The final chapter is titled "Did I Miss Anything? Did I Miss Everything?" Last Thoughts. These chapter is brief but contains the section We'll Never Have All the Answers. She discusses that she is unable to provide an easy solution to the problems teachers face with their students and reading. This is mentioned often throughout the book and is completely understandable. This book helped me to realize that teachers need to be open to use many different strategies, because all students are different and respond to different strategies in different ways. I learned about many different strategies and enjoyed how she tied them in with her own personal experiences. Thoughout this class and many others, I have realized that I learn a lot from seeing or reading about teachers implementing strategies with their students.
This book is something I will look at often through my teaching career. I hope you were all able to learn from reading my blogs.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Chapter 8
Chapter 8 is titled "What Do I Do with All These Sticky Notes?" Assessment That Drives Instruction. This chapter was really interesting to me because I agree with a lot of what Tovani says and learned a lot also. One statement Tovani made which stood out to me was "as a classroom teacher, I can say that districtwide and statewide assesments are not very helpful." This is something most of us may agree with, including myself, but reading it in this book really impacted me.
Tovani goes on to discuss starting points of assessment. Goal setting is extremely important to promote learning and alternative ways of assessing students. She would also place charts in her classroom to remind her students about both theirs and the teacher's goals. Her next strategy is using conversation calendars. These calendars are meant for students to write down what they have learned throughout the month or the unit. Reading response logs are also essential because they allow the teacher to see what the students are thinking about their readings.
Tovani's best assessment tool is quick conferences. These work nicely because it gives her a chance to get to know her students more individually and what they are thinking. She feels that through these conferences, students are able to confide in her with any problems they may be having. This is, in her opinion, the best and most efficient way for her to get on the same page as her students.
Tovani goes on to discuss starting points of assessment. Goal setting is extremely important to promote learning and alternative ways of assessing students. She would also place charts in her classroom to remind her students about both theirs and the teacher's goals. Her next strategy is using conversation calendars. These calendars are meant for students to write down what they have learned throughout the month or the unit. Reading response logs are also essential because they allow the teacher to see what the students are thinking about their readings.
Tovani's best assessment tool is quick conferences. These work nicely because it gives her a chance to get to know her students more individually and what they are thinking. She feels that through these conferences, students are able to confide in her with any problems they may be having. This is, in her opinion, the best and most efficient way for her to get on the same page as her students.
Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is titled Group Work That Grows Understanding. The first section discusses why small groups are efficient. This is a great way for students to get their ideas out and discuss them. Tovani researched this and found that larger groups are more susceptible to chaos. Some of Tovani's ideas of why small groups work include:
1. stimulates higher levels of thinking
2. develops social and listening skills
3. honors all learners and holds students accountable
4. helps students remember
5. allows them to make connections and see different perspectives
Many students are fearful of talking in class, so small groups are also great for them to put them in more of a comfort zone.
Groups can also be thought of as "rehersals" for classwork. Group discussions allow students to make connections, gather their own thoughts, and listen to others' opinions. Tovani's guide for students working in groups include having the students:
1. Give an overview of what's been read so far
2. Share something interesting from the book
The other part of the guidelines include a section of writing a better response. These include:
1. Share thinking about quotes
2. Consider questions that do not have simple answers
3. Make a statement and uses evidence from the book to support it
1. stimulates higher levels of thinking
2. develops social and listening skills
3. honors all learners and holds students accountable
4. helps students remember
5. allows them to make connections and see different perspectives
Many students are fearful of talking in class, so small groups are also great for them to put them in more of a comfort zone.
