Literacy Now

In many classrooms I visit, students do not raise their hands. They are taught early on how to participate in discussions where raising hands isn’t necessary. They respect the speaker’s turn, they listen carefully, and wait for an opportunity to respond. The teacher acts as a facilitator or a coach for the conversation, not as the sole channel though which information can pass. In these conversations, questions are valued as highly as answers. The goal is to create new ideas, ideas that perhaps even teacher had not considered, not to regurgitate old ones.

Although it is so easy to default to the standard way of running a discussion, hands raised, teacher calling on one at a time (often the same few), there is magic when you say to students, “Put your hands down. I’m not going to call on anyone. Just speak when you have something to say.” Doing this sends the message that your students’ voices are just as valuable the teacher’s.

So what happens in a truly great great whole class discussion? A few ideas might come to mind:

• Students listen carefully to one another and respond directly to others’ comments.
• One or a few topics are explored in depth.
• New conclusions, understandings, and ideas are grown.
• New questions are raised.
• All students’ voices are heard.

Build students’ vision of strong talk

Lucille Clifton has said, “We cannot create what we can’t imagine.” Similarly, we cannot expect students to engage in strong discussions if they do not know what these look like. To find samples of strong classroom conversations, you might need look no farther than your school building. If you know a classroom where strong talk is taking place, take a few minutes of video to show to your students (make sure your school’s videotaping policies allow for internal use of students’ images, of course).

Or you can find videos online that show students engaging in discussions worthy of studying.

After watching the conversation, debrief and ask students to name some of what they noticed that helped the conversation to go well. Record these on a chart that will serve as a reminder for students when they are engaged in their own discussions. Because these ideas are student-generated, they will take on greater significance in your classroom.

Guide students to assess and set goals to get better at discussion

Most students understand that they are working on building their skill sets in subject areas such as reading, writing, and math. Many students set goals for themselves in these areas, and, rightly or wrongly, judge their progress against that of their peers. They know, for example, that in math they are working on getting better at converting improper fractions to mixed numbers and that in reading, they are working on developing theories about characters. But many students don’t have a sense of their skill level when it comes to discussion, and some aren’t aware that building skill in discussion is not only possible but also vital. 

Create a simple rubric or checklist with your students using the ideas they generated about good discussions to help them  understand what they need to do in order to get better at accountable talk. Tell them they’ll have a chance to assess their own work during a discussion so that they can get a sense of what they’re doing well and what they need to work on. Then, lead the class in a discussion (recording this for future viewing can be useful).

After the discussion, you can ask students to assess themselves  using the rubric or you can  to fill out one rubric together, considering a discussion is something the entire class creates.

In addition to helping your students to assess their skill at discussion, you can also assess their stamina, the length of time they can keep a rich conversation going. It may well be that your students’ stamina for this kind of conversation is at about five minutes to start. If this is the case, keep in mind that marathon runners must train their way into running 26.2 miles. Record the length of time of the discussion as a benchmark, and encourage students to aim to sustain their conversations for longer and longer amounts of time as the year progresses.

Plan instruction to strengthen students’ talk

Here are a few teaching ideas that can help move your students’ discussions from so-so to great.

• Model effective discussion techniques. Before students are ready to take the discussion reins, they’ll need plenty of teacher modeling. For example, the single most effective way to encourage your students to listen to each other right from the start is to listen to them. One way to model that you are listening is to repeat parts of class conversations in a way that shows you are really trying to understand. “So what I hear you saying is….”
• Teach connective language. The Common Core Standards for Opinion and Informational Writing highlight the use of words and phrases to link ideas and information. Those familiar with the work of the Reading and Writing Project and with Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke’s Literature Circles will be familiar with thought prompts such as: For example… This is important because… On the other hand… and What I’m starting to realize is…to help students make connections between ideas in conversations. Making these prompts visible in a chart such as the one above and referring to them often will ensure that these phrases become an ingrained part of the way students talk, and eventually, the way that they think.
• Use visual supports to encourage inclusion. A major goal of discussion is to ensure that all voices are heard. A simple way to help students to understand the patterns in their language is to trace the conversation visually. To do this, create a chart by writing students’ names where they sit in discussions. Then, trace a line from name to name as students participate during a discussion. Analyze the discussions’ pattern and discuss how students might invite those whose voices were not heard to participate.
• Confer with students individually as needed. Some students might need some extra coaching to get better at classroom discussions, either one on one or in small groups. Use language from the rubric as much as possible in your instruction so that students are crystal clear on what they can do to improve.
• Build in frequent opportunities for students to self-evaluate. Be sure to revisit the rubric you created, perhaps even at the start and end of each discussion at first.

