Conference Recap, Part 2: The Three Components Defining 'Readers as Thinkers'

Welcome back for Conference Recap, Part 2 discussing the three components defining 'Readers as Thinkers'! This post touches on reader voices, what it takes to make an inference and the Close-Reading framework. If you missed Part 1: Defining the Reading Range, and are interested in taking a peek, click HERE.

Three Components Defining 

'Readers as Thinkers'

Component 1~ Reader Voices: Reading, Thinking, Distracting
Looking for ways to make the reading process more concrete for students? Model the voices readers hear via "think aloud lessons" using Reading Voice, Thinking Voice and Distracting Voice signs signaling which voice you are modeling. Explicit think aloud lessons help students develop their own ability to monitor thinking while reading, which, in turn, enhances their comprehension. When I attended the Smekens Literacy Retreat last summer, I purchased the Reader Voice signs in the picture below. They have proved to be useful visual cues for my kiddos. (To purchase your own set, click HERE.)    

I absolutely love reading Elephant and Piggie books. They have such cute story lines and delightful characters. Kristina discussed this series as being a valuable tool for modeling reading and thinking voices, since the stories often show thought bubbles and speaking bubbles coming from the characters. 

Have you encountered students who believe reading relates to speed? Yes, it is true the more fluent of a reader, the better the comprehension. However, students who are *Nascar readers*, as Kristina explains, tend to read at full speed, but are not grasping the concepts or gist in their texts. They say, "I wasn't thinking, I was reading!" These are the students needing teacher support. Explain to students how good readers read a little, stop and have a thought. Then, read a little more, make a connection, a prediction and/or ask a question. Tell students the reason teachers ask questions and stop so often is to get students to think! :)

Having *reading thoughts* is part of reading, but this needs to be explicitly taught. Teachers must model reading thoughts! Teaching writing is no easy task, but it has a product and is visible learning for teacher and peer feedback. Reading, on the other hand, is more difficult to teach because it is invisible. Good practice is reading a page or two aloud to students, tagging stopping points about confusing vocabulary, questions you have and/or predictions that got answered because it allows students to see reading as visible process.  

Advice for teachers: DO NOT READ ON MUTE! Read, pause, retell, read, pause, think, ask questions, etc. out loud in front of students. Modeling this process and naming the voice being used (thinking voice, reading voice, distracting voice) is crucial.  Explain to students, 

"When you hear your distracting voice in your head, such as 'Boy, I'm getting hungry.  I wonder what's being served for lunch today?', you must turn that distracting voice on MUTE. Your thinking voice must tell your distracting voice to STOP. Your thinking voice must then apologize to your reading voice. Finally, reread your text to start thinking again."

To be honest, I have loads of conversations in my head. Though, most are unproductive and not worthy of sharing, it's nice to know I'm still sane. :)

Component 2~ Inferring and Making Inferences: What does it take to make an inference?
What does it take to make an inference? Having thoughts, of course! Tell students, "The conversation in your head means you're making inferences.  Take the text clues from your background knowledge and partner them up with new information. This equals an inference." Kristina claims there is no need to teach the skill of making inferences in a separate lesson because inferring can be taught in the middle of ALL lessons. In order to make this abstract idea become more concrete for students, Kristina recommends using hands-on manipulatives.

Kristina used the example of velcro representing background knowledge and new ideas, along with a small backpack of some sort representing schema. These items can help make the concept of inferences more tangible for students. She purchases a small amount of velcro, as well as mini backpacks or cell phone cases for each student. 

**Disclaimer: Before I begin this next paragraph, I must forewarn you I will probably not do this concept justice. Kristina has a way of flawlessly presenting the information. I've laughed to myself trying to make the following information sound coherent, but the struggle is real, people. Nonetheless, here I go. ;)

**As we all know, velcro has a smooth side and sticky side. Try (like I'm doing right now!) to explain to students to connect the familiar (background knowledge/sticky side of velcro) to the unfamiliar (new information/smooth side of velcro). New information sticks to nothing (smooth side of velcro) unless you rely on your background knowledge (sticky side of velcro) pulled from your brain backpack (schema). Tell students, 

"Connect what you know with what you don't know. Open up your brain backpacks, pull out and reference your background knowledge to stick it to the new learning. Then shove sticky velcro/new knowledge into your backpack. When you go to read, you have knowledge to stick it to using the reading and the thinking voice."

**Hopefully, you're able to understand the whole velcro analogy and how it relates to making inferences. Moving on! 

Kristina remarked on the importance of teachers needing to make time during class to allow students to turn and talk with peers. A suggested activity is to have students talk to a partner with toilet paper tubes (cheap and easy to acquire!) to whisper "thinking" thoughts. The picture below was used at the conference as an example. 

