This is a full day version of the Thinking About Thinking workshop and includes a segment on writing. I used this in a training in Wilson County, TN.

1. Thinking About our Thinking
Strategies That Make A Difference
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S
Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com

2. Brain Gym
• I’m going to ask a question.
• The first hand I see go up to answer correctly,
wins.
• What was the first capital of……
• ……………..Tennessee?
• Correct answer: Knoxville

3. Independent Time
1. In the area of teaching
comprehension and writing,
what is the one thing you
feel you need to change?
2. Please share with a
colleague.

4. If Teaching Children Were Like This

5. --Christopher Morley
“When you sell a man a book you don't sell him just 12 ounces of
paper and ink and glue - you sell him a whole new life.”

6. Turn and Talk
Tell your elbow partner
about a book that made
a lasting impression on
you.

7. “No matter how busy you
may think you are, you
must find time for
reading, or surrender
yourself to self-chosen
ignorance.”

8. “The more you read, the more things
you will know. The more that you
learn, the more places you'll go.”
- Dr. Seuss, "I Can Read With My Eyes
Shut!"

9. We speak to a deeper
appreciation or closer
reading of text. How
would I know when a
student is close reading?
Turn and Talk

10. Big Things
Come From Small Beginnings

11. What is at
stake?

12. “Reading without reflecting is like eating
without digesting.”
- Edmund Burke
So How Do We Get
Students To Think About
Their Thinking?

13. Strategy 1
Picture Talk

14. Fundamental Concepts
1. One has to accept the idea that literacy
involves having conversations about text.
(Donald Graves)
Float the learning on a sea of talk.
--James Britton
Who does most of the talking in your classroom?
Whoever it is, they’re also doing most of the
learning.

15. Let’s Look At an Example

16. Fundamental Concepts
1. One has to accept the idea that literacy is
about having conversations about text.
(Donald Graves)
2. Regardless of the level of language,
acquisition takes place in listening to talk and
in viewing pictures.

17. 1. Start with a story
2. Then show the picture
3. What do you think
happened to this horse?
Turn to your partner and
tell them what
happened?
4. Ask a couple of children
to share out what they
think happened.
5. Let students know that
they just created their
own story.
6. On a large sticky note,
craft a bit of a story
while the children add
details.

18. In using this method, you have used
the element of:
1. Auditory experience with language
2. Visual representation
3. Imagination and creative abilities
4. Listening and Speaking skills
5. Vocabulary development
6. Elements of story
7. Transference to writing
This is what CCSS is about!

19. In using this method, you have
used the element of:
1. Auditory experience with
language
2. Visual representation
3. Imagination and creative
abilities
4. Listening and Speaking skills
5. Vocabulary development
6. Elements of story
7. Transference to writing
This is what CCSS is about!
Compare to: open to page 3 and start
reading

20. Fundamental Concepts
1. One has to accept the idea that literacy is
about having conversations about text.
(Donald Graves)
2. Regardless of the level of language,
acquisition takes place in listening to talk and
in viewing pictures.
3. One must learn to listen to the children with
a view to understand them. Mary Ellen Giacobbe, Children Want to Write

21. Tell Me More About That

22. Strategy 2
Getting Into
Character

23. While it is important that students
hear language, it is even more
valuable that they engage with
that language.
• Plays
• Readers Theatre
• Enactments
• Living Museums
• Dramatic Reads
These can be done in conjunction
with metacognitive instruction.

