Notice and Note and Close Reading

I read anything by Kylene Beers, but this is her best book yet! In it she recommends teaching six "signposts" to help aid students in deep reading comprehension. By page 4 I was hooked! On it is a list of the 25 most commonly taught novels in grades 4-8. Yes! five of my favorites are on the list.  After reading the book I made the 6 posters (see a few below) and dove right in. (It was late May/early June...my favorite time to experiment with something new).The first signpost (I can't say that I really like the word choice, but I can't think of exactly what to call them either!) is contrasts and contradictions. This is when a character in a book acts in a way that is unexpected. The behavior makes you think: Why would the character act this way? Beers and Probst say when this happens in a novel it is a moment to stop and do a close read. We found a contrast/contradiction in the novel Number The Stars. It happened when Papa was on the phone with Uncle Henrick. Papa tells Henrick that their are many cigarettes in Copenhagen if you know where to look. As the reader we know that this is untrue. We wonder about this contradiction. Why is Papa lying? It is a good spot to do some close reading and discussion.
    

I copied these posters right from the book.

   Another signpost that kept surfacing as we read Number The Stars was again and again. We noticed that Lois Lowry mentions the country of Sweden over and over again. Could this mean something? What is the author trying to tell us? This caused lots of discussion and prompted us to look at a map to see where Sweden was located. Hmmm..so interesting that Uncle Henrick's boat is moored so close to Sweden!
     I learned quite a bit as an adult reader from Notice and Note. I've read Number The Stars at least ten times and the signposts made me look at the novel with new eyes. Next year I plan to teach the signposts at the beginning of the year and use them with Shiloh, our first novel of the year. Christine

Teaching about flashbacks

A few years back my 4th graders completely misinterpreted the meaning of a text because they didn't understand that the character was now explaining something that had happened long ago. Flashbacks can be confusing to the reader. I really like The Summer My Father Was Ten by Pat Brisson as a mentor text for teaching  about flashbacks.

I got this book from Teaching for Deep Comprehension by Linda Dorn. The teaching resource has a DVD which shows a 4th grade teacher modeling how to use the book. Also, I really recommend this blog: Life in 4B http://lifein4b.blogspot.com/2011/12/were-baaaack.html if you don't already follow it. Its been a great resource for me for the last few years. A few weeks ago I was reading Sarah Plain and Tall with my 4th graders. I like using the story Dakota Dugout after reading Sarah Plain and Tall and then comparing the two stories. I got the idea for using Dakota Dugout to teach about flashbacks from Miss Bongers at Life in 4B.

If you have any great suggestions about what books to use to teach children about flashbacks let me know. Christine

What I am reading right now

This is a great professional book for K-6 writing teachers. I love to use mentor texts when teaching writing but it is hard to find a picture book  which matches the skill you are trying to teach. . This book contains lists and lists of good choices when you are teaching writers craft elements like alliteration, flashback, onomatopoeia, point of view and many others . It also contains lessons using the specific book mentioned. While reading the lessons I found I needed to have some of the recommended books in front of me so I took a bunch out of the library. None of them were a disappointment. Here are a few I really liked:

This picture book is recommended for teaching personification or point of view. I also like that it was full of facts about our ocean.

This cute story could be used to teach hyperbole, similes or voice in a writing lesson.

Good choice for teaching creative language, metaphors, and repetition.

Funny story that is a great choice for teaching voice and alliteration

I am so happy I found this new resource to help me teach writing. Now the next step is to find copies of some of these books. Christine

Vocabulary ideas

I used this idea from Words, Words, Words, as a way to review our vocabulary words ,
may of which were character traits from Trophies, Theme 1, grade 4. I give it as a HW assignment. The children
love putting the stickers on!

I made sets of these Greek and Latin root cards for my 5th graders to use.

I just finished Learning Words Inside and Out by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher. Its filled with lots of simple ways to incorporate vocabulary into everyday lessons. It inspired me to reread Janet Allen's Words, Words, Words which is another great resource if you are trying to improve your vocabulary instruction. I gathered together some pictures of vocabulary ideas I've used in the classroom which were inspired by these two books:

After studying the Greek and Latin root cards with a partner, students use these posters to
make their new learning visible.

