Hello!!! Hope you all have received the course packet in the mail. We had a few delays and I apologize for that...
Please read Chapter 1 Strategic Thinking from Strategies That Work that was included in your syllabus packet and reflect on the following questions:
1. What areas discussed in Strategic Thinking do you feel you do a good job modeling and teaching in your classroom? If you are not a classroom teacher, please reflect on how these strategies could be integrated into your curriculum.
2. Share any areas of improvements that you would like to focus on.
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In thinking about my teaching of the strategies, I feel that I do a good job of teaching the following: Making connections, asking questions (I do question and answer types), drawing inferences (predicting)and synthesixing. For each of these strategies, I have a short story unit that I use. First we define the strategy. Then I read and model how to use it aloud and on the overhead. Next, we continue reading and I give them a good stopping point in the story where they could apply the strategy themselves. We share these aloud and I choose one to write on the overhead. If anyone wants to change theirs, they may do so. Finally, they apply the strategy on their own. For each of the strategies, I have them indicate what clues from the reading they used in making their inference, connection, etc. I also try to do a lot with visualizing, as in middle school we are mostly reading books with few/no pictures. When we come across good character descriptions, how they act, walk, talk, etc., we have "Acting 101" and I have the students act out what they visualize. This is always very fun!
The strategies that I feel like I need more work on are determining important ideas, and repairing understanding. I model these in my read alouds and cue the students when I am reading with them, but I don't have any specific tools/strategies to teach these. We just started reading the book The Thief Lord and I am having them write a brief summary/main idea statement about each chapter. I give them key words they need to include, in hopes that this steers them towards the important ideas of the chapter. Any other ideas would be appreciated!
Since I do not have my own classroom and do not 'teach reading' I don't have the opportunity to use the strategies or analyze how I am doing on a regualr basis. As a librarian I do, however, indirectly teach reading. I teach enthusiasm for reading, the love of reading, the need to understand and evaluate what you read, and the ability to find what you need to read as well as what you like to read. I find it is often dificult for me to know how to include these strategies into my instruction because I don't exactly know where each of the 15-20 teachers I collaborate with are in the process of teaching reading.
Part of the reason I am taking this course is to help gain a better understanding of the strategies AND feel more confident with using the correct terminology in the correct way as I try to include it in my curriculum. As I do htings like book talks (less & less frequently as teachers use these strategies and build classroom libraries they tell me it is not needed, something that makes me quite sad) I want to model the strategies. I feel this is a way for me to reinforce the classroom instruction in a slightly different environment than the classroom. I think it is possible for me to use the strategies as I teach my lessons on how to read websites and databases, e-mails, blogs, etc.
I think I can further strengthen my inclusuion of these strategies with more and better collaboration and communication with individual classroom teachers.
Regarding the strategies that proficient readers use, I feel that I do well with the modeling of question asking. When we read out loud as a class, the students and me are regularly asking questions about the text and what the author's intention is. We do a lot of sharing before the students are left to themselves to work. The eighth grade is especially great at this. They have so many opinions!
The readers in my classroom also talk about the pictures in their head that the author creates. I model this all of the time. I try to show them how good writers paint pictures in our heads. They are very open to sharing their thoughts.
This school year I am working on prereading comprehension by various activities including vocabulary building and brainstorming about the topic. "Write down everything you know about..." We clear up misconceptions right away. It's nice to know what we're dealing with before we dive into a topic.
I find that by simple discussion and questioning, we help each other repair faulty comprehension.
I would like to work on drawing inferences during and after reading. This is hard for students. Also the sixth grade, especially, has dificulties distinguishing important from less important ideas in text. They seem to think that everything is important. They tend to lose focus of what is important - everything is equally important to them, therefore, nothing is really important.
Regarding the strategies that proficient readers use, I feel that I do well with the modeling of question asking. When we read out loud as a class, the students and me are regularly asking questions about the text and what the author's intention is. We do a lot of sharing before the students are left to themselves to work. The eighth grade is especially great at this. They have so many opinions!
The readers in my classroom also talk about the pictures in their head that the author creates. I model this all of the time. I try to show them how good writers paint pictures in our heads. They are very open to sharing their thoughts.
This school year I am working on prereading comprehension by various activities including vocabulary building and brainstorming about the topic. "Write down everything you know about..." We clear up misconceptions right away. It's nice to know what we're dealing with before we dive into a topic.
I find that by simple discussion and questioning, we help each other repair faulty comprehension.
I would like to work on drawing inferences during and after reading. This is hard for students. Also the sixth grade, especially, has dificulties distinguishing important from less important ideas in text. They seem to think that everything is important. They tend to lose focus of what is important - everything is equally important to them, therefore, nothing is really important.
Thank you all for reflecting on what you do well in your teachings.
As a fourth grade teacher I need to continue practicing the strategy of inferring. Having students read between the lines is difficult to teach. I will just keep modeling, modeling, modeling using easier text.
I feel that I do a good job of modeling reading strategies. I focus on one strategy at a time in my reading instruction. The terminology is new to students, and they need a lot of positive reinforcement. In addition to modeling the strategies with the literature in our reading program, I use the “Into the Book” video series. This let’s them observe other students using the strategies. It’s more powerful for them to see other students using good reading strategies. In a second grader’s mind, I’m supposed to know all the answers because I’m the teacher. I can (and do) model the strategies, but they really connect when they see other students applying them. We also partner with a 4th grade classroom. It’s been a benefit to both classes. It’s provided 1-1 modeling and guided practice. The 4th graders love being seen as the experts and brush up on their skills before helping their partners. For example, we were researching animals. The 4th grade teacher helped the 4th graders find information first, so they could guide their partners in the right direction. She also coached them on identifying the important information. They were more focused on her instruction because they had an important purpose for learning. They became the experts. Both classes are asking what we’re doing together next.
Second graders are making the transition between learning to read and reading to learn. Some students are so focused on reading the words that they don’t think about what the words are saying. That’s probably my biggest challenge – trying to get students to monitor their understanding. They will proudly read the words on the page, and not realize that they don’t know what the author is saying.
When I think about how I teach the strategies I feel that I do some of them well and others I could do more of in the classroom. When I think about the things that I do well I feel that I do a good job with visualizing. I work hard to model and help guide students in this area as well as try to show the importance of visualizing as they read. I notice that a lot of my low readers cannot visualize as they read. I also think that I do a lot with the students asking questions. I try to have my classroom have an open feel where they can ask questions of me. Also, to go along with that I try to model questioning as they read when I read aloud to them. We take breaks to question things we are unsure of that is going on in the story.
As for my weaknesses I think I could do more to work on inferences. I do a little but the kids still look at me a little bewildered when I ask them to infer something from the reading. It is obvious that this is not a skill I have honed enough. I think because it is a hard one to teach I sometimes bypass it. I also try to get the students to synthesize information they have read from time to time and they have difficulty with it leading me to believe they need more work in that area.
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