This document provides an overview of the content that was covered in a literacy education class. It discusses reading strategies and comprehension, connecting curriculum expectations to strategies, identifying struggles readers may have and growth mindset. It also outlines resources for struggling readers and assessing text difficulty. Students are assigned homework on exploring writing resources and posting about one in an online forum. The class aims to help preservice teachers develop strong literacy practices.

1. WEEK 6 Reading ll

2. Housekeeping
 Only 4 classes left until the break!
 Current standing – updated grades
 Questions or concerns? Please see me after class or email me at
ecarey@brocku.ca

3. Reading Strand Focus
 Last week – Reading Part 1 (Theory)
 The importance of reading (participation in society)
 Reading behaviors (Before, During, and After Strategies)
 Teaching strategies (Gradual Release of Responsibility)
 This week – Reading Part 2 (Practice)
 Curriculum Connections
 Struggling Readers
 Growth Mindset

4. Professional Learning Conversations
 Week 6: Professional Reading 15 minutes
 Styslinger, M, Walker, N., & Lenker, T. (2014). Beyond the sticky note and Venn
diagram: Comprehension strategies for 21st century schools. Voices from the
Middle, 22(2), 13-20.
PLC 15 Minutes

5. Today’s Big Q’s
 What are the Curriculum Expectations for Reading?
 How do they connect with the Reading Strategies we discussed last
week?
 How do we reach struggling readers?
 How do we identify what struggles might be present?
 What is Growth Mindset and how can this philosophy help us in our
classrooms?

6. Ontario Curriculum - Language
 In your table groups, read the overview of the reading expectations on page 10-11.
 Then read the Overall and Specific Expectations for Reading, as found in the
Reading strand at a variety of grade levels (4-8). You can choose any grade of your
choice.

7. Your Own Classroom
 Based on the expectations for reading in the Ontario Curriculum, your
understanding of good teaching practices, and your ideas about
building positive learning environments: list 5 “musts” for
teachers to include in their reading program:
 Teachers must:
1. _____
2. _____
3. _____
4. _____
5. _____
Add your list to a new sticky note on
our collaborative bulletin board found
HERE
(or see link on Sakai)

8. Traditional responses to texts in the
classroom
 Reading response journals
 Graphic organizers
 Oral Retells
 Retell, Relate, Reflect Responses
 Written Comprehension Questions
 Annotated Passages
 Readers Theatre
 Q & A Character Hot-Seat
 Drawing pictures
 Book Reports (independent novels)
 Sequence Activities (narratives)
 5W activities (news / current events
reports)
 Tree maps (informational texts)
 T-charts or Venn Diagrams
(comparing texts)
 Continue the story writing tasks

9. Traditional responses to texts in the
classroom
 In your group, have one person open the google doc and add what you remember
from our circle last week- positive and negative examples.
 https://goo.gl/ujeeyZ

10. New ways to look at old ways
 In your group choose one of the negatives and see if there is a new way to see it
and adapt it. Add any new strategies you found in your readings for this week.
Add this to the google doc under each chart.

11. Reading response journals
Digital/Collaborative Graphic organizers
Oral Retells recorded to FlipGrid
Retell, Relate, Reflect Responses
Written Comprehension Questions
Annotated Passages
Readers Theatre!!!
Q & A Character Hot-Seat
Drawing pictures!!! Or filming Green Screen videos!
Book Reports (independent novels)Book Movie Trailers; Tweets!
Sequence Activities (narratives)Online Storyboards/comics!
5W activities (news / current events reports)Filmed!
Tree maps (informational texts)Online with images and text!
T-charts or Venn Diagrams (comparing texts)
Continue the story writing tasks
21C responses to texts in the classroom

12. Comprehension
Strategies
 Activating prior knowledge
 Determining a purpose for reading
 Making connections
 Text-to-self
 Text-to-text
 Text-to-world
 Predicting
 Visualizing
 Questioning
 Making Inferences
 Evaluating
 Summarizing
Curriculum
Connections

