Just JUMP In!
August means heading back to school but there’s still time for cooling off in the pool, lake, river, or the ocean. Are you a quick jumper inner or diver who bravely plunges in all at once? Or do you take a more gradual approach by dipping your toes in and slowly wading up to your knees as you gradually slip in? Maybe your water entry depends upon your mood and the situation.
Dive Into Reciprocal Teaching to Boost Reading
August means heading back to school but there’s still time for cooling off in the pool, lake, river, or the ocean. Are you a quick jumper inner or diver who bravely plunges in all at once? Or do you take a more gradual approach by dipping your toes in and slowly wading up to your knees as you gradually slip in? Maybe your water entry depends upon your mood and the situation.
Teaching is a lot like jumping in the lake. Sometimes we hesitate to try new methods and never quite feel ready. Other times we just need to dive in. In my work with teachers around the globe I support their efforts to implement reciprocal teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1986) to improve student comprehension. Reciprocal teaching or “The Fab Four” (Oczkus,2018) involves discussions with the teacher modeling and peers rotating through a robust constellation of strategies including predicting using text evidence, clarifying words and ideas, asking questions, and summarizing important points. Reciprocal teaching is a high yield/ low prep strategy that produces .74 growth or two years in a year. Often in our project schools we see dramatic gains of 1-2 years in just a few months!
There are a variety of effective on ramps for introducing students to reciprocal teaching. You might slowly and methodically introduce students to using the strategies. Or maybe you simply jump in and scaffold as needed. Both teaching styles are effective ways to roll out the Fab Four with students. To begin select high interest reading materials that engage students as you teach them to employ the strategies.
Dipping Toes in the Water
Fab Four Read Aloud
Pause throughout a read aloud to model each one of the Fab Four strategies- predict, question, clarify, and summarize on different pages. Model the strategies pausing after each one to invite students to use the same language frame and discuss with a partner.
Think Aloud Prompts
Predict: I predict this is about____ because ________.
Question: Why do you think _____? Or I wonder ________________?
Clarify: I didn’t get the word ________ so I ________to figure it out.
Summarize: This was about ____________. OR I learned ____________.
Fab Four Mentor Texts
•Another option is to spend a few days on each strategy using a different mentor text for each one as a way to introduce them. Be sure to pull the strategies all together quickly as this high yield strategy depends on employing all four strategies in the same lesson!
•OR read your favorite text and every few pages rotate to another strategy so you cover all four by the end of the book.
Beauty and the Beak How Science,Technology, and a 3D Printed Beak Rescued a Bald Eagle by Debra Lee Rose and Jane Veltkamp.
Harvesting Hope by Kathleen Krull
Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival by Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery
Mentor Texts For Comprehension
Making Predictions Enemy Pie by Derek Munson
Too Much Glue by Jason Lefebvre | Clarifying Words and Ideas From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer The Big Bad Detective Agency by Bruce Hale |
Asking Questions Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig The Proudest Blue by Ibtihaj Muhammad |
Summarizing Friends by Aliki Separate is Never Equal by Duncan Tonatiuh |
Just Jump in
Fab Four Close Reading
Conduct a read aloud or choose a short story, informational text article, or poem and duplicate so students can mark up their copies. Project the text on the screen. Model the strategies one at a time. Mark your text to show your thinking. Invite students to mark their texts as well and then discuss their ideas with partners.
(Use the prompts listed above.)
Table Teams
Choose a short high interest story or informational text. Model by displaying the text on the screen. Assign each table team a strategy. Pause throughout the reading and ask each table to perform their “job”. Use a fab four chart to record student responses.
Literacy Today Articles
To support your own dive and splash or wade slowly into reciprocal teaching here are some articles from the latest edition of Literacy Today to guide you on your journey to improving student comprehension.
