Connie Henderson Instructional Strategies RE 5730 Dr. Moorman Spring 2011
Brozo, W. (2010). To be a boy, to be areader. Newark, N. J.: International Reading Association, Inc.
William Brozo’s book can be used as a source of ideas and strategies for teachers interested in motivating adolescent boys to become interested and engaged readers. However, Brozo wisely points out as he includes a female as one of the four students he highlights in his discussion of his Real Men Unit, “I included a female in this profile to make sure that teachers recognize the value of this unit (and others similar to it) for helping to clarify and transform girls’ attitudes toward boys and men. Girls, especially those whose lives are filled with negative male images, are also in desperate need of positive male images.” Following are just some of his strategies to use in classrooms.
My Bag is an activity in which students bring a bag or backpack filled with carefully selected items about themselves, their interests, their dreams, and their families. They have to think about themselves and how objects can tell their story and symbolize who they are. Brozo’s approach is to take items from the bag and have other students pose questions to the student about his bag. He does this to build questioning strategies and to encourage students to show genuine interest in their classmates. He is also trying to discover what is interesting to, especially the boys, so he can get reading material that will interest and motivate them.
I love this idea and I would use it if I were teaching. It would be a great way to begin the school year to help students get to know one another as I begin to get to know them. I might repeat it in January as a way to get back into the school routine and discover changes in my students and their lives. Of course as a teacher this serves another very important purpose: It allows the teacher to find out what each student is interested in. This is critical information for the teacher of adolescent boys who are often struggling readers. Knowing what interests them would help me find books as well as other types of text that would engage them as readers. It would help me build a classroom library that includes books of interest to struggling adolescent readers. I also think it is very affirming and motivating to know your teacher is truly interested in you and is trying to help you achieve success in the classroom. My Bag would be used before beginning reading.
William Brozo suggests Book Clubs as a way to engage struggling adolescent boy readers. His example is of a seventh grade remedial reading teacher who created a book club of seven boys who were two or more years behind in reading. Each boy had a negative attitude toward reading. The teacher contacted William Brozo for help. He directed her through emails. Brozo made it very clear that she must choose books based on the boys’ interests. This teacher chose to use an Interest Inventory to quickly find out their out-of-school interests. (This is another strategy Brozo discusses in his book. Interest Inventories can help a teacher quickly tap into students interests.). These students were given choices of ways they could share their books. The teacher also got William Brozo involved in email discussions with her students!
Based on what I read I would try Book Clubs with students if I were teaching. I would also recommend them to beginning teachers I might be asked to Mentor. I would absolutely give the students an Interest Inventory and find books they were interested in reading. Book Reports could be as creative as my students! I would require that the report must show they read and understood the book. I would attempt to find the struggling boys a male in the community or a boy in another school so they could conduct email discussions about the books. And I would try to get help for my students from the technology leader in the school, if needed, so they could creatively share and report on their books. Interest Inventories would be used before reading.
E-Book Talks are described in Brozo’s book as a strategy to engage struggling male adolescent readers, as they share a book they read, and encourage other students to read it. Book Club groups can create e-book talks. The talks feature an exciting moment, music, pictures, or an excerpt read with great expression. It is a personal introduction similar to a movie trailer: a condensed advertisement designed to entice students to read a book. E-book talks can be archived on the classroom computer ready to be enjoyed by others.
At this point William Brozo’s book made me wish I had a class to try this with! Students are so technology savvy this would be as easy for them as reading is for me! They could help me! I do have a neighbor who teaches seventh grade. I plan to share this book with her. If I had a class or if I were advising a beginning teacher I would try this out. It’s a perfect alternative to a traditional book report and a perfect strategy for cooperative learning. In directing boys to books that would interest them I would use Brozo’s “10 positive male archetypes to guide adolescent boys through the archetypal world of the male psyche.” At the back of his book I would use the Appendix that lists each type and gives books under each that are: adolescent novels, informational books, easier reading, and graphic novels. I believe this approach would beeffective as well as exciting for students and teachers! E-Book Talks would be used after reading.
Dymock, S., & Nicholson, T. (2010). "high 5!" strategies to enhance comprehension of expository text. The Reading Teacher, 64(3), 166-178.
