We had a Teacher Only day on Friday with Murray Gadd facilitating. He’s been in and out all year working on literacy with us. I started up an Etherpad window and two of us (with occasional input from our principal) used it to take notes. At the end of the session I sent a PDF copy of the notes to Mike (principal) which he then emailed to all staff.
We even had a couple of tweeple pop in to see what was happening – a great way to share learning with others.
One of the very cool things that Murray does is read books to us (well – to whoever he’s facilitating with) and while some of us already know about some of the books there’s always something new to discover. I’ve bolded the books he read.
Here’s the unedited copy of our notes. (ok – I have done a little editing with links and removing stuff for our staff only!)
Reading workshop #2 with Murray Gadd
http://etherpad.com/OAtx8X1mIl
W/shop focus – comprehension strategies/teaching of vocabulary/effective reading responses
REFER TO NEW CURRICULUM: TOP PART OF ENGLISH
(Indicators in curriculum are only indicators not must haves)Our job to teach the processes and strategies …
* Literacy Learning Progressions
* Reading & writing national standardsBOOK: Sunday Chutney by Aaron Blabey
http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670071791Key competencies – in the story – relating to others/managing self/participating and contributing/thinking/using language etc
Comprehension strategies
* are kids using sources of information – to make connections – visual clues/textual clues etc
* are kids using processing strategies – attending and searching/predicting/cross checking/self correct
* comprehension – (How do we bring meaning to it)
“when readers taught to use CS their comprehension improves”
“What research has to say about reading instruction”chapter 13 p 398
“Metacognition and self-regulated comprehension”
BOOK: Stellaluna – by Jannell Cannon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellaluna
http://images.google.co.nz/images?q=stellaluna&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
Good book for friendship stuffWhat would kids need to have to understand this book?
(P131-133 Effective Lit book yrs1-4)
(1) Making connections with what we already know
(Good example to use for a narrative – i think we have it in the library)
(2) Forming and testing hypotheses about texts – using clues / predicting -then testing to see if my hypothesis or prediction is correct / then reflect
(3) Ask questions of themselves about what they are reading
* think alouds – “i wonder what that means?” etc
(4) Creating mental images/visualising
(when you go to a movie after reading the book and it’s not so good)
Share how we get the picture in our heads (conections of images with words)
different people get different pictures – makes the story broader?powerful verbs – well-chosen adjectives/verbs
Using prior knowledge about the words to create an image – Applying senses
(5) inferring meaning
(Refer: Zoo by Anthony Browne – http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Anthony-Browne/dp/0374499233)
“Mr Gadd stormed into the room with a face like thunder.” finding the clues
word, phrase or picture clues about meaning in text
Link to prior knowledge“murray kicked the ball. he was good at rugby.”
* the ball is a rugby ball
* He = Murray* pronouns often confusing for kids
* kids understanding of phrases and clauses can often cause problems (especially if clause is at beginning of sentence)(6) Identifying the author’s purpose & POV
* if i know why then it might help my response to the story
* author’s style very important (ie Anthony Browne) Voices in the Park is a great example
* “How do you think the author felt about the situation?”(How can we be so different but feel so much alike. – check the line – end of Stellaluna)
(7) Summarise main ideas
* need to find the indicators
* can introduce via the structure of writing type – like narrative
“What was the complication?”
“Which part is the orientation? – what is happneing there”
etc
* demonstrate summarising to kids(8) Identifying the main idea
* comes from author’s purpose
“If you were the writer what would your main idea be?”(9) Analysing and synthesizing
ZOO: analysed dad and came to conclusions
* Reflecting on what’s it all about
(10) Evaluating ideas and information
“How does it affect me?” (My reading , my view of text, compare against what i already know)
These 10 are not in isolation – use them together.
[Page 5/6 recognising comprehension strategies – refer to this for examples of teacher talk!]
[See photo notes in evernote]
Effective literacy Practice
Chapter 5: Year 1 to Year 4 book (Year 5 – Year 8 Pgs 141 to 151)
134-135 – StrategiesReference Copy Explaing Reading by Gerald Duffy – to be bought.
Teaching reading comprehension – Alison Davis
How do we teach comprehension strategies?
* describe
* demonstrate
* scaffoldstart in little steps – paragraph/page etc
* encourage students to use – could be great to model using the mimio!
(don’t be too excessive – that’s giving us permission to throw out the instruction and have some fun in reading at times!)”Just read the story!”Will our new national standards encourage teachers to look only at the strategies to ensure that a goal is reached rather than teacher the essence of good reading?
