Learning Unit 1 Group Discussion Of the reading and viewing selections this week, I found myself continually drawn

to those addressing nonfiction in the classroom library, parts of Duke, Chapter 2, and the in-class hand out, The Classroom Library. This is likely due to the fact that developing and maintaining a stellar classroom library is a constant goal of mine. Having shifted from 5th to 3rd grade, with an 11 year gap between the assignments, my first 2 years back, I focused on learning about what made for the best 3rd grade selections and working to get them into my collection. The last 2 years I have spent working to add (always add) as well as organize books in a way that makes sense for students and allows them the greatest amount of browsing and reading independence. One thing I took on last summer to promote this independence and make a real world connection, was to rearrange my class nonfiction section according to the new system of organization to which our public libraries recently converted. Both articles include a set of guidelines for selecting quality texts. The guidelines are similar, with Dukes list including considerations of text type (best fit for instructional purposes), and input from students, colleagues, and public reviews. Dukes article credits Sudol and King for an earlier list, and out of curiosity, I retrieved the cited article to confirm that it was written by Peg Sudol, former GVSU professor, and my Teaching Assistant supervisor, and Caryn King, currently with GVSUs Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Their 1996 article in The Reading Teacher includes a checklist form that can be used to evaluate texts using the criteria of Accuracy, Organization and Layout, Cohesion of Ideas, and Specialized Vocabulary. Each area has a list of points, with the evaluator giving a 1-3 point score to the text in each category. While the form is more work intensive than I would likely use while adding to my classroom collection, it does have some good, specific points to consider. One example is in considering whether topic specific vocabulary is defined in the text as it is introduced, supported with text features such as pictures, captions, labels, etc, and included in a glossary. Duke recommends avoiding categories of fiction and nonfiction in our thinking about text, and uses instead narrative, informative, and other genres. The author states that the purpose of the text, the way it is generally read, its typical organization, and other key features are more important distinctions than whether the text is true or not (pg. 32). I would add that thinking about the readers purpose(s) for selecting a text is also important. Rosenblatts Reader Response Theory emphasizes that readers approach text with either an aesthetic or an efferent stance, looking for either experience or information. It is the reader who determines stance, not the text, and like the child who reads the informational cookbook for entertainment, we must consider many possible options for our young readers. As teachers it is good to think broadly when choosing topics and texts to include in our classrooms. I often try to maximize my investment by loading up on multiple texts that support my specific teaching units, but need to work more toward broadening the topic selection of non-fiction (informative) texts.

Learning Unit 2 Group Discussion Learning Vocabulary in the Content Areas While the chapter 1 material certainly helps establish the theoretical framework for vocabulary instruction, I find myself always drawn to the practical aspects of a chapter offering specific strategies, so chapter 5 is my focus. I am not sure that I had considered vocabulary in the categorical way that

Blachowicz and Fisher present it. As stated, vocabulary words fall into one of three groups: known words with new meanings, new words for new concepts, and new words for known concepts. Thinking about these categories helps focus instruction on connecting new terms, prior schema, or new schema as necessary. The tasks are different in each example. Several of these strategies offer a good fit with my grade level. Illustrating ANYTHING is an effective way to connect comprehension with visual and kinesthetic processing, and we do much graphic representation in class. Id like to expand my practice of this, perhaps having students illustrate science concepts in a visual dictionary of sorts. We frequently act out concepts-my favorite is the small group enactment of photosynthesis-and I do believe that the thought process that goes into deciding how to represent a concept fosters and cements understandings, and provides a great experiencememory anchor for the concept. The Possible Sentences idea is intriguing to me. I tend to use this method informally in discussion and class instruction to maximize student interest in the doesnt fit, doesnt make sense mind grabber. I had not thought of having students create the impossible sentences before, but know that in order to create impossible sentences, students need to understand what is possible with a word. (This reminds me of a middle school social studies teacher I had who would give you an A+ if you could get every single question on a unit test wrong. He knew that you had to know the material well to answer every question incorrectly.) Concept maps are something I have used, but the reminder to use them with vocabulary instruction is excellent. I used to use an activity called Organize This Mess which presented a set of terms and asked the students to sort them into groups. I use sorting frequently in word study to aid students in identifying and learning word spelling patterns, but have gotten away from using it in concept development. With my classroom SMART board, this would be a particularly flexible and engaging activity, and the opportunity to represent connections between concepts would be especially powerful. Related reading : The Art and Science of Teaching / Six Steps to Better Vocabulary Instruction by Thomas Marzano, appearing in ASCDs Educational Leadership, September 2009: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept09/vol67/num01/Six-Steps-toBetter-Vocabulary-Instruction.aspx

