The Literacy Triangle

THE

“The simplicity and genius of The Literacy Triangle makes teaching the literacy dance in our complex world engaging, doable, and most of all, successful! Whether you read this wonderful book cover to cover or flip to the lessons you need at the moment, this book serves as a fabulous reference you’ll return to again and again to guide your daily teaching!”

—Lori Oczkus

Literacy Consultant and Author

“Fasten your seat belts because you are in for an exciting literacy ride! This book will propel your literacy program forward; it is loaded with engaging, brain-friendly, spectacular strategies for your students. The literacy triangle is easy to implement, and you will see results right away!”

—Kathy Perez

THE LITERACY

LITERACY

Professor Emerita, Author, and Instructional Coach

“Effective literacy instruction in all content areas is rooted in learning intentions; formative assessments and teacher clarity are the foundation of impactful learning. The authors guide the reader, with clarity and focus, through the strategies and mindset to make effective literacy instruction a reality for all students.”

—Katie McKnight

CEO and Founder of Engaging Learners

In The Literacy Triangle: 50+ High-Impact Strategies to Integrate Reading, Discussing, and Writing in K–8 Classrooms, authors LeAnn Nickelsen and Melissa Dickson provide teachers with research-based strategies to increase students’ literacy skills. This user-friendly book introduces the literacy triangle—reading, discussing, and writing—for planning effective literacy lessons. The authors combine this high-impact framework with their four-step cycle of instruction—(1) chunk, (2) chew, (3) check, and (4) change—presented in their previous book, Teaching With the Instructional Cha-Chas: Four Steps to Make Learning Stick. By reading The Literacy Triangle, K–8 educators will discover the tools they need in order to support literacy and increase learning in all subjects through before-, during-, and after-reading strategies.

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Learn how to incorporate the literacy triangle’s three points—(1) reading, (2) discussing, and (3) writing—into instruction for any subject

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Cut through the conflict caused by the reading wars and gain clarity on the science behind effective, well-rounded literacy instruction

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Get differentiation ideas for scaffolding and enriching each strategy

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Discover how to engage students in making meaning, choosing texts, and leading discussions

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Understand how setting a student’s purpose for reading can encourage focus, engagement, and a motivation to keep reading

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy to download the free reproducibles in this book.

SolutionTree.com

ISBN 978-1-951075-67-5 90000

9 781951 075675

Nickelsen • Dickson

With this book, readers will:

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

LeAnn Nickelsen & Melissa Dickson

Copyright © 2022 by Solution Tree Press Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher.

555 North Morton Street Bloomington, IN 47404 800.733.6786 (toll free) / 812.336.7700 FAX: 812.336.7790 email: info@SolutionTree.com SolutionTree.com Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy to download the free reproducibles in this book.

Printed in the United States of America

Names: Nickelsen, LeAnn, author. | Dickson, Melissa, author.

Title: The literacy triangle : 50+ high-impact strategies to integrate reading, discussing, and writing in K-8 classrooms / LeAnn Nickelsen and Melissa Dickson.

Other titles: Fifty plus high impact strategies to integrate reading, discussing, and writing in Kindergarten-8 classrooms Description: Bloomington, IN : Solution Tree Press, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2022000061 (print) | LCCN 2022000062 (ebook) | ISBN 9781951075675 (Paperback) | ISBN 9781951075682 (eBook) Subjects: LCSH: Language arts (Elementary) | Language arts (Middle school) | Literacy--Study and teaching (Elementary) | Literacy--Study and teaching (Middle school) | Teachers--In-service training.

Classification: LCC LB1576 .N56 2022 (print) | LCC LB1576 (ebook) | DDC 372.6/044--dc23/eng/20220211 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000061 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022000062 Solution Tree Jeffrey C. Jones, CEO Edmund M. Ackerman, President Solution Tree Press President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife Associate Publisher: Sarah Payne-Mills Managing Production Editor: Kendra Slayton Editorial Director: Todd Brakke Art Director: Rian Anderson Copy Chief: Jessi Finn Senior Production Editor: Tonya Maddox Cupp Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein Copy Editors: Jessi Finn and Kate St. Ives Proofreader: Evie Madsen Text and Cover Designer: Kelsey Hoover Associate Editor: Sarah Ludwig Editorial Assistants: Charlotte Jones and Elijah Oates

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Table of Contents Reproducible pages are in italics.

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Join Us on a Journey to Improve Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 What Is the Literacy Triangle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Why Did We Write This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 How Will Students and Teachers Benefit From This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 How Is This Book Organized? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Part 1: Preparing for Your Journey to High-Quality Literacy Instruction . . . 9

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Teaching Literacy Effectively . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 What Is Effective Instruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step One: Chunk (Instruct) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Step Two: Chew (Learn) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step Three: Check (Evaluate) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Step Four: Change (Differentiate) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What Does High Impact Mean, and How Do You Measure Impact on Student Learning? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 What Is Effective Literacy Instruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 What Is the History Behind Literacy Instruction (Also Known as the Reading Wars)? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 What Is Our Take on Effective Literacy Instruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 How Do You Fit It All In? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

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THE LITERACY TRIANGLE

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Making the Right Choices for Reading, Discussing, and Writing . . . . 27 How Do You Choose the Right Text? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 When and Why Do You Choose Complex Text? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 When and Why Do You Choose Grade-Level Text? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 When and Why Do You Allow Students to Choose Independent Texts? . . . . 32 Helping Students Choose the Right Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Choosing the Reading Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 How Should Students Think About the Text to Strengthen Discussions? . . . . 37 What Are the Five Steps for Effective Discussions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 How Should Students Write About Text to Deepen Comprehension? . . . . . . 39

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Using the Literacy Triangle to Improve Literacy Mindsets . . . . . . 43 What Is the Literacy Triangle Framework? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 What Is a Literacy Mindset? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Bias and Attribution Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Fixed and Growth Mindsets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 What Is Your Literacy Mindset? What Are Your Students’ Literacy Mindsets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 How Do You Fit It All In? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Part 2: Implementing the Literacy Triangle to Continue Your Journey to High-Quality Literacy Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

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Embarking on a Successful Text Journey—Before Reading . . . . . 55 What Are the Big Three Before-Reading Planning Actions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Pre-Expose and Prime the Brain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Activate Prior Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Set a Purpose for Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 What Strategies Can You Use to Pre-Expose and Prime the Brain? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Quick Book Walk-Through Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Predicting in Ten Words or Fewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Before-Reading Question Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

How Do You Fit It All In? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

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Genre Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Mix and Match Text Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 IDEA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Vocabulary Ship and Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Word Detective Bookmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 What Is It and Why Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Big-Picture Web of Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 What Strategies Can You Use to Activate Prior Knowledge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Group Brainstorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Four-Color Spinner Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Sort It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Cover-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Quick Sketch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Thinking Job Established . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Taking Care of Business Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Predicting in Ten Words or Fewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Prepping the Brain Before Reading Nonfiction (K–2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Prepping the Brain Before Reading Nonfiction (Grades 3–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Prepping the Brain Before Reading Fiction (K–2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Prepping the Brain Before Reading Fiction (Grades 3–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 Genre Puzzle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Mix and Match Text Feature Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 IDEA Vocabulary Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Vocabulary Ship and Anchor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Word Detective Bookmark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 3–2–1 Exit Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116 Quick Thinking Jobs for Reading Nonfiction Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Quick Thinking Jobs for Reading Fiction Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

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Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey— During Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 What Are the Big Three During-Reading Planning Actions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Make the Thinking Job Visible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Have Students Self-Monitor and Clarify for Understanding . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Discuss to Strengthen Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 What Strategies Can You Use to Make the Thinking Job Visible? . . . . . . . . . 126 Tab a Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

What Strategies Can You Use to Set a Purpose for Reading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

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THE LITERACY TRIANGLE What Is It and Why Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 Mini Graphic Organizers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Text Tagging With Sticky Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 During-Reading Question Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Get the Gist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 What Strategies Can You Use to Have Students Self-Monitor and to Clarify for Understanding? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142 Fix-It Tools for Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144 Finding the Context Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Do Your EARS Hear Fluent Reading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

What Strategies Can You Use to Discuss to Strengthen Comprehension? . . . 164 Pause-and-Reflect Conversations Through de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Roundtable Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Fab Four Focus Roles for Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Fab Four Focus Roles for Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Text Rendering With a Twist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Jigsaw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Common Social-Emotional Skills by Grade Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Description, Concept, or Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Cause and Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187 Problem and Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Compare and Contrast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189 Sticky Note Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 Five Steps to Conferring for Better Feedback and Reading Achievement . . . 191 One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting: Teacher Documentation Template for Reading Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 Bookmark for Reading Goal (K–2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Bookmark for Reading Goal (Grades 3–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (K–3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (Grades 4–8) . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Comprehension Fix-It Tools (K–3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Comprehension Fix-It Tools (Grades 4–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 Use the Clues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

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Reading Aloud With a PAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

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Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words—Exit Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 I Can Stick With It. My Reading Stamina Is Growing! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Do Your EARS Hear Fluent Reading? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Fluency Tracker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Partner Reading Directions and Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Six Thinking Hats Question Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Roundtable Discussion Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Text Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

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Wrapping Up a Successful Text Journey With Discussion and Writing—After Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 What Are the Big Three After-Reading Planning Actions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Teach Skill Minilessons That Get Maximum Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 Go Deeper With Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Synthesize the Reading and Discussions Into Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230 How Does Close Reading Bring the Literacy Triangle Elements Together? . . . 233 What Strategies Can You Use to Teach Skill Minilessons That Get Maximum Results? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Cruisin' Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Designing Critera for Success for Stronger Discussions and Writing . . . 237 Targeted Skill Minilesson Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 What Strategies Can You Use to Go Deeper With Discussions? . . . . . . . . . . 243 Thinking Job Extensions—After-Reading Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Fan-and-Pick for Reading and Mathematics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Student-Led Discussions Made Easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250 Question Generation PIP (Produce, Improve, Prioritize) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 Reciprocal Teaching Literacy Role Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Mathematics Reciprocal Teaching Graphic Organizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 Socratic Seminars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Discussion Dynamo Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 What Strategies Can You Use to Synthesize the Reading and Discussions Into Writing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Keep Writing Afloat With RAFTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268 Hopscotch to the Writing Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

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THE LITERACY TRIANGLE Using Mentor Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Text Summary: Adding Up the Gist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Opinion-Writing Feedback Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Graphic Organizer Synthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Direct Instruction Minilesson Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Cruisin’ Clipboard—Version One (Updated) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 Cruisin’ Clipboard—Version Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 Writing Criteria for Success—Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291 Writing Criteria for Success—Rubric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292 Targeted Skill Minilesson Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293 Thinking Job Discussions—Exit Ticket (K–5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294 Thinking Job Discussions—Exit Ticket (Grades 6–8) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Fan and Pick for Word Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297 Student-Led Discussions—Exit Ticket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 Open-Ended Question Stems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299 Literacy Reciprocal Teaching—Role Bookmarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 Mathematics Reciprocal Teaching—Graphic Organizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 Socratic Seminar Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 Keep Writing Afloat With RAFTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 Hopscotch to the Writing Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305 Mentor Text—Learning Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 My Mentor Text Notebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307 Team Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 Synthesizing Information From Texts—Informational Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Synthesizing Information From Texts—Fiction Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

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Celebrating the Journey—Bringing It All Together . . . . . . . . . . 311 How Can You Plan Effective Literacy Instruction With the Literacy Triangle? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 How Can You Bring Students Along on the Literacy Triangle Journey? . . . . 316 How Can You Bring Teachers Along on the Literacy Triangle Journey? . . . . 317 How Can You Bring the School Along on the Literacy Triangle Journey? . . 317 Step One: Establish a Baseline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Step Two: Analyze Data and Design a SMARTER Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Step Three: Train Teachers in Each Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320 Literacy Triangle Planning Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

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Fan and Pick for Reading Comprehension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Table of Contents

xi

Teacher Checklist for Planning the Literacy Triangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325 Teacher Self-Assessment for Planning With the Literacy Triangle . . . . . . . . 326 Literacy Triangle Learning Walk Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 SMARTER Goal Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 Steps to Designing a SMARTER Goal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

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©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

About the Authors

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

LeAnn Nickelsen, EdM, is an educator, coach, author, and trainer.

She presents nationally and internationally on topics such as closing the gaps in high-poverty schools through differentiation strategies and evidence-based, researched strategies; using high-impact literacy strategies and processes; and enhancing engagement, memory, and transfer in learning environments. She is known for delivering a wealth of information in an active, fun format with very specific, practical classroom examples. Participants leave with many ideas for maximizing learning for all students.

LeAnn believes that training is not enough for teachers to implement high-effect-size tools and strategies. Coaching is needed to bring full transfer from trainings to the classroom, and she works with teachers one-to-one and in small groups to help them achieve their educational goals.

LeAnn, with Eric Jensen, coauthored Bringing the Common Core to Life in K–8 Classrooms: 30 Strategies to Build Literacy Skills and, with Melissa Dickson, coauthored Teaching With the Instructional Cha-Chas: Four Steps to Make Learning Stick.

LeAnn earned a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of North Texas. She is a parent of college-graduate twins and applies the research to the hardest jobs out there—parenting and teaching.

To learn more about LeAnn’s work, visit Maximize Learning (www.maximizelearninginc.com) or follow @lnickelsen1 on Twitter.

Melissa Dickson, EdM, is an outstanding presenter and educator. She is passionate about providing teachers with research-based ideas and strategies that they can implement immediately. In her decades as an educator, Melissa has been a literacy coach, staff developer, site-based team leader, mentor teacher, inclusion teacher, classroom teacher, and early childhood teacher. She supports teachers and students in grades K–12.

Melissa presents internationally at conferences and seminars and provides custom training for schools and districts. Her ability to provide relevant information with humor and enthusiasm makes her a very popular presenter. Participants leave her sessions with a wealth of ideas to immediately implement in their classrooms. In addition, she provides follow-up coaching to support transferring the training to classroom practice so teachers (and schools) become more effective.

Melissa, with LeAnn Nickelsen, coauthored Teaching With the Instructional Cha-Chas: Four Steps to Make Learning Stick. xiii

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She has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in reading from Sam Houston State University.

To learn more about Melissa’s work, visit www.melissadickson.com or follow @mdickson221 on Twitter.

To book LeAnn Nickelsen or Melissa Dickson for professional development, contact pd@ SolutionTree.com.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

I N T R O D U C T I O N

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Join Us on a Journey to Improve Literacy You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

—Anita Merina

Our personal journeys through literacy instruction took many twists and turns, first in our own classrooms with our students and later as we transitioned to working with teachers. Over the years, we have experienced vast differences in literacy instruction as we have traveled to different classrooms, schools, districts, cities, and countries around the world. But the importance of literacy has remained constant. Literacy is a critical life skill that involves making sense of the world around you and communicating your thoughts to others. This became obvious to us the first time we traveled to a country where we were unable to read or make sense of the signs and menus, and we were incapable of asking for directions. Suddenly, communication became a game of charades.

We realized that, even though we were highly educated, we lacked even the most basic literacy skills, at least in that country. It made us consider the students, many from diverse backgrounds, sitting in our classrooms, sure that they, too, had deep thoughts and questions they wanted to communicate but lacked some fundamental literacy skills allowing them to understand and be understood fully and deeply. How could we ensure that our students felt confident in their literacy journey, and what exactly did we mean when we used the term literacy? So for the purposes of this book, we define literacy as the ability to read and comprehend a variety of texts about relevant, global topics; cultivate and engage in discussions and dialogues about what is being read or what was read; and synthesize thinking through all types of writing.

The foundation of literacy includes the following aspects: reading, discussing, and writing. We are not sure how they became separate entities in many prepackaged, all-inclusive literacy programs, some of which might be sitting in your school, but we believe that literacy is not just a combination of reading skills like phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Literacy is not just speaking, listening, and collaborative and cooperative learning 1

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activities, nor is it just writing activities. Instead, literacy is all those things, connected across the content areas. When a teacher plans a lesson so students will engage in authentic, relevant, interconnected, and rich reading, speaking, listening, and writing opportunities, that teacher is growing students’ literacy skills better than any program, workbook, or disconnected reading and writing assignments can.

Circa 1945, author William Faulkner said: Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master.

Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. (as cited in Gilks, 2002)

Table I.1: Reading Skills and Writing Skills Reading Skills

Writing Skills

Readers draw on knowledge of words, syntax, usage, and features of the text to decode words and comprehend.

Writers use this same reading knowledge to spell words, craft sentences, and create a manuscript.

Readers interpret an author’s message and purpose by using what they know about the text features and functions.

Writers use this same knowledge to construct their sentences and paragraphs for their readers.

Readers use their knowledge of setting goals, accessing information, generating questions, predicting, summarizing, visualizing, and analyzing the text for meaning making.

Writers use these same skills to organize and construct their thoughts for their writing.

Students become more fluent readers after learning the structure of complex sentences and using them in their writing.

Writers learn how to write more complex sentences via mentor texts and teachers’ explicit instruction.

Source: Graham, Liu, Bartlett, et al., 2018; ILA, 2020.

Reading affects writing and writing affects reading. Like the chicken and the egg—which one came first? What’s more important to know is that reading (without writing) and writing (without reading) cannot bring about high-impact literacy: “Elementary and secondary students become better writers by reading as well as by analyzing texts” (ILA, 2020, p. 2, via meta-analyses of scientific studies where writing, reading, or both were taught). Explicit writing instruction and students’ crafting of writing both enhance students’ comprehension and fluency while reading and also their decoding of words in text (Graham & Hebert, 2011). “Creating text for others to read provides students with opportunities to become more thoughtful and engaged when reading” (ILA, 2020, p. 3). Furthermore, while students are writing and practicing new skills, “they try out different forms of writing, apply different strategies and approaches for producing text, and gain fluency with basic writing skills such as handwriting, spelling, and sentence construction” (ILA, 2020, p. 3). We also know that writing is much easier after having discussions with and feedback from the teacher or peers.

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Even then, great writers knew the power of reading to improve writing and vice versa. The research advisory team of the International Literacy Association (ILA, 2020) has shown that reading and writing are interdependent, and although they are not identical skills, they draw on common sources of knowledge. The more direct the instruction of reading skills and writing skills are in the classroom, the more reading and writing interact and strengthen each other. The following skills are mentioned throughout the research (table I.1).

Introduction

3

When students write about what they have read, comprehension and retention are enhanced (Graham & Hebert, 2011). A student’s literacy development is dependent on this interconnection. “Writing can facilitate students’ comprehension of text through the following: fostering explicitness, promoting integration of information, creating a personal involvement with text, encouraging thinking about ideas, and facilitating new understandings” (ILA, 2020, p. 3). Bottom line, when reading and writing instruction and opportunities receive equal emphasis, students become more literate (Graham, Liu, Aitken, et al., 2018). Furthermore, Daniel Willingham (2017b), cognitive psychologist and University of Virginia professor, brings the whole literacy triangle together by saying that students remember what they think about. When students read, discuss, and then write about what they have learned or read, memory improves. “Writing is an extension of speech. Speech allows the transmission of thought” (Willingham, 2017b, p. 15).

What Is the Literacy Triangle?