Another suggested idea was to create an anchor bulletin board for reading strategies which is comprised of snapshots of picture book covers read to introduce the particular strategy. The snapshots serve to trigger the lesson for the kids.  As an example, the black and white book covers next to two of the strategies are shown below. 

Overall, you must model how to read and replace students' current thoughts of *being on mute* with what good readers should be thinking. Teachers need to slow down to speed up. Slow down and model for students, so they can speed up throughout the rest of the year. These activities will definitely support their use of metacognition. 

Component 3: Close-Reading Framework
Last, but not least, is the close-reading framework. To better visualize the framework, envision a ladder that climbs down into a deeper and deeper part of the pool. The framework is only applicable to complex texts and should be taught early in the year. Realistically, students may participate in close-reading approximately two to three times per month, NOT daily!  

There are 3 PHASES of reading. This does NOT necessarily mean reading a text 3 times. Kristina states it may require students to read a text up to 4-6 times. The following images were given to attendees at the conference.

Phase 1: Determine what a text says

Bloom's Level of Learning: Knowledge & Comprehension 

Phase 2: Determine how text says it

Bloom's Level of Learning: Application & Analysis

Phase 3: Determine what the text means

Bloom's Level of Learning: Synthesis & Evaluation

The first read is always reading for the gist or the WHAT of the text. 

The second read is for craft and structure or the HOW of the text.

The third read is focused on the author's style and topic or the WHY the text matters. 

I picked up the resources in the picture below at the conference to help me better prompt my students and cue them on the 3 phases of close-reading with visual reminders.

Teachers should target reading skills in isolated comprehension mini-lessons followed by frequent close-reading experiences. Students need to be able to juggle reading skills, as well as their own thoughts/inferences, to fully comprehend a text. The best way to achieve this is to briefly teach every strategy at the start of the year and then build onto each strategy throughout the year using a year-long bulletin board. The bulletin board serves as a record of your lessons. 

As an example, Kristina mentioned creating a bulletin board filled with umbrellas and raindrops.  She stated, "Add an umbrella for every comprehension strategy and then add raindrop skills all year long."  When working with students, she introduces each umbrella's comprehension strategy at the start of the year. As the year progresses, she goes into more depth by adding reading skills represented on the raindrops that fall under each comprehension strategy.  Kristina doesn't teach the skills in any particular order and prefers to jump around basing the skills on the texts she chooses. If you're in a 1:1 technology district like me, an option is to create a digital bulletin board for students to reference throughout the year with Padlet! 

When teaching any skill in isolation, always use EASY text so students can focus on the skill without juggling text complexity. Never start with complex texts. Teach a few skills before jumping into a complex text.  For example, teach students how info-graphics add information beyond the text before having them read a complex text that is comprised mostly of info-graphics. Ultimately, if the six comprehension strategies are a big portion of your instructional foundation (which they should be), consider making them part of your physical space.

Well, there you have it. Hope you learned something new! I'll be back soon for Conference Recap, Part 3: Mini-Lesson Ideas for Reading Strategies.

Happy Wednesday!  

Literacy Retreat Session 6: Inferring Ideas from Visual and Multimodal Texts

Well, my summer vacation has ended.  Even though I will miss the warm days on the beach and at the lake house, as well as camping with my family, I'm ready to start another school year.  I can't believe this will be year 20 for me in education.  Boy, time flies.  Below is Session 6 from my Literacy Retreat mini-series which began earlier this summer.  If you would like to read about the first 5 sessions, click HERE to access them.  

Session 6: Inferring Ideas from Visual and Multimodal Texts
The session began with a discussion of the importance of students being able to infer ideas from visuals.  It is crucial to teach students how to READ and APPLY visual information in a text to support their comprehension.  Inferring ideas from visuals is not about kids creating videos or illustrations.  It is about teaching students to USE the information viewed to help them better understand the text. Teachers must differentiate between producing and interpreting visual information for students.  To do this, teachers need to broaden the definition of "text".  There are 4 types of visual and multimodal texts students should become aware of when reading: photographs, picture book illustrations, info-graphics and videos.

Photographs: 

What should teachers point out to or teach students?  Well, it's important to teach them that a photograph is someone's perspective on an event.  Get kids to question the photographer.  What is the message the photographer is trying to convey?  Authors are making choices and are leaving readers to infer.  Here is an example using Arnold Schwarzenegger as the subject: What is the photographer trying to convey on each magazine cover?
  
In addition, ask students, What digital "doctoring" did they do to the photograph (if any)?  For example, sometimes parts of images are turned black and white to magnify other parts of the photograph.  Why highlight or shade those parts?  Click HERE for the example given to attendees at the retreat of digital doctoring. 

Picture Book Illustrations: 

Picture books typically have hand-drawn illustrations, especially in graphic novels.  Sophisticated and complex illustrations or visuals are sometimes the *power* conveying meaning in the text.  Asking the following questions can start great conversations in the classroom: What can be inferred on pages with no text, only pictures?  How is the text integrated with the illustrations?  How is the page with the pictures laid out?  For example, teachers may point out how there is big text with small images, or vice versa.  Fox by Margaret Wild and Waiting for Mama by Lee Tae-Jun were suggested mentor texts that provide powerful visuals.

