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Frey & Fischer, 2013, "Rigorous Reading" p. 105-6

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Frey & Fischer, 2013, "Rigorous Reading" p. 105-6

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Positive attitudes toward reading are developed through

-clear learning goals;

-texts that relate to a student's personal experiences;

-support from the teacher on making choices;

-texts with interesting topics;

-instruction in reading strategies;

-opportunities to collaborate with other students;

-a positive environment that is not driven by extrinsic rewards;

-evaluation that provides feedback on progress, rather than tests of knowledge;

-personal connections to the teacher; and

-cohesive instruction. (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000)

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Frey & Fischer, 2013, "Rigorous Reading" p. 104

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Frey & Fischer, 2013, "Rigorous Reading" p. 104

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“A large-scale study based on national testing results suggested that students who had positive attitudes toward reading (described as engaged readers) outperformed older, disengaged readers (Campbell, Voekl, & Donahue, 1997).  An analysis of fourth graders’ results on the same test revealed that engaged readers from low-income backgrounds outperformed disengaged readers from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (Guthrie, Schafer, & Huang, 2001).”

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In the article “Cultivating Reading Motivation in a Middle School Classroom Using Independent Reading,” Nicole Tavolino stresses the importance of developing a culture where reading is desired and appreciated.  Once this culture is in place, then increases in comprehension will result naturally.  Tavolino conducted an action research study where she piloted an independent reading program.  The main result was that her kids were more interested in reading and more motivated to read.  There was no quantitative data collected, so she was not able to see if any improvement was made in reading comprehension.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I will focus on creating a reading culture first where students are interested and motivated to read before focusing on specific teaching practices.

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In the article “The Power of Independent, Self-Selected Reading in the Middle School Grades,” Andrea Stairs and Sara Burgos argue for the effectiveness of independent reading where students get to choose their books on an individual basis.  Implementing independent reading in the classroom will help develop “lifelong readers,” but it will also boost academic performance, despite the inclination that it takes too much time away from the curriculum.  The common core standards can be covered through independent reading by teaching and modeling, then allowing practice and reflection.  It is important to gather the kinds of books that students enjoy in building a literacy-rich classroom.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I will stress the value of creating “lifelong readers” in my classroom through my independent reading time.

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In the article “How the Amount of Time Spent on Independent Reading Affects Reading Achievement: A Response to the National Reading Panel,” S. Jay Samuels and Yi-Chen Wu conducted a study on the correlation between time reading during school and academic achievement.  This study was done in response to a lack of strong evidence supporting the notion that more time spent reading results in better academic achievement.  Their data shows that more time spent reading does increase achievement regarding reading comprehension and vocabulary, but the impact is different for students reading at higher levels versus students reading at lower levels.  The findings suggest that 15 minutes of independent reading is more beneficial for lower readers for improving reading skills, while up to 40 minutes of independent reading is more beneficial for higher readers for improving comprehension and acquiring new vocabulary.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I will consider giving different amounts of independent reading time for different levels of readers.

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In the article “Independent Reading and School Achievement,” Bernice Cullinan argues for the importance of independent reading in the classroom.  She takes the stance that independent reading should be given without expecting any reports or checks for comprehension.  This will help kids enjoy reading more which is important for their futures in a democratic society and with jobs that require reading.  It is noted that students’ desire to read decreases significantly in the middle school grades, so independent reading can help to counteract this trend.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I need to make sure that I am making independent reading time fun and something kids look forward to, not just another chore that they need to complete.

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In the article “Why Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) Doesn’t Work,” Mark Pennington argues against relying on independent reading as reading instruction.  Studies have not shown a clear increase in performance with SSR, while other forms of instruction have been proven to be effective.  Pennington also argues that there is not enough time in the day for SSR to be effectively implemented, many students are not held accountable by it, and there is not enough opportunity for reader response.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I will make sure to give kids opportunities to respond to their text and I need to focus on teaching reading strategies so that kids aren’t just reading without a purpose.