Backed by Research, Fueled by Results; Comprehension Lessons That Work!
https://publuu.com/flip-book/24429/445819/page/34
Reciprocal Teaching At Work; Boosting Comprehension with Reciprocal Teaching
https://publuu.com/flip-book/24429/445819/page/38
Podcasts
Teachers are Leaders
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/teachers-are-leaders/id1657718402
Bam Network
Backed By Research, Fueled by Classroom Results NEW Webinar!
Reciprocal teaching is a flexible strategy that offers us endless combinations for creative and spontaneous lessons.
Please join me on Aug. 2 ( or sign up for on demand) for my new Webinar with ILA! https://www.literacyworldwide.org/meetings-events/ila-digital-events/ila-webinars/comprehension-lessons-that-work
Bring Me a Book National School Consortium
For this blog post I am sharing a report I wrote for the Bring Me a Book National School Consortium. The organization provides books for underserved communities. I am proud to serve on the expert literacy team. I invited Paradise Ridge School in Paradise CA to be part of the program and we selected two classrooms of students to receive 6 books each over the year to promote independent reading at school and in the home. Read the fabulous stories about how the third grades created their own impromptu book clubs and how the boys started a cookbook craze! See the powerful suggestions to use at your school to promote more reading.
For this blog post, I am sharing a report I wrote for the Bring Me a Book National School Consortium. The organization provides books for underserved communities. I am proud to serve on the expert literacy team. I invited Paradise Ridge School in Paradise CA to be part of the program and we selected two classrooms of students to receive 6 books each over the year to promote independent reading at school and in the home. Read the fabulous stories about how the third grades created their own impromptu book clubs and how the boys started a cookbook craze! See the powerful suggestions to use at your school to promote more reading.
Read the full report: https://www.bringmeabook.org/trusting-young-learners/
What’s Your Number?
Did you set a goal for how many books you will read this year? The average American reads about 12 books annually, but most folks end up reading only four titles. Due to some recent air travel, I logged four titles so far, which is ahead of schedule for me in March. Most years I knock off around 18-20 books but I am striving to carve out time each day to read a bit more. I found out my friend Ellen, a prolific reader and university researcher, admitted to 150 titles last year! (She resists social media and limits television! Still, she must be a speed reader, right?)
5 Practical Tips for Setting Attainable Reading Goals
Did you set a goal for how many books you will read this year? The average American reads about 12 books annually, but most folks end up reading only four titles. Due to some recent air travel, I logged four titles so far, which is ahead of schedule for me in March. Most years I knock off around 18-20 books but I am striving to carve out time each day to read a bit more. I found out my friend Ellen, a prolific reader and university researcher, admitted to 150 titles last year! (She resists social media and limits television! Still, she must be a speed reader, right?)
How many books are students reading? Annually 54% of nine-year-olds read for “pleasure” and only half of all Americans ages 15-24 read for enjoyment. (The National Endowment for the Arts, 2017) So, how can we motivate students and ourselves to read more? The key is for readers to choose their reading material! It is not surprising that 89% of children will finish reading a book they chose. (Scholastic Kids and Family 7th Reading Report) Readers may also set specific goals to stay motivated to reap the many benefits of reading! Reading is good for us on many levels as it promotes happiness, empathy, mindfulness, and it helps prevent dementia. (University of Sussex, published in The Telegraph, March 2009)
How many books should students read per year? It depends on the age of the student!
Donalyn Miller, reading expert and author of The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009) and former upper grade teacher, asked her own sixth grade students to read 40 books per year. Many of the students reached that goal but even the ones who recorded 28 to 30 books made reading gains. Research tells us that the time students spend in independent reading is one of the best predictors of reading achievement! (Anderson, Wilson & Fielding,1988)
Here are 5 practical tips to increase daily reading. These techniques will help you guide students to set specific and attainable reading goals. Let your students know that you too adhere to these goal setting habits that include considering - what to read, where to read, with whom to read, how to read, and when to read!
*Also, check out the two goal setting forms at the end of this blog!
(From Literacy Strong All Year Long ( k-2;3-6) by Lori Oczkus, Valerie Ellery, and Timothy Rasinski; ASCD)
1.Keep A List Not a Log
Teacher as Reader
A number of years ago I took the sage advice of my dear friend and literacy expert, Regie Routman, and I started writing down the titles of books and the authors that I read each year. My notebook serves as a night-stand staple and is more enjoyable than a dreaded book log. I don’t mind filling it out because I only record title, author, and a few words or one sentence to summarize. I also started including a letter grade for each title to indicate how I rate it. I enjoy getting closer to my “number” of books goal. It’s fun to look back over the books I’ve read in past years and jog memories of what was happening in my life at the time. I either take a photo of my book list or at least tell students about it. I record my list in a “pretty” journal from TJ Max and look forward to writing in it!
Try It with Your Students
•Let students each choose a personal reading goal number of books that they want to reach! Remind them to read every day for at least 30 min at home. Also provide time during school for students to read as well.
•Invite students to create a design for listing their own books that includes titles, authors, quick summaries, and ratings. If students individually design a “form” then I honor their creations by duplicating copies for them. Students store their unique reading lists in a folder that we refer to often. The folder also contains a list of books students want to read next and an interest inventory. We use the interest inventory to help them find books they are interested in reading.
2. Set Goals for What To Read
Teacher as Reader
Let your students know what draws you to your reading choices- a flashy cover, an author or genre you enjoy, a topic you are interested in, or the suggestion from a friend, or a celebrity post. (Reece’s Book Club https://reesesbookclub.com ; or Read with Jenna https://www.today.com/shop/read-with-jenna) I alternate between reading historical fiction, memoir, nonfiction as well as short titles and longer more ambitious ones. Recently, when traveling and I finished my stash and resorted to borrowing my husband’s book which moved me out of my comfort zone into a sports book. The novel, Sooley by John Grisham, is a fictional account about a Sudanese basketball player. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it and raced to the end.
Try it With Your Students
•Share your reading diet and goals with students. (Appropriate titles of course!)
•Students should read what they choose while remaining open to a variety of different genres and formats. Discuss setting goals for reading short books and longer titles.
•Encourage students to hunt for future book picks by talking with peers and searching websites such as Bookelicious https://www.bookelicious.com or Epic https://www.getepic.com.
•Hold a book tasting party. Place the set genres on tables such as poetry books, mysteries, nonfiction, and signal for students to rotate to change tables.
3. Set Goals for When To Read
Teacher as Reader
Reading is less likely to become crowded out by other activities including scrolling through emails or social media if we pick a consistent time of day to read. Maybe your best time to read is when winding down before bedtime, or early morning before the chaos begins, or in the middle of the night if you awaken. Keep books on the nightstand, books in the car, and some reading material on your phone so you can read at a moment’s notice. Try to read for a concentrated 20-30 min per day and then steal other reading minutes on the fly.
Try it With Your Students
•Lead a class discussion about making time to read.
•Make a list together on a chart of possible times at home to read including after school, on the way to school, and before bedtime. Include reading “spurts” while waiting in line or in the car.
•Also, include distractions or problems students may experience such as noisy siblings or the television or music blasting. Brainstorm solutions!
•Encourage students to set a time each day for reading 30 minutes and to also read in spurts at home and school.
4. Set Goals for Where to Read
Teacher as Reader
Where do you like to read? Some of you nod off if you read in bed! Maybe you like to read on the couch or in a special chair. Outdoors you might gravitate to special lawn chair or reading spot on the lawn, at a park, or on the subway. Let your reading habit follow you around your home or apartment and come up with multiple reading spots. Tell your students about your favorite places to read.
Try It With Your Students
•Ask students to sketch where they might read at home.
•They get creative andmake a pop up tent under a table or on their bed for a fun spot to read. Or students can head outside to sit on the patio or lawn or maybe next to a window indoors. •Since we want students to read all summer, it is especially important to ask them to envision not only what they will read and when but where as well!
