It's clicking....

The University of Oregon, the birthplace of DIBELS, from all I can see has a companion website on reading. It is a great place to go to get some understanding of the elements of reading that DIBELS assesses and the rationale for their approach to diagnosis and intervention. I'm finally getting my head around the term "phonological awareness". Hey, it only took 2 1/2 years!

Is there any argument reading is of primary importance?

The Education Commission of the States site is a wealth of research summaries to inform policy makers. Check out this quote regarding the long range implications of our failure to teach kids how to read - early.

Academic success, as defined by high school graduation, can be predicted with reasonable accuracy by knowing someone’s reading skill at the end of 3rd grade. A person who is not at least a modestly skilled reader by that time is unlikely to graduate from high school. (National Research Council, 1998)

Our work needs to move forward with a sense of urgency. We must teach all kids to read early or doom them to an academic life of futility, frustration, and ultimately failure. You can see more quotes like the one above right here.

No prescriptions

Here's what teachers say about scripting lessons.

IB interested

Here's an article about an elementary school that has been certified for IB.

Take a look

Whining Rubric

Here's a rubric to inspire great performance!!!

Teaching Reading

Teachers, you all need to read this article. This is definitely worthy of our attention. Yes, we will have a very big philosophical debate (which is always kind of fun!) but the cost of doing nothing is paid for by students.

Would you rather be smart or be a hard worker?

The debate over innate intelligence versus environment in the development of a peson's abilities has been argued for many years. This article provides some new data for the discussion. The bottom line is that intelligence is overrated and disciplined study gets a lot of the credit. This adds credibility to our Halecrest motto: "Work Hard, Play Hard ... Leave 'em in the dust".

More on Fluency

An article from Educational Leadership by Timothy Rasinski gives some food for thought on the fluency question. It provides a balanced approach between reading for speed and comprehension.

If we emphasize speed at the expense of prosodic and meaningful reading, we will end up with fast readers who understand little of what they have read. Fluency instruction leads to impressive gains when it provides regular opportunities for expressive reading through assisted and repeated readings coupled with coaching; it doesn't require explicit reference to reading for speed. Students' reading rates will improve as they become naturally more efficient and confident in their ability to decode words.

Based on his research he has found assisted reading and repeated reading to be the most beneficial modes of instruction to promote fluency that leads to improved comprehension.

After reading a passage aloud to students, I ask them to follow along with me, first silently and then aloud, as a group. Sometimes I ask students to orally read a passage with a partner who is at the same reading level. At other times, I ask more fluent readers to read with students who are having difficulty with reading (Eldredge & Quinn, 1988; Topping, 1987a, 1987b, 1995) or I have students silently read while listening to a fluent rendering of the passage on tape (Carbo, 1978; Pluck, 1995). Such practices constitute a powerful strategy for improving fluency and comprehension.

Developing fluency in reading requires practice; this is where the method of repeated readings comes in (Samuels, 1979). Research indicates that repeated readings lead not only to improvement in reading the passage but also to improvement in decoding, reading rate, prosodic reading, and comprehension of passages that the reader has not previously seen (Dowhower, 1994; Koskinen & Blum, 1986; Kuhn & Stahl, 2000; National Reading Panel, 2000).

These are things worth considering as we seek to help students read for understanding.

Did I say that I love cats?

I promise you won't be reading any articles like this one about me anytime in the near future. I think I'll go give a hug to the neighborhood cat.

Talking about formative assessment

Here's a post that is a great perspective on formative assessment from a teacher's perspective.

The type of information that is valuable in making instructional decisions is what we are after with our formative assessments.

Writing in the content areas increase comprehension

Here are some ideas on integrating writing across the curriculum on p. 127.

Use shared writing to create informational texts based on content material your kids have studied or other knowledge they have.
Have students keep journals in content areas to explain their thinking, problem-solve, and document their observations.
In the primary grades, use current content area information to compose sentences to use with word work.
Help other students be more strategic, reflective readers: have them keep a notebook or journal ihn which they write predictions or summaries, copy quotations, make notes, and create charts.

I'm sure we can come up with even more to add to the list.

Writing improves Comprehension

Ok, I just have to quote this whole section from p. 126 because it hits the nail right on the head.

Composing text and comprehending text are closely related processes. Students who write better get better reading comprehension and vocabulary scores. Students who receive good writing instruction also become better readers. And when students have opportunities to do a lot of writing in the content areas (learning logs, summaries, essays, writing for specific audiences), they learn the subject matter more thoroughly than student who do not do much writing.

