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Texts to ReadUsing premium resources to improve reading interest and comprehension.

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What will students read?

• Textbooks• Supplementary Materials

• Problems:• - Interest in reading material is low

• - Ability to comprehend is low

Solutions:

HI--LO Texts

-High Interest when they read something relevant or current to them.

-Lower reading levels assure better comprehension for emerging and growing readers.

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Lexile Scores

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Choosing texts for students

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Comprehension

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Grade-Level Equivalents

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The All-Access Pass•Premium Subscription content•Free to teachers, students in Utah• Magazines• Newspapers• Professional Journals• Images• Maps• Audio and music

http://pioneer.uen.org

http://pioneer-library.org/support_materials/downloads/newpioneer.pdf

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The web site

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For comparison’s sake...

1. Textbook passage

2. Magazine article

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DEMO - EBSCO Student Research Center• http://pioneer.uen.org• Choose the Database from the “General Reference

Collection” • Example: EBSCO

• Choose service • Example: “Student Research Center”

• Search for a topic • Example: “bullying”

• “Filter results by”… • Example: Magazines

• “Narrow Results By” ... • Example: Subject > “Facebook (Web resource)”

• Click on the article for:• Citation• PDF Full Text• HTML Full Text

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DEMO - SIRS Issue Researcher1. http://pioneer.uen.org

2. Choose the Database from the “General Reference Collection”• Example: SIRS Issue Researcher

3. Search for a topic • Example: “Energy Dependency” from “Leading Issues”

4. “Sort results by” ... • Example: “Lexile Score - Low to High”

5. “Narrow your results” ... • Example: Newspapers

6. “Go to” ... • Summary• Citation• PDF copies of original articles• Audio MP3 of the article (computer read)

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Variations• Have students conduct the search for relevant texts (advanced). Give students a focused search to get one or two articles on a pre-selected term or topic

• Research practice: ask students to cite two or more pieces of evidence from an article that supports a claim.

• Ask students to search the newspaper for articles related to classroom discussion, and include the reading of those articles as a review of content discussions in class.

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What Can Go Wrong?

• Access• Do I need to print or make

copies?

• Too Long• What portion of the text

should I use?

• Time to search• When will I find time to

find texts online?

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What Can Go Wrong?

•Fluent and Disfluent readers in the same class• Option 1: Homogenous

grouping • Option 2: Heterogeneous

grouping

•This kind of reading builds fluency!

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Assessment

• Pre- and Post-: Check understanding of key vocabulary

• Post: Using brief comprehension questions

• Impact: End of level testing is impacted by comprehension of snippets of text

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Online Tutorials• http://pioneer.uen.org• Click on Support Materials link at top of page • Online tutorials link near bottom of the page…

• Example: Leading Issues through SIRS Issues Researcher• http://www.proquestk12.com/landings/SIRS_Researcher_2/

SIRS_Res_Context/SIRS_Issues_Researcher_Context.shtml

• Get Help from your Library Media Teacher

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Your turn...

•Generate a list of four lessons that you could find an article that could make the topic more relevant for your students.

•Share with neighbors/group.

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References• http://lexile.com/about-lexile/lexile-overview/

• http://pioneer.uen.org

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