13. Characteristics of Good Readers
Before Reading, they
 Read the title
 Preview the text
 Make predictions
 Activate prior
knowledge
 Set a purpose
 Have a reading plan
During Reading, they
Ask questions
Check predictions
Visualize text
Ask themselves,
“does this make
sense?”
Create notes, charts,
graphs as they read
Self-correct
After Reading, they
 Summarize important
ideas
 Retell main ideas
 Relate to personal
experiences if possible
 Confirm and adjust
predictions
 Draw conclusions and
make generalizations
 Share responses to
text

14. Other Reading Expectations:
We use text forms to help us
understand texts
• (Fiction has a beginning, middle and end; a
problem and a solution; character, plot, and
setting elements)
• (Non-fiction has headings, subheadings,
images and captions, an index, etc. to help us
determine important ideas)

15. Again, provide good models, explicit
instruction, and anchor charts

16. Other Reading Expectations:
We use text forms to help us
understand texts
• (Fiction has a beginning, middle and end; a
problem and a solution; character, plot, and
setting elements)
• (Non-fiction has headings, subheadings,
images and captions, an index, etc. to help us
determine important ideas)
Fluency aids comprehension
• We learn phonetics (that letters have sounds),
phonic (sounding out groups of letters to read
a word), word recognition (no longer having to
sound out each letter), and fluency (reading at a
smooth pace with expression).
• We can use strategies and clues in the text to
help us with new/unfamiliar words.
Self-Assessment Skills
• Students need to learn how to evaluate
their own skills and stages and to set
goals for themselves for improvement.

17. 4 Roles of the Literate Learner
•Texts are not
neutral
•Structure of text
•Breaking the
“code” of text
•Construct &
communicate
meaning
Meaning
Maker
Code
User
Text
Analyzer
Text
User

18. Luke and Freebody’s 4 Resource Model

19. 4 Roles and links to curriculum
Reads a Variety
of Texts/Purpose
Code Breaker Meaning Text User Text Analyzer Metacognition
Skills
Overall #1
1.1-1.2
Overall #3
Accuracy
and Fluency
3.1-3.3
Overall #1
1.3-1.6
Overall #2
2.1-2.4
Overall #1
1.7-1.9
Overall #4
4.1-4.2

20. Comprehension Strategies & Engagement
 Activating prior knowledge
 Making connections: text-to-self; text-to-text; text-to-world
 Predicting
 Visualizing
 Questioning
 Drawing inferences
 Evaluating

21. Elements of Story: Example
 The Tell Tale Heart

22. • Helps students to
identify patterns
and themes
• Reinforces
comprehension of
ideas
• Valuable tool for
evaluation

23. Video links
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdiScrcP2Nk
 Reading Strategies for Struggling Middle School Readers
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDSwvFL3mdQ
 Games for students to help build comprehension

25. Break
 10 minutes

26. Social Justice Presentations
 Presenting today: Natassja
 On your recipe card, please put the presenters name in the
top left-hand corner and your name on the top right-hand
corner.
 Complete the following sentences.
 During the presentation,
 I noticed…
 I felt…
 I learned…
 One thing I’d like to incorporate into my teaching would be…

28. Struggling Readers
 Reading enjoyment “I hate reading”
 Reading interest “These books are boring”
 Reading fluency skills “I can’t read that”
 Reading Comprehension skills “I don’t understand this”
 Reading Response forms “This is too hard to write about”
 Reading Self-identity “I’m just not a good reader”

29. Assessing Text Difficulty for Students
Range of Factors to Consider
Surface features – vocabulary, sentence length
*Can the student decode the text?
Deeper features – ideation and representational
modes
*Can the student understand the hidden messages
and allegories in the text?
Additional factors within the relationship between
the reader and the text
*Can the student connect to the text, find personal
meaning, and enjoy reading it?
Interplay of all of these factors = a text’s readability

30. Additional Factors
 Students’ background knowledge and experiences can impact their reading ability
 Logical influences –
 whether or not vocabulary is familiar
 Whether the text draws on socio-cultural identity, experiences and knowledge they can
relate to
 Whether or not the reader is interested
 Whether or not the reader is motivated
 Think “Readerability” as well as ‘Readability’ – Understand your students and
include them in the process of selecting texts they can enjoy.

31. “Question”
and
“Picture It ”
applies to
all
“Question”
and
“Picture It ”
applies to
all
“Question”
and
“Picture It ”
applies to
all
Systems
of Strategic
Actions
Helping Students Before,
During, and After Reading

32. Reaching All Readers
An Important Read: Why Reading to Older Children is Valuable (2013)
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/28582/why-reading-aloud-to-older-children-
is-valuable

33. A great classroom resource for struggling
readers
 https://peterpappas.com/blogs/toolkit09e.pdf

34. Other Resources for Struggling Readers
 Literacy Gains monograph: Reading Fluency
 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/reading_fluency.pdf
 Think Literacy Resource (7-10):
 http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/
 Scholastic Literacy Place (4-6)
 https://education.scholastic.ca/category/MOVING_UP
 Scholastic magazines: samples
 Action: https://action.scholastic.com
 Scope: https://scope.scholastic.com
 Boy’s Literacy
 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/boysliteracy.html

35. Other Resources for Struggling Readers
 Literacy Gains monograph: Reading Fluency
 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/reading_fluency.pdf
 Think Literacy Resource (7-10):
 http://edu.gov.on.ca/eng/studentsuccess/thinkliteracy/
 Scholastic Literacy Place (4-6)
 https://education.scholastic.ca/category/MOVING_UP
 Scholastic magazines: samples
 Action: https://action.scholastic.com
 Scope: https://scope.scholastic.com
 Boy’s Literacy
 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/boysliteracy.html

36. Developing a Growth Mindset is Important
“Readers’ expectations of themselves
as readers can impact on their
confidence in reading.”
Moe, A. (2009). Expectations and recall of texts: The more able-more difficult effect. Learning and
Individual Differences, 19, 609–614.
Encourage students to recognize their learning
as a work in progress, with no limit to the extent
to which they are able to achieve.

40. Growth Mindset
 Fixed Mindset --- Growth Mindset --- Innovative Mindset

41. Goal Setting in the Classroom
 Adopt a growth mindset in your classroom:
 Model goal setting
 Create shared goals
 Have students set individual goals
 Follow through is key
 Create at atmosphere of growth over grades:
 Do not emphasize reading levels or grades
 Do not compare students to one another
 Provide feedback
 Encourage risk taking
 Embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn
 Celebrate success

42. Looking ahead to next class…Writing!
 Resource Critique:
 Choose one specific resource or idea that you explored above. Consider how it
could address a key principle in teaching writing or a specific curriculum
expectation for Writing. Note: You are not reviewing The Complete Guide to
Twitter Hashtags or The IRC Pinterest Site; you are to critique a specific resource
or idea for teaching writing that you found through one of the larger collections
indicated above.
 Create a Forum post that answers the “3 Ws”:
 What is the resource? Provide a link and basic information about your selection.
 Why? What principles of teaching writing or specific expectation(s) could be
addressed though this resource? What features make this resource useful for
teachers of literacy.
 What now? How could you anticipate using this idea in your upcoming literacy
placement?

43. Looking Ahead to Next Class
 Oct 9 – No class – Reading Week
 Oct 16 – No class – Flex Week
 Our next class is on Oct 23rd
 Focus on Writing
 Homework:
 Explore Resources + Forum Post
 PBP by Elizabeth
 PLC’s led by Holly, Melissa, and Hanna

44. Closing Circle
 Mental health and wellness check-in.
 What’s one thing that’s going well?
 What are you finding the most challenging?
 Please share one thing you are doing for yourself to cope positively with the stress
of school and life.
 Before you leave, please hand in your name cards.
 Have a great break!