READING APPRENTICESHIP
TEACHING COMMUNITY
Spring 2013
Lisa Duran
Arsenal Against Apathy
For the past thirteen years, my students have been telling me they can’t write well if it’s on a topic they’re not interested in and they can’t get into reading something if they’re not interested in the topic. The response in my head is, “Well, good luck getting through college then, honey.” However, what I tell them is if they can only do well with material they like, then they’re going to give away a lot of good grades and miss out on learning a lot of new things while they wait for an instructor to assign them something they can be passionate about.
Not willing to let them gamble away their academic careers this way, I work hard to create tools that will help them build the skills that will help them get the most out of any material they’re assigned, but that will be especially helpful in getting through assignments in which they’re not initially interested.
I joined this Reading Apprenticeship Teaching Community to discover tips and tricks to help my students arm themselves against the blocks that keep them from getting the most out of texts they simply don’t want to read and ended up learning much, much more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Arsenal Against Apathy1
Overview: What’s Here and Why3
What I Learned3
Composition Terms Game Handout5
Reflection on Composition Terms Game Activity6
PARTS Handout7
Reflection on PARTS Activity8
Triple Entry Reading Journalaaa.PDF
Reflection on Triple Entry Reading Journal and Reading Group Activity9
--Samples of Student Workbbb.PDF
--Feedback on Triple Entry Reading Journalccc.PDF
--Feedback on Reading Group Activityddd.PDF
Take Away from This Project11
Overview: What’s Here and Why
The first activity I’ve included in this portfolio is one I do on the first day of class, the Composition Terms Game. This activity helps students bond and learn each other’s names, which addresses the Social Dimension of the Reading Apprenticeship Framework. This Dimension strives to create a safe community of readers within the classroom that facilitates the process of sharing reading issues and finding solutions for those issues.
I’ve also included my PARTS handout that takes students through the process of previewing a text, taking notes on that text, and finally summarizing the text, which addresses two Dimensions of the RA Framework. The Knowledge-Building Dimension realizes that students need to make connections to topics that they read. To do this, they need to be able to recognize the different structures of texts, language “clues” in texts, and the specific ways different disciplines think and communicate. The Cognitive Dimension helps students develop strategies they can use to help them work through difficult texts to improve their confidence and comprehension.
The third activity included here addresses the Cognitive Dimension of the RA Framework and utilizes a Triple Entry Reading Journal. I did this activity for the first time with my English 70 class and have included the accompanying student work and feedback here as well. The resulting classwork and feedback led me to revise this activity into a simple 2-step Reading Group activity.
What I Learned
I learned a lot of beneficial information and techniques while working on this project, but I also learned much more from this project than I had expected to. First of all, I was reminded of how very valuable collaboration can be and how encouraging a group of peers can be. As a result, I learned as much from my fellow Teaching Community members as I did from anything I did on my own. Secondly, I found a plethora of valuable info available to me in my very own classroom. As I observed my students, gave them alternate activities to try, and then asked them for their feedback afterward, it became clear that my best indicator of success and/or failure—and of course my inspiration for it all—comes from them.
I was thrilled to see that they were as eager as I was to find ways to make the learning results (and the process by which they got there) positive and beneficial. In addition, involving them in the process of discovery and creation turned out to be as fun for them as it was for me. I have to say that becoming aware of these two most valuable resources was as beneficial to me as all the new reading techniques I came away with from this project.
And there were a wide variety of these helpful techniques. I discovered that I first needed to accurately assess the problems before I could hope to create ways to solve them. It sounds obvious, but the mistakes I made with my Triple Entry Reading Journal made it clear I had a lot to learn. I also realized that some parts of the reading process I, as a voracious and lifetime reader, don’t even consciously recognize when I’m reading needed to be pointed out and explained to students who have had a different type of reading experience.
Finally I learned that changes don’t have to be dramatic and lessons don’t have to be complicated to be effective. I discovered that some of the simplest activities I currently do—PARTS and the Composition Terms Game—produce some of the most effective results. Also, in revising my Triple Entry Reading Journal, I adopted the KISS method (keep it simple, stupid), which made the new activity easier for me to present to students and easier for them to follow. Consequently, this simpler activity was much more effective.
