Laura Fogle Literacy Toolkit July 27, 2011 I. Anticipatory Activities (Fisher & Frey, p. 20 31) Anticipatory events are meant to be tied to the introduction of a new concept and are used to capture student attention through a memorable event and strong emotion to make an impression on future learning objectives. Such activities help to engage students in a topic they may not otherwise have an interest int. The specific type of event I plan to use in my future classroom is discrepant event. A discrepant event specifically involves a surprising or startling occurrence to command student s almost immediate attention. Other anticipatory events include: demonstrations, visual displays and thought provoking questions. I believe this literacy strategy fits well with my teaching style because I love to perform and am comfortable doing so in front of an audience of students. I hope to teach in 4 th or 5 th grade inclusive classroom and believe this can be a very powerful way to garner student attention at an age where they might start feeling too cool for school. For my Fall pre service teaching placement I will be in a 5 th grade Social Studies classroom, I think social studies is a perfect fit for discrepant events because you can make history more relevant by putting past conflict or events in a modern day environment. Also, social studies lends itself well to discrepant events because students might not have as much prior knowledge as an older student in recognizing the connection immediately between what they are going to study and the event happening before them, helping to keep the illusion going a little longer if necessary. I would mainly use this strategy to create a powerful event to build prior knowledge. This can also be useful in helping students connect emotionally to a new topic, thus possible improving learning motivation. Social Dimension: Anticipatory events help investigate the relationship between reading and power. I will always use a discrepant event as a lead into an investigation into a topic, involving reading. Students will learn that there are many important things to learn and discover about their worlds that can only be involved through reading and writing. Also, the performance part of the discrepant event shows off the teacher (or other individuals) power of oral speech to incite emotion thus noticing other s ways of reading. Personal Dimension: Anticipatory events are a stepping stone to developing metacognition. After the event occurs there will immediately be a discussion of how the event made them feel. In my classroom this would be accompanied by a quick write or Think Pair Share, by getting them thinking about what they were thinking when the event happened, you are setting the stage for further metacognitive conversations.
Cognitive Dimension: Anticipatory events start with a big picture idea and then breaking it down as the unit progresses. It also sets a purpose for reading by making the topic seem very important and interesting to the student. Knowledge Building Dimension: Anticipatory encourage an interest in developing knowledge on a topic. By making it more relevant and memorable students will be more open to understanding and really digesting the material on a deeper level. II. Shared Readings (Fisher & Frey, p. 61 74) Shared Reading is a technique in which teacher and students read collaboratively together with the purpose of developing comprehension in a certain way. Shared Readings are different from Read Alouds because the teacher is involved as well as the students. Helping to guide such practices as teacher allows students to listen to a master reader and adopt new strategies in their own silent sustained readings in the future. I believe Shared Readings fit well with my teaching style because I truly enjoy reading and am comfortable doing so out loud. Shared Readings will fit well with my desired age group of 4 th or 5 th grade inclusive classroom, because at this age, the average reading ability should be enough to add some emotion and tone into the readings but no student at this age could really be considered a master reader. Thus, they would benefit from the teachers participation. Also, shared readings can be useful in any subject area, so as an elementary teachers if I am teaching all subjects throughout the day I can incorporate reading across the whole day. For my Fall placement in a 5th grade Social Studies classroom I can see using Shared Readings while introducing biographies or plays of historical context. I would primarily use this literacy strategy to build comprehension and add saliency to a topic. Also, this strategy can involve a large number of students, thus allowing many students to gain reading practice. Social Dimension: Shared Reading is a very social activity that can involve many members of the class, if not everyone, in a given time period. This allows a feeling of safety since everyone is doing it at the same time and also allows for an extended period of sharing reading processes. T Personal Dimension: Reader fluency can be helped through shared reading by having the text in front of the students as others are reading. Doing so will allow students to follow along while a classmate is reading. Cognitive Dimension: Shared Readings allows students to have a clear beginning and end point they are responsible for which helps in breaking down or chunking the text. Knowledge Building Dimension: Shared Reading helps build knowledge by developing knowledge of word construction and vocabulary. Because the students are reading out loud
they are not able to skip over a hard word, instead they will have to learn to pronounce it and this can be used as a teachable moment to decipher the definition together as a class. III. Questioning Techniques (Fisher & Frey, p. 84 88) Questioning Techniques are a way to invite student engagement in a text by utilizing appropriate techniques and follow up questions. I will focus on Questioning the Author, a technique that invites the reader to interact with the author of the text and help develop new ideas rather than restate information directly available in the text. I think that having students realize and consciously think about the person who wrote the text, and not just think that it came from nowhere, is a wonderful way to make the text more interesting. I believe this strategy fits in naturally with my teaching style because I love to ask questions and do so almost to the point of annoyance of others! I think this trait is also shared by 4 th and 5 th grade students and will be a natural way for them to help comprehend the text. For my fall placement in a 5 th grade Social Studies class I would use questioning techniques when reading historical documents in order to gain a fuller sense of the time period and setting in which they were written. I would use this strategy, as said above, in order to gain a fuller background of a text so students can accurately comprehend it s meaning. Social Dimension: Questioning the Author can investigate the relationship between literacy and power by highlighting how important documents writing is to our understanding of history. Without it being written down in some way we would know much less about our history and would rely solely on oral tradition. Personal Dimension: Questioning Strategies help develop metacognition because as you explore the author s motive and purpose of the author they will realize their own purpose in reading and writing as well. Cognitive Dimension: Questioning Strategies help develop problem solving techniques to aid comprehension by aiding students in figuring out how to find out background information on the author that is appropriate to the text being written. Knowledge Building Dimension: Questioning the Author develops knowledge of both the text and the personal background of an important historical figure. By tying these both together students are more likely to remember the importance of the topic being covered.
