Close Reading and a Choice: Laugh or Cry

     I have always had a love-hate relationship with Close Reading. I mean, it is a challenge (read: often impossible) to get struggling readers to read, much less have them read dreaded material more than once. I know, I know - the benefits are innumerable. The thinking is deep. The strategies that can be applied in these opportunities are endless. But - if you hate to read it the first time, how in the world am I going to get you to read it a second time? Well, I am working on the "hate to read" part. Work. In. Progress.
     I introduced Close Reading to them this past week and went ahead and acknowledged the groans when they saw the "reread" direction. I started simple with some whole group practice and then gave them a chance to try it independently with a paragraph I had selected for each of them based on their level.
     I need to write a disclaimer here.... Teaching high school is a trip. I love it. I laugh every single day. These kids are a riot. I adore them. In situations at school, I very often say: Laugh or Cry!. That stems from years of teaching EBD students and enduring situations in which the choice of what to do is unclear. I also say: I choose to laugh! Because I usually do. Not in a laughing at them way, but in a laughing with them way. Besides, I am an ugly crier and my Mary Kay would run. That's expensive. So - it is with laughter that I share with you this situation with the post today. My paragraph had the word dam in it because it talks about flooding. Well, since these 17 year olds are basically 8 year olds in bigger bodies, when I read the word, they all fell out laughing. "Ooooo! You said dam!" "I'm tellin' my mama!" "You mad, Miss? Why are you cussin' today?" So of course, every time I read the word dam, I read it with passion. And we laughed. I took my pictures of the lesson for the blog, and we moved on. Fast forward to this morning and I upload the pictures to the computer and guess what. Ya'll - one of my darlings changed the annotation in the margin of my lesson to damn rather than dam. My first thought: How proud I was that they knew how to spell it correctly to get the desired effect. And I laughed. My second thought: "OH MY GOOD LORD! I left that on the board over the weekend! People are going to see it and think I did that! We may even have a church that meets there. More fuel to the "public schools are corrupting our children" debate!!!" Whatever!! So, I am not going to change it and retake all the pictures. Instead, you will just have to see it and smile. Or laugh. I did. (PS: This is by far the most tame thing I have laughed at all week...)
     The paragraph we read together is an excerpt from an article off of the site Reading A-Z. Note the spelling of dam in the paragraph....

     I then shared the anchor chart I made for what to do in a Close Reading. I adapted it to fit my kids better from some of the charts I have seen. They copied it in their journals.

     We read the paragraph together, and then I modeled the steps one at a time with their help. The board ended up looking like this:

     We only briefly discussed how to summarize because I am focusing on that a lot next week. I also like how they used their schema to support their thinking. They were able to apply the strategy of using context clues to define the word levee. We learned that last week. They relied heavily on questioning for understanding which we also learned together. It's so nice when they actually use what I am teaching. Am I right?
     I then gave them each a paragraph I chose for them based on their level of reading. All of these are 1st to 4th grade level texts. The sticky notes have their names on them, but I folded them up to protect their privacy in the post picture.

     I then had them put the paragraphs in their journal and go through the procedures as we had done.

     I worked with this student. He hates to read. He refuses to read. He cannot read, so go figure! I did the writing in the beginning and he wrote the summary. We discussed this paragraph a lot.

     Another mini-lesson I did last week was on visualization. I gave them a paper folded into 8 squares. We defined visualization and discussed how everyone's unique schema forms the support for their visualization. I then gave them the words: sun, flower, dog, and car. They had to draw a picture of each of these in a square. Afterwards, we shared them ans discussed the similarities and why they occurred. We also discussed the variances. Only one sun had clouds. Two were drawn in the corner. All were round. I then read a 4 sentence paragraph aloud that described a bug that uses it's large pincers to get ants. They drew that and we compared the drawings. All were eerily similar. Then I read my favorite paragraph from Charlotte's Web. You know the one - where she describes the smells and sights in the barn for the first time. They drew the picture they created in their mind. All were very detailed. Myself and another student had pictures that were almost identical because we had seen a barn. Every one else relied on drawing the animals because that is what they knew, having never been to a barn. It was a great example of schema and how it helps with mental images and supports comprehension. Here are a few of the end products. 