25. Abraham Lincoln Comes Home
What I Know About Lincoln What I Learned Questions?
1. He was President
Which one?
2. 16th
What else?
3. President during Civil War
4. From Illinois
5. Had a beard
6. Assassinated
By whom?
Don’t know—
John Wilkes Booth
He was an actor and
southern sympathizer
7. Buried in Springfield, Il.
1. 16th President of
United States
2. President During
Civil War
3. Assassinated by
Booth who was a
Southern
Sympathizer
1. How Did he come
to be President?
2. Why did Booth Kill
the President?
3. Where did this
happen?
Concept from Harvey and Goudvis, Comprehension Toolkit

26. Now instead of reading
this story to you, I’m
going to step into
character and tell you
the story of Luke
O’Brien.

27. Strategy 3
Changing Our
Questions

28. Players and fans were keeping cool with soft drinks and ice cream on the
hottest day of July and the first day of the Little League tournament. Brett, an
outfielder, was watching the game from the bench. Crack! Fans erupted in a chorus of
cheers.
“Cheers for someone other than me,” came a small voice from beside Brett.
Brett was surprised to see that the speaker was Omar, one of the younger boys on the
team. The few times Omar had spoken at all, his words usually consisted of yes, no,
coach, or some combination of the three.
What time of
year is it?
What is a
tournament?
What
prepositional
phrase helps
me understand
the word
erupted?
From Journeys, Grade 4, page %12,T13 Sideline Support

29. “Excuse me?” said Brett, still not positive the words had come from Omar.
“I’ve had it.” Frustration was obvious from the peculiar strain in Omar’s voice.
“Just being here now puts me in a bad mood. I show up to every practice. I do
whatever Coach asks. And where am I during the games? On the bench! Why is that?
Does Coach think the other players try harder or have more talent than I have? Are
they simply more advanced than I am?”
“Don’t be silly!” laughed Brett. “I played less than you during my first year,
and I didn’t even know how to hold a bat properly! And you know what? I had a blast.
It’s just a matter of looking at the situation differently. My Dad would call it an attitude
tune-up.”
Why does Brett tell Omar about having an
“attitude tune-up”? Turn to your elbow partner.
1 minute

30. Old Structure versus Common Core
Here is the conversation of
Comprehension as traditionally taught
Here is the Conversation of
Comprehension based on Common Core
• Who were the main
characters in Charlotte’s
Web?
• Where did they live?
• When animals are given
human characteristics it is
called _______________.
• Can you think of a time
when animals influenced
how you felt about
something?
• What descriptions are used
by the author to indicate
that Wilbur is growing
lonelier at the Zuckerman
farm?
• What is the main point of
the friendship of Charlotte
and Wilbur?
• How does the author let us
know that Fern has grown
disinterested in Wilbur?

32. What Kind of Questions Do We Ask?
Take the question worksheet in your packet.
Think about these typical questions from current texts.
Categorize them.
In general, the largest percentage of questions come
from what category in Blooms?

34. In thinking about questioning,
do a brief self-evaluation of
the type of questions most
frequently asked in your
classroom.

35. Strategy 4
Forming
Comparisons

36. 1. Read through lenses.
• What characters/people: say/do/think
• Relationships
• Setting descriptions
• Time Period
• Etc.
2. Use Lenses to find
patterns.
• What details fit together?
• How do they fit together?
3. Use the patterns to
develop a new
understanding of the
text.
• Looking at a specific aspect of characters,
themes, etc.
p. 12, Falling In Love With Close Reading

37. “Put directly, close reading is
something we should teach
students to do, rather than
something we just do to them.”
Falling in Love with Close Reading, Lehman & Roberts, p 4

39. How to Know When Students Are
Reading Closely
1. They refer often to
the text when
discussing their ideas
2. They double-check
and revise their ideas
by looking back at
the evidence in the
text
--p. 13, Falling in Love with Close Reading

40. An Example
How does Jessie Oliver Aaron’s
character change during the
story?

41. Let’s Look Through the Lens of
Word Choice
with this memorable commercial

43. Words Impact Idea
Strong Shows that the farmer…
Hard Work
“God made a farmer”

44. The Lenses We May Look
Through
• Lenses are determined based on the type of
work we are doing with a text
• We may support close reading when
considering the following:
1. Text Evidence
2. Word Choice
3. Structure
4. POV and Argument
5. Reading Across the Texts

45. Word Choice In Narrative or Informational Text
Types of Lenses *Words that evoke:
strong emotions, strong images, a
clear idea
*Words that reveal style:
informal tone, formal tone, a clear
voice
*Particular kinds of words:
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs
Types of Patterns *Which words fit together?
*How do they fit together?
Types of Understandings *An author’s tone, purpose, relationship to
the subject/theme
*Text’s central ideas, issues, lessons,
symbols/metaphors/motifs, themes

46. With a Partner
Examine books thatare on your table. Listat least two
differentlenses through whicheach book may be viewed.

47. Strategy 5
Exploding the
Vocabulary

48. So excite becomes
• Excites
• Excited
• Exciting
• Excitable
• Excitement
• Enlivens
• Animates
• Enthuses
• Enthusiasm
• Magnetic
• Thrills
• Arouses
• Soothes
A Word Tree Starts with Base Word

49. Teaching
Prefixes
Suffixes
And
Roots
Keith Pruitt
Words of Wisdom Educational Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com
Based on the work of Patricia Cunningham

50. One way to greatly enlarge the vocabulary of
students in very short order is through
teaching prefixes, suffixes and root words.
Knowledge of these areas will help to greatly
expand student vocabulary.
Let’s first explore the nature of compound
words.

51. Compound Words
• When we add two
words together, we
form compound words.
These may be easily
taught to students.
• Patricia Cunningham
suggests doing word
sort activities by
categorizing
compounds.
• Apple + sauce
• Earth + quake
• Draw + bridge
• Brain + storm
• Basket + ball
• Pan + cakes
• Ear + rings
• Finger + prints

52. Prefixes
• Un-, re-, in-, dis- are the
most common prefixes
and when students
have learned their
meanings, they can
learn more than 1500
words easily.
• Start instruction with
un-
• Read a selection…
• Explain that un carries
the opposite meaning
of the word to which it
is added.

53. Prefixes
• UN-
Which of these are
prefixes and which
are not?
• Unemployed
• Uncle
• Unstable
• Unbroken
• Unicorn
• Unhealthy
• Unlucky
• United

54. Prefixes
• Re-
• Can mean back or again
• Which are these? And
which are not a prefix?
• Rearrange
• Refund
• Reply
• Review
• Refrigerator
• Relocate
• Reporter
• Rewrite

55. Prefixes
•In- Dis-
• Opposite or not, but
words with in are
irregular
• Do sorting exercises
with prefixes, not
prefixes including the
irregular spellings.
• Inspire
• Irrational
• Immigrant
• Improve
• Dislike

56. Prefixes
• Less common prefixes
include in, mis, non,
pre, en, over, under.
• misinform
• Inside
• Preview
• Overdone
• Preteen
• Nonliving
• Nonrenewable
• Underhand
• Understand

57. Suffixes
• Often just called
endings the most
common are s (plural
forms), er (relating to a
person or thing that
does something), ful,
less, able, ible, ist.
• What do these words
mean when the suffix is
added?
• Fighter
• Folder
• Helpful
• Visitor
• Doubtful
• Powerless
• Suitable
• Gullible
• Persist

58. Suffixes
• Here are words using
less meaning without
• Here are words using ful
meaning full or having
Do the same exercise with -ment, -ance, -ness, -tion. Write riddles of what word
am in with several. I end in –tion. We need to do this in math. What am I?

59. Roots
• Here are some common
roots and their
meanings. What words
could be taught? Give
two examples of each.
• Dict= say
• Duct=lead
• Fac/fec=do, make
• Ject=throw
• Loc=place
• Meter=measure
• Micro=small
• Phon=sound
• Photo=light
• Port=carry, take
• Press=press
• Scrib=write
• Sens=feel
• Spec=look
• Struct=build
• Tele=far
• Tract=drag, pull
• Vis/vid=see
• Voc=voice, call

60. If we will spend just a few moments a
day working with these words, we can
seriously impact the knowledge base
of each student.

61. In this way, you are laying the foundation for
further understanding by giving the students a
vast array of words with which to work.
I know there are voices who say do not tell
students what words mean or to not pre-teach
words. I’m telling you that isn’t sound pedagogy!
“Just let them figure it out” is not a sound strategy
for students and especially not struggling
students.

62. The Importance of
Asking Questions
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S
www.woweducationalconsulting.com
Strategy 6

63. • Make as many words as
you can in one minute
from the following word.
• Pronunciation

64. Types of Writing in
Common Core State
Standards
Response to Literature
Process Writing

65. Exemplar Rubric Text
Today before we had writing groups Mrs. John read us
a story about frogs. We had to write about frogs. We
had a tadpole in the science center. It has two back
legs and when it has two front legs its tail disappears
and it cannot eat when its mouth is changing. Then
the skin gets too little and the frogs pull off their skin
and they eat it. Some fo the frogs blow bubbles.
Frogs laid eggs that look like jelly and the fish eat
some but some hatch to tadpoles. It grows bigger and
bigger and bigger.

66. One of the strategies with
which we find success in
comprehension instruction is
the usage of questions.
May I suggest that asking
questions in writing will help
create better writers.

68. • Turn to a partner
• Write three questions
prompted by this picture
• These questions now
become the beginnings
of a narrative.

70. What We Think We Know What We Learned

71. I Learned I Wondered?
Coast redwood
trees are the tallest
trees on earth.
How tall is the tallest
redwood?
Some redwood
trees are among
the oldest living
things on earth.
How old is the oldest
redwood tree
reported to be?
The tallest is
reported to be 350
feet tall. That is
like a 35 story
building.
The oldest
redwood tree lived
to be about 2000
years old. That
means it first took
root when Julius
Caesar ruled
Rome

72. A Method to Strengthen
Writing
We went to the store.
We bought some
clothes. We had fun.
Who Went
to the
store? How did
you go?
What
store did
you go to
What kind of
clothes did
you buy?
What was
there about
this that was
fun?
When did
you go to
the store?

73. Now We Have…
Carlos, Maria, and I went to the Wal-mart on Thursday
evening. Maria drove us in her Mazda convertible.
Carlos bought some new shirts to wear. Maria bought
a new dress. I bought a new pair of boots to wear to
work. We had a lot of fun at the Wal-mart. I like being
with my friends. We tell jokes and like being together.
What was it like
inside the store?
Did you have the
top down? What
was the weather
like?
Describe the shirts, dress
and boots. What color
were they?

74. By just asking
questions, you can flesh
out a very simple form
of writing to give it more
meat and build its
volume.

75. Considerations in Writing
• Write Often, Model Often, Release Often
• Use a learning progression in working with writing (James
Popham, 2007), building blocks
• Design a continuum of writing for assessment
(www.readingandwritingproject.com)
1. Use an on demand benchmark to begin measure
2. Compare to your continuum
3. Monitor their progress over time compared to the
continuum
4. End the year by an on demand piece and show the
progression
• Provide students with clear goals and effective feedback

76. In Process Writing:
1. Target the instruction- don’t try to
get all the lions out of the jungle the
first day
2. Offer constant feedback, but let the
children do the work (they don’t
learn from what you do, but what
they do)
3. Use a writers workshop model with
six trait writing

77. In this workshop we have looked at six
strategies that are tested and tried
with students and that have been used
successfully with all students.
I hope you will take them for a spin in
your classroom.

78. It becomes about Teaching children how to learn

79. Is It Worth The Struggle?

80. Please turn to a colleague and tell
them something you’ve learned
today that you want to use in your
classroom next fall.

81. Thank You
Keith Pruitt, Ed.S
Words of Wisdom
Educational Consulting
www.woweducationalconsulting.com