Who's doing the Work? ~ Chapter 1

This chapter helped me think more about a child’s reading process. It talks about how to look at the child as a reader and not as a level. What is the child doing with the text? How are they interacting with the text? What behaviors are they exhibiting when they encounter a challenging text? When we look at the child as a reader and the processes they use as they read how are we moving them forward?

An efficient reader at any reading level has a balanced reading process. They read the words and understand what they are reading deeply. They check the print with what they know about letters and sounds. They check the meaning of the words with what they know about the topic and their background knowledge. They check the print with their understanding to construct meaning. Having a balanced reading process is where we need to start when teaching through the gradual release of responsibility with read aloud, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.

Taken from Who's Doing the Work?

There are two types of inefficient readers. These readers have an imbalance between print and meaning. One type of ineffective reader is the Over-reliance on Print. These readers use the sound-out strategy as a major solution to a difficult word. They can read words with automatically, but do not attend to what they are reading. They have gaps with comprehension and construct little or no meaning with the text. They tend to have a superficial understanding, which makes it look like they are doing well. When their reading plateaus and sounding out becomes their only strategy, their reading will stagnate and they’ll lose motivation and interest in reading.

Taken from Who's Doing the Work?

Another type of inefficient reader is the reader who has an Over-reliance on Meaning. These readers guess at the word without attending to the printed letters. They guess based on what they know about the topic they are reading. These readers create a false sense that they understand what they are reading. However, when they begin reading text in which they have little background knowledge their reliance on meaning becomes insufficient. Neglecting to attend to the print will cause them frustration with reading and could lead to a lack of interest in reading.

Taken from Who's Doing the Work?

The authors discuss the need for us (teachers) to begin with the end in mind. We want readers who have a balanced reading process. We want them to have a balance between processing the print and processing the meaning. We want readers to cross-check and integrating print and meaning as they progress through the text. We want them to use print to support meaning and meaning to support print. Having a balanced reading process leads to a smooth and efficient operating system. The authors say the place to start is to integrate print and meaning into the instructional contexts of gradual release of responsibility: read aloud, shared reading, guided reading and independent reading.

Follow the discussion for this book on Facebook: Literacy Teacher Book Club 

Goal 5: Supporting Comprehension in Fiction - Using Plot and Setting

Comprehension is a really important part of the reading process. It is the entire reason for reading. Understanding what you are reading can take you places, teach you new things and help you find your way. Many students I am working with have difficulty recalling what they just read. Jennifer Serravallo says, we have all had students who retell every little detail and other students who don’t retell very much. While, still, other students add all sorts of additional information that didn’t even come from the text. Jennifer says that “understanding (the) plot is the most basic of comprehension goals for students reading fiction”. This goal is where my students have difficulty retelling who, what and where. They either say too many details; add their own details or they don’t say very much at all. For example, “He went to the farm.” Ugh! The following strategies can help students understand the plot of a fiction text better.

Goal 5.1 - Lean on the Pictures:  This strategy is recommended for guided reading (Fountas & Pinnell) levels A-K, using a fiction text. The CAFÉ strategies are determining importance and retelling.

This is what I did this week. During reading groups, I asked students “What were the most important things that happened? Retell the story for me from the beginning.” When they struggled, I asked them to lean on the pictures. “Look at this page, what are the most important things that happened?” I guided them through the pictures in this manner until we had finished retelling all the pictures. During this time, I also included Check for Understanding - “Who is the character? What are they doing? using a visual aid – the check mark.

I can’t tell how it is going, yet. I still have more work to do. I’ll keep you posted on student progress.

Here are a few strategies I want to try.

Goal 5.2 – Title Power: This strategy is recommended for guided reading levels C-M, using a fiction text. The CAFÉ strategy is determining importance.

In this goal, students will read the title of the book. They will keep the title in their mind as they read. They will think about the events and how they connect back to the title.

• Check the title. What does the title connect to in the story?
• Think of the title. What is the problem?
• Keeping the title in mind. What are the most important things that happened?

Goal 5.3 – Summarizing What’s Most Essential: This strategy is recommended for guided reading levels E-K, using fiction text. The CAFÉ strategy is summarizing.

In this goal, students are retelling the important events in the order in which they occurred and in a way that makes sense.

• Say the beginning in a shorter way.
• Can you say that in a shorter way?
• Just tell me the one important thing that happened in the beginning.
• You told me 5 things that happened in the middle. Which two or three were most important?

We've been doing a book study through Facebook using The Reading Strategies Book, by Jennifer Serravallo. In an effort to try and "blog", I've re-posted my Facebook post here.