important ideas more easily, you also see how they relate to each other. Circle specialized vocabulary. Write brief meanings in the margin if you need to. You need to know these terms to understand the textbook and the instructor, and take the exams. [Suggestion from Mrs. B: Circle words you don’t know; if you have a guess about meaning based on context clues, write down your guess. If you can’t figure out what the word means based on context clues, look the word up. Unless it’s a word that is preventing you from understanding what’s going on, wait until you’re done reading to look up the words. Don’t get bogged down by vocabulary…chances are you’ll be able to figure out what the author meant as you keep reading.] "Maximize Comprehension by Marking Your Texts." Cuesta College. 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2009..

43. “Mark it Up” Strategies for Kids Jot down main ideas in the margin. At the end of a paragraph, stop and ask yourself, "What was most of that paragraph about?" Write the answer in as few words as possible in the margin. This is an especially useful technique for short dense assignments that are difficult to understand, such as those in philosophy, physics, or chemistry. [Suggestion from Mrs. B: If you can’t write in your novel or textbook, you can do this in your notes. For novels, I recommend keeping a list of main ideas by chapter or chunk of assigned reading. You can do this in your notes or on the back of the “Reader Response Forms” that we use in class. Reviewing a list of main ideas is an excellent way to study.] Label Examples (ex). When you encounter an example, determine what main idea -it exemplifies and label it. It will help you understand the main idea when you study later. Write your own ideas, including connections with your other classes, in [square brackets]. If you are reading actively, concentrating and understanding, you will also be thinking. Jot down the ideas that occur to you either at the top or the bottom of the page and bracket them to indicate they are your own. Your recorded ideas will make later study more interesting and will also provide ideas for class discussions, papers, and exams. [Suggestion from Mrs. B: If you can’t write in your novel, you can do this in your notes or on your “Reader Response Form”.] "Maximize Comprehension by Marking Your Texts." Cuesta College. 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2009..

44. “Mark it Up” Strategies for Kids Write questions as you read. Questions help you think, relate new material to what you already know, and wonder about implications and applications. All these mental activities help you learn the material in the first place and remember and use it later. [Are you starting to understand why I assign all those “Reader Response Forms”? ] Write brief summaries at the end of each section of material, and later; at the end of chapters and the book. Use the white space throughout the book to write summaries. Write them in brief phrases only. They should answer the questions "What was this about?" and "What did the author say about it?" Summarize your own words as much as possible. Don't read and write at the same time, or you will end up with too many notes. [Suggestion from Mrs. B: If you can’t write in your novel, you can do this in your notes or on the back of your “Reader Response Form”.] Make outlines of obvious major ideas in the margins. Outlines are a visual representation of ideas and their relation to each other. At times, obvious transitions will make the ideas stand out. When you encounter such material, write brief outlines of the ideas in the margins. [Suggestion from Mrs. B: If you don’t know how to do a formal outline, don’t worry. Lists work too! Just use numbers or bullet points and indent to indicate sub-topics!] Make maps. Outlines force you to isolate and organize important ideas so you can visualize them and thereby understand and remember them. Writing ideas in map form accomplishes the same thing. You can map major sections, chapters, or even entire books. Experiment with summaries, outlines, and maps and decide which work best for you. [See Mapping Handout!] "Maximize Comprehension by Marking Your Texts." Cuesta College. 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2009..

45. Teach Summarizing vs. Retelling Teach kids to isolate and prioritize the main ideas of a passage.

46. What is Summarizing? “Summarizing is especially important as a tool to process at the end of a session of reading and is most effective when it forces students to prioritize information separating important peripheral points and rephrasing and condensing key ideas to make sure they “own” the material.”

47. What’s the Difference between Summarizing and Retelling? “When summarizing is unsuccessful it’s often because the teacher fails to stress the difference between retelling (rewriting or restating the details) and summarizing (retelling while condensing and prioritizing the important parts.)” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 2010. Print.

48. What Type of Questions Elicit Good Summaries? “When teaching students to summarize, ask questions like ‘Who can describe the chapter by recapping its three most important events?’ or ‘Can you summarize the author’s two major arguments supporting his thesis?’ These questions are powerful because they ask students to prioritize information. Until students fully understand the nuances of effective summary, asking questions requiring specific elements of summary such as prioritization are often most effective as teaching tools. Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.

49. Other Summarizing Strategies: Give students a decreasing word limit for their summaries. Ask students to go through their summaries and eliminate unnecessary words. Ask students to prioritize the events in a summarized section. Use summary as a pre-reading activity by having students summarize yesterday’s reading. Model good summarizing technique, and make your summaries as energetic and entertaining as possible. Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print.

50. Actively Teach Vocabulary Fight Word Poverty.

51. A Very Startling Statistic In a study titled: “Meaningful differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children” researchers studied 42 families identified as professional, working class and living in poverty… “When the daily number of words for each group of children is projected across four years, the four-year-old children from the professional family will have heard 45 million words, the working-class child 26 million, and the welfare child only 13 million.” “All three children will show up for kindergarten on the same day, but one will have heard 32 million fewer words.” Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pg. 15

52. Limited Vocabulary = Achievement Gaps “Sociologists George Farkas and Kurt Beron studied the research on 6,800 children ages 3- 12 and found that children from the lower SES were far more likely to arrive at school with smaller vocabularies (twelve to fourteen months behind) and that they seldom made up the loss as they grew older.” Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pg. 15

53. Without Intervention, the Problem Gets Worse… Word Poverty “Snowballs” “A [32 million word] gap that forms before students even start school snowballs once school begins. As Wolfe notes: ‘It is not simply a matter of the number of words unheard and unlearned. When syntactic forms are never encountered, there is less knowledge about the relationship of events in a story. When story forms are never known, there is less ability to infer and predict. When cultural traditions and the feelings of others are never experienced, there is less understanding of what other people feel.’” (207, 102) “By the third grade, students who suffer from “word poverty” are often at a million word reading deficit; by the sixth grade, they are already three level behind their average performing peers.” Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Page 32

