ResearchLiteracy in the Upper Grades

Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy

Secondary Educators must:• Select materials of

interest to students• Differentiate fact from

opinion• Integrate new information

with what student’s already know

2004 Carnegie Corporation Report

Learning to Read ~ Reading to Learn

• Shift from early grades focus of learning to read to the next step of reading to learn.– Older students text more complex and

comprehensive than elementary textbooks

– Older students not as motivated to read

2005-2006 JCS Student Survey: Only 26% of students surveyed indicate that they read for pleasure on their own.

Improving Reading Instruction• Professional

development• Ongoing formative

assessment of students – prevent overlooking learning gaps

• Ongoing formative assessment of programs – evaluate the effectiveness of programshttp://www.all4ed.org

Translating Research into Practice• Provide a wide range of

strategies allowing students to:– Become familiar with

written language– Develop comprehension

skills– Become enthusiastic

readers– Apply reading

strategies to new situations

Older students become better readers when they learn to:• read narrative and

expository text,• understand what they

read,• use the strategies flexibly,• be persistent in trying

new strategies, and• communicate with others

about what they have read.

Instructional Strategies to Improve Student Achievement• Identify similarities and

differences• Summarize and take notes• Reinforce effort and provide

recognition• Participation in learning

groups• Provide feedback• Generate and use hypotheses• Use cues, questions, and

advance organizersClassroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, (ASCD, 2001) Marzano, Pickering, Pollack

Content Area Reading

Content area reading:• Helps students make

connection between they already know and the new information presented.

• Teachers must help students link reading and new learning in content areas.

3 Factors that Affect Content Area Reading1. The Teacher – must

know the subject area, how to motivate students to learn, and the reading process.

Teacher must motivate, instruct, and guide to help students make the connection between what they already know and the new information.

3 Factors that Affect Content Area Reading2. The Student – Critical

elements include the student’s prior knowledge, experiences, language development, reading ability, and attitude toward school

3 Factors that Affect Content Area Reading3. The Content – must be

complete, interesting, and meaningful or students will retain content for teacher’s test (regurgitating facts), but perform poorly on year end standardized tests.

Learning is cemented after 17-41 rehearsals.

• How is content area reading taught?– Interaction with the text– Making sense of what

they are reading– Applying reading

strategies to help them understand

Consider Prior Knowledge(The content knowledge and person experience the reader brings to the text)

Pre-reading strategies

•Brainstorming

•Asking questions

•Providing analogies

•Discussing the topic

Consider Text Features

• Science and social studies (and math) texts are above the reading level of many students.

• Common text patterns:– Comparison/contrast– Descriptive pattern– Episode pattern– Time sequence– Process/cause-effect– General to specific

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary terms are rarely part of the content students already know.

• Least effective means – looking up words in glossary and writing definitions.

• Students needs strategies to learn new concepts and make connections.

Four Levels of Word Recognition• Full Word Knowledge –

students understand then meaning and how the word changes in context.

• Partial Word Knowledge – Student know the work in context and can use it in their writing

• Initial Word Knowledge – Students recognize the word and can pronounce it, but do not know its meaning.

• Unknown Word – Student cannot read or recognize the word.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps1.Initially Provide Students with a

Description, Explanation, or Example as Opposed to a Formal Definition

• When introducing a new term or phrase it is useful to avoid a formal definition---at least at the start. This is because formal definitions are typically not very "learner friendly." Provide students with a description, explanation, or example much like what one would provide a friend who asked what a term or phrase meant.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps

2.Have Students Generate Their Own Descriptions, Explanations, or Examples

• Once a explanation has been provided to students they should be asked to restate that information in their own words.

• It is important that students do not copy exactly what the teacher has offered.

• Student descriptions, explanations, and examples should be their own constructions using their own background knowledge and experiences .