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In the article “Teachers Tackle Text Complexity,” Catherine Gewertz looks at 18 schools in NYC that are working together to align their reading instruction with the common core by increasing their text complexity and their literacy instruction.  Many kids these days are graduating high school unable to keep up with the complexity levels of reading and writing required in college and good jobs.  Therefore, the teachers are looking to introduce more challenging texts to their curriculum.  They are also looking to put less of a focus on narrative texts and more of a focus on informational and expository texts.  Reading these kinds of texts requires different kinds of strategies that will help kids effectively read in subjects like science, math, and social studies.  There is also a greater focus on “close reading” of the text.  This requires students to do multiple readings of a text and dig deeper into the themes.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I will need to continue to increase the complexities of my students’ texts in order to effectively align my curriculum with the common core.

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In the article “Independent Reading and the ‘Social Turn’: How Adolescent Reading Habits and Motivation Relate to Cultivating Social Relationships,” Matthew Knoester notes how across research the students who read independently outside of class consistently do better on reading assessments.  The problem is that the amount of recreational reading decreases significantly throughout the middle school years.  Therefore, it is important to motivate students to read independently.  Knoester found through his study that a big factor in motivating students to read is allowing them to choose their books.  Another factor is using independent reading as a social practice in order to cultivate relationships.  For example, students can share their stories with their peers and parents, discuss the themes and connections, and also make recommendations.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I should not view independent reading as just a solitary activity, but also as a social activity where students share and cultivate relationships through their books in order to motivate them.

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In the article “Read More – Read Better?  A Meta-Analysis of the Literature on the Relationship Between Exposure to Reading and Reading Achievement,” Lewis and Samuels investigate the assumption that students who read more are better readers.  While the evidence is not conclusive, Lewis and Samuels argue that more reading does increase reading achievement.  They note that it is important to teach and practice the skills first before extended amounts of independent reading in order for it to be effective.  Teachers must also monitor and adjust instruction based the strengths and weaknesses of individual readers.  It was noted that having time to read independently is even more critical for lower level readers than higher level readers.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I can see how more time dedicated to reading and less time dedicated to instruction can help lessen the achievement gap between lower and higher level readers as long as skills are taught and practiced first.

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In the article “Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading,” Motoko Rich examines the results of a recent study which found a correlation between a drop in test scores to a drop in daily pleasure reading.  The decrease in reading has led to decreases in test scores in not just reading comprehension, but other subjects like math and science as well.  Rich points out that the media doesn’t celebrate reading and that the culture does not support daily reading habits.  The study found that the number of books in a household is related to school achievement, and households with a lower income that have a higher amount of books have better students than houses with a higher income and a lower amount of books.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I need to create a culture of daily reading habits that supports reading outside of the classroom and offer extra reading to students of all economic statuses in order to lessen the achievement gap.

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In the article “Super Practical Ways to Build an Independent Reading Program in Your Classroom: Guidelines and TOP 5 Independent Reading Strategies,” Lori Oczkus gives tips on how to set up a daily independent reading time in the classroom.  Research shows that one of the best indicators of reading achievement and writing skills is the amount of time spent independently reading. In order to set up an effective independent reading time, it is important to display books with their covers facing out as decorations around the room.  These displays should also be changed up every few weeks.  Also, time during reading can be used to conference with students and time after reading can be used to share with peers.  The teacher should model reading strategies before students read, and teachers should also read themselves in order to model that to the students.  This article contributes to my focus on independent reading because I am going to buy more display cases for my books and start conferencing with my students during independent reading time.

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Study Links Drop in Test Scores to a Decline in Time Spent Reading (Published 2007)

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Americans appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining, according to a new report by the National Endowment for the Arts.

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On a freezing morning in February, teachers from a Bronx high school pore over excerpts and guidelines, trying to figure out whether they should teach The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or leave it to college professors.

A team of teachers from International Community High School joined colleagues from 17 other schools here to wrestle with the American classic in a basement meeting room as part of their city's attempt to beef up secondary literacy instruction.

In the first year of a pilot program, the 18 schools are digging into new ways to accomplish two objectives emphasized in the common-core standards: engage students in increasingly complex texts as they move through school and help them conquer literacy skills specific to disciplines such as history and science. Spearheaded by the nation's governors and schools chiefs, the standards have been adopted in most states, including New York.