Using roots to relate words to each other is a great strategy to practice with kids.
This poster was made for the story Blue Willow, from our grade 4 Trophies.

I love this strategy for relating words to each other.

Igniting a passion for reading

How do you teach a child to want to read? How do you light that fire? Steven Layne's remarkable book has lots of ideas. Our schools put lots of  attention and money towards teaching the following: phonics, fluency, comprehension, semantics, and syntax. Almost no professional development exists on helping teachers instill: interest, attitude, motivation and engagement
about reading. I believe his is right. You can teach the mechanics of reading, but the real work begins when you try to motivate and engage students in reading. One suggestion that Steven has is to develop that connection with the child with these words: When I saw this book I thought of you. Those are powerful words to a child. Think of all you are saying with those words: You are important, reading is important, I am always looking for books especially for you. Reading Igniting a Passion For Reading inspired me to learn more about Steven Layne's children's books. I had never heard of him before. I took a bunch of his books out of the library. He's written some great books for the upper elementary grades. I really liked Teachers' Night Before Halloween...very funny. Christine

A small moment:Saturdays and Teacakes

If you haven't read Lester Laminack's Saturdays and Teacakes go get a copy. I just love it! It is Lester's memoir about Saturdays spent at his grandmother's house. Its a great mentor text for teaching writing to elementary age students. He also wrote Cracking Open the Author's Craft which is full of writing lessons geared toward the picture book. Cracking Open the Author's Craft comes with a DVD of the story Saturdays and Teacakes. We watched  on our Smartboard as Lester read the book to us. I used the pages on baking teacakes with his grandmother as springboard for teaching a small moment: Baking cookies with someone special. Christine

The comprehension toolkit

Here is a lesson I got out of the Comprehension Toolkit. Thank you Kathy D. for lending it to me! The toolkit comes with 4th/5th grade nonfiction articles and lessons to do based on the reading strategies in The Keys To Comprehension book by Harvey and Goudvis.It also comes with a CD that I was able to use with my Smartboard. This lesson, Summer of the Shark, was about adding new information to known (background knowledge). The topic of sharks is great because kids do have a good amount of background knowledge on the topic.The lesson also explores the idea of a misconception. I modeled my own background knowledge about sharks, and then hid a misconception so that I could correct my own thinking during reading. I then had the students read the rest of the article with a partner to see if they had any misconceptions. We also added our new learning as you can see from the poster. Christine 

This is the whole toolkit with some picture books

What I am reading right now

I think its pretty obvious to most teachers in the intermediate grades that the traditional weekly spelling test doesn't necessarily produce better spellers. I gave them up entirely a few years ago. But how do you help a child improve spelling skills? My answer to that has always been have them read, read, read and then read some more. This helps to strengthen the internal connection between reading and writing (spelling).I also assess daily writing for spelling and make notes about individual spelling issues my students are having. This book has some great lessons that help children think about how words are spelled instead of just memorizing lists of similarly spelled words. Christine

Visualizing assessment

Emily Kissner wrote this amazing book: The Forest And The Trees. She has a great visualizing lesson that I will share with you:

There was a spooky house on Erin's street. It was made out of brick and seemed to tower over everything else. The crumbling chimney looked as if it was about to fall on the sagging roof. Shutters hung by their hinges next to the second-floor windows, which had tattered curtains hanging in them. The porch looked like it would fall down at any moment. Erin stared at the weedy, overgrown walkway and the bushes that clustered around the front door. She couldn't imagine being brave enough to walk inside. But there was one thing that seemed out of place. The doorbell was bright and shiny, as if it were brand-new.

The directions are to draw a picture of the scene described. This is not a test of your artistic skills.