Strategies: I am looking forward to trying Word Splash, which is a vocabulary based version of the Text Impressions activity that we did in class. Asking students to create their own predictive text anchored with target vocabulary activates schema and elevates reading engagement. One of my goals for the upcoming school year is to locate and develop a cache of supplementary short text/trade book readings to complement our science units. Word Splash would serve as a terrific companion activity to highlight the science content vocabulary. Giving students the chance to manipulate and experiment with words is a powerful way to build schema.

Learning Unit 3 Group Discussion

Gucciones Inquiry Articles I love inquiry. I love the idea, the authenticity, the harnessing of student curiosity and interest to enable learning. I want to be an all day, all year inquiry teacher. I am not there yet. Guccione offers up some inspiring analysis and examples of inquiry learning in the two Reading Teacher articles. The title of the first, In a World of Mandates, Making Space for Inquiry, encapsulates much of the challenge involved in this type of learning. With multiple requirements from multiple directions and ever-changing structures of standards and curriculum, it can be daunting to put this type of learning in place. Last summer I had the privilege of hearing Ron Berger, phenomenal educator and Chief Academic Officer of Expeditionary Learning, speak and present on the topic at the Birmingham Learning Conference. I came home fired up to explore and implement this type of project based learning in my classroom. After the year started, however, I struggled to find ways to fit full-on inquiry into our existing curriculum. Attempting to infuse the sense of exploration inherent in this type of learning, I leaned toward more immersion and exploration models (see the description of our Award Winner book unit in my comment on Kirstins post.) I was feeling dissatisfied with the toe-in-the-water approach I felt I was taking. Berger had his 5th grade students conducting a well water analysis, pairing with a local college lab, and reporting results out to local families in the small town where he teaches. The thought was breathtaking, but I was struggling to find time and space to create something so authentic and immersive. Looking back on the year, I feel my only true complete project-based success came in the form of a fundraiser that our grade level created for the partner school in Haiti that served as Bretons community service focus this year. Each grade level was asked to create and conduct a fundraiser. Ours was a note card sale, wherein we photographed student art work, designed notecards, created ordering and distribution systems, marketed the product, and conducted the sale. Our team presented the project as a business, describing the function of different departments. Students bid for the departments they wished to serve in (Graphic Design, Marketing, Accounting, Logistics, Order Forms, and Project Management), and met during lunch and recess to complete their tasks. The project took a full month longer than anticipated, but we were able to raise $700 in profit, turn out a quality product, and expose kids to the type of real world business and philanthropy experience. Gucciones examples showed some manageable ways to integrate inquiry with existing standards. The example of the second grade inquiry afternoon project was heartening. Guccione describes working alongside a system that required less constructivist teaching, with an assignment that met current standards and invited student interest and curiosity to play a large part of the work. I was especially struck by the level of response created in this format which opened students to more genuine conversations, engaging them at an emotional level because they were supporters of their own subject matter. In her commentary on the effect of inquiry on the literacy skills of English learners, I could not help but reflect on the increased literacy practice opportunities for many different students. We do certainly host English learners each year. The autistic spectrum and myriad other special education students that are placed in my room are generally in need of language support and verbal development, and the type of peer conversation that takes place in inquiry is excellent practice. Many general education students also need and benefit from this increased opportunity to communicate in verbal, visual, and written formats.

Group Discussion: I would love to hear about the ways my group members have already or plan to implement inquiry projects into their classrooms.

For more on Expeditionary Learning and Ron Berger: http://elschools.org/ http://www.edutopia.org/user/255536 Berger R. (2003). An ethic of excellence: Building a culture of craftsmanship with students. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Strategies I was smiling when watching the Reaction Review Guide PowerPoint when Professor Page said that this strategy is like the Anticipation/Reaction Guide but with the addition of asking students to finding textual support for their answers. I had already made that modification when I tried the Anticipation/Reaction Guide as my first strategy in order to coincide with our schools push in that direction across the curriculum. Id like to hybridize these 2 strategies into a format that leaves space for students to comment in writing on the textual examples by both writing about and citing their findings. I see, I wonder, I know is an interesting strategy, especially in light of the highly visual and text feature heavy books that are available for children in all topic areas. I am thinking of the DK and Eyewitness style texts that saturate the market. Students are drawn to these books for information, research, and pleasure reading, but often seem to visually skim over pages without engaging more deeply. There have been many instances where students have looked over a section of a book like this in search of specific information and reported to me that they could not find what they were looking for. Upon further probing, we find that the desired information is there on the page, but the student did not stay long enough and delve deep enough to find it. The SWK strategy might model for them how to pull more information from this type of text.

Learning Unit 4 Group Discussion Text Structures The readings, power points and strategies in this unit revolve around explicit teaching of text structure, and I am compelled to respond to and reflect on the unit as a whole. As we evolve our teaching to meet the literacy demands that students face now and in the future, solid instruction about and around expository text becomes increasingly more important. I was fortunate to have been influenced by a forward thinking principal upon my return to teaching 4 years ago, and that, coupled with my beginning Masters studies, pushed me to begin digging more deeply into teaching expository text. On reflection I feel my strengths have been in teaching text features, in including much nonfiction

text across the curriculum, and in continuing to add nonfiction selections to our class library. However, I think Ive focused on text patterns more in the area of writing, than in reading. One focus this year in our building was to build in the use of graphic organizers to help writers organize and compose. To that end, our reading specialist created text structure posters for our classroom walls, and we referred to those that we worked with in our writing lessons. I frequently use compare/contrast structures in our science work, again primarily as an observational tool or to structure science writing, but I do not feel Ive done well in direct reading instruction of these various text structures. It looks like its time to dig in. Reflecting on the why I have not thought to teach these structures explicitly, Im wondering if this might be an effect of not having been taught this way myself, of not thinking of text in these terms as a learner. Considering that we in this program are all accomplished readers and writers, one does not likely pursue a Masters in Reading without having those skills in pretty solid condition, it feels odd to admit that I have not spent enough time thinking about the structure of text. Surely my undergrad degree in English had me pulling text apart up one side and down the other, but honestly, I think it was primarily work in fictional genres, or on language at a micro level (words, sentences.) Or maybe I just forgot. It happens. Moss quotes a figure from Daniels saying that 70-80% of standardized reading test material is nonfiction, which is an eye opener. (I am wishing I had monitored that estimate in my students most recent MAP testing session.) However, while it is desirable to prepare students for the assessment tasks they will be asked to undertake, I strongly believe that it is the real world reading that our students must do that we need to teach and support. Whether you are looking at the academic reading tasks ahead of them (at the third grade level, my students have 9 more years of expository text to tackle just to make it to their high school diploma), or at the text they will need to process for jobs, information, planning, and general life navigation, it is easy to understand the need to teach students how to go about reading, understanding and using these texts.

Strategy Demos Analyzing my familiarity and comfort level with the various text structures listed in this weeks readings, I feel that Im strong on sequence and compare/contrast, but less confident when it comes to cause/effect, so I was most interested in the work with this structure. I very much appreciated the modeling with the frog text, and want to try this type of instruction with students (next yearsigh.) After reading excerpts in class, I purchased Guiding readers through text (Wood et al. 2008) and was interested to see how it addressed text pattern work. In chapter 18 the authors reference Vaccas work in text structure. They go on to briefly describe the process of analyzing a text for pattern then explicitly teaching the terms and guiding students to locate and understand the pattern. While it is not a very indepth treatment of text patterns, this chapter does offer an overview and a nice manipulative activity to go along with the cause/effect structure. After leading students to identify a series of cause/effect statements, the teacher develops cause/effect puzzle cards that students can match to help remember concepts as well as practice with the pattern. Although this activity is ideally suited for primary grades, the authors and I agree that it is a technique that could be used at any level, with increasingly more difficult material.

Learning Unit 5 Group Discussion

Having recently read Heaths Ways With Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms, I was interested to see that Vaccas discussion of diverse language populations included culture and dialect differences, not just English learner groups. One of the things that struck me while reading all of this weeks articles was the fact that the vocabulary support and instruction mentioned would be universally beneficial to all students. Many of our challenged readers come to school with low vocabulary stores. Explicit instruction, focus on cognate awareness, and building a culture of consciousness about words and word knowledge are methods that would benefit English learners, struggling readers, and the general population alike. If, as Beck and McKeown state, knowing a word is an ongoing process, than we are never done learning about words. The model Vacca presents for teaching with cultural awareness is thought-provoking in its depth. As I began to read the ABCs of Cultural Understanding and Communication box, I thought I was reading about a class assignment/project. I was impressed to discover that the assignment was actually for the teacher. What a powerful way to develop an authentic and personalized appreciation for a students family and culture. One aspect of this project that I loved is the avenue into, not just an assumed or projected image of a particular culture, but a very specific instance, that is one familys history, values, and experience. What might we be able to accomplish if we had time to do this kind of research into each of our students lives? While I found all 3 of this units strategies appealing, I am most interested in the Ten Important Words Plus activity and definitely plan to give it a try in the fall. I love the social nature of the word discussion, love the visual of the graph made with post-it notes (and the practice with graphing-I would label and leave that up throughout our unit of study!), love the summary practice, and also love the follow up plus activities. This feels like a wonderful example of exploration and play with words, while focusing on concept vocabulary.

Learning Unit 6 Group Discussion Making Time for Non-Fiction Read Alouds Sibbersons article addresses thoughts that have been evolving for me over the last several school years. As I mentioned in earlier discussion board posts, I have worked hard to expand my classroom nonfiction selections and to organize and share them in ways that are appealing to kids. I realized also, that in the past, I was not using enough nonfiction in a read aloud sense; like Sibberson, I was primarily implementing NF when it connected to current topics of study. I am getting better at that, as I have added to my collection, but my improvement comes in narrower categories than Id like to admit. While taking EDR 622, I fell in love with picture book biographies and have been adding to my collection ever since. This became my first significant way in to reading NF aloud, and it is still a form I love. Many of these books have stellar narrative and illustrations, with excellent author notes to inspire further inquiry. This year we read about Jacques Cousteau (Manfish), Annie Taylor (Queen of the Falls), Wangari Maathai (Mama Miti), Jim Henson (JH: The Guy Who Played with Puppets), Galileo (Starry Messenger), Jane Goodall (The Watcher), Major Taylor (MT, Champion Cyclist), Helen Keller (HK: The World in Her Heart), MLK Jr. (Martins Big Words), Coretta Scott King (Coretta Scott), and probably a few I am forgetting. In the past I have read short pieces from memoir collections, for example from Gary Paulsens My Life in Dog Years, and I would very much like to do more of that type of reading in the

future. Partly to share more quality NF, partly because I know the power of reading part of a book aloud, and the scramble that happens to see who will get their hands on the book first to read the rest. Ive also successfully used science and social studies related books to connect or expand on content area topics-Steve Jenkins is a favorite author for science and there are many great Michigan themed books to share. Slowly, Im getting better at sharing books just because Im excited about a recent find, which of course is the type of book love I want to model and pass on. My summer thinking about the NF section of our library needs to include some intentional planning for read alouds. I love taking grad classes like this one that offer so many great title suggestions, and I follow several blogs that do the same. Id be interested to hear any suggestions my group has about titles they consider must reads in their classes.

Puzzle Paragraphs I cannot wait to try this strategy with students, talk about truly constructive learning! As I worked through the Weather text in the task, I found myself thinking through so many great considerations regarding text structure and content. This is a strategy that would take time, especially the first time through, but it is power packed with great thinking. I teach a NF text unit in the fall, where we first immerse ourselves in many, many examples of text, discovering text features and examining their purpose. I then have students choose and research a topic that interests them and create a large sample page of NF text about that topic. This activity would be great before students create their own page, as a way to explore how a text can be assembled. The pre-created pieces allow students to focus on structure and design rather than content and would provide a great rehearsal before students create their own pages. I always have them create their page pieces separately, so they can arrange and affix everything at the end, which lines up perfectly with this activity. These files are going directly into my materials folder for my NF unit!