I'm going to try this again!

I started this blog as a graduate school project and then went on with my life.  Much has changed since I tried the first time.  Now after reading and following other teacher blogs and the awesomeness that is Pinterest, I have learned to keep it simple!  This is my second year teaching 5th grade (sorta).  Last year I was hired as Title 1 reading teacher by the district I actually live in.

For a variety of reasons a teacher left teaching at the end of October.  I had been in that classroom helping out.  I volunteered to step in as a long-term sub and then I accepted the class full-time.  What a transition!  I had Meet the Teacher/Open House in November!  So this is actually my first, first 9 weeks as a 5th grade teacher.  I hoping that some fellow teachers will share the journey with me.   I need to learn maybe more than I need to teach or share.  Right now I am passionate about building a learning community both in my classroom and through social media.  What are you passionate about at the beginning of the school year?

Comprehension Strategy: Questioning in nonfiction

Questioning is paramount when teaching nonfiction.  One example in Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis is to do a "I Learned/ I Wonder" chart as a whole class or in the upper grades, it could be done individually in the students' Reader's Notebook.  As students learn as they engage in a nonfiction text they are encouraged to continue to ask questions to learn even more about the subject.

This technique helps students become independent researchers as they follow up on what they are wondering about the subject.

Here is the chart we make about why we ask questions

Making Connections Through Predictions in Informational Text

In Karen Feathers' book Infotext: Reading and Learning, she discusses predicting as a way to make connections and to set a purpose for reading informational text.   Making predictions is a type of inference, so it is important to explain to students that they combine what they already know with what they read or see in the text to make a prediction.  Therefore, the first step is for the student to read the title and see the cover.  The first couples times you do this with students, you may want to scaffold by having them also go through the text and read subheadings, look at pictures, and read captions.  Then you simply ask the student what information do they think they will learn in this text and make a chart of their predictions because once again, this sets the students' purposes for reading.

Feathers cautions against going back to see who made right and wrong predictions.  It is not about whether the predictions are correct.  What is important is, did they use the knowledge of the text and types of text and connect that knowledge with what they already knew to make reasonable predictions?  Feathers encourages students to keep their own list of predictions, so they can check those that are confirmed, cross off those that are not in the text, and to continue writing predictions as they read and come to new subheadings. You also may want the students to meet in groups or in pairs after they read, to compare predictions that they made and information that they learned. After the text has been read, then the class can come together again and goes back through the chart to discuss how their predictions were confirmed or changed as they read the text.

Making Connections with Nonfiction

As most teachers know, the easiest way to activate your students schema and make connections is to ask your students what they already know about a subject.  But many times we stop there, or we may do a KWL chart, but not follow up on what we have learned after we have read a book or finished the unit.  One thing I have noticed is that when you ask students what they KNOW about a subject, they will not tell you anything unless they are absolutely 100% positive about the information.  This means  as the teacher, you really don't truly know the extent of your students' knowledge.  In Karen Feathers' book Infotext, she suggests doing a brainstorming chart instead.  To do a brainstorming chart,  you ask the students to write down on paper everything they know about the topic; and then come together and brainstorm a collective list of what the class knows.  

On my chart, any disagreements are marked with a question mark to show that the class did not feel completely comfortable with that information.  This then helps the students set their purpose for reading.  I am going to read to find out this information because I don't know if frogs swim fast or what they eat.  This makes the students more independent because they are setting their purposes for reading according to the information they need to learn, not what a textbook states their purpose for reading should be.  After they read, then it is extremely important to come back as a class and clear up misconceptions or any false information on the chart.  If I was doing this in class, I would probably leave the brainstorm and then cross out or modify the information, so they can see how they made connections and how they created new knowledge.  Remember these charts are not for beatification but to anchor learning.  

Teaching Comprehension Strategies: Making Connections

There are hundreds of lists on the web of Mentor texts for comprehension strategies.  However, most of the books on the lists are fiction.  I have always read fiction books to teach the strategies.  But as I am writing this through my Informational Text class lens, I can see how the strategies work in nonfiction as well as fiction.

For making connections I usually teach three separate lessons. My first lesson for making Text-to-self connections is done using, Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tomie dePaola (Debbie Miller pick) about feeling different and being bullied. This is because every kid can make a text-to-self connection to those feelings.  When I was teaching third grade, I read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes, which is a chapter book with the same theme of not fitting in.  I have also read The Pigeon Wants a Puppy by Mo Willems because kids understand wanting a pet and being told no and they also understand getting what you think you want and then realizing you don't really want it.  So as I started thinking about nonfiction selections,  I think that reading Tomie dePaola's biography off his website after reading Oliver Button is a Sissy could lead well into text -to- text connections because Oliver Button was written from events in DePaol's life.  So you can also discuss how writers get their ideas.
Or perhaps another option would be All About Cats and Kittens by Emily Neye where they can tell you about all their pet stores.

