Taking a Bite!

Reflection #2: What do I need to do in my classroom for students to read complex texts?

 Wow!  What a loaded question.  How do I use all of what I just learned?  How many teaching practices do I already know, use with good results and can keep?  What things, even tried and true, should I let fall by the wayside—those things which have not given me my desired outcomes or have become extremely laborious in a negative way, for students and for me?  Where do I begin, my head swirling with ideas, and my heart bravely not wanting to be wrong?  I decided to just dive into this question, hence my title for this blog, “Taking a Bite!”

My recent teaching experiences tell me that my students will need scaffolding initially to build the confidence and skills needed to be independent readers, thinkers and consumers of texts. 
Scaffolding means…
--helping students access text directly.
--allowing a reader to make first encounters with the text with minimal clarification.
--encouraging rereading.
--guiding the reader with follow-up support.
Scaffolding does not mean…
--reducing complexity of text.
--replacing the text.
--telling students what they are going to learn. (Huh? This one was startling to me!)

 First of all, the two practices I highlighted are things that I currently do when teaching that maybe I should rethink and tweak.  First of all, when introducing students to a text, I usually have them pre-read the story the night before, but then we read again and discuss while reading.  Then we begin to tackle end of the story questions and writing after thoroughly discussing with students all that they need to know.  Then comes the assessment to see how well they’ve learned.  Yikes!  I’ve been teaching the concepts well, but taking away their ability to think independently and figure out the major themes, nuances in vocabulary, metaphors and the like on their own.  As I write and think about my son, the consequences are sinking into my teacher perspective.  I understand that this is one teaching practice that I need to refine.

 The second highlighted statement made me write “Wow” in my notes today.  In fact, on the self quiz, I got this one wrong.  If I am interpreting this correctly, then telling students what they will learn before beginning the lesson, is something I should not have been doing so much of?  I am thinking about the chapter overviews at the beginning of new chapters or lessons, and prominently writing the lesson objectives on the board.  Do I abandon these practices, saving this information for me to know and for them to figure out, or perhaps leave that information but not draw so much attention to it, leaving it for savvy readers to figure it out themselves as they learn?  I don’t know… I am conflicted here and need some clarification from my peers.  I will be asking and seeking your thoughts when we get together.

 Specifically, here are some strategies that I might try to support students in understanding complex texts.  I would definitely teach vocabulary in context, or perhaps model an example of a kind of sentence or text structure present in the text and have students find other examples.  A good example might be finding examples of parallelism in The Gettysburg Address.  Follow-up questions could have students ponder why Lincoln chose to structure his speech in this manner, or what is the effect on the readers as audience?  Students could discuss which one sentence is the most important one to understanding the text, or give their favorite sentence, citing evidence from the text for support of their ideas.

A strategy that I might use when introducing the Narrative of Frederick Douglass might be to have them read the text with a specific question of inquiry in mind, such as the meanings of “bread” as used in the passage, or even better, have them to come up with their inquiry questions (“burning questions”) that will foster discussion and understanding.  I could activate and build prior knowledge for the time period, the institution of slavery, or the master’s Christian values through the use of visuals from the internet, primary sources such as runaway slave posters (also found on line), for example, that students can use to help visualize the text and draw conclusions that they can then write about (e.g., What does Douglass mean when he says, “Learning to read has been a curse rather than a blessing?” What is he saying about slavery?  About humanity?).  A good discussion could also be generated from finding examples of archaic sentence structure or vocabulary (e.g., “As many of these as I could, I converted into teachers.”  What about the strange spelling of the word “offence”?  What is meant by “choice documents”?)  Students can also respond to these questions in writing, blending together reading, writing and vocabulary instruction.

These are a few things that I would try in my classroom to support students in reading, understanding, and analyzing complex texts.  One more practice that I would not abandon falls in the realm of assessment, and that is AR.  I would use AR to help me see where students are pre- and post- year and hopefully see gains in their progress.  I especially think that successful AR participation will encourage independent reading, but also let teachers, students, and parents see such numbers as lexiles.  A comparison of the old lexile standards for grades 6-8 to the new CCSS ranges are eye opening, 860-1010 vs. 955-1155, and many of my students’ reading levels are lower.  I can’t replace the complex texts, but I can help students figure out how to read and understand them more independently, and their lexile scores should increase as well.  At least, that will be my goal.