IV. Graphic Organizers (Fisher & Frey, p. 101 116) Graphic Organizers help students visually arrange data to portray conceptual relationships between ideas. Such organizers can take on many forms; some teacher designed and other designed by individual students according to their own preferences. Graphic Organizers can fit well with my teaching style because I believe in the importance of writing down what you hear to help you understand it deeper. 4 th and 5 th grade students could really benefit from learning how to use a variety of graphic organizers because it is an invaluable skill for the years of education they have ahead of them. All subject areas, such as what I plan to teach as an elementary school teacher, can benefit from graphic organizer of some sort. My fall placement in a 5 th grade Social Studies class will probably primarily use a Compare and Contract organizer to understand themes and characters throughout history. Graphic Organizers are primarily used for comprehension but are also a great aid to organizing thoughts for writing. I could see using organizers regularly to plan out a variety of writing activities. Social Dimension: Graphic Organizers should be modeled and taught in a group setting, thus creating opportunity for sharing, noticing and appropriating other s thought processes. Personal Dimension: With proper scaffolding, students will be able to complete Graphic Organizers individually or with minimal input, thus developing confidence in ability to decode a text. Cognitive Dimension: Graphic Organizers are a wonderful way to break down large amounts of information into the main important points. Searching for these main points to include also helps monitor comprehension as you go. Knowledge Building Dimension: Graphic Organizers are well designed to develop knowledge of text and literacy structure by identifying the main points of a text. V. NoteTaking (Fisher & Frey, p. 121 133) Notetaking teaches students to take responsibility for figuring out how and what information to record from an oral presentation of information. There are many varieties of ways to teach notetaking but I will focus mostly on the general procedures noted in Figure 7.2 on p. 124. I believe teaching notetaking techniques works well with my teaching style because my whole goal as a teacher is to prepare my students for future successes and know that skills at taking notes is essential to many aspects of future schooling and careers. My preferred age of 4 th and 5 th grade is a great time to introduce and really drill the idea that taking notes is your personal responsibility to ensure you understand and can refer back to information later. The
reason I focus on general notetaking procedures is because I think notes are a very personal procedure depending on a student s prior knowledge, motivation and organizational skills. Scaffolding the basics of notetaking is imperative but the actual design of the notes can and should be left up to the student the majority of the time. For my Fall placement I will consult with my coordinating teacher to see if there is any particular notetaking format she prefers, if not I will just instruct students when there is a main point or idea that shouldn t be missed but will not set out a structure for notes. Notetaking is primarily an aid to further retention of information and can be used as a reference point for writing. Social Dimension: The teaching of notetaking techniques is a social learning process where students can pick and choose from other s techniques and find what works best for them. Personal Dimension: Notetaking should be inherently personal and is a way to develop both reader and writer identity as student notates what they should write down and how. Cognitive Dimension: Notetaking helps to set and then adjust reading processes as needed, for example at first students might write down everything they hear but eventually they will learn how to discern the important points from extraneous facts. Knowledge Building Dimension: Notetaking is a great way to build vocabulary because as notes are being taken students should mark any confusing words so they can look these up later or ask teacher or fellow students as applicable. VI. Writing Prompts (Fisher & Frey, p. 144 146) Writing Prompts are tools provided to students to give students a scaffolded starting point for a writing exercise. The RAFT technique (Role, Audience, Format & Topic) is one such method specifically used to write from a certain perspective or for a certain purpose. The RAFT technique works well for my style of teaching because I remember plenty of times, even though I enjoyed writing, that staring a blank piece of paper could be very intimidating. I know that having a starting place can help students feel more comfortable and are more apt to be receptive to the writing process. I want my students to view writing as mainly enjoyable and not just write enough words to fill up a page. Student sin the 4 th and 5 th grade are still fairly early on in their experiences with writing so writing prompts are very useful to get their ideas flowing onto the paper. My 5 th grade Social Studies class in the Fall will probably see writing prompts used as Quick Writes to utilize student s prior knowledge and also explore what they want to know.
