{"id":372,"date":"2021-11-18T11:43:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-18T19:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/?p=372"},"modified":"2021-11-18T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2021-11-18T20:28:08","slug":"ready-to-implement-now-reading-strategies-for-all-subjects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bend.k12.or.us\/dean.richards\/2021\/11\/18\/ready-to-implement-now-reading-strategies-for-all-subjects\/","title":{"rendered":"Ready to Implement Now…Reading Strategies for all Subjects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The weight of the past two years feels heavy on our shoulders. Teachers are reporting that students are lacking skills in social-emotional areas and academic skills. Many teachers are asking, \u201cHow do we support our students and the gaps in learning we are seeing with them right now?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking a \u201cwe are all in this together\u201d approach, it seems imperative that we, as a school community of educators, tackle what we\u2019re seeing in our students head on, and collaboratively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2019 book Disciplinary Literacy Inquiry & Instruction<\/em><\/strong> by Jacy Ippolito, Christina L. Dobbs, and Megin Charner-Laird, the case for teaching literacy across disciplines is strongly made. All teachers should view themselves as playing significant roles in developing a student’s literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way teachers can support students is by pointing out ways in which texts look very different in each class.  The text that students engage with in Language Arts looks very different from text in a Career and Technical Education course.  The lens that a reader must take for a Social Studies text, which is filled with bias, is different from many texts in a Science course.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

AdLit: All About Student Literacy has a website<\/a><\/strong> has a slew of amazing, simple, & ready-to-implement-today reading strategies that all teachers can use in their next lessons. The strategies emphasized are: Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Writing. What I like most about the way the website organizes these are in when<\/em> you would implement these strategies in the reading process: BEFORE reading, DURING reading, and AFTER reading.<\/strong> I want to highlight a favorite from each stage of the reading process. If you’re intrigued, the website is easy to navigate and will offer many more!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Reading<\/em><\/strong> – Concept Sorts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite reading strategies is Concept Sorts<\/strong><\/a> — using this technique, you can develop some prior knowledge and connections you want kids to make on their own. As an added bonus, the format is simple and will reach all students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Concept Sorting is a way of engaging students in Hexagonal Thinking, which has become a new rage in education – If you’d like to learn more about it, I\u2019ll link an interesting blog post<\/a> from The Cult of Pedagogy<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Reading<\/em><\/strong> – Concept Maps & Highlighting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first one you might want to consider trying while students are reading is a Concept Map<\/a> (I like to call them Brain Webs)<\/strong> — it\u2019s low-stake writing and thinking, perfect for students with skills that are limited. The limited amount of writing and focus on single words and phrases helps students organize their thoughts quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another strategy I love and slightly adapted from the website version is Two Highlighters: <\/strong>Important <\/span>and Confusing<\/span> – I love telling my students, \u201cIt\u2019s a sign of intelligence to be able to admit what you don\u2019t know or understand.\u201d The idea is in one color, they highlight words and moments that they don\u2019t understand. The other color is for those moments that make us think, \u201cWow, this seems really important. I may not know why exactly yet, but I want to remember to look back at this later.\u201d When I model this in front of them, chart it on a simple table in my reader\u2019s notebook, and show them how to resolve simple issues that may be tripping them up, it increases reading comprehension by so much. It forces students to go back and re-read, to think deeply, and shows them a strategy they can use in any class, with any text. Once students have these moments organized, teachers can help strategize ways to resolve the difficult moments. If it\u2019s vocabulary, would defining it help? Finding a synonym to replace the difficult vocabulary term? Is it a context issue?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After Reading<\/em><\/strong> – Summarizing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summarizing <\/strong>is a tough skill for students, but we know it helps build comprehension. Generally, we see students write too much or pull out less-important information. Using this strategy<\/a>, teachers can hone in prior knowledge and help build vocabulary. One way you could guide students into a more-targeted approach is the  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to implement this right away:<\/strong> \u200b\u200bBegin by reading OR have students listen to the text selection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Ask students to write a summary of the target text based on the following framework questions: