8th Grade Summer Bridge Handbook

“Finding My Place in the World” Summer Bridge 2011

“Finding My Place in the World”

Teacher Handbook

8th Grade

Summer Bridge 2011 Teacher Handbook

8th Grade

www.cps.edu www.chicagoteachingandlearning.org

Reading Appendix

Common Core Standards and CPS Summer Bridge 2011 City of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, Mayor BOARD OF EDUCATION CITY OF CHICAGO David Vitale – President Jesse Ruiz – Vice-President Members: Henry Bienen Dr. Mahalia Hines Penny Pritzker Rodrigo Sierra Andrea Zopp

CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS Jean-Claude Brizard, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Noemi Donoso, Chief Education Officer Katherine Volk, Chief Officer, Office of Teaching and Learning Elizabeth Cardenas-Lopez, Director of Reading and Language Arts Claretha Washington, K-5 Manager, Reading and Language Arts Renita Carol Miller, Special Projects Coordinator and Literacy Specialist

Illinois is one of the 47 states that have adopted the Common Core Standards as their guide for students and teachers. In 2014, Illinois students will be tested on Common Core Standards in series of rigorous tests that e authors of the summer bridge curriculum used the Common Core Standards as their guide in all aspects of the curriculum and materials.

Standards were only included when evidence indicated that its mastery was vital for college and career readirst century. As the demands for our children increase, it is up to educators to provide students with all of the tools possible for success in college and beyond. A large portion of employment in the rst century will require people who can think together. Students will have opportunities to share their e exchange of ideas and perspectives is how people learn to think at higher levels and apply their knowledge to their work. Summer Bridge 2011 includes verbal and written communication in all components of the literacy block. e standards address literacy in all content areas. Summer Bridge 2011 immerses students in social science and science. e Common Core Standards stress the importance of informational text and the necessity to understand and ction text every day in numerous ways. ciently, is addressed throughout Summer Bridge 2011. During PRC2 (an instructional process utilized in summer bridge instruction), students will read text at their level with a partner. Students will gain knowledge from materials that are accessible to them. Students will also read independently every day and gain valuable strategies and ction text. Students will read a minimum of forty minutes per day to help elevate them into more complex levels of text.

In the Common Core Standards, a portrait is drawn of a student meeting the criteria for college and career ts this portrait exhibits independence, strong content knowledge and the ability to respond to various audiences and tasks, to comprehend and critique, to value evidence, and to understand perspectives and cultures. Summer Bridge 2011 is designed to support students in their need to possess these qualities for all of their future endeavors.

It is the policy of the Chicago Board of Education of the City of Chicago not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, creed, national origin, religion, age, handicap unrelated to ability , or sex in its educational programs or employment policies or practices. Inquiries concerning the Application of Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 and the regulations promulgated thereunder concerning sex discrimination should be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, Chicago Public Schools, 125 South Clark Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603. @2010 Chicago Board of Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ©2011 by the Board of Education of the City of Chicago All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

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Curriculum Writers Teaching and Learning Reading and Language Arts would like to acknowledge the following persons for their diligence and hard work in creating the Reading and Writing curriculum for Summer Bridge 2011:

Grade 3 Meghan E. Berry, CPS K-5 Writing Content Lead Carissa Finn, Chicago Literacy Group Maria Griffith, Chicago Literacy Group Carolyn A. King, CPS K-5 Reading and Language Arts Content Lead

Grade 6 and 8 Amy Correa, CPS Reading Specialist/National-Louis Project CLIP Co-Director Julie A. Hines-Lyman, CPS Teacher - Agassiz Susanna A. Lang, CPS 6-8 Writing Curriculum Coach Ryan Peet, CPS Teacher - Agassiz

Designer Rob Residori, CPS Literacy and Technology Coordinator

Contributing Project Leaders Kelly L. Jeffers, CPS Literacy Coordinator Alva Smith, CPS Research and Implementation Coordinator Olga Vasquez, CPS Literacy Coordinator

Additional Curriculum Contributors Carol A. Coughlin, CPS Teacher - Drummond Mary Q. Kovats, CPS Literacy Intervention Teacher - Linne Astrid Thepsiree, CPS Literacy Intervention Teacher – Volta

Foreword

C

ongratulations to the Office of Reading and Language Arts for creating this new summer school program tailored to Chicago Public School goals, priorities, and students’ needs. This curriculum provides a significant opportunity for students to expand their interests and strengthen their reading and writ-

ing.

A recent study of children’s learning revealed that all children, regardless of socioeconomic status, learn about the same amount during the nine months of schooling. It is in the summers, however, that the more affluent children benefit from a range of extended learning opportunities – traveling with their parents, attending camps and clubs, and taking lessons. These children’s minds and imaginations are nourished during the summer months and they don’t evidence the drop in fall test scores that less affluent children do. This is one of the reasons many Chicago schools have moved to the year-round schedule; students are away from the nourishment schools provide for shorter periods of time and so experience less loss in learning.

Another way the summer “doldrums” can be countered is through inviting and challenging summer school programs.

This curriculum developed by the Teaching & Learning: Reading and Language Arts Education team in CPS does just that; it provides all the students who participate the opportunity to continue learning by exploring new topics, reading widely in interesting materials appropriate to their reading levels, and by partnering and sharing ideas with classmates as they discuss what they read and write. Younger students will benefit from participating in guided reading groups and all will have fun engaging in independent reading, using fresh materials.

This summer program has been constructed by a team of excellent CPS coaches and teachers. Lessons were developed for teachers by teachers. They have selected new fiction and informational books so students can experience the joy of exploring new texts, topics and authors. The writing portions of the curriculum are also designed to strengthen the writing skills students need for success in Chicago schools: third graders will focus on narrative writing and the 6-8th graders will write persuasive pieces. These curriculum guides provide an excellent road map for making optimal use of the resources that are available. The ongoing professional development will also provide opportunities for teachers to collaborate in tailoring the use of the materials and curriculum guides to their particular students.

My hope is that all teachers and students will enjoy exploring the books and activities provided, and that the shared discussions and writing will create memorable impressions and long-lasting learning experiences.

Donna Ogle, Ed. D Professor of Education, National-Louis University Senior Advisor to CPS Striving Readers

Table of Contents Rationale—1 Daily Summer Bridge Schedule—2 The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model—3 Read Aloud—4 Independent Reading—5 Independent Reading Conferences—8 Responding to Reading—9 PRC2 : Partner Reading and Content, Too —10 PRC2: Partner Reading and Content, Too —11 PRC2: Partner Reading Framework —12 3-Minute Reading Assessment—13 Minilessons—14 Writing—17 Writing Circles—18 Writing Workshop—19 Writing Workshop—20 Day 1 Establishing Routines—23 Choosing A “Just Right” Book—29 Responding to Reading Using “Say Something”—30 Pre-Assessment: Plan and Draft—33 Day 2 Thinking about Reading—37 Bullying/Peer Pressure – What Would You Do?—39 