Day 3: Planning for Reading Instruction

[Notes from a session with Chris Lehman]

Personas/Lenses: Take these same kinds of ideas and do planning with colleagues. Ask, "What is a goal we have for our kids in reading?" Then, "What is a person that matches?"
The role names that are best are when it's related to what is happening within your classroom.

Word work is much more effective in small segments across time. It's better to do 5-10 min. mini lesson and then revisit it for 2 min., 2 min., 2 min. across the week. When you have a literature-rich, language-rich classroom, you are constantly bringing it to their mind so they use it while they are reading, writing, and other work across the day.

Planning: What? It depends on your goals.
Be careful. Many times people put texts before kids (especially test makers). The texts are NOT more important than the kids!

First, start with kids' needs and strengths.
Then, think about students' (and your) interests.
Then, look at instructional goals. This is one of the last steps. The kids are what matters the most.
Finally, choose the texts you will demonstrate with.

Great resources:

What Readers Really Do: Teaching the Process of Meaning Making 
by Dorothy Barnhouse et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/0325030731

Readers Front & Center: Helping All Students Engage with Complex Text 
by Dorothy Barnhouse 
Link: http://amzn.com/1571109676

If you have to find a particular book to help you with a particular lesson, it's probably not a good message. Your lessons should be broad enough to impact students in their reading lives, so it should fit within texts that kids really might be reading.

Close reading does not need be (nor should it) a daily occurrence. It's something you do when it is needed.

Conferring with Readers
Conferences are really, really awesome, and yet they are also incredibly challenging.
There are different ways that you can confer:
1. Emergency room conferring. (When you go to the emergency room, you go there because something has gone really, really wrong. They take all your vital signs, they ask you a bunch of questions. Their goal is to keep you alive, then send you on your way.) In the classroom, it might feel like: Stop that! Go over there! Put that away!

• It only works on keeping you going right now. It doesn't work on long-term goals.

2. Family doctor conferring. (Their larger purpose is for you to have better health down the road. Dr. will pull up previous notes to help look at all of the things that have happened in the past, checking up on previous appointments, and check on long-term goals. At the end of the meeting, the Dr. will record notes to document long-term growth.)

• If every time you meet with kids feels like something new, how will they ever feel like they can practice something to get good at it?

Having a structure in a conference helps provide a strong purpose.

1. Research. (What is this child good at? What do they need help with?)

• Could do this live. "What are you working on right now?" and "How did you do that?" (reveals their thinking process.
• Could be ahead of time. (Things you notice during a read aloud, from collected notebooks, etc.)

2. Decide. 

• Pause to think: What is one specific thing we could work on? and/or What is a goal?

3. Instructional Compliment

• Find things that really matter.
• Intended to say, "This work is hard. You've been working hard. Here's something you've made growth on."
• It makes them want to do it more.
• You are trying to describe something in a way that builds awareness. Peter Elbow: "Catching kids on the edge of greatness."
• **He keeps at the compliment until the child smiles.**

4. Teach

• Demo something (or refer to previous demo)
• Active Engagement (they try it with you)
• Link (help them know what they will do after this conference)
• If kids aren't making changes based upon conference, look at your Link.

Jenn Saravallo conferring with a student:

Small Steps (Readers Circle) 
by Louis Sachar 
Link: http://amzn.com/0385733151

Conferring with Readers: Supporting Each Student's Growth and Independence 
by Jennifer Serravallo et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/032501101X

If all you do is confer, it's hard to meet with every kid every week. Forming small groups is often the only way. Small groups can feel like 4 conferences put together.

Teaching into Parts of the Ritual: Lessons and Small Groups

• Who are kids who notice/wonder something, but don't really spend time to think about it?

Take foundational lenses (Text Evidence + Word Choice + Structure) and combine them to create more sophisticated lenses (Argument, Point of View, Cross Text Analysis, Fluid Close Reading)

Example:

"Sis! Boom! Bah! Humbug!" by Rick Reilly

http://learn.tkschools.org/shicks/Journalism%20I%20%20II/column%20example.pdf

His argument: Cheerleading is dumb. 

What types of text evidence do you notice? Word choice? Structure?

• After the first bit, he doesn't use a lot of evidence to support his opinion. He is using mostly word choice.

This works really well when you find a movie that all of the kids really like, then find a review where the reviewer really didn't like it.

