Bits and Pieces from Conferences

1. The question should not be how to raise test scores.  The question should be how to improve literacy!  (Janet Allen 10/5/04)

2. Test prep should be integrated into lessons, not separated.  Some direct instruction, however, is valuable; Jim Burke’s THE ENGLISH TEACHER’S HANDBOOK  has list of “test” words: academic vocabulary; could teach one a day, record in academic journals.

3. Teri Lesesne:  80% of what kids read should be “easy”; 20% “hard”

(Her book has great bibliographies of books kids love.)

4. She noted the tragedy that test mania is producing kids who can maybe pass tests but don’t read for pleasure.

5. After each day’s read-aloud, ask student chosen at random to write 1-2 sentence summary of the reading, posted on butcher paper on the wall. Encourages students to focus, plus preserves reading, plus teaches how to write effective summaries, a valuable life skill.

6. Lesesne also is critical of Accelerated Reader program as it leeches funds from buying books and doesn't test most meaningful aspects of books.  Young readers need to learn skill of selecting books best for themselves and read for joy, not points.

7. Research shows that reflection is the most important factor in teaching success.  (Keep a journal!)  Same for students; valuable to provide time periodically for them to write about what they’ve learned.

8. Sharon Taberski (11/13/04): “Practice is the most important way to build reading skill!”

9. Daily SSR crucial:  allows choice, builds vocabulary, stamina, fluency, “habits of mind”.

10. Activity also crucial:  “Writing should rest on a sea of talk.” Physical movement supports learning; cooperative groups invaluable for student engagement.

11. Four practices that support fluency (comprehension, prosody):

Daily read-alouds

Shared readings (silently read text while one fluent reader reads aloud)

Reader’s theater

Independent reading

12. Non-fiction (as in read-alouds, shared, etc.) vital to build background knowledge, thus builds comprehension.  Background knowledge crucial if kids are to be able to infer.  BK also supports writing well.

13. Together as a school, adults should agree on several “non-negotiables” that students will all experience.  (Suggestions: read-aloud, shared reading, daily SSR, daily chances to write, frequent group work, class begins with “So what?” (purpose & value of learning) and ends with closure (recap, insures learning), student choice honored, use of reflection by both teachers & students, make connections between lessons and life, use rubrics and authentic assessment.)

14. Literacy research: kids read titles only 20% of time, often missing main idea of text.

15. Vocabulary research: must see a new word 10-15 times in a meaningful context to retain it and make it part of their lives.

16. More: required lists, dictionary work, test = 3 worst ways to teach vocabulary.  Instead:  use integration (hook new words to prior knowledge:  “It’s another word for _____” “It’s an example of _____”

“It’s the opposite of ______”; use repetition (not mindless drill but frequent meaningful use (word walls helpful here); use meaningful applications as in creative writing or in exit slips.

17. More on word walls:  “critical” words are those they must know to read the text; “high utility” words useful everywhere; “expert words” refer to academic (example: chemistry terms, Shakespeare words, etc.)

18. Reading for 25 minutes a day results in learning 20,000 new words in a year.

19. Good teaching is balanced:  provide explicit modeling to “frontload”, then allow practice with support (teams, low risk), then independent performance which allow lots of student choice.

20. Carol Jago (“Cohesive Writing”) loves SIX TRAITS (systematic, gives common standards, consistent assessment, yields improved writing.)  She believes in portfolios; students should have a finished piece every three weeks; more important to return papers right away than to respond to everything in them.

21. Cute:  periodically have students reflect on portfolios by writing self-assessment letter in third person point of view.

22. Shelley Harwayne (3/19/05):  “You must fine-tune your own teaching and be able to articulate why you do what you do.  If you know the what and why, it’s harder for outsiders to issue mandates and expect you to obey what you don’t believe in.”

23. Harwayne:  Use an overhead to display an elegant sentence with exact punctuation.  Ask students to replicate that exact structure to tell a truth about their lives.

24. Harwayne:  Keep a scrapbook of samples of elegant text from all over (newspaper, poems, magazines, ads, etc.)  Can draw from those to teach craft (example: figurative language, vivid verbs.)

25. Harwayne: After read-aloud of “M&M” (meaningful & memorable) text, ask students “What does the writer do?” to train their critical reading/writing skills.  Same idea:  “Read with your antenna out!” to spot effective writing.

26.  Janet Allen:  Research shows that access to books is the most critical factor in building readers.

27. Regie Routman:  Train kids to select “just right” books by asking, “Do I understand it?” “Do I enjoy it?” “Do I know most of the words?”

28. Tim Rasinski (focus on fluency) recommends Reader’s Theater to build automaticity, accuracy, and prosody. Also provides benefits of rereading the same passage (7-8 times: fewer errors, faster rate, improved comprehension.) Texts can be poems, monologues, short plays, cheers, lyrics, etc.  Provide text on Monday (along with modeling expressive oral reading) to teams.  Give 10 minutes each day for teams to practice.  They perform for rest of class on Friday.  Results:  (study done in Texas) 10 weeks of Reader’s Theater resulted in a full year’s growth in reading.

29. Richard Allington:  Motivation results from students being given choice, time, engaging texts, and opportunities to talk.

30. Allington:  VOLUME essential to successful reading instruction, including time outside of school.  Kids need 2-3 hours per day of high-success reading; too much “hard” reading is harmful!

31. Allington:  Avoid interrogating kids about what they read (“What was the setting?”) but lead them to discuss big ideas (“What did this book teach you about friendship?”)  Urges teaching kids art of having “Literate Conversations” about what they read and write.  He noted that even small amounts of conversation during all content areas lead to higher comprehension.

32. Allington:  “If you can do the worksheet, you don’t need it. If you can’t, it won’t help.”  Same true for end-of-chapter questions and vocabulary exercises on worksheets: these are more for assessment or diagnosis than for instruction.

33. Allington and Janet Allen:  Provide EXPLICIT INSTRUCTION on learning strategies (such as dealing with textbook formats or using context clues.)

34. Jim Trelease (Read-Aloud Handbook): Research shows that kids who read 37 minutes daily outside school achieve at the 90^th percentile; 11 minutes at the 50^th; 1 minute at the 10^th.

35. Trelease:  Humans always tend to do pleasurable activities; asked which is more pleasurable, test prep or reading self-selected texts? (NOTE:  wider, more frequent reading much more likely to result in success on tests than drills.)

36. Trelease:  Listening comprehension comes before reading comprehension; it feeds (in order) speaking, reading, and writing.  Kids with the largest listening vocabulary learn more.  Thus, quality read-alouds are essential!

37.  Lester Laminack:  Reading aloud should be planful, not just “entertaining the troops.” Never read text “cold”, as expressiveness is essential to comprehension.

38. Laminack:  “Structure and routine are paramount to success!” (Ex:  have set time daily for SSR, read-aloud, writing, groupwork for active engagement, reflection on purposes for learning, etc.)

39. Laminack:  “Poem of the week” strategy [Monday, post poem on chart & do choral reading; Tuesday reread, look at what makes it a poem; Wed. give kids own copy of poem; Thursday & Friday, perform the poem or research the poet or try to write in style of poet.

40. Kathleen Blake Yancey on reflection:  Ask kids to write answers to 1) what is something you enjoyed reading? 2) Something you disliked? 3) So, who are you as a reader?  Then share responses with partners.

41. Yancey:  Regular time devoted to reflection has benefits:  test scores improve, students make connections, and students learn to ask big questions.  Noted reflection should be individual AND social!

42. Kyleen Beers:  Classrooms must be literacy rich to expose kids to many words; need to simply recognize many words (rather than work on them) to read well.

43. Beers:  daily quality read-aloud essential to helping kids develop prosody; Eudora Welty calls it “the reader’s ear.”

44. Beers:  Build comprehension by giving students frequent chances to make predictions, a skill that improves when activities require synthesis (applying an old skill to a new one.)

45. Terrance Young on classroom libraries:  Aim for 8 books per student; provide kids chances to talk about books as that raises comprehension;  provide equal amounts of fiction and nonfiction; teacher must model reading, do book talks, read aloud often and well.

46. Shannon Cannon on effective vocabulary instruction:  Preteaching selected vocabulary does aid comprehension of text, but crucial to select words carefully (essential to meaning but not so obsolete they’ll never see them again.  Exception: some technical nonfiction.)

47. Cannon:  Dictionary not always helpful for true understanding.  Teacher must not just define but explain:  provide word associations (ex:  which word goes with “crook”?), ask students to engage with the word (ex:  Have you ever …?  Or Describe a time when you might:), provide idea completion sentences instead of asking them to create sentences using new words (as they are often misused!) (Ex:  “The skiing instructor said Marie was a novice on skis because…”)

48. Cannon:  Repetition crucial for successful vocabulary attainment.  This means repeated exposures in a variety of ways, using active involvement.  “Dependence on a single vocabulary instruction method will not result in optimal learning.”

49. Cannon:  Vocabulary is also acquired through incidental learning, thus chances to read a wide variety of texts (and hear such) are essential.

This page updated last on :  08/25/2007