Anna Gratz Cockerille is an educator, writer, and consultant. In addition to her years teaching Upper Elementary in New York City, Anna has taught and coached in K–8 classrooms in Sydney, Australia; San Pedro Sula, Honduras; and Auckland, New Zealand. Anna has been a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project at Columbia University and presents at national conferences. Anna also conducts staff development in schools, helping teachers hone their balanced literacy practices.

Figuring out how our students go about the process of reading can be quite challenging, which is what makes effective assessment so difficult. Much of the process remains invisible to us and often even to our students. In my new book Mindsets and Moves: Strategies That Help Readers Take Charge  (Corwin, 2015), I suggest four roles we can take on so that students are supported to become truly independent of us and take charge of what, how, and why they read. In other words, students develop ownership of the process of reading so they can make choices about their reading lives. Some of those choices are what books to read, but also what to think about as you read, what to talk about with others about your reading, and what strategies to apply when needed.

Too many students are simply mimicking our strategies without a clear purpose or knowledge of how those strategies actually can help them as readers. Without a purpose, a strategy actually can inhibit our comprehension, not deepen it. Think of a strategy like a tool. You don’t use any old tool to hang up a picture on the wall, you use a hammer. If you use a saw or a wrench it would not work. The same can be true for reading tools and strategies—we have to feel ownership of our process so we can choose the strategy that will help us in our books right now. So how do we as teachers figure out what strategies students might benefit from using? How do we help students reflect on whether the strategies they are using are working for them? These are worthwhile assessment questions.

The first role I suggest we take on is to be a miner. By miner, I mean uncovering what students do as readers, getting into their minds, and getting at layers of meaning that may often be hidden. There are five steps to being a miner, and each one is focused on really getting to know how a student goes about reading.

Set a purpose for what you will be mining for. What do you want to find out about this reader? You can’t look for everything, so narrowing your focus on one or two areas can help. The second step is to observe the reader closely. This means you look for students’ subtle reading behaviors such as pointing to words or moving their lips as they read as well as who seems to be reacting to their books and seems “lost in the story.” By simply observing for 20 seconds you can gain so much information and you can develop some questions you are curious to ask the reader. The third step is to ask process-oriented questions, many of which stem from the observations you just made.

You may ask, “What are you thinking about today as you read?” or “Can you describe how you are reading this part of the book today?” These questions are meant to uncover how the student is reading, not what the student is reading. The fourth step is to listen. This sounds obvious, but with so many possible distractions and our constant rush to meet with so many students sustaining our attention on what the student explains takes effort. We listen to hear their explanation and to help students articulate their own process. The final step is to collect the information you gathered and to jot down some of what you found. This collection of information can then be used when offering feedback and when teaching. (The Reflection Chart is from Mindsets and Moves)

We know assessment and instruction are connected deeply, but finding the ways that make this connection work can be hard. Try being a miner and see what you uncover about the readers in your class. For now, give yourself permission to just uncover and assess.

Gravity Goldberg is a literacy consultant and author of Mindsets and Moves: Strategies That Help Readers Take Charge(Corwin, 2015) and coauthor of Conferring With Readers: Supporting Each Student’s Growth and Independence(Heinemann, 2007) in addition to managing her blog. This post is one in a series on how teachers can create more independence in the classroom by embracing new roles. She also can be reached via Twitter. 