54. We Need to Move Beyond the Basic Lexicon Basic Lexicon = 5,000 words we use all the time (83% of words in conversation with a child.) Common Lexicon = The basic lexicon + 5000 more words that are used in conversation less frequently. Rare Words = Words beyond the 10,000 words in the common lexicon. Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pg. 16

55. We Need to Teach “Rare Words” “…[Rare Words] play a critical role in reading. The eventual strength of our vocabulary is determined not by the ten thousand common words, but by how many ‘rare words’ we understand.” Number of Rare Words Encountered when reading (per thousand) – Children’s Book 30.9 – Adult Book 52.7 – Comic Book 53.5 – Popular Magazine 65.7 – Newspaper 68.3 – Scientific Paper 128 Kids encounter more “rare words” in their content classes. Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pg. 16

56. Six Techniques to Reinforce Strong Vocabulary 1.Multiple Takes: “To enter a word into their functioning memory, students need to hear a word…multiple times. Try to get them a myriad of quick exposures after introducing a word.” 2.Compare, Combine, Contrast: “Beware the ‘synonym model.’ It’s the differences between similar words that creates meaning in a passage. 3.Upgrade: “Find opportunities to use richer and more specific words whenever possible. 4.Stress the Syntax: “Ask students to identify or change a word’s part of speech. Ask students to change a word’s tense.” 5.Back to Roots: “Stress the foundational knowledge of roots so students can apply their understanding to new words. 6.Picture This: “Create a multidimensional image of each new word by using pictures and actions.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 274-275

57. Use “Evidence-Based” Questioning Techniques Ask Better Questions.

58. Be Aware of Question Levels & Don’t Neglect Lower Level Questions “Questions about a text can refer to any of (at least) for levels of meaning: Word or phrase level of meaning… Sentence level of meaning… Passage level of meaning… Story level of meaning…” “It’s easy to assume that the goal is to get to the story level as quickly as possible…In fact, the lower levels of meaning (word and sentence) are critical to ensuring firm story-level understanding. Misunderstandings about big issues often start as misunderstandings about smaller things…” “Students will be more successful in story-level discussions when they have a firm grasp of sentence and word level meaning. Remember to ask constantly about the lower levels and ensure that meaning is built up reliably from small units to larger ones.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 292 & 293

59. Use Evidence-Based Questioning “Top reading teachers constantly emphasize groundedness in the text, even on subjective and opinion questions, by asking evidence-based questions – that is questions where students must make reference to a fact or event from the text.” “One of the primary advantages is that evidence-based” questions are ‘testable’ in that you can much more clearly tell whether students have understood (or done) the reading. It’s easier to get a line on how well (and even whether) a student grasped what she just red if a question pins her down to something concrete in the text.” Answers to evidence based questions are harder to “fake” than answers to “big picture” questions or personal judgment questions that don’t require textual support. “It is important to observe that evidence-based questions need not be narrow or concrete. You can just as easily ask students to find a sentence or passage that supports an argument that a certain idea is the theme to of a story. Further, evidence can be used in two ways to induce and deduce.” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 293

60. Make Better Connections Increase student comprehension by pushing beyond surface level connections.

61. Be Aware of Question Levels & Don’t Neglect Lower Level Questions “When asking students to make connections beyond a text, champion teachers recognize that certain types of questions are usually more rigorous (and more likely to reinforce reading comprehension) than others. These types of questions are listed next in priority order according to their relative rigor, with more rigorous question formats at the top: Text-to-text. These are preferable to text-to-world and text-to-self because they reinforce testable ideas rather than judgments, opinions, and stories that students may not be able to access (‘That happened once to my mom!’). They can include within-the-text questions…and across the text questions… Text-to-world. Asking students to relate an issue in a story [or textbook] to some event or person in their world is a valid exercise. This is so especially when it ask to connect specific aspects of a text to specific aspects of the broader world rather than allowing them to discuss any connection they see to any event in the world… Text to-self. These questions are inevitable and valid, but they are also more limited in their relevance to other students and comprehension of texts. Although engaging, they can often lead classes astray. They are best when they focus on specific elements of the text being read…” Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. Pages 295-296

62. To Review: 9 Simple Ways to Help Your Students Become Better Readers 1.Teach/Model reading strategies 2.Read aloud to your students 3.Have your students read out loud to you 4.Assign more reading…go beyond the textbook 5.Use graphic organizers that encourage critical thinking or encourage kids to “mark-up” the text 6.Teach summarizing vs. retelling 7.Actively teach vocabulary 8.Use “Evidence-Based” questioning techniques 9.Encourage the kids to make “better connections”

63. Works Cited Campbell, Jay R., Catherine M. Hombo, and John Mazzeo, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance (PDF file), U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Washington, DC 2000.National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance Gallagher, Kelly, and Richard L. Allington. Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do about It. Portland, Me.: Stenhouse, 2009. Print. Haycock, Kati and Sandra Huang, Are Today's High School Graduates Ready?, Thinking K-16, Vol. 5, Issue 1, The Education Trust, Washington, DC, 2001.The Education Trust Lemov, Doug. Teach like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. Print. "Maximize Comprehension by Marking Your Texts." Cuesta College. 11 Nov. 2003. Web. 12 Oct. 2009.. NTCE Principles of Adolecent Literacy Reform. National Council of Teachers of English, Apr. 2006. Web. 29 Aug. 2010.. Trelease, Jim. The Read-aloud Handbook. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.