Mind blown!

During my research on reading comprehension and how best to teach it I came across a series of podcasts that have changed my view of how best to frame the concept of reading comprehension. What is it? How do we acquire it? Can you teach it?

Dr. Sharon Vaughn is the Executive Director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin and the lead author of the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guides.

Vaughn posits that comprehension can’t be taught. Rather, we help build it for students by, first, teaching them how to read the words and knowing what the words mean – phonics + vocabulary. Then, if the student has enough background knowledge of the topic they are reading about, comprehension is the result.

Tim Rasinkski of Kent State University, corroborates this assertion quantitatively, “90% of 3^rd-4^th graders who have problems with reading comprehension also have problems with phonics, vocabulary, and...

I love an infographic!

Maybe because they remind me of a Project GLAD® Graphic Organizer. If you ever search images for  “models of reading instruction”, you’ll come up with a plethora of graphics that researchers and authors have created to illustrate the various components. From the reading rope to the simple view, they all pretty much describe the same components, and it is important to note that all the elements share equal weight.

We will refer back to these models of literacy instruction as we go through this series on Project GLAD®’s literacy strategies. It seems like the best place to start is with decoding, but I’d rather switch our focus to certain GLAD® strategies as evidence-based practices. We’ll save word study and decoding for a future issue. In this issue, we’ll cover the equally important...

OCDE Project GLAD® is a model of language and literacy. Language and literacy – these words have been in the description of our model since the 1980’s. Of course ,we know what they mean, right? Over the past several years, I have been doing a lot of reading and research on the Science of Reading, as many of us have, and reflecting how this body of best practice research fits into what I know about GLAD® strategies that support multilingual students’ development of language acquisition and literacy.

It seems the reading war is alive and well and has been raging at least since the dawn of my career in education, now in its third decade. So, I’m going to wade right in and attempt to offer an olive branch to both sides of the issue of literacy instruction.

In one camp, we have the (for lack of a better term) “Science of Reading Folks”. Their position is that students need to be taught the code of the language at the sound, letter, and word...

Have you ever asked a question to your class or a student and you're met with... crickets. Nada. Zilch. Silencio.

“Hoang, what do you think?”

The seconds tick by. The class grows antsy. The blurters are quivering with restraint.

What’s happening in Hoang’s mind right now? What’s going on behind the scenes?

LEARNED HELPLESSNESS

Perhaps Hoang’s silence is an indication of learned helplessness.

• If I wait long enough, the teacher will call on someone else. It’s worked in the past, why not do it again?
• I could pull out the ‘ol ‘I don’t know’ and cover my head with my hoodie. That always works.
• Maybe I’ll divert attention away from the question and skate by without having to answer. I could fall back in my chair. Or have to go to the bathroom.

TIP: Keep your expectations high!

One of my favorite phrases Jody uses when a student says, “I don’t know” is…

“If you DID know,...

After a busy summer of OCDE Project GLAD® Foundations trainings we are always energized by the enthusiasm of the teachers we’ve had the pleasure to support. Oftentimes, on the last day of the demo the teachers’ take away from the PD was that the students were so engaged and motivated to learn. They want to take that love of learning back to their classrooms and start the year off right with skills for motivating students.

All Project GLAD® strategies are grounded in underlying concepts that create a safe learning environment, where student take risks with language and concepts. It starts with building motivational routines.

Three Personal Standards

When you are creating your classroom culture, communicating and reinforcing clear expectations for behavior is one of the most important things to do to start off on the right foot.

Knowing what to expect and how you will react in many situations creates trust between you...

I took my first GLAD® training in the fall of 2004. When I returned to campus after the 5-day demo, my principal asked me to write a reflection of what I had learned. I recently found that (really old) document on my computer while clearing out files.

            …One of my favorite strategies was the Narrative. It’s like a story board where you place pictures of the story you’re teaching on a background, and it can be used to teach content, academic vocabulary, and story elements…I also think the expert groups, process grid and cooperative strip paragraph have great promise for teaching note taking from research and expository writing…My biggest concern is finding the time to do the prep that’s required for these new strategies…

Those thoughts have been echoed by multitudes of teachers over the decades!

Your GLAD® training inspires you! Your brain is full of...

Graphic Organizers, Pictorials and Comparatives: What’s the Big Difference?

Drawing while talking, isn’t that the whole idea?  Does it really matter what you call it?  While the title isn’t going to revolutionize the learning experience, the purpose behind what you’re doing will. 

GRAPHIC ORGANIZER INPUT CHART

Let’s start at the beginning.  The BIG picture.  When introducing a new unit topic we first orient the content in time and space. 

How does everything we’ll be learning fit together? 

This is the purpose behind the Graphic Organizer.  It might be a world map, a timeline, the kingdoms of living things, or any other kind of graphic organizer that gives the BIG picture of the unit.  

The graphic organizer is generally the first input chart presented in a new unit of study.  

Now, consider your emerging bmultilingual students.  What does a graphic...

It was during an IEP meeting that I learned Nicholas would be joining my 4th grade classroom the following Monday. Nicholas was on the autism spectrum and had spent the first 4 years of his elementary school years bouncing back and forth between self-contained and mainstream classrooms. His parents were excited and hopeful for the mainstream placement, but surprisingly my biggest detractor was a colleague.  

The special education teacher, who monitored Nicholas's IEP and would be checking in on him monthly, did not want him placed in "the GLAD teacher's classroom." Her biggest concern was the overstimulation that would surely be a problem for him from all the charts posted on the walls. Yes, my classroom was covered with layers of chart paper that my students and I sketched on, wrote on, highlighted, covered with word cards and pictures, read, chanted, and recited on a daily basis.  

I knew Nicholas would most likely be fine, but I needed to...

INTRODUCING A QUICK AND EASY WAY TO OPTIMIZE TEAM COLLABORATION WITH TEAM TASKS

Have you ever been part of a team or committee where one person does all the work?  Or conversely, one person doesn’t contribute.  The same holds true for our students.  

Have you ever tried moving desks into team formation… and then reverting back to rows because it was so painful?  Yep.  We know the feeling.  

Once students are in teams we start by teaching the social skills needed for collaboration to take place. What does collaboration look like?  Sound like? (See T-Graph for Social Skills in Acceleration 101: Setting the Stage). 

Once you have teams and the T-Graph for Social Skills in place, it’s time to assign team projects or “tasks.”  

Setting up those team task for success is our insider tip for today! 

Spencer Kagan is a researcher we refer to for ideas to support...

One of our favorite parts of a GLAD® training is on the last day of the demo when we ask the students what helped them learn. One of their favorite parts is always working with a team during team tasks. The student teams are usually very cooperative and productive during that time but there are occasions, just like in real life, when they are not. In order to be convinced that cooperative learning is worth the effort, the teachers will understandably ask:  

What do I do if my kids are messing around during team tasks?  Does the quality of their work matter? 

The short answer is – Yes, the quality of their work matters. Here are a few key points to keep in mind. 

• The purpose of team tasks is small group practice. Remember, in the gradual release of responsibility model we start with whole class for input, small group for practice, and individual work for assessment.  All of the team tasks will eventually turn into individual tasks that...