Children develop meaning as they write. It's what we all do, especially when we're writing about something we don't fully understand or haven't figured out yet. It's what I do when I write a book. Writing makes us think harder.

Write on Regie!

Higher Level Thinking

Many of our staff indicated they would like to see us work on higher level thinking next year. I was thinking of this when I got to Routman's comments (p. 125) on examining written responses to reading. She noted the following:

For example, research shows that when students answer teacher-originated short-answer questions, they quickly look for the needed information and copy it, with little thought or reflection. Basically, such exercises (which we have to read and assess) are not a good use of our time or the children's.

She goes on to advocate writing that enhances the reading. Here's how she puts it:

What we're after is a written response that deepens comprehension, causes the writer to reflect on the content, and/or fosters appreciation for the text. When children have to think about their response, meaning is likely to be extended . And be sure that before you ask students to explain, summarize, compare, evaluate, draw conclusions - all valuable activities- you first demonstrate and give adequate guided practice.

Well, there it is in a nutshell. We just need to clearly model that higher level thinking, provide guided practice, then actually give assignments that require students to do more than regurgitate information. Who needs staff development? Follow these three easy steps and your students will be out-thinking Stephen Hawking. :)

Reading widely supports writing

Read alouds are an integral part of the balanced literacy program. Routman encourages teachers to read aloud often, especially on topics that interest the students:

Teachers need to read aloud stories, poems, short books, long books, fiction, nonfiction, about topics and ideas that kids can connect to.

Quality Reading = Quality Writing

"Garbage in - Garbage out" goes the old refrain. This is Routman's basic premise when it comes to the type of literature students read and its effect on their writing. We need to surround our students with quality literature experiences to serve as models for their writing. She also makes a big push for non-fiction:

Children who read nonfiction have more information with which to write, have writing models at hand, and are more aware of nonfiction features such as visual aids.

English Learners benefit from Reading-Writing connection

Routman hails the benefit of the reading writing connection for English Learners:

When I cannot find texts students can easily read, we write our own. Students can read familiar stories that they tell and write far more easily than they can read commercial texts. Because it is easier to learn to read and write words that you already understand orally, creating original texts with familiar language Andy concepts makes good sense.

How are we doing on creating texts that are then used for shared, guided, and independent reading?

Routman on reading and writing

In preparation for our staff development I've been reviewing the notes from our staff meeting last spring to select work that both honors the wishes of staff for next steps and connects what we are to learn with our previous study on writing with Routman. Here's a good quote from Writing Essentials on the Reading-Writing connection:

Efffective teachers who have high-achieving students (including on high-stakes tests) do more writing and reading of whole texts and spend little time on "stuff" - activities about writing and reading.

So, consider your work during the school day. How much of your work with students is on whole texts as opposed to artificially created worksheets using language without context? For students to become more proficient writers they need to read lots of good pieces and not just isolated skills on worksheets.

High Expectations and Caring Support

In Closing the Achievement Gap 2nd Edition, a collection of essays highlight beliefs and practices that are making a difference with the most challenging students. Bonnie Benard writes about Turnaround Teachers and Schools and when asked what quality teaching looks like students say:

a caring teacher who accepts "no excuses" and who refuses to let them fail.

What I like about this is its perfect balance. Imagine the caring teacher who is not concerned with achievement. This person just wants students to feel good about themselves, but isn't concerned about real achievement or improvement. Clearly this type of teacher is doing no service to his students. But the other extreme is just as bad. The teacher who has unyielding expectations, but no emotional consideration for her students has just as negative an impact on her students. Students are sure to be exasperated by the intense pressure unaccompanied by gentle support and encouragement.

Therefore, we all need to strike that balance to show students that we truly care for them and at the same time we are not content to leave them as they are. We need to hold them accountable to reach their highest achievement, coming alongside to support them every inch of the way. May all of us at Halecrest aspire to be those caring and challenging educators that make a difference in the lives of children and leave an impression that will last a lifetime.

Not to early to start thinking about the SAT

This tidbit from Joanne Jacobs should encourage us continue to turn every Halecrest student into an avid reader. Just think, next year's kindergarteners are about 11 years away from their first SAT exam. :)

All for one and one for all

Here's another nugget from Andy Hargreaves by way of Margaret Scherer around the ideea of shared leadership:

High-performing schools are communities of grownups whose members have real input into conversations about reform.

Believe me the door is open for everyone to have a say. There is no blueprint for success because I don't know what it looks like. We need to create this school together and unless every one of us takes ownership for our direction we cannot succeed. It reminds me of Doug Smith, Principal of Helix High who said, "It's not OK to be here and expect someone else to make decisions".