StoryWorks Magazine

Check out this resource for 3-6

Questioning Texts

A great example of how teaching students to question texts fosters deeper comprehension

Jeff Wilhelm talks about Inquiry in the Secondary Classroom

Small Group Lessons

If you are ready to jump right in and plan small group instruction but are unsure of what should be included, feel free to use these resources.

The first, are some pages from the K-8 Continuum about Guided Reading. The second page of this pair is a framework for what can be included in small group instruction.

The second resource is a template that can be used to plan small groups in reading, it looks like this;

but you can find a blank one HERE.
Please note that there are many options built into this plan, you would never be expected to do everything in the sequence column, but they are reminders of appropriate lesson components that you may consider including. Notice it is very short, and since your "I can " statement would be copied from your

Text Complexity

Regardless of the grade level or subject area you teach, students come face to face with text almost constantly. In their book Leveled Books (2006), Fountas & Pinnell outline some important considerations for us as we aim to inspire EACH student EVERY day:

"When students are reading a book they can read with success, they are able to use many different sources of information in a smoothly operating processing system."
Did you catch that? Reading is a smoothly operating processing system. Reading is not finishing pages or paragraphs. The purpose of reading is making meaning, if you aren't able to run through the processing system enough to make meaning, you aren't reading, you're calling out words.

"If they are struggling, they cannot use what they know in efficient  strategic ways. In fact, forcing students to read-too hard texts has devastating results."
Did you hear THAT? Devastating. It can't just be someone else's problem that your 3rd, 8th or 12th grade student can't read your textbook, it has to be yours. It has to be mine.

So what are you supposed to do? You have a textbook, actually you have a class set of textbooks, access to texts online...but how do you choose? And how will you make them accessible to your students?

1) The first strategy I would suggest is modeling. Yes, even you EPHS teachers :) The way you approach a text is intentional as an experienced reader (even when you're not trying to be intentional.) Open up the textbook, or the text you are expecting them to read, and talk through how YOU would read it and why. Do you read all the headings first? Do you look at diagrams and maps as you go or before you start? Why do you do it that way? What is your response to bold words? What is the narrative in your mind as you read the novel? Do you take notes about questions or observations? You are the expert reader in your classroom. If we don't make the internal process of reading external for them, they won't ever gain the skills and strategies they will need to read complex texts. (Cris Tovani's I Read it, But I Don't Understand it!)

2) The other strategy is to find several passages about the topic you are teaching, at various levels. One of the passages should be from your textbook or class text. Distributing these to students in a packet, or electronic folder allows them to view and choose the ones they can most easily interact without having to publicly choose the easiest. After reading 2 of the passages from the selected group. You can guide small groups through a discussion of similarities in order to building background knowledge about the topic. You can use newspaper articles, copy and paste text from Time for Kids articles from other grade levels or even other grade level textbooks. Doing this before tackling the larger text or concept allows students to get grounded in the content at their own level, propelling them to be more engaged in a difficult text.

F&P Benchmark data into small groups

Here is a demonstration of how you might make your initial groupings for small group instruction after collecting your benchmark assessment data.

Practical examples for your reading workshop!

The Continuum of Literacy Learning

Regardless of the version you have (PreK-8, K-2, or 3-8) this resource is sure to become endlessly helpful to you, IF you learn how to use it! I am excited to see some of you really digging into the sections as you write your units of study, evaluate Benchmark assessment results and plan for small group instruction. I know it contains a lot of information, and it can be overwhelming, but I personally have not found another resource to be so valuable in my classroom teaching. There are seven Curriculum Components covered in the each version of the Continuum, but the layout of the book is different in the different versions. If you have the large PreK-8 continuum, you will find these 7 as the tabs that divide the book, with each grade level having pages within the tab. If you have the orange (K-2) or purple (3-8) versions, your tabs are organized mostly by grade level with the 7 components covered in each. Here are the 7 components:

* Interactive Read Aloud & Literature Discussions- here you will find a year-by-year list of specific behaviors to support and teach to the whole class

* Shared & Performance Reading- here you will find a year-by-year list of specific behaviors to support in whole group readings and guided small group readings

*Writing About Reading- a description of genres, and evidences of thinking within, beyond and about text for each grade level

*Writing- As we move in the direction of incorporating writing into our literacy blocks strategically, this section can begin to help you imagine which units of study can help you deliver instruction on various writing skills and genres. 

*Oral, Visual & Technological Communication- Year-by-year understandings and behaviors to support

* Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study- This is an overview of phonics skills to be covered at each grade level. Synthesizing this with your standards and (if possible) the Detailed Phonics Continuum in the back of the PreK-8 version, will give you a well rounded idea of how to embed phonics instruction. If your team has the F&P Phonics set, you will be able to get all of the information you need for scope & sequence from that. 

* Guided Reading- If you ask me, this is one of the MOST important parts of the Continuum. As we grow in our knowledge about text complexity and levels of readers in our classrooms, this resource provides everything you need to know about certain kinds of books and the sequencing of skills in order to expedite growth towards and beyond grade level expectations. If you are interested in learning more about how to use this section to inform your instruction, please contact me and I can come join you at a team meeting or prep to talk you through it.