Before Readingx Pre-Expose and Prime the Brain Activate Prior Knowledge

xDuring Reading

Read

Set a Purpose for Reading

Make the Thinking Job Visible Self-Monitor and Clarify for Understanding Discuss to Strengthen Comprehension

Literacy Mindsets

Discuss

Write

xAfter Readingx Synthesize Reading and Discussions Into Writing

Teach Skill Minilessons That Get Maximum Results

Go Deeper With Teacher-Led and Student-Led Discussions

Figure I.1: The literacy triangle—The big picture.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for a free reproducible version of this figure.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

As we have worked with teachers all over the world, many using a wide range of reading programs and literacy-based instruction, we began to see a disconnect from school to school, and teacher to teacher. We heard teachers say things like, “I’m not the reading teacher” or “I only teach writing,” and students say things like, “We don’t do reading in this class,” and the much more frequent, “I don’t have time to fit it all in!” It became clear to us that many teachers and students have differing mindsets concerning literacy. The literacy triangle, therefore, is an interactive framework, driven by teacher and student mindsets, which promotes literacy every single day in every content area. The literacy triangle’s three main elements—(1) reading, (2) discussing, and (3) writing—are never treated as separate entities during literacy-building time, and they work for all subjects—even mathematics. The literacy triangle’s three elements are represented in figure I.1.

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Good readers are strategic readers who can think deeply about what they are reading. Strategic reading requires thinking in three phases: (1) before, (2) during, and (3) after reading. Therefore, in addition to the three literacy elements, the literacy triangle graphic also shares in which phase each element takes place, as well as the big three teacher-planning, student-thinking actions for before, during, and after reading, which we expand on in chapters 4–6 in this book.

Why Did We Write This Book?

We wrote this book because literacy is an urgent life skill. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data in figure I.2, as well as the following literacy statistics, make the urgency even higher.

• In Australia, reading, mathematics, and science achievement has continued to decline so much that the average fifteen-year-old in 2018 was almost a year behind in reading compared to a fifteen-year-old two years prior (Australian Council for Educational Research, 2019).

• Although Canadian reading scores are much higher than many other countries’ Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reading scores, those reading scores declined from 534 (in 2000) to 520. Mathematics declined from 532 (in 2003) to 512, and science went from 534 (in 2006) to 518 (Richards, 2020).

• In 2019, 78 percent of U.S. fourth graders living in low-incomes homes scored below the proficient level in reading, compared to 48 percent of fourth graders in moderateand high-income homes (The Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2019).

• The great majority of students who fail to master reading by third grade either drop out of high school or finish with dismal lifetime-earning potentials (Weyer & Casares, 2019).

• College- and career-ready standards show negative effects on student scores on the NAEP in fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade mathematics (Loveless, 2020).

Although the race gap in reading achievement is narrowing, it still exists and must be eliminated: At grade 4, the White-Black gap in reading achievement scores narrowed from 32 points in 1992 to 26 points in 2017; the White-Hispanic gap in 2017 (23 points) was not measurably different from the gap in 1992. At grade 8, the White-Hispanic gap narrowed from 26 points in 1992 to 19 points in 2017; the White-Black gap in 2017 (25 points) was not measurably different from the gap in 1992. (de Brey et al., 2019, p. iv)

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• Reading scores have flatlined in the United States since 1998, with two out of three students not meeting the standards for reading proficiency set by the NAEP. This NAEP test shows no growth in reading progress since about that time. Only 35 percent of fourth graders were proficient in reading in 2019, down from 37 percent in 2017; 34 percent of eighth graders were proficient in reading, down from 36 percent (Nation’s Report Card, 2020).

Introduction

Percent 100

5

Grade 4 8

8

8

8

8

9

9

9

24

25

25

26

27

27

27

26

33

34

34

34

33

33

31

31

36

33

33

33

32

31

32

34

2005

2007

2009

2013

2015

2017

2019

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 2011

Year

Grade 8 3

3

3

3

4

4

4

4

28

28

28

30

32

31

32

29

90 80

Advanced

70 Proficient

60 50

42

43

43

42

42

40

42

40

39 Basic

30 20 10

27

26

25

2005

2007

2009

22

24

24

27

2013

2015

2017

2019

24

Below basic

0 2011

Year Percent 100

Grade 12 5

5

5

6

31

33

32

31

37

36

37

35

27

26

25

28

2005

2009

2013

2015

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Year

Source: Adapted from U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), selected years, 1992–2019 Reading Assessments, NAEP Data Explorer. See Digest of Education Statistics 2019, table 221.12.

Figure I.2: Percentage distribution of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students across NAEP reading achievement levels—2005–2019.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Percent 100

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Because it is urgent that teachers improve literacy among all students, especially those most vulnerable—students in special education, second language learners, students living in poverty, and students of ethnic minorities—this book focuses on the most engaging reading, discussing, and writing strategies that yield the highest impact and brings those strategies together to build literacy as no single program can. When you work with the literacy triangle framework, using the strategies we provide in this book, planning is easier, richer, and integrated, and students become more literate faster (ILA, 2020). All three critical elements of literacy play off, rely on, and enrich one another. Students need all three during literacy and content-area instruction time. Chapter 3 (page 43) explains how mindsets tie in.

How Will Students and Teachers Benefit From This Book?

Using the literacy triangle framework will help you as you choose the highest-impact texts, develop questions to discuss, and follow up with activities (from this book or from your own reading program). You’ll work smarter, not harder, and your students’ literacy will improve drastically. It’s a win-win! K–8 students and teachers will benefit from this book in the ways indicated in table I.2.

How Is This Book Organized?

Just as experienced travelers consider the where, what, why, and how of their journey, experienced teachers consider the where, what, why, and how of their lesson. Because of this, we have organized the book into two parts, the first of which gives you the strong where from which literacy practices derived; the what to consider when choosing texts, discussion questions, and writing points; and the strong why behind the creation of the literacy triangle and the importance of developing a literacy mindset. The second part of the book helps you with how to implement the literacy triangle in your classroom or school with strategies to support you with each element.

Part 1 includes chapters 1–3. Here, we travel back in time to help you build background knowledge and understand the development of literacy instruction and practice over time and how it led us to create the literacy triangle.

• Chapter 1 examines the history behind literacy instruction. We discuss the reading wars, give our interpretation of integrating literacy instruction, and share some possible classroom schedules.

• Chapter 2 examines the different types of texts and helps you see when and how to choose the right one, including suggestions for how to read the text and follow it up with quality discussion and writing.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

We also wrote this book because since writing our book Teaching With the Instructional ChaChas: Four Steps to Make Learning Stick (Nickelsen & Dickson, 2019), teachers we work with have asked us to help them apply the four cha-chas steps—(1) chunk (instruct), (2) chew (learn), (3) check (evaluate), and (4) change (differentiate)—so they can increase their students’ literacy skills in both their language arts blocks and content-area reading classes. In this book, we are incorporating the same four cha-chas steps with a whole new lineup of strategies to support literacy in content-area classrooms and English language arts (ELA) blocks with all types of text.

Don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous book; the steps will still make sense and be easy for you to follow. Let’s look at how both teachers and students benefit from this book and how we’ve organized it to best serve your needs.

Introduction

7

Table I.2: Benefits of the Literacy Triangle Students

Teachers

• Students who are lagging in their literacy skills will be able to get caught up, allowing achievement to soar in all content areas.

• Your planning time will be drastically simplified because you are planning the integration of the most important components in literacy.

• Student metacognition and comprehension will reach deeper levels, contributing to more meaningful and memorable learning.

• You will have less reteaching because front-end mastery will occur more often.

• Students’ enjoyment of literacy will improve because the reading, discussing, and writing tools are fun, relevant, meaningful, and respectful tasks that encourage them to engage with text.

• Students will have their needs met when teachers use the differentiation section for each strategy.

• Your students will read and communicate with deeper understanding and have a more positive literacy mindset.

• You will be able to teach more in less time. Your classroom time will be more of students thinking and learning and less of you telling them about the content.

• Students will develop routines of discussing and writing about what they read and cultivate rich background knowledge and concept development.

• Students will engage in culturally responsive literacy instruction, providing them opportunities to make meaning, choose texts, and lead discussions.

• Chapter 3 details the literacy triangle and discusses the importance of the literacy mindset and how it affects the amount of effort that students will exert as they encounter textual challenges.

Part 2 includes chapters 4–7. Here, we journey into implementation of the literacy triangle. In chapters 4–6, we share before-reading, during-reading, and after-reading strategies to strengthen your students’ literacy skills. For each element of the literacy triangle journey, we offer the big three planning actions and strategies to support each action.

For each strategy, we provide a definition (What Is It?), the rationale or research supporting it (Why Do It?), and how to teach the strategy the cha-chas way for highest impact. We describe step-by-step teaching (chunk) the strategy in a high-impact, cognitive-science-friendly manner so that learning is memorable and visible (chew and check). In addition, we provide possibilities for differentiation (change), including ways to enrich a strategy (bump it up) and scaffold it (break it down).

To provide further support, we’ve included a box with each strategy indicating, with a check mark, the grade level and literacy area where it is most effective, and a star indicating where it might also be beneficial. We also provide possible criteria for success to challenge students to take ownership of their learning (student agency or self-assessment). Providing students with criteria for success helps them know exactly what is needed to demonstrate mastery of the learning

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Students will feel motivated and take more ownership for their learning because of the self-assessment and reflection built into each strategy.

• You will experience fewer classroom behavior disruptions because of the increase in student agency, ownership, and engagement.

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target. It also yields an effect size of 0.88 (Visible Learning MetaX, 2021). Finally, we provide technology support tools as additional options in each chapter.

Group Brainstorm Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

• Chapter 5 provides you with strategies to use during reading, including those to help make students’ thinking visible, to increase metacognition and help students make sense of text or know what to do when the text doesn’t make sense, and opportunities to discuss their understandings, or lack thereof, to strengthen comprehension.

• Chapter 6 focuses on high-impact after-reading strategies that lead to deeper comprehension, such as providing minilessons to address skill gaps, having teacher-led and student-led discussions, as well as synthesizing the learning into writing.

• Chapter 7 brings each piece together to form a big picture for you. This chapter includes our lesson plan template, complete with directions, and a variety of examples so you can get a sense of how easy and effective your literacy instruction can be. We include a wide range of checklists to support bringing students and teachers along on the literacy triangle journey. We even provide some suggestions and walk-through forms to help you reinforce literacy schoolwide.

The book is designed to support you and your students, so if you are just beginning your literacy instruction journey, you might decide to start at the beginning, while a veteran literacy teacher, who has been on the journey for a while but is looking for some new strategies to use, might choose to skip to part 2. If you are wondering how to choose the appropriate text or whether round-robin or choral reading would be best, or what type of thinking or writing would support the learning, then you may want to head to chapter 2. If having students synthesize their learning with deep discussion or in writing is your destination, then you may decide to fly straight into chapter 6. The choice is yours. Let’s get started on our literacy journey!

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Chapter 4 examines the benefits of before-reading strategies, and we share some of the best strategies for accessing and building prior knowledge before reading and for setting a purpose to focus the students’ reading of the text.

C H A P T E R

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Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.

—Malorie Blackman

The before-reading strategies intentionally pre-exposed and primed your students’ brains with snippets of information and vocabulary, painted the big picture of the text (organization, main idea, genre, essential questions, and so on), activated the students’ prior knowledge, gathered their supported predictions, and set a purpose for their reading. Your students are now prepared and excited to journey into reading, thinking, and ultimately comprehending the text. It is during reading where students make their thinking visible, often by text tagging (using flags or highlighting to mark the text) or annotating (recording their thinking on the text or on sticky notes that they place on the text). You are now ready to blend two elements of the literacy triangle (read and discuss) with some during-reading strategies.

Just as experienced travelers must remain flexible in the face of challenges like flight delays and lost reservations, students must remain flexible as they face challenges during reading to stay focused on the goal, which is comprehension. David Sousa (2014) defines comprehension as a “complex interactive process that begins with identifying words by using knowledge outside the text, accessing word meaning in context, recognizing grammatical structures, drawing inferences, and self-monitoring to ensure that the text is making sense” (p. 101).

121

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To encourage students to stay focused on the goal and continue to be motivated to read— and thus build reading stamina—the content they are reading should be culturally responsive to bridge the gap between school and the world of the students. Texts that represent familiar places, values, and experiences validate the students’ worth (Stringfellow, 2019). In addition, students should have troubleshooting toolkits ready to go when they struggle with the text. This helps them feel successful with the reading and strengthens their ability to sustain attention. In other words, during-reading activities keep their brains motivated to accomplish the thinking job (which is their reading-skill goal) combined with strategies to support them when meaning breaks down and to strengthen comprehension of the reading (so rich discussion and writing can occur).

What Are the Big Three During-Reading Planning Actions?

1. Make the thinking job visible.

2. Self-monitor and clarify for understanding.

3. Discuss to strengthen comprehension.

Make the Thinking Job Visible We previously introduced the concept of a thinking job as a student-friendly purpose for reading. Thinking jobs are a must to engage students in the reading process. Setting a purpose for reading encourages focus, engagement, and motivation—even when there are distractions (Cox, 2019; Guthrie et al., 2004)! The thinking job also helps readers have better conversations after reading. Since chapter 4’s Thinking Job Established section (page 98) explained the why and how of designing the thinking job, this chapter will examine ways to make the thinking job visible.

The thinking job sets the purpose for reading, which in turn will guide the choices students make while reading. Showing thinking visibly helps teachers, and students, determine if meaning is being maintained or is breaking down. Hattie (2009), in his book Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, points out what is most important in teaching must become visible for the students, and in turn, student learning must become visible for the teacher, enabling both teacher and learner to monitor, give and receive feedback, and try alternate strategies to facilitate learning. Hattie (2009) adds, “The more the student becomes the teacher and the more the teacher becomes the learner, then the more successful are the outcomes” (p. 25).

One way to make students’ thinking visible is to have them jot their thoughts or annotate the text. These marks show the students’ metacognition toward successful thoughts, questions, and findings. The process of marking text is fun and engaging and helps build reading stamina.

Additional strategies in this chapter help make student thinking jobs visible and support students’ metacognition (awareness of their own thinking processes) while reading.

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Because you cannot crawl into their brains and see what is happening during reading, students must make their comprehension visible to themselves, peers (if reading in a group), and the teacher. In addition, students should use self-monitoring and clarifying tools when they get stuck or struggle. Finally, students need a way to communicate their questions, their thinking, their struggles, and their understandings through ongoing discussions. Planning each of these steps is imperative to support comprehension. The big three during-reading planning actions are as follows.

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Have Students Self-Monitor and Clarify for Understanding When readers come across a challenge during reading, they have some choices: abandon that section, reread and try again, or spend a little more time “fixing” their comprehension by using tools implicitly. Readers might quit the reading process if they are not confident about their comprehension or if they don’t have some tools in their reading toolkit to use to clarify and fix their broken comprehension.

Kelly Gallagher (2004) cites the following reasons students’ comprehension is impeded: •

[The student was] not in the right frame of mind to read.

•

[The student] had not identified a purpose for reading.

•

[The student was] not aware of the exact point when their comprehension began to falter.

•

[The student] had no idea what to do when they started to lose meaning.

•

[The student is] making a not-so-subtle plea for “reader’s welfare” (a term [would] provide them with the meaning without their having to expend any real reading effort. (p. 64)

Teachers should explicitly teach and model tools to keep students going when the going gets tough. Students must learn to identify confusing words, parts, or sections that might impair their comprehension while reading a text (self-monitor), be able to explain why they are confus­ing, and choose strategies independently to achieve comprehension (clarify). Grade level by grade level, teachers collect, teach, and contribute these fix-up strategies for students to add to their self-monitoring toolkit.

According to Sousa (2014), successful reading comprehension requires reciprocity among the following three phases. Challenges or problems in any one of these phases can cause reading difficulties.

1. Auditory processing, phonemic awareness, and phonic phase: What do I hear? (/dawg/) 2. Visual processing (orthography) phase: What do I see? (the letters d-o-g) 3. Semantic processing (understanding context) phase: What does this mean? (the association between the word and its meaning—a furry animal that barks) Chapter 4 (page 55) provides tools to support the first two phases. This chapter explores tools to address comprehension challenges related to semantic processing, those requiring students to relate the word to previously learned words allowing for deeper understanding. While students are struggling with a word, fixing it is very different from teaching students self-monitoring tools.

Teachers should invest in instruction that helps students find and notice their errors and respond accordingly. There are three critical attributes of teaching for self-monitoring based on the works of literacy experts Peter Johnston and Marie Clay: (1) teacher observation and hypothesizing, (2) noticing and naming, and (3) teaching for strategic activity and agency (as cited in Anderson & Kaye, 2017). Cognitive monitoring, or self-monitoring, is a foundation for successful strategic reading. Clay’s book Becoming Literate: The Construction of Inner Control, revised in 2015, gives the following definition of self-monitoring: “Self-monitoring in reading means being aware when you successfully construct the author’s message and when you notice something is amiss with meaning, structure, or graphophonic information” (as cited in Anderson & Kaye, 2017, p. 544).

Many tools in this chapter will reflect these three critical components.

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coined by Karen Feathers in her 1993 book Infotext)—hoping that the teacher

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Not only should educators explicitly teach students to stop and determine confusing parts of a text and possibly what action to take, but they also must teach them that sometimes readers must live with ambiguity until post-reading discussions and writing, both of which help piece together meaning. Students should also understand that all readers experience uncertainty while reading; in fact, sometimes, the author purposefully invites ambiguity.

This chapter is not intended to give you solutions for each reading problem but rather give you tools to help your students self-monitor and self-clarify while reading. In addition to the tools we feature, find more ideas for potential reading challenges with possible solutions in Laura Robb’s (2009) book Assessments for Differentiating Reading Instruction: 100 Forms and Checklists for Identifying Students’ Strengths and Needs So You Can Help Every Reader Improve.

Discuss to Strengthen Comprehension

However, rich, active discussions don’t just happen. Teachers must plant the seeds for discourse with intention, so students apply what they have learned through direct, explicit instruction, minilessons, and guided practices. They can plant these seeds by providing the following prompts prior to the discussion.

• Based on today’s thinking job, share your tabs, marks, or annotations that reflect your purpose for reading.

• Find the page that supports

.

• Select an example of dialogue and share how the character’s words give the reader insight into his or her personality.

• Choose a new word, or a word used in a different way, to discuss with your group.

Teachers should not assume all students will know how to participate successfully in discussion groups. We have included many pointers throughout this and the following chapter. In addition, students may benefit from an explicit discussion minilesson, found in chapter 6. Some suggestions for facilitating positive group discussions follow.

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A perk of traveling is meeting new people and learning of new things to see. Many of our best excursions have happened because locals shared a place to go that was not listed in the travel guide, and we’ve gained new insights into their cities based on their stories and experiences.

Students gain new insight into text when they can talk with their peers about their understanding (or lack of understanding) about the text. In addition, active discussion—which requires students to pay attention, not interrupt, and understand what the speaker is discussing, as well as be able to coherently communicate their thinking—develops and strengthens interpersonal communication skills, supports analytical and critical-thinking skills, deepens student knowledge and retention, and builds problem-solving skills (Murphy, Wilkinson, Soter, Hennessey, & Alexander, 2009).

Research from Carnegie Mellon University (2021) suggests that engaging students through interactive activities, discussions, and feedback results in improved academic performance compared to traditional sit-and-get methods. Discussions help students thread together what they brought to the reading, the rich connections they made during the reading, and how others perceived and connected with the text. Discussions help students summarize their learning and enhance their procedural and conceptual knowledge, which is why teachers usually follow up all reading with opportunities for students to discuss. But discussions can also be of benefit during the reading.

When comprehension breaks down, having discussions makes it clearer to both the student and teacher what the issues are and what potential next steps could fix the problems (de Garcia, n.d.), thus strengthening comprehension.

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• Set clear and consistent behavior guidelines (share your expectations and the consequences for not following the set guidelines). Encourage student contributions to these guidelines, record them, and visibly post them.

