The Power of Reading

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The Power of Reading

• An Opportunity to Make a Positive Impact on
  Future Academic and Personal Success at SWHS

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The man who does not read good books has no
advantage over the man who cannot read
them.Mark Twain
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Reading Is A Skill

• Ask any sports coach, the band director, the
  speech coach, the key-boarding teacher, a dance
  teacher, or a chess champion, What do I do to
  be good?

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Answer
Practice
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However, research tells us most students get very
little practice reading

• Reading practice declines markedly after fifth
  grade.
• On average, high-school students spend about as
  much time in literature-based practice as
  kindergarten students.
• Schools graduate students that have practiced
  reading an average of only seven minutes per day
  over their entire academic career.

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Research tells us students who read more
demonstrate markedly higher achievement.

• Students in the top 5 read 144 times more than
  students in the bottom 5.
• Students in private schools read 67 more than
  public school students.
• On national testing, students who scored in the
  top 25 spent 59 more time reading than do
  students who score in the bottom 25.

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Strategies to improve literacy at SWHS

• Teachers read aloud to class each day as a model
  of good reading (READ-ALOUDS)
• Teach reading skills in our classrooms
• Use textbooks more effectively
• Direct vocabulary instruction
• Sustained Silent Reading
• Require reading directly related to content area
  as part of curriculum (BOOK LISTS)
• Provide reading materials in the classroom
• Promote a culture of reading in our building

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Read Alouds

• Should not be seen as something added on as time
  allows but rather an intentional strategy that
  meets a variety of literacy and learning goals
  across all content areas and grade levels
• Use read alouds to introduce a new concept,
  reinforce learning, and expand understanding

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More about Read Alouds

• Prompt students with a purpose What should they
  know when you finish the read aloud? Explain why
  you chose the story or let students predict what
  the unit you are beginning is about based on the
  read aloud.
• Find interesting readings about your content to
  share at the beginning or the end of class to
  spark independent learning. If you liked this
  book, try

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READING strategies that good readers use to
comprehend what they read

• Recall prior knowledge before, during, and after
  reading to glean understanding
• Engage in questioning before, during, and after
  reading to clarify understanding and focus their
  reading
• Activate sensory images to deepen their
  understanding of the text
• Determine what is important
• Infer to predict, draw conclusions, make
  judgments, and form unique interpretations from
  the text
• Network new information with existing knowledge
  to create original ideas and interpretations and
  make critical evaluations
• Get past comprehension problems by consciously
  and independently applying appropriate
  strategies.

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Use Activities That Prepare Students Before,
During and After Reading

• Use KWL pre-reading strategies to set the stage
  for textbook reading.
• K-What do you know about the topic?
• W-What do you still want to know about the topic?
• L-What did you learn about the topic?

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The K (KNOW) Stage

• As students brainstorm what they already know,
  list the items on chart paper or an overhead so
  they can look back as the unit progresses.
• Students have to access prior knowledge about the
  topic and this makes it easier to make
  connections between new information and something
  familiar

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The W (Want) Stage

• Generate questions about the topic
• Develop a purpose for reading
• Use anticipation guides
• Pose essential questions for students to answer
  as they read

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Strategies to use During Reading

• During reading the students can use bookmarks to
  jot down four kinds of notes
• Personal responses
• Important passages
• Questions
• Important statistics from the assigned reading
• Students can use small sticky notes to jot
  responses and flag important passages.

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The L (Learned) Stage

• This what we have learned stage tells students
  how and whether they have achieved the goals that
  they have set
• Use of Written Conversation
• Each person pairs with someone and they write
  notes to each other about their reading and
  switch every 2 to 3 minutes
• Use of graphic organizers
• RAFT writing activity where students select the
  Role the writer takes, the Audience, the Format
  of the writing, and the Topic within the reading.
  Students then share their writing with the
  class or within small groups.

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Ways to Use Textbooks More Effectively

• Have empathy.
• Help kids get started. Front-load our teaching.
  Give students support before and during reading,
  not just handing out quiz grades afterward. Use
  pre-reading activities.

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More Ways to Use Textbook

• Dont leave kids alone with their textbooks.
  Have them work in pairs, groups, and teams at all
  stages of reading to discuss, debate, and
  sort-out ideas in the book.
• Choose wisely. Make more strategic choices about
  what is most important, assigning fewer pages and
  helping students study them more carefully.

