Incorporating Digital Texts and Literacies into the Reading Workshop

[Notes from a session with Mike Ochs]

Technology is always new and always changing. It's important for us to take time to share with each other.

What are digital texts?

• Moving media
• Clips of TV, movies, video
• Any tech that displays these organizing structures: 
• Story Line
• Boxes and Bullets

Why digital texts?

Digital texts can support...

• Engagement
• Teaching reading skills and strategies
• Lifting the level of talk
• Note-taking

Possible methods for using digital texts

We can use DT to...

• Connect and engage readers to a teaching point (Use a DT during the connection)
• Ex: Using clip from The Simpsons before a lesson on envisioning or idioms

• Illustrate an example of a reading skill
• Illustrate a metaphor for a reading skill or habit
• Teach content
• Use as a vehicle for learning another way

TP: Sometimes texts are just begging us to stop and predict. When readers come to a pivotal part of our book, we pause and think: "Uh oh,  what's going to happen next? Perhaps it could be..."

Stop at 1:20 : What is going to happen next?

TP: What someone does and how he/she acts can be windows into that person. Readers pay close attention to a character's actions and think: "This character is the kind of person who..."
While watching, stop and jot what things this character is doing. What does this say?
(Stop several times throughout for partners to share evidence and theories)

TP: Sometimes readers think thematically. We can do this as we read by paying attention to a character's problems and asking ourselves, "What is this character learning about life?"
Show of the few clips. What evidence do you see and what does it make you think?


TP: Nonfiction readers don't just find main ideas in a text. We grow our own ideas while we read. To do this, we can pause when we learn something big and important and say, "This makes me think..." or "This is important because..."
Show the first 1:42   What are you thinking right now?



TP: When we read nonfiction texts, we become an expert on a topic. Nonfiction experts teach other what we know, using our hands, fancy words, and explaining voice.
After watching this clip, turn and teach your partner what you've learned.



Important Reading Skills to Teach Into
Literature

• Grow ideas about characters
• Supporting thinking with text evidence
• Interpreting themes

Informational Text

• Determining central idea and supporting details
• Analyzing the relationship between authorial intent and craft
• Supporting thinking with text evidence

Where can we incorporate Digital Texts and Literacies?

In reading workshop:

• In the Connection to engage readers
• In the Teaching to demonstrate a strategy
• In the Active Engagement to practice the strategy together
• Other areas:
• Midworkshop Teaching
• Teaching Share
• Conferences
• Small Strategy Groups

In Interactive Read Aloud:

• A digital text can be the read aloud
• Pause for teacher think alouds
• Pause for student turn & talks and stop & jots

In Content Areas:

• To teach content
• To teach note-taking:
• sketches
• timelines, etc.

Where can I find Digital Texts?

• Discovery Education Streaming Plus
• youtube
• The History Channel
• http://www.history.com/videos
• National Geographic
• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video
• Teachers College Reading and Writing Project
• http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/classroom-libraries/text-sets.html

mike.ochs@readingandwritingproject.com

Motivated?

      Let’s say you were not living a healthy lifestyle, not exercising, and eating unhealthy foods, convinced that this is just the way you are. People convince you that you need to start eating healthy and exercising.
      So you completely change your diet, making sure you eat the correct number of calories for your body style, as research suggests. You eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, and consult the MyPyramid for nutritional guidance.
      You also begin a rigorous exercise regiment. Your closest friends and family members begin to notice that you’re looking healthier. You are feeling better. It’s beginning to become easier to live a healthy lifestyle. You haven’t quite made it yet, but you have made some big improvements in your life.
      It’s time for your annual checkup, and you find yourself sitting in a small room your doctor’s office. Rather than simply asking you about how you feel and noticing your changes in lifestyle, the doctor has you take a test, developed by a mathematician, where you are timed to see how long you can hold your breath. The test, based upon volumes of research data, suggests that you are unhealthy and should change your lifestyle. The doctor suggests you attend a weekly nutritional counseling program.


Would you continue to feel motivated? Would you think about switching doctors?


      Let’s say a student was a struggling reader and writer, trying to avoid doing any work during reading and writing time, convinced that he isn’t good at school. His teacher convinces him that he needs to start working hard on his reading and writing.
      So he completely changes his writing time. He sets a goal for himself, trying to increase the number of words he writes every day. He meets with his teacher and begins to try to apply what he is learning in mini lessons into his writing, improving the quality.
      He also words hard at his reading, practicing every night. Reading and writing are starting to get a little easier.
      It is testing time of the year, and he finds himself sitting in a small unfamiliar room with a test administrator. Rather than asking how reading and writing has been going and noticing the change in behavior and performance in the classroom, the administrator has him take a test, developed by a researcher, where he has to read as many words as he can in a minute. The test, based upon volumes of research data, suggest that he requires an intensive intervention, and he needs lots of extra help to get better. He is sent to attend a daily intervention program.


Would he continue to feel motivated? Does he have any say in the matter?