Whenever I teach text-to-text connections I usually do teach fiction and nonfiction book on the same topic together like Frogs by Nic Bishop with Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel.  Another option I sometimes utilize is using one of the Magic Tree House books with its Nonfiction matching book.

The easiest connection to use a nonfiction book with is text-to-world.  I like to use something that is going on at the time I teach it, so a recent newspaper article, or back when I had Scholastic News we would make text-to-world connections.  My third graders favorite text-to-world story was "Here's My Dollar" by Gary Soto but I can only find the story in textbooks.  It is about a 9year old girl that hears that the Fresno zoo is running out of money so she wrote a letter to the paper asking everyone to send a dollar to the zoo.  Her campaign ended up raised $600,000 in six months.  This year would be the perfect time to read a book about the Olympics.

Schema

Another pre-comprehension strategy to teach is what is schema/background knowledge.  Some teachers teach schema with making connections.  I teach schema first because to me schema is a part of all the strategies even though it is essential for making connections.

My favorite book to teach schema with is a Fish is a Fish by Leo Lionni.  This lesson idea came from my former teaching buddy Tracy (by way of Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning).

First, you give each student a piece of paper that they fold, so that they have four boxes (or give them a little many book with four sheets). While you read a Fish is a Fish, you do not let the students see the pictures.  I don't even let them see the front cover.  At points in the book, where the frog tells the fish about a new animal,  you stop and ask the kids to draw the new animal.  At the end of the book, you have them show their drawings and then you show them the pictures from the book.   Fish in the book sees everything as a fish but with something added.  So a bird is a fish with wings.  Then we discuss that are drawings are different because our schemes are different.  And that fish's pictures in his head were OK for fish because that is all the schema fish had.  He knows fish and the pond-that is his schema. This lesson really helps the students understand that every one's schema is different, and that their limited experiences can be a hindrance to their understanding of a text.  So we usually have a conversation about how we can add to our schema or background knowledge.

As for a nonfiction text to teach schema, I have a book called Unusual Animals (It is out-of-print but there are several books like it.  I found one on Amazon called 101 Freaky Animals) that have facts about strange creatures that the children probably have not seen.  I would teach the lesson in a similar fashion.  I would read the description of the animal but not let them see the pictures, but have them try to draw the animal.  Then we would talk about why their pictures are different from each other and different from the real animal. It is because our schemas are different or because we do not have enough schema to draw the animal.

Teaching the Comprehension Strategies: Monitoring Comprehension

The first comprehension lesson that I actually teach is about Metacognition.  This past year I started using Tanny McGregor's "Salad bowl lesson" from her book Comprehension Connections.  You can read all about that lesson with printable at Reading Resources.net  They also have resources for some other awesome concrete lessons from her book that teach some of the strategies.

Your students need to be able to understand that we need to be able to think about our thinking and think about our reading before they can use and understand the comprehension strategies.  Once that is established then we discuss monitoring our comprehension.  I always introduce all strategies by reading a book and doing think alouds where I use the strategy.  Then I have them use the strategy.  Finally we make an Anchor chart.   Every time I do any reading aloud I will then use the strategy if needed and make sure I point out what strategy I am using and why I am using it.  Therefore, I literally teach the strategies all year.

Also please always make an Anchor Chart with your students. please do not make it on your own, pretty it up, and laminate it to use year after year.  If you going to do that then just buy a pretty chart from Really Good Stuff or something because the only way they will anchor their learning to the chart is if you go through the process together. That is the whole point.  Do you want them to use what is on your classroom wall?  Or do you want it to just become background stuff?

Also, when you choose a book make sure you have read it before you read to your class and that there are actually places where it make sense to monitor your comprehension.  Ok, getting off my soap boxes, so a nonfiction book actually works very well for a read aloud in the upper grades to teach monitoring comprehension.  Any Nic Bishop or Seymour Simon book would probably work here.  Choose one that covers a topic you need to cover in Science.  My personal favorite Nic Bishop book is Frogs but they are all beautiful and well written.

Another lesson and read aloud are spent making this Comprehension Fix-Up Strategy chart.