Academic Fitness

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Academic Fitness
Strength Flexibility Endurance Enjoyment
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Strength Vocabulary and Background Knowledge
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Schoolwide Academic Fitness Circuit Training

• Today, we will train for strength. By strength,
  we mean having sufficient
• vocabulary to make meaning from text. Vocabulary
  is closely related to
• background knowledge, and background knowledge is
  the most important
• factor in reading comprehension.
• Here are a few things you can do that will take
  just a few minute of class time to
• build your students vocabulary
• Analyze word prefixes and roots of key words to
  show how they are related
• to words that students may already know.
• 2. Embed the target word in a cluster of words
  related to the topic.
• 3. Introduce key words that the students will
  meet in their upcoming readings.
• Repeat new words in various contexts.
• 5. Show the word. Emphasize its spelling and how
  it looks like related words.
• 6. Give students opportunities to use new words
  in conversation.
• 7. If you can, make connections between new
  words and words in other languages.
• 8. Give students opportunities to use new words
  in informal writing.
• 9. Indulge in word games and crossword puzzles
  to reinforce new word.
• 10. Give students opportunities to use non-verbal
  ways to express meanings

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Tier II Words
Tier III Words
Tier I Words
Domain-specific terminology Glossary
words On-the-job words
Language of academics, business,
government Vocab List words
Everyday Language
Ask Dead Name Find out figure out Answer Rain Use
Sharp Get Take apart and put together balance
Photosynthesis Cytoplasm Metamorphosis Asymmetrica
l Bathysphere Rhetoric Deoxyribonucleic
acid Artifact Habeas corpus Diaspora Polysyndeton
Adjective
Interrogate Deceased Designate designation
identify, identification Ascertain
determine Precipitate, precipitation Utilize
employ Acute Acquire Analyze synthesize equilibri
um
ph __y__ ___sis
x chr___ ___ic
Code-switching
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Prefix/root/suffix
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Flexibility Different paces for different
purposes
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Schoolwide Academic Fitness Circuit Training
Today, we will train for flexibility. By
flexibility, we mean the ability to adjust pace
and focus to get the desired level of information
from text. Flexibility is important for readers
because not everything demands the same level of
concentration. The flexible reader has the skills
to skim, scan, read closely, read between the
lines, and study to memorize targeted
information.

• Here are a few things that you can do to help
  your students develop flexibility
• as readers
• Provide all kinds of reading material in your
  classroom related to what you
• want students to know magazines, paperbacks,
  fiction, Internet, lists, etc.
• Give students guided practice in skimming,
  scanning, reading closely,
• reading between the lines, and studying. Increase
  their awareness of how they
• shift gears to derive information from text.

Skim it Scan it Read it
(Read between the lines of it) Study it
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Four Gears of Reading
Skim it Scan it
Read it Study it

Go back, as necessary, getting a more useful
and permanent understanding. This may involve
working with a partner, taking notes, creating
graphic organizers, and other meaning-making
activities.
Glance over it (30 secs per page) get the
gist be able to state what it is about in a
complete sentence
Now that youve let the text wash over you,
read it thoroughly every word, every sentence,
every graphic.
Look it over with an eagles eye, scanning for
specific information, such as information
that has key words to answer questions

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Endurance The ability to concentrate on a text
over a period of time
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Schoolwide Academic Fitness Circuit Training
Today, we will train for endurance. By endurance,
we mean the ability to concentrate on reading for
a sustained amount of time.

• Here are some things you can do to help your
  students build endurance
• Start with short intervals of sustained silent
  reading and/or listening to
• you read aloud while they follow along in the
  text. Begin with alternating
• one-minute intervals, if necessary.
  Systematically increase the intervals
• of sustained silent reading.
• 2. Remind students that it is necessary that they
  visualize as they read.
• 3. Give students the opportunity to see the
  extent to which their concentration
• is impaired by environmental conditions such as
  noise or lighting.

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Enjoyment Reading anything we want, just for fun!
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Enjoyment Reading anything we want, just for
fun! stories, newspapers, comics, magazines,
graphic novels, teen romances, sci-fi,
adventure, humor.

• Components of successful free reading programs in
  schools
• Lavish access to all kinds of appealing reading
  material
• No accountability (ie, tests)
• Teacher modeling
• Regular time set aside for reading
• Sustained over time (multiple years)
• Comfortable environment, conducive to reading
• Opportunities for discussion
• Staff training on the benefits and management of
  SSR

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What the research tells me about SSR is that
when children start reading for pleasure good
things will happen. Their reading comprehension
will improve, and they will find difficult,
academic-style texts easier to read. Their
writing style will improve, and they will be
better able to write prose in a style that is
acceptable to schools, business, and the
scientific community. Their vocabulary will
improve, and their spelling and control of
grammar will improve. Stephen Krashen, The Power
of Reading
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Yes, we can! Si, se puede!