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This was a great read that I came across in the SVSU library.  Just a note, to see it you may have to enter your username and password which is the same as your svsu email and password. This article is uplifting, encouraging, and seems like teachers could attempt just a few of these for maximum success in engaging those hard to engage readers.

Gina, I just had to comment--The title 13 for thirteen...and when I saw it "shared by...13 minutes ago." What are the chances!

Journal #1 I really like this article because it spoke to my content area, social studies. I think it is important that students understand how they read a novel for English will be different than reading a history textbook or a newspaper article, and therefore require a different strategy. I use primary and secondary documents, as well as text books, and so students sometimes struggle with comprehension of these different materials. I also use Supreme Court case documents and students have difficulty with those especially. Part of it is vocabulary, but part of it they really don't have a strategy for figuring it out. I think providing them with a strategy of how newspaper articles are structured vs. text books would be very helpful for those learners who have difficulty understanding what they are reading. I was also happy to find out that there is a website that I can access that may assist me with helping teach literacy for social studies. Yea!

This article also provides concrete examples of students reading history like historians, which is really important. And text structure and features defintely plays into this as well. I am so glad you found something meaningful for you as a teacher and learner! Nice use of tags! (Is this for your Journal #1?)

LeAnn, I also think it is very important that students read a textbook differently from the way they would read a novel. Having students take on the persona of a Historian I believe would help them better understand history and how it went about developing our country and our pasts as well. That is wonderful that you are searching for ways to make a more meaningful connection between the students and history textbooks.

Resources for teachers from Scholastic

For my first journal article I read an article about helping struggling readers in the middle school age range. The reason that I found this article interesting was because there are so many students that I encounter at the high school level that have a very difficult time reading. Sometimes I wonder how they are even able to complete assignments with a lack of reading skill. If students were able to improve their reading level before they got to the high school level it would be far easier for these students to learn. I learned through this article that the San Diego area has a program called the Accelerated Literacy program to help struggling readers. This program has teachers specifically assigned to improving struggling students' literacy. They work with the students in a more direct fashion to help them improve their reading. I like the idea of focusing on improving this skill with the students because it is such a big part of what the students will need for the rest of their lives. Also, these teachers in the Accelerated Literacy program came up with themed booklists to incorporate the curriculum as well as finding books that students would find interesting. This, to me, is a very important piece. If a teacher is able to spark an interest in reading these students will probably be a lot more likely to be successful at it. Also, if the books are tied to the curriculum, these students will also be learning pertinent information. I know lots of school districts have programs like this, but I really liked the idea of coming up with booklists that might spark interest with students. Improving reading ability in students impacts how they will be able to learn for the rest of their lives.

Brett, I liked this site and the information it provided. As having been a "second dose" reading teacher for ms students, it is always great to have leveled books that are motivating for students. Thank you for sharing!

Brett, I think the idea of themes for students to choose from is a great idea. These students need to be challenged, but many may feel resentful and give up if schools continue to throw them literature that simply does not interest them.

Ediger, M. (2000). Teaching Reading In The Social Studies [Abstract]. College Student Journal. Retrieved January 29, 2012, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_1_34/ai_62839401/?tag=content;col1 For my first journal article I choose an article that covers teaching in reading in social studies. The article discusses how teachers should use methods of guiding students to comprehension and understanding of ideas in print. Students need word recognition skills which can lead to meaningful learning. This is crucial for students to develop necessary skills to achieve a higher understanding in this subject area. To do this teaching reading across the subject will benefit as students learn the important facts, concepts, and ideas the curriculum. As a social studies teacher, you need to be active in students reading by helping with comprehension which can lead to a better understanding of the material. The article offers several methods on how to do this. These include adding new words found in readings as vocabulary, reading orally in small groups, using a student aid to read orally, using tape recordings of the section, individual readings, and using journals during readings. Overall I thought this article was great because while it provided you many ideas and practices that you could actually use in your classroom. In the end, having actual methods to use first hand will benefit us as teachers the most. It will just be up to use to master using them in the classroom.

For my first journal, I read this article about multi-sensory language arts instruction.  It claims that if you can provide students with visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic methods for learning, they are more likely to be successful.  One of the things that I agreed with most strongly that it seems many educators today shy away from is the idea that students should "practice to the point of automatization."  Automatic reading is not the key to comprehension but it is surely a necessary foundation for meaningful reading.  When I was a student, we practiced grammar and spelling until it was second-nature and generally my current abilities testify to that.  However, we have steered away from correctness in favor of sparing student egos.  I do not think that it has done them any good.  I wholeheartedly agree with this article that we MUST train our students to be good readers and writers. 

More emphasis is being placed on fluency. You can't understand what a text means if you can't figure out what it says. We don't want students to simple "bark at print" but there has to be a balance between fluency and comprehension.Was there anything in the article you would apply to your own teaching?

Journal Article #1 Summary: Student's identities are formed through their social interactions and their literacy experiences. Literacy identity is often narrow: "good reader", "poor writer", etc. These are very inflexible descriptions and can lead students to be stuck in roles instead of growing their literacy skills. This article explores the development of identity through both students social interactions and their literacy experiences. Through three studies, it shows how these two concepts are interconnected. This article also discusses how literacy is a form of language and communication, how people interact because of literacy and the way that people define and construct themselves in order to accomplish life goals. This article also explores the role that teachers have in forming their students' literacy identities. It gives examples of three different and diverse classroom experiences with teachers who have different approaches to teaching literacy.  Link to PDF: http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1218&context=gse_pubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D30%26q%3Dliteracy%2Bschools%2Beducation%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D1%2C23%26as_ylo%3D2010%26as_subj%3Dsoc%2Beng#search=%22literacy%20schools%20education%22 Citation: Hall, L. et al. (2009) "Teacher Identity in the Context of Literacy Teaching: Three Explorations of Classroom Positioning and Interaction in Secondary Schools." Teaching and Teacher Education. Vol. 26(2). p. 234-243.

Fascinating paper! Could you identify with any of the stories related in the paper? What will you take with you into your own teaching?

In this longitudinal study, 852 students from high-poverty schools were given a supply of self-selected books on the last day of school for 3 years. Students in the treatment group performed significantly better on the state reading assessment than most students in the control group.

This is an important study, and related to the article Brett shared in terms of students selecting books of interest to them.

"The Michigan Adolescent Literacy Council, a special interest council under the Michigan Reading Association, is a professional organization for educators genuinely concerned with improving the teaching of literacy to adolescents. Our goal is to provide awareness of the unique needs of adolescent learners, professional development opportunities, and information on the best practices in the teaching of literacy for adolescents."

I re-read this (highlighted) passage from the article about 3 times to absorb it. When I first became a literacy coach about 10 years ago, our district was just transitioning to the idea of leveled text and guided reading. It was all about giving struggling readers text at their instructional level--easier to access. Now the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) necessitate a shift in that thinking as we need to push students to interact with more complex texts at a higher level of thinking. So I think we can still consider instructional levels (and need to) to help students become proficient readers, but we need to "up the ante" in our book talks to help students go deeper into the meaning.

Lyons, W. & Thompson, S.A. (2011, October). Guided Reading in Inclusive Middle Years Classrooms. Intervention in School and Clinic, 47: 158. Retrieved January 27, 2012, from http://isc.sagepub.com.huaryu.kl.oakland.edu/content/47/3/158.full.pdf This study was interesting, because it focuses on something that I am sure so many teachers struggle with - how to teach students who demonstrate a wide variety/range of ability and needs. This study took a really "rough" socioeconomic level of 4th -8th graders and their teachers, and using guided reading as their main method of instruction DID see an 80% of students advance at least one, if not more levels. This was attributed to the fact that in small guided reading groups teachers could spend more time with small groups of students, targeting individual needs. That was the warm fuzzy. Of course, the part that this article mentions in the end, and would stop most teachers in their tracks before attempting to duplicate this, is that each classroom was equipped with several teachers and teacher assistants to make this work. Additionally, there were many times where the rest of the class NOT consisting of the 3 to 5 students in the guided reading group were supposed to work independently. All in all, every study has its flaws - the interesting thing here is that despite them, students still improved overall.

oops...ok I edited my post and stuck the citation in it...thanks!

Interesting to note some of the different terms used in the Canadian Schools, such as "families living in vulnerable circumstances" and "enhanced funding." Probably akin to our use of "at-risk" and "Title I." You are right, most teachers would "stop in their tracks" with regard to the two teachers. This article refers to an inclusion setting, in which the special ed teacher "pushes in" with the special ed students and co-teaches with the gen ed teacher. I did a NCA QAR visit last spring in a school with 4 or 5 teachers in a grade, and 4 paras in the school. It was either 2nd or 3rd grade. Every day at the designated time, all the paras would go into that pod of the school, and the students would move around to different teachers or paras and everyone got guided reading every day. It requires a shift in thinking and lots of collaboration and cooperation, but it can be done.

