So, school is out, and yet, I can't stop working. Like any addict, I tell myself I can stop at any time...but I'm beginning to doubt it.
This week's project has been to create flashcards that correspond with our Kindergarten level reading material. Students in my class range in reading ability from kinder to 5th grade, and in only 90 minutes of reading instruction per day, we have to address all of those needs. Challenge Accepted!!
My kinders use a curriculum that is delivered through Direct Instruction. Each day, students participate in a set of routines that provide modeling and opportunity for guided practice. Part of those routines, for students at the Kindergarten level, includes reading sounds and sounding out words. The thing that makes this different from many basal reading programs, however, is its use of a presentation manual that lists both the letters and words the students will sound out alongside the script to be used by the teacher. The result? An overwhelming amount of text on a page. The solution? Flashcards!
By putting each student-response prompt (letter or word image) onto its own unique card, we remove the excess stimulus and allow the student the chance to focus on the priority task. And eventually, we can teach important text reading skills, like how to prioritize what gets the most attention on a page, and why things like small print, bold print, images, and captions are important. But for now, we can isolate the thing that should be getting our focus.
Items needed for this project:
1) shoe-box sixed clear plastic bin
2) 2,400 index cards
3) 6 black, wide-tipped permanent markers
4) 2 red, wide-tipped permanent markers
5) Curriculum text
6) Labels (80 per page)
Most of the creation process here is straightforward. I copied the student prompts directly from the text, including weird letter shapes and colors (this is why we need red ink, too). The weird letter shapes are because in this system, students are taught one-to-one symbol/sound correspondence from the start (see qu, er, and wh images above). 2,400 index cards later...I'm dreaming about them!
The trick came in when trying to connect the student prompts with the teaching script. Solution: create sticker labels for the back of each student word-reading card that tells which corresponding teacher script/routine should be used. So, I created an icon and title for each of the basic repeated routines. First, I typed out the routines onto half-pages, then created matching labels. Now all I have to do is put the label on the back of the card.
Next step is to create some training videos so that all the teachers on my team can get a head start on the routines for this school year! You can check out my professional web page at http://staff.rentonschools.us/the/raj .
So your child just brought home a clear bag filled with books, post-it notes, and a letter from their ever-zealous teacher declaring how important it is that they read and leave tracks of their thinking.
What?
This week, I introduced the children to the idea that good readers leave tracks of their thinking. For several days, I have modeled how I think as I read. I am constantly thinking. In fact, I told students, the most important thing about your reading is your THINKING about the text.
Here's a simple representation:
Think about a salad. Not a complicated salad, just a run of the mill lettuce-and-tomato deal. A big bowl full to overflowing with lettuce and tomatoes. Yum.
Now-- what is there more of in that typical bowl of salad. Lettuce? or tomatoes?
Generally the answer is lettuce.
When we think as we read, we do two major kinds of thinking.
Right There
Some of the thinking we do as we read is recalling or remembering. The information right there in what the text says or the pictures show us is important. But recalling or remembering is only a small part of really comprehending what we read. That's why our recalling and remembering are like the tomatoes of the salad-- they aren't a salad all alone, but a salad isn't a salad without them, either. (Whew! How's that for circular reasoning?) Right there thinking is important, but we also need connections, predictions, and inferences to really deepen our understanding to comprehension.
In Your Head
Those connections, predictions, and inferences you make as you read often take place In Your Head. You might never say them out loud at all, but that doesn't make them unimportant! Helping students become aware that they think as they read can be a tricky task. That's why we've taken the sticky notes in hand, in hopes of becoming more metacognitive learners-- thinking about our thinking!
If your child is having trouble identifying thinking in their head, and are stuck on telling what is happening just like the text says or the pictures show, you might point out that In Your Head thinking might sound like one of these things:
-- "I wonder if..."-- "Because.........., I think ................... will happen next..."
-- "Oh, I get it now...!"
-- "At first I thought................., but now I think....................... ."
-- "What would happen if...?"
-- "Why?"
-- "This is good because..."
-- "This is like the time that..."
-- "This reminds me of..."
Because thinking about thinking is tricky, it can be a slow process acquiring the skills to identify thinking as it's happening. Leaving tracks of your thinking is important to young readers as they learn to value their thoughts as the other critical element of comprehension.
It's unlikely, at first, that students will really be able to identify more "lettuce" than "tomato" in their thinking. That's okay. But feel free to ask your child, "Is that tomato-text or lettuce-thinking?" Encourage them to use the sticky notes to write down the thinking that is happening in their head, then attach it to the page where that thinking took place.
The Real World Connection
Very rarely do adults read text simply for the sake of recalling it later. Most often, we read to gain information that will help us make a decision or complete a process (like putting together new furniture or filing our taxes). Being able to read for information involves taking what we read and personalizing it for use ("Oh. I need to turn this board around before I screw it to the other one."; "My husband's email says we're out of milk. That means I need to buy more on the way home."). In order to do that, students need to get comfortable with the idea of actively engaging text, and learning what it means to dig in and understand.
Clearly, we are at the very early stages of this process with our young readers. Thank you so much for engaging with your child as he or she reads at home, and for supporting their learning with your time and energy resources! And thank you for supporting our class!
