"the one in the yellow sweater..."

Our class just wrapped up the first Comprehension Focus from the pacing guide-- Questioning.  In exploring the many aspects of questioning with my students, I learned something important about their text comprehension.

One of my research goals for working with students this year is to study comprehension.  Our primary literacy instruction across the division is very successful as measured by PALS.  However, the percentage of students who leave second grade with adequate word reading in and out of context is in the 90s, but our SOL pass rate for third graders is most often in the 70s.  Why is there such a gap between our students' fluency and their text comprehension?

In the first weeks of school, I approached questioning by establishing habits of noticing and wondering.  In classroom activities, I began to observe that many students only felt comfortable noticing things in the pictures.  When they did notice something from the author's words, it was often random details instead of the most important ideas in the text.  As a result, I have been very mindful to model (1) noticing from the words and (2) noticing what's important to lay the foundation for more advanced work in text.

This reliance on the pictures also became apparent in the weeks that followed in a Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) lesson related to the basal story, The Trial of Cardigan Jones.  We had already read and discussed the story.  On a subsequent day, student pairs were given a QAR graphic organizer and slips of paper with story questions.  They had to write the answer to the each question and place the question on the graphic organizer to indicate the QAR.

One of the Think and Search questions asked, "Who saw Cardigan by the window?"  One student pair responded, "the one in the yellow sweater and the other one that looks like a cow" instead of the text-based answer- a neighbor and a milkman.

This strategy of answering questions and interacting with text using primarily the pictures is an emergent reader strategy.  Most students in my class can read text fluently at levels ranging from 2nd-4th grade.  So in essence, several are instructional level readers using emergent level comprehension strategies.  Many of these students appear to be disconnected from the meaning in the print that they are able to read quite proficiently.

It is easy to imagine how students with this strategy profile might struggle with the complexity of an SOL test.  It also explains why so many of them are reluctant and bored and disconnected when reading early chapter books that have few pictures.  I am challenged to help them increase the maturity of their comprehension strategies to match their fluency levels.

Note:  Resources for teaching questioning and the lesson materials are available on the Questioning page in the right margin of the blog.

"That's a great idea... but how will I ever find the time for it?"

I've listened to this refrain over and over in face-to-face and online professional development with teachers. While I never questioned that teachers are legitimately pressed for time with full days and increasing demands, I appreciate it more than ever now that I am deciding how to spend my own reading block.

Each week since school started, I have adjusted and readjusted my schedule to accommodate screenings, literacy testing, the limitations of student independence at this point, and all of my curriculum goals.  And each week I have felt disappointed when the equation just didn't balance.  There really isn't time for everything I want students to experience in my classroom.

Having more goals and ideas than time is not necessarily a negative thing.  It certainly challenges us to clarify our vision.  Whole group or small group?  Picture books or the basal story?  Guided reading groups or individual conferences?  Reading or writing?  Word study or vocabulary?  Teach to the curriculum guide or pull whatever I find ready-made from the basal?  All of it seems to have a place... so how do we choose?

I believe the first step is to shift our focus to the students.  We can get so caught up in deciding how WE are going to spend our instructional minutes, that we can forget to consider how STUDENTS are spending those same minutes.  This is much easier to do as an observer than as the instructor.  Using one of my favorite articles as a guide (Every Child, Every Day), I try to have students engaged in as much authentic reading, writing, and talking as possible in those precious minutes.

Some traditional practices, such as correcting sentences that students didn't write or completing worksheet test prep activities, are obvious minutes lost to real literacy work.  Other times, minutes are lost when we fall short of the conferencing and monitoring and feedback that students need to truly engage in the literacy practice that we schedule.  I was shocked this week when I started doing my first round of writing conferences.  All of the time I had dedicated to writing workshop over the last four weeks had resulted in very little writing for some students.  My plans, and how students actually spent those precious minutes, did not match up.

It is important to trace your reading block from the perspective of a student, especially that student who might need the most reading and writing practice to develop grade level skills.  Is that child getting the research-supported literacy experiences that have the greatest likelihood of impacting them positively?  For me, the honest answer to that question ("not always...") keeps sending me back to the drawing board in preparation for Monday morning.

Setting Goals and Keeping Track

I am committed to insuring that my third-graders will read A LOT of books this year.  We spent the first couple of weeks practicing the behaviors of reading workshop that would support productive reading time.  Daily, we talk about literacy habits that help us get "in the zone" (from Nancie Atwell's book In the Reading Zone).

I went around and around in my mind about how to keep track of what students read this year.  I wanted a way to document and celebrate our wide reading, without falling into some of the traps that I read about recently in an insightful post on Donalyn Miller's blog.  I eventually came up with the idea of using Google Forms to record the books that students read this year.

The day I launched the form, it was a discouraging mess!  Students were clamoring and arguing to get to the computer, asking questions like "Is Green Eggs and Ham fiction or nonfiction?" and standing in line to record their books instead of actually reading.  I almost gave it up as a crazy idea, but after giving myself a little pep talk about my vision, I decided to give it a chance.  With a little more guidance and practice, students are using the form independently in the way that I originally imagined.

A copy of the form is linked below with student names removed.  It is very simple... students select their names from a drop down menu, record their book, indicate whether it is fiction or nonfiction, and give it a rating.

From an academic standpoint, students practice using capital letters in names and book titles, and they have an authentic forum to explore the difference between fiction and nonfiction.  I can always modify the form for a more precise recording of genre later on.

From a motivation standpoint, students feel very accomplished and mature using technology to record their books.  The process allows them to mark their achievement without a cumbersome summary or other "product."  They are developing intrinsic motivation and agency by finishing books and taking a minute to pat themselves on the back.

Finally, the data gives me an important record documenting the reading lives of each student that will help me conference with students and parents.  (And I don't have to lift a finger to collect it... :)

Although I have not attached a number of books to this reading challenge, one student remarked that he thought we could read 1000 books this year (as if that were the highest number in all of math!).  Now we have a community reading goal that I am sure we can accomplish.  Using the form, I can easily update our running total of books daily.

Check out the form at the link below.  Happy reading!
I Finished a Book! Form