This article contains strategies students use to get information they need from expository text. Here, a comprehension strategy is seen as a plan or technique students use to get information they need from text.The five strategies they suggest have published studies that support their use. The authors cite the sources in this article. The goal of the authors is to show how to teach students the 5 strategies they thinkare the most important. The five strategies are: 1. Activating BackgroundKnowledge,2. Questioning (one’s self before and during reading), 3.Analyzing Text Structure (key words, subheadings, labels, captions, glossaries), and Descriptive Structures. (They focus on the attributes of something, the qualities that distinguish it from other things. For example,patterns students encounter most frequently are: list, web, and matrix. While a list or a web describes just one thing, a matrix compares and contrasts two or more topics. There are also Sequential Structures, Cause-Effect Structures, and Problem-Solution Structures.),4.Creating Mental ImagesGraphic organizers used in strategy 3 help students get a visual structure in their minds. Authors of the article point out that this is not a mental picture. They believe pictures fade and details get lost. Their image is the actual structure, the “ribs and bones” of the text. 5. SummarizingBy identifying Strategy 3, the text structure, students can make a diagram of the structure. Critical ideas can be selected and used to summarize the material orally, visually, or in writing.
The full article gives examples of all the maps needed for expository texts. Also included is a High 5 Comprehension Bookmark. To clarify the process a lesson is included, step by step with what a teacher and students might say. If I were teaching I would try this. As a Mentor I would guide a beginning teacher through this processbecause I can see the value to students. The example lesson was from science, but the method is adaptable across all expository texts. This would take time, but it would be time well spent. I would post examples of the maps in the room for students to look at as we discussed which map we might need to use. I would also give students a copy of the High 5 ! Comprehension Strategies Bookmark. It reminds students the strategies are: 1. Activating background knowledge, 2. Questioning, 3. Analyzing text structure, 4. Creating mental images, and 5. Summarizing. The example lesson includes opportunities for students to turn and talk with a partner before the teacher has a class discussion.With enough practice I can see how students could internalize this process for expository text. Students could take these strategies with them into their future and use them to make sense of expository text.These strategies can be used in all stages of reading.
Buehl, D. (2005). Classroom strategies for interactive learning. Newark, N.J.: International Reading Association.
Character Quotes can be usedto study characters in literature or real people in social studies texts. The teacher chooses one character from the text and quotes that portray different elements of the character’s personality. For younger students when using a shorter book the teacher may have to suggest something that character might have said. Each quote is written on a piece of paper. Students are organized into cooperative groups of three or four. Groups brainstorm as many words as possible that might describe that character based on the quote. Then each group reads their quote to the entire class and shares their list of character traits and qualities. The teacher then reveals that all the quotes were about the same character. Groups then work to make a personality profile of the character. After reading the text students can compare their profiles to the character, make additions or changes. Students can reflect on the character in their journal writing.
I would use this as a pre-reading activity in social studies or reading. It would foster prediction, discussion, vocabulary development, cooperative learning, and interactive reading. To keep students thinking, the second time I used it I would use quotes from 2 characters who were very different (without telling them!). After our discussion and reading the text they could use 2 columns or a Venn Diagram in their journals to compare and contrast the 2 different characters. In addition I would give them some directions about what I wanted to read in their journals so I could assess what they gained from the activity. Then they could add other reflections. When I checked journals I could see if they understood the character(s) we read about. This strategy would be used before and after reading.
Buehl, D. (2005). Classroom strategies for interactive learning. Newark, N.J.: International Reading Association.
Magnet Summaries identify the key terms or concepts-magnet words- from a reading passage. Students use these key words to create a summary. To introduce the concept of magnet words the teacher leads the class to note the effect a magnet has on metal. Like a magnet, key words attract information. Try to help students see in Science and Social Studies often, though not always, magnet words might be in bold or italic type. Students will look at text and find magnet words. The teacher models writing the word(s) in rectangles on the board or on the overhead. Students have index cards and complete their cards as they follow the teacher. Detail words or phrases are written around the magnet words. Students continue till they have 4 or 5 cards. The teacher shows students how to use the details on each card to write a sentence that sums up that idea representing a passage from the text. It might be best to work out these sentences on another piece of paper first. Students may work together to write sentences which will eventually go on the back of each card. Then sentences can be arranged and read to summarize the entire text that was read. A summary can be written from these cards working on connecting and combining ideas so they flow smoothly.
