It is 6 p.m. and I have just wrapped up a “laborious” hour of math homework with my daughter. Math homework is typically my husband’s “job,” but tonight he is at a meeting so I am in charge. Just like my daughter, I find reading work much easier than the abstract tasks associated with the math work that comes home every night. Students struggling with math is very real but has not necessarily gained as much attention as students struggling with reading. Math Response to Intervention—identifying students who may be at risk of falling through the cracks either in reading or in math—is redefining education. However, the challenges that exist in implementing RTI for math can be significantly different than those for reading.
In the video below, Lynn Fuchs, a senior advisor from the National Center on Response to Intervention (http://www.rti4success.org/aboutus/staff#lfuchs), talks about these differences. She reflects that reading intervention is, in some ways, more straightforward because learning in the early years provides the building blocks for later comprehension and fluency, whereas math knowledge can follow a more indirect path including fractions, geometry, calculus, and measurement that don’t all naturally emanate from one another.
It’s no surprise that teachers are leading the charge on innovative interventions for struggling students. Technology is a very simple vehicle teachers can use to support these students. For example, Gabrielle Smith from Etna Elementary School brought an iPad into her classroom and used an application to test math facts among her students, making it fun to practice facts over and over again while storing children’s scores and progress. Overall, as teachers I think we need to be aware of the differences between reading and math as it relates to Response to Intervention.
Reaching our students—easier or more difficult than before? To answer, go back to your first year of teaching or your freshman year of high school when your teachers were reaching you, or trying to.
In the digital era, we may feel like shouting or at least hitting Caps Lock before responding: more difficult! The sense of competition with digital tools breeds a kind of exasperation—how do I get my students’ attention, much less sustain it for an entire lesson and string enough of these together to cover the standards?
When we leverage the digital tools that define our students as digital residents and make their tools our tools, we get closer to reaching them at the very least. Michael Smith and Jeffrey Wilhelm have long advocated bringing together in-school and out-of-school literacies (Michael W. Smith, Temple University, Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Boise State University).
The E-Book Experience
Daily independent reading on wide-ranging topics and across varied genres is a key way our students become proficient readers as they increase vocabulary, and apply metacognitive and comprehension strategies, while gaining information. This is not news to our ears! Using e-books can bring together our students’ digital residency with best practices we know that align to balanced literacy. CAN, but how? In conversations I’ve had with teachers in many school districts, I hear the concerns:
How do we provide students with appropriate texts, matched to their specific reading level with e-books? How do we support students, based on their reading levels so that they engage with text successfully? How do we address accountability?
As reading teachers, these questions haunt us—we want students to have the e-book, digital reading experience they will connect most readily to, but we also demand (rightfully so!) the same care we use to select print texts.
Consider an e-library, with precisely leveled texts, such that a student’s virtual library card provides access only to those texts appropriate to the student, taking reading level and (for our ELLs) language level into careful account.
Customization options in e-books are astounding and make differentiating the e-book experience easy and efficient. The ability to place support through virtual sticky notes on virtual pages at the point of use takes differentiation to a new level. You may have taught the vocabulary strategy of using context clues to determine meaning. So, in the e-book you have assigned to a group of students who need to practice this strategy, you notice the text:
Pourquoi tales often point out character flaws, or foibles, that people have, such as being boastful, proud, or impatient.
How helpful would it be to these students to place a virtual sticky note for them right in the margin that reads: “What is another word for “foible”? Give an example.” Students respond on the virtual sticky note.
With this feature, we serve quite a few “masters”: differentiation, strategy application, and accountability.
So, while the e-book experience may not replace the valuable experiences our students have with print books, they open doors that print books can’t and at the same time motivate and engage students, our digital residents who live in the same digital neighborhood as e-books.
You may enjoy perspectives on e-books from No Shelf Required as well as author Michael Pastore who has recently written, 50 Benefits of Ebooks, A Thinking Person’s Guide to the Digital Reading Revolution.
I have been working with schools lately regarding Guided Reading, and one principal asked me to put together a list of tips (basically reminders) for teachers who are implementing Guided Reading. Teachers were so grateful; I thought I might share it with others. Below is my list!
- Guided Reading is the heart of Reading Instruction. It is the time where students apply all the reading strategies taught throughout the literacy block.
- Students should be reading independently most of the time during Guided Reading, while teachers monitor and make notations of reading behaviors.
- An instructional leveled text is a text that students can read with 90% to 94% accuracy. Any percentage below that is frustrational level. Students reading 95% accuracy or higher are reading on an independent level.
- Running Records and observations of reading behaviors help teachers determine when students are ready to move to the next level.
- Running Records should be taken on leveled texts recently read in Guided Reading. Conducting Running Records on each student weekly allows the teacher to make necessary instructional decisions regularly.
- Students access fiction and nonfiction texts differently. Nonfiction is more difficult due to the text features such as captions, tables, graphs, maps, etc. Students need many opportunities for application of strategies with nonfiction.
