The
reading workshop is underway in Ann Daley‘s 4th grade classroom. This
morning Ann is launching the study of an important reading strategy. The
entries in the students‘ reading response journals and the observations
she has made during literature discussions demonstrate that many of her
students have difficulty remembering what they read. They need to
reread in order to respond to the text, and their recall is sketchy and
lacks cohesiveness. Disorganized ideas and the absence of indented
paragraphs in the students‘ writing confirms her supposition that many
of them have not developed an awareness of the organization of text.
Several strategies can address her students‘ poor recall, such as
visualizing, questioning, and predicting. However, Ann has decided to
begin mediation by teaching her students to summarize or chunk
information while they are reading.
Organizing ideas is central to understanding and remembering. She decides to make this core strategy the focus for the explicit strategy lesson of her next reading workshop. Her lesson is based on the analysis she did of the steps we take when we organize text. (See Learning for Keeps, Chapter 4 for a tutorial in unpacking the steps in a strategy.)
Organizing ideas is central to understanding and remembering. She decides to make this core strategy the focus for the explicit strategy lesson of her next reading workshop. Her lesson is based on the analysis she did of the steps we take when we organize text. (See Learning for Keeps, Chapter 4 for a tutorial in unpacking the steps in a strategy.)
Explicit Strategy Lesson with Concrete Materials
When
everyone is gathered, Ann begins by telling her class that sometimes
when she is reading, she gets to the bottom of the page and realizes she
doesn’t really remember what she read. She asks the students if that
ever happens to them, and there is a silent chorus of nods. She adds
that this is particularly true when she is reading something she isn‘t
really that interested in. This last statement generates enthusiastic
agreement and knowing smiles. She tells her students she is going to
show them one way she helps herself understand and remember what she
reads.
Ann
explains that understanding and remembering is always easier when we
put things together and organize them in some way. She reaches into a
plastic bin beside her chair and takes out a box of assorted blocks,
which she dumps out on the table in front of her. She asks the students
if they would be able to describe what is in the pile. “Can you tell how
many colors there are? Is it clear if there are more red ones or green
ones? How many blocks are there all together?” She asks them what they
would do to make the pile clear and easy to understand. Ann tells the
students, all of whom have already raised their hands, eager to reply,
to turn to a neighbor and share their answers with each other.
After
the class has shared their ideas and agreed how they would organize the
blocks, Ann invites her students to put their hypotheses to the test.
Students take turns separating and organizing the blocks by their shared
characteristics. Ann smiles to herself over the wonder of kids in the
computer age clamoring to get their hands on a few blocks. When the
matched blocks are arrayed in columns, Ann emphasizes the difference
organization makes by asking some questions that require gathering
information and making comparisons the students could not have made when
the blocks were in one big pile. She relates these observations to
other places where objects are organized, such as rooms, drawers,
libraries, and supermarkets. (She would extend the experiences with
manipulative materials if the students‘ ages or cognitive ability
warranted it).
Ann
then tells her students that we can also group or chunk information in
the text we are reading to help us understand and remember. She
instructs her class to watch and listen as she chunks the familiar story
of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She tells them that because they
know the story, she is going to tell it very quickly, and when she is
finished, she will ask them to tell her what they observed. Ann picks up
a marker and places a stack of 6 x 8 index cards in front of her.
Speaking quickly, Ann tells the story; however, when the tale
transitions from one scene to the next, she stops and exclaims, “Wait a
minute. That sounds like a new episode is starting. It‘s a new scene.
It‘s different from what was happening before. Let me stop there and
think about what I found out.” She reviews the details and asks, “What
are all those details talking about” Ann thinks aloud as she makes the
connection. Then she writes a summarizing sentence on an index card,
such as “Goldilocks helps herself to the bears’porridge.”
When
Ann has finished modeling the chunking of the story and has placed the
index cards on display, she asks the students to retell what they
observed. She records the steps of the strategy so they are on view.