I would use magnet summaries in Science or Social Studies. I would spend time teaching text features first. At first I would pre-read the passage or section of the book helping students identify true magnet words. For the first couple of times I would probably allow students to complete the process with me, discussing and asking questions as we worked through the process. Next I would ask them to supply the magnet words and allow them to work together to complete the details on the front and a sentence on the back of their cards. I would monitor their work and check on their understanding. After that we would share, correct, and discuss their work. Eventually they should be able to work together to complete the process with little help from me. Their cards would be a good study and review activity when preparing for a test. The summaries of their cards would be good to record in their journals. Magnet summaries would be used during and after reading.
Buehl, D. (2005). Classroom strategies for interactive learning. Newark, N.J.: International Reading Association.
An Anticipation Guide is a strategy using statements about major ideas from text to be presented to students. The statements activate students’ thoughts and opinions before the text is read and can activate students’ prior knowledge. Anticipation Guides can also build curiosity about a new topic and set a purpose for reading. They can be used in any content area as well as for nonprint material. Anticipation Guides can have four to six statements and should be tailored to the age of the students. Statements are written that the students agree with or that challenge what students know because of a lack of knowledge or a lack of complete understanding. Student responses may be Yes/No, True/False, or students may be asked to agree or disagree related to a scale indicating how strong their feelings are. A good practice in the lesson is to allow students to discuss their opinions and beliefs before and after the lesson. Students may be asked to write a supporting statement with each answer. After the text is read the teacher reviews their answers with students.
I would use, and advise beginning teachers to use Anticipation Guides, for specific purposes in Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies. They can activate prior knowledge and engage students in predicting and reading to confirm their predictions. Their thinking may be challenged and they may gain new information. Anticipation Guides could be very effective for read aloud books. I would choose books depending on what my objective was at the time. Teaching students about tolerance and getting along with others was an on-going theme in my teaching. Depending on the curriculum or a problem I had among my students, I would choose a good read aloud that would lead students into the thinking and behaviors that would help them and our classroom atmosphere. In Science and Social Studies Anticipation Guides could help me find out what my students thought they knew before our study. This is a perfect strategy to use to promote student discussion. Anticipation Guides could help students stay curious as they try to confirm their own thinking. One follow-up activity would be to have them write about what they thought before compared to after the text was presented. Anticipation Guides would be used in all stages of reading.
Buehl, D. (2005). Classroom strategies for interactive learning. Newark, N.J.: International Reading Association.
Jigsaw is a strategy that involves students reading different selections or parts of text then sharing what they learned with a group and/or the whole class. It can be a way to differentiate among students matching the level of difficulty to students’ skills in reading. Students are organized into Jigsaw groups of 3-6, depending on the class and material used. Each student is given a text to read and study, in effect becoming an expert in that area. Students are regrouped so those assigned to the same selections can compare notes and discuss what they learned. Groups can be given a concept map or a graphic organizer to combine and organize information. Or older students might use Post It Notes to record information.These are copied by the teacher. The next day students reassemble into their original Jigsaw groups of students representing each area of text. Students use the information created and photocopied by the teacher to teach their Jigsaw group about their part of the information. Jigsaw groups discuss all the areas of the information. All members are responsible for teaching their information and learning other group members’ information. The Jigsaw strategy can help teachers differentiate as it helps students organize ideas, ask questions, discuss text, learn cooperatively, and engage in interactive reading.
I would use, or advise a teacher to use, the Jigsaw strategy across the curriculum. In Reading groups could investigate, authors, types of poetry, genres, themes in books, or characters. Jigsaw would be perfect in Science or Social Studies. Teachers can obtain leveled texts on the same topic. For example, schools buy a license from Science a-z.org. Then they can access materials on individual topics written on 3 levels. Students would have the opportunity to work on their level and benefit from harder material in a supported cooperative group. I taught younger students, so I would do pre-teaching of cooperative behaviors to prepare the class for this activity. I found for mastery to occur I had to present informationseveral times in several ways. After student groups presented and discussed information these could be used as tools to study for tests. I might also try having the Jigsaw groups try to create a good test for the material. I would supply acceptable guidelines for types of questions and length of test. I have had students try to create tests. They are required to think deeply about what is important and how to ask questions that really assess understanding. While creating a test they are reviewing and organizing their thinking. Jigsaw is used as a strategy during and after reading.