Planning:

1. Make a list of the units you are doing

(Launching, Character, NF-expository, NF-bio, Genre (Fantasy), Test Prep, Content Area)

2. What lenses could really live well and support that particular unit.

• Character study: Word choice would fit really well!
• NF Expository: Structure
• NF/Biography: Text evidence
• Character study: Investigator
• NF Expos: Engineer
• Genre (Mysteries): Friend (to do some comparisons)
• Content Area: Text evidence

Day 3: Planning a Mini Lesson

[Notes from a session with Kristi Mraz]

Reading Log Tip: Kids reading a solid "J", they should knock out a Henry and Mudge book in 10 minutes. Kids at this level might benefit tallying the number of books read instead of a full reading log.

Reading Workshop is a structure like a Hospital is a structure.

M/N and beyond: Book shop as-needed, use traditional reading log
Below M/N: Write titles when they shop, use a modified reading log

A-D     10-12 books
E-I       8-10 books
J-M      6-8 books

As needed: 1-2 chapter book/unit
1-2 "Break books"

Her library:
She has a "brain book" section (Her leveled library)
She also has another part separated by fiction/nonfiction, organized by kid-selected topics

She also has kids hang reading book on hooks on the back of their chairs
http://www.reallygoodstuff.com/medium-book-pouches-neon-colors/p/304082/

She tries to keep 3-4 charts up for each subject (Not more)

Nonfiction
Awesome nonfiction series:

The Worm (Disgusting Creatures) 
by Elise Gravel 
Link: http://amzn.com/1770496335

Teaching is 50/50. 50% is content knowledge, and 50% is bring kids into the equation. MAISA attempts to provide the 50% content knowledge, but you still need to bring your kids into the equation too! MAISA is not enough!
In an argument between what MAISA needs and what your kids need, what your kids need should win every time. "Our curriculum is our kids."

Another persona: excavator (What is underneath the text? Big idea?)

Day 2: Developing Mini Lessons

[Notes from a session with Kristi Mraz]

Using back channeling allows for you to connect, virtually, with a whole group.
www.todaysmeet.com

Mini Lessons for Close Reading in Reading Workshop
"Close reading is a scalpel, not an ax."

Notice and Note helps with

Notice and Note: Strategies for Close Reading 
by Kylene Beers et al. 
Link: http://amzn.com/032504693X

When kids need to slow down to use sign posts, that is a good time to do close reading.

(Taken from http://www.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E04693/NoticeNote_flyer.pdf)

Another Sign Post: Notice when a section was particularly "good". Stop and figure out what makes it good?
There are times when an author is really trying to tell you something. Listen! (Or, if you've lost track)

This can help readers become tuned-in and realize that the book is active. This could be a way to get kids to start interacting with texts in a way that will set them up for close reading.


Mini Lessons
She teaches her kids the steps of a mini lesson along with the students' job during each step.

Connection
-Your job is to listen
Teach
-Your job is to think if this is something you can do
Active Involvement
-You will be talking about this new thing and I will be listening to you talk to your partner
Link
-We will all talk together so that you are ready to go

A mini lesson is a scaffolded-release.

Charts:
She wants her charts to have a lot of kid input. Kid input, kid phrasing, and kid handwriting as much as possible!
-Gather a group of kids to create a heading for the chart.
-Ex: When pulling a group during writing workshop, have them create the heading (and teach into the process).

Lesson: Readers can have different jobs.

Creating a repertoire chart. (It's a menu chart, not a process chart.)
Process = directions to build a lego toy
Repertoire = looking at a menu to choose your lunch

She brings to her teaching a cooking show. Most of her stuff is already made, she just shows the
sizzle.

Investigator
*reread slow!
*ask: what exactly is happening
(She'll hand the paper to a kid to add the picture. The first 2 minutes of workshop a kid will add the picture.)

A mini lesson is an invitation, not an assignment.

Conferring
She posts a schedule for conferring and small groups. At the end of the day on Friday, she plans her conferring and small groups for the next week.
Sometimes she does a daily plan instead: (This includes her student teacher's schedule)

https://twitter.com/MrazKristine/status/435225155481403392/photo/1

https://twitter.com/MrazKristine/status/339468264314908672/photo/1

Tip: Using Notability as a note taking app will allow you to do running records digitally (and record audio too!)

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/notability/id360593530?mt=8








Great way to check-in: At the end of workshop, have kids place a post-it note in the correct spot on the menu chart. This will help you notice which strategy kids are using, and will help you notice what needs to be retaught.

You could also combine charts to show the relationship:

Ex: If you stop and notice something surprising, then you could wear a different hat, such as an that of an investigator to reread.

Day 1: Using Technology to Bring A Close Awareness of the World To Our Students

[Notes from a session with Kristin Ziemke]

Using technology not only to close read, but to invite our kids into a new environment where they are in charge.

Find ways to leverage technology to personalize learning.

We need to teach our kids to be device agnostic. We need to know how to move between the tools we have. It's all about the thinking--the tool/device doesn't matter.