• Model (or ask students to model) what a quality discussion should look like and sound like. Some active listening pointers could be to make eye contact with the person speaking, listen intensely so that you can paraphrase what was said, restate something that seems important, nod your head in agreement, and draw or expand on peers’ statements. Some speaking pointers could be to make eye contact with each person in the group, speak slowly with intonation and feeling, project with appropriate volume considering the context, respectfully disagree when appropriate, and stay on topic.

• Continually give feedback during group discussions based on the criteria for success you and your students designed for stronger discussions. Be prepared to provide minilessons for social-emotional skills (chapter 6) so they have more productive conversations. See the reproducible “Common Social-Emotional Skills by Grade Level” (page 183).

• Prepare statement and question stems for successful discussions, and have them ready to use in case you encounter students who struggle with discussions.

• Assign roles like the following.

• Discussion leader, who leads and monitors the discussion ensuring participants provide evidence to support their responses • Recorder, who writes or types the key points (in notes, on a graphic organizer, and so on) • Timekeeper or encourager, who monitors time allotted, provides positive feedback, and encourages all voices are heard • Evaluator, who invites each participant to evaluate his or her own participation, as well as rates the participation of the group as a whole on things such as preparation, contributions, providing textual support, listening and valuing others, staying on task, and so on Some discussions will be teacher led while others will be student led. During-reading discussions should have stopping points in the text to signal an opportunity to stop reading and discuss with the guidance of prompts. To ensure that this happens, separate your text into manageable chunks before reading to create stopping points in the text. These stopping points could occur after each subtitled section with nonfiction, or after paragraph or chapter breaks with fiction.

Alert students that at the end of each chunk, they should stop to discuss with either the whole class or their group, whichever you prefer. If students are reading orally, this stop will be consistent with the class (or group); if they are reading independently, some may finish before the other members of the group are ready to discuss. They can use this time to organize their annotations or create questions to ask their group during the discussion. Provide a timer, or assign a timekeeper, to maintain the flow between reading and discussing.

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• Offer text all readers can access (or provide support for challenging text).

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Tech Tools for During Reading • Coggle at https://coggle.it—a digital mind-mapping tool so students can see the big picture of the content from the informational text • Confer app at https://edshelf.com/tool/confer—an app that keeps conference notes and anecdotal records for teachers’ documentation while reading with students • Inspiration at https://inspiration-at.com/inspiration—a site whose strongest feature is its ready-made templates for graphic organizers. In addition, any language included can be read aloud with text-to-speech technology and users can add links to web-based articles and videos as supporting materials.

• Record of Reading app at https://apps.apple.com/us/ app/record-of-reading/id543574721—an app designed for the iPad for running records • MindMeister at www.mindmeister.com—a digital mind-mapping tool so students can see the big picture of the content from the informational text • Newsela at https://newsela.com—a site that publishes current event articles each day on a variety of topics pertaining to most school subjects. Every article has five different reading levels and corresponding quizzes.

• Rewordify at https://rewordify.com—a digital tool that simplifies vocabulary, making text more assessable to struggling readers (built-in text-to-speech functionality is also available). In addition, difficult vocabulary is collected in a series of flash cards.

• Snap&Read Universal at https://snapandread.com—a Google Chrome extension that reads language aloud using integrated text-to-speech with synchronized highlighting

What Strategies Can You Use to Make the Thinking Job Visible?

This is the first during-reading big planning action that is still focused on the first element on the literacy triangle (read). This section deals with the strategies students use during reading. A teacher can’t know what’s in students’ heads unless the students find a way to communicate their thinking. The high-impact strategies included here allow students to do that, which in turn helps the teacher make changes in instruction to further support the students.

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• Level It Books app at https://levelitbooks.com—an app for finding reading levels fast and digitally managing your library of books

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Tab a Thought Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Tab a thought is a student-friendly way to mark key points, unusual vocabulary, interesting details, and so on in a text that readers cannot write in. Tabs can be skinny sticky notes or other types of removable, sticky tabs. These tabs guide thinking, discussions, and writing.

• Many students really enjoy using the tabs versus annotating what they are thinking. It’s a fast way to tab a thought without interrupting their reading comprehension as much as annotations might. It’s important to expose all students to a variety of ways to mark their thinking in the text so they can eventually choose the best way for them.

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Read through the Thinking Job Established section (page 98) so you can design an aligned, student-friendly thinking job. Before giving it to students, ask yourself the following questions.

• “Can they tab the answers or information to this thinking job while reading?”

• “How many tabs might they need?”

• “Will they need a variety of colors?”

• “Is it very clear what they will be thinking about while reading the passage, section, or text?”

• “Will their tabs be evidence for them (and for me) as to where they are with the learning target (step toward the standard)?”

2. Prepare the tabs students will need. We like inexpensive tabs you can reuse if you store them on laminated paper. Think through your students’ unique needs. You might choose to differentiate how they tab based on your data.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

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• When students tab or mark their thinking, they are showing what they know, or don’t know, and where their thinking occurred. They are making thinking and learning visible. Hattie’s (2012) research concludes that when teachers make teaching and learning visible and respond to it, they can have a huge impact on student achievement.

His work also shows an effect size of 0.60 (Visible Learning MetaX, 2021) when teachers instruct their students so they can monitor their reading through metacognition strategies. For student to place tabs in the text, they must be aware of their thinking.

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THE LITERACY TRIANGLE

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success.

Because thinking jobs usually have several answers woven throughout the text, start by modeling your thinking as you show students how you tabbed one possible answer to the thinking job question. Share your thinking as to why you placed that tab there.

Remember, your tabbed answers must answer the thinking job question.

• Chew and check: Turn the reading over to the students and remind them to explain how their tabs answer the thinking job question. While students are reading, walk around the room and check where they are placing their tabs. Stop to ask them questions like the following.

• “I see that you placed a tab on this sentence. Can you explain why this sentence answers the thinking job question?”

• “Are there other locations in the text that you can tab?”

• “What questions do you have while reading with the thinking job in mind?”

• Change: Some students might need the thinking job written down in front of them.

Some students might need another example from you or immediate feedback after they find one piece of the thinking job answer. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Ask students to use different tab colors to connect related thinking jobs. It’s not more work, but rather deeper thinking with a variety of types of thinking. For example, explain to students, “There are several interactions in the text between the main character and the minor character. Use red tabs to note a negative interaction between those characters. Use yellow tabs to note a positive interaction among those characters.”

• Break it down—Design a sentence starter to help students narrow down what they are looking for; in other words, make the answer more concrete rather than something abstract. You could even take the thinking job question and turn it into a sentence. (For example, Here is the problem. Here is the solution. Here is a word I don’t know. And so on.) Students place these tabs in the correct locations in the text.

Possible Criteria for Success My thinking job tabs will do the following.

Show evidence of my thinking while reading Show evidence of my comprehension toward the thinking job question Show the answers to the thinking job question because they are placed right on the information Help with rich discussion and writing because they stay in the book until students complete these processing activities

Example Figure 5.1 is an example of the kind of tabs we like to use. A student has tabbed the text that focuses on emotion.

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If you see struggling students, provide prompts or cues to help them become “reading detectives” and find the answer. Finally, ask the students to use the criteria for success to self-assess the quality of their tabs use. Students can laminate cards with the tabs stored on them for shared reading texts, guided reading texts, or independent reading texts.

Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading

Figure 5.1: Student tabs focused on emotion.

Mini Graphic Organizers Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Mini graphic organizers are a student-friendly way for students to determine text structure when reading or writing and organize their thinking before reading. Complete the organizer during reading and later, use the organizer to support after-reading discussions and to synthesize their learning in writing.

• Decades of research with various age groups and in different content areas show that, in general, when teachers incorporate graphic organizers into their instruction, student learning improves (Hall & Strangman, 2002). In addition, using graphic organizers has been known to powerfully impact the learning of students with learning disabilities and special needs (Dexter, Park, & Hughes, 2011; Douglas, Ayres, Langone, & Bramlett, 2011; Singleton & Filce, 2015).

• Graphic organizers can reduce cognitive demands by providing students a framework to create a visual representation of the most significant information in a text, which enhances comprehension (Kim, Vaughn, Wanzek, & Wei, 2004; Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012; Vaughn & Edmonds, 2006).

• During the prereading stage, graphic organizers can serve as a brainstorming tool to activate prior knowledge and connect what students know with new information.

During the reading stage, graphic organizers can help students arrange pertinent

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d into the classroom with her oversized Lucie walke ridget laughed out loud and pointed coat, and B ithout any hesitation, three other girls at Lucie. W ith that laughter. chimed in w was not laughing: Chelsea.

Only one girl that coat from the local church d e Lucie receiv ar her dad lost his job. She had e y t because las sized coat for a year. She reflected r e v o to wear an she was for a coat, but wished l u f e t on how gra . When you get free r e h t i f it had truly rom the local church, you take f s n w hand-me-do . t what you ge iately ran up to Lucie and put her Chelsea immed to reassure Lucie that she was not laughing and d r e id not find it arm around h ould feel Lucie’s tight shoulders, gnawing stomac c a h, and gulping funny. Chelse . to prevent tears

129

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information, facilitating learning by highlighting links among concepts. In the afterreading stage, students can use graphic organizers to assess their comprehension, recall pertinent information, summarize main ideas, and maintain the content learned (Kim et al., 2004; Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Make an anchor chart to help students identify the different types of text structures associated with expository text, including key words, guiding questions, and a graphic organizer to represent each structure (see figure 5.2).

2. Have several copies of the following reproducible graphic organizers for each text structure available for students.

• “Description, Concept, or Definition” (page 185) • “Cause and Effect” (page 187) • “Problem and Solution” (page 188) • “Compare and Contrast” (page 189) 3. Select an expository text with strong evidence of a specific text structure (or several different texts representing each of the different text structures).

4. Plan heterogeneous partners or heterogeneous groups of four.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool to determine the structure of an upcoming text and support them as they take notes on what they are learning from the text. Point out the categories on the anchor chart, making sure to mention that they can also use the graphic organizers for note-taking during prewriting to help them organize their own writing. Share the criteria for success. Read aloud one paragraph; then use the anchor chart and model your process of determining what text structure the author is using. Select the graphic organizer that matches the text structure and demonstrate how you would use it to consolidate the information.

• Chew and check: Place students with partners or small groups and have them read the next paragraph or select another text to examine. Circulate around the room while students are reading, deciding on the text structure, and choosing their graphic organizer; provide guidance when necessary. Remind students to refer to the criteria for success to ensure they are on track.

• Change: Offer a choice of text topics geared toward the students’ interests and allow them to choose the text. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Provide text with more than one type of structure and require students to use a variety of graphic organizers to take notes on the text.

(Optional: Have students turn the graphic organizer over and draft a summary of their learning to incorporate writing.)

• Break it down—Provide text with only one structure very clearly evidenced in the writing. Make sure students have access to several completed examples of each graphic organizer that they are using (but not with the same content from which they are reading).

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• “Sequence” (page 186)

Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading

Text Structure Description, Concept, or Definition

Key Words

Guiding Questions

For instance, for example, characteristics include, in addition

• What topic (concept)

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Graphic Organizer

is described?

• What are some of its

characteristics?

• What is its function?

• What are some related

words or ideas?

• To what category does

it belong?

• What are some examples?

Sequence

• Is there an order to what is

Because, if, due to, since, so, then, consequently, if, as a result of, leads to

• What happens?

being told?

• What happened first?

• What happened next?

• What happened last?

• What causes it

to happen?

Cause

Effect

• What are the important

elements or factors that caused it to happen?

• Will this always be the

result? Why or why not?

Problem and Solution

Problem, issue, cause, because of, due to, solve, so, then, since, consequently, therefore, as a result, leads to

• What is the problem?

Problem

• Who has the problem?

• What is causing

the problem?

• What needs to happen or

change?

Steps or Events 1.

2.

3.

• Who is trying to solve the

problem?

• What solutions are tried?

• How is the problem solved?

Compare and Contrast

Similar, alike, same, just like, both, different, unlike, in contrast, on the other hand

• What is being compared

and contrasted?

• How are things similar?

• How are they different?

• What are the most

important qualities that make them the same or different?

• What conclusions can you

make?

• How can the things

be classified?

Figure 5.2: Text structure chart.

Solution

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Cause and Effect

Before, in the beginning, to start, first, next, then, finally, in the middle, last, in the end

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THE LITERACY TRIANGLE

Possible Criteria for Success Our mini graphic organizer includes the following.

The correct organizer for the text structure Evidence of our note-taking included on the graphic organizer Optional: A summary of our learning on the back

Example Figure 5.3 is an example from Science (as cited in Moyer et al., 2000).

Cause:

Effect: • Untreated wastes are

• Rivers and lakes become

• Fertilizers are used to

• Rivers and lakes become

dumped into them.

polluted by industries. polluted by farming.

• Rivers and lakes become

• Pesticides are used

polluted by humans.

to kill insects and are carried along with runoff water.

Source: Adapted from Moyer et al., 2000.

Figure 5.3: Cause and effect example one.

Figure 5.4 is an example from If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff (1998).

Cause:

Effect: • Gave pancake

• Wanted syrup

• Gave syrup

• Got sticky

• Gave bath

• Wanted toy

• Gave rubber duck

• Feels homesick

• Take a picture

• Wants to send to friends

• Wants to build a treehouse

• Get wood, hammer, and nails

• Wants to decorate

• Asks for wallpaper and glue

• Hangs wallpaper

• Gets sticky

• Feeling sticky

• Asks for syrup

• Has syrup

• Wants a pancake

Source: Adapted from Numeroff, 1998.

Figure 5.4: Cause and effect example two.

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treat soil and are carried along with runoff water.

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Text Tagging With Sticky Notes Quick Glance

Key

Grade Level

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Text tagging with sticky notes is a student-friendly way to quickly jot a thought based on the thinking job and place the note in the section of text where the thought occurred.

• Some students might be more motivated when using these premade sticky notes versus annotating what they are thinking. It’s a fast way to tab a thought without interrupting the reading as much as annotations might. This will enhance discussions and writing.

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. You can create the thinking job sticky notes ahead of time by using the reproducible “Sticky Note Template” (page 190), or your students can write the thinking job on sticky notes by hand. For elementary students, you may want to create the sticky notes yourself and simplify them.

2. If you choose to use the template, first make two copies (one to place sticky notes, and one to write on). If you prefer to do this electronically, you can access the template at go.SolutionTree.com/literacy. Then simply type what you want in each square of one template, and place blank sticky notes on the other. Place pages with the sticky notes into your letter tray and print. Print one page per student.

Questioning sticky note ideas include the following.

• I have a question for the author:

.

• I am confused and have a question for my teacher:

.

• I am highly interested in this information and want to research this further because: .

• I am going to create a question for my friend to make sure he or she reads this section: .

• I am making an inference in this section of text. The book infers . . . My brain knows this . . . so I predict it means . . .

Vocabulary thinking sticky note ideas include the following.

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• When students mark their thinking or metacognition, they are showing what they know. They are making thinking and learning visible. Hattie’s (2012) research concludes that when teachers make teaching and learning visible and respond to it, they can have a huge impact on student achievement. Hattie’s (2012) work also shows an effect size of 0.60 when teachers engage students with metacognition strategies.

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• I don’t know what this word means, so I’ll use context clue to figure it out. Then I’ll look it up to see if I’m correct. Word: Clues: Prediction of meaning: Actual definition: .

• I love this word,

, that the author used here because . . .

• This figurative language means • I could change this word, .

. Type of figurative language:

.

, to a different and more precise word,

• I don’t understand this word in this context so I will do the following to guess it’s meaning: .

Inferential thinking sticky note ideas include the following.

• I think the author is trying to say . . .

• My background knowledge tells me that this is . . . because . . .

• The overall theme of this text is

because . . .

• This quote might really be saying . . .

• An inference I made with this statement is following: .

because I know the

Generic nonfiction sticky note ideas include the following.

• I knew this fact already. I also can elaborate and add this information: • This is a new fact or idea for me:

.

• I don’t understand this statement and here is why: • This is the main idea of this article because • I agree with this statement because

.

. .

.

• I disagree with this statement because

.

• My summary or gist of this section is

.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success. Show the students how they can use the sticky notes. Share your thinking as you place a note in the text by using a document camera so everyone can see it. Share what you write on the sticky note in response to the thinking job. We recommend not modeling how to use the exact thinking job, but rather, a different one that goes with that text.

Otherwise, students might just copy your idea.

• Chew and check: Invite students to come up to your conference table to share their sticky notes of thinking. This is a wonderful way to check for understanding and get inside the student’s head, one-to-one. If time doesn’t allow for a brief conference, you can walk around the room or pull small groups to have a discussion based on what they wrote on their sticky notes. You can also store these sticky notes in a special documentation location (three-ring binders), so you have proof of their thinking toward mastery of a standard. Finally, invite the students to use the criteria for success to determine what they are doing well and what they can improve. Make sure to customize the criteria for success based on your learning target.

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• I predict

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135

• Change: Based on which learning targets students still must master (collect these data), you could have certain groups (purposeful, flexible groups) working on different thinking jobs to give them extra practice. For example, you might purposefully regroup students homogeneously to focus on a specific thinking job. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Make deeper thinking jobs open ended, allowing students to record their thinking while reading. For example, students can generate their own questions about the text and write them on sticky notes.

• Break it down—Design the sticky note as a cloze activity so students fill in the blanks while they are reading and place the sticky note next in the text at where the thought originated (for example, I did not understand this sentence on page because ).

Possible Criteria for Success Placed in the text where my thought occurred Complete (all components on the sticky notes) Have reasons for my thinking (cited from the text) Will share in group discussions and with writing prompts

Example The example in figure 5.5 reflects a student’s tabs for noting unknown words (circling them by drawing a circle and writing the unknown word and its meaning after looking it up) and for generating questions that pop into the student’s mind while reading (for example, Will the markings play a role in the story later?).

Ravine (river, stream)

?

Will the markings play a role in the story later?

Basin (large indent or hole)

Figure 5.5: Sticky notes signifying unknown meaning and question.

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My sticky notes include the following.

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Figure 5.6 is a simplified version for elementary students.

These caterpillars get their food from the milkweed plant.

They eat the leaves.

I knew this!

This rabbit lives in the ground or under bushes. It also eats plants like clover.

on Iw

This hawk has a nest in this tree. It eats birds and small animals that live on and near the tree.

My favorite part

der

Figure 5.6: Elementary example of text tagging with sticky notes.

During-Reading Question Stems Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? During-reading question stems are student-friendly tools for guiding thinking and helping students develop metacognitive skills while reading.

• Metacognitive awareness is critical to the learning process. It has an effect size of 0.69 (Fisher et al., 2016). Question stems addressing comprehension strategies are a way to support and guide students in the process of metacognition.

• There is significant evidence that learning to generate questions while reading improves memory, integration and identification of main ideas, and overall comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000; Rosenshine, Mesiter, & Chapman, 1996; Sedita, 2018; Trabasso & Bouchard, 2002).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Select a text based on a standard you are teaching and assessing.

2. Select three to five question stems you plan to use with your students.

3. Post the questions where students can see them.

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Source: Adapted from Jacobs, 1999.

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Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success.

Begin by pointing out the question stems and sharing that successful readers develop metacognition skills by questioning as they read. Model this process by choosing one of the posted questions and think aloud your response. In the elementary grades, you can best achieve this activity by placing students with partners and having them turn and talk. Older grades can do this in groups of four. Randomly call on a student to share his or her response with the class. Provide feedback before moving to the next question.

• Change: Close student gaps by choosing particular comprehension categories for students needing work with a specific reading strategy. For example, if a student is struggling to make a prediction, you may choose to have the student generate questions requiring prediction. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down by increasing or decreasing the complexity of the questions.

• Bump it up—Pose questions requiring deeper cognitive demand (for example, “Can you think of an analogy or metaphor that summarizes the story up to this point?”).