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps3.Have Students Represent Each Term

or Phrase Using a Graphic Representation, Picture, or Pictograph

• Students should be asked to represent the term or phrase in some graphic, picture, or pictographic form. This allows them to process the information in a different modality---an imagery form as opposed to a linguistic form. It also provides deepens students’ understanding of the new term or phrase.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps

4.Have Students Keep an Academic Vocabulary Notebook

• An academic vocabulary notebook will help students develop an understanding of a set of terms and phrases that are important to the academic content in mathematics, science, language arts, and social studies. This implies that the terms and phrases that are taught using this approach represent a related set of knowledge that expands and deepens from year to year.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps

4.Have Students Keep an Academic Vocabulary Notebook

• Space should also be provided for students to write additional comments about the terms and phrases as time goes on. As will be mentioned in the next step, students should be engaged in activities that allow them to review the terms. As these activities occur, students can be asked to add to the entries in their notebooks perhaps correcting misconceptions, adding new information, or making linkages with other terms and phrases.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps4.Have Students Keep an Academic

Vocabulary Notebook• All terms and phrases are kept in one

academic notebook that has a or divider for each subject area. This would allow students to make comparisons between terms and phrases from different subject areas. The academic notebook might also have a "tab" or divider entitled "my words." In this section students would record terms and phrases of interest gleaned from their own reading experiences in or outside of school.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps5.Periodically Review the Terms and

Phrases and Provide Students with Activities That Add to Their Knowledge Base

• If students experience a new term or phrase once only, they will be left with their initial, partial understanding of the term or phrase. To develop deep understanding of the terms and phrases in their academic vocabulary notebooks students must be engaged in review activities.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps5. Periodically Review the Terms and

Phrases and Provide Students with Activities That Add to Their Knowledge Base

• Once a week or perhaps more frequently, students might be offered activities that add to their knowledge base about the terms and phrases in their notebooks.

Jefferson County School’s Academic Vocabulary *Vocabulary for grades 6-10 * Large collection of activities and games aimed at vocabulary development.

Marzano’s Vocabulary Instruction Steps5.Periodically Review the Terms and

Phrases and Provide Students with Activities That Add to Their Knowledge Base

• After each of these activities students should be asked to make corrections, additions, and changes to the entries in their notebooks. In this way, students' knowledge of the academic terms and phrases might deepen and become a sound foundation on which to understand the academic content presented in class.

The Blame Game

The Blame Game

• “It is unreasonable to expect that any student could acquire enough reading competence by the 5th grade to carry him or her through middle school, high school and life, almost half of the middle schools offer no systematic reading instruction or make it available for remedial readers or as an elective.”– Irvin and Connors, 1989

The Blame Game

• When struggling readers get to the middle grades, some middle school teachers blame elementary teachers. Even after the efforts of the middle school teachers, a few struggling students go on to high school, and the middle school teachers get blamed.

The Blame Game• WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

CERTAINLY NOT MINE . . .

The college professor said,"Such wrong in the student is a shame,Lack of preparation in high school is to blame."

Said the high school teacher,"Good heavens, that boy is a fool.The fault, of course, is with the middle school."

The Blame Game• WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

CERTAINLY NOT MINE . . .

The middle school teacher said,"From such stupidity may I be spared,They send him to me so unprepared."

The elementary teacher said,"The kindergartners are block-heads all.They call it preparation; why, it's worse than none at all."

The Blame Game• WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

CERTAINLY NOT MINE . . .

The kindergarten teacher said,"Such lack of training never did I see,What kind of mother must that woman be."

The mother said, "Poor helpless child, he's not to blameFor you see, his father's folks are all the same."

The Blame Game• WHOSE FAULT IS IT?

CERTAINLY NOT MINE . . .

Said the father, at the end of the line,"I doubt the rascal's even mine!"

Middle school teachers should think of their students as athletes at the beginning of their careers in reading, practicing basic content reading strategies until they become automatic. Students will gain the skills to become superstars in any subject.