If we know nothing else about reading, we know that the way to become good at reading is to read.  A lot. Volume is important. And because reading is learned best through reading, and reading is a voluntary act, it is vital that students are motivated enough to begin to read and engaged enough to keep on reading for a lifetime.  It is not enough just to teach our children how to read, we must teach them to want to read.

Nancy Atwell, Donalyn Miller, John Guthrie, and others know what it takes to “teach” students to want to read. There really is a proven formula which, when practiced with fidelity, consistently produces lifelong readers. I call this four-part formula the ACTS of Reading:

Access:  All students have access to a rich supply of good things to read.

Instead of buying that “silver bullet” commercial reading program, use those funds to prepare for pleasure and voracious reading by stocking classrooms and libraries with beautiful and intriguing books and magazines. Entice students with accessible displays of curated books of high interest at appropriate reading levels. Incite the motivation to read by first and foremost providing a plethora of engaging age-appropriate materials that meet the diverse needs and interests of all our students.

Choice:  All students are allowed to choose what they would like to read.

If the point is for students to enjoy reading enough to want to keep reading, then they must be allowed, even encouraged, to read for pleasure—not just for information, not just closely or critically, but for fun! Allow students individuality and autonomy. Motivation and engagement soar when students are free to read what is of interest to them. Let them forage around the book buffet you’ve provided (Access!) until they find something they really want to read, then give them time to settle in and simply read.

Time: All students are afforded time during the school day to read.

Why is free reading, independent reading, pleasure reading, or whatever we call that magical time spent in “The Reading Zone,” as described by Atwell, not important enough to be prioritized in schools? We can provide a wealth of good things to read and allow students to choose what they want to read, but unless we schedule time in the school day to read we risk losing them to the lure of technology. Once that bell rings, video games and social networking become the default leisure activities and pleasure reading is displaced. U.S. students, on average, spend 7,800 hours a year outside of school and only 900 hours a year in school, according to The Read-Aloud Handbook. We must intervene strongly on our students’ behalf. To hook students on reading, they need substantial, uninterrupted time to read. During school.

Socialize: All students are encouraged to socialize with others about what they are reading.

Students who are avid readers generally come from homes where books are valued and reading is seen as a normal thing to do. But for many kids, talking about books seems unnatural and reading for pleasure is not the norm. Yet when they are allowed autonomy and time to relax and read they become more comfortable. They begin to feel like readers. They are suddenly eager to talk about what they are reading. Socializing with and around books not only builds reader confidence but also creates an inclusive culture of literacy all can enjoy.  Let’s continue to find ways to advertise and talk about what we’re reading, and to make reading cool—too cool for (just) school!

The Knowing–Doing Gap

We know that enacting the ACTS of Reading motivates students to read and to keep reading.

We know what to do, but is there a knowing–doing gap? If so, let’s mind the gap and commit to doing what we know works. Let’s provide all our students’ access to lots of great books, choice in what they read, time to simply read during the school day, and opportunities for socializing around books. Let’s not just build a nation of kids who know how to read, let’s build a nation of kids who choose to read—for a lifetime.

Deborah Hollimon is currently the Reading Program Director at the United States Air Force Academy Preparatory School. She is a longtime ILA member and the 2015 recipient of the Nila Banton Smith Award for translating research and theory into practice in developing content area literacy. Deborah has worked in the field of literacy for over 30 years, first as a speech and language pathologist, then as a secondary English teacher and districtwide literacy coordinator. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from the Louisiana Education Consortium.

Poetry has been described by Laurence Perrine, the author of Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry, as a language that “says more and says it more intensely than ordinary language.” When engaging with poetry, meaning should be the most important aspect, followed by elements and devices. Poems selected for children should let them think and “be” more to create a knowledgeable experience for them, with the expression of intense feelings and ideas, and with particular attention paid to diction, imagery, sound, metaphor, theme, rhythm, and rhyme. But, in all of their complexity, poems can also introduce students to basic realities of life through attractive language and imagery. When children become interested in poems, strong messages and morals can be explained and discussed to nurture young minds.