Info-graphics: 

Students need to pay attention to time lines, charts, diagrams, etc. Teach students how to READ all of the nonfiction text features a book has to offer.  Students can extract pertinent information from those graphics, so make sure they know not to just read the print within paragraph format.  Get students to infer ideas from the visuals. Many texts have lots of information displayed in a visual way.  Sometimes info-graphics *are the text*!

As you can see with the examples above, meaning doesn't come in just paragraph format.  Teachers must explain to students how information is shared with the reader within text features.  This strategy isn't only for students at the secondary level.  It must start at the pre-emergent levels as young as preK.  Here is something to think about.  Many questions on tests are taken from learning done within info-graphics, so wouldn't it be wise to teach students how to navigate those info-graphics?  Here is a graphic organizer you may find useful. 

Videos: 

On standardized assessments, students are often shown 2-3 minute video clips and are then expected to answer questions based on those clips.  Right?  Well, we were told at the retreat to show students short clips often in the classroom.  No, that doesn't mean watch full-length feature films, while you work on your lesson plans. It means, show students video clips that coincide with a text they are reading.  There is a certain power in short clips.  Teachers need to get kids articulating about what they see and hear, then put those observations into words to express the message of the video.  Teach students how to evaluate and interpret the message, along with how to track and take note of important parts of videos.  

I contemplated putting the following video into this post, while it sat in my drafts folder.  It is quite powerful and involves a car accident, so watch at your own discretion.  This video clip is certainly not something you would show little people, but it can give you a sense of how to interpret short video clips with your students.  A close reading discussion guide accompanies the video, since it was given to us at the retreat. 

Quite thought-provoking, right?  At the retreat, attendees were asked to listen to the clip and take notes on what we hear (no visual provided).  We were then asked to watch the video and take additional notes on what we see.  When implementing this with your students, keep in mind discussions should apply the close reading framework, which involves 3 phases: Understand the Message, Interpret the Message and Evaluate the Message.  Click the image below to download a copy for yourself. 

It was suggested teachers bring in visuals and videos for a half dozen of the units they teach to give students ample opportunities to practice.  Visuals allow students to capture the connections between the key details and can show the emphasis on key principles of a topic.  Videos promote ease of recording details and allow students to capture nuances within the clips.

It certainly is advantageous, when students record observations, they are able to watch the video multiple times.  It's considered *close reading* video-style.  Teach students how to take dual notes on what they see and what they hear.  Students may be asked to just "listen and not see" a video at first, like we were asked to do with the accident video.  

The Video Notes graphic organizer can help students encompass sounds heard through music, instruments, noises, volume and silence (which can be the most powerful), along with words spoken, shouted, whispered, sung, etc.  Students also embrace details in setting, characters, movements, transitions, pacing, along with printed text, scrolling, as well as overlaid and superimposed images in the background with their sense of sight.   

It's useful to have students collect and record observations on still/non-moving images before moving on to videos.  Make sure students can note observations, but not make interpretations at first. Students should be able to note the details of what they see in visuals, such as facets relevant to photographs (setting, objects, people, subjects, actions) and info-graphics (source, text, visuals, organization, data, main idea).  This is vital information!  Take note of how the visuals are laid out in the text.  Ask students, Are they in sequential, compare/contrast, or main idea/detail format?

VideoNot.es can be used with students for digital note-taking.  Click HERE and HERE for more information on how it works, but in general, this site pulls up a video, allows side bar space for note-taking and can be time stamped and re-used at a later date.  We were told SmarterBalance and PARCC use this type of system.  Additionally, Big Picture Apples to Apples is a recommended game to get students to make and take observations about illustrations.

Last, but not least, many of us are hearing about the power of *paired texts*.  Teachers need to remember that paired texts can and should include multimodal texts, not just books.  For example, paired texts could be a political cartoon connected to an article, or an info-graphic that can be compared to a short story, since they focus on the same topic.  Analysis is what students should be doing! Paired texts do not have to be two books.  How about text sets or multimodal text sets?  For example, have students compare The Giving Tree book to the 1973 movie read by Shel Silverstien and then, to the cartoon or claymation version of the book.  They're all different!

Overall, try to incorporate experiences of inferring ideas from visual and multimodal texts frequently throughout the year.  It's recommended students work on at least one text per week.  Teachers need to look for small-dose opportunities.  Have students *read* the illustrations of complex picture books and use animated movie shorts.  Ending a unit with a culminating video is fabulous review for the students!

Next up in the mini-series is Revitalizing the Writing Process and Using Mentor Texts to Teach Sentence Variety, so stay tuned. :)