Since my goal is to be a special education teacher I figure I'd make that the focus of my article search. This particular article is meaningful because it lists specific strategies to help the student with a reading disability. The first strategy listed is to encourage reading by finding reading material that the student enjoys. Reading material they want to read will help to improve reading comprehension and fluency because the student won't feel forced to read something they are not interested in. Keeping a graph of the student's reading progress helps to motivate them to improve their reading skills by making it a challenge. Also readers who struggle can track with their finger or a ruler in order to keep their place and their focus. Sounding out stumble words is a strategy to use when the student is struggling with a particular word. A strategy that I have never thought to use before is to record the student reading so they are able to listen back and judge their own fluency. For secondary students, have them keep a word journal notebook. They can record the words they get stuck on when reading and then study them. Lastly, using reading games is a great strategy for any age group. Even high school special education students enjoy a game of Scrabble, and playing word games improves their reading skills. The bottom line is to make reading fun for all students, and especially for readers with disabilities.

Nice job pulling out the specific strategies, Wendy.

Barrett-Mynes, J., Moran, M. J., & Tegano, D. (2010). Supporting struggling readers using interactive read-alouds and graphic organizers. Voices of Practitioners, 5(2), 1-12. This article discusses a four week study that was done in order to determine the effects that collaborative discussion and child-created graphic organizers used during read-alouds had on children's comprehension. Over the course of the study it was found that: 1. The children need less guidance from their teacher and became more collaborative with their peers in their discussions. 2. The use of graphic organizers became more child-created and required less teacher guidance. 3. Students in the study received higher scores on standardized tests. The article concludes that both collaborative discussions and child-created graphic organizers enable students to construct new knowledge and begin to organize their thinking in response to the comprehension of text. It was also found that by depending less on the the teacher for guidance, children were able to take more control and ownership of their learning. When I taught first and second grade, I loved using graphic organizers and read-alouds to help build reading and comprehension skills. I liked the fact that graphic organizers can be as creative and/or as structured as you would like. The most important factor for me is that graphic organizers can be used with any subject to help a child organizer their learning in a way that is helpful for them as learners.

I agree, it seems like the student's in the study would have had to have some prior experience with graphic organizers to be able to create their own. I loved using graphic organizers in my classroom, although with 1st and 2nd graders they were primarily teacher guided, I think that they were helpful for students to organizer their thoughts and be able to have a visual representation.

In first/second grade it is absolutely appropriate for the teacher to guide and scaffold the student use of graphic organizers.

This article was about labeling "readers" and how teachers identify students by whether they were or were not "readers". Not everybody has the same definition or meaning of the word "reader". What characteristics do we as teachers assume someone possesses when he or she is (or is not) a reader? The article suggests that most people refer to the word "reader" as someone that possesses the ability to recognize letters and decode some words and sentences. Yet the people in the study often categorized reading as an activity that they regarded as more focused, literary, and part of high culture, not daily life. Also, the reading that happens every day is not what most teachers mean when they talk about a student being a reader. This article further states that being a "reader" is generally a positive identity for young children and often negative for adolescents. The following paragraph was meaningful to me and truly hit home: I believe it is important that we talk more with our students about what kind of qualities we expect from the people we identify as readers. For one thing, we need to explore with students the multiple and varied nature of reading. We need to remind them that they are constantly being readers as they go about their lives, and we need to talk with them about all the ways they engage in reading and for what purposes. (We can also remind them that reading is often pleasurable and can be so in school as well as outside of it.) After reading this article, I believe teachers should take into account that outside of the classroom students are reading such texts as video game magazines. I plan on emphasizing to my students that good readers do not necessarily read fast, do not necessarily understand what they read the first time, usually read important works more than once, and often finish reading with more questions than they started.

"I plan on emphasizing to my students that good readers do not necessarily read fast, do not necessarily understand what they read the first time, usually read important works more than once, and often finish reading with more questions than they started." This is so important, Renee! Students need to know that even adults as experienced readers sometimes struggle with text or go back and re-read. Kelly Gallagher talks about how, as a high school English teacher, his kids don't realize that he "gets" all the symbolism, etc. in the Shakespeare works because he's read them 20 times. This article also gave me a different perspective on our "Me as a Reader" activity. Thanks for sharing!

Several links to information about the CCSS and the new assessments. Also included are crosswalk documents for the Michigan GLCE and CCSS

"This action research project investigated the effects of daily teacher read-alouds on first graders' ability to sustain silent reading for an extended length of time." Current Issues in Education published by Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. 2011

NPR interview with Walter Dean Myers, the current ambassador for Young People's Literature. The theme for his ambassadorship: "Reading is Not Optional."

I love Walter Dean Myers, and think he is great for reaching boy readers. I read Dopesick for my Young Adult literature class last semester, and think he is accessable for various students.

I googled SUN. 

Literacy