As part of my assignment I will also be responding to what I'm learning. Because I have some flexibility in that, I've decided that I will use this page on the blog to keep and share my ideas. I'm hoping that as I learn you'll make connections and there will be things we can try with kids this spring and next fall.
So here goes! I'll truly be revisiting, reflecting and retelling.
Update - Kim Brocke and I were lucky enough to get to have dinner with Linda Hoyt and a few other folks from the Boise State Writing Project this summer! How fun to find out that she had been a fellow of the Oregon State Writing Project over 30 years ago. Along with that, our half day workshop with her and our time at the retreat was wonderful and rich with ideas. What a gracious lady and a professional who still makes it a point to spend a lot of time trying things out with teachers and kids. I would love to have her visit Middleton. In the meantime, I hope that her ideas through this resource (and a few others I intend to purchase) will inspire and support us as we move forward with the Common Core State Standards.
Chapter 1 - Setting the Stage
"...teachers must create the environments in which students are challenged to read a wide range of texts deeply and thoughtfully" (p. 1). This in a nutshell is my exact goal when I focus on reading intervention groups. I might just add the small piece, "How do I support teachers who create the environments in which students are challenged?" I ask myself this all the time. If you are with them every day, how do I best support you as you do the work? As I reflect on this book I'm going to look for the links to the other books we've been studying as a group like Strategies that Work (STW) and The Cafe Book (CB).
1. Deep comprehension happens when learners are engaged
Honestly, I'm writing this down because it needs to become my mantra. How do we take the learning targets for the advanced readers and make them engaging? Even by second and third grade many of the kids have gotten disengaged and lazy, just wanting to regurgitate the right answer. But when they are engaged they can think, ask and write things that amaze me. This inquiry that Jeff Wilhelm, Jay McTighe, Carol Ann Tomlinson and many others talk about is key. So how do we strategically engage them?
2. Teach strategies explicitly.
This idea isn't new, but mentioned in the first chapter and also in chapter 1 of STW, it has been a good reminder to me that if we are finding the advanced and gifted students zone of proximal. Development (point of learning) in the curriculum, then even they need the gradual release of responsibility. They need something new modeled, then to try it with and without support. I've found this to be particularly true of writing.
3. Make learning visible.
In STW the authors talked about anchoring kids to their learning with lessons and charts. This same idea reappeared in RRR (p. 3-4). Hoyt suggests that we "create walls that teach." I know many of you do this in your classrooms. I've been experimenting a bit on how to do this with your mixed class intervention groups. With wall space being a precious commodity, I've been trying to come up with ways to create anchor charts that can be easily saved and projected. The only problem is that sometimes anchor charts need to be more tailored to the class. I'm open to suggestions about how to create anchor charts that are useful to all of you. Beth Newingham does such a masterful job of it. She's set the bar. We'll try to hit it with our own learning targets and needs.
(Check out this "chart" on ways that we compare and contrast things that Mr. Meyer's and his students put together. Wouldn't this make a great anchor chart for our learning target?)
4. Kids need to talk.
Does part of you cringe at that idea? :-) The trick is modeling, practicing and engaging in meaningful conversations; the noise that is music to teachers' ears. Hoyt contends, and no surprise I agree, with the idea that we need to help kids understand how to respectfully share what they think about what they read and write, but they also must support that oral sharing with evidence from the text.
5. Model Quality Thinking and Listening
Students are up for the challenge of meaningful conversations, but they need modeling and practice to become what Hoyt (and Jeff Wilhelm) call 'Thinking Partners.' Now some of you may question my ability to have quality thinking :-), but I think we have the perfect opportunity to be model listening, asking questions, and sharing thinking with kids. Would you be up for doing this at the beginning of the year with me? I see the creation of anchor charts with the advanced group as a training for work that all of the classrooms could be doing.
6. Increase the Number and Types of Books Kids are Reading
Over the past year, with a renewed discussion about nonfiction features and structures, I've found myself visiting with you about the need for nonfiction in your classrooms. I schlepped many books from the public library to school as a supplement. Cheryl found herself cringing at cutting up kids’ magazines from 1994. I of course told her to go for it. :-) Well, Hoyt sets the bar even higher. She suggests that kids in K-3 should be reading a 50/50 balance of fiction/nonfiction and 4-6 should be reading 30/70. If those numbers were motor oil our kids’ engines are in need of a tune up! But, I must own the fact that I do not spend time selling nonfiction. I rarely hear kids talk about or share nonfiction titles with friends. Maybe this could be one of my simple goals for next year.
Since many of you have also been looking at math, wouldn't it be a cool data inquiry experience to have kids track what they read through the year? I know that Beth Newingham has some premade graphs for this. We could build a graph in Excel for your projectors too. I'm happy to build this. And if you don't want to take it on, maybe I could post it outside my door(s).
Chapter 2: Conversations about Books
"...we must increase learner responsibility if we are to increase learning." p. 14
Many of you know that I think Rick Stiggins is a rock star. LOL. It was like having Hoyt quote lyrics from my favorite song when I read the above quote. I might be taking the metaphor a little far, but it's my blog. :-)
What's great about the next 4 chapters of this book is what I also love about the Strategies that Work text; its chalk full of activities that you can model and practice with kids that are transferrable to many texts. Next to many of these activities in the book I have coded, "Show Cheryl" and "3rd Grade/Frindle" because they would be such great additions to the amazing work you are already doing. Here are a couple of my favorites for getting kids to share their thinking about texts.
Book Reviews -
In essence the classroom creates a rubric for thinking and sharing critically about books. In Hoyt's example (p. 28) a class uses a system of 5 stars (the best) in the areas of vocabulary, art, and theme. They write the title on the sticky note, list the categories and draw their stars, and then at the bottom they complete the sentence "I gave this book these ratings because________________." Another, younger version shows a student who put a sticky note inside the front cover of a classroom book with his name and a set number of smiley faces indicating his recommendation of the book to other classmates. The beauty of this system is that even the categories could change depending on the learning targets your classes were focused on. I could see categories for Descriptive writing, Pictures, and Features when we are studying nonfiction texts.
Hoyt also suggests using book reviews from the New York Times, Barnes and Noble or other professional newsletters as models for students. Below I've listed a few I've located on the internet that we could project and use with kids.
http://www.spaghettibookclub.org/ ****This is a very cool idea. We might (with permission) be able to create a page on our parent blog for our kids to publish their book reviews.
Later in chapter 4, p. 118 Hoyt addresses the same idea of book reviews, but transitioning kids to written response.
Two-Word Strategy-
This strategy helps kids reflect on their thinking and assists them in making an easy transition to inferential thinking and supporting their ideas with evidence.
1. Students read an engaging selection (great with nonfiction).
2. Each student chooses two words that represent what they are thinking about what they read. (Hoyt notes that we should deliberately have kids pick words that "reflect their thinking" because otherwise they have a tendency to pick words from the text and their answers become more literal and a regurgitation of the text.)
3. Next the student shares their words with a partner. They should read their words, tell why they picked them, and explain their connection to the reading (Text to...).
Hoyt also suggests compiling all of the words from the class. This would make an excellent artifact of their students' thinking and a super jumping off point for a written reflection. She further suggests using this chart to sort the kids’ choices into words from t he text and words that reflect their thinking. This might help them begin to distinguish the different.
I used this activity as part of my DEMO for the writing project. It even worked with teachers as they tried to identify how they were feeling about the CCSS. It would be easy to use with kids over and over.
Understanding a Character and Hot Seat-
In this activity you divide the number of students by the number of major characters. So if you have 20 kids and 5 characters you will make 4 strips of paper for each character so that each child gets one. Then, you hand out or randomly choose which character each child will represent. Next, the students go back to the text and learn (remember) as much as they can about the character so that they will be prepared. Students then meet in same character groups and make a list of words that help tell what their character is like. Lastly, the groups are mixed so that there is one representative for each character. They help describe, using the text, how the character acted and why. To change it up a bit you can put a "character" in the hot seat to be questioned by other.
Inference Equation -
One activity that didn't stand out to me until Linda presented it at the workshop was Inference Equation. This fun activity asks kids to put together and clues from the text and what they know about the text to make an inference. You get to set all of that up in an equation. I would love to see kids use these. Greek and Latin roots would be fun too as kids begin to create new words with stems. An example might be:
Boise State Writing Project + Thinking Partners = TONS of new professional learning
Interesting note: At our retreat Linda referred to her V.I.P. (Very Important Points) activity. What made it interesting is that she noted the importance with the actual physical tearing of the sticky notes that you should allow kids to do. It has many ties to brain research on our ability to retain information and the physical act of doing something. Hmmm....
Chapter 3: Oral Retelling
"Retelling events is a natural part of our lives." p. 72
Well that's definitely the truth is you are part of the Young family. What's interesting though is that we forget how key this is in a child's ability to comprehend. Retelling, orally, is the important first step in a child being able to later give a concise summary in writing. Linda reminds teachers to:
1. Tell kids why retelling is important to practice and how it helps them.
2. Demonstrate and think aloud a retelling from a text that kids are familiar with so that they can understand what you included and what you didn't.
3. Visual aids can help.
4. Make sure that you demonstrate retells with both expository and narrative texts. Start with brief passages before moving on to longer pieces. Varying lengths and complexity is also a great way to differentiate.
5. Evaluate the job you do in the demonstrations in front of the kids. Name the important and interesting elements and what you might leave out next time. Students should be asked to evaluate your retells for any missing parts.
6. Talk to kids about being good listeners. Make an anchor chart!
7. Have kids practice, practice, and practice.
8. Don't forget to show kids what expression and drama can add to their retellings and have them practice.
9. Kids may need support with transition words. Make a poster for reference to a variety.
10. Let students know that they can use retelling as a way to help themselves remember stories. Most of the time, retelling is what we do for ourselves.
A Trick of the Hand -
This is a very simple idea, but have students trace their hand on a piece of paper. Students can write an element of story structure that they want to retell on a finger. For a fun twist, buy white garden gloves that kids can wear while they are practicing their retelling to remind them of the important parts.
Varying Retells -
Remember that retells should also have a nonfiction focus. This will become even more important as we move to the CCSS. But nonfiction retells give the perfect opportunity to use diagrams and labels as visual aids.
This idea of retelling and using diagrams lends itself beautifully to an activity Linda shared at her workshop called Sketch to Stretch, p. 148. With this activity the teacher reads a short piece of text aloud to kids one time all the way through. Then at the start of the second reading kids get out paper and pencil. The teacher reads one or two sentences, the kids stop and visualize, then on go, they draw and label what they remember. You keep doing this with small chunks of text until then end. Give the kids a few minutes and then read through the piece one more time so kids can add anything they've missed. Linda warned that this should be done in one color so kids don't get caught up in changing pens and that the labeling is key. This activity seems like a nice complement to retelling nonfiction.
Chapter 4: Written Reflections
"Writing develops both thinking and learning by creating a means for learners to modify and extend their understanding," p. 113.
I firmly believe in the power of having kids write. This isn't just because of the Boise State Writing Project, though the experience has added to my belief exponentially. J Writing is thinking and hopefully it become clear, reflective, remembered thinking!
Linda had a lot to add to this idea at her workshop. She spoke at length on the idea of Power Writing with kids. This is 5 minutes of writing in each section of the day, all day long. These short "bursts" of writing in every subject area give kids tons of practice. It helps them remember content, it helps with academic vocabulary, it teaches thoughtful reflection on learning, and it helps kids gain control over what they are thinking, writing and ultimately learning. What I really loved about her presentation though was they idea that Power Writes Convey a very important and clear message to students:
· You are a reader.
· You are a thinker.
· You are a writer.
In my copy of the book this is the chapter with the most post-it flags. There are a number of activities I really look forward to trying. There was a couple in particular that couldn't wait, so I tried them with adults!
Interactive Journals -
Linda actually recommended this activity at the retreat as a suggestion for my DEMO wrap up. It gave me a lot of good feedback about what my participants were thinking. For this simple activity you give each child one sheet of paper which they fold into 1/4ths and get into groups of three. The first child uses the upper left hand square to write a reflection about what they have read or what they are thinking. After a set time the child passes their paper to one of the people in their group. This person reads the author's reflection and then responds in the upper right hand box. The paper is then passed again and the final member of the team reads both responses and then responds in the lower left hand space. Finally the paper returns to the original owner who reads the others' responses and then writes a final reflection. This is such a fun activity because kids are writing, a lot, they know they have an immediate audience and as a teacher I get to see a wide variety about their thinking on a topic. Worked great with adults. Excited to try it with kids.
The Important Think About -
This is a beautiful and simple activity. The final product sounds like a poem. It helps kids get at the most important ideas of a topic and helps them scaffold into using supporting details. As the kids are reading about a topic they watch for the important things about that topic and then they use the following frame:
The important thing about_________________________________ is that __________________________. It is true that ___________________________________________. It is __________________________________________________. But, the important thing about _________________________ is that ___________________________________. (This last line is a repeat of the first.)
Chapter 5: Informational Text
"The importance of being able to read and write informational texts critically and well cannot be overstated." p. 169
I have become convinced of the above statement. With the CCSS looming, we are going to have to ramp up the time we spend with our students immersed in nonfiction texts. Honestly, I very excited for the CCSS and the challenge of getting kids to love the nonfiction they have available. It's not your grandma's nonfiction, encyclopedia reading anymore. In Revisit, Reflect, Retell, Linda shares her beliefs about what we must start doing.
1. We need to provide lots of think-alouds so that kids can see how we think about and use nonfiction text.
2. We need to help kids build a number of strategies for tackling nonfiction text.
3. We need to model nonfiction writing everyday and in a variety of types (summaries, letters, lists, etc.)
4. We need to figure out how to increase the amount of time kids spend reading and writing.
5. Kids need to understand that nonfiction texts have authors who have purposes, perspectives and biases.
6. Kids need to have lots of discussions that compare the topic from different authors looking for themes.
7. Ensure that our classroom libraries, read alouds and instructional materials are at a 50-50 balance.
8. We need to "make a commitment to help students learn to love informational texts."
Coding Strategy -
It was so great to see this strategy since so many of you have tried this with the advanced readers this past school year. Linda suggested that photocopies are easiest so that kids can write directly on the copies. I know many of you would agree. She also suggested having an overhead to overlay on other books. This would at least be recycled. I still think the most powerful thing about this strategy is when the kids have the ownership over the code and discuss how they have coded.
Investigations -
This last year we also attempted to have the younger readers spend more time with nonfiction text features. We had mixed results with our attempts. Those of us who were able to attend Linda's workshop were enamored with her examples of Investigations. In this activity the students use what they have found out about a topic to create a two-page spread for a magazine or book. They must employ headings, subheadings, diagrams, labels, pictures, captions and all kinds of features. What's most powerful is that they are the authors and they are choosing the features to help them best communicate what they've learned. They also get an opportunity to think about the graphics and how they impact the message. Right now I'm thinking of a second grade inquiry project where our kids write and issue of National Geographic Kids.....:-).
Conclusion
Meeting Linda Hoyt will be one of the high water marks of the Boise State Writing Project for me. Having her book to revisit was been rejuvenating. It was liking a treasured cookbook and then finding recipes you'd never tried before. This edition is well worth the money because the additional work and activities are highly valuable and useful. It will be a staple in my work with kids, particularly as we move toward the skills the will need to be successful with the Common Core State Standards. But having the privilege to meet, visit and learn from Linda was definitely the best part. She is a gracious and genuine lady and teacher. She is a model of continuous learning and reflection so that kids will be engaged and growing. I will be searching out more of her resources and keeping her business card (she may regret this :-)) close at hand this next year. Anchor charts here I come! Teachers and kids...fair warning! :-)