What are we doing here? Active Literacy!

• Reading
• Writing
• Drawing
• Viewing
• Talking
• Listening
• Investigating

Choice Words 
by Peter H. Johnston 
Link: http://amzn.com/1571103899

We need kids to have a mindset of agency.

Interaction:

• Teacher to student
• Student to student
• Student with text, resources, and tech

We must transform the way students read, write, access, collaborate, and share learning.

Flexibility piece is huge! Explicitly teach one tool over another. You might use a post-it note to anchor it in the text. You might use an iPad to archive the thinking.

Students annotate their thinking and create mental images during an interactive read aloud.

Student reflection videos to document new learning and questions. Think "confessional booth" from reality TV. Kids talk to the camera about their reading, sharing thinking around something such as questioning.

• Cool strategy: Have kid who is a reluctant writer watch their video as many times as they'd like, then write two of their ideas down.
• This kid in her class did this, then wrote his two sentences, took a picture and posted it to his blog, and other kids started commenting on it.
• She has her kids send all of their work as email to a class gmail. She has kids write their name as the subject line.

Book trailers: Think about mood, music, look at mentor text examples

Classroom Twitter:

• Sharing what is being done in the classroom
• "The World is Watching." We are teaching people.
• Working on problems with classes around the world.
• Ex: Kids writes a letter on paper to Seymour Simon. They take a picture and tweet Seymour. He replies.
• Build the idea of network. Who is in your network?

Transliteracy

The ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media, from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks.

It's not about technology. It's about creating:

• authors
• creators
• collaborator
• producers
• bloggers
• experts

"Children grow into the intellectual life around them." -Vygotske

More Resources:

www.padlet.com/kziemke/compandtech

http://www.kristinziemke.com

Royalty-Free Music:

www.incompetech.com

Apps:

Drawing Pad (Can draw, write, and type)	https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drawing-pad/id358207332?mt=8
eBook Magic	https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ebook-magic+-epub-pdf-photo/id424877762?mt=8
Tellagami	https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gami/id572737805?ls=1&mt=8
SonicPics (Create an image file where kids can read the images they want to think and wonder about)	https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sonicpics/id345295488?mt=8
Songify	https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/songify-by-smule/id438735719?mt=8

Day 1: Close Reading with Joy

[Notes from a session with Christopher Lehman]

Twitter Chats:
#angchat (Monday nights twitter chat)
#FILWCloseReading  (Conversation around the book Falling in Love with Close Reading)


Philosophical Stance: Don't just start with asking what it is and how to do it, start by asking, "Why?"

Things that we care about deeply, we tend to study very carefully. We study loved ones very closely, and we know things about them that others don't know.

When we are working with kids, we need to make sure we show the purpose behind close reading--really caring about something.

This is a really natural thing to do. Our little ones use their whole bodies to explore things. If we do it right, be can build on to the natural curiosity in the world. Hold on to purposes that are bigger than ourselves (and bigger than career, college, and life readiness and bigger than performance standards).

Close Reading is when a reader independently stops at moments in a text (or media or life) to reread and observe the choices an author has made. He or she reflects on those observations to reach for new understandings that can color the way the rest of the book is read (or song heard or life lived) and thought about. [From Blog-a-thon Post 1: What Close Reading Isn't (Or At Least Shouldn't Be)]

There are some versions of close reading where it is so teacher-heavy that no kid could ever learn to do this. 7 steps of close reading can result in nothing happening!

Google: close reading blog-a-thon

You are rereading a part of a text, such as a small part of a chapter in a novel, then read on keeping any new ideas in mind.

Bottom Lines for Close Reading:

• If you are worried about test scores, one thing that is helpful to bring back to policymakers is that the #1 indicator of test performance is reading level. (If you are far below grade level, there is a 90% chance that you won't pass the test.)  Read level REALLY REALLY matters.
• In the research community, there are several established practices that can move reading levels up:
• Reading. You only get good at the things that you do. To remain on-grade level, research shows an hour of independent reading (in books that you can read well) per day is required. For kids that are far below, that time changes to two hours per day. We have to work to find ways to give kids MORE time reading.
• Time in texts you can read well. In the example we read where 20% of the words were unknown, we were unable to talk about the text. Imagine what your relationship to reading would be if this is how you read all the time. Kids need access to texts they can read with high percentage of accuracy. If kids stay in a book they can read with only 80% accuracy, their reading level will actually drop.
• Research shows there are several times reading levels drop:
• 1. Summer.
• 2. Reading levels dropped during nonfiction studies. (It's not because of NF. It's often because NF is too hard for kids to read, or kids weren't reading with enough volume.)
• 3. During test prep. (This is actually anti-test prep!) During test prep, we have kids practice reading at levels that aren't just-right. Test preparation is the good reading and writing work that will prepare kids to be prepared.
• Engagement. It's not just a thing, it's the ONLY thing. If you don't care about the thing you are working on, you won't try that hard. Give kids choice around the types of text they are reading and can read well.
• Being able to show your thinking. This is critical for reading instruction. This might look like partner conversations. It might be having kids write about their reading.