Readers find clues. Writers put clues in. – Inferring
Show – don’t tell – e.g. use other words to describe that someone is old
Today’s kids don’t have the oral language – less time in books more time in front of screens – screens not necessarily bad but people need to be reading
VOCAB
Teaching Vocabulary to improve reading comprehension pp1-2
By William E NagyBringing words to life by Elizabeth Beck?
BOOK: Pearl Barley and Charley Parsley by Aaron Blabey
http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670070947(lovely bedside manner – what a hoot!)
(they’re different and THAT is why they are such good friends!)
http://www.penguin.com.au/lookinside/spotlight.cfm?SBN=9780670070947&Page=Look
Nagy “Vocab knowledge … ” pp1-2
If we simply teach students more words they will understand text better
learning new words means aquiring new meaning
how and why one can choose and adapt vocab-related activities
in-depth word knowledge – meaning, structure, associations, derivation
american stats – scary – high decile = 8000 words by year 3/ low decile = 4000 words by year 3
Students should not be expected to learn more than 6 or 7 new words in a reading lesson
teaching 25 word meanings per week is a reasonable goalhigh quality texts – Regular and extensive reading of is probably the single largest source of vocab growth (Increase volume of reading)
all the words that mean beautiful – linking hte words together
start with the meaning and ask them to find the word (rather than the other way around)
Incidental word learning is important
we can make sense of what is going on if we know at least 85% of the words
teahcers are models … use words … i find words exciting!!!! teach that excitement to the kids – word of the day/word of the week – display – could have kids find different places where they see the word and bring to share
BOOK: The first easter bunny
By Kate Walker (read by one of our teachers)
Another book on accepting others differancesPre Reading
Introducing Key Words that may be a challenge to students
Students predicting what words might be in text. -Can be added to/checked off during and/or after readingDuring Reading
Teaching new words through context
Looking closely at the structure of words to find meaning clues
Find and identify words in text connected closely to the topic or themePost Reading
Exploring all aspects of vocab knowledge (Meaning, derivation, structure, related words, synonyms and antonyms) using things like:
Semantic webs
Clines – words with degrees of meaning – ie – hot, tepid, warm, luke-warm etc
Semantic feature analysis
Venn Diagrams
Hierarchical array
Barrier games/matching words with definitions – could do on mimio
Close activities
Word associations – police – trouble – kids – children – trouble
Finishing sentances meaningfully – The boy played in the park and….
Clustering words according to meaning (Give kids whole list of words and they group all that mean the same.)
Telephone whispers – Similiar to chiniese whispers
Call my bluff – Give 3 or 4 def’s and chdn decide which is the right one
Linear arrays
Coffee pot game (for context) – I left my “coffee pot” this morning {house}
in the manner of the word (secret adverb) ask someone to do an action in the mannaer of the word
My Aunt likes… double letter ie apples but not pears, green but not redCan be done independently or with teacher – follow up activity can assess students understanding of a non-fiction text
hierarchical – looks like a good one for using with mimio
BOOK: Something else – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Something-Else-Picture-Puffin-Kathryn/dp/0140549072 (different cover)
– Accepting others againReading Responses
Related activities after reading should link directly to the learning goal or focus and the text being considered. Students should be able to see these links. related activities can also be FUN!!!!KWL – more suited for non-fiction
(Brainboxes we have in Team B could be good place to start)
Template avail on mimio alsoThe reading activity handbook – sheneah cameron
Students should be given a variety of reading responses:
– Oral language act (“The main ideas in this text are…” “In my own words this text is about…”)– Word/ Vocab act
– Writing act (using graphic organisers, storyboards, timelines, flow chart, diary entry for a character in the story, creating a news item{radio, tv, paper}, emotions chart, Writing to the author to describe their feelings towards the text, Creating a “Who am i?” puzzle for others, writind a similar story or poem.)
– Related art/music/drama act (Wanted poster, model or diorama about key section of text, book mark)
– Research act
online/digital responses – create your own superhero for the story/avatar/online story boarding etc
creating photographic freeze frames/slide shows/movies
These should be changed regularly so that children are “captured” by new responses
Pick a card – variety of response on cards (upside down)
shopping for pyjamas
make their own books
reading from the wall
buddy reading
online reading
interactive reading and writing on the comp/mimio
listening to other text at listening posts
reading from independent book boxesTHE BEST WAY TO IMPROVE READING IS TO DO A GREAT DEAL OF IT
BOOK: the cats in krasinski square
http://www.amazon.com/Cats-Krasinski-Square-Karen-Hesse/dp/0439435404
