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How Do You Meet the Needs of Your 21st Century Students?

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This text is adapted from Valerie Ellery’s Creating Strategic Readers: Techniques for Developing Competency in Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension (second edition), recently published by the International Reading Association.

For more about this book, visit www.reading.org.

An Exclusive Special Report for IRA Members

Copyright © 2009 International Reading Association

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In her quest to support teachers in teaching reading as a strategic, decision-making process—and because of her passion for educating the

whole child—author Valerie Ellery has updated her bestselling book Creating Strategic Readers to help you meet the challenges of educating your 21st-century learners. Ellery describes a comprehensive literacy classroom, detailing appropriate curriculum, assessment, and instruction. She focuses specifically on embedding five essential reading components—phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension—with strategies, techniques, and teacher talk to form a comprehensive literacy approach. At the heart of this comprehensive literacy classroom is the whole child.

What Does It Mean to Educate the Whole Child?Teachers must be knowledgeable about how to teach and reach the whole child. The whole child refers to the developmental domains of the student’s cognitive growth, mental and physical health, and social and emotional welfare. The figure below illustrates the composition of a comprehensive learner that helps to shape the whole child: these aspects include being a critical thinker, creative learner, cooperative worker, effective and active leader, and more. This figure also shows the multiple intelligences that can be drawn on to motivate and engage students.

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language (letters) and spoken language (sounds). Fluency is the ability to read orally with speed and accuracy and is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Vocabulary is the ability to use words orally and in written communication by applying word meaning effectively. Comprehension is the ability to apply meaning to what is read. It is imperative that teachers and students gain a firm understanding of these five components and their corresponding strategies, which represent what strategic readers “do.”

Table 2 identifies the strategies within the five components highlighted in Chapters 2–6. Applying strategies in a standards-based curriculum involves bringing the students to a metacognitive level within the curriculum. When students reflect on the purpose of the

FIGURE 1. The Whole Child/21st-Century Learner

Logical/Mathematical

Critical Thinker/Evaluator

Resource/ Systems Manager

Effective/ Active Leader

Responsible Learner

Communicator

Visual/Spatial

Verbal/Linguistic

Interpersonal

Bodily/KinestheticNaturalist/ Environmentalist

Intrapersonal

Musical/ Rhythmic

CreativeCooperative

Information Manager

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The Whole Child/21st-Century Learner

Copyright © 2009 International Reading Association

How Do I Incorporate Multiple Intelligences in My Daily Instruction?Research in learning styles and intelligences indicates that there are multiple individual styles that teachers can identify and use to select specific instructional strategies to support students’ strengths. The

theory of multiple intelligences (see Howard Gardener’s Multiple Intelligences) suggests that there are a number of distinct forms of intelligence that each individual possesses to some degree. These intelligences are included as indicators to consider when assessing and informing instruction that is individualized to meet the needs

of learners. The table below aligns the multiple intelligences to ways today’s whole child experiences learning, types of techniques, levels of teacher talk, and alternative forms of assessments. The techniques incorporate and note these intelligences and standards. Aligning the multiple individual styles with research-based instructional

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Whole Child/21st-Century Learners

AbilitiesWhat they are

able to do

InterestsWhat they like

to do

Motivation ToolsHow to enthuse them

CognitionHow they actively

think

Teacher TalkHow to communi-

cate with them

Assessment ToolsHow to know ifthey can do it

Visual/Spatial(Information Managers)

Perceive the visual, locate and organize relevant information, relate to size, area, or position

DesignDrawObserveDoodlePaint

CartoonsImagesMultimediaVisual aidsVirtual reality gamesCollages

In pictures:Mental imagesGraphic organizersSpatial orientation

Visualizing in their mind’s eyeIllustratingInterpretingRepresenting

Visual metaphors and analogiesChecklistsGraphsRubric

Verbal/Linguistic(Communicators)

Communicate for a given purpose, subject matter, and audience, story teller

ReadWriteFormat storiesWrite in a diaryDebateTell stories

Bestselling booksWord gamesWikis/BlogsPeer counselingHumorDialogue

With words:ElaborativeExpressiveSymbolism

ConvincingDescribingExplainingTranslatingIdentifyingListing

SurveysInterviewsWord associationsLinguistic humor

Logical/ Mathematical(Critical Thinkers/ Evaluators)

Use reason and identify problems that need new and different solutions

ExperimentPuzzlesBrain teasersAnalyze abstract relationships

GraphingEvaluationCalculatingExploringResearch

Reasoning, induc-tive and deductiveQuantifyingCriticallyLogically

AnalyzingCalculatingDistinguishingVerifyingComparing and contrasting

Strategic gamesMatricesMnemonicsSpreadsheetsProblem solving

Musical/ Rhythmic (Creative Learners)