The teachers' daylong session illustrates the heightened attention being trained on adolescent literacy, in the wake of mounting evidence that young people are leaving high school unable to tackle the reading and writing demanded of them in college and good jobs.

Research suggests that a trend toward less challenging texts in high school, and a tilt toward narrative texts, at the expense of informational and expository ones, have left young people particularly weak at comprehending and dissecting information from difficult texts and using it to build evidence-based arguments.

A 2006 study by ACT Inc., for instance, found that the biggest stumbling block for students who fell short of the readiness scores in reading on its college-entrance exam was answering questions derived from complex texts.

Challenging Work

As they analyze Huck Finn, the New York teachers note that the book's sentence structures are uncomplicated, but that Mark Twain's use of irony and the flammable topics of race and slavery can make a full, nuanced grasp of the book difficult.

They struggle to assign levels of complexity to five different aspects of the novel, according to a rubric they're devising: How daunting does the text look on the page? How easy and natural is its language? How circuitous is its plot? Is it a text with multiple, elusive layers of meaning? What prior knowledge must a reader bring to understand it?

Guided by Sheena Hurvey, the chief education officer of the professional-development group AUSSIE, the teachers discuss the novel's qualities at length, and at times with obvious frustration, unable to agree on what grade bands the novel is best suited for.

Its language is straightforward enough for most 8th graders, one teacher said, as long as deep classroom discussion parses the topics of race and slavery. No way, another teacher asserted; both its style and substance suggest it is best taught in college.

From the sidelines, literacy-pilot supervisor Meesha Brown observed the disagreements and discomfort of the dialogue. "This is really challenging work," she said quietly to a visitor. "And that's exactly why we need to be doing it."

Reading by Subject

Ms. Brown listened along with the teachers to a presentation by University of Illinois at Chicago reading experts Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia Shanahan, who detailed the differences in literacy skills that history, science, math, and English/language arts demand of adolescents.

Usually, they said, teachers impart skills that are generalizable from one subject to another, such as "exit notes," in which students jot down at the end of a lesson what they learned or are still confused about. But at the high school level, cracking the code in each discipline requires strategies specific to each subject-strategies that reflect how experts in those subjects reason and build knowledge, they said.

In English, for instance, students might read a short story in its entirety, then go back and analyze its themes and structure for discussion. But in math, they would benefit from learning to read more like mathematicians do: reading and rereading the same few lines of text, which requires building tolerance for the intensity of "close reading," said Ms. Shanahan. (Close reading is also a technique prized across the disciplines in the common standards.)

In history, students often need help making connections among events, evaluating information from multiple sources, and seeing how the author's point of view serves as an interpretive lens, Mr. Shanahan said.

Science demands that students absorb information from the text's prose as well as its other representations, such as diagrams and formulas, Ms. Shanahan said. Teachers in each subject must also wade into the specific grammar and vocabulary challenges of their disciplines, the researchers said.

Helping adolescents become strong readers means that teachers need new ways to help them gain entree to higher-order knowledge in the disciplines and ascend what the common standards refer to as a "staircase" of increasingly complex texts. Teachers in New York and elsewhere are beginning to craft or search for ways to gauge a text's complexity more fully than is permitted by traditional readability formulas, which are typically based on the length of words and sentences and the familiarity of words.

Advances in cognitive science, linguistics, and computer technology are opening new doors on the text-complexity front. One newer model, called Coh-Metrix, analyzes text using 60 factors, including syntax, "narrativity," word abstraction, and "cohesion," or how well the text makes connections for the reader, facilitating understanding. The common standards propose a three-part approach to text-complexity. ( See chart, right.)

Researchers such as the Shanahans are drawing on linguistics and other fields to define the differences in the ways that experts in each discipline read and reason. Those differences, they say, can help teachers figure out how the speed bumps students encounter in reading biochemistry, for instance, differ from those they face in studying European history.

In preparing students to succeed in college or build solid careers, the text-complexity and disciplinary-literacy skills are inseparable, said David Coleman, one of the lead writers of the common standards in English/language arts.