Composition Terms Game
Term / Definition / Classmate’s NameCritical thinking
Reading technique
Writing process
Brainstorming
Essay
Thesis
Main points
Unity
Clarity
Transitions
Summary
Evaluation
/ To assess and determine a value for.
Argument
/ A reason given in proof or rebuttal
Opinion
/ A view, judgment, or appraisal formed in the mind about a particular matter.
Citations
Quotations
Paraphrasing
Editing / To make a new, amended, improved, or up-to-date version of. To provide with a new taxonomic arrangement.
Proofreading / To read and mark corrections.
Peer Review
/ To alter, adapt, or refine esp. to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose.
Reflection on Composition Terms Game Activity
Lesson Plan
I have my students play the Composition Terms Game on the first day of class, after we’ve played the Name Game to learn everyone’s name. Each student gets a handout. Then they walk around the classroom, asking each other for the definitions of the composition terms. They also have to match the student with their name. When all the definitions are filled in, we have a class discussion about the terms, which are topics that we’ll work on throughout the semester. This handout is the one I use for my English 90 class; I use slightly different terms for my 70 and 100 classes.
Lesson Results
There are many benefits to this activity. One of the most important is that students get comfortable with each other, talking with each other, working with each other, and learning from each other. This addresses the important Social Dimension of the the Reading Apprenticeship Framework by letting students feel safe sharing their learning processes with each other. In addition, students get an overview of the topics we’ll cover during the semester, and I learn what they know and don’t know. Finally, it’s fun! It’s a great way to break the ice on the first day of class and allows students to walk around and get comfortable in our classroom environment.
P.A.R.T.S.
Preview
Previewing allows you to form a map of the text in your head, which will help you make sense of it more quickly.
•Take note of the text’s layout and structure, which often provides “clues” to help you understand the text. These include bolded or italicized text, headings and sub-headings, and the length of paragraphs.
•Skim through the author info, title, first paragraph (intro), headings, topic sentences, and last paragraph (conclusion).
Anticipate
As you skim the material, think about what the author might be trying to tell you and what they might be trying to persuade you to believe.
•If you can see the thesis, mark it.
•If you can see the main points that support the thesis, mark where one ends and the next one begins.
Read and Reread
•After you’ve skimmed it to get the map in your head, read the entire piece.
Think Critically/Take Notes
As the meaning of the text becomes clear to you, think critically about what you’re reading: engage the important points, and question the credibility and the ideas of the author.
•At the very least, make sure that for each paragraph/MP you write down a single phrase/sentence that summarizes that paragraph/MP.
Summarize•In the first sentence, include the author’s name, the title of the text, and the author’s thesis.
•Continue with the author’s main points and summarized support (paraphrase whenever possible, use quoted text only when necessary, remember to properly cite the author).
•End with the author’s final point.
NOTE: Summaries do not include your opinion.
PARTS general idea pulled from the following: Boeck, Tammy L., and Megan C. Rainey. Connections: Writing, Reading, and Critical Thinking. New York: Longman, 2001. 73–74.
Reflection on PARTS Activity
Lesson Plan
I give students the PARTS handout early in the semester when we read our first essay to help them figure out what to take notes on, which goes hand in hand with understanding what they’ve read, and then how to summarize the text. Teaching these techniques to English 70 students is crucial, because most of them aren’t very familiar with these tasks. It’s also important for English 90 students, many of whom have only been exposed to these techniques but aren’t yet skilled at them. I also present this activity to English 100 students, which for some serves only as a review.
Lesson Results
This is another activity with a variety of benefits. I’ve used this PARTS handout before in my classes, but as a result of this project, I’ve now added the highlighted instructions in the Preview step, which asks students to look at the structure of a text for “clues” that will help them understand how the ideas are organized, introduced, and presented. This addresses the Knowledge-Building Dimension of the RA Framework. The Cognitive Dimension is also addressed by giving students a strategy that will help them work through texts to improve their confidence and comprehension.
