Literacy: The Way to Go!

Writing is a “threshold skill” for both employment and promotion, particularly for salaried employees. Half the responding companies report that they take writing into consideration when hiring professional employees. “In most cases, writing ability could be your ticket in . . . or it could be your ticket out,” said one respondent. (National Commission on Writing 2004)

If writing is considered a “threshold skill” for employment now and in the future, then it is imperative that we teach all our students how to become the very best writers possible.  Ardith Davis Cole’s writing explains how to write so that you look good and sound smart on paper.  Unlike writers and researchers writing specifically for Language Arts teachers, Cole writes primarily for other content area teachers.  Her work focuses on nonfiction and on demand writing, the kinds of writing our students commonly encounter in Science and Social Studies classes.

Cole advocates teaching students skills that she has named, Right-Answer Writing, to address the writing they to need to know how to do well now and in the future.  Her books show how teachers and parents can teach their kids how to craft better answers to test prompts, to persuasive essays and to research reports using the Right-Answer Protocol, which she nicknames RAP.  What middle school kid wouldn’t like to learn to RAP and look good and sound smart? 

Cole begins by teaching teachers and kids how to write The Rap Sandwich.  It looks suspiciously like a Burger King Whopper!

First, she teaches writers to Develop an Introduction, which is the top of the sandwich complete with sesame seeds!  The introduction is composed of two parts, restating the question or petition (what Cole calls a command), and developing a gist or general answer without giving away any details.

Next, she teaches writers to Construct a Body of Evidence, which is the middle of the sandwich.  Notice, it’s a chunky middle!  It contains the evidence, concrete details, examples, and explanations.  It’s the mayonnaise, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, meat and ketchup of the sandwich!

 Finally, Cole provides instruction about how to Draw a Conclusion or put on the bottom bun!

Cole uses this framework to teach writers how to construct single and multiple-paragraph packages, which in NECAP language are called constructed and extended responses. 

The Right-Answer Writing package includes three small books, The Process and The Prompt, The Persuasive Essay and The Research Paper and a CD which all explain and show how the RAP framework can be developed into a five-paragraph essay with a compelling introduction, an authoritative body of evidence and a powerful conclusion. 

If you are interested in looking at these materials, please see me.  But see me before or after this Friday because I’m attending the Ardith Davis Cole Conference presented by the Literacy Leadership Initiative of Vermont, the Vermont Reading Initiative and the University of Vermont.  I’m sure I’ll be bringing back more materials and ideas to share!  The more we write, think about writing and teach writing, the better prepared our students will be for their futures.

On-Demand Writing: A Needed Skill - Long-term projects are important, but they do not cover all of the kinds of writing that learners will be called upon to produce either in college or in their lives. On the contrary, substantive writing on demand for reports, correspondence and even e-mail is now a common feature of corporate life. (Staples, B. 2005. “The Fine Art of Getting It Down on Paper.” New York Times, May 15.)

My sixth graders know they are supposed to highlight or underline important information, but they don’t know what’s important so they tend to underline and highlight almost everything!  So, I have been working with them on marking text when they read.   This is a relatively new skill for them, and I suspect for their classmates too.  I’m sure seventh and eighth grade students could benefit from a refresher on this skill too. 

Model how to do it.  The majority of  our middle school students are still very concrete in their thinking about active reading and reading text to learn.  We have to show and tell  to teach them.  Use your own text and/or content materials.  Although they may use this skill in language arts classes, does not mean they can transfer this skill to other content areas.  Non-fiction text, internet sites and textbooks are especially difficult for them to comprehend.

Start with a page of something they have to read, and make copies for them and an overhead transparency for you.  Tell them you’re going to do a Think Aloud, and explain this is a way to show them what good readers think and DO when they read. 

Read out loud and mark the text as you go.  Say out loud what you are thinking.  Use the symbols below to mark the text on the transparency as you read.

oval = around essential vocabulary words - then write def. for definition in the margin and underline or highlight the definition or the context clues in the text that can be used to infer what the word means

? = to show what you don’t understand and need to ask someone about

* or a star = to show something important like concrete details, dates, names, explanations, then highlight or underline

C = make a connection to the text, write the connection in the margin

!!! = means something surprising

P = make a prediction and then write it in the margin

I = make an inference - this is the hardest one for them to do - take information from the ext and from what you know, develop a theory or a hypothesis about what this means, use clues from the text to support your inference

or happy face = to show something you like

or sad face = to show something you don’t like

Model how to do this using sticky notes for text on which we shouldn’t write.

Also, let them know that they are allowed to mark the text in the NECAP booklets.  Several kids missed this important information.  Yes, they can write in the booklets, but the only work that is scored is in the answer booklet.  However, marking the text should improve their comprehension and increase their learning.

One of the most difficult weeks to be a middle school teacher is the week of Halloween.  Kids usually aren’t able to focus long enough to learn new or difficult content or skills.  As Friday, October 31, approaches again this year, I’ve been thinking about creating a game for my Literacy Skills students to play to practice vocabulary words.