Groups can also be thought of as "rehersals" for classwork. Group discussions allow students to make connections, gather their own thoughts, and listen to others' opinions. Tovani's guide for students working in groups include having the students:
1. Give an overview of what's been read so far
2. Share something interesting from the book
The other part of the guidelines include a section of writing a better response. These include:
1. Share thinking about quotes
2. Consider questions that do not have simple answers
3. Make a statement and uses evidence from the book to support it
Chapter 6
Chapter 6 is titled Holding Thinking to Remember and Reuse. In this chapter, Tovani discusses her experiences of how she tries to get students to think while they are reading. She notes that teaching kids to show their thinking "doesn't miraculously happen because I've assigned it." The guidelines she expects students to follow when they mark text include:
1. Write the thinking next to the words on the page that cause you to have the thought.
2. If there isn't room on the text to write, draw a line showing the teacher where the thinking is written.
3. Don't copy the text, respond to it.
4. Merely underlining text is not enough.
5. There is no one way to respond to text. Students are encouraged to ask questions, make connections to something familiar, give opinions, draw conclusions, and make statements.
Tovani then discusses tools for holding thinking. These include highlighters, sticky notes, pieces of text on bulletin boards, and so on. She notes that the key to keeping students interested is to mix these tools up. Her favorite way of helping students to hold their thinking is to write directly on the text.
A term that Tovani coined to describe teacher-designed tools that help students hold thinking is "comprehension constructors." These are sheets that help students name their thinking and make it visible. These sheets are a concrete way of taking students through an abstract process, which has shown to really help them understand the material.
1. Write the thinking next to the words on the page that cause you to have the thought.
2. If there isn't room on the text to write, draw a line showing the teacher where the thinking is written.
3. Don't copy the text, respond to it.
4. Merely underlining text is not enough.
5. There is no one way to respond to text. Students are encouraged to ask questions, make connections to something familiar, give opinions, draw conclusions, and make statements.
Tovani then discusses tools for holding thinking. These include highlighters, sticky notes, pieces of text on bulletin boards, and so on. She notes that the key to keeping students interested is to mix these tools up. Her favorite way of helping students to hold their thinking is to write directly on the text.
A term that Tovani coined to describe teacher-designed tools that help students hold thinking is "comprehension constructors." These are sheets that help students name their thinking and make it visible. These sheets are a concrete way of taking students through an abstract process, which has shown to really help them understand the material.
Chapter 5
Chapter 5 is titled Why Am I Reading This? This chapter discusses the importance of defining the purpose of the readings before teaching. Tovani revisits the fact that teachers need to slow down and read what they assign as if they were in the students' shoes. She gives an example of a third year teacher, Molly, who admits that she is stuggling to read what she assigned. Molly explains that she is the one having the trouble, not the students. She says she is struggling because she is reading the book for the third time and everytime she reads it, it seems to be harder to teach. Tovani concludes that Molly has become an expert reader of this book and encourages her to read it as if she was reading it for the first time.
Molly's reason for struggling with this task is the fact that she is unsure of what to teach and what to leave out. "One of my biggest challenges is helping content identify a clear instructional purpose for assigned reading." One of Tovani's ideas of how to help Molly and teachers like this is having the students ask their own questions. This way the teacher will be able to create his/her lesson based on some of these questions.
Tovani discusses five points that teachers should consider when planning a lesson, to figure out what the instructional purpose is. These include:
1. Decide what students should know after reading the piece. Focus on essential information only.
2. Anticipate what might cause students difficulty. Some questions to consider are: Are they lacking background knowledge? Is the vocabulary too difficult to understand? Which concepts have the possibility of needing more explanation? Is the text about challenging subject matter? Is the text organized in a confusing manner?
3. Model how you would negotiate difficulty. Think out loud at one of the places where you anticipate students to find difficult.
4. What do you want them to be able to do with the information once they have finished reading? How will they hold their thinking so they can return to it later to use in their school work?
5. Model how they should hold their thinking and provide tools including marking text, using sticky notes, and completing a double-entry diary.