Writing Prompts are primarily, and obviously, used for writing but can also be used to check comprehension. Teachers must attend to incorrect information in a student s writing so that it does not continue and affect their knowledge moving forward. Social Dimension: Writing Prompts create a feeling of safety since the students is not having to come up with an idea on their own completely. By having a set of guideline students are more able to come up with an idea and feel comfortable with it. Personal Dimension: Writing Prompts help develop a writer s confidence, especially if used more in the beginning of a year and slowly backed off giving students more autonomy, as they get more comfortable with the writing process. Cognitive Dimension: Writing Prompts break down larger assignment into more manageable chunks and decision and can help students focus more on the actual writing. Knowledge Building Dimension: Prompts such as the RAFT technique help students develop schemas for certain Formats of writing. Teachers should vary the formats that students are required to write in or even leave that part of the prompt open for student decision. VII. Silent Sustained Reading (Schoenbach, et. al, p. 65 69) Silent Sustained Reading is set aside time during a class period when students read something of their choice for the entire time dedicated and students are not allowed to distract those around them. Silent Sustained Readings work well with my style of teaching because I believe students need time during the school day to work quietly and independently in order to monitor their own thoughts. Also, giving students a dedicated time to read is a great way to encourage reading, especially for students who do not ever set aside he time in their outside lives to read. I think 4 th and 5 th grade students will benefit from Silent Sustained Reading because it is a pivotal age to learn a love for reading. In my Fall placement I will use Silent Sustained Reading as an activity on a regular basis, probably 2 times per week, as an alternate opening activity for Quick Writes. This way students have time to work on both reading and writing every day. Silent Sustained Reading is mean to improve reader fluency and creating a classroom culture of reading for enjoyment. Social Dimension: Silent Sustained Reading allows students to be in a safe environment conducive to reading alongside other without distractions or outside forces.
Personal Dimension: Silent Sustained Reading works on developing reader stamina, while some students may want to stop reading after just a few minutes the nature of the activity helps them get back in the swing of reading. Cognitive Dimension: Silent Sustained Reading sets a specific time and purpose for reading that the student may not other wise experience. Knowledge Building Dimension: Silent Sustained Reading helps develop content knowledge if the available texts are specific to a certain content area but can also build a schema for enjoying reading if the texts are of the student s own choosing. VIII. Think Alouds (Schoenbach, et. al, p. 77 78) A Think Aloud is a process in which students practice recognizing their own mental strategies as they read a text. This process is often modeled by the teacher and then done in small groups before done exclusively by individual students. This is an important way for students to gain metacognitive insights into their own reading processes and those of master readers. Think Alouds fit well with my teaching style because I love the idea of metacognition and wish it had been introduced to me at a younger age. I hope to instill the idea of thinking about your own thinking into my students at an early age so they will use it to become more successful readers and problem solvers. My preferred age range of 4 th and 5 th graders have most likely never thought about their own thinking process and will hopefully think it is pretty cool! During my Fall placement I will use Think Alouds while working with Social Studies texts that are difficult either because of language or subject matter. Think Alouds are used to help develop a deeper comprehension and attachment to the text. Social Dimension: Think Alouds help students notice and appropriate another s way of reading when modeled by a teacher and eventually fellow students. Personal Dimension: Think Alouds develop metacognition on reading processes as well as stamina since it can take awhile at first to read a text using the Think Aloud process. Cognitive Dimension: Think Alouds work mainly on the problem solving strategies used to comprehend a difficult text. Knowledge Building Dimension: Think Alouds build schemas for reading certain types of texts as well as help learn new vocabulary as a student realizes they do not know certain words.