Create, under-stand, and com-municate intuitively

Sing and humListen to musicJingles and rapsImproviseCompose

Audio tapingRhythmsChoral readingMusical instruments

By melody or rhythmpatterns

CreatingDemonstratingExpressingPerforming

Tonal patternsMusical performancesChecklistsCompositions

Bodily/ Kinesthetic(Effective/Active Leaders)

Control body movements, handle objects, multitask

SportsDanceWork with handsCreate things

ActingField tripsActive learningRole-playing

Movement sensationsGlobal collaborators

Acting outConstructingCreatingDramatizing

ProjectsInterviewsDramatizations

Interpersonal(Cooperative Workers)

Recognize and re-spond to others moods, motiva-tions, and desires

Spend time helping othersE-mail, textingCommunity events

ReportingDialogueDebatePeer teaching

CommunicatingSelf-reflectingMetacognitivelySimulations

BrainstormingRole-playingSharingCollaborating

Group projectsDiscussionsParaphrasingBuzz sessions

Intrapersonal(Responsible Learners)

Self-reflect and have awareness of one’s own strengths and weaknesses

PlanImagineThink timeProblem solve

JournalingLearning logsIndependent learningGoal setting

In relation to their selfReflectionImagery

ConcentratingImaginingSelf-reflectingRehearsing “I statements”

Self-assessmentsIndependent contractsPortfolios

Naturalist/Environmentalist(Resource/System Managers)

Distinguish among features of environment

BackpackNature walksVisit zoos

Interacting with plants, animals, and other objects of nature

SystematicOrderlyEnvironmental

ClassifyingAnalyzingInvestigating

ChartsGraphsSystemsScavenger hunt listsClassification graphic organizers

Note. I’ve adapted Gardner’s designation of naturalist to also include environmentalist; this term helps to reflect a focus on conservation and improving the environment.

TABLE 7. Comprehensive Learner Matrix

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Comprehensive Learner Matrix

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techniques ensures success for both educators and learners.

Author Ellery knows that teachers need a plethora of research-based reading strategies at their disposal. The book includes more than 140 exciting and engaging techniques to motivate students and meet their diverse literacy learning needs. In this special report, you’ll find two all-new techniques—a phonics technique called Stir It Up and a comprehension technique called Frame This—to show you how to plan instruction to meet the diverse needs of your 21st century learners.

Stir It UpPhonics: SynthesizingPurpose: To listen and identify sounds and letters in words and generate additional words that have the same identified letter/sound correlations

Level: Emergent (Adaptation for Early)

ELL Technique: Yes

Multiple Intelligences: Visual/spatial, verbal/linguistic, logical/mathematic, musical/rhythmic, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal

Materials: Text, ABC card set, chef hat, a recording of a catchy children’s song. For Adaptation:

Magnetic letters, large bowl, large spoon, graph, cookie sheet

Procedure:

1. Place ABC cards in a circle or oval shape on the floor and have students stand on the outside of the circle beside the cards.

2. Turn on music and have the students march around the cards (like a game of musical chairs) until you turn off the music.

3. When you stop the music, have the students turn and look down at their position. Call out a letter or make the sound and have the students determine if they are the selected student by where they are

standing when the music stopped. The selected student then jumps into the circle, puts on the chef hat, and orally adds to the pretend class soup a food object that begins with the sound or letter you called.

4. If the added ingredient matches, the rest of the students say, “Stir it up, stir it up,” while they are making a stirring motion. If the ingredient does not match the students say, “take it out, take it out,” while making a motion that pretends to be pulling it out and throwing it over their heads.

5. Additional cooks (i.e., students with ingredients they think

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should be added for the selected letter/sound) can jump into the pot and share their “ingredient” for the soup.

Adaptation for Early Readers: Place a magnetic letter on each of the ABC cards and have the student who adds an ingredient to the soup place their magnetic letter in a large bowl in the middle of the circle. After several students have added to the soup bowl, use a large spoon to “stir it up.” Pour the letters out on a magnetic cookie sheet and have the students use the letters to try to make words. Make a graph of words using the number of letters or the number of words in the created word list. A graph can also be made to accompany the soup items that were given to determine how many sounds or letters are in the ingredients presented.

Purpose: To frame images of a story by creating a life-size picture to aid in visualizing details from a story

Level: Emergent

ELL Technique: No

Multiple Intelligence: Visual/spatial, verbal/linguistic, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal

Materials: Text, 11 × 14 picture frame

Procedure:

1. Share a read-aloud text with the class or a small group.

2. Show a picture in a frame and discuss how the frame holds the picture, but the picture tells or captures the story.

3. Use the outer section of an 11 × 14 frame to create a life-size talking picture frame. Have a volunteer hold the frame in front of his or her face so the “audience” can “see” the picture (the volunteer’s face).

4. Have the student volunteer (also known as the “picture frame”) begin to talk about the images that he or she recorded in his or her mind during the read-aloud. The volunteer can use facial and voice expressions to convey his or her message.

Frame ThisComprehension: Visualizing and Sensory Imaging