- Selecting an appropriate leveled text plays a vital role in reading instruction. Teachers must determine the purpose or focus of the lesson based on the needs of students. Students’ needs are always first priority.
- For longer texts, teachers should give an introduction to the section of text being read that day. A discussion should always follow the reading in order to assess comprehension.
- Meeting with all reading groups daily is definitely ideal. However, that may not be possible. Schedule your groups throughout the week, making sure that struggling readers meet daily. Students on grade level could meet three times a week, while students above grade level could meet twice a week.
More on Guided Reading:
Every one of us recognizes the book introduction as a key aspect of the “before” reading component in guided reading. Imagine you are introducing Native Americans at the Time of the Explorers to a group of 3rd graders. You activate their schema about Native Americans, tapping into their prior knowledge and making connections to their life experiences. You frame it this way: “Tell me some things you know about Native Americans.” Their responses vary, most are on point, a few surprises! In other words, a typical beginning to your small-group lesson and one that starts your students on their journey of successful reading into the world of Native Americans. All is well, right?
These students most certainly are being set up for success in this reading, of this book, on this particular topic: Native Americans.
Could we be doing more for our students? Could we get more from these instructional minutes? I think so! And the answer lies in portable strategies, focusing on strategic moves successful readers make whenever they read.
The shift is small. In addition to the particular book and its theme or focus, what if we also considered the reading behaviors of successful readers at the strategy level? With this small shift in our thinking, changing our focus and language only slightly, we change the game significantly for our students.
Portable Strategies
Let’s keep our lesson and small group-text the same, Native Americans at the Time of the Explorers. We recognize that good readers think about what they know about a topic before they begin to read a book. With that consideration in mind, pinpointing a strategic behavior of successful readers, the book introduction to the same group of 3rd grade students now includes this language: “Good readers first identify the topic of the book they’re about to read and think about what they already know about that topic. So, I want you to practice this. Turn and tell the person sitting next to you something you know about the topic of this book, Native Americans.”
As you listen in, your immediate results are the same: most students giving ideas on point, a few surprises. The key difference is that you have reinforced for students the portable nature of the strategy—so that whether you, as a student, are in Mrs. Boyle’s English class or Mr. Pedryc’s social studies class, or Ms. Graham’s science class, you carry the strategy with you.
So, the more we include strategy instruction, the better equipped our students will be to engage in strategic reading behaviors.
You CAN take it with you is our message to students into every class, for success across the curriculum!
More on Guided Reading:
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of academic vocabulary to our students’ success in reading, the content areas, and beyond.
In Reading, Writing and Learning in ESL (2005), Suzanne Peregoy and Owen Boyle frame it this way: What we know in any content area is distilled in the vocabulary we own in that subject. In other words, our academic vocabulary, the words we control, manipulate, and communicate with, reflect the content we know at the conceptual level.
For all of our ELs, but most especially those who enter the country in middle or high school, academic vocabulary acquisition is a ticking time-bomb: How can we possibly assist our students in acquiring the academic vocabulary to keep pace with what they need for academic success?
Consider the following statistics:
Nagy and Anderson (1984) estimated that school texts from Grades 3 through 9 contain approximately 88,500 distinct word families.
To provide direct instruction in even 3,000 words a year would be 17 words each school day. However, some research suggests that, in general, no more than 8–10 words can be taught effectively each week (PREL, 2004; www.prel.org) .
Where does this leave us? A portion of the answer is direct instruction. Taking into account the language level of our students, the texts they need to interact with, precise selection of Tier I, Tier II, and Tier III words are all valid approaches to academic vocabulary acquisition. Valid, but not the whole picture.
Becoming Word Detectives
While our secondary ELs wrestle with the time challenge, our instruction can (and should) be at the strategy level so that our students have the tools they need to become word detectives. Carlo, August, and Snow (2005) put it this way:
“…it is unlikely that interventions that only teach word meanings will close the vocabulary gap between ELLs and their English-speaking peers. Rather, ELLs require interventions that strengthen their ability to apply strategies for independent vocabulary learning as well as provide direct instruction in word meanings.”
The strategies that help students see connections to words they already know in their native language (cognates) or among words they learn in English build networks of meaning and increase their academic vocabulary recognition exponentially. By using these strategies and developing this word awareness, we enable our students to become “word detectives” (Core Literacy Library: Vocabulary Handbook, 2006).
Connect It!: The Cognate “Story,” Told by Rocks
volcán, magma, igneo, lava, metamórfico, sedimento, minerals, cristales, erosion, glaciares (www.ColorinColorado.org)
We can learn a lot from a rock! Even if (especially if) you are not a Spanish speaker, the message comes through loud and clear: Leverage our students’ home languages by making cognate connections.
Collect It!: The Vocabulary Notebook
Another aspect of academic vocabulary acquisition is the action of collecting it. Our students benefit not only from working with those words we select, but also from the “Collect It!” action they take as they self-select words for their student notebook.