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More Ways to Use Textbook

• Supplement richly. Coordinate with magazine
  articles, newspapers, websites, trade books,
  primary sources, and more.
• Allow students to first check out their textbook.
  Review its features and organizing principles,
  at the start of the course.
• Use guide-o-rama study guides.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY
INSTRUCTION

• Descriptions as opposed to definitions
• Use of linguistic and nonlinguistic
  representations
• Gradual shaping of word meanings
• Teaching and using word parts

• Students interacting about the words they are
  learning
• Use of games
• Focus on terms important to academic subjects
• Different instruction for different types of
  words

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6 Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction

• The teacher provides a description, explanation,
  or example of the new term
• Students restate the explanation of the new term
  in their own words
• Students create a nonlinguistic representation
  (picture or diagram) of the term

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6 Steps to Effective Vocabulary Instruction

• Students periodically do activities that help
  them add to their knowledge of vocabulary terms
• Students are asked to discuss the terms with one
  another
• Periodically students are involved in games that
  allow them to play with the terms

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SSR is an acronym forSustained Silent Reading.

• SSR is a reading intervention strategy used in
  schools all over the nation.

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SSR

• SSR is one way to incorporate literacy into the
  classroom at SWHS.

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Research shows that SSR
MAKES BETTER READERS AND IMPROVES SPELLING
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IMPROVES VOCABULARY

• Students learn an average of 45 words with each
  novel they read.
• Word meaning is picked up 10 times faster by
  reading than intensive vocabulary instruction.

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IMPROVES WRITING
Research shows that both style and complexity of
sentence structure is increased as the amount of
reading increases.
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Major Conclusions from Six Decades of Research

• Kids should read a wide range of materials in all
  classes
• A sense of purpose is key to reading success
• Students need to read a lot. Volume, quantity,
  and practice count

• The classroom should be a reading community, a
  group of people who regularly read, talk, and
  write together.
• Kids need choice of reading materials

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MORE CONCLUSIONS

• Students should read plenty of books and articles
  written at a comfortable recreational level, not
  frustration level.

• Teachers must help students develop a repertoire
  of thinking strategies to handle challenging
  texts.
• Students should engage in frequent
  interdisciplinary inquiries and projects

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More Conclusions

• Students of ALL ages need to hear powerful
  writing in performancereading aloud by the
  teacher and other students.

• Adolescent students need opportunities to connect
  with the adult literate community, starting with
  teachers as readers who generously share their
  reading lives with kids.

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Key Ingredients of a Classroom Library

• Interesting trade books, histories, and
  biographies of people in your field (Sets of 3 to
  5 copies of each, so students can read and
  discuss them in groups)

• Current articles clipped from magazines and
  newspapers.

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More ingredients of a classroom library

• General interest magazines like Time, Newsweek,
  U.S. News and World Report, Scientific American,
  Harpers, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics.

• Educational magazines on school topics, like
  ChemMatters, Science News, Discover Magazine,
  Chance Magazine, and Dell Math Puzzles and Logic
  Problems., Americas Civil War and American
  History

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How do we acquire reading material?

• Teachers in successful literacy programs dont
  wait for someone to supply the books they get
  the books. Books, not standard textbooks are a
  budget item that is requested. They are ruthless
  in their search for books and magazines they
  raid locked closets where retired teachers have
  left books long forgotten, beg from businesses,
  haunt garage sales, and demand donations from
  friends whose children have gone off to college.

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How do we promote a CULTURE OF READING at SWHS?

• Use of the library
• English teachers take classes to library every 2
  weeks
• All 9th and 10th grade content area teachers take
  classes to library at least once each nine weeks

• Word of the day on the morning news show and on
  website
• Book reviews by students and faculty on morning
  news show
• Use UNITE TO READ program in our school

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TEACHERS ARE THE KEY

• Reading has to be important to the adults in
  building and then it will become important to
  students
• What is important to us will be important to our
  school!!!

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The Most Important Benefits from Reading Practice
Have Nothing to Do with Research.
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What we become depends on what we read after all
of the professors have finished with us. The
greatest university of all is a collection of
books. Thomas Carlyle
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Richard Peck may provide the best answer for why
you should want to improve your ability to read
in his poem entitled I Read.
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I READ because one life isnt enough, and in the
pages of a book I can be anybody.
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I READ because the words that build the story
become mine to build my life.
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I READ not for happy endings but for new
beginnings Im just beginning myself, and I
wouldnt want a map.
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I READ because I have friends who dont, and
young though they are, theyre beginning to run
out of material.
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I READ because every journey begins at the
library and its time for me to start packing.
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I READ because one of these days Im going to get
out of this town, and Im going to go everywhere
and meet everybody--and I want to be ready.