"A great transition will come when science and history teachers recognize and act on the fact that in order to build knowledge in their disciplines, students must read complex text well in those disciplines," he said. "You can't build knowledge without reading sufficiently rich and complex text."

Rethinking Roles

It's a big change-and often an unwelcome one-for teachers in subjects other than English to see themselves as part of a school's literacy work, said Ms. Brown, the literacy-pilot supervisor.

"When we first started this, there was huge pushback," she said. "We had teachers tell us, 'If you make me teach reading, we're done.' But that changed when they realized that this is really about giving their students access to the content. Giving students the power to master knowledge means giving them the keys to understanding academic vocabulary and thinking in the disciplines."

At International Community High School's campus in the Bronx borough, teachers are just starting to tinker with using the guidelines to measure a text's complexity more fully, and are keenly interested in the new ideas about how to escort students into the upper levels of a discipline's thinking and writing. They're interested in the techniques as a way to help them solve a persistent problem at their school: students who progress well in reading to a point and then plateau.

Because the school's 375 students are recent immigrants, teachers here are used to finding ways to decode unfamiliar language and culturally based information that newcomers might find hard to grasp. They see parallels between their own work with English-language learners and the Shanahans' ideas about how to guide students into higher-order concepts and language.

"We do a lot of these things every day," said English/language arts teacher Jen Minnen.

Mr. Shanahan himself said that expecting 14-year-olds to grasp high-level material without discipline-specific strategies is tantamount to dropping them off unaccompanied in three different countries and expecting them to thrive. "That's what we do every day in their schools," he told the teachers. "We move them from the land of math to science to history with no guides."

Teachers at International Community have those ideas in mind as they craft their daily lessons.

In her English/language arts classroom, Maryam Dilakian helps 11th and 12th graders build work-attack skills and access key themes in a story about slavery. Together, they break down words such as "demoralize" and "dehumanize."

History teacher Elise DeBoard guides her 11th and 12th graders into a unit on America in the '20s with exercises designed to make their upcoming textbook reading more accessible. They examine photos, looking for clues about life during that time, a practice she said would build "visual literacy," an important skill in the humanities. They sort a dozen adjectives about the time period into groups, finding similarities and making connections between the words.

Down the hall, Stephanie Lane uses varied representations of key ideas to help her science students understand complex information about DNA. They spend time writing about and drawing the four nucleotides that make up genetic code, and they also cut out and connect multicolored paper shapes to represent how the nucleotide bases pair up in strands that form a double helix.

New Strategies

A science department meeting in the afternoon illustrates the changes in thinking about literacy that are taking shape here. The teachers have created their own assessment of students' reading skills, an assessment Ms. Brown calls "groundbreaking" for the way it is specific to the discipline of science.

Focusing on a group of 20 students whose reading has plateaued, the teachers had asked them to read an abstract of an article from a science journal. The students each read the excerpt aloud and marked the parts they found easy or difficult.

Teachers interviewed them about their reading habits in and out of school and analyzed their responses to practice questions from the New York state regents' science exam. At the meeting, the teachers discussed what they had learned.

Across the 20 assessments, the teachers saw patterns: Students were stumbling on acronyms and appositives. Their ease in reading aloud belied their lack of comprehension. All of that gets in the way of learning science, so the teachers will tackle those problems as they create lessons in the coming weeks.

Science teacher Mark Leffler told his colleagues that he noticed his students didn't understand how the order of parts of a sentence in science can be critical. Pointing out differences in the way science, math, and English sentences work helped them understand, he said.

"We reviewed how in math A plus B equals B plus A, and in English, 'I slowly walk to my friend's house' equals 'I walk slowly to my friend's house,' " he said. "But in science, 'H2O' does not equal 'OH2.' It's the grammar of chemical compounds."

Ms. Lane said she embraces the literacy work as a potent weapon in her fight to impart the knowledge her students need."I want my kids to be able to open a primary document and be able to pull the meaning, read the graphs, ask questions about the procedures being done, the conclusions being drawn," she said. "These are the literacy skills you need in science. And there is a lot of reading to get to the joy of it."

