of workshop…

of workshop…September 2013

The

“We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading.” B.F.

Skinner

• The First Few Weeks of School…

Goal: Getting to Know your Students, Building Relationships & Creating a Community of Readers and Writers

Donalyn Miller Recommends…

O Student Surveys: (reading and interest inventory)

O She uses information from the surveys to make book recommendations for kids.

O She starts with her struggling readers firstO Book Frenzy

O Spends one day letting kids give recommendations and share their favorite books

O First vocab & unit: Genre studyO Over 2 weeks, investigate all the genres & create

lists of elements of eachO 40 Book Reading Requirement

Chris Tovani Recommends… O Conversation

calendar (example on page 19, 20)

O Asking specific Qs Beginning of course survey (page 24)

Chapter 4 includes a lesson plan of the

first two days (pages 47-71).

Tovani’s SurveyBeginning of Course Survey:

You as a School Reader1. List the types of reading or texts that are difficult for you to

read. Be as specific as possible.2. Describe what you would do to help yourself when you’re

having difficulty reading a text. If you automatically quit reading or find a way to get around the reading, explain in detail what you do.

3. What grade did you earn in your last English class?4. Describe what you were assigned to read in the class and

share how much reading you actually did.5. If you didn’t do the majority of the reading, describe in detail what you did to get around it.

Does this tend to be you…?

Penny Kittle Recommends…

O Changing our own philosophy of teaching reading and literature:O “A book isn’t rigorous if students aren’t reading it.”

So, why teach the classics if only (maybe) 30% of students read an assigned book?

O We are responsible for moving EVERY student forward in reading. For our low readers, “giving them work that is beyond them is unlikely to help them catch up, and is likely to make them fall still further behind.”

O We can increase students’ interest and ability to read if we build their CAPACITY for reading -> reading stamina

Kittle quotes Ann Patchett:

O “I’m all for reading bad books because I consider them to be a gateway drug. People who read bad books now may or may not read better books in the future. People who read nothing now will read nothing in the future.”

In the first week…

O Establish reading rate & assign HW expectation (27)

O Find an interesting bookO Read for 10 minutes; record the # of pages readO x 6 for an hourly rate; O x 2 = the # of pages a student should read outside

of class each week (2 hrs of homework)

• Start developing relationships with students • Accept where they are• Provide books that ignite a motivation to read

READING LOGS

Maintaining Reading Statistics

O Goal of using reading logs is to maintain reading statistics so we can spy on ourselves as readers.

O The log could contain the title, author, the level of difficulty, the numbers of minutes the student spent reading, and the starting and

ending page numbers.

O This could look different depending on your student population.

Renna’s Log

Megan’s Log

Kemp’sReading Log

Megan’s “in class” reading log/ exit

slip

“Books Read” Log

“Books Read” Log

Kemp’s hourly reading record

Student name Book TitleMon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Wk Total

READING RECORD hr:

~~ Each day, record the page number you are currently reading ~~

“We must understand that reading at grade level in big gulps of hundreds of pages makes the hard reading possible.” – Penny Kittle

READING LOG REFLECTION

1. Make a claim about your reading and use evidence to support it.2. Write a full page. You can discuss any of the following:

• What books did you read? What did you think?• How many total pages did you read on this log?• How many total minutes did you read?• When (days, time of day) do you seem to do the

most reading?3. Did you reach your goal(s) from last time?

Why or why not?4. What are your new goals for the next two weeks?

What steps will you take to help you reach your goals?

Did you remember to:

? Add your total minutes and pages read to your reading graphs?? Turn in your reading log?? Write a full page reflection in your notebook?

“HOW” Reading Logs should be USED:O Schools establish a policy about maintaining a daily record of

books read at school and HOME O Reading logs ARE NOT places for responses to reading, nor do

students write book summaries in them. O They are simply records of time spent reading

and volume of reading accomplished.

Teacher’s College Recommendations…

Information from TC Curricular Plan for 8th grade

To Get Started: • ALL STUDENTS recording starting time and page number. • ALL STUDENTS recording ending time and page number.• After a few weeks, encourage students to study their

reading logs to articulate their reading habits. By themselves, and then with their reading partner.

“WHY” Reading Logs should be USED in the classroom/school…

O Provides insights to a child’s readingO “I notice you’ve been reading faster. Has it

been hard to hold on to the story as you read faster?”

O “What’s slowing you down? I notice you read less today. What got in the way?”

O If a child is making slow progress through the book, observe how the child is reading silently, checking to see if there are any behaviors slowing the child down.


Reading Log Red Flags O School leaders, as well as teachers, must

collect, save, and study these critical records. For example:General rule of thumb is that a child

should read approx. three-quarters of a page a minute.

Reader reads 34 pages during a ½ hour in school And ONLY 8 pages in ½ hour at home.

Reader is consistently reading far EASIER texts than their level.

CRUCIAL to communicate with parents on the volume of reading their child is doing. Communication could be HUGE payoff.


Reading Logs provide insight to VOLUME of student reading.

EXAMPLE:

It takes eight hours for a student who reads 200 WPM to complete Hatchet. If he reads at school and home, he should finish this book in ___?___(Researcher Dick Allington)

If a child is reading below 120 WPM, then alarm bells should go off. Does he need an easier book? Is he actually reading?

O http://www.readingrockets.org/article/96/


Effective Reading LogsO Intentional Practice through teacher

modeling at first…Practice, practice, practice to move to automaticity with students.

O Philosophical stance on Reading Logs supported by research

O Plus decide on grade level and/or school

wide stance on Reading LogsO Be enthusiastic about Reading Logs even if you have to “fake” it.


Assessing Readers and Writers in Workshop

Teacher’s College Recommends…

O Many secondary teachers assess readers by the books they are holding in their hands.

O Simply assess their accuracy, their fluency, and their comprehension, right in the text, and you’ll have a window into how well they are matched to books.

O Start by assessing your struggling readers first.

O Teacher’s college has an in-book assessment you can use.

In-Book Assessment from

TC

http://readingandwritingproject.com/public/themes/rwproject/resources/assessments/additional_tools/in_book_assessment.pdf



In-Book Assessment from

TC




Reading Rates



Chris Tovani Recommends…


GradingHow do people grade in a workshop?


Check out Chapter 7: Grading is Killing Me (129-149).


6th Grade ELA

Grade Distribution

Homework-10%Class Work-40%Projects / As-sessments-50%

Renna’s Grades

Grading Assignments

Renna’s Grades3 4 5

• Does not meet standards/ expectations

• Below grade level

• Meets standard/ expectations

• On Grade Level

• Exceeds standard

• Going above and beyond

Example Notebook Rubric

Renna’s Grades

The NotebookWhat goes in the notebook?


O Tally List—page is divided into columns for the genres and # of titles she requires. She signs off on books they complete

O Reading List—students record all the books they’ve read. Each entry includes title, author, date book was finished and the student’s assessment of how difficult the book was to read.

O Books-to-read list: plan for future readingO Response entries (letters): students reflect on

personal reactions to books they read and authors’ writing. Miller writes letters that respond back.

(96)



Balanced LiteracyFitting in Reading and Writing Each Day




O Stealing Reading Moments (52-59)O Using classroom interruptionsO Bell-ringers and warm-upsO When students are doneO Picture dayO Library Time-focused library visits

Supporting Students’ Vocabulary

Teacher’s College Recommends…

O “The research is clear: the single most important thing you can do to enhance your students’ knowledge of words is to lure your students into lots and lots and lots of reading; if students read a diverse range of books, they’ll encounter a wider range of words.”

O The vocabulary in historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction will often be richer than vocabulary in realistic fiction and mysteries.

O Lucy recommends using Donald Bear’s Words Their Way to help students who struggle with reading learn the spelling and word patterns that, for whatever reason, they may have missed when they were younger.

O You may want to assess your students for high-frequency words and spelling stage to see if some students would benefit from Bear’s word-study work. Those assessments are available on the teacher’s college website.




Documents

of workshop…