English Pilot of Literacy Support

PURPOSE	1) Teacher must always directly state a PURPOSE for reading. ("The passage I am assigning today introduces you to ... AS YOU READ this passage you need to ...") Always say READ AND ... this changes PASSIVE reading to ACTIVE reading
BACKGROUND	2) Teacher must always activate schema and build background knowledge for students. Always - must - before any reading is assigned. Multimedia, reading a connected passage (something that piques interest), something to make students WANT to know more about the topic and ensure they have their brains ready to take in new information.
ACTIVE	3) Students must read actively. They have to have something to DO while they read - reading guide, graphic organizer, structured note-taking ... a million things but reading passively is no better than not reading at all.
STRATEGIC	4) Good readers have an array of strategies they can automatically apply to a reading event and vary those strategies based on purpose, text, circumstance, and personal choice. Introduction to, modeling of, and hands-on application of good reading strategies is essential.
AUTHENTIC	5) Students have to be able to connect AUTHENTIC (there was truly a PURPOSE) reading to the classroom instruction. Disjointed learning leaves the brain with little chance of retaining and retrieving information at another date. We do not want to leave anything to students' capacity or desire to transfer learning from one situation to another - we must bridge that path.

Week 1	Video tips from Pam	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrr-2wViv8
	How to Introduce a Book	http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Issa-Textbook.html I realize this is geared for ESL students but I think many of the justifications apply for spending some time introducing your texts and for helping students understand HOW the book will aid their learning in your course.
	How to Read a Textbook	http://www.englishcompanion.com/pdfDocs/toolannotatedtextbook.pdf I think this is a great model for selecting a few pages from your text and asking students to go to those pages as you describe how the text features of the book aid comprehension and retention of material.
Week 2	Video tips from Pam	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lC8n9Fa678
	Marzano on building background	http://www.wjcc.k12.va.us/content/programs/staffdevelopment/ CITW/PDFs/051508-BUIDLING%20BACKGROUND%20KNOWLEDGE.pdf
	Simple view of activating schema - you may think this is juvenile in construct, but the elements are the same for more advanced/older readers. This will give you some language to explain to students why activating schema is important. Right now we are taking on the chore of helping students activate schema and build background knowledge, but this has to transition to an automatic metacognitive process that students do themselves.	http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/ Madison%20Schema%20documents.pdf
Week 3	Video tips from Pam	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_sm6AdxhwA
	Metacognitive Journals - these journals can be use pre/during/post reading. They facilitate classroom discussion as students have had time to think through an appropriate response (in depth and scope). They can be actual journals that grow over time or they can just be sheets of paper that are submitted to instructors to be used as formative assessments and as vehicles to give students feedback.	Pre-Reading: Instructor previews a text, building background/ activating schema and then asks students to make predictions about certain content, author's purpose, etc. Students can keep these predications and respond to them AS they read to see how closely they predicted the text or students can submit the predictions to instructors for instructors to use as formative assessments and predictors of how closely students are "in tune" with the readings. During Reading: Instructor gives prompts (sets purposes, provides reading guides) for students to respond to WHILE they read. Post Reading: http://www.sdcoe.net/score/actbank/tmeta.htm
	Note the following sections: Why teach reading-comprehension strategies to adults in transition to college? What does research say about “skilled readers”? Listening-Thinking Activity (LTA) and Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DR-TA)	http://www.collegetransition.org/promisingpractices.research.readingstrategies.html
	Think Alouds - I recommended in the video I did for you this week that YOU do think alouds for your students to model the types of thinking and processing you want them to do. Once students get the idea of how to do this oral processing it is very powerful to have them use think alouds to interpret/respond to text. Note the students' processing in this video link.	http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc3vz0_engl-610-think-aloud-gretel-in-dark_school
Week 4	Notes from Pam: Reading Guides
	Reading Guides: Reading guides provide scaffolded support for readers. Students who are novice at reading at the college level need to "grow into" the readers we need them to be. Instructor modeling is one way to help students develop more sophisticated critical reading skills. Modeling can be done through direct instruction, selected read alouds, think alouds, and by developing guides that help students learn to focus on the important parts of a passage or literary elements. Reading guides can take many forms and be fashioned to fit any text. A guide might be a series or questions or challenges to answer/perform while reading. It is important to keep in mind that we are modeling close and critical reading. Other than guides that focus on that there is no right or wrong way to develop guides. Keep in mind how long it will take you to develop a guide, how you plan to give students credit (points, bonus points, cumulative credit toward an assignment, etc.), and how you will "score/check" students' work. What you want is the best guide to give students the support they need while they are reading, modeling of the skills needed to identify and use critical information (elements, in literature), and a good way of using the guides within your instruction as students come back to class with their work completed.
	These tips and process might help you think through the use of reading guides and how you might incorporate them. •What can I do to help the students become better learners in my class? –Build study habits and confidence –Truly require the students to complete the required reading - Reading guides that you make ESSENTIAL to course success help ensure that students do the assigned readings. The spin-off benefit of doing the assigned reading is that students become better readers BY reading.
	• What are some reading challenges our WKU students face? What can we do to help students through those struggles? –More direction is needed à “Why should we read?” –Students must be held accountable •Require it à reward them if completed… negative outcomes if they do not read
	–Build the course using the required reading as the foundation •Students MUST buy the book –Nurture the students’ motivation and boost their esteem using a “snowballing” technique • Possible Sequence: Read text à Reading guide à In-class Participation + Quiz + Practice Testà Exam –Foster growth of study skills through structure, modeling, and feedback
	•Only assign the important parts of the textbook –Focus on the textbook’s strengths –Make the reading manageable in length • •Students must complete all of the assigned readings –Needed for reading guides •Focus students’ attention on the most important parts of the reading •Overlap with lecture so students can use reading guide to participate in class –Completed reading guides are useful on quizzes (reward/punish) –Collect/grade reading guides to assess student engagement •Build motivation by challenging students to succeed –Give positive and negative feedback at every level –Require students to contribute knowledge from their reading to advance the lecture
	•Model successful behavior –Clearly describe your expectations and remind the students of them •“This course is designed ... You are expected to invest time ... As a college student, it is reasonable for your instructors and professors to ask you to attend class, to read from the textbook, to study what you read and what we discuss in class, and to consider how this course will be relevant to your life and career beyond your WKU experience.” –Explain your reasoning behind the reading guides and quizzes •“I am blatantly using social psychology and conditioning to get you to read and to study well in advance of the exam so that you will succeed.” –Likewise, ask students why they do or do not put effort into reading and studying
Week 5	Contextualizing content area reading. EXACTLY what is it we are trying to accomplish?	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3qpNBYN_Zc
	Please view the video to the left - you can either view it through Voicethread.com (see the email I sent you) or through the youtube video linked.	http://voicethread.com/share/2242278/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Qym1YSdbT4
	Goals for this week: View the video or voicethread. Send comments to me by email. These should be reflections and initial thoughts about what you heard/read in the presentation.
	Vocabulary support and growth	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IiAwIgR8k0
	In the vein of moving on I posted a new video - this one recaps what we have focused on thus far and introduces the objective of vocabulary development. This video is 11 minutes long but hopefully it will be helpful to you.