Luckily, one of my colleagues shared his methods of practicing vocabulary or any content using popular game show Power Point slides of Jeopardy and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  Any teacher, parent or student could customize the templates with his or her own content.

Pairs of students could also customize templates to build a game to play with other pairs of students as a way to practice content and/or vocabulary.

Below are some websites my colleague and I both found helpful.  They include a variety of content areas.

http://teach.fcps.net/trt10/PowerPoint.htm

http://www.jmu.edu/madison/teacher/jeopardy/jeopardy.htm

http://www.teachnet.com/lesson/misc/winnergame022500.html

http://elainefitzgerald.com/jeopardy.htm

http://young.springdaleschools.org/WebsitesTeachersJeopardy.htm

For another way to survive Halloween with a smile at the end of the day, check out the two Power Points about Halloween on this site: http://www.worldofteaching.com/historypowerpoints.html

If you have a site that you particularly like, please send me the address! 

Isn’t it strange how princes and kings,
and clowns that caper in sawdust rings,
and common people, like you and me,
are builders for eternity?

Each is given a list of rules;
a shapeless mass; a bag of tools.
And each must fashion, ere life is flown,
A stumbling block, or a Stepping-Stone

This is one of my favorite poems because every time I read it, always reminds me of how many really good ideas and tools successful teachers have in their repetoire.  The Greece, New York School District’s Website is one of the most useful sites I have found to date.  This site contains many valuable tools, directions and handouts that help students improve their reading, writing and thinking skills.  

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/

The second instructional improvement recommended by Reading Next – A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy calls for “Effective instructional principles embedded in content, including language arts teachers using content-area texts and content-area teachers providing instruction and practice in reading and writing skills specific to their subject area.” (p. 4)

Language Arts, Science, Social Studies and Math, otherwise known as core, teachers need to know which informational texts are used by their teammates and what comprehension strategies help their students learn from these texts.  Texts are not limited to just textbooks but also include Internet sites, wikis, Moodle, as well as nonfiction books, articles and periodicals.

While core teachers need to know which texts their teammates use, coordinating  instruction and practice of reading comprehension skills across the core curriculum increases understanding of informational text.  According to the Reading Next report, ”The problem is not illiteracy, but comprehension. The bulk of older struggling readers and writers can read, but cannot understand what they read.” (p. 10)  Students need to understand what they are reading in order to continue learning.

This is especially true for students using the Internet to learn.  Although most students can read information at different sites, too many do not understand what they are reading.  Students need direct, explicit comprehension instruction about reading internet sites as well as textbooks.  Showing them what the similarities and differences are between the two different kinds of texts is critical to their understanding of the information presented.

Imagine what the potential to increase student reading comprehension could be if teachers on any given team taught, modeled and monitored student use of the same reading strategy for a month. For example, core teachers could all use Reciprocal Teaching with any informational text.

Reciprocal Teaching is a scaffolded approach to teaching comprehension

strategies. It was designed for youth at any grade level, typically scoring in the thirty-fifth percentile or below on standardized reading measures, with the aim of teaching them to actively process the text they read in small groups. The teacher models four critical strategies: questioning, clarifying, predicting, and summarizing. The teacher then transfers responsibility for implementing the strategies to students by having them work in small groups. Students either take turns using each strategy or lead discussions by using all four strategies, in the latter case becoming the “teacher.” By taking turns using each of the strategies with a series of texts, children learn to independently and flexibly apply the strategies on their own.

Questioning poses questions based on a portion of a text the group has read, either aloud or silently.

Clarifying resolves confusions about words, phrases, or concepts, drawing on the text when possible.

Predicting suggests what will next happen in or be learned next from the text.

Summarizing sums up the content, identifying the gist of what has been read and discussed. (p. 14) 

Or imagine the impact if each core teacher provided instruction in the same notetaking skill like Pryamid Notes http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/tools/pyramidnotes.pdf or Discussion Notes http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Tools/discussionnotes.pdf during the same month.

Improving students’ reading comprehension also requires monitoring of students reading and using different strategies or tools during class.  “The use of such tools as graphic organizers, prompted outlines, structured reviews, guided discussions, and other instructional tactics that will modify and enhance the curriculum content in ways that promote its understanding and mastery have been shown to greatly enhance student performance—for all students in academically diverse classes, not just students who are struggling.” (p. 15)

Enhancing student performance is a worthy goal of teachers regardless of their content areas or students’ grade levels.

A 2004 report from the Carnegie Corporation titled Reading Next – A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy recommended Fifteen Key Elements of Effective Adolescent Literacy Programs to improve middle and high school students’ literacy achievement.  The Fifteen Key Elements were identified and organized into two categories – Instructional Improvements and Infrastructure Improvements (see table below).

The authors of the report assert that addressing one of the improvements above will result in other improvements developing subsequently. 

The first recommended instruction improvement, direct instruction means explicit, show-me-how-to-do-it instruction.  It’s the “Tell ‘n Show” type of instruction that includes an explanation and modeling by the teacher, and then guided and independent practice by the student. 

Several direct instruction approaches have shown to improve middle school students’ understanding of content.

v Comprehension strategies instruction, which is instruction that explicitly gives student strategies that aid them in comprehending a wide variety of text;

v Comprehension monitoring and metacognition instruction, which is instruction that teaches students to become aware of how they understand while they read;

v Teacher modeling, which involves the teacher reading texts aloud, making her [his] own use of strategies and practices apparent to students

v Scaffolded instruction, which involves teachers giving high support for students practicing new skills and then slowly decreasing that support to increase student ownership and self-sufficiency

v Apprenticeship models, which involve teachers engaging students in a content-centered learning relationship

One example of Direct, Explicit Comprehension Instruction is Reciprocal Teaching. This strategy is a scaffolded approach, much like Literature Circles in English classes. Students practice four comprehension strategies in cooperative groups using content-rich text.  This approach is especially useful with reading assignments in social studies and science.

To learn more about Reciprocal Teaching, check out –

http://www.readingquest.org/strat/rt.html

and

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ela/6-12/Reading/Reading%20Strategies/reciprocal%20teaching.htm

At a recent meeting, the topic of on-demand writing, constructed responses as well as extended responses, presented us with questions to puzzle out.  What does on-demand writing reveal about student learning?  Should this kind of writing be included in a student’s writing folder or portfolio?  When do we, as adults, use on-demand writing skills?  I believe on demand writing can provide us with extremely useful data about student learning in any content area.

As users of email and bloggers, adults write on demand, but there are also many professions that require workers to write on demand.  For example, on Thursday, my husband had cataract surgery.  Before surgery, several medical professionals including nurses and the surgeon added information both in Q&A form and narrative form onto his medical chart.  On demand writing?  Certainly. 

But, the more I watched these medical professionals write during their work, I began to wonder if we’re asking the right question.  Maybe we should ask, “When are our students asked to write on demand?” Or maybe, “How did these medical professionals earn their degrees or prove their competence in medical school?”  Were they asked to write on demand during their educational experiences?  Undoubtedly, they were, but when and why?

Writing on demand is an academic skill.  This kind of writing is used in school for formative and summative assessments of student learning.  It is also used on “high stakes” tests like the NECAPs, NAEP, and SATs, and on mid-terms and final exams in high school and college.  It’s even used in job interviews! 

Several of Vermont’s Standards and Grade Expectations in Writing include wording indicating that to meet a given standard, students must show evidence, “… in their independent writing…”  On-demand writing tasks force us to become better thinkers about content, and as a result, better writers.  

For more information about on demand writing, check out:

http://literacyplaybook.blogspot.com/

 http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au/downloads/assessment/3579_tn_on_demand.pdf

http://www.madison.k12.ky.us/ms/departments/english/ppts/On%20Demand%20Writing%20power%20point.ppt#256

What is the core of good reading comprehension in any content area?  English Literature?  Math? Science?  Social Studies?  Music?  Tech Ed? … Explicit or direct strategy instruction. Good readers in all disciplines use strategies that help them understand what they are reading whether they’re reading textbooks, periodicals, magazine articles, library books, musical scores or online.  Often times, good readers don’t even know they are using strategies!  However, by making strategy instruction explicit for all our students in every discipline, we can help even good readers become expert readers.  More importantly, we can help less-than-proficient readers improve their skills and therefore, their understanding of our content.

Reading strategies are organized into three basic categories. “Before” strategies activate students’ prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. “During” strategies help students make connections, monitor their understanding, generate questions, and stay focused. “After” strategies provide students an opportunity to summarize, question, reflect, discuss, and respond to text.

We, teachers and parents, can help our students understand why a strategy is useful, how it is used, and when it is appropriate through demonstration and modeling.  These are critical factors for success, and discussion following strategy instruction is also helpful because it increases students’ metacognition about their own learning. 

The website, All About Adolescent Literacy, http://www.adlit.org/strategy_library  provides a number of Before, During and After Reading Strategies from which to select.  Providing explicit instruction about only one strategy at a time helps students build a repertoire they can apply to future reading assignments.  Practicing these strategies across all content areas reinforces a student’s ability to comprehend different information at increasingly more complex levels.

After interviewing several candidates for a teaching position in our school last spring, another committee member and I marveled at how comfortable one of the candidates was with technology.   We were mystified and amazed when she offered to show all of us her website and her blog during her interview.  She calmly walked over to the computer in the room, logged on and viola! there was her work for everyone to see.  After the interviews were over, we talked about how absolutely comfortable this one candidate was showing us her “works in progress.”   We were very impressed with her, her work and her answers to some tough questions.

So now it’s my turn to share my “work in progress.”  This weekend I created a Power Point presentation about a Puzzling Problem: How to Write a Constructed Response.  Many of our students have trouble determining when and how to write an expository paragraph (constructed response) answer to a question or command.  I am sharing my presentation with my Literacy Skills students and getting their feedback.  After I make revisions based on their suggestions, I will share it with my colleagues and their students.  Here is the current version:  Power Point: Constructed Response  If you have comment or suggestions, please send them by clicking on Comments below.