Structures:

• Some control over what we do with the time we have. We show what we value by decisions we make with the time.
• National average: 42 minutes for reading workshop
• Mini lesson: 5-10 min.
• Independent reading: (Some kids might need more emergent structures, meaning the reading might be broken up more, including shared reading, guided reading, partner reading, etc.)
• Teacher: 1-on-1 conferring, Small group instruction (guided reading, strategy lessons, assessment, etc.)
• Time for kids to get feedback on their work
• Teaching share/partner time
• Another time in the day: Read aloud and/or Word Work: 20 minutes
• There should be a sense of urgency. It should feel like there is way too much to do with the time they have. They should have several books.

What Close Reading Shouldn't Be

• Using close reading in a way that ends up torturing kids. 
• Rereading a book to the point that you kill it. It can't be something we do TO kids just because. It needs to be in response to what kids need. It needs to be something kids can choose to use (or not to use). 
• Nowhere in the standards does it say that you need to do close reading. Nowhere.

What Close Reading Could Be

• Highly engaging and joyful as possible
• MUST lead to student independence. It must be transferrable. (The goal is to get them to NOT need us as much).
• Part of a balanced diet of reading instruction.
• Considered a method in your--and your students'--toolbox.
• Include both school life and real world. 
• Transfer not just to reading, but to writing too. 
• A set of skills we need to bring to media. Help kids be better consumers of media.
• A set of skills that can help us interact better with others.

Teaching Close Reading to Kids

• Upper grades: Help kids independently analyze (text, media, and life)
• Early elementary: Help kids build emergent close reading habits. One that could make a big difference: pausing. Stop! And think!

Ritual: Goal is to help kids hold on to some steps that they could apply themselves.

Teach kids to have that "hold on" moment, that moment of curiosity or wonder where kids stop to look closer.

Early Elementary	Upper Elementary
A “HOLD ON!” Moment	A “HOLD ON!” Moment
1. Pick a Lens to reread	1. Pick a Lens to reread
2. Use lens to Notice details	2. Use lens to find Patterns
3. Wonder        …or…	3. Develop an Understanding

Early Elementary: (Young kids are great at taking on a persona. "I'm a pirate!" And suddenly, they are a pirate!)

Purposes	Personas (with props?)
Figure it Out (ex:I don’t know what these words mean, what is going on, etc.)	Investigator (magnifying glass)
Want to Make That (If you are trying to make your own picture book after reading a picture book)	Engineer
Compare	Friend

Have built-in purpose and make it joyful!

Foundational Lenses to read closely: 

Read for...

• Text Evidence
• Word Choice
• Structure

Foundational Lenses lead to...

• Argument
• Point of View
• Cross Text Analysis
• Fluid Close Reading

Try it Out! (Early elementary example)

Read like an Investigator.

Song: Everything is Awesome (through the first rap).

Investigator
Let’s look closely
I notice	Details other might miss
I wonder/understand	Why? What is it?

We have to be careful that we are balancing difficulty of the text with the difficulty of the strategy.

Let’s look at “Everything is Awesome!” from the Lego movie.

1. Let’s listen to the song. What are parts of this that you want to look at closely? Notice things we could return to. (On purpose, he doesn’t show lyrics the first time.

2. Look at the lyrics. Find the part you were interested in, and try to find something that others might not notice.

Upper Grades Example:

Text Evidence
Lenses	text evidence
Patterns	comparisons
Understandings

1. Read with a Lens: Things that are awesome (according to the song, not just to us)

Look for evidence, pull it outside of the text and list it. Pull out only the lens we are looking for.

Running list of things that are awesome (according to the song)

• everything
• part of a team
• living our dream
• side by side
• win forever
• party forever
• being the same
• harmony
• lost my job
• dipping in chocolate frostin'
• stepping in mud

2. What fits together? Describe them in some way.

living our dream, win forever, party forever, harmon  (These are over the top wonderful)

part of a team, side by side, being the same (These relate to cooperation)

being the same, lost my job, chocolate  (Negative things that are trying to be positive; insane)

Weird conflict between very positive things and weird things.

There might be more going on with this text. What messages are they sharing? Is this narrator trustworthy or not?