5. Set Goals for How to Read and With Whom
Teacher as Reader
Even as adults we often vary how we read. Fortunately, listening to books can be as beneficial as reading them to yourself! (See data https://www.audiopub.org/sound-learning) My husband and I enjoy hearing murder mysteries on longer drives. Friends of ours also listen to books in the car and after a trip they often sit in the car in the garage to listen to the end of a chapter. Another friend lovingly read aloud to her elderly father in his final year. When raising our children, we savored reading aloud to them and taking turns reading. When they were teens, we’d spread out and read our own books by the fire or at the beach. One of my grown daughters now belongs to an online book club. Currently, I enjoy selecting a book to read and discuss across generations that includes my mother and daughters.
Try It With Your Students
•Encourage students and families to have a varied plan for reading together each day. Will students read alone, or listen and follow along with a recording, or read in unison with a sibling or parent, or take turns?
•Provide suggestions and maybe even feature families reading together on the school or class website.
•In the classroom also share different ways to experience books alone and together with partners. Take photos of students reading to frame and display!
Enjoy these goal setting forms to use to help motivate your students to grow as readers! from the Literacy Strong Series by Lori Oczkus, Valerie Ellery, and Timothy Rasinski. ASCD)
Literacy Strong
Powerful Lessions for Grades K-2
Literacy Strong
Powerful Lessons for Grades 3 - 5
Slip N Slide Into Summer Reading
Is 27 too old for the slip n slide? Apparently, not! Our oldest daughter, Rachael, who is visiting us in Reno took a break from the heat and jumped on the slip n slide the golf course crew set up for the local kids. (See my Instagram post for a quick video) Summer certainly is for fun! It is a time to recharge as educators. Hopefully, that means summer reading as well. Finally, we can dig into that stack of books piled up by our beds! Let’s practice what we preach, and read all summer long.
Is 27 too old for the slip n slide? Apparently, not! Our oldest daughter, Rachael, who is visiting us in Reno took a break from the heat and jumped on the slip n slide the golf course crew set up for the local kids. (See my Instagram post for a quick video) Summer certainly is for fun! It is a time to recharge as educators. Hopefully, that means summer reading as well. Finally, we can dig into that stack of books piled up by our beds! Let’s practice what we preach, and read all summer long.
Reading is actually good for you on many levels. Studies show that readers have better physical health, empathy, and are often happier! (University of Sussex, published in The Telegraph, March 2009) The same study out of Sussex found that reading for just six minutes reduces stress by 60%, slows your heartbeat down, eases muscle tension, enhances social skills, and alters your state of mind. Other benefits of reading include better sleep and slowing of cognitive decline.
It is also important for us as educators to read- to experience firsthand not only the reading strategies we teach, but most importantly the JOY of lifelong reading for pleasure. Donalyn Miller, author of The Book Whisperer (Jossey-Bass, 2009) suggests the power of sharing your reading life with your students by explaining what you find interesting or challenging. She says it is important for students to trust us not only as their teacher but as a fellow reader.
Here are my summer reads so far. This list shifts constantly especially if a friend hands me a book at a dinner party or if my daughter gifts me the title she can’t carry on the plane back to San Diego, or if I find a title that looks inviting in our neighborhood book exchange!
If you tell me what YOU are reading, I may change my mind and read your book suggestion first!
My Summer Reading For Pleasure
Tell Me More: Stories About the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan
Whenever Kelly Corrigan writes a book, I run to the nearest local bookshop to grab a copy.
I absolutely love her work! She writes some memoirs as well as essay advice books like this one.
Corrigan shares personal stories and insights about the 12 hardest things to say with chapters titled, No, I Was Wrong, and even No Words At All. I read it quickly once through already. I will read again this time with a pen in hand to “close read” and mark it up. One of my favorite lessons Corrigan shares is that sometimes when talking to your people simply by asking your kids, spouse, friends to “Tell me more.” yields amazing results. Another tidbit I enjoyed is the idea that no words at all work best sometimes. For example, the Steph Curry (my FAV!) finger gesture giving God thanks after a three pointer, or a music director, or just a litany of dance moves, cheers, high fives, embraces and even emojis. She is a breath of fresh air always that Kelly Corrigan. If you’ve never heard her read her essay Transcending here it is.
