Seven Strategies to Make Students More Proficient

Mary Grace Flowers

Overview

For years I have been attending professional development workshops that are intended to improve my teaching and have an impact on student achievement. Only two workshops in the fifteen years that I have been teaching that have made a profound impact on both my teaching and student success. The Accelerated Reader (AR) Program and the Seven Expert Reading Strategies were the subject areas that were presented at these two separate but worthwhile workshops. My focus for this curriculum unit is centered on the expert reading strategies, and the lesson that I will be completing will be based on those strategies. AR is the additional integral piece of reading instruction that will allow me to lay the foundation for familiarizing and using these reading strategies with my students. I need to include the AR Program in this introductory piece to give a clearer understanding of how I teach reading to my second grade students and how I weave it in my core reading and writing instruction. Later, I will discuss the reading domain levels through which readers progress as they grow developmentally as readers. Both of these programs lend themselves very well to the ideas of domain learning. Accelerated Reader sets the precedent for embedding the rules of reading, such as the level of reading that makes a particular student a good fit for the interest level of a book that he or she chooses. The expert reading strategies are tools for students to use as they move through the stages and phases of reading development.

In my fifth year of teaching, the Title 1 teacher within our building was able to get the creator and founder of the AR Program to make a presentation to our staff. She explained that the reason behind her creating this reading program was to instill in her children her love of reading. Basically, she bought a lot of trade books at different grade levels, read them all herself, and then created comprehension quizzes based on each book. She hung the quizzes on the refrigerator and while she was cooking or doing dishes, she asked her children the comprehension questions. She said that she created the quizzes for two reasons. The first was to increase her children’s reading comprehension; the second was to make sure they were in fact reading what they said they were reading. I was intrigued by her story because not only did it make sense, but indicated ways to entice my own children to read more than they normally wanted. Now came the daunting task of figuring out how to incorporate both programs into my reading instruction so that they would be beneficial to my students. The ultimate goal that I set was to implement a balanced fit of the two programs, AR and the seven reading strategies, and teach them a way that helped students become more proficient and fluent readers, and in turn lifelong learners and readers. In designing and creating this unit reflects how I put my thinking into practice.

Supporting My Thinking

As a teacher, I always want to make sure that what I am doing is appropriate for my students and that I can also explain the thinking behind it. Because the design of the unit was created by me, I researched and used several books to support my thinking.

The word “strategy” is defined as a plan developed by a reader to assist in comprehending and thinking about texts, when reading the words alone does not give the reader a sense of the meaning of a text. My “design” or unit is a combination of strategies that when used together, consistently and cohesively, will increase a students rate of fluency and comprehension. This is accomplished by incorporating different pedagogies or strategies that will stimulate learning and increase the level of learning within my classroom.

The book I relied heavily on when completing my research for this unit was “Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention” by Stanislas Dehaene. Dehaene explains that learning to read involves connecting two sets of brain regions that are already present in infancy: the object recognition system and the language circuit. Reading acquisition has three major phases: the pictorial stage, a brief period where children “photograph” a few words; the phonological stage where they learn to to decode graphemes into phonemes; and the orthographic stage, where word recognition becomes fast and automatic. Brain imaging shows that several brain circuits are altered during this process, notable those of the left occipito-temporal letterbox area. Over several years, the neural activity provoked by written words increases, becomes selective, and converges onto the adult reading network. i

These results, although still preliminary, are rich in implications for education. Above all, we now understand why the whole-language method deluded so many psychologists and teachers, even though it does not fit with the architecture of our visual brain. ii This was the thinking when I was in my second year of teaching, so I was able to witness the missing components behind the theory of whole language. Thinking students could simply learn from picking up a book and reading was and still is not realistic, and Dehaene has the research to support the fact that children need a differentiated approach to reading based on their cognitive make-up.