The next section discussed is What Do Readers Do When They Aren't Given a Purpose. As one can imagine, if students do not see a purpose of their reading they will have difficulty reading it or simply not read it at all. Tovani's list of determining possible purposes include:
1. Look for interesting details that could have multiple meanings.
2. Ask questions about the title and subtitle. Try to figure out how and why it is connected to the piece.
3. Read the author's opinion and compare and contrast it to your own.
4. Read a piece to learn new information.
5. Make a personal connection to the piece.
6. Figure out who the author is and what his/her writing style is like. Question if you know anything about the author or have read another piece written by them.
She finishes the chapter off by discussing the good and bad "voices" readers hear. These include:
1. Reciting voice: this voice is heard when they are only reciting the words and not gaining meaning from the piece.
2. Conversation voice: this voice has a conversation with the text. It represents the readers thinking while reading. This can take two forms
a. Interating voice: the voice inside a readers head that makes connections and asks questions
b. distracting voice: the voice that pulls the reader away or distracts him/her. It usually begins asking questions but is easily distracted.
Molly's reason for struggling with this task is the fact that she is unsure of what to teach and what to leave out. "One of my biggest challenges is helping content identify a clear instructional purpose for assigned reading." One of Tovani's ideas of how to help Molly and teachers like this is having the students ask their own questions. This way the teacher will be able to create his/her lesson based on some of these questions.
Tovani discusses five points that teachers should consider when planning a lesson, to figure out what the instructional purpose is. These include:
1. Decide what students should know after reading the piece. Focus on essential information only.
2. Anticipate what might cause students difficulty. Some questions to consider are: Are they lacking background knowledge? Is the vocabulary too difficult to understand? Which concepts have the possibility of needing more explanation? Is the text about challenging subject matter? Is the text organized in a confusing manner?
3. Model how you would negotiate difficulty. Think out loud at one of the places where you anticipate students to find difficult.
4. What do you want them to be able to do with the information once they have finished reading? How will they hold their thinking so they can return to it later to use in their school work?
5. Model how they should hold their thinking and provide tools including marking text, using sticky notes, and completing a double-entry diary.
The next section discussed is What Do Readers Do When They Aren't Given a Purpose. As one can imagine, if students do not see a purpose of their reading they will have difficulty reading it or simply not read it at all. Tovani's list of determining possible purposes include:
1. Look for interesting details that could have multiple meanings.
2. Ask questions about the title and subtitle. Try to figure out how and why it is connected to the piece.
3. Read the author's opinion and compare and contrast it to your own.
4. Read a piece to learn new information.
5. Make a personal connection to the piece.
6. Figure out who the author is and what his/her writing style is like. Question if you know anything about the author or have read another piece written by them.
She finishes the chapter off by discussing the good and bad "voices" readers hear. These include:
1. Reciting voice: this voice is heard when they are only reciting the words and not gaining meaning from the piece.
2. Conversation voice: this voice has a conversation with the text. It represents the readers thinking while reading. This can take two forms
a. Interating voice: the voice inside a readers head that makes connections and asks questions
b. distracting voice: the voice that pulls the reader away or distracts him/her. It usually begins asking questions but is easily distracted.
Chapter 4
Chapter 4 is titled Real Rigor: Connecting Students with Accessible Text. Tovani opens up this chapter by discussing her work to find out why so many ninth graders fail U.S History. She worked with the social studies department to realized that the textbooks were "too hard, too long, too boring." She discovered that the department recently purchased these textbooks, so the thought of replacing them with an easier read was basically impossible. She talks about the required history curriculum and how the teachers are challenged with the daunting task of covering it all in one school year. She mentions how students are unable to make meaning of what they are learning because teachers are forced to lecture most of the time. We already know this is vital for learning, especially after reading those three articles assigned our class. Just as with everything else, she has no quick fix for this but says that "if students are to understand what they read, then teachers must find text that they can read to supplement the textbook-- as well as give them time to practice new strategies for understanding the reading during class."