Then she asks her students to think, pair, and share the answers to
these questions: What are we doing? Why are we doing it? While the
students are responding, she circulates and listens for their ability to
articulate what they are learning and makes notes regarding which
students need more time, coaching, and practice to process the concept
of chunking information
Following
the group share, Ann prepares her students for the transition into two
groups--one will receive guided practice in summarizing text and the
other high-ability group will resume work in their literature response
circles.
Differentiated Group Practice
Ann’s
teaching is grounded in her commitment to enable her students to be
self-guided learners. The structure of her program, the nature of her
interactions with her students, and her responses to their challenges
are always geared to build their awareness of the behaviors they need to
succeed and to release control of those behaviors to her students.
The
guided reading portion of the reading workshop puts her students in the
driver’s seat as soon as they are aware of what they need to do and
have an understanding of the processes needed to do it. Therefore,
instead of preparing students for their reading by guiding their
predictions, clarifying new vocabulary they will encounter, and
anticipating the literary devices the author uses, Ann asks the students
to apply the strategies she has modeled and select the behaviors that
will serve their purposes before, during, and after reading. She
provides support by coaching her students through the challenges that
arise.
The
students who have demonstrated a need to improve their recall remain in
the gathering place with Ann. She tells them that they are going to
work together to get practice in organizing or chunking a story. She has
picked a piece of material that is well within their independent
reading level. After briefly reviewing the strategy, the students in the
group take turns reading aloud and stopping when they think a new
episode or chunk has started. When there is a difference of opinion, Ann
encourages a dialogue over the decision process, knowing that the
separation of the episodes is not as important as the students‘
conscious attention to organizing information.
Before
the students draw a picture representing the thrust of each episode
along with a main-idea statement, Ann takes them through a rehearsal.
She wants to mediate their processing of the text and encourage
visualization. She asks, “What will be in your picture? Where will you
place the characters?” She notes the students’ ability to generalize
ideas from the details. While her students are busy selecting markers
and drawing, Ann checks in with each child by asking, “So could you
teach me about what you are doing?”
When
Ann and the students have finished collaborating on the chunking of the
story, she has them reflect on the use of the strategy and ask any
questions they may have. Ann tells her students they will have an
opportunity to recall and discuss the story the next time they meet. At
that time they will evaluate the use of the chunking strategy and she
will give them feedback on the difference in their ability to remember
what they read.
During
the weeks to come, the guided reading blocks will move from
teacher-directed activities to cooperative group activities and then
independent work. Ann will model how to use the chunking strategy to
mark episodes with highlighting tape, map a story, take notes, and
summarize. She will ask the students to evaluate their recall and
understanding and compare what they are doing now with what they used to
do.
Differentiated Cooperative Group Practice
The
literature study block of the reading workshop enables students to work
in small groups and share their reactions to thought-provoking
children‘s literature or informational text. Ann is confident
that she can balance both the aesthetic enjoyment of reading good
literature and the investigations in expository material with
instruction that builds expertise. She uses the extended text as a stage
for the students to select and apply the strategies they have been
learning. The global and interpretive questions she poses focus her
class‘ attention on higher-level thinking, deep processing of
information, and the search for meaning.
Ann
joins the students who have been working in small collaborative circles
on the books they have selected for literature study. After
conferencing briefly with each group about their work and coaching
students who need support, she gathers the small groups and poses the
question, “What devices does the author use to hold your interest?” She
asks these more able students to apply the summarizing strategy to an
analysis of their book‘s plot structure. They will need to identify the
main episodes as they read and record them on 8 x 10 index cards. By
attaching the sides of the cards with yarn, each group will construct a
story line that reflects the rise and fall of tension in the plot. They
will have to locate the literary devices the author uses to move the
story along such as a surprise, suspense, or disaster. The groups can
use their completed story lines for a book sharing with the whole class.
(See Learning for Keeps,Chapter 5 for examples of independent practice, application, and transfer of strategies.)
I
hope this lesson will spark conversation and ideas about explicit
strategy instruction. I would love to hear
from you.