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
I decided to read this because my husband’s family is from Alaska and this saga takes place there.
We are headed to Alaska for a memorial this Summer, so I wanted to get in the Alaska mood. Sometimes the setting of a story deeply impacts your comprehension depending upon your experiences and travel wish list. This was a hard read for me. The characters make their way to the wilderness and a long dark winter with an abusive father/husband. I got through it and won’t forget it. But I will be glad when it is over. Sometimes we have mixed feelings reading a book like this.
This is my first Kirstin Hannah book. She has many others, and I will try her again. I have friends who devour her work. Maybe I just didn’t connect with the storyline.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Okay so this is a “Read with Jenna” book club selection. Sometimes I do let the celebrities guide my reading list including Reece Witherspoon. (Remember when we relied on Oprah?)
Since its another Kristin Hannah and I am a huge fan of historical fiction. I will give this one a go!
Becoming by Michelle Obama
I am so excited to read this version with a new introduction by Michelle herself. I just love this gutsy fabulous woman. For those of you who’ve read this a while ago, what did you think? Besides historical fiction, I also absolutely enjoy any kind of memoir, autobiography, biography, or book of essays. This book boasts sales of 14 million copies sold worldwide. Now its 14 million and one!
Honorable mentions- I might also read Daisy Jones and the Six!
My Summer Reading For Professional Development
Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness by Don Vu
I am cheating in a way because I wrote a review for Scholastic for this book. So, I read it once.
This is a two-time read and then I plan on keeping it on my desk all marked up so I can refer to it during my trainings. Don Vu is an award-winning principal who shares his six conditions of a school’s culture of literacy (Commitment, Collection, Clock, Conversation, Connection, and Celebration) and how ways to create an environment where all students especially immigrant children survive. What I love most about this book is Don’s personal stories about his family who came from Vietnam in the 70’s. I laughed and cried. Not sure when I’ve ever been so touched by a professional book. This is a must read! Plus, there are many practical strategies to use to boost reading in your classroom and school.
A History of Literacy Education by P. David Pearson and Robert Tierney
This is a commitment that I am so excited to make! Two absolute Hall of Famers in our field have taken on the history of literacy through the ages. I have heard P. David give various talks over the years highlighting the history of education so reading about it will be great. I am sure I will be referring to this one for years to come. What an undertaking for these two greats! Thanks in advance to them!
Honorable Mentions
The Fab Four Comprehension Strategies: Accelerating Reading NOW!
Summer reading loss is real! We know that many students lose anywhere from two weeks to two months when they don’t read much in the summer. Couple that with the months of learning loss due to Covid 19 and researchers estimate that students could fall as much as 30% behind in their reading this school year. (NWEA, 2020) Our students desperately need a boost in their comprehension and engagement to catch them up in reading now and in the fall.
July 1, 2020
Summer reading loss is real! We know that many students lose anywhere from two weeks to two months when they don’t read much in the summer. Couple that with the months of learning loss due to Covid 19 and researchers estimate that students could fall as much as 30% behind in their reading this school year. (NWEA, 2020) Our students desperately need a boost in their comprehension and engagement to catch them up in reading now and in the fall.
My favorite go-to strategy to accelerate reading, is reciprocal teaching (Palinscar & Brown, 1984), or the “ Fab Four” (Oczkus, 2018) Reciprocal teaching is a scaffolded discussion technique based on four of the strategies good readers use; predict, question, clarify, and summarize (Oczkus, 2018). Reciprocal teaching is backed by over 30 years of solid research with consistent gains of .74 or nearly two years in one year. (Hattie, 2008) An added bonus is that the Fab Four easily adapts to a digital setting at any grade level with any text.
In my travels to schools around the globe, I collaborate with teachers and work in classrooms to find ways to engage students in reciprocal teaching while raising reading scores. Here are some tips, pointers, and my “go to” lessons to get you started. In February I will present more ideas at CCIRA 2021. I can’t wait to return to Colorado to meet more fabulous colleagues and to visit my “home” state where I grew up!