• Break it down—Pose questions requiring less cognitive demand (for example, “What might this story be about based on the cover pages, pictures, title, and so on?”).

Possible Criteria for Success Our question stems include the following.

At least two questions At least two answers written using complete sentences Answers supported with evidence from the text

Example Figure 5.7 (page 138) is an example of during-reading question stems.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Chew and check: Invite students to choose a question or two to discuss with either a partner or a group of four. Circle the room listening (or reading) student responses.

Refer students to the criteria for success to ensure they include all the necessary requirements. Randomly call on a few students to share their thinking orally with the class. Optional: Students can turn in their written responses as an exit ticket. You can also combine this activity with before-reading question stems (see figure 4.3, page 66) and after-reading question stems (see figure 6.16, page 246) and have students record their questions and responses. See figure 4.5 (page 68) for an example using before-, during-, and after-reading question stems.

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Comprehension Strategy Addressed

Question Fiction During reading • If the word were changed to

change?

, how might the meaning

• What do you think will happen next? Why?

Predicting

• What might happen if there is a sequel to this book?

• Does this part remind you of anything you know or have done?

• Which words were rich in meaning or created an emotion in

you?

• Can you think of other stories in which the character was faced

Connecting

with the same type of challenges?

• Who is telling this story and why?

• Who is the story being written to?

• How does the sequence of the story develop the plot,

characters, climax, and so on?

• What major events affected the behaviors of the characters?

• What figurative language made the visualization process better?

• How did the characters change based on what they experienced

Questioning

(plot events)?

• How did the setting impact the plot? How did that impact the

characters?

• Do you have any questions about what has happened so far?

• What details do you think should be part of this text and are not?

• Do you have any new questions for the author?

• What has happened so far in the story?

• Who did what, where, when, why, and how?

• Can you think of an analogy or metaphor that summarizes the

Summarizing

story up to this point?

Nonfiction During reading • What do you think you will learn next? Why?

Predicting

• How does this sentence, passage, or section connect with the

rest of the text?

• How does the author organize this writing? Which text

structures did he or she use? Do you agree with the author’s choice? Can you think of other texts that use this structure?

Connecting

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• What words resonate with you? Which phrases do you love?

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• What was an interesting fact you read about?

• What words are confusing or stand out?

• Do you have any questions about what you have learned so far?

• What do you think the author wanted you to know by this point?

• What details do you think should be part of this text and are

Questioning

not?

• How do the transition words the author uses help your brain

transition between paragraphs or ideas?

• How do the text features help you understand the text better?

Would you change any of them?

• What have you learned so far?

• Can you think of an analogy or metaphor that summarizes the

Summarizing

text up to this point?

Figure 5.7: During-reading question stems.

Name: Bryce

Date: January 15

Text: Tsunami by Calista Danby While I’m reading, I’m wondering . . .

My during-reading questions:

Answers:

1. What was an interesting fact you read about?

2. How do the text features help you understand the text better? Would you change any of them?

1. That they can travel up to 500 miles (800 kilometers) an hour!

2. The pictures and charts help me understand how they form and what they do. The captions told me what that section was going to be about. I wish there were more pictures.

Figure 5.8: During-reading questions exit ticket example.

Get the Gist Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Get the gist is a student-friendly way to succinctly paraphrase key information and determine the main idea of a section of text. It’s a synthesis of the reading.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Figure 5.8 is an example of a during-reading questions stem exit ticket. If you want the complete template for before-, during-, and after-reading questions and answers, see figure 4.5 (page 68).

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• The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC, 2011) claims: Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining its meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately. Directing student attention on the text itself empowers students to understand the central ideas and key supporting details. It also enables students to reflect on the meanings of individual words and sentences; the order in which sentences unfold; and the development of ideas over the course of the text, which ultimately leads students to arrive at an understanding of the text as a whole. (p. 6)

• Summarization has an effect size of 0.79 in Hattie’s research (Visible Learning, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

2. Divide the text into manageable chunks or by paragraphs.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success.

Remind students that gist is simply the main idea. Provide students with the gist song (see figure 5.9) to help them remember what is included in the gist. Read aloud the first chunk of text. Using a think-aloud process, share your ten-word-or-less gist and the thinking that elicited the synthesis.

• Chew and check: Have students read and determine the gist for the next section while using the “Get the Gist” song to guide the quality of their thinking. Then have students meet with their partner or small group to share and compare their gists using the criteria for success and give one another feedback to improve the learning. Randomly call on a student to share the gist with the class. (Optional: Allow students to create a team summary; see the Text Summary: Adding Up the Gist section in chapter 6, page 278.)

Get the Gist (Sung to the tune of The Addams Family theme song [Mizzy, 1964]) Get the gist (snap, snap) Get the gist (snap, snap) Get the gist, get the gist, get the gist (snap, snap) Name the who or what Tell most important things Say the main idea In ten words or less You’ve got the gist (snap, snap) You’ve got the gist (snap, snap) You’ve got the gist, got the gist, got the gist (snap, snap).

Source: Adapted from Mizzy, 1964.

Figure 5.9: “Get the Gist” song.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

1. Select a text based on a standard you are teaching and assessing.

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141

• Change: Consider having students do two-thirds of the text together, but then doing the final third independently and turning it in to the teacher for assessment. Or, for English learners, create a cloze activity (text in which you omit some of the words) that will guide students’ word choice. Allow the students to give you the gist verbally.

Encourage small symbols or pictures if writing words is a challenge. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down by changing the text.

• Bump it up—Increase the complexity of the text (perhaps a text that sparks critical conversation) or increase the amount included in each chunk.

• Break it down—Decrease the complexity of the text (perhaps a text that allows second language learners to use their native language or vocabulary) or minimize the amount of text in each chunk.

Possible Criteria for Success My gist includes the following.

The most important information about the topic Ten words or fewer A complete sentence

Example A reading and a mathematics example follow.

• Reading: Read a paragraph about wolves aloud to students. Afterward, use a thinkaloud to determine who or what it is about (wolves) and the most important points (they hunt, they live, and they travel in groups called packs). Then summarize in ten words or fewer: “Wolves live, travel, and hunt in packs.”

• Mathematics: The teacher presents students with the following explanation: “Algebraic word problems consist of sentences. You will need to read through the problem carefully to ensure you have some understanding of what you are being asked to solve. Pay close attention to the problem to determine the key clues. Focus on the final question of the word problem. Read the problem again to make sure you understand what you’re being asked for. Then, jot down the expression.” Afterward, the teacher puts students in groups and asks them to create a gist. Here is one group’s response: “Steps necessary to solve an algebraic word problem.”

What Strategies Can You Use to Have Students Self-Monitor and to Clarify for Understanding?

The second during-reading big planning action remains centered on the first element of the literacy triangle (read) but focuses on the problem solving required during reading. As students read, they are met with textual challenges (unfamiliar words or content) that can impair comprehension. The strategies in this section support student awareness when meaning breaks down (self-monitoring) and offer methods to help students illuminate the pathway (clarifying) to comprehension during reading.

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The topic (who or what the section was about)

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One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It?

• Years of research support the power of feedback that answers these three questions: Where am I going? Where am I now? and What gaps do I need to close to get there?

Coauthors John Hattie and Shirley Clarke (2019), supporting research by Dylan Wiliam (2016), note this kind of feedback could double the speed of learning.

• When students set their own goals and have a strong why, they are more likely to achieve these goals, especially when there is a visual reminder of each goal and instruction on how to achieve it (Wehmeyer, Little, & Sergeant, 2009). Research suggests that goal setting with students can impact reading growth as well (Dotson, 2015).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Photocopy the following reproducibles (one for each student).

• “One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting: Teacher Documentation Template for Reading Notes” (page 192): This is to document each student’s reading strengths and growth opportunities during one-to-one conferring. You can meet with students as often as you like—once a month, every other month, or more frequently—whatever it takes to move these students forward one goal at a time.

• “Bookmark for Reading Goal (K–2)” (page 193) or “Bookmark for Reading Goal (Grades 3–8)” (page 194): This bookmark is a visual reminder of what the students will work on each time they read any text. (The goal may carry over for more than one week because each student will accomplish goals at a different pace.) You could cut out these bookmarks so students can place them in independent reading books to remind them of the goal to practice.

Optional: If you are new to conferring, you might need the reproducible “Five Steps to Conferring for Better Feedback and Reading Achievement” (page 191) in front of you to remember the steps until they become automatic.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

One-to-one conferring with students and goal setting is a five-step teacher tool that lets you meet with individual students while they are reading to develop a reading skill goal just for each student. This activity will help move students forward faster and is a way to document the conferring notes to help the teacher remember student growth, including a student-friendly bookmark. The reproducible “Five Steps to Conferring for Better Feedback and Reading Achievement” (page 191) can help you organize.

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2. When you meet with each student, you or the student will complete the bookmark based on what the reading skill goal is for that week.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students that you will be listening to them read one-to-one, determining their strengths and growth opportunities, helping them set a goal, and recording what you notice on the reproducible “One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting: Teacher Documentation Template for Reading Notes” (page 192). Refer to the reproducible “Five Steps to Conferring for Better Feedback and Reading Achievement” (page 191).

• Change: While giving feedback, make sure you tell students what they are doing well, correctly, and accurately. Give positive feedback on the strategies, efforts, and attitudes they have toward completing the goal-setting process. Be ready to make adjustments and an action plan when students are not reaching their goal. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Have a series of questions ready to ensure you are measuring students’ comprehension. You can use the comprehension question stems (figure 4.3, page 66, or figure 5.7, page 138) to measure where they are with inferencing.

• Break it down—For readers struggling with multisyllabic words, we recommend the reproducible “Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words” (page 200) to help them break apart the word and decode its pronunciation. An exit ticket for this strategy is in figure 5.18 (page 156).

Possible Criteria for Success For the teacher—my conferring notes include the following.

Are labeled as one per student List the conferring date List compliments of what the reader did well during that time Has one growth opportunity or reading skill the student needs to work toward (becomes the student’s goal for that month or up to the achievement date)

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• Chew and check: As the student reads, you are listening and diagnosing (step 1). Take time to compliment the student on successes and then teach the next skill or strategy needed (steps 2 and 3). Have the student practice, with you providing feedback (step 4). Either the student or you will write the reading skill goal on the appropriate gradelevel bookmark. Afterward, the student can write a star in the box on the bookmark after deliberately practicing the reading skill in any classroom, any content area, and in any type of text (instructional, complex, or independent). Be sure to use the reproducible “One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting: Teacher Documentation Template for Reading Notes” to record the date, compliments you shared, and the reading goal you set with the student. At a follow-up reading with you, see how often the student marked the deliberate practice opportunities on the bookmark; determine if the student still needs to practice or if he or she is ready to move forward with another reading skill. (See figure 5.10, page 144, for an example.) This is high differentiation— giving students what they need one skill at a time.

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Has other notes just for me Can be used for parent-teacher conferences to show growth For the student—my reading goal bookmark includes the following.

My name The reading skill goal that I’ll be working toward achieving The date Stars, stickers, or tally marks every time I deliberately practice the reading skill Self-reflection statement

Example Figure 5.10 shows an example of a completed reproducible “Bookmark for Reading Goal (K–2)” (page 193). There is also a reproducible “Bookmark for Reading Goal (Grades 3–8)” (page 194).

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Student: J’lynn My reading goal:

To focus on the phonics rule for long vowel sounds (long “i” sound). I mix up short “i” and long “i” sound.

I know I got to my goal because . . .

I can read the accurate long “i” sound words and not mix them up with short “i” sound words.

Figure 5.10: Example bookmark for a reading goal (K–2).

Fix-It Tools for Comprehension Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? The fix-it tools for comprehension help students determine the most effective fix-it tool to use at different times when facing comprehension challenges, which we call hiccups.

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• Hattie’s research says when students evaluate and reflect on their work, learning, and thinking, there is a high impact (0.75 effect size) if they need to take action to fix what they evaluated and reflected on (as cited in Visible Learning, 2017).

• Having collected much research, Nancy L. Anderson and Elizabeth L. Kaye (2017) suggest three critical teaching moves that support the development of self-monitoring: (1) observing and hypothesizing, (2) noticing and naming, and (3) having agency and becoming strategic. When educators instruct students how to notice an error (pausing or stopping), hypothesize what the error might be, name it, and become strategic to fix it, the students are truly self-monitoring their reading and can have this sense of agency (that is, “I can take actions to influence my outcomes”). This is a process that educators must teach, model, and give feedback on often. The authors note that teachers respond in their head about a hypothesis after the error or pause has occurred; then they facilitate the noticing, naming, strategic fix-it tools, and intended outcome (agency factor; Anderson & Kaye, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? When students struggle while reading (they have a hiccup), educators need to decide how to take action. According to Anderson and Kaye’s (2017) summary of research, there are four ways to take action: 1. Consider how you respond as children read text. Do you give them time and space to self-monitor, or do you tend to jump in to help them fix the error?

2. Analyze formative and summative literacy assessments for self-monitoring or finding behaviors. Write down your hypothesis.

3. Construct a plan to notice and name and help children become strategic as they read text.

4. Reflect on your language and teaching by recording and listening to how you respond to children as they read. (p. 548)

This tool focuses on the student thinking through the self-monitoring process that a teacher must teach and model. For example, while a teacher listens to an intermediate student read and notices a mistake, the teacher might wait until the whole sentence is read to see if the student notices the mistake. If the student doesn’t notice, the teacher might give a quick intervention, saying, “Did that sentence sound accurate? Could that actually happen? Do you notice any inaccuracies in your reading?” The first step is always getting the student to notice, preferably with no prompt, but students may need explicit teaching about noticing the hiccups. Or while a teacher listens to a primary student read and notices a mistake, the teacher might point to the inaccurate word and ask, “What do you notice about this word? How did you read it? How should you read it based on the phonics rule we learned last week?” while pointing to an anchor chart.

So many varieties of hiccups can occur during reading, and each will need a different way of responding. With beginning readers, hiccups might focus more on accuracy of words: phonics rules of long and short vowel sounds, digraphs, blending all the sounds together accurately, how word-by-word reading could disrupt comprehension, ignoring small words, reversals such as was for saw, and so on. With intermediate readers, hiccups might appear more as fluency or comprehension mistakes such as not pausing at commas or punctuation; coming across unknown vocabulary words; mispronouncing words; not knowing the meaning of words or phrases, and therefore not being able to visualize what is being said; substituting or inserting words; not being

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• Strategy monitoring (0.58), self-questioning (0.55), and metacognition (0.60) all have a high impact on student learning (Visible Learning, 2017).

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able to keep a long sentence on one’s working memory to comprehend its entirety; and making poor inferences. Each hiccup will need a fix-it tool.

Teachers should teach, model, and reinforce the comprehension fix-it tools before giving students a list to choose from. From preassessment data, observation, and other reading assessments, you design a list of common hiccups that you want to explicitly model and teach before giving students the fix-it tool list. You’ll want to model how to complete the comprehension fix-it tool template by using the gradual release of responsibility (I do, we do, two do, you do).

Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Photocopy the reproducible “Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (K–3)” (page 195) or “Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (Grades 4–8)” (page 196) per student. Students use the reproducible to monitor and clarify what they are learning when there is a comprehension hiccup.

3. Write the list of fix-it tools for the whole class to see. See the reproducible “Comprehension Fix-It Tools (K–3)” (page 197) or “Comprehension Fix-It Tools (Grades 4–8)” (page 198) for examples. Refer to the tools often when you read aloud and think aloud through your pretend comprehension hiccups. You could design an anchor chart that stays up in the classroom so you can continually add to it possible hiccups that might occur while reading and ways to fix the hiccups. When the students are cognizant of the possible hiccups, and know what the hiccups look like and sound like, they are more likely to go through the final phase of self-monitoring: becoming strategic with a fix-it tool. Students each, of course, will have a customized list of fix-it tools to use as you get to know them as readers and as you confer with them and help them set goals.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success. Read a section of text and pretend to stumble on your reading, comprehension, or both. You might need to plan this out prior. Think aloud what the challenge might be and name your hiccup. Model how to complete the “Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (K–3)” or “Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (Grades 4–8).”

For K–3, your think-aloud might sound like this: “This word looks hard and I don’t know it. But I’ll sound out each letter, s-t-r-e-t-c-h (place an X in the Sound It Out box).

Now I’ll flip the sounds (streeech or stretch; place an X in Flip the Soundbox). I’m going to reread this sentence with the word I think it is (place an X in Go Back and Reread): ‘The cat woke up and began to stretch.’ Yeah! This makes sense (place an X in Does It Make Sense?). These strategies did work, so I will circle yes in the last box.”

For grades 4–8, your think-aloud might sound like this: “Whoa, that sentence on page eight was so long, and I have no idea what it just said. I would say that severity of this hiccup is a rating of 2 since I believe I have to fix this hiccup. I’m going to break this long, complex sentence into smaller chunks to see if I can understand the pieces to eventually comprehend the whole sentence. I get it now. No new questions are formed in my head.”

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

2. Choose from the list of comprehension hiccup fixers to determine the main ones your students need lessons on. This list will look different based on the grade level and individual student needs.

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• Where and when you were stuck in the reading (write your hiccup word, sentence, or paragraph in this box, and evaluate its severity) • Which tool you used (look at the comprehension hiccup tools or your customized list of tools) and how you understand the text better now Determine if you have any new questions about the content in the text, and if so, write them in the final column. You may need to model this one more time. Show how to complete the Exit Ticket Summary section at the bottom of the reproducibles (page 196).

• Change: While giving feedback, make sure you tell students what they are doing well, correct, and accurately. Give positive feedback on the strategies, efforts, and attitudes they have toward completing the template process. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—If the student has mastered this process, change the template so it’s more global. That way, the student will reflect toward the end of the reading: I was stuck in the following way with my comprehension and I did the following to fix-it: . These students may not have multiple moments when they were confused but rather struggle with one larger piece of text. Ask them questions to help them pinpoint their stuck point in the larger scheme of the text.

• Break it down—You or the student’s partner provide more modeling. These students will need to hear more think-alouds from strategic readers. They will also need more feedback on each line of thinking on the reproducible (page 196).

Possible Criteria for Success My comprehension hiccup metacognition template includes the following.

Specific page and possible line description of where I was stuck A rating of how severe the comprehension hiccup was (1–2–3) An explanation of which comprehension hiccup tool I used to fix my comprehension A sentence that explains my new aha now that I can comprehend it Optional: A question I still have after going through this process A summary of what I learned from this process

Example Figure 5.11 (page 148) is an example of a completed “Comprehension Fix-It Metacognition Template (Grades 4–8).”

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Chew and check: While students are partnered strategically and helping one another read a grade-level text, you can pull some partners to sit with you while they show you how they are thinking aloud and completing the template. You can support these students by asking them questions, prompting, and cueing them to determine which tools might be the best in that particular situation. Ensure students are receiving feedback from you and their partner. Finally, invite the students to use their criteria for success to self-assess how they are doing with their metacognition with fit-it tools.

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Name: Fiona Where was I stuck? (page, paragraph)

Rate Yourself: 1 = I’m a little stuck and can fix it easily.

I used this comprehension fix-it tool.

Now that I have fixed my comprehension, I understand . . .

A question that I still have is . . .

2 = I’m stuck, but I think I can fix this.

3 = I’m very confused and not sure where to start.

1

Unpack text features.

The Ring of Fire is a round area where there are lots of volcanoes.

Why are there so many active volcanoes here?

Page 7

1

Retell to make sense

The earthquake was caused by the plates scraping against each other.

Why do earthquakes cause so much damage?