Three things are evoked when a poem is brought to a reader’s mind: images, emotions, and concepts. Though educators often focus on images and emotions conceptualized by poetry, they frequently miss opportunities to introduce young students to realities of life. Sadly, many children will not get this exposure elsewhere, so their curiosity must be nurtured by educators who may be the only people who will truly prepare them for their future life. Although children have no fear of exploring, teachers must equip them to do so safely.

Children must be able to enjoy the poem for what it is on the surface and also understand the strong messages hidden in the language. They must be given equal opportunities to understand the “inside-out idea” in the content of the poem and gain meaning with more detailed study of the text itself. Because poetry uses such colorful language, a reader usually becomes and remains excited and open to learn grand ideas that may be helpful to his or her life. 

I remember making a group of third graders aware of their surroundings by using Jeannie Kirby’s poem “I Wonder.” This poem explores the many questions of a curious child and was used to answer my students’ many questions about nature. Instead of looking at repetition and rhymes among other poetic elements, I first engaged students in understanding the content of the poem, which led to discussions that, in turn, led my students to better understand the world around them.

I also engaged my students in the poem “Alligator” by Grace Nichols. This was a tremendous session. Students explored the poem, which spoke of the “slushy” river where alligators were found and what children should do if they ever see one. By the end of the discussion, and of the lesson overall, students were able to say how careful they would be when going home from school (not stopping by rivers and damps); students also created warning posters as a class activity and pretended to place it at the slushy river to warn persons of the dangers of the alligators. This poem allowed students to understand safety, and I know they will apply this knowledge to alligators as well as other creatures. I am sure that because of the lessons learned through poetry, students will be better able to understand and know how to act in situations because of the experiences they have read about. The vivid language used in poetry is a great tool for bringing realities to life.

When teaching curious children the realities of life through poetry, it must be established that not everything they see or hear is true. Children must know it is good to question content and that they should not hastily act on anything, including what they read. Curious children especially at the pre-operational and operational stages must be steered in truth, as they are still unaware of many realities of life. Because of the captivating language and rich dynamics, poetry is a great vehicle that moves children from fantasy to reality; poetry is, therefore, a dynamic tool for teaching curious children. As the French poet Anatole France said, “The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.”

Marique Daugherty is a language and literacy specialist from Jamaica and was recently honored as one of ILA’s inaugural “30 Under 30.” She is currently teaching in London.

Think about the students you have who you think are not fluent readers. Chances are these are students who, when reading orally, read in an excessively slow word-by-word manner. Fluency certainly is a concern with these students. However, it is not the only problem that these students exhibit. Reading comprehension is likely to suffer as well. In fact, research has demonstrated a strong association between oral fluency and silent reading comprehension.

It just makes sense. When students read in that word-by-word manner, they are compromising the meaning of the text. Prepositions such as of and if as well as noun markers such as the and an have limited meaning by themselves. The purpose of such words is to enhance the meaning of the other words in the phrase in which they are placed. We think that phrasing is so important that we feel that the phrase, not the individual word, is the essential unit of meaning when reading.

Take for example the following phrases:

• In the ocean
• Under the ocean
• Upon the ocean
• Near an ocean
• In an ocean

Each of these phrases have distinctly different meanings even though the meaning of the key word, ocean, is constant. Good readers make meaning by reading in phrases; struggling readers limit meaning by reading word by word.

Much of what we do instructionally—while well-intended and in many ways quite powerful—may tend to over-emphasize reading in a word-by-word manner. While we acknowledge  activities such as reading word walls, spelling and vocabulary lists, and word games have a legitimate place in our literacy curricula, we wonder about the extent to which such activities give students the unintended notion that reading words as individual units is the appropriate way to read.

Research and scholarly thought suggest  helping students learn to read in phrases (as opposed to word by word) is an effective way to improve reading fluency as well as comprehension and overall reading proficiency. Yet, interestingly, most instructional programs for teaching reading provide very little support or suggestions to teachers for helping students read more fluently and meaningfully through good phrasing. We hope to remedy this situation by offering a couple simple instructional suggestions for helping students become phrase-proficient in their reading.

Making phrase boundaries visible—The Phrased Text Lesson

One of the problems with a focus on phrasing is that, in many cases, phrase boundaries are not physically marked in the texts  our students read. Certainly punctuation such as periods and commas provide some indication of where sentence or phrase units end, however there are many places where phrase boundaries are unmarked.

One way to help students is to physically take a text and mark the phrase boundaries for students. Below is a common rhyme in which we have marked (usually with a pencil) phrase boundaries. Note that we marked within-sentence phrase boundaries with a single slash and sentence boundaries with a double slash to indicate shorter and longer pause.

Put the marked rhyme on display for all students to see and read and provide each student with an individual copy that will go into their poetry folder. Remind students that the slash marks indicate where they should break the text in the oral reading. Then over the course of a school day, read the text to students while they follow along silently (emphasizing the phrases in your oral reading), read it chorally as a class, and ask individuals and small groups of students to read it at various times, regularly reminding students to attend to the phrase breaks marked in the text. Hope students see  the essential ideas of the text are contained within the phrases.

On the following day, provide students with the same text without the phrase boundaries.

Repeat the rereadings of the rhyme throughout the day. Help students note they should be pausing when they read, even when the markings are not present. In this way, students will be able to transition from using the visible phrase boundaries to inferring phrases that may not  actually be marked. Regular use of the Phrased Text Lesson will lead students to more fluent and more meaningful reading when reading independently.

High frequency word phrases

A common and important instructional goal in the primary grades is to develop students’ sight vocabulary, especially with common or high frequency words such as the, it, and dog. As we noted earlier, high frequency words are often practiced using a word wall in which 10-20 words each week are added to the wall and practiced regularly. In addition to a high frequency word wall, why not also have a high frequency word phrase wall which can also be read and practiced regularly?

Here are some phrases and short sentences that are made up of words from Edward B. Fry’s first 100 Instant Words:    

by the water
Who will make it?
you and I
What will they do?
He called me.
no way
one or two
all day long
into the water
It’s about time.

By practicing phrases that contain high frequency words, your students will be getting important practice on these common words, but at the same time will also be practicing reading these words in phrases and sentences which actually convey meaning. Start with this list of the first 600 instant phrases.

Certainly, reading fluently with good phrasing is not the only competency we need to help students develop. However, it is an important competency that is often overlooked in instructional programs for reading. Just a small focus on phrased reading in the elementary grades has the potential to pay significant dividends in our students’ development into proficient readers.

The ideas shared in this article are from the newly released Literacy Strong All Year Long: Powerful Lessons for K-2 by Valerie Ellery, Lori Oczkus, and Timothy Rasinski. The text features 40 lessons explicitly demonstrating a dynamic gradual release of responsibility format. These lessons spiral across the seasons of the year, building literacy essentials that include engaging lessons for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and motivation.

Timothy Rasinski, a literacy education professor at Kent State University, is a prolific researcher who has authored more than 150 articles. He is a former co-editor of The Reading Teacher and the Journal of Literacy Research. He is coauthor, with Maureen McLaughlin, of Struggling Readers: Engaging and Teaching in Grades 3–8. Valerie Ellery is as an international literacy consultant, best-selling author, and motivational speaker. Her book, Creating Strategic Readers: Techniques for Supporting Rigorous Literacy Instruction, is currently in its third edition. Lori D. Oczkus is a literacy coach, best-selling author, and popular speaker. She is also the author of Just the Facts! Close Reading and Comprehension of Informational Text.