kellykwaller-blog

[kellykwaller-blog]

Day 1

Session: 1

Timothy Shanahan- Reconceptualizing Reading and Reading Instruction

Big Idea

In this presentation Shanahan challenged the belief that reading is based upon a set of skills that we can evaluate via asking questions (e.g. find the main idea, make a prediction, compare/contrast).  He brings up the notion that the “skills” that are typically addressed in standards and standardized testing are not truly able to be evaluated and do not actually assess a students ability to read. He presented a study that evaluated the correlation between student ACT scores and the types of questions asked and it found no difference between types of questions. Differentiation did however emerge when difficulty of texts were taken into account. 

How I can apply it

Remind teachers that the standards are not simply a check list of lessons to teach.  The standards should appear congruently with rigorous content acquisition and focus on the 5 components of reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.  While we want students to be able to find a main idea or be able to compare and contrast two ideas, they will ultimately not be able to do this if they do not have a firm grasp on the Five Components of Reading.  Now, as texts become more complex, teachers have to ensure that students have an opportunity to learn challenging new vocabulary, connect to relevant background knowledge, and engage in meaningful discussion or writing following reading.  

Session: 2

Jan Hasbrook-”Reading Fast is the Goal. Right? Let’s Revisit Reading Fluency and ORF

Big Idea

Dr. Hasbrook focuses her work on identifying and teaching fluency in schools. She defines fluency as reasonably accurate reading, of appropriate rate, with suitable expression that leads to deep comprehension and motivation. She broke down how each part of this definition works together to create the full skill of fluency.  Hasbrook then addresses common misconceptions about fluency, specifically that ORF (oral reading fluency) is able to identify student fluency on its own.  ORF is a tool that can and should be used as an indicator of fluency and overall comprehension but doesn't not function in isolation, 

How I can apply it

We have recently been considering how we can better identify and support students in secondary schools with reading comprehension.  ORF was an idea we had been considering and now I can identify the research to support it.  Research stated in the presentation demonstrated the correlation between the Woodcock-Johnson reading comprehension test and ORF to be .91%.  This is extremely high in the world of education.  If all schools were able to give students an ORF to help identify students who are most likely to be struggling with reading comprehension, they would be better able to provide Tier 2 instructional support. 

Session: 3

Timothy Shanahan- Teaching Students to Read Complex Texts

 Big Idea

There has been a long debate between whether texts should be taught at a students instructional level or at grade level.  Lots of schools have operated under the idea that students should be met at their individual reading level: this has been debunked.  Dr. Shanahan spent the first half of this presentation sharing where the instructional level texts trend came from and then following it with a plethora of studies that have proven it false.  Several studies actually show that by having students read at or even above grade level will yield the highest educational growth. Taking this in, he ended his presentation going over how to support students when a teacher is asking them to read something above their individualized reading level also known as a complex text. 

How I can apply it

My colleague Rose, Elementary ELA and Literacy Specialist, and I just received this question from a school district leader on Monday of this week.  This question of whether texts should be chosen at a student’s reading level versus the grade level is ubiquitous. We want schools to choose grade level texts; however it is our responsibility to provide them with the support to do this successfully.  Shanahan talked lots about teaching vocab prior to reaching which is a concept I am already familiar with, but he also addresses identifying complex sentences that might trip up students when they read.  I had never really thought about how to do this.  He showed how when a sentence may have lots of punctuation or an abnormal syntax, the teacher can break it apart and intentionally show students how that sentence is put together which will help them know how to tackle a similar sentence in the future. 

Session: 4

Joan Sedita - Keys to Critical Thinking: Summary and Question Generation

Big Idea

This presentation focused on how to use summarization and question generation to develop stronger critical thinking skills.  Sedita spent a lot of time explaining the importance of summary writing across all different disciplines. She really addresses how different summarization ideas are in comparison to other writing activities when placed on to Bloom’s Taxonomy.  The step-by-step process that teachers should follow for quality summary development was shared as well as lots of different resources to utilize as a template for students.  She finished up her presentation addressing the importance of question generation.  She shared how questions, when worded differently, can reach the different levels of Bloom’s.  She provided lots of different examples to show questions across different grades and subject areas. 

How I can apply it:

I found a lot of overlap in this presentation with the book study we are leading at IDOE using The Writing  Revolution.  There are some sources that were shared in this presentation that would pair well with TWR strategies.  For example, she provided different transition words and in which contexts you would use them. I had never seen a chart organize transition words in that way which is very helpful. Also she shared different ways she has seen teachers in various disciplines incorporate higher level questioning into their classrooms. These are strategies I am eager to share with schools who are looking to improve the critical thinking skills of their students in all classrooms.