Page 9

2

Make connections

The earthquakes are caused usually near the ocean.

Why are earthquakes most common near the Ring of Fire?

Exit Ticket Summary 1. This process of monitoring and clarifying my comprehension by using the comprehension fix-it tools has helped my reading comprehension progress by . . .

not just stopping, but really thinking about what I am reading

2. The tools that I tend to use the most are Retell to make sense .

What might this tell me about myself as a reader?

This tells me rereading things helps me understand more—I need to see the information more than once.

Source: © 2020 by Rachel Swearengin, Manchester Park Elementary School in Lenexa, KS. Used with permission.

Figure 5.11: Sample comprehension fix-it metacognition template (grades 4–8).

Finding the Context Clues Quick Glance

Grade Level

9 Reading Tool 9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

Key 9 Main Use Optional Use

What Is It and Why Do It? Finding the context clues is a tool to help students figure out unknown words while they are reading to enhance comprehension.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

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• Most adult readers learn to read strategically, including automatically scanning for context clues whenever we see an unfamiliar word. They seldom stop to use the dictionary because they have other support strategies, although they may not consciously think about them. These sustained thinking skills can strengthen working memory skills and improve comprehension. Frequent stops while reading because of unknown words can greatly impact a student’s reading fluency, which we know has a huge impact on comprehension. According to the research data across grades 4–9, reading fluency predicted all school marks in all literacy-based subjects, with reading rapidity being the most important predictor (over other fluency characteristics; Bigozzi, Tarchi, Vagnoli, Valente, & Pinto, 2017). Furthermore, reading fluency and comprehension are highly interrelated, and also correlated with important aspects of academic life, such as school outcomes (Álvarez-Cañizo, Suárez-Coalla, & Cuetos, 2015).

• Research suggests that teaching students how to find context clues and use them to determine the meaning of words is a worthwhile intervention to improve comprehension for struggling middle school readers (İlter, 2019).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these six steps to prepare.

1. Copy the bookmark in figure 5.12 (page 150) for each student. (Optional: Post the eight kinds of context clues from figure 5.13, page 151, onto an anchor chart.)

2. Provide each student with a copy of the reproducible “Use the Clues” (page 199).

3. Determine which context clues on the bookmark your students need to practice based on your data and the students’ grade level.

4. Determine how many clues to model at once depending on your students’ level of mastery with context clues. (If you teach lower-elementary students, we recommend modeling one kind of context clue at a time.)

5. Choose a text that provides the needed context clues to allow for student practice.

For example, if your students are not using knowledge about the meaning of prefixes to determine unknown words, you might read the book If You Were a Prefix (Aboff, 2008) and point out all the prefixes and how they help define the words. The following websites could help you find the right text based on the context clue that you want students to practice.

• The Reading Fix (www.thereadingfix.com) • Booksource (www.booksource.com) • Always Write (www.corbettharrison.com) Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool and share the criteria for success.

Give each student a copy of the text or place the text under a document camera so every student can see it. Tell students that authors often provide comprehension support for challenging vocabulary in the form of context clues.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Using context clues is a key vocabulary-building strategy that students should practice and own so they can use it independently (Graves & Graves, 2003; Vacca & Vacca, 1999).

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1. A word after an unfamiliar word: Arachnids, or spiders, have eight legs.

2. A phrase after a comma: Since I’m tonedeaf, and I can’t hear differences in pitch, I’d rather dance than sing.

3. The word called before an unfamiliar word: Animals without backbones are called invertebrates.

4. Part of a preceding sentence: Children love to talk. They can be quite loquacious.

6. A root, prefix, or suffix: This is an international crisis. (Nation is the root, inter- means “between,” and -al means “pertaining to.” Maybe international means “pertaining to things between nations.”)

7. Comparison or contrast words: Unlike her shy, quiet sister, Klayloa is boisterous.

8. The part of speech: The sneaky kitty slunk around the barn, looking for the mouse. (Is slunk used as a noun, verb, or modifier?)

Source: Allen & Nickelsen, 2008.

Figure 5.12: Kinds of context clues bookmark.

Point out a challenging word by showing the word in context and highlighting it in the text. Model your thinking through the types of clues until you find the best clue.

Remind students that several clues help a person know a word’s full, deep meaning.

Model your thinking by saying things like the following.

• “Hmm, I have never seen this word before. I wonder what it could mean?”

• “I wonder if there are any clues to help me figure out this word’s meaning?”

• “I think I’ll try some of the types of context clues on the bookmark.”

• “This word looks odd. I think I can figure it out by examining it versus taking the time to look it up. Does it have any prefixes or roots that I recognize or know the meaning of?”

When you’ve determined the best context clue, show your thinking in the reproducible “Use the Clues” (page 199). Make sure all students can see you complete the row for the word you selected. Share your thoughts for each box in the reproducible.

• Chew and check: Have students work with a partner or independently depending on what type of support they might need. Give each student a copy of the reproducible “Use the Clues.” Remind them that individual students or partners may come up

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

5. Part of a following sentence: The boys were flummoxed. Getting out of the woods was confusing and bewildering.

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with different unfamiliar words and will complete their own organizers. Remind students to use the criteria for success checklist to ensure they are completing the task accurately. Give the students a text or article to read (they could even choose their own text) and ask them to read it. Remind them to do the following.

• Pause when they come across an unknown word and document their thinking journey to determine that word’s meaning.

• Use available resources like the dictionary or internet to look up the word’s meaning after they take a guess.

You can walk around and give feedback in the following ways.

• “Your guess was so close to actual meaning because of the clues you were finding.”

• “If you had to explain to a younger student what this unknown word means, how would you define and explain it?”

• “How did this clue help you draw this conclusion about the word’s meaning?”

• Change: The more students see and experience the clues in a variety of contexts with another student or teacher pointing them out, the more their brains will recognize the clues independently, which is the ultimate goal. Provide more modeling, more thinking aloud, more examples across a variety of texts, and more feedback on the process. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Rather than give your students the bookmark, ask them to design one with a group of students. They brainstorm what clues helped them to figure out the meanings of unknown words. Ask them to give examples too. To challenge your students to go to the next level with context clues, have them learn more meanings of root words and affixes. Here is a list of common roots and affixes that you could use: https://bit.ly/3txYNos (McEwan, n.d.).

• Break it down—Some students will need more examples. Choose the type of clue they are struggling with and give more examples (see figure 5.13). Then find the clue in other texts so students can see examples in authentic books they’re currently reading.

RULE: After the word or 1. There was drizzle, or misty rain, all day long.

2. My teacher is very stern or strict with her students.

RULE: After a comma 1. My sister told me that I was a nuisance, an annoying person, because I bug her all the time.

2. A brayer, roller that spreads ink, was used to spread the liquid thinly across a piece of glass.

RULE: Before the word called 1. Things carried on planes, trains, and ships are called cargo.

2. Someone who buys things from a store is called a consumer.

Figure 5.13: Kinds of context clues and examples.

continued

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• “I love how the clue that helped you figure out the unknown word was not even on the bookmark, but you found another type of clue.”

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RULE: In the previous sentence 1. My mom tells me to pay close attention to what I do. I must concentrate very hard.

2. Nadia wanted to draw her standing on her head. Most of the characters in her story did such nutty things.

RULE: In the next sentence 1. I keep telling my sister to stop mimicking me all the time. She wants to copy everything I do.

2. I was uncertain about letting the doctor give me a shot. I was not sure about letting him poke that long needle into my arm!

RULE: Replace the unfamiliar word with a prediction word.

1. My teacher told me to check to make sure my homework was accurate so I would get a good grade. (Guess: correct) 2. The glasses clattered in the cupboard during the earthquake. (Guess: loudly shook) RULE: Study the unfamiliar word’s prefixes, suffixes, and root meanings.

2. The wind has caused a lot of erosion. (Erode = break away; sion = the state of) (breaking away from something) RULE: Ask if the word sounds positive or negative.

1. The tornado devastated the whole area. (sounds negative) 2. As they decay, the plants return to the soil and become food for living plants. (sounds negative)

Possible Criteria for Success My “Use the Clues” template includes the following.

The unfamiliar word listed The type of clue from the bookmark A predicted meaning based on the clues A description or definition from a dictionary A rating of how accurate the guess was and explanation of why it was not totally accurate yet

Example Figure 5.14 is an example of a completed reproducible “Use the Clues” template.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

1. The crews moved to begin the deforestation of the tropical rainforest.

(De = to make less; forest = trees; tion = state of) (getting rid of trees in the forest)

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Rate Your Guess: Unfamiliar Words

Kind of Context Clue (Use your bookmark)

Guess the Meaning

Actual Meaning

1 = Not accurate yet (explain) 2 = Sort of accurate (explain) 3 = Totally accurate

humus

#3—“called”

Decayed matter

Weathering

#6—root word

When rain, snow, ice, and wind break down rocks

Decayed remains of plant and animal matter in soil Action of weather conditions in altering the texture or form of exposed objects.

2—I just didn’t define it with those details.

2—I should have added texture or form.

Figure 5.14: Use the clues example.

Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Decode puzzling multisyllabic words is an engaging way for students to learn about the syllabication rules and how they help students decode and pronounce multisyllabic words.

• The vast majority of English words are multisyllabic and constitute an increasingly large proportion of the words in elementary school texts beginning as early as grade 3 (Hiebert, Martin, & Menon, 2005; Kearns et al., 2016).

• Research suggests that explicit instruction in both syllabication and morphological knowledge improves poor readers’ multisyllabic-word reading accuracy (Heggie & Wade-Woolley, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Design an anchor chart like the one in figure 5.15 (page 154) showing common syllable patterns.

2. Make copies of the reproducible “Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words” (page 200).

3. Choose two-, three-, or four-syllable words to write on the puzzle pieces. We recommend one puzzle piece per student. See figure 5.16 (page 154) for suggestions.

4. Write each syllable on the corresponding puzzle piece. For example, write the word mag/net on the template with two puzzle pieces, but record the syllables in the word com/pre/hen/sion on the template containing four puzzle pieces. See the Example section (page 155) for more on this.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words

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Syllable Pattern

Examples

1. A closed syllable ends in at least one consonant and the vowel is short.

• Hot • Land • Magnetic

2. An open syllable ends in one vowel and the vowel is long.

• He • So • Tiger

3. A vowel-consonant-e- syllable ends in one vowel, one consonant, and a final e. The final e is silent, and the vowel is long.

• Pine

4. A vowel-r syllable has an r after the vowel, and the vowel makes an unexpected sound since an r after vowels does not make their common short or long sound.

• Shirt

5. A vowel pair syllable has two adjacent vowels, and students must learn each vowel pair individually since the generalization “when two vowels go walking” is only reliable approximately half the time.

• Mail

• Bake • Swipe

• Bar • Turtle

• Meet • Soon • Toy

6. A final stable syllable has a consonant-le combination or a nonphonetic but reliable unit as -tion. The accent usually falls on the syllable before the final syllable, and they have unexpected but reliable pronunciations.

• Muzzle • Handle • Stubble • Subtraction • Picture

Figure 5.15: Common syllable patterns. mag/net

dog/house

be/long

team/mate

puz/zle

va/por

sing/ing

he/ro

re/gard/less

sub/trac/tion

bas/ket/ball

ar/gu/ment

e/qua/tor

va/ca/tion

croc/o/dile

but/ter/fly

con/den/sa/tion

com/pre/hen/sion

con/ver/sa/tion

ther/mom/e/ter

trans/por/ta/tion

su/per/im/pose

bal/ler/ina

de/vel/op/ment

Figure 5.16: Possible word selection for decoding puzzling multisyllabic words.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success and the anchor chart they will be using for support. Give each student a puzzle piece and instruct them to walk around the room looking for the other pieces to make their puzzle complete. Explain that once they match their pieces, they should use the anchor

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Float

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chart to help them decode the word so they can pronounce the word correctly. Model one for them. For example, using the pieces he and ro, you might say, “Because both of these are one syllable ending in a vowel, I know the vowel in each syllable makes the long sound, so I should pronounce this word he-ro.”

• Chew and check: As students circulate around the room, be available for support and to check their accuracy. Collect and recirculate the cards to allow students additional practice. After completing the activity, have students return to their seats. Then give them a new word and have them complete the exit ticket in the reproducible “Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words—Exit Ticket” (page 201).

• Change: For independent practice, place these in a dedicated spot in your room.

Provide an answer key to allow students to self-check their progress. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down based on the complexity of the words.

• Break it down—Start students with two-syllable words, beginning with compound words, which are easier to recognize, and then moving to other twosyllable words. Gradually introduce them to three- and four-syllable words.

Possible Criteria for Success My multisyllabic word puzzle includes the following.

Completed Pronounced

times correctly times correctly

Used in complete sentences

correctly

Example Figure 5.17 shows how to do the syllables with the puzzle pieces.

ver

mag

con sa

net

tion

Figure 5.17: Syllables broken onto puzzle pieces.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Bump it up—Start these students off with three- and four-syllable words.

Encourage them to browse the dictionary or other resources in search of longer words. Allow them to create puzzles for more challenging vocabulary.

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Figure 5.18 is an example of the reproducible “Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words—Exit Ticket” (page 201).

Name: Deshaun Date: November 15 Directions

My Answers

Transportation

1. Write the word.

2. Is it a compound word? If so, split it. If not, leave blank.

trans por ta tion

4. Challenge: Can you use the word in a sentence?

I used my bike as transportation to school today.

Figure 5.18: Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words—Exit ticket example.

I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder Quick Glance

Grade Level

9 Reading Tool

Key

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

What Is It and Why Do It? With the I can stick with it stamina builder strategy, students can track their time reading, self-assess their comprehension, and set new reading goals to build stamina.

• Having a growth mindset involves sticking with something even when it gets challenging by putting forth more time and effort along with seeking support through people and resources. Dweck (2006) shares that this type of stamina when faced with challenges is the hallmark of her theory.

• Goal setting has a powerful impact on dopamine release, which can give a brain an intense focus and boost in memory. Dopamine has been called the motivational neurotransmitter because it brings about good feelings, making you want to experience it again. With each step of success toward the goal, you should celebrate and point out the step of success, which could dump some dopamine in the brain (Di Domenico & Ryan, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

3. Is there a prefix? If so, break it away from the base word and circle it. Is there a suffix?

If so, break it away from the base word and put a box around it. Do you think you can pronounce it?

Yes / No

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1. Choose from the reproducibles “I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder” (page 202) and “I Can Stick With It. My Reading Stamina Is Growing!” (page 203) and make copies for each student.

2. Allow students to choose a book to read. (Take students to the library or offer a wide range of reading choices.)

3. Plan a specific amount of time for students to read independently in class and have a clock or stopwatch all the students can see.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool to help them measure their stamina or stick-with-it-ness when reading and share the criteria for success. Explain the following.

• It’s human nature to avoid difficult tasks, and perseverance is the ability to stick with something, even if it’s hard.

Give each student a copy of the reproducible “I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder” (page 202). Instruct students to write their name and date on the template. Allow students to find a comfortable place to read and tell them you will be setting the timer and observing them reading. They are to concentrate fully on their text and when they notice they have gotten distracted (or when you tap them on the shoulder), they should notice the time, return to their desk, and list the time on their chart in the column, Length of Time Read in Class. Allow students to continue to read at their desks, but share that they no longer need to track their time.

• Chew and check: Set the timer and have students begin reading. Observe students as they are reading. If you see a student looking up from the text or flipping pages back and forth, or any other off-task reading behavior, tap him or her on the shoulder, have the student return to his or her seat and mark the time. When all students have returned to their desks (or have reached your allotted time), tell them that each day they will have the opportunity to build their reading stamina. In fact, they can even practice at home (point out the columns for out-of-class reading). At the end of a week, give students the reproducible “I Can Stick With It. My Reading Stamina Is Growing!” (page 203), and have them fill in their daily times and record a goal for the next week.

• Change: Begin with text at an easy level for students and increase the text complexity as they become more successful. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up (enrich it) or break it down (scaffold it) by times recorded.

• Bump it up—Design the chart so students record times in five- or ten-minute increments and encourage them to get to the top of the chart.

• Break it down—Design the chart so students record times in fifteen- to thirtysecond increments so they feel more successful as they move up the chart.

Possible Criteria for Success Both of my I Can Stick With It forms include the following.

Daily recording of my in-class reading time on my chart Daily recording of my out-of-class reading time on my chart Daily self-assessment of my comprehension level

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Student will be tracking and setting goals to measure their stamina, and setting goals for improving their reading stamina.

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Weekly total of minutes read (see page 203) Goal for next week’s number of minutes to read

Example Figure 5.19 is an example of a completed reproducible “I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder.”

Name: Shaun Directions: Record the date, number of minutes you read, and your level of comprehension.

1 = I didn’t understand.

Length of Time Read in Class

2 = I got the gist and could retell some.

Length of Time Read out of Class

3 = I understood and could retell most.

Date: September 3

Comprehension: 1

Date: September 4

Comprehension: 2

Date: September 5

Comprehension: 2

Date: September 6

Comprehension: 3

60

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Figure 5.19: I can stick with it stamina builder example.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

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Do Your EARS Hear Fluent Reading?

Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 Grades 3–5

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

Optional Use

What Is It and Why Do It?

• As reading fluency is achieved, readers are able to channel their cognitive resources to comprehension of text, the true goal of reading (DiSalle & Rasinski, 2017).

• Fluency instruction has positive effects on comprehension (Hawkins, Marsicano, Schmitt, McCallum, & Musti-Rao, 2015).

• Implementing repeated reading intervention is an effective method to increase fluency and comprehension in students with disabilities (Kurtz, 2013).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Make duplicate copies of short text at a variety of reading levels.

2. Make several copies of the reproducible “Do Your EARS Hear Fluent Reading?” peer bookmark (page 204) for yourself (we laminate these so students can reuse them), and one copy per student of the reproducible “Fluency Tracker” (page 205).

3. Plan student partners. (We like to partner a stronger reader with a student who is not as strong a reader.)

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool with a partner that allows them to listen to and reflect on their partner’s reading fluency. Share the criteria for success. Remind students that fluent readers can recognize known words and decode unknown words quickly, allowing them to focus on the meaning of the text.

Randomly select a near-fluent student to read aloud for one minute. While the student reads aloud from his or her copy of the text, show the rest of the class how to place a slash mark through any word the student reading aloud did not read accurately. When the student is finished reading aloud, demonstrate how students should complete the peer bookmark in figure 5.20 (page 160) by thinking aloud. For example: I noticed David read with a lot of expression. Especially when he read the part, “No! I hate that!” so I’m giving him a 3 in the Expression check box. When I look back on my text, I see that I have four slash marks through words, so I am going to give him a 2 in the Accuracy

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Do your EARS hear fluent reading is a peer and self-assessment tool to help students focus on their reading fluency (both words per minute, as well as the ability to read with prosody, which is the correct phrasing, intonation, and expression). Students will experience cold (first) reads, warm (second) reads, and hot (third) reads, and record their expression, accuracy, rate, and smoothness—EARS.

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check box. When I count them up, I see that he read ninety-nine words in total. When I subtract the four words that he read incorrectly, I find that I heard ninety-five words read accurately in one minute, and that is the number I will write in the Rate check box. I think he read very smoothly and noticed the punctuation, so I will give him a 3 in the Smoothness check box. Show the class the reproducible “Fluency Tracker” (page 205). Have the reader record the date and the title of his text. Show how to color in his words per minute using blue since this was the first time he’s seen this text; thus it is a cold read.

Share with the class that they will have the opportunity to reread (and rescore) their fluency a second time (warm read), which they will mark in orange, and a third time (hot read), which they will mark in red. Note: You can do this over a number of days.