      All in all, the week in Reading was a success. I was going to share one of the lessons I did in my EBD class, but this post got lengthy so I will save it. Never a shortage of information, always a shortage of time!

      Here is to a week of laughing and NOT EVER crying, friends! We have Spring Break the week after this one coming up. Five days until it's beach time! Happy teaching, learning, and laughing.
      Mrs. Beck

Introducing CAFE to High School Students

     One of the things that I wondered when I volunteered to teach this Reading class was: I say I can do this, I feel like I can do this, but wait - CAN I DO THIS?! Refer to the diving in head first post if you don't believe me! But as I also have said before, these teenagers struggle with the same things that younger, newer readers struggle with when attempting to read. Somewhere along the way, though the instruction didn't stick. Who knows why, and truthfully the reasons are all vastly different. But at this point, I am not in the business of their why. I am in the business of how, as in HOW CAN WE FIX IT? I had amazing success with younger readers using the The CAFE Book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. These sisters do a great job of laying out the basics of what most teachers of literacy know, but can't exactly articulate as succinctly as is done in the book. It also offers specific strategies, prompts, and ideas that are practical and immediately useful for students. It honestly changed the way I taught reading. All of that said - I wondered if it could transfer to high school students. Once I did my  initial assessments on them and discovered none of them were proficient readers above a third grade level, I started to look for patterns. Just as with younger readers, each of these students had their own specific area in which they struggled. CAFE is an acronym for Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, and Expand Vocabulary. If you look back to some of my original blog posts, you will see that I taught this as Starbeck's CAFE in younger grades to play on my name. (We also drank hot chocolate during Reader's Workshop, but that is a story for another day. It was amazing....!) I taught my high school students the CROP-QV (Connections, Reactions, Opinions, Predictions, Questioning, Visualization) first to give them strategies to fall back on immediately. It was harder than I thought because they were not familiar with any of them. Honestly - as I have checked in with them throughout the semester, they report that they are using the strategies and have been able to tell me when and how. That's a good sign. All of the CROP-QV strategies are listed on the CAFE menu, so the progression is seamless. I also introduce those first since they are fairly simple to grasp. Another plus is that when I give them the CAFE menu they are not overwhelmed with all we are going to learn. They can already mark a few off and have some familiarity even before we begin. It makes the task a bit more surmountable for them, if you will.
     I started by defining the areas of CAFE on the board, one letter at a time.

     We discussed what each of them meant, and I defined the level at which a proficient reader would perform. I did IRIs on each of them at the beginning of the semester, so I was also able to share with them their specific data. They were all floored when I said 120 words per minute, especially when they saw where they performed. (I have two who read 28 and 32 WPM on a third grade level text.) Later in the period when I read from our current chapter book aloud, I had them figure out my WPM. They were able to more realistically grasp how fluency at around 120 WPM would actually sound. One of them said, "And you sound like you always do, so that was real. You weren't playin' us." No, Buddy. I would never. Now let's get you right there with me!
     I gave them a CAFE menu and had them cut it apart into the four sections. They then added the definitions we had written on the board.

     We will highlight the ones we learn as we go. I gave them each their own Reading data (comprehension ranking, accuracy percentage, and Words per Minute) and let them decide which area they felt they needed to start with. The conversations were very honest. Some were clearly comprehension. Others felt that their accuracy was the reason their fluency was so low. (Thank you, Reading gods!) We recorded who was setting which goal, and low and behold... they all fell right where I would have put them. (Again I say... Thank you!!) We will continue knocking out strategies next week. Our CAFE is up and running.
     I also wanted to share a quick lesson I taught last week that was adapted from the amazing Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. I use this book all the time. You need to buy one if you haven't already. We have done a lot of work with making inferences, and this lesson tied in a lot of our previous ideas. We were trying to determine ways to figure out the meanings of unfamiliar words. I used an article that was on a third grade level so everyone could read it. It told the story of the sinkhole that formed under the National Corvette Museum. I chose it because it had several strategies that were obvious teaching points for inferring meaning for unfamiliar words. I had them read the article independently and circle words they didn't know the meaning of in the text. I then read the atircle out loud. They then called out the words which we recorded, looked for clues, and wrote the sentence in which the word was used. Only then did we go back and fill in the actual meaning. I had them record all of this on a four column foldable.