Helping students dig into complicated ideas and technical language in each discipline has the "potential to make a huge difference" in how well they access knowledge, said Mary J. Schleppegrell, a linguist and professor of education at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, who works with teachers to "unpack" the meaning of dense academic text for students. But teachers must guard against the tendency to simplify the material, she said.

"Too often, teachers simplify rather than dive deeply into it," she said. "On the secondary level, you can't really make it simpler and still maintain the level of content. You have to amplify instruction around it."

Emerging approaches to analyzing text complexity could force a broadening of the school curriculum that has too often been narrowed by a test-driven focus on math and English/language arts, said Barbara Kapinus, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association who helped shape the common standards.

By taking into consideration the background knowledge a reader must bring to understand a text, the common standards' three-part approach makes it all the more important for teachers to build students' content knowledge in all subjects, Ms. Kapinus said.

"Teachers are going to have to pay attention to developing the underpinning concepts that kids need to read well and get engaged in informational text," she said. "Where we brushed science and social studies aside in the early grades to focus on math and reading, we can no longer afford to do that. That's a change in the whole focus of schooling."

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New York City schools are seeking ways to engage students in increasingly complex texts and help them conquer subject-specific literacy skills.

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Sanden, 2013, "How do effective teachers successfully implement independent reading practices?"

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Sanden, 2013, "How do effective teachers successfully implement independent reading practices?"

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How do effective teachers successfully implement independent reading practices?

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Interview with Sherry Sanden (ssanden@ilstu.edu), School of Teaching and Learning, about the independent reading understanding and practices of highly effective teachers. Sanden, S. (2012). Independent reading: Perspectives and practices of highly effective teachers. The Reading Teacher, 66(3), 222-231. DOI:10 1002/TRTR01120

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Haling, 2013, "How effective is independent reading time as an RtI intervention tool?"

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Haling, 2013, "How effective is independent reading time as an RtI intervention tool?"

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How effective is independent reading time as an RtI intervention tool?

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Listen to interview with Linda Haling (llhalin@ilstu.edu), School of Teaching & Learning, and Jennifer Lawler, recent reading master's graduate, about the effect of providing dedicated reading time during intervention block. Lawler, J., & Wedwick, L. (2012). The effect of time spent reading during intervention block. Illinois Reading Council Journal, 40(4), 26-33.

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A wide variety of genres, reading levels, and interests

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App to scan book's ISBN & view the Guided Reading, Grade level, DRA, and Lexile levels for the book.

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Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Assessment

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Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) Assessment

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Creating a relaxed reading environment

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Best Study Music for Concentration and Better Learning

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BEST Music to Help Study and Work to (from Study Music Project)

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This is the BEST Study Music Playlist from Study Music Project and contains a collection of the TOP 10 MOST VIEWED study music from Study Music Project according to YouTube Analytics, by you, the smart, over-achieving student.

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Stairs & Burgos, 2010, "The power of independent, self-selected reading in the middle grades" p. 46

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Stairs & Burgos, 2010, "The power of independent, self-selected reading in the middle grades" p. 46

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"When students were provided time in school to choose books, read them, and reflect on them they became more interested in reading and connected characters and themes in their favorite texts to their own lives in meaningful ways."

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Stairs & Burgos, 2010, "The power of independent, self-selected reading in the middle grades" p. 43

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Stairs & Burgos, 2010, "The power of independent, self-selected reading in the middle grades" p. 43

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"It is clear that independent, self-selected reading is a research-based practice beneficial for all students."

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Atwell, 1998, "In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning" p. 36

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Atwell, 1998, "In the middle: New understandings about writing, reading, and learning" p. 36

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"If we want our students to grow to appreciate literature, we need to give them a say in

decisions about the literature they will read."

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) FINDING NEMO EXAMPLES

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) FINDING NEMO EXAMPLES

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) BACK

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) BACK

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) FRONT

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SSR Log (Visible Thinking Routines) FRONT

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I want to investigate how effective a reader’s workshop model is with 7th and 8th graders as far as their reading skills and interest.  I plan to focus on my weekly SSR time (sustained silent reading) where students get to choose their own independent reading books (in accordance with the reader’s workshop model) and write based on their individual books.