1 = Not yet 2 = Sometimes 3 = Yes!

3 E F

I sounded interesting because my voice had expression!

2 A F

I read the words correctly.

95 R F

I sounded natural because I read at the right speed.

3 S F

I read smoothly and noticed the punctuation like: ? and !.

Next time, I want to:

I’m going to slow down when I see words that start with “str” so I get them right.

Figure 5.20: Example of Do your EARS hear fluent reading?

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for a free reproducible version of this figure.

• Chew and check: Assign students a partner and give them time to practice reading and scoring their reading fluency. As students are reading, walk around listening and providing feedback, referring them to the criteria for success, or helping them with scoring or coloring in their words per minute.

• Change: Allow some students to focus on only one element of EARS (expression, accuracy, rate, or smoothness). Also allow for multiple reads of the same text so

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Do my “EARS” hear fluent reading?

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students can note their improvements. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Provide text containing more multisyllabic words or more challenging vocabulary.

• Break it down—Provide texts with less complex vocabulary or that contains mostly words with only one or two syllables.

Possible Criteria for Success My peer-assessment bookmark includes the following.

A score for each EARS category Explained and showed evidence for my score to my partner My fluency chart includes the following.

The date and title of my text My warm read in orange.

My hot read in red.

Example Figure 5.21 is an example of a completed reproducible “Fluency Tracker” (page 205).

Date: January 15 Title: The Little Mouse "Cold" read (blue) "Warm" read (orange) "Hot" read (red) 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5

Figure 5.21: Student fluency tracker example.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

My cold read in blue.

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Reading Aloud With a PAL Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It?

• Reading aloud with a PAL does not require special reading materials and consequently enables teachers to use the reading material of their choice. This offers teachers flexibility for incorporating the strategy into various content areas. Reading aloud with a PAL provides direct opportunities for a teacher to circulate in the class, observe students, and offer individual remediation.

• A think-aloud is an instructional method of sharing one’s metacognition during reading so that those listening can gain a valuable thinking process to enhance learning. It can happen while reading a complex mathematics word problem or a set of directions. After you model for students how to think through a text with a comprehension strategy focus, they should have the opportunity to think aloud while reading. When teachers give students the opportunity to think aloud, there is a greater understanding of the text (Sönmez & Sulak, 2018).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Determine which comprehension strategies you want to model and explicitly teach to your students based on standards and need. Some choices follow.

• Clarifying • Comparing and contrasting • Connecting to prior knowledge • Inferencing (generalizing and drawing conclusions) • Predicting • Questioning the text • Recognizing the author’s purpose • Seeing causal relationships • Summarizing • Visualizing

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Reading aloud with a PAL is a cooperative learning strategy in which two students work together to read an assigned text. This strategy is often used as part of the Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS), which is a scientifically based peer-mediated instructional program developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University (Fuchs et al., 1997). PALS is a classwide peer-tutoring program in which teachers carefully partner a student with a classmate. This strategy allows students to take turns reading and provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension.

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2. Use the “Targeted Skill Minilesson Template” (page 242) to plan how you will teach the skill in a gradual release of responsibility manner. Each component of this template can improve memory and transfer of the reading skill you are teaching. If you are new to minilessons, you may wish to read the strategy lesson (page 216) or examine the example in figure 5.22 (page 165). Each component of this template can improve memory and transfer of the reading skill being taught.

3. Plan your student partners. (Determine pairs by identifying which students require help on specific skills and which students can help other students learn those skills.)

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Follow these nine steps.

• Tell students they will be using a new tool and share the criteria for success.

• Use the “Partner Reading Directions and Checklist” (page 206) to model how to do this type of reading and how to mark the boxes. You can model how to use the checklist with the whole class or only certain partners you have chosen to go through this PAL process. Determine pairs by identifying which students require help on specific skills and which students should help other students learn those skills.

• Choose the assigned reading and introduce the text to the students.

• If you choose, you can explain how to partner read in the following ways before this lesson so students are familiar with the concept.

• Assign the stronger reader the role of Reader and the weaker reader the role of Coach. (Obviously, the teacher does not share aloud which is the stronger or weaker reader; the teacher just assigns the roles.) Over a period of time, partners and roles will change, giving all students the opportunity to assume both roles. It is important for teachers to monitor and support students as they work together because the first reader will be modeling stronger strategic reading tools, possibly more so than the second reader. The more exemplars a struggling reader receives, the more opportunities the student has to improve.

• The stronger reader (Reader) reads aloud for about five minutes. The Coach follows along and corrects any mistakes when necessary.

• The pair switch roles and the weaker reader becomes the Reader. The Reader rereads aloud the same passage for the next five minutes and the Coach provides corrective feedback • Chew and check: While the partners are reading, the teacher is walking around and observing, giving feedback, and supporting students while listening and watching how they are completing the template. Encourage students to use the criteria for success to determine how their partner reading is going and could improve. Some other options for checking follow.

• Story retelling—Students work together to retell the story by cooperatively providing input and correcting mistakes.

• Summarization—Students support each other in developing a summary of the passage in ten words or fewer.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• Use the reproducible “Targeted Skill Minilesson Template” (page 293) to teach the reading skill your students need to master. You could pull a small group and close a gap with a certain skill, or you can teach a standards-based skill from your grade-level curriculum to the whole class.

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• Writing—Students write down the summary they develop and responses to (1) the who or what of the paragraph; (2) the most important thing about who or what; and (3) the main idea.

• Change: To help motivate students, award one point for each sentence they correctly reread. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up (enrich it) or break it down (scaffold it) by addressing prosody.

• Bump it up—Provide text with dialogue or unique dialect and have students work on changing their vocal expressions.

• Break it down—Provide text with a very distinct rhythmic pattern and punctuation to help students with phrasing and expression.

Possible Criteria for Success Our partner reading time includes the following.

Both students tracking what is being read Both students orally summarizing what they have read Both students coaching each other Both students coaching each other to become better readers

Example Figure 5.22 is an example of a completed “Targeted Skill Minilesson Template.”

What Strategies Can You Use to Discuss to Strengthen Comprehension?

This is the third during-reading big planning action. These strategies, while still happening during the reading process, move the students to the second element of the literacy triangle (discuss). The strategies provided here encourage discussion to help identify misconceptions and strengthen comprehension during the reading process.

Pause-and-Reflect Conversations Through de Bono’s (1985) Six Thinking Hats Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? The six thinking hats is a decision-making and critical-thinking technique that helps students think about a topic in a variety of manners (de Bono, 1985). This tool encourages students to integrate and evaluate information others present, based on their reading comprehension during

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Both students reading aloud sections of text

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Example: Skill Minilesson The needed skill: main idea Needed by (circle one): Whole class

Small group

Individual

Formative assessment: Benchmark assessment Symbol to represent this skill:

The main idea is what the text is mostly about. It’s the top of a table, and the legs of the table are the details that support it.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Main Idea Detail

Student-friendly description of the skill:

The main idea is the big picture of the text (arms go out to show gigantic).

What struggles do students have with this skill?

What can I teach them about these struggles?

Students don’t always find the main idea, but they find some secondary ideas that are important but not the most important. They get stuck on the details.

I can show them how to highlight similar details and text features that point to the main idea.

What subskills need to be taught to students so they can succeed with this skill (prerequisites to this skill)?:

9 Identify topics in the text.

9 Categorize similar ideas.

9 Identify supporting and non-supporting details.

9 Point out text features.

9 Determine importance.

9 Make inferences.

9 Synthesize information.

Figure 5.22: Example four-square comprehension skill grid. the reading. The hats are tools to help focus thinking and examine other points of view. They are physical symbols that trigger specific roles to play that enable students’ thinking to break out of normal patterns.

Putting on a hat is a deliberate process because each hat activates a particular type of thinking.

You, and possibly your small group, can put on or take off one of the hats, but you or your group cannot have two hats on at the same time. When you put on a hat, you must think like the hat.

Refer to the hats by their color, not their function.

• White Hat—Facts about the topic • Red Hat—Feelings, hunches, or intuition about a topic • Yellow Hat—Symbolizes positivity, brightness, and optimism about a topic • Gray Hat—Judging a topic; why something may not work, dangers, or difficulties of a topic (skepticism)

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Create a rap, rhyme, or acrostic to help students remember what this strategy is all about:

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• Green Hat—Symbolizes creativity, new ideas, the possibilities, or alternatives about a topic • Blue Hat—Symbolizes the big picture, a summary, the most important, or action steps Students or teachers set stopping or pausing moments in the text, take turns asking one another questions, and evaluate the answers by responding to the answer. Use this tool to support student reflection during or after reading.

• Most schools have speaking and listening standards that prepare students to be active listeners and thinkers by responding to what they read and hear from a peer. In fact, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) Speaking and Listening standard CCRA.SL.1 says students “prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively” (NGA & CCSSO, 2010a).

• Speaking and listening skills are required for reading and writing skills to develop (Lervåg, Hulme, & Melby‐Lervåg, 2017), including for EL students (Babayiğit, 2014).

Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Teach your students about the six thinking hats questioning technique.

2. Invite students to use the reproducible “Six Thinking Hats Question Stems” (page 207) to choose questions to ask each other, or you the teacher, can choose the questions for students to answer.

3. Strategically group your students into reading partners (can be homogeneous or heterogeneous based on your data, purpose, their ability to listen, social skills, and level of support available).

4. Prepare a list of a variety of questions from several different six thinking hats categories (you do not need a question from each category). If your students are in grades 5 and up, they could choose their own questions to ask at each pause point.

Provide partners with a photocopied list of questions on the reproducible “Six Thinking Hats Question Stems.”

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool and share the criteria for success.

Model how you create the stopping points (for example, sticky notes or sticky arrows placed at end of a section of reading to signify a pause-and-reflect time). Based on student age and the text, ask them to create the same stopping points by placing the arrows in the text, or give your students the responsibility for setting their own stopping points.

Remind students there should be plenty of information to read before creating a stopping point. If nonfiction, the end of a subheading section is a great place to pause and reflect.

Model with another student (partner) how you ask a question from the “Six Thinking Hats Question Stems,” and make sure to show the list of listening response ideas in figure 5.23 to this student so he or she can respond to the partner’s response to the questions.

Photocopy the listening response ideas for each student as well.

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How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way?

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Listening response ideas: F Paraphrase or summarize how the partner answered the question.

F Agree or disagree with the author and explain why.

F Ask clarifying questions if the partner didn’t understand the answer.

F Other:

Figure 5.23: Listening response ideas.

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy for a free reproducible version of this figure.

• Chew and check: While students are in pairs, remind them of the order of operations for this pause-and-reflect conversation.

• Person A reads a section up to the pause point.

• Person A answers the question.

• Person B responds using any of the following techniques: paraphrase or summarize how the partner answered the question; agree or disagree with the author with an explanation; ask clarifying questions if he or she didn’t understand the answer; and so on.

• Optional: Person B asks another question and repeats steps 3 and 4 or the partners switch roles.

• Switch roles for next round of reading. For example, Person B reads a section up to next pause point. Person A chooses a question and Person B answers it. Person A responds.

• Students keep taking turns until the article or chapter has been read or the allotted time is up.

• Change: Some students will need you to prepare the specific question stems based on the learning targets you want them to practice with another student, and to improve their mastery level of those learning targets. You might provide this: The most important action from a character in this chapter was because . . . Write the question stems on a piece of paper for those partnerships that need scaffolding. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Allow these partnerships to create their own pause points and questions to ask each other. They may not even need the list of ideas. Have them determine what category among the six thinking hats their questions might fit into and why.

• Break it down—If you homogeneously grouped struggling readers together, you should guide their reading and conversations, and give cues for questions and responses they can use with each other. To promote independence, you could highlight the question stems that you want them to focus on.

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• Person B chooses a question (use the six thinking hats list) to ask Person A— or the teacher can choose the question. Choose questions from a variety of hat categories. Avoid having only questions from the White Hat group—those are simple learning questions. The other hats encourage deeper reflections.

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Possible Criteria for Success Our pause-and-reflect conversations include the following.

Labeled pause points where the conversations will take place At least four to six questions asked between the two of us Accurate answers the text supports Answers communicated clearly and understood Active listeners who respond to the partner who answered (Some ideas: paraphrase or summarize how the partner answered the question; agree or disagree with the author with an explanation; ask clarifying questions if he or she didn’t understand the answer; and so on.)

Example Figure 5.24 is an example of pause-and-reflect conversation self-assessment.

White Hat, Green Hat, Blue Hat We learned the following by reflecting.

What if neuroplasticity didn’t occur after age forty? Our brains wouldn’t get harmed for the worst, but also couldn’t improve or get better. We would stay stagnant.

We have a question about what we read.

Why can’t all people get free SPECT scans so they can each understand their brain better and make their own learning more efficient?

Next time we do this activity, we will improve by doing the following.

We would like to try to use more Gray Hat questions.

Figure 5.24: Pause-and-reflect conversation self-assessment.

Roundtable Discussion Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key 9 Main Use

9 Reading Tool 9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

Optional Use

What Is It and Why Do It? Roundtable discussions let students record their thoughts and those of their peers as they share different viewpoints about the text they have read.

• Discussions help to summarize what students have learned and strengthen conceptual and procedural knowledge. When students have problems understanding something,

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We asked the following types of questions today (list the six thinking hat colors or the actual questions).

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a discussion clarifies for both the teacher and the student exactly what the student is struggling with. Then the teacher can address and help fix the problem (de Garcia, n.d.).

• The effect size for classroom discussion is 0.82, which is well over a standard year’s growth (Visible Learning, 2017).

• This activity engages students’ listening, paraphrasing, and note-taking skills during one another’s teaching opportunities. Note-taking has been shown to improve student learning (Chang & Ku, 2014).

• When students are instructed with note-taking strategies, not only does the quality of their notes improve, but also they remember more later; note-taking is a memory tool.

This is especially true for students with learning disabilities (Boyle, 2013; Rahmani & Sadeghi, 2011; Robin, Foxx, Martello, & Archable, 1977).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

2. Determine two or three stopping points in the text and mark them so students know when they will stop reading and join together to discuss.

3. Make copies of the “Roundtable Discussion Template” (page 209). (Optional: Use this tool with the Fab Four focus roles for mathematics, page 171, or literacy, page 173, if you want students to focus on specific thinking roles.)

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool called roundtable discussion and share the criteria for success. Point out that the text has been marked to show students when to stop reading and prepare for discussion. Tell students you will be jotting your thoughts in the template (see page 209) as you read. Read aloud the first section of text.

As you read, record your thoughts (key points, questions, and so on) in the upper lefthand corner of the template. Invite three students to model the next section of text.

Read aloud the next section of text, while students model recording their notes. When they reach the end of the section, invite the three additional students to share their thoughts. Demonstrate how you take notes based on the other participants’ comments in the other three boxes on the template. For example, as the teacher, ask for a student volunteer to tell you his or her thoughts on the issue at hand, and ask everyone to watch how you listen and then paraphrase what that student said by writing in one of the boxes with that student’s name on the line. Writing a paraphrased statement is a learned skill that could take students much time to learn how to do well and concisely.

• Chew and check: Place all students into heterogeneous groups of four and instruct them to complete the remaining sections of text using this system of reading, notetaking, and discussing until they have reached the end of the article. While students are reading, circulate around the room and join different groups during their discussions.

Refer students to the criteria for success to ensure they include all the necessary requirements. After the final discussion, bring the entire class together and model how you used your individual notes, as well as those of the other students, to create your independent summary of the text, which you record in the center box. Have each student consolidate his or her learning and turn in this to you as evidence of each student’s comprehension of the article.

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1. Select a text (or multiple texts on the same topic at different readability levels).

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• Change: Provide differing viewpoints about the same topic. After the initial discussion, allow groups to present out the different viewpoints and discuss the pros and cons of each.

In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down by readiness levels.

• Bump it up—Provide more challenging and complex text for more advanced students (perhaps a text that exposes the students to different cultures and world events).

• Break it down—Provide easier, less complex text for struggling students (perhaps a text that relates to a current local event or a topic of interest to the students).

Possible Criteria for Success My roundtable discussion includes the following.

My notes in the upper left-hand corner My notes from the discussion with my peers in the three remaining corners My independent summary in the middle box

Figures 5.25 and 5.26 are examples of completed roundtable discussion templates.

Tanisha

Article: Patrick Henry, Radical Revolutionary My thoughts:

What

Beatrice

shared:

He never gives up even if he takes a punch.

He doesn’t accept failure and overcomes it.

He would do anything for the right of independence.

He was a very powerful speaker.

My final thoughts:

Patrick Henry was important to the revolution because What Regina shared: he made patriots Successful in some things believe in themselves and fight for the but not in other things. independence with His speeches made an empathy. impact on the colonists and King George III.

What

Kaelyn

shared:

I was only smart as a lawyer.

He had very strong opinions and shared them.

Source: © 2020 by Rachel Swearengin, Manchester Park Elementary School in Lenexa, KS. Used with permission.

Figure 5.25: Roundtable discussion example one.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Example

Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading

Beat rice

Article: Patrick Henry, Radical Revolutionary My thoughts:

What

Patrick Henry’s words made an impact on the way people thought about freedom.

171

Regina

shared:

Patrick Henry’s words made an impact on the way people thought about freedom.

My final thoughts:

What

Tanisha shared:

Patrick Henry was important to the revolution because of his strong beliefs.

Kaelyn

shared:

Patrick Henry did not like authority. Patrick Henry had powerful words.

Source: © 2020 by Rachel Swearengin, Manchester Park Elementary School in Lenexa, KS. Used with permission.

Figure 5.26: Roundtable discussion example two.

Fab Four Focus Roles for Mathematics Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Lori D. Oczkus (2018), author of Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Powerful Strategies and Lessons for Improving Reading Comprehension, coined the term Fab Four for the reciprocal teaching method.

We created these student-friendly role cards to help students focus their attention on specific comprehension strategies to support mathematical problem solving.

• Metacognitive awareness is critical to the learning process. It has an effect size of 0.69 (Fisher et al., 2016). Question stems addressing comprehension strategies are a way to support and guide students in the process of metacognition.

• Higher-level questioning that requires students to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, categorize, or apply information has been found to be particularly advantageous to student learning, yet teachers rarely use higher-level questions (Peterson & Taylor, 2012; Tienken, Goldberg, & DiRocco, 2010). Generally, higher-level questions do not have one correct answer but encourage students to engage in critical thinking. Asking

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He is very determined.

He wanted independence so much he would do anything.

What

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higher-level questions presents teachers with more information in relation to student understanding (Lewis, 2015).

• Reciprocal teaching has a 0.75 effect size according to Hattie’s research (Visible Learning, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Choose several mathematical word problems based on a standard you are teaching and assessing. Place students in heterogeneous groups of four.

2. Make a copy of the “Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Mathematics” (page 210) for each group. Optional: Use this tool with the reproducible “Roundtable Discussion Template” (page 209), or “Mathematics Reciprocal Teaching—Graphic Organizer” (page 302).

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool that helps them to focus their thinking when reading and solving word problems. Share the criteria for success. Read a word problem aloud. Share your thinking as you assume each of the roles, or if you have chosen a student group to help model, then have everyone share their thoughts orally.

• Chew and check: Give each member of the group his or her assigned role card.

Instruct the group to read, discuss, and solve as many word problems as possible in the time allowed. Optional: Students can record their discussion or comments on the back of their Fab Four focus role card. Circulate around the room, joining different groups during the discussion time. Refer students to the role cards and the criteria for success to ensure their discussions are deep and include all the necessary requirements.

Optional: If you opt to use the “Mathematics Reciprocal Teaching Graphic Organizer,” you could have the group turn it in so their learning is visible, and you can determine the next steps of learning.

• Change: Close student gaps by choosing specific comprehension categories for students needing work with a specific reading strategy. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down by increasing or decreasing the complexity of the word problems.

• Bump it up—Provide more challenging word problems that require more steps, have extraneous information added, and so on, or allow students to design word problems for their classmates to solve.

• Break it down—Choose less challenging word problems that require fewer steps.

Possible Criteria for Success Our Fab Four focus roles for the mathematics roundtable discussion include the following.

Evidence we stayed focused on our roles (annotations in the word problem, pictures, notes, and so on)

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3. Decide whether you will model all four roles yourself by sharing a possible comment that might arise from a discussion from each role’s viewpoint, or whether you will choose one of the roles and invite three students to join you to model the strategy.

When first introducing this strategy, or in grades K–2, you may choose to model only one role at a time and have the students practice each role until they are comfortable.

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Evidence we used the role cards to guide our discussion (statement stems, question stems, examples, and so on) Optional: Evidence of our discussion on the “Mathematical Reciprocal Teaching Graphic Organizer” (page 302)

Example See figure 5.27 for an example of the mathematics Fab Four focus role card.

Front

Back

Questioner Your job: Ask questions that will help your group understand how to solve the problem.

Consider the following question stems:

Questions I shared during our discussion: Does this problem require more than one step?

Do you think we should . . . ?

Do you think this problem is like the one where we . . . ?

What do you notice about . . . ?

Did you notice that our answer is not in sentence form? Do you think we should change that?

Source: Adapted from Oczkus, 2018.

Figure 5.27: Mathematics Fab Four focus role card (front and back) example.

Fab Four Focus Roles for Literacy Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

9 K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? Oczkus (2018), author of Reciprocal Teaching at Work: Powerful Strategies and Lessons for Improving Reading Comprehension, coined the term Fab Four for the reciprocal teaching method.

We created the Fab Four focus roles for literacy student-friendly role cards to help students focus their attention on specific comprehension strategies (Oczkus, 2018).

• Metacognitive awareness is critical to the learning process. It has an effect size of 0.69 (Fisher et al., 2016). Question stems addressing comprehension strategies are a way to support and guide students in the process of metacognition.

• Higher-level questioning that requires students to analyze, synthesize, evaluate, categorize, or apply information has been found to be particularly advantageous to student learning, yet teachers rarely use higher-level questions (Peterson & Taylor, 2012; Tienken et al., 2010). Generally, higher-level questions do not have one correct answer but encourage students to engage in critical thinking. Asking higher-level questions presents teachers with more information in relation to student understanding (Lewis, 2015).

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Do you think we should subtract since the word problem used the word “difference”?

Does this problem . . . ?

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• Reciprocal teaching has a 0.75 effect size according to Hattie’s research (Visible Learning, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Select a text based on a standard you are teaching and assessing.

2. Determine stopping points in the text to allow for discussion.

3. Make a copy of the “Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Literacy” (page 211) and “Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes” (page 212) for each group.

4. Place students in heterogeneous groups of four. Optional: Use this tool with the roundtable discussion (page 168) or “Literacy Reciprocal Teaching—Role Bookmarks” (page 300).

6. Model how you would record your thoughts on the reproducible “Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes” (page 212). Optional: Primary students or second language learners may record their discussion.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool to help them focus their thinking.

Share the criteria for success. Read orally from a section of the text. Share your thinking orally as you assume each of the roles, or if you have chosen a student group to help model, then have everyone share their thoughts orally.

• Chew and check: Give each member of the group his or her assigned role card. Instruct the group to continue reading the text to the next stopping point. Circulate around the room, joining different groups during their discussion time. Refer students to their role cards and the criteria for success to ensure that their discussions are deep and include all the necessary requirements. After the discussion, the Summarizer should write down what each person contributed to the discussion on the reproducible “Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes” to allow the conversation to be visible, so you can determine the next steps of learning.

• Change: Close student gaps by choosing particular comprehension categories for students needing work with a specific reading strategy. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down by increasing or decreasing the text complexity.

• Bump it up—Provide more challenging text. You might even choose a text with multiple viewpoints for students to analyze and debate. Challenge students by giving them more complex questions to answer in each role.

• Break it down—Choose high-interest, easily readable text. You might even choose a text with at least two viewpoints for students to analyze and debate. Decrease the number of question stems or questions for the discussion so it will be less overwhelming.

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5. Decide whether you will model all four roles yourself by sharing a possible comment that might arise from a discussion from each role’s viewpoint or whether you will choose one of the roles and invite three students to join you to model the strategy.

When initially introducing the strategy, or in grades K–2, you may choose to model only one role at a time and have the students each one until they are comfortable.

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Possible Criteria for Success Our Fab Four focus discussion includes the following.

Evidence that we stayed focused on our roles (annotations in the text, notes, and so on) Evidence that we used the role cards to guide our discussion (statement stems, question stems, examples, and so on) Evidence of our discussion on the reproducible “Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes” (page 212)

Example See figure 5.28 for an example of Fab Four focus role cards for literacy.

Front

Back

Clarifier

My clarifications during reading:

•

A sentence is read that doesn’t make sense

•

When a group member asks a question

•

When a word is read and not understood

Think about (and share with your group) what you did to help you understand. Some examples might be: •

I broke the word apart and looked for smaller words that I knew.

•

I reread the sentence looking for context clues.

Bank: I was thinking the place where you get money. I reread (and used the context clues) to figure out that it was the land beside the river.

I used the anchor chart to remember what “ment” meant so I could figure out the word advertisement.

My clarifications after reading: I restated Jay’s answer because Claire was confused. She didn’t get that she and Jay were really saying the same thing just using different words.

Source: Adapted from Oczkus, 2018.

Figure 5.28: Literacy Fab Four focus role cards example.

Text Rendering With a Twist Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key

9 Reading Tool

K–2

9 Main Use

9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

Optional Use

Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

What Is It and Why Do It? The text rendering with a twist format is for student discussion. Each student collaboratively constructs meaning, clarifies his or her thinking and others’ thinking, expands the thinking, and designs a creative twist about what was read so it can be easily remembered. To render means to give (something) to someone (Render, n.d.). In text rendering, students give one another what they each believe to be the most significant sentence, phrase, and word from the short text. The twist is they work collaboratively to twist their ideas together like a woven one-piece tapestry.

• Many schools use the National School Reform Faculty (2014) text rendering protocol to improve comprehension.

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Your job: You must clear up confusion (clarify) when:

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• Hattie’s research gives classroom discussions an effect size of 0.80 (Visible Learning, 2017).

How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Heterogeneously group your students so there are about four students in each group with different reading levels, participation levels, and leadership differences.

2. Determine what you want students to read and analyze together in their groups.

3. Tweak and share the criteria for success with the students. Optional: If you are using this with elementary school students, consider doing this as a shared reading activity with you scribing on chart paper.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chew and check: In these student groups, ask for a volunteer scribe in each group.

Ask each student to read the article silently and highlight or underline the significant sentence, phrase, and word. Then, the group could choose to read the whole article aloud in the group. This will help students who struggled to understand sections.

Students can take turns reading in their small groups or students can volunteer to read.

• Round one discussion—All students in the group share the sentence they highlighted from the text and explain why it was significant (five minutes). The scribe records on the reproducible “Text Rendering” (page 213).

• Round two discussion—All students in the group share the phrase they highlighted from the text and explain its significance (four minutes). The scribe records on the reproducible.

• Round three discussion—All students in the group share the single word they highlighted from the text and explain its significance (three minutes). Scribe records on the reproducible.

• Bringing it all together—The whole group has a discussion using some of the statements in figure 5.29. The teacher can choose or ask students to choose.

1. Our significant sentences have the following similarities and differences.

2. Our significant phrases have the following similarities and differences.

3. Our significant words have the following similarities and differences.

4. The big picture of this article is . . .

5. Our summary of this article, using some of the significant words is . . .

Figure 5.29: Text rendering with a twist—Whole-group discussion points.

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• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool. Share the criteria for success.

Model how to read an article and underline or highlight a significant sentence (share why it is important to you), a phrase that jumps out at you (share why it jumped out at you), and a word that is important (explain your thinking). Take the time to show many examples of sentences versus phrases. Share how the group scribe will write that information for the group to compare, analyze, and discuss the similarities and differences among your highlighted words.

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• Each student answers the following. a. What words or phrases didn’t strike you as important in your first independent reading that now feel more important after this discussion? b. Discussion makes text more meaningful, and because of this discussion, I learned about this text.

• Change: Be very strategic with your student groups. Ensure there is a strong reader in each group, a variety of cultures, a variety of leadership skills, and so on. Students will learn from one another and challenge one another to think about things in different ways. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Group your stronger readers and thinkers together so they can challenge one another more. Challenge them to design their own questions to discuss afterward.

Possible Criteria for Success Our text rendering discussion includes the following.

Each person’s significant sentence, phrase, and word listed and shared Each person’s explanation of why he or she chose those words Deep discussions about the differences and similarities among the significant sentences, phrases, and words Questions to discuss and written answers from the group

Example Figure 5.30 is an example of text rendering with a twist.

Text or Article Title: Thomas Paine and Common Sense Student

Round One: Significant Sentence

Round Two: Significant Phrase

Round Three: Significant Word

Layla

One key idea was that all Many people were ready to Thomas Paine people should have freedom support independence. and fair treatment under the law.

Lydia

Never before had so many copied of one book sold.

500,000 copies of Common Sense

Thomas Paine

Lucy

By the spring of 1776 many people were ready to support a vote for independence.

“Make war upon their families” (p. 26)

Common Sense

Baker

One key idea was that all people should have for freedom and fair treatment under the law

The Age of Enlightment

Thomas Paine

Figure 5.30: Text rendering example.

continued •

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• Break it down—Group some of the students with you so you can help them become more confident with what they highlight when they read the article or text independently. They might need reassurance before going into their group for the discussion.

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Our Discussion Questions

Our Answers

Some of us chose a sentence that showed freedom, and some chose a sentence about fairness, but all our sentences showed evidence as to reasons for independence.

What is similar and different about our significant phrases?

All our phrases showed how the colonists thought the British were treating them unfairly, but one was about how Thomas Paine’s pamphlet sold a lot of copies and his idea of independence was spread.

What is similar and different about our significant words?

A similarity is most of the words chosen were Thomas Paine because he played a big role in the separation from Britain, but one was common sense because it was heard around the colonies, changing colonists’ minds.

What is the big picture of this article?

How Thomas Paine helped all the colonists decide they should declare independence from Britain.

Twist together the preceding ideas into a synthesis statement or two. The synthesis should represent the significant words, phrases, and sentences.

After reading Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, many colonists were ready to support independence from Britain.

Jigsaw Quick Glance

Grade Level

Key 9 Main Use

9 Reading Tool 9 Discussing Tool

9 Grades 3–5

9 Writing Tool

9 Grades 6–8

Optional Use

What Is It and Why Do It? The jigsaw tool has a cooperative structure that promotes positive interdependence by dividing a text (or problem) into sections and assigning each section to a student to learn and teach to his or her peers.

• Jigsaw has an effect size of 1.20, which is a gain of more than two year’s annual growth (Visible Learning, 2017).

• Students who take ownership of their learning will better understand the material. As active learners, students are directly immersed in the information and material, which promotes a deeper understanding of that material (Hance, 2016).

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What is similar and different about our significant sentences?

Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading

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How Do I Do It the Instructional Cha-Chas Way? Follow these steps to prepare.

1. Heterogeneously group your students so there are four students in each family group with different reading levels, participation levels, and leadership differences (see figure 5.31, page 180).

2. Select the text and divide it into five separate sections, one for each member of the group and one for you to model.

Implement the instructional cha-chas steps.

• Chew and check: Assign students in each family group a number and a section to read. Allow time for students to read independently and take notes on their reading.

Instruct students to meet with their expert group (students with the same number meet together) to consolidate and determine the most important teaching points and most effective method of instruction for their section. Move from expert group to expert group listening in to their discussions. See figure 5.31 for how to move students from their heterogeneous family group into their expert group based on their number and reading section. Ensure the key information in each section is identified and possibly support students with suggestions for teaching strategies such as, “How might you help your team remember the vocabulary? Do you think a graphic organizer might help your team keep track of the sequence of events?” Remind students to refer to the criteria for success to ensure they are meeting your expectations. Have students return to their family group to teach their sections. (Optional: Students can turn in their criteria for success.)

• Change: Tap into students’ interests by providing optional topics for them to learn about. For example, if you are studying animals and their habitats, offer students a choice between four different animals. They gather in their expert group to research the animal, then come back to their family group to teach their peers what they have learned. In addition, here are ideas for how to bump it up or break it down.

• Bump it up—Provide more challenging criteria for success or a more challenging list of teaching methods. For example, you might ask students to create a song or rap to consolidate key points or develop quiz questions to encourage higher-order thinking.

• Break it down—Provide graphic organizers to help students during their independent note-taking or to use when planning their instruction.

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• Chunk: Tell students they will be using a new tool called jigsaw. They will be responsible for reading a section of the text and then meeting with their expert group to determining the most important pieces of information and determine the best method to teach that information to their family group. Share the criteria for success and read aloud the first section of the text. Use a think-aloud to consider the most important pieces of information (main idea, key vocabulary, key events, and so on) and how you determine the best method to teach it to the rest of the group.

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Family Groups

Expert Groups

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Figure 5.31: Example of how to group students for jigsaw.

Possible Criteria for Success Our jigsaw includes the following.

Individual evidence of reading (annotations, notes, highlighting of key words, events, and so on) Participation during expert group discussion (sharing individual evidence, offering teaching suggestions, and so on) Agreement and consistency of teaching method by the expert group Evidence of teaching to family group (methodology of teaching: mind maps, performances, notes, slide shows, and so on)

Example Figure 5.32 is an example of notes a teacher has written about a text she will teach in class, as well as the notes she will share with students.

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1

Staying Focused, but Flexible, on the Text Journey—During Reading

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After reading my section (“Cracks in the Earth’s Crust: Earthquakes” from the book Our Changing Earth by Angie Belcher [2000]), I’ve identified the following words as key vocabulary: •

seismometer

•

Richter scale

•

ratings

Some of the main points I want to share with my group are: •

What earthquakes do

•

Why earthquakes happen

•

Where earthquakes happen

•

How earthquakes happen

•

How earthquakes are measured

I’ve been thinking about how to teach this to my group. I could create a mind map or bubble map to provide a visual image; I could pretend to be a scientist and present a podcast sharing the information; or I could use two-column notes. Since we’ve just recently learned how to use two-column notes in class, I think I’ll use this method to teach my section. Here are the two-column notes I’ll use to teach my section:

What earthquakes do

Earthquakes cause huge and sudden changes to the land and seabed.

Why earthquakes happen

The movement of Earth’s plates or volcanic eruptions cause earthquakes.

Fun fact:

Earthquakes happen along fault lines (cracks in the Earth’s crust), which plates pushing against each other form.

Fun fact:

How earthquakes happen

The most active fault line is the San Andreas on the West Coast of the United States.

Earthquakes start at a point called the focus.

Shock waves travel in all directions, doing the most damage to the Earth’s surface just above the focus at the point called the epicenter.

Figure 5.32: Teacher think-aloud.

epicenter fau lt

Where earthquakes happen

Earthquakes used to be explained by myths like when Alas shifted the world from shoulder to shoulder, or when a dog had first made the Earth trembled.

focus continued •

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Some of the biggest earthquakes in history

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How earthquakes are measured

Seismometer—an instrument that forms a zigzag line on paper when the earth shakes Richter scale—a point system to rate the strength of an earthquake. Each point is thirty times stronger!

Ratings: Small—fewer than 4.5 Moderate—4.5–5.5 Strong—5.5–6.5 Major—6.5–7.5 Great—more than 7.5

Major quakes

1906—San Francisco (8.5) 1985—Mexico City (8.1) 1988—Armenia (6.8) 1989—Loma Prieta, California (6.9) 1995—Kobe, Japan (7.2) 1999—Turkey (7.4) 1999—Taiwan (7.6)

Interesting facts

Earthquakes used to be explained by myths like Atlas was shifting the world from shoulder to shoulder, or a god’s dog had fleas and when it scratched, the earth trembled.

The most active fault line is the San Andreas on the west coast of the United States.

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1964—Alaska (9.2)

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Common Social-Emotional Skills by Grade Level Grades K–3 • Recognize and articulate their feelings

• Describe peoples’ similarities and differences.

or emotions.

• Actively listen to others’ viewpoints and

• Understand how feelings and reactions are

recognize their feelings while listening.

connected to behaviors.

• Recognize and describe positive traits in others.

• Exhibit impulse control and regulate

• Give genuine compliments.

their emotions.

• Describe their preferences: What do they like or

dislike? What are their strengths or weaknesses?

• Develop collaborative skills such as how to work

or play with peers in constructive ways.

• Be able to solve and resolve problems

• Articulate personal opinions and needs.

• Identify when they need help and who is in a

• Explain how learning is connected to personal

growth and success.

• Be able to receive constructive criticism

from others.

• Understand why hurting others is wrong,

whether that be physical or emotional hurt.

• Read social cues and adjust behavior

• Set personal goals regarding behavior

accordingly.

and academics.

• Exhibit sound decision making and weighing

• Understand that other people have different

perspectives or ways of looking at a situation.

right versus wrong.

• Positively contribute to their classroom

• Recognize that others may share the same

environment, including cleaning up after themselves and others, sharing, demonstrating kindness or understanding, and taking responsibility for themselves.

experience but have varying opinions and viewpoints at the same time.

Grades 4–5 • Assess a range of feelings and emotions

• Engage in positive interactions with people from

• Thoroughly describe how they feel and precisely

• Describe various approaches to meeting new

connected to specific scenarios, circumstances, and situations. what makes them feel this way.

• Maintain control of certain behaviors or

emotions that might interfere with their focus.

• Articulate interests, goals, and the ways in which

to develop the necessary skills to achieve those goals.

• List the necessary steps for goal setting and

future achievement while monitoring personal progress throughout the process.

• Understand social cues that demonstrate how

others are feeling during certain situations.

• Be able to not only recognize others’

perspectives but also specifically describe another’s perspective or stance.

• Understand various cultural differences

between groups.

different backgrounds and those with different opinions and beliefs.

people and maintaining friendships while forging new friendships with peers in different social circles.

• Demonstrate self-respect and how to show

respect to others, even during conflicts or disagreements.

• Choose their words wisely as to not offend

others in the heat of the moment.

• Begin to understand different social cues and

behaviors and how they might impact one’s decision making.

• Brainstorm various options for solving a

problem and anticipating the different outcomes depending on the situation.

• Identify needs in their school or local

environment and perform duties to contribute to these communities.

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position to help them in certain situations (that is, peers, family members, educators, and so on).

or conflicts.

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Grades 6–8 • Recognize circumstances and situations that

cause extra or unnecessary stress.

• Adopt strategies to help with motivation, stress

management, and task completion.

• Recognize the benefits of strong self-advocacy

skills and how to best utilize the resources and supports that are at their disposal.

• Assess the validity of their pre-set goals so that

they may make more informed, realistic, and specific goals moving forward.

• Determine why they were or were not able to

• Recognize other people’s emotions, feelings, or

perspectives, and surmise why they feel or think that way.

• Take another’s perspective that they learned in

elementary school, then further expanding on that by making inferences.

acknowledge how certain cultural differences can result in some peers being ostracized or bullied.

• Find ways to combat or address the bullying or

to make others feel included and recognized.

• Be well aware of group dynamics and what it

takes to ensure the success of the group. This includes assigning roles, taking responsibility, sharing the workload, cooperating with others, and so on.