I have the children draw this scene without any further explanation. (colored pencils are best) After I have them "grade" each others picture according to a checklist which gives everything a point value. For example:

1. crumbling chimney 1 point
2. tattered curtains 1 point

and so on. At the end of the checklist I have written: critical detail: 10 points! This activity really helps you understand how well children visualize when they read. It also lends itself to talking about questioning and inferring. The critical detail is the bright shiny doorbell. Why would a house in such disrepair have a "new" doorbell? (questioning) Hmmm, maybe this house is not what it appears to be (inferring). Some children miss the critical detail entirely. It is important to have them reflect about why they missed it. Christine

inferring with pronouns

I got this lesson out of Kylene Beer's book When Kids Can't Read:

He put down $10. at the window. The woman behind the window gave him $4. The person next to him gave him $3. but he gave it back to her. So, when they went inside she bought him popcorn. This paragraph is so loaded with pronouns its very easy to get lost in the text. As an adult reader you can figure out rather quickly what is going on. Two people on a first date at the movies??? Kids don't have that kind of background knowledge. They might miss the clues which help you to infer (woman at a window, popcorn, he gave her the money back). I pass out a copy of this paragraph and have the children read it three times with a pencil in hand to write notes, and circle important details. Then I bring out the poster and dissect the paragraph with them. Its a quick easy inference lesson. Christine

Sythesizing lesson

I got this lesson directly out of Debbie Miller's book Reading With Meaning. At first glance the book seems to be written for primary teachers. I've read it a few times and I got a lot out of it for teaching 4th/5th grade.Synthesizing is the most difficult of all of the reading strategies to teach. I really like this lesson because it is easy to see how the readers thinking changes. Those key words: I'm thinking, At first I thought...but now I'm thinking are so important to model with kids. They need to have plenty of experiences with text in which they come across new information and it changes their mind about what is really happening with the characters. I received a class set of Smoky Night by Eve Bunting from Donors Choose so I am able to do this lesson whole group. Christine

What I am reading right now

I am reading as much of the Comprehension Toolkit by Harvey/Goodvis as I can get out of the library. The Toolkit Texts (gr 2/3) (gr 4/5) are interesting. They are short nonfiction stories and articles to use in small group or whole group instruction. You can print them out with color pictures from the CD. I liked the variety of content: Science, Social Studies, Biographies and more. I am always looking for nonfiction with text features that you use to comprehend the text like maps and graphs.The gr 2/3 book had some stories with great text features. Christine

reciprocal teaching

I made a bunch of these posters for group work after reading Reciprocal Teaching At Work by Lori Oczkus. She uses the formula: predict, question, clarify and summarize in small group instruction. I like to use this idea with groups of 2-4 kids. Each child gets to pick a box or two to write in but all of the work has to be done as a group. The lesson on the poster was from a nonfiction article in National Geographic for Kids called Our Oceans. Before I had the children open the magazine I told them the topic (oceans) and had them do the top of the poster: What do you know about...After they have brainstormed I had them open up to the article and predict what it will be about by doing a 10, 9, 8....(I count backwards slowly while they do a sort of picture walk to look for clues in the text features as to what the article might be about.) Next they read the article as a group and fill in the section that asks what questions came to mind as they read, and the section marked clarify   which is the vocabulary piece ( they have to list the word they didn't know, the definition of the word, and how they figured it out). Lastly they summarize  the article. The part they love about this lesson comes after it is complete. I give every child in the group a sticky and ask them to privately write the name of the person in their group who worked the hardest. Everyone wants their name on that sticky. Its a great motivator for many kids. Sometimes I even give them a "grade" for how well I think they worked together. Lori Oczkus also wrote Interactive Think Aloud Lessons. I liked that book as well. Christine

Professional books

Although 7 Keys to Comprehension by Zimmermann/Hutchins and Strategies That Work by Harvey/Goudvis are the bibles for teaching reading comprehension, I have also found many other books that have helped me. When Kids Can't Read What Teachers Can Do by Kylene Beers is an excellent start. This book really helped me understand how to teach inferencing skills to 4/5th graders. Emily Kissner wrote The Forest and the Trees. It focuses on teaching children how to find the main idea. I am currently reading her other book: Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Retelling. Teaching for Deep Comprehension by Linda Dorn is also excellent. Reality Checks by Tony Stead is another one I would recommend. Of course Debbie Miller's books are terrific. They were written for people who teach the primary grades, but I got a lot out of them. I liked Beyond Leveled Books by Szymusiak/Sibberson. Franki Sibberson has a blog you can follow as does Emily Kissner.

I also like Linda Hoyt and Gail Tomkins. Linda Hoyt's Revisit, Reflect, Retell has a great DVD, so does Linda Dorn's book, Teaching For Deep Comprehension. I'll add more books to this list as I come across them.

Christine