As students “Collect!” they are engaged with their own learning process, as well as with the words they select. For us as teachers, benefits include having a record of our students’ work, which assists with progress monitoring and making progress evident. Progress is important for us to see, but even more important for students, as they become aware of their continuing success. Finally, the notebook serves as a focal point for reward—recognizing effort and achievement. When students complete their charts, moving words from the unknown column to the known column, they see their progress. And that spells motivation!
Once students identify a word to add to their vocabulary notebook, there are many ways to interact with them.
The link to the following template, an adaptation from Robert Marzano, “Building Academic Vocabulary: Teacher’s Manual” ASCD: 2005, is one effective way.
Using the Academic Vocabulary Notebook Template
Teacher’s Lounge Vignette
Social Studies teacher: “I ask a simple question and I get deer in headlights—you know the look— from these seventh graders. They just don’t want to participate, have nothing to contribute.” (This is a paraphrase of an actual conversation in a school where I formerly taught and yes, the teacher was describing a few of my ESL students.)
With the academic vocabulary strategies and opportunities to connect to, collect, and practice them, our students will have the tools they need—academic vocabulary—and our colleagues won’t use these words to describe them!
More ESL topics:
- Newcomer Schools: Addressing the Needs of English Language Learners
- Supporting English Learners
- Best Practices in Supporting English Language Learners in Reading and Writing
OK – I finally did something I told myself I would never do. My daughter’s writing notebook was sitting on the table (open of course) and I couldn’t help myself – I had to peek! My heart sank – the title read “Sad Tears.” Wow – I was completely torn! I felt that it was wrong to read it (that goes against our privacy policy in the house), but the title had me worried. So I called for her to come to the kitchen and when I asked her about her notebook, she was more than happy to read it to me (oh yeah – I forgot – sharing would bring her back to the center of attention – which is where she believes she belongs at all times). I thought the full-page piece was some type of poem – she of course explained to me (with the perfect “pre-teen attitude”) that it was a song!
At nine years old, she had taken her feelings about her current fascination – The Titanic – and shared them with the world through a song. She had been talking about The Titanic for weeks now, since seeing a small amount of the movie (ugh – babysitters!). She begged me to buy her books at the book store, she wanted to look up information on the Internet, and she even printed pictures and created questions that she and her best friend decided to explore. Now as I listen to her song, I realize she is taking all her learning and expressing it through writing. I thought this shouldn’t seem unusual, but I kept thinking I DIDN’T ask her to do this. As a parent I was surprised by her willingness to want to write about The Titanic in this way, but from an educator point of view, it really showed the power of choice! We ask students to write about their feelings, thoughts, and learning all the time. Oftentimes this comes with the laborious process of drafting, editing, and conferencing. What I really saw with my daughter’s song is the power behind “wanting” to do something because you are passionate about it, not because “you are told to do it”! When students are interested in something and they have the passion and desire to learn more, then the sky is the limit. As an educator I know this! But when the clock is ticking during the school day, choice can sometimes be replaced with “you need to know this for the test.”
I bring this up because last year Madison was assigned a research project. She had NO desire to research the topic she was assigned and it was like “pulling teeth” to get her to sit nightly (for 2 weeks, mind you!) to gather information for her big research presentation. I was not the only one with “research horror” stories. Close parent friends shared their struggles as well. It actually made me reflect on myself as an educator. Do I give my students enough choice? If not, do I stifle true passions? What would Madison’s research project have looked like if her topic had been The Titanic? Now that we are well into the school year and students are comfortable with routines, I am focusing more on topics that allow me to motivate students to want to learn. Spend that extra time to really get to know students’ personalities and continue to ask “Are they really interested?” I am hoping the answer will be YES! Because believe me – even though my daughter’s song was called “Sad Tears,” her enthusiasm for writing it made me happy.
I discussed word study notebooks in one of my previous blogs. There has since been a request for more examples including images. Word study is an alternative for traditional spelling instruction. Traditional spelling instruction involves a list of spelling words, memorization, and a test on Friday. Word study is a way to teach phonics, vocabulary, and spelling. Word study instruction utilizes approximately twenty words per week that are studied in many ways in order for students to make generalizations in words in relation to patterns, sounds, and meaning. Word study notebooks include various activities, including sorts and word hunts that allow students to look at words in different ways and apply them in both reading and writing.
Word study is based on spelling stages of development: Letter Name, Within Word, Syllable Juncture, and Derivational Constancy. There are specific skills that are learned within each stage. Of course, skills become more difficult as students progress to the next stage. Students are assessed to determine stage of development. Instruction is given on words that follow the patterns and skills of that stage.
Sections can be created in the word study notebook to categorize the types of word study activities. Some of these sections could include groups of words sorted according to features, patterns, and meanings. As students come upon new words throughout the semester or year, they can add them to the appropriate sections in their notebooks. Notebooks should include word study activities that are meaningful and intentional.
Some examples below:
