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 What's Your Problem: Strategy 5.8 Problem:  Molly is accused of the murder of Mr. Black. The Grand Regency Hotel is where Molly works.  It is where Mr. Black dies, and where she interacts with people on a daily basis.  Molly is on the autistic spectrum.  Because the way her brain works, she has difficulty reading social cues.  In the past, her Gran would help her, but since her passing she does not have anyone to help navigate and interpret the events that are going on around her.  As a result, when she is questioned by the police regarding discovering Mr. Black's body. Though she is truthful, she is not forthcoming about all she has seen and heard.  In addition, because she is lonely and wants to fit in, she misinterprets other's actions, and therefore trusts the wrong people. Theme:  Prejudice Most people think of prejudice as a race or a culture thing.  But prejudice also occurs against people who go go against the grain, that functi...

On a different no As I progress through The Reading Strategies book by Jennifer Serravalino, I stumble through new and familiar strategies.  Strategy 5.4 is the good old plot map.  I added it to my sketch notes, in order to turn my sketch notes into a one pager.  Depending on the reader, this is an activity that be done as the reader progresses through the book, or at the end of the reading.  In the past, I have asked students to pick the five most important events only.  After, students can write a summary of the book if required. On a different note, at one of our professional developments, Penny Kittle spoke.  She briefed over thematic notebooks, in which students write to the theme based off the book they are reading.  Because books hold various themes throughout them, students can write to theme prompts reading a singular book.  (At least this is my understanding).  I created several theme notebooks to practice this.  I try to just ...

  This summer, I have been trying to go through Jennifer Serravallo's book The Reading Strategies.  I have always been a big fan of sketch-notes/one pagers, and have incorporated many of her strategies into them.   Strategy 2.16 Choose Books with your ID in Mind      I really liked this strategy because knowing what your likes and dislikes are, it is easier for students to find a genre that will interest them, thus making it easier for them to read.  If I think about building a reading habit, and thinking of James Clear's Atomic Habits , he states that habits should be attractive and satisfying.  Knowing what you like, and finding a book that fits your identity, not only makes the book both attractive and satisfying, but also allows the reader to better connect to the story and want to pick another book when completed.     2.17 Visualize to Focus This a great strategy to help readers visualize and make a movie in their mind's e...

The importance of instilling a love of reading in our students I discovered this book on social media - Instagram, to be exact.  As the librarian at my school site, I know my job is to promote reading.  I picked up this book in order to help generate ideas that I can implement at my school site.   Miller states at the beginning of her book that the goal of any teacher should be to create lifelong readers of our students.   Reading culture is not part of my school site or the community the school is located in.  Yet Miller talks about the importance of having reading role models.  This is an important part of teaching students to become life long readers.  She states:   By allowing students to pass through our classrooms without learning to love reading, we are creating adults (who then become parents & teachers) who don't read much.  . . .  they do not love to read and have few life reading habits to model for chi...

  Disruptive Thinking Chapter 15 of Disruptive Thinking is entitled The Power of Talk.  Beers and Probst discuss the difference between in monologic and dialogic questions.  Monologic questions have a right or best answer.  They require the student to pay attention to the text.   They remind me of closed questions - questions that you answer with a yes, no, and/or a fact.  Dialogic questions have no easy answer.  They entertain discussion.  Students don't know the answer question because there is no correct answer.  In addition, they require  the student to look for evidence to support their answer.  They also automatically compel the student to answer the question in a complete sentence.  To me, they remind me of an open ended question.  Questions like what surprised me about the text?  What did the author think I already know?   What challenged my thinking from reading the text?  Did reading this...

Disruptive Thinking  Disruptive Thinking, chapter 14, addresses reading the same book.  After reading study after study for an action research project regarding Accelerated Reader, all confirmed that students want free choice regarding book choice.  Beers and Probst also argue this - free choice means free choice!  Free choice leads to finishing a book, which could lead to that book becoming a students favorite book.  Free choice isn't reading levels.  However, teacher guidance must occur while students are silent reading..  They give an example of a student reading a book beyond her comprehension.  They asked the student if she liked the book, and she said "No".  They advised that if the student insisted on reading the book, they would advise her to listen to the audiobook while reading the book.     They go on to suggest to listen to an audio book as a class while students to follow along with the text..  However, t...

Disruptive Thinking      Chapter 13 of Disruptive Thinking is all about focused silent reading.  Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers  discusses the idea of 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert.  Ten thousand hours adds up to approximately 10 years.        We know that students who read for fun is on the decline.  As educators, we know that reading improves academic achievement, builds background knowledge and helps develop empathy and personal  identity.  All these things contribute to future employment and standard of living.  If students are not practicing reading on a daily basis, how can they ever be an expert? Students in the 30th percentile are reading approximately 1.8 minutes a day, being exposed to only 106, 000 words in a year.  Asking kids to read  just an extra 10 minutes a day would expose them to 556% more words. To be a reader, you must read.      ...

Disruptive Reading   Disruptive Thinking Chapter 12      I continue to slowly make my way through Disruptive Thinking by Kyleene Beers & Robert E. Probst.  (Let me be clear, my pace has nothing to with the book, and everything to do with other things that take precedent).  Like the previous chapter, and as they promote, I am reading with BOOK, HEAD, HEART.        In chapter 12, they discuss relevance vs. interest.  Interest is fleeting, relevance is interest taken to heart.  In order for students to not think school and reading is boring, as educators we need to make curriculum relevant.  We need to be asking students:  What do you want to know?      They go on to discuss a conversation between the authors and teachers.  A teacher states:  "But I can't always worry about relevance because I got curriculum to cover."  I know I have felt this when I was in the classroom, always a r...

  Disruptive Thinking      As the pandemic continues, I am seeking various ways to engage students in reading.  Most young people, my progeny included (to my chagrin), hate reading!      A research project for my TL credential repeatedly showed that students prefer to do  anything  else but read.  Beers and Probst assert that since 2010, students who enjoyed reading has continuously declined.  Many feel that it is a school activity only. Students find reading a chore, because it used to answer questions and validate opinions with evidence from the text, or to earn points for a grade.      Study after study shows that reading predicts school  success .  But equally important, reading opens our minds to various perspectives from our own.  It helps us to imagine how others feel and think by understanding their motivation for not just  their  actions, but beliefs.  As a result, reading r...