Reflection on Triple Entry Reading Journal and Reading Group Activity
Original Lesson Plan
My goal for this activity was to help students see the bigger picture of a novel, instead of just the individual events that make up the story. The way we’d been working our way through To Kill a Mockingbird so far in my English 70 class was that they would read a section of the text at home and take notes in their books. When they got to class, we would go through that section as a class, discussing the events and how those events fit into the book’s themes and the author’s purpose. In other words, what was the author trying to say by having her characters do and say what they did. This was basically a productive process, and the students would often come up with ideas I had never thought of. The problem was that too often I felt like I was pulling the ideas out of them by giving them hints and clues that would help them figure things out.
I created this Triple Entry Reading Journal to help them figure things out by themselves by writing down the individual event, then figuring out what that event was really showing, and finally writing down what bigger purpose/message the author was trying to convey by including that event. This activity was done in groups of three students.
Original Lesson in Action
I learned a lot from this activity—about what not to do. The students did their best to fill out the Journals, and most did well with column #1, but the included samples of their work illustrate the issues that arose. Some students, as you can see from the first Journal, filled out column #1, and made an attempt at column #2, but had no idea what to put in column #3. Other students (see the second Journal) filled out all three columns, but put basically the same info in all the columns, not understanding the different layers of meaning. A very few students (see the third Journal) filled out all three columns and did understand the different layers of meaning, but there weren’t many who could do this. Also, this was a very time-consuming process, which clearly frustrated the students.
Original Lesson Results and Student Feedback
I asked my students for written feedback on this activity (see feedback sheets), after which we had a class discussion, and we made several discoveries that led to a revised lesson plan.
• Column #1 was easy to do, but seemed repetitive because they had already written those ideas in their book notes.
•Column #2 was difficult because not every item in column #1 had a deeper meaning. Too much time was wasted trying to figure out if column #1 items had a deeper meaning.
•Many students didn’t see the difference between what column #2 was asking for and what column #3 was asking for.
•Students liked working in groups.
Revised Lesson Plan
Taking all this into consideration, I created the following Reading Group Activity:
•In groups of three, students will compare their reading book notes. They will discuss which events they took notes on, what they thought about those events as events, and also if they thought there was a deeper meaning in any of those events.
•Afterward, we’ll have a class discussion on that section of reading.
Revised Lesson in Action
Because the class enjoyed working in groups, this revised activity was a comfortable one. Walking around the room, I could see lots of animated conversations, as well as several instances where one student was explaining the bigger picture of a seemingly small event to the other students in their group. Lots of “aha” moments.
When we all met up as a class afterward, there was very little need for me to pull info out of students, which was nice for all of us. Also, the students were very forthcoming with their ideas, eager to share what they had learned from each other.
Revised Lesson Results and Student Feedback
As you can see from the students’ feedback sheets, they really enjoyed this activity. Not only did they much prefer it to the previous Triple Entry Journal, but they also preferred it to the class-discussion-only way we had been doing it all semester. First of all, students said they understood this activity more clearly than the Journal activity. They also really liked chatting with each other about the book first, especially when they learned things from each other that they had missed or hadn’t understood when they’d read by themselves. In addition, they liked that, when we did come together as a class, they brought their own ideas to the discussion instead of me having to pull ideas out of them and that the discussions (group and class) weren’t so time-consuming. All in all, a big success!
Take Away from This Project
I learned much more from my participation in this Teaching Community than simply how to create a few activities to help my students read better, which is why I initially wanted to participate and is a great accomplishment all on its own. In addition, I now have a foundation for reading essentials, and as a result I have a much better idea why some of things I do are effective and others are not, which encourages me to experiment and make further changes and additions to my current lesson plans. Finally, I can clearly see how improvements in reading can result in improvements in writing, participation, and student enjoyment—all of which make experimenting well worth the time and effort it often takes. And if I have any doubts about that, I have only to turn to my students for inspiration.