     I then gave them one of three articles that I had pre-selected for them based on level. They used the same foldable that was had used for the whole group lesson and just added their new words to the bottom. After we discussed which strategies they used, they added the foldable to their journals.

     I also made an anchor chart for reference. We will add to this as we identify new ways to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words.

     On Friday, we summarized all of our inferring strategies under the Inferring Umbrella. This is also adapted from Strategies That Work.

     Funny story about this... You guys know how I worry about insulting them with ideas, texts, graphics that are too elementary. I mean, they are already non-reading 17 year olds. I don't want to pour salt in the wound! When I wrote this umbrella on the board, one of my older boys said, "What is this? It looks too simple." Well of course I thought he meant babyish, so I asked him to bear with me and explained we were adding some higher level wording and it would make more sense. He said, "No. You need to add raindrops or something to make it look more real." Oh. Here I was thinking the dot bullets I was adding would be more grown up.... So, I dug up a blue marker, and raindrops we had! They really are the same struggling readers I had in elementary school, just in bigger bodies. I'll have to post a picture of his umbrella. It has raindrops, and it is beautiful.
     The only other thing I wanted to share is that I will be solely teaching Reading next year! I am doing this with mixed emotions because I do so love my EBD students. LOVE them. But - I also love to teach Reading. I'll still have plenty of EBD love available to share. Win-Win!!
     Have a great week, friends!
Mrs. Beck

Needing a Nap, Questioning Strategy, & Determining Importance in Text

    The week before last was one of those weeks that left me in need of a nap. And by nap, I mean the kind bears take... also known as hibernation. For me that would look like a dark room, cool temp, comfy bed, and blissful silence except the subtle whirring of the fan.... All drama aside, we have all had those days (or weeks) at school. I think it's good to admit we need the break, but not good to actually take that break in class and let the kids down. I did not have a well planned week of solid, focused instruction.   Every time I teach staff development on classroom management, I reiterate how important the actual planning is and the role it plays in making life easier and more productive for the teacher. Obviously it is best for the student! But - we are human. We all have things outside of school that interfere with our ability to be our best. I recently had a situation just like that. A situation that threw me for a loop, totally out of my control, and throwing my A-Game out the window. I endured three days of poorly planned instructional time, and it left me frustrated, exhausted, and needing to hibernate. Aka: Avoidance. So, if I felt that way, imagine what the kids felt like! I wasted their time. Not easy to admit. Shameful, really. But remember: Teachers are also human. I noticed their behavior was worse (of course - they weren't engaged!), the days seemed to go on forever, and they noticed I was preoccupied. I heard: "Are you okay? What's wrong? Did something happen? Want me to beat somebody up for you? (yes, they asked me that...)" And as much as I tried to hide it, laugh it off, smile, and act like all was right in the universe, they knew. And it affected every aspect of the longest three days of school this year. So at the end of those three days, I came home and reevaluated. I went ahead and planned the last two days of the week with some solid lessons and vowed to make the next week count. Back on my A-Game. And of course, this week was much, much better. I guess it's good to revisit those lessons we all know every once in a while. It keeps us humble, accountable, and makes us refocus. And reminds me that I am way too old to let school make me that tired....
     This week, I want to share what I taught on using Questioning as a strategy to support comprehension and Determining Importance in text. I once again took ideas from Tanny McGregor and adapted them for high school and my students specifically. I started by asking the students if they had ever started reading an assignment, highlighter in hand, and at the end realized that they had highlighted everything in the reading. Of course, they laughed and admitted they had all done this and basically still do. I explained that determining what is important when you read helps get rid of extraneous information that takes up valuable space in your brain. I told them about when I was little and had to put away folded laundry. I hated doing it. I'm not sure why, especially considering how OCD I tend to be, but I would open the drawer, and cram - I mean cram - those clothes in there until it took all my might to squeeze the drawer closed, edges of shirts and balls of socks bulging out the top. I literally had drawers that the bottoms had come apart from my attempt to cram things in there. As an adult, I would look at that and say: Do you really need all those clothes? Do you even wear them all? Do you need bigger drawers? Can you leave some of those things out and make the drawer a more productive use of storage? Basically, prioritize what's important.
     I started the lesson by letting them listen to the song Smile by Kirk Franklin. I asked them to tell me what the song was about by giving examples of lyrics they thought were important (clues). They did a great job of filtering out repetitive information and getting down to what was important. I did not get a picture of the list they generated. Oops. Next, I defined the objective and had them add it to their journal. We then read an article together and practiced answering the stems I had offered on the board by highlighting information that fit them.