The chapter then goes on to talk about accessible text. Tovani explains how accessible text is the "cornerstone" of her teaching. She tries to find text that is interesting, well written, and appropriately matched to her students' reading levels. She really emphasizes that accessible text is not "low level" or "dumbed down." This is important because it could make students lose confidence in themselves. She explains that she finds accessible text in newspapers and magazines, because they are short, pleasing to the eye, and students can easily relate the material to real life events.
She then discusses what is possibly the most important part of this chapter. She explains that these accessible texts do not sacrifice rigor. She notes that many teachers criticize her idea of accessible text because of this reason. Her whole reasoning behind accessible text is to keep the students interested and hoping that they will be able to relate to what they read. She hopes that they will better understand the reading and maybe even gain a greater appreciation for the given subject matter.
This chapter was a good one to read because it really made me think about what may go through students' heads when they read. As an aspiring math teacher, it is completely understandable that most students struggle to read a math textbook. This chapter gave me some great ideas on how to help them through it so they will not give up.
The chapter then goes on to talk about accessible text. Tovani explains how accessible text is the "cornerstone" of her teaching. She tries to find text that is interesting, well written, and appropriately matched to her students' reading levels. She really emphasizes that accessible text is not "low level" or "dumbed down." This is important because it could make students lose confidence in themselves. She explains that she finds accessible text in newspapers and magazines, because they are short, pleasing to the eye, and students can easily relate the material to real life events.
She then discusses what is possibly the most important part of this chapter. She explains that these accessible texts do not sacrifice rigor. She notes that many teachers criticize her idea of accessible text because of this reason. Her whole reasoning behind accessible text is to keep the students interested and hoping that they will be able to relate to what they read. She hopes that they will better understand the reading and maybe even gain a greater appreciation for the given subject matter.
This chapter was a good one to read because it really made me think about what may go through students' heads when they read. As an aspiring math teacher, it is completely understandable that most students struggle to read a math textbook. This chapter gave me some great ideas on how to help them through it so they will not give up.
Friday, July 8, 2011
Chapter 3
Chapter 3 is called Parallel Experiences: Tapping the Mother Lode. This chapter was interesting because Tovani begins by discussing how the math teachers were less than pleased to work with her. Since I am studying to be a math teacher, I could almost see where they were coming from. She goes on to discuss how students are expected to read graphs and scales, especially in the standardized tests. She discusses how important it is for students to learn how to read different types of text. A student could be an honors english student, but completely unable to comprehend a word problem in math or a graph in science. She worked with the teachers to help them to understand that they need teach the students the most efficient way to read texts in their given content areas.
Another effective strategy she talks about is teachers focusing on how they read and think about their given content area. This is a really great time for teachers to model how they do this, because the students will most likely better comprehend the material.
Tovani then discusses how she gives teachers challenging pieces of text to read at her workshops. This is a great approach because the teachers are pulled out of the comfort zone that is their content area. She generally gives them a piece that looks as if it is written in Latin. This is effective because the teachers and put in the same shoes as students who are unsure of what they are reading and why. For teachers to be able to teach their students how to read, they need to be able to understand the students struggles and why.
Modeling how to stay with a text is also important because often, students are unable to keep up with what they find boring in the piece. She notes that having background knowledge of what or who they are reading about could really help them to better comprehend the text.
Another effective strategy she talks about is teachers focusing on how they read and think about their given content area. This is a really great time for teachers to model how they do this, because the students will most likely better comprehend the material.
Tovani then discusses how she gives teachers challenging pieces of text to read at her workshops. This is a great approach because the teachers are pulled out of the comfort zone that is their content area. She generally gives them a piece that looks as if it is written in Latin. This is effective because the teachers and put in the same shoes as students who are unsure of what they are reading and why. For teachers to be able to teach their students how to read, they need to be able to understand the students struggles and why.
Modeling how to stay with a text is also important because often, students are unable to keep up with what they find boring in the piece. She notes that having background knowledge of what or who they are reading about could really help them to better comprehend the text.
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