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C I 264

• Please sign attendance.

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Announcements

• Portfolio of Lesson Plans is due next week.
• Change in due dates for the Final Writing Piece
  and Writers Notebook?
• Parent/Teacher Role Play will be an in class
  assignment.
• Information on the Home/School Connection
  Reflection will be given after the Role Play and
  will be due the following week.
• Questions?

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Today

• Reading in the Content Area Middle School
  Learners
• Social Constructivist Teachers
• Scaffolding
• Informational Text Activity
• Homework

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Grouping Practices for Critical Readers

• Consider that . . .
• Learning theory has changed from Behaviorism to
  Constructivism
• Effective constructivist teachers are using
  different types of teaching for middle level
  students

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A social constructivist teacher . . .

• Considers students as individual learners
• Finds creative ways to meet the needs of all
  students
• Meets the varied needs of a range of abilities
  within a classroom

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A social constructivist teacher . . .

• Treats all students as readers and writers
• Fosters student engagement
• Knows that interest is key
• Provides choices
• Shares own reading writing experiences

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Meeting Individual Needs in Small Groups

• Social Constructivist teachers use a variety of
  formats
• Guided Reading
• Reading Writing Workshop
• Literature Circles
• Book Clubs

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Content Area Reading with Critical Readers

• Reading is one of the primary way middle level
  students learn.
• So as a content area teacher of math, social
  studies, science, etc., youll still be teaching
  reading.
• Most of this reading will be from informational
  texts.

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Informational text. . .

• Can be friendly or unfriendly.
• Differs from narrative text.
• Can be organized according to several different
  patterns
• Simple list
• Sequence
• Compare-Contrast
• Cause-Effect
• Problem-Solution
• Mixed

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Learning from informational text . . .

• Students can learn to take notes
• Students learn to vary their reading rate
• Skim
• Scan
• Pleasure reading
• Precise reading

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Learning from informational text . . .

• Students learn to summarize
• Encoding text into own words
• Microtheme summaries
• Students learn to study
• Study plans
• SQ3R

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An instructional scaffold is

• Any instructional activity applied before,
  during, or after reading that is intended to
  support immature, poor, or struggling readers.

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Graves Graves, 1994

• A scaffold is not a preset plan, but a flexible
  framework that provides a set of options from
  which you select those that are best suited for a
  particular group of students reading a particular
  text for a particular purpose.

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A Guide for Planning Scaffolding for Content Area
Reading

• Overhead

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• When students need to read to learn, teachers
  should provide instructional scaffolds . . .
• Before reading (Overture)
• While reading (Interlude)
• After reading (Finale)

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In Groups . . .

• Create a plan from your content area text
• Overture Group 1 and 4
• Interlude Groups 2 and 5
• Finale Groups 3 and 6
• Work in your small groups. We will then put
  groups 1-3 and 4-6 together to discuss an overall
  plan for their assigned chapter.

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What does it take to read well?

• Attention
• Prior Knowledge
• Motivation/Interest/Purpose
• Word Attack Skills
• Metacognitive Strategies
• Physical Factors
• Emotional Factors
• Environmental Factors

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Recommendations for Improving Reading in the
Middle Grades

• Spend a large percentage of the time reading and
  writing.
• Stress silent reading or teacher read-alouds.
• Teach skills in the context of reading, not in
  isolated drill and practice.
• Provide organizers or guides that help students
  focus on important information while they read.
• Model your own comprehension strategies.
• Teach students to read and re-read.
• Plan questions that promote higher order thinking
  (compare/contrast, explanations, applications to
  unique situations, evaluations, synthesis).
• Explicitly teach and require students to use
  note-taking, summarizing, and other study skills.

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Writers Workshop

• Mini-Lesson Presentation or Independent Writing
  Time
• Revising/Editing Groups Conferencing
• Utilize the Lab

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Homework

• Portfolio of Lesson Plans due next time.
• Readings PKT Literature Circles in the
  Content Areas What They Are and Why They Work