• Be aware of negative peer pressure and what it

looks like, sounds like, and feels like.

• Be able to come up with ways to combat

negative peer pressure in non-confrontational ways and under various circumstances.

• Consider their decision making in terms

of others.

• Consider (before making important decisions)

not only how their choice will benefit them but also how it could impact others as well.

Source: Adapted from Taylor, W. (2021a, October 13). Social emotional learning skills by grade level: Part I. SWHELPER. Accessed at https://swhelper.org/2021/10/13/social-emotional-learning-skills-by-grade-level-part-i on January 12, 2022; Taylor, W. (2021b, October 14). Social emotional skills by grade level: Part II. Accessed at https://swhelper.org/2021/10/14/social-emotional-skills-bygrade-level-part-ii on January 12, 2022; Taylor, W. (2021c, October 15). Social emotional learning skills by grade level: Part III. Accessed at https://swhelper.org/2021/10/15/social-emotional-learning-skills-by-grade-level-part-iii on January 12, 2022. page 2 of 2

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reach success (that is, What helped them to reach their goal? If they didn’t reach it, then what prohibited them from finding success?).

• Recognize cultural differences, and begin to

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Description, Concept, or Definition

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Sequence

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Cause and Effect

Effect

Cause

Effect

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Cause

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Problem and Solution Problem

1.

2.

3.

Solution

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Steps or Events

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Compare and Contrast

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Sticky Note Template

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Five Steps to Conferring for Better Feedback and Reading Achievement The purposes for this follow.

• Move the reader to the next reading level by coaching him or her on the individual needs as a reader.

• Identify reader’s strengths and growth opportunities.

Step

Information • Listen to the student read aloud right from where he or she is.

• If there are accuracy issues, stop there; if not, move toward fluency feedback.

• If fluency is solid, ask student to retell.

F Research: Listen and Diagnose

• If retell is solid, ask student comprehension questions.

• If comprehension is solid, ask inference questions.

• Diagnose:

9 One thing the student needs to work on

• Always start by complimenting the reader on one thing he or she is doing

F Compliment Observed Reading Skills

F Teach and Model the Reading Skill

well.

• Why? This gives the student confidence as a reader, reinforces something

he or she may not even realize is being done, and produces buy-in to whatever you’re going to say next.

• Teach one reading skill the student needs.

• Explicitly state what the student needs to do differently.

• Model how to do that skill.

• Ask the student if he or she is ready to try the skill.

F Student Tries the Skill

• Listen to him or her practice the skill.

• Praise or reteach—and have the student try again if needed.

• Restate this reading skill and remind the student to do this every time he

F Transfer the Skill and Set the Goal

or she is reading for other subject areas and with other texts.

• Create a bookmark to remind the student of this point while reading

anything!

Source: Adapted from Anne Arundel, Maryland Public Schools; Calkins, L., Hartman, A., & White, Z. (2005). One to one: The art of conferring with young writers. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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9 One thing the student is doing well

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One-to-One Conferring With Students and Goal Setting: Teacher Documentation Template for Reading Notes Use this template for one-to-one conferring so you can record over time and see growth.

Student: Date

Compliments

Reading Skill Goals

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Bookmark for Reading Goal (K–2) Student:

My reading goal:

My reading goal:

Put a star each time you practice.

Put a star each time you practice.

I know I accomplished my goal because . . .

I know I accomplished my goal because . . .

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Student:

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Bookmark for Reading Goal (Grades 3–8) Student:

First reading skill goal:

First reading skill goal:

Put a star each time you practice.

Put a star each time you practice.

Second reading skill goal:

Second reading skill goal:

Put a star each time you practice.

Put a star each time you practice.

Third reading skill goal:

Third reading skill goal:

Put a star each time you practice.

Put a star each time you practice.

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Student:

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Hiccup word

Sound it out.

Chunk the word.

FL-AP

Flip the sound.

Sound right?

Look right?

Does it make sense?

Go back and reread.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

C-A-T

Read on and check.

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Yes or No

Did the strategy work?

Directions: Write the hiccup word. Put an X in the box of the fix-it strategy (or strategies) you tried. Circle yes or no to indicate if the strategy worked or did not work.

Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (K–3)

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Comprehension Hiccup Metacognition Template (Grades 4–8) How severe was my hiccup?

Where was I stuck?

(The page number, which paragraph, or something else indicating the spot)

1 = I’m just a little lost and can fix it easily.

2 = I’m stuck, but I think I can fix this.

3 = I’m very confused and not sure where to start.

What comprehension fix-it tools did I use to fix this comprehension hiccup?

Circle the one that ultimately helped you the most if you used more than one.

Now that I fixed my comprehension, what do I understand?

Write a short explanation of your new comprehension.

I still have this question.

1. This process of monitoring and clarifying my comprehension using the comprehension hiccup tools has helped my reading comprehension progress by:

2. The tools I tend to use the most are What might this tell me as a reader?

Source: © 2020 by Rachel Swearengin, Manchester Park Elementary School in Lenexa, KS. Used with permission.

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.

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Exit Ticket Summary

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Comprehension Fix-It Tools (K–3) • Get your lips ready to say the first sound. Just try it!

• Stretch out the word slowly.

• Find the chunks in the word and blend them all together to form the word.

• Flip the vowel sound to make it a long or short vowel sound.

• Reread tricky parts slowly. Picture in your head what you reread and retell what you reread.

• Look for clues in the picture or sentence.

• Stop to ask questions about the text.

• Stop and think about what you just read; sum it up in your own words.

• Ask another student or teacher if none of these tools work.

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• Skip the word and go back after reading the rest of the sentence.

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Comprehension Fix-It Tools (Grades 4–8) • Reread tricky parts slowly; visualize what I reread.

• Reread three times.

• Retell what I just read to see if it makes sense.

• Look for clues in the paragraph to help me figure out a tough word (illustrations, diagrams, previous

sentences, and so on).

• Learn more about the content before reading further (build up background knowledge on the topic in the

book using Google).

• Determine what I do know about this topic—any connections?

• Stop to ask questions about the text; create questions for clarification.

• Make a connection between the text and my life, another text, or what I know about the world to see if

correct meaning making occurred.

• Stop and think about what I just read; paraphrase or summarize.

• Adjust my reading rate: slow down or speed up.

• Look up a word in dictionary if there aren’t context clues.

• Stop to highlight, mark, or tag a thought in the confusing area.

• Ask a peer or teacher if none of these tools work.

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• Unpack text features by examining each one and determining their importance in the text.

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Unfamiliar Words

Guess the Meaning Test your meaning by answering in your head: Does this look right? Sound right? Make sense?

Kind of Context Clue Use your bookmark.

Actual Meaning

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Name:

Use the Clues

3 = Totally accurate

2 = Sort of accurate (explain)

1 = Not accurate yet (explain)

Rate Your Guess:

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Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words

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Decode Puzzling Multisyllabic Words—Exit Ticket Name: Date: Steps

My Answers

1. Write the word.

3. Is there a prefix? Suffix? Inflected endings? If so, break them away from the base word and circle.

Is there a suffix? If so, break it away from the base word and put a box around it. Do you think you can pronounce it? Yes / No

4. Challenge: Can you use the word in a sentence?

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2. Is it a compound word? If so, split it. If not, leave this row blank.

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I Can Stick With It Stamina Builder Name: Directions: Record the date, number of minutes you read, and your level of comprehension.

1 = I didn’t understand.

2 = I got the gist and could retell some.

Length of Time Read in Class

3 = I understood and could retell most.

Length of Time Read out of Class

Date:

Date:

Date:

Date:

Comprehension:

Comprehension:

Comprehension:

Comprehension:

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I Can Stick With It. My Reading Stamina Is Growing!

Name:

Date:

My Reading Minutes:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

This week I read

minutes.

Next week I plan to read

minutes.

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Monday:

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Do Your EARS Hear Fluent Reading?

Do your “EARS” hear fluent reading?

After listening to your partner read, enter their score in each box.

Expression:

1 = Not yet 2 = Sometimes 3 = Yes!

Accuracy:

FA

My partner read the words correctly.

1 = Missed five or more words 2 = Missed three or four words 3 = Missed one or two words

FR

Rate: My partner read this many words per minute.

Enter the number of words he or she read correctly in one minute.

Smoothness:

FS

My partner read in long phrases, noticing punctuation correctly. I enjoyed listening to my partner read.

1 = Not yet 2 = Sometimes 3 = Yes! Next time, I want to:

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FE

My partner’s voice changes for characters, tone, or mood to make the story more understandable.

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Fluency Tracker Words per Minute

Cold Read (Blue)

Warm Read (Orange)

Hot Read (Red)

Cold Read (Blue)

Warm Read (Orange)

Hot Read (Red)

200 195 190 185 180 175 170 165 160 155

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150 145 140 135 130 125 120 115 110 105 100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 Date:

Date:

Title:

Title:

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Partner Reading Directions and Checklist Text:

Put a check in the following boxes after you finish each part.

Round One Directions

Reader number one: 1. Read aloud for about five minutes to your partner (quiet voice).

2. When you are done reading, sum up what you read in your own words.

Coach number one:

2. Stop your partner when they misread a word, skip a word, or pause for more than four seconds.

3. Point to the unknown word and ask if your partner can read it.

4. If not, say the word.

5. Ask your partner to reread the whole sentence again.

Round Two Directions (Switch roles) Reader number two: 1. Read aloud the same section your partner just read. Read aloud to your partner (quiet voice).

2. When you are done reading, sum up what you read in your own words.

Coach number two: 1. Track each word with your finger while your partner reads.

2. Stop your partner when they misread a word, skip a word, or pause for more than four seconds.

3. Point to the unknown word and ask if your partner can read it.

4. If not, say the word.

5. Ask your partner to reread the whole sentence again.

If reading for more than ten minutes, read the next section and document your answers on the back of this paper.

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1. Track each word with your finger while your partner reads.

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Six Thinking Hats Question Stems Fiction Question Stems

Nonfiction Question Stems White Hat: Facts

• Who are the major and minor characters in this

• What was the main idea of this section? What

story or chapter?

are some of the details that directly support the main idea? Point them out.

• Where does this take place? What are other

settings?

• What was the most important fact from this

• When does this story take place (history, time of

day, and so on)?

section of reading? Why?

• Which subheading, caption, diagram, illustration,

or any other text feature was the most important from this section of reading and why?

• What are the problems or conflicts in this

chapter or story?

• What is the narrator’s point of view in the story?

• What evidence can you find to support

what did you do to figure out those challenging words?

• What was a fact you learned? What facts did

you already know?

• What evidence can you find to support

?

Red Hat: Emotions and Feelings • What emotions did certain characters have and

• Did anything you read evoke an emotion? Where

• Which characters do you like so far and why?

• What new vocabulary words surprised you while

why? What triggered those emotions?

Which characters do you not care for so far and why?

• If you could trade places with a certain character,

who would it be and why?

• Compare and contrast your life with one of the

characters.

• What personal connections did you make while

reading this chapter?

• While reading this chapter, did you have an

overall positive or negative feeling? Why? Which parts?

in the text, which emotion, and why? reading?

• What information impacted you so much that

you want to take action?

• What information do you highly agree with or

disagree with and why?

• Did you sense any bias in the author’s writing? If

so, where?

• What is your opinion about this topic? Is it

different from the author’s?

• How did you connect with this topic? How was

this relevant to you?

Yellow Hat: Positives, Pros, and Benefits • What positive scenarios or actions happened

during this chapter or book? What made them positive?

• What was the best part of this story or chapter

so far and why?

• What was an action or statement one of the

characters in this story made that you agree with and why?

• Were there any pros or positives mentioned

about the topic on how it impacts the world, nation, your town, your family, you? What were they and do you agree?

• How did this article or book improve how you

think or act? Did it grow you in any way?

• How would you compare or contrast

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?

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?

• Which vocabulary words were challenging and

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Gray Hat: Problems and Cons • What negative scenarios, problems, or bad

actions happened in this chapter or book? What made them negative?

• What character action or statement do you

disagree with and why?

• Does this text make sense so far? What is

confusing?

• Were there any cons, problems, or negatives

mentioned about the topic on how it impacts the world, nation, your town, your family, or you?

What were they and do you agree?

• How did this book or article affect you

negatively? Why?

• How would you compare or contrast

?

• What turning point in the story took you by

surprise and why?

• Were there any problems in this section of

the story? If so, how were they resolved? How do you wish the problem would have been resolved? Why?

• What are some other ways the problem could

have been resolved?

• If you were in the story, whose shoes would you

like to be in and why?

• If you were in the story, whose shoes would you

not want to be in and why?

• Did you notice any surprising twists or turns in

the organization of this informational document?

How would you organize this article or book?

• If you could change this article in any way, how

would you change it and why (sequence, certain facts, subheading or title changes, and so on)?

• If

was taken out of this article, how would it change the message?

• What new creative ideas did you get from this

text?

• What would the results be if

?

• How would you use

?

• Suppose you could

.

• What would happen if

?

What would you do?

Blue Hat: Processing • Create a summary of what you read

(Somebody . . . wanted to . . . but . . . so . . .).

• Explain the sequence of events in this story or

section of reading (first, then, second, third, finally, and so on).

• Would you like to read more stories from this

author—why or why not?

• Was there a theme or moral to the story? Any life

lessons for you or for others?

• Create a summary of what you read.

• Explain a sequence of the most important details

from the text to support the main idea.

• If you could change the title of this article or

book, what would you change it to and why?

Subheadings?

• Do you want to learn more about this topic? Why

or why not?

• Did this article keep your interest?

• How do you see yourself using this information in

future situations (with family, school, friends, and so on)?

• What other information would you like to

remember from this passage?

de Bono, E. (1985). Six thinking hats. New York: Viking.

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©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Green Hat: Creativity

shared: What What

shared:

My final thoughts:

What My thoughts:

209

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Roundtable Discussion Template

shared:

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210

Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Mathematics Predictor

Clarifier

Your job: Tell the group what you think the problem is asking you to do and provide evidence to support your thinking. Members of the group can agree or disagree, but they should support their thinking with evidence.

Your job: You must clear up confusion (clarify) when the following occur.

Consider the following statement stems.

• A group member asks a question.

• I noticed these key words . . .

• I see the graph shows . . .

• Because it says . . .

• A word is read and not understood.

Think about (and share with your group) what you did to help you understand. Some examples include the following.

• I used the chart to . . .

• I broke the word apart and . . .

• I believe that . . .

• I visualized . . .

Questioner

Summarizer

Your job: Ask questions to help your group understand how to solve the problem.

Your job: Summarize (state in your own words) how to solve the problem.

Consider the following question stems.

Consider the following statement stems.

• Does this problem . . . ?

• Because the question stated . . .

• Do you think we should . . . ?

• We knew to do

• Do you think this problem is like the one where

we . . . ?

• What do you notice about . . . ?

because . . .

• We determined . . .

• We remembered to . . .

• We went back and . . .

• First, . . . next, . . . then, . . .

Source: Adapted from Oczkus, L. D. (2018). Reciprocal teaching at work: Powerful strategies and lessons for improving reading comprehension (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• The diagram shows . . .

• A sentence is read that does not make sense.

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Fab Four Focus—Role Cards for Literacy Predictor

Clarifier

Your job: Use the text features and what you have read to figure out (make predictions) what your group will learn and what will happen next. Your group can change predictions based on what you read.

Your job: Clear up confusion (clarify) when the following occurs.

Consider the following statement stems.

• A sentence is read that doesn’t make sense.

• A group member asks a question.

• A word is read and not understood.

• I predict . . .

Think about (and share with your group) what you did to help you understand. Some examples include the following.

• I wonder if . . .

• I broke the word apart and looked for smaller

• I imagine . . .

words that I knew.

• I suppose . . .

• I reread the sentence looking for context

clues.

• I believe that the next section will be

about . . .

Questioner

Summarizer

Your job: Ask questions to help your group understand what they read.

Your job: Tell the group what you have read in your own words. Have the group identify the key ideas.

Think of questions as you are reading. Consider the following question stems.

Consider the following statement stems.

• Who is, would, will, or might . . . ?

• This part was about . . .

• What is, would, will, or might . . . ?

• The main idea is . . .

• When can, would, will, or might . . . ?

• First, . . . next, . . . then, . . .

• Where can, would, will, or might . . . ?

• The main events were . . .

• Why is, would, or might . . . ?

• The story takes place in . . .

• How did, would, or might . . . ?

• The problem is . . .

• The most important ideas are . . .

Source: Adapted from Oczkus, L. D. (2018). Reciprocal teaching at work: Powerful strategies and lessons for improving reading comprehension (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

• I think . . .

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Reciprocal Teaching Conversation Notes Questioner:

Clarifier:

Summarizer:

Other roles:

Text being read:

Our predictions:

Our questions:

Our words, phrases, or text to clarify:

How we clarified those words, phrases, or text:

Write your summary on the back of this page.

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©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

What we know:

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Text Rendering Name: Text or Article Title: Student Names

Round One: Significant Sentence

Round Two: Significant Phrase

Round Three: Significant Word

1.

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

2.

3.

4.

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214 Our Discussion Questions

Our Answers

©️2022 by Solution Tree Press

Twist together your ideas into a synthesis statement or two. The synthesis should represent the significant words, phrases, and sentences.

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THE

“The simplicity and genius of The Literacy Triangle makes teaching the literacy dance in our complex world engaging, doable, and most of all, successful! Whether you read this wonderful book cover to cover or flip to the lessons you need at the moment, this book serves as a fabulous reference you’ll return to again and again to guide your daily teaching!”

—Lori Oczkus

Literacy Consultant and Author

“Fasten your seat belts because you are in for an exciting literacy ride! This book will propel your literacy program forward; it is loaded with engaging, brain-friendly, spectacular strategies for your students. The literacy triangle is easy to implement, and you will see results right away!”

—Kathy Perez

THE LITERACY

LITERACY

Professor Emerita, Author, and Instructional Coach

“Effective literacy instruction in all content areas is rooted in learning intentions; formative assessments and teacher clarity are the foundation of impactful learning. The authors guide the reader, with clarity and focus, through the strategies and mindset to make effective literacy instruction a reality for all students.”

—Katie McKnight

CEO and Founder of Engaging Learners

In The Literacy Triangle: 50+ High-Impact Strategies to Integrate Reading, Discussing, and Writing in K–8 Classrooms, authors LeAnn Nickelsen and Melissa Dickson provide teachers with research-based strategies to increase students’ literacy skills. This user-friendly book introduces the literacy triangle—reading, discussing, and writing—for planning effective literacy lessons. The authors combine this high-impact framework with their four-step cycle of instruction—(1) chunk, (2) chew, (3) check, and (4) change—presented in their previous book, Teaching With the Instructional Cha-Chas: Four Steps to Make Learning Stick. By reading The Literacy Triangle, K–8 educators will discover the tools they need in order to support literacy and increase learning in all subjects through before-, during-, and after-reading strategies.

•

Learn how to incorporate the literacy triangle’s three points—(1) reading, (2) discussing, and (3) writing—into instruction for any subject

•

Cut through the conflict caused by the reading wars and gain clarity on the science behind effective, well-rounded literacy instruction

•

Get differentiation ideas for scaffolding and enriching each strategy

•

Discover how to engage students in making meaning, choosing texts, and leading discussions

•

Understand how setting a student’s purpose for reading can encourage focus, engagement, and a motivation to keep reading

Visit go.SolutionTree.com/literacy to download the free reproducibles in this book.

SolutionTree.com

ISBN 978-1-951075-67-5 90000

9 781951 075675

Nickelsen • Dickson

With this book, readers will: