Literacy in the Content Areas:Teaching All Readers to Interact and Engage

with Challenging Texts

Kathy Sampogna & Karen Giordano Klein HSKlein ISD

Session Norms

Actively participate in discussion/activities Respect others’ opinions Limit side bar conversations Tame Technology Silence cell phones

Learning Targets

I understand how beliefs about reading/comprehension instruction drive actions.

I can define reading in terms of texts and what it requires to comprehend.

I can identify how rigor differs from “hard.”

I can show students how to use thinking strategies to help them make sense of complex text.

I understand what “inner voice” is and I can model strategies that will help students interact with text.

AGENDA

One-Day FormatMorning Afternoon

Beliefs and Practices8:30-9:30

Engagement12:45-1:30

Rigor vs. Hard9:30-10:30

Inner Voice1:30-2:30

Thinking Strategies10:30-11:30

Annotating2:30-3:30

Lunch will be from 11:30 am– 12:45 pm

Part 1

Beliefs and

Practices

Beliefs and Practices

My negative beliefs about my learners affected my instructional practice. For a short time, I believed my students…

My Beliefs…

Didn’t care about school…So I was tempted to stop caring.

Didn’t want to read better…So I wondered why bother trying to differentiate?

Wanted to be left alone…So I won’t make waves trying to get to know them.

Wouldn’t read…So I stopped spending time and money finding them engaging, beautiful books.

“When our core beliefs match our practice, teachers are energized.” ~Samantha Bennett

Teaching students with diverse needs forces teachers to make choices about:

what they believe about their learners’ capabilities.

what they believe about how efficacious they are when it comes to meeting students’ needs.

what they decide matters most to learning.

INSIGHT FROM A 10TH GRADE STUDENT

Video Clip

Comprehending Content: Reading Across the Curriculum Grades 6-12

Beliefs Drive Practice

What do you believe about teaching and learning?

Teaching Beliefs

Student engagement is more important than content coverage. There is more to teach than time to teach it. Therefore I must be thoughtful about what I give my

instructional time to. The world is an interesting place and the standards are connected to the real world. My job is show

students how the two are connected. The “need to know” drives engagement. Interesting text exists but sometimes it takes time to find it. I need to know what my students know so that I can plan for the next day. Doing what I ask my students to do helps me to find glitches in planning. Students need time to read, write, and think if they are going to better at reading, writing, and thinking.

“Bureaucracy/3”

From: The Book of EmbracesBy: Eduardo Galeano

 …at a barracks in Seville, in the middle of the courtyard of that barracks was a small bench. Next to the small bench, a soldier stood guard. No one knew why the bench had to be guarded. It was guarded around the clock-- every day, every night, and from one generation of officers to the next the order was passed on and the soldiers obeyed it. No one expressed any doubts or ever asked why. If that’s how it was done, there had to be a reason.  

Handout 1

And so it continued until someone, some general or colonel, wanted to look at the original order. He had to rummage through all the files. After a good bit of poking around, he found the answer. Thirty-one years, two months and four days ago, an officer had ordered a guard to be stationed beside the small bench, which had just been painted, so that no one would think of sitting on wet paint. 

BenchesBenches

What benches will I fight to guard?

Which ones will I consider abandoning? 

Which ones must I stop guarding?

“Whoever is doing the reading, writing, and talking is the one who is getting smarter.”

Tovani/Bennett Literacy Lab MantraWhat are the essential beliefs that drive my instructional practice?

Instructional practices I believe matter most to student learning:

In order for my students to access difficult text, write clearly, and think critically, I need to explicitly teach strategies that will help them interact with content and curriculum.

Strategy Instruction

In order for students to pursue rigorous reading, they must have engaging, readable text.

Accessible, Engaging Text

In order to differentiate instruction, I must know my students well. I must provide daily formative assessment opportunities so that I can see what they know and need to learn.

Formative Assessments

Workshop Model is a planning structure that makes it possible for my students to do the majority of the work. I have to intentionally make time for students to do the reading, writing, and thinking during class time, if I want them to grow as learners.

Systems, Structures, and Planning

“We are most powerful as teachers when our core beliefs align with our instructional practices.” Sam Bennett author of That Workshop Book

Core Teaching Belief:

Core Teaching Belief: Handout 2

Core Teaching Belief:

What are the essential beliefs that drive my instructional practice?

Instructional practices I believe matter most to student learning:

Time is the Enemy

In a limited amount of time, where should teachers focus their efforts? Should time be spent:

Covering vast amounts of content? Engaging students in purposeful work? Wrestling with meaning to comprehend?

What is reading?

Handout 3

Redefining Reading

Redefining Text

What is text?

Difficulty of Text Can Change

Based on these factors:

• Background knowledge

• Interest and motivation

• Purpose

Part 2

Rigor vs. Hard

What is the difference?

Rigor Is…

Teachers are frequently asked to raise the “rigor” in their classrooms. But what does it mean to be a rigorous teacher?

•What makes reading hard?

•How is rigorous reading different from hard reading?

•For me, rigor means:

What conditions make something rigorous? What conditions make something hard? What are the emotions attached to each condition?

Rigor Hard

I embrace rigor.I have a chance of being successful.

I avoid hard.No chance of being successful.

Handout 4

Rigor isn’t about:

the number of novels one blasts through.

the number of pages that are assigned.

how fast one covers content.

Rigor varies and…

depends on the learner’s skill set and motivation to complete the task.

changes as the learner gains expertise.

invites engagement because the learner experiences success.

depends on the learner’s skill set and motivation to complete the task.

changes as the learner gains expertise.

invites engagement because the learner experiences success.

Rigor Redefined by Tony Wagner

Educational Leadership, October 2008, Volume 66. Number 2

Handout 5

Part 3

Thinking Strategies Across the Content Areas

Handout 6

We need to widen our notion of texts; doing so will widen our repertoires of teaching and what curricula can uncover, and will promote student’s strategic reading and widen their textual expertise.

Making It Matter Through the Power of Inquiry ~Jeffrey D. Wilhem and Michael W. Smith

Thinking Strategies ofProficient Readers Handout 7-11

Characteristics of Highly Effective Comprehension Strategy Teachers

1. Understand their use of strategies while reading.

2. Incorporate comprehension instruction into daily, weekly, and monthly plans and lessons.

3. Ask students to apply strategies in a wide variety of texts.

4. Vary the size of strategy instructional groups.

5. Gradually transfer responsibility for strategy application to students.

6. Ask students to demonstrate strategy use in a variety of ways (two-column notes, journals, charts, skits, sketches, time lines).

7. Understand why they teach strategies and how strategy instruction fits into overall goals for teaching reading and content.

Part 4

Engagement

What does it mean?

Many define reading as an act of engagement between the reader and the text.

What do I need in order to engage with the text?– Strategies– Accessible Text– Purpose and relevancy

Engagement Handout 12-14

Levels of Learner Engagementfrom P.C. Schlechty’s Level of Learner Engagement

Engagement

Strategic Compliance

Ritual Compliance

Retreatism

Rebellion

Handout 15

INNER VOICE

Useful vs. Waste of Time

Part 5

Inner Voice

Conversation Voice (useful voice)This voice helps readers to:

• Relate to the text• Make connections between the book and the reader• Ask questions• Give opinions• Talk back to the text• Remember what is read

Handout 16-17

Inner Voice

Reciting Voice (waste of time voice)– This voice causes readers to:

• Lose track of what is being read• Stray from the text• Forget what is read• Not care about the reading

Turn off the reciting voice by rereading and giving yourself a job or a purpose for reading.

Inner Voice

Reading Purposes– Some purposes are:

• Ask a question• Look for the answer to a question• Make a connection• Look for clues to help draw an inference• Retell what has been read• Try to visualize a picture

Part 6

Annotation

What do I write?

When I annotate, what do I write?

Some possibilities: Record a REACTION Ask a QUESTION Give an OPINION Make a CONNECTION Respond to how I would RELATE if I were in the

situation

Handout 18-22

Why Bother to Annotate?

It helps the reader: It helps the teacher/administrator:

Engage with the text when his or her mind is wandering

Distinguish who is reading and who is “fake” reading

Hold thinking so it can be referred to later “See” what strategies readers are using to access meaning

Recall thinking so he/she can share with an expert what he/she needs

Diagnose what learners need in order to better comprehend text

Remember what he/she thought was important while reading

Assess what learners know and can do

Notice patterns, synthesize new thinking, and ask questions

Notice how the reader is attacking the text

“What if we viewed being smart as

a goal that students could work

toward rather than as something

they are or are not?”

~Ron Rittchardt

Intellectual Character