Best Pointers to Yield Results
Teach the Fab Four Package
Teach all four strategies in ONE lesson! Represent them in a poster to ensure you cover them all. Designate one student as the “checker” who checks off each strategy as the class discusses it. Students predict what they will learn; clarify tricky words and discuss how to figure them out; ask questions for the group to answer; and summarize what they read. Try color coding the four strategies live and in online discussion boards.
Follow a Gradual Release Model with Discussion
Ensure success with a gradual release model of teaching by modeling the strategies. Then provide opportunities for students to discuss the reading and the strategies in pairs and teams. Students may take on roles -predictor, questioner, clarifier, summarizer. Try using chat rooms in Zoom or Google Meets or responding to one another on Flip Grid or Google Docs.
Teach Metacognition
Teach students to become metacognitive when using the strategies by making them their own. Students and the teacher record demonstrations and explanations of the strategies for each other on a platform such as See Saw.
Close Reading with Informational Text
One of my favorite ways to introduce the “The Fab Four” is with informational articles. In this demonstration I use an article from my series Close Reading with Paired Text k-12 co-authored with Dr. Rasinski (Shell, 2015) In my project schools we also use Newsela, Scholastic News, and other short articles once the class is familiar with the method. The students and the teacher each have copies of the text that they mark up using either on a device or a hard copy with colored pencils or highlighters. The teacher and students reread the text at least three times to discuss; what they will learn, words to clarify, questions to ask, and important points to summarize the reading. Here is my 7-minute video for educators and parents explaining how to participate with students in a Fab Four discussion. Scroll down for the bookmark lesson plans, question and answers for parents, and parent letter. How to Boost Reading Comprehension with the Fab Four https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9mkv8f6Hxo
Fab Four Poetry Lesson for Comprehension and Fluency
Here is a comprehension lesson that includes predicting what the poem is about, clarifying words, phrases, and visual images, asking questions, and summarizing by sharing favorite lines and parts. The result is a peppy and engaging student-centered discussion. Students then reread the poetry to perform live in class or record on a digital platform. The demonstration here is from my series Close Reading with Paired Texts co- authored with Dr. Tim Rasinski. Here is a 7-minute video to show how to conduct a Fab Four poetry lesson for parents and teachers. Scroll down for bookmark lesson plans.
How to Improve Comprehension & Fluency with Poetry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7h9RGtAKU
See you at CCIRA! The research behind reciprocal teaching consistently delivers results in just a few months. For high-yield/ low prep strategies refer to my books and resources listed in the bibliography below for more information and follow me on twitter @LoriOczkus or contact me at loczkus52@earthlink.net and let’s connect. See you at CCIRA in February 2021! Please join me for one or all of my 3 CCIRA sessions on reading and writing
Reading Rescue with the Fab Four: Comprehension Strategies to Accelerate Learning Now!
Literacy Strong All Year Long!
Teaching Guided Writing For Success
Lori Oczkus is a literacy coach, author, and popular speaker across the United States and internationally. Tens of thousands of teachers have attended her motivating, fast paced workshops and read her practical, research-based professional books. She is the author of the best-selling book Reciprocal Teaching at Work (ASCD, 2018) with the foreword by John Hattie. Lori has extensive experience as a bilingual elementary teacher, intervention specialist working with struggling readers, and staff developer and literacy coach. She works with students in classrooms and really knows the challenges that teachers face in teaching students to read! Lori has been inducted in the California Reading Association Hall of Fame for her many contributions to the field of reading in California and internationally.
Some of Lori’s Books and Resources:
Teaching Guided Writing: Scaffolding for Success QRG (NCTE, 2020)
Close Reading with Paired Texts k-12 Series co-author Tim Rasinski (Shell,2015)
Fabulous Four Comprehension Puppets ( Primary Concepts, 2008)
Check out CCIRA's website today at ccira.org