     After modeling the skill and discussing how it worked, I gave them each a copy of the Scholastic magazine for the week and asked them to choose an article and highlight the important information. I let them work with a partner. They recorded their facts on chart paper, shared with the class, and justified why they chose what they did as being important. This is how they turned out:

     I also had a partner. This is a particularly reluctant learner at times, and lately I have seen a crack in his tough shell. He asked me to be his partner, and I eagerly agreed. One on one instruction without them knowing = PRICELESS!!! Ours looked like this (he chose me as the recorder), but he chose the facts. Nicely done, Sir.

     You will see me use Scholastic magazines in class a lot. I paid for the subscription myself just so I could have solid text to use for them to practice skills I teach in class. You've heard me say it before - finding appropriate text for high school readers that actually read on early elementary levels is a daunting task. These articles are also short enough to keep their interest,usually  relevant to their lives, and leveled appropriately. 

     I revisited Questioning by showing them the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes. I asked them to tell me what they thought as they read the poem. We then recorded their questions. 

 

     We discussed how the questions caused us to dive deeper in to the meaning of the text and make us think further than what is explicitly written. For independent practice, I gave them a graphic organizer and an article from Scholastic. They had choices on which article to read, but I knew each of them would generate a lot of thinking and questioning. Here are some examples of what they turned in to me. 

He read an article on banning Rainbow Bracelets. He asked:

Is this even worth fighting about in school?
Why don't they just tell the kids to put them away?
Why do they let kids bring them anyway? This is school!
Does every school have his problem?

He read an article about a child who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for Muscular Dystrophy.
He asked:

Is he doing this for people who have Muscular Dystrophy to get money?
Is this for somebody he knows or is he just a good person?

She read an article on segregation. She asked:

Why couldn't they attend the same schools?
Why weren't the conditions the same?
Why did the girl have to walk so far and her not be allowed to ride the bus?
Why did she go to that school if it was worse?
Why did the US Supreme Court say "separate but equal" if they never went to a white school and a black school to see if they were equal?

      You can see by these examples that the questions they are asking themselves will lead them to think more deeply about the text. It's a work in progress, but I really hit questioning a lot. It leads to some of their best thinking. We also did a lesson on how those questions get answered and that sometimes - they don't. More on that later. 

     I leave you with a picture of a basic lesson that many elementary school teachers have taught. I forget that sometimes these basic skills are lost on my students in this class. It started when I sent a student to get a book from the Media Center. He returned and I asked what he had chosen. He said, "I don't know. Some book, I think it is about baseball or something." Wow. Talk about a book he was excited to read.... NOT! I asked him how he chose a book. He said he goes to the shelf, looks to see if there is one with a baseball or sports picture on the side, and checks it out. Hmm. And I wonder why I have never seen him finish a book. I open it up, and I kid you not, it was on coaching strategies of college bowl game contenders. The type was microscopic, the dust cover almost put me to sleep, it had vocabulary in it that even I had to really think about (no schema on coaching strategies and maneuvers/drills!), and it was published in 1997. I said, "I think I want to do a lesson on how to choose books that you may actually read and enjoy." From the other side of the room, my reluctant learner said, "Yeah. I need that. I'm for real!" Thank you once again, Reading Gods. I'm for real, too. 

Have an amazing week, friends. 

Mrs. Beck