Dehaene explains that children’s brains are formidable machines whose function is to learn. Each day spent at school, modifies a mind-boggling number of synapses. Neuronal stages change throughout each stage and strategies emerge, novel routines are laid down, and new networks begin to communicate with each other. An understanding of all of these internal transformations will better equip the teachers to discover new and more efficient strategies. I feel that I have created what Dehaene is referring to:reading pedagogy that will provide students brains with optimal daily enrichment. iii

Why This Unit?

Because my students are emerging readers, I can begin the process of teaching them strategies that will aid them in their lifelong reading journey to become fluent, proficient readers. My plan is to teach the students to understand that as they read, they are having a conversation with themselves about what they are reading or hearing. Their minds are questioning, clarifying, synthesizing, visualizing, searching, summarizing, inferring, and organizing their ideas. I don’t want them to ignore the inner voice that engages in all these processes; I want them to learn how to use it to the best of their ability. These reading strategies are the educational stepping stones that allow students to make it to the next reading level because they are utilizing the skills that already exist, and together we are refining these strategies to allow them to read more fluently and achieve greater academic success. The inner voice wheel that we use throughout our curriculum enables the students to chose a strategy randomly to apply to their reading. Since their inner voice chooses reading strategies in what seems like a random order, it is appropriate that the wheel works in the same way. A more detailed description of the wheel and its use is included later in this unit.

Framework of this Unit

My goal for this unit is to increase both fluency and reading comprehension for my students. The unit combines several tested pedagogies to create differentiated and effective strategies that help students become better readers. Content pedagogy refers to the pedagogical skills teachers use to impart the specialized content of their subject area. Effective teachers display a wide range of skills and abilities in order to create a learning environment in which all students feel comfortable and confident that they can succeed both academically and personally. This complex combination of skills and abilities is integrated in the professional teaching standards that also include essential knowledge, dispositions, and commitments that allow educators to practice at a high level. iv

We Love to S.Q.U.I.R.T.

I begin the year teaching the students how silent reading within our classroom looks and works. The investment of time I put into modeling and demonstrating the correct way to read silently truly pays off by the end of the year. We practice reading silently and not disturbing the rest of the students. Students are also aware that while they are reading, I am pulling out my smaller intervention groups. There is a distinct rhythm within our classroom as the students are reading. Students reading on their reading level, take quizzes on the computer and then search for another book that interests them, all while I am working with my intervention students. Because the other students are fully engaged in reading, my students and I can fully immerse ourselves into the content area that my intervention groups and I are working on with little or not distractions.

SQUIRT stands for sustained, quiet, uninterrupted, intense reading time. When I tell my students it is time to SQUIRT, they leave their desks, find a comfortable spot in our classroom and relax and read. Creating a comfortable environment allows students the opportunity to add to their reading experience. Given enough practice, this strategy works very well to promote reading growth. During this time students also have full access to twenty-nine lap tops that allow them to take the Accelerate Reader quiz that follows the completion of their reading book. They know they are to read their book twice, find the quiz on the book on the computer, and then take the quiz. Once they understand the importance of SQUIRT,and my expectations for this valuable time, I am able to implement other programs and pull my interventions groups as they other students are reading. This SQUIRT time allows me to work with my different groups and implement and utilize our reading wheel, the Seven Expert Reading Strategies, and Question Answer Relationship strategies that I explain in full detail later in this unit.

What Is Accelerated Reader?

Accelerated Reader (AR) is a reading program that was created by a stay-at-home mom who wanted to improve her child’s rate of fluency and comprehension. I have used AR in my daily routine since attending the initial workshop and have seen it increase academic achievement every year. The program includes key elements that teachers must use consistently in order for students to achieve success. Students Grade Level Equivalency (GLE) increases by a full year or more by the end of the school year if the AR program is implemented correctly and consistently.

The process of implementation begins with students first taking The Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR)test on the computer in order to gauge their reading level. Once the students have completed the test, teachers conference with the students to share with them the results of the test and explain the grade level books that they need to read in order to increase their comprehension, fluency, and GLE. Classroom libraries and the school library are color-coded based on the grade equivalent color chart so that students can pick the books that fall within their reading color scheme. Hal an hour a day is embedded into each school day so that students can sit and read quietly. Once students have read the book they have selected twice, they are ready to take a reading comprehension quiz on the computer. Students log into the computer using their assigned username and passwords and can enter the title, author, or AR book number that identifies the book in order for the computer to recall the quiz and make it available for the student to take.

The program was originally software based, but because of recent updates, it is now web based. Almost all children’s fiction or non-fiction books that are available for children to read,have a test available for taking. If a test does not exist, teachers have the option of creating one for the students to take. Once students have located their books, they are prompted to answer a question about the process of how they finished the book, whether they read the book by themselves, whether someone read the book to them, or

whether the book was read aloud to them. Once they make the appropriate selection, the test begins. The level of the book determines the number of questions on a test. Students are given a percentage at the end of the test based on how accurately they have answered the questions. The student then is shown a The Opportunity to Praise Students (TOPS) report available for viewing.

Teachers are encouraged to retrieve reports on a regular basis to monitor and conference with students on their progress in their use of the program. The goal is for students to score at least 85% on the percentage correct report. The score is a way to gauge both students’ progress and the effectiveness of the program. Sometimes it is necessary to increase or decrease the child’s GLE based on what the data shows.

The AR Program sets the tone for reading within my classroom. I want students to view reading as pleasurable and not another daunting task that occurs only while they are at school. I want them to read efficiently and effectively. Marrying the AR program and the seven expert reading strategies creates an equitable balance to aid students in becoming fluent and proficient readers.

The Inner Voice Wheel I Created is the Essential Tool

I created the inner voice wheel to reflect the fact that there is no distinct pattern or order to the comprehension strategies students employ as readers and thinkers. This is true when we read. The level of comprehension depends on age, fluency, readability level and experience. As we read, our minds are constantly working in many different ways. So the use and spinning of the wheel as we read helps students create the connection between the strategies the wheel indicates and the random sequence in which their inner voices generate different thinking processes as they read. When readers monitor their comprehension, they keep track of their thinking while reading. They listen to the voice in their head that speaks to them as the read. They notice when the text makes sense or when it doesn't. Monitor Comprehension helps you teach readers how to improve their comprehension by using a variety of strategies, including stopping to refocus thinking, rereading, and reading on. Throughout the process, readers learn to monitor and use strategies to maintain understanding and repair comprehension when it breaks down. v

The inner voice wheel I created is a pie shaped color coded circle, made up of eight sections that display all of the Seven Expert Reading Strategies. The pie has a spinner in the middle. I have created different sized wheels for different purposes. I have a 20” x 20” wheel that is magnetically attached to the chalkboard in the front of our classroom by our rug area. This large model wheel allows me to incorporate the use of the wheel across our curriculum. While reading in any content area, I stop, spin the wheel and ask students to discuss the content of what we are reading based on which strategy the spinner lands on. For example, if we were reading an excerpt from our Social Studies book and the spinner and landed on “question,” the students would be asked to reflect on the text and

think about any questions they have thus far. This activity not only allows students to connect to the content of the lesson but it also allows me the opportunity to check for clarity and understanding of the topic that I am teaching. It also allows the opportunity for rich discussion because students connect the topic to their inner voice are able to reflect on their experience while covering the content area. If they can’t make a connection or struggle with the reading strategy that the wheel depicts, their difficulty allows me the opportunity to clarify any misunderstandings that they have. Frequent use of the wheel allows for consistency in teaching these concepts.

Modeling the use of the wheel is key to helping students attain the ultimate goal of this unit which is for students to spin their own personal wheel in their mind when reading to assist them with comprehension.

The second type of inner voice wheel that I incorporate in my classroom is identical to the larger one and has the same components, but is smaller in scale. In addition, all the children have individual wheels and are encouraged to use their wheel when they are reading. These individual 6 x 6 wheels are laminated so that they last through the whole year.

The Seven Cognitive Strategies of Effective Readers are on the Wheel

The second worthwhile professional development that I attended was called “The Most Important Strategies in Reading”. The presenter was a third-grade teacher in our building who was asked to present these reading strategies to the staff. Although her PowerPoint presentation was dull, the subject matter grabbed my attention because I knew that my second-graders would benefit from learning and using these strategies. The only obstacle I faced was the need to figure out a way that would enable me to teach the strategies that would both make sense to my students and make them want to use the strategies. This was the I created my expert reading strategy wheel, also known as our “inner voice wheel.”

There are seven cognitive strategies of effective readers: vi

Activating

“Priming the cognitive pump” in order to recall relevant prior knowledge and experiences from long-term memory in order to extract and construct meaning from text. This is where connections and comparisons are made allow students to embody and internalize the text.

Inferring

Bringing together what is spoken (written) in the text, what is unspoken (unwritten) in the text, and what is already known by the reader in order to extract and construct meaning from the text. This usually comes much more easily to students who have had a lot of exposure to reading and is a key indicator of the strength of a reader.

Monitoring/Clarifying

Thinking about how and what one is reading, both during and after the act of reading, for purposes of determining whether one is comprehending the text, combined with the ability to clarify and fix mix-ups.

Questioning

Engaging in learning dialogues with texts(authors), peers, and teachers by generating and answering questions.

Searching/Selecting

Searching a variety of sources in order to select appropriate information to answer questions, define words and terms, clarify misunderstandings, solve problems, or gather information

Summarizing

Restating the meaning of text in different words from those used in the original text.

Visualizing/Organizing

Constructing a mental image or graphic organizer for the purpose of extracting and constructing meaning from the text.

Our Reading/Language Arts Block Looks Very Differentiated

The school in which I teach is located in New Castle, Delaware. Colwyck’s population has a 79.8% poverty rate and 100% of the students within our building receive free breakfast, lunch, and some qualify for the Weekend Backpack Food Program. My classroom includes twenty-five second graders, ages seven to eight years old. There are sixteen boys and nine girls. I am considered a general education teacher because I teach all of the core elementary subjects which are math, language arts, reading, science and social studies. Of the twenty-five, one child receives special education services full-time, so I have that student only for science and social studies instruction. Four are English Language Learners (ELL) who receive services two days a week. The reading levels in our classroom range from a pre-primer reading level, the lowest, to a 2.9 grade

equivalency reading level, the highest. One hundred percent of our student population receive free breakfasts, lunches, and healthy snacks each day. Eight of my students receive Response to Intervention(RTI) services from a reading teacher for half an hour a day. While those children are pulled out, the children who are left with me receive small group instruction on a rotating basis. I have homogeneously grouped the remaining twelve students and have four students in a group that work with me while the other eight students are doing AR.

The most able students of the twelve have a reading level of between 2.4 and 2.9. I assign them chapter books to listen to on tape, read aloud with them and incorporate the seven reading strategies into our small group discussions about the books they are reading using the inner voice wheel.

The next rotation of students is my medium group. These students are strong readers but need the extra academic push that small-group instruction provides, so we focus on the leveled readers that accompany our Storytown reading series. When I am working with these students we read aloud to one another, listen to the story on tape,and again use our expert reading strategies and inner voice wheel to help gain a better understanding of the text.

The last group of four students are the students who are considered to be on the academic bubble. These are the students who struggle academically but have too much reading knowledge to qualify for the extra RTI services. With these students, I use the lowest of the leveled readers and the expert reading strategies, but because we are only four months into the school year, I use only three of the seven reading strategies so that I do not overwhelm them. Once I feel that they have gained a better understanding of the strategies and can apply and use those that they are familiar with, we add another strategy, and then another. My goal is for them to learn all seven by the end of the year.

Once the RTI students return from intervention, I begin with our core curriculum instruction, which centers around our reading series, Storytown. We complete a story a week unless I feel that we need to extend instruction for better understanding of the focus lessons. Each week we concentrate on the genre of the story, the story topic, phonics, grammar, and writing. I use a variety of techniques to entice and engage the students, from Smartboard activities students manipulate, to playing vocabulary charades that help students to grasp the understanding and meaning of our vocabulary words, to applying and identifying text based questions using the Question Answer Relationship (QAR) strategies. QAR are strategies that aid students when answering questions based on text that they have read. They are Think and Search, On My Own, In My Head, and Right There. These strategies allow me to constantly model text based questioning techniques when writing or orally answering questions based on text that we have read together or that they have read on their own.

After the core work is completed, I assign students additional work on the subject area. For the last twenty-five minutes of class, I pull the last group of RTI students aside and work with them in small group instruction. I use flash cards to help student in this group with sight words. We read chorally in silly voices and gradually incorporate the expert reading strategies. Even though I am differentiating instruction for all the students during the two hours of core instruction, each student is receiving the same information, but in different forms that enables them to grasp the concepts at their ability level. These are the main reasons I chose to center this unit around the expert reader strategies. After all the instruction and extra interventions are completed, students are ready to be left alone when they are reading. I want to equip them with these reading tools because once they begin to use them, they will rely on them and grow as readers.

Why Did I Chose the Seven Expert Reading Strategies For This Unit?

One of the potent findings of cognitive research is that knowledge is a significant predictor of developing competence. Even if students have acquired the ability to decode print accurately, they need to have an understanding of the concepts or ideas those letters and sounds symbolize. But how and where do we teach this type of ability? Before implementing the ideas of AR and the inner voice wheel, I would teach each of these strategies, such as prior knowledge, separately. The result was to isolating each of the reading strategies. If the story of the week suggested a certain strategy, such as summarizing, I would teach it, but I would not teach the strategy in connection with the other six strategies. This meant that I was teaching students that their inner voice generates reading strategies in a particular order, even though they inevitably occur in no predictable order. vii

Such a finding is also consistent with conclusions from the reading research. In the Model of Domain Learning (MDL), two forms of subject-matter knowledge have relevance to reading development: domain and topic knowledge. The seven reading strategies that I plan to weave into the curriculum throughout the entire school year will have a positive impact on developing the level of competence that is needed as students progress through the four domains. The domains, which incorporate four stages at which we achieve the ability to read, are considered the breadth of one’s knowledge. Specifically, knowledge is concerned with academic domains, focuses on cognitive and motivational factors, and explores systematic changes in those factors across three stages of development: acclimation, competence, and proficiency or expertise. Because my students are young and the population that we serve within our school is impoverished, I feel an urgency to better equip students for the future and begin suiting them with tools that will help them to move through all of these stages and eventually be fluent, proficient readers. viii

AR is based on the assumption that students are more successful moving through the stages of their reading development when they are interested in what they are reading.

Even though students have to chose their book, fiction or non-fiction, based on their reading ability level, they still have the freedom to choose a book that piques their interest. As students get older, their stages of reading develop in ways that constitute to as a lifespan of developmental reading.

What Will the Unit Entail?

As described above, my core reading/language arts block is tailored to the needs of different groups of students. Since I have a two-hour block of time, I want to make the most of this time and meet with each group on a rotating basis. During the different rotations, students and I will read passages together, and I will create individual podcasts of the students reading aloud. At different intervals, I will ask students to stop reading and introduce their strategy wheel. The wheel contains the seven strategies on a circle that keys each strategy to a particular color. I will ask each student to spin the wheel so that the spinner lands on a one of the Seven Expert Reader Strategies. Then I will ask the student to make the connection between the reading strategy and the book or piece of text we are reading. For example, if the spinner landed on visualization, the student will share the mental picture he or she sees in their head that depicted what he or she has read so far. We will then make the correlations or students connections to the text and begin to read again. The four minute exchange between the student and me will be recorded on the computer using the Apple software program GarageBand. I have included a Youtube tutorial of how to use Garageband and how to create a podcast in my teachers resource page found at the end of this unit.

I chose to use GarageBand because it is easy to use. I am currently working on a dual Master’s in Applied Technology. A class requirement was that I had to create a podcast of myself reading aloud an excerpt from a book. As soon as I completed this assignment I knew I would use this new piece of technology with my students to help increase student achievement. This program has enabled me to keep additional data that I don’t think other teachers are keeping on their students. From the creation of the podcasts, it serves several purposes but one in particular to this unit. This software allows me to keep track of a students Oral Reading Fluency (ORF) by simply recording, saving, and then uploading their recording in ITunes to create the podcast. An ORF is a standardized set of passages and administration procedures designed to (a) identify children who may need additional instructional support, and (b) monitor progress toward instructional goals. The passages are calibrated for the goal level of reading for each grade level. Student performance is measured by having students read a passage aloud for one minute. Words omitted, substituted, and hesitations of more than three seconds are scored as errors. Words self-corrected within three seconds are scored as accurate. The number of correct words per minute from the passage, found in our Storytown series, is the oral reading fluency score. ix

The podcast will serve many purposes for the teacher, parents, and students. At the conclusion of the lesson, I will create podcasts for each student and put each one in that student’s individual Wikispace, which he or she will be able to access. Once in the Wikispace, students will be asked to access the podcast from home, explain the reading strategies with parents, and allow the parents to hear their children read and listen to our follow-up discussions. I will write a letter to all the parents explaining the process in further detail. I will also share podcasts with parents during quarterly parent-teacher conferences. Hearing their child read will give them a clearer understanding of their child’s GLE. Comparing beginning, middle, and end of the year podcasts will allow parents to hear the progression of their child’s reading level. It will also allow the opportunity to discuss what additional interventions need to occur if the child is not making progress. This technological advance allows us to collect and share information far beyond that we currently collect,which is paper and pencil data. This strategy allows the involvement of all stakeholders to become more involved and informed in the education of the child even to the novice ear or non educator. These podcasts will provide and undeniable indicator of a child’s reading fluency progression.

In the second phase of the lesson, students will listen to their podcasts in class using headphones. They will listen, reflect, and write about what changes they would make to their initial responses using what they know now and comparing it to what they knew and understood earlier. For example, if during the initial podcast, they spun their wheel and it landed on an unfamiliar strategy so that their response was weak or tentative, this would provide an opportunity to change or strengthen their response in writing, see any growth they have made with the strategies, if any, and review and recheck their understanding of the concepts.

The third and final phase of the lesson will take place during the end of the year, when I will administer a final STAR test and create a new podcast for each student. The STAR test will reflect the grade level equivalency and show whether or not students GLE showed growth. Sometimes, I have to re-test the students in order to get an accurate portrayal of the STAR test,students who are not having a good testing day may show as much as two standard deviations below their initial test. If this is the case, I will have them re-take this test.

The new podcast will follow the same format as the first, but should be longer because of the more detailed discussion reflecting the implementation of both the AR program and the expert reading strategies that we worked on all year. Students will be able to listen to their podcasts again and write a reflection paper on the changes and growth they think they have made since the first initial podcast. This paper will also allow me a formative assessment piece that will be shared with parents, students, and next year’s teacher.

Putting the Test to the Test

I will use several kinds of data to support whether or not students have or have not made fluency and comprehension growth. The first piece of data will be gathered from the AR Growth Report. This report shows the results of the first and last STAR tests that were taken during the current year. The report shows each student’s GLE at the beginning of the year, and the end of the year. If the AR Program is implemented correctly, and the child has read each day of the school year for a full hour, their GLE is expected to grow at least an entire grade level. For example, a child who began the year at a 2.3 (second grade, third month) GLE, should attain at last a 3.3 GLE by the end of the year. The next set of data will support whether or not the students rate of fluency has increased at years end. This data will be collected from students’ podcasts, both the ORF and inner voice wheel,which will have been compiled four times over the nine-month school year. An additional formative piece of work included in the data will be the written reflection that the students write on how they feel they have progressed as a reader during the current year.

Conclusion

I hope this unit inspires and helps students of all ages. Beofre teaching second grade, I taught fifth grade for five years. My academic expectations are set so high for my second graders that I am confident that this unit can be taught at any grade level.

Delaware State Standards: Grade 2 x

Standard 1:

Grade Specific Standard: Literacy: Ask and answer such question as who, what, where, when and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Grade Specific Standard: Informative: Ask and answer such questions as who, what where, when why and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in the text.

Grade Specific Standard: Fluency: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade 2 topics and texts with peers and adults in small or larger groups. (a) Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions (e.g., gaining the floor in respectful ways, listening to others with care, speaking one at a time about the topics and texts under discussion) (b) Build on others talk in conversations by linking their comments to the remarks of others. (c) Ask for clarification and further explanation as needed about the topics and texts under discussion.

Anchor Standard 2:

Grade Specific Standard: Literary: Recount or describe key ideas or details of a text read aloud or information presented orally or through media.

Grade Specific Standard: Informative: Identify that main topic in a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within the text.

Anchor Standard 3:

Grade Specific Standard: Literary: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Grade Specific Standard: Informative: Describe the connection between a series of historical events, scientific ideas or concepts, or steps in technical procedures in a text.

Anchor Standard 4:

Grade Specific Standard: Informative: Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 2 topic or subject area.

Grade Specific Standard: Fluency: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (a) Read on-level text with purpose and understanding. (b) Read on-level text orally with accuracy, appropriate rate and expression on successive readings. (c) Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding rereading as necessary.

Anchor Standard 5:

Grade Specific Standard:Informational: Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.

Anchor Standard 6:

Grade Specific Standard: Informational: Identify the main purpose of a text, including what the author wants to answer, explain, or describe.

Anchor Standard 7:

Grade Specific Standard: Informational: Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.

Anchor Standard 8:

Grade Specific Standard: Informational: Describe the logical connection between the particular sentences and paragraphs in a text (e.g., comparison, cause/effect, first/second/third in a sequence)

Anchor Standard 9:

Grade Specific Standard: Informational: Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

Anchor Standard 10:

Grade Specific Standard: Informational: By the end of the year, read and comprehend informational text, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 2-3 text complexity band proficiently with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Bibliography

Beck, Isabel L. {et al.} Questioning the Author, An Approach for Enahncing Student Engagement with Text, International Reading Association: 1998

Dehaene, Stanaslas. Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of the Human

Invention, New York: Penguin, 2009

Gambrell, Linda {et al.} Lively Discussion/Fostering Engaged Reading, International Reading Association, 1996

Reutzel, Ray. Teaching Children to Read, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992

Tokuhama-Espinosa, Tracey. The Multilingual Mind: Issues Discussed By, For, and About People Living With Many Languages, Praeger: 2003

Weaver, Constance , Practicing What we Know Informed Reading Instruction, National Council of Teachers of English, 1996

Teacher Resources

These sites will provide additional support on the different strategies that are included in this unit.

http://www.renlearn.com/ar/ Accelerated Reader Home Site. This site shows the newest technology that makes connections between home and school even closer and easier to access.

http://www.choiceliteracy.com/public/144.cfm This site identifies and explains the seven reading strategies in depth and also includes additional ideas for teachers.

http://www.heinemann.com/products/E03746.aspx This site lists products that can be purchased to support how to teach students about hearing and tapping into their inner voice.

http://www.paec.org/david/reading/general.pdf This site explains how good readers employ an extension of the Seven Expert Reading Strategies.

http://www.ehow.com/video_2375361_create-podcast_-garageband-tutorial.html A great site that shows a tutorial of how to create a Garageband podcast.

https://dibels.uoregon.edu/measures/orf.phpiframe=true&width=100%&height=100%

This site describes oral reading fluency ORF and the words per minute the average student should read based on grade level and age.

End Notes

Curriculum Unit

Title Author

KEY LEARNING, ENDURING UNDERSTANDING, ETC.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION(S) for the UNIT

CONCEPT A CONCEPT B CONCEPT C

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS A ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS B ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS C

VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY A VOCABULARY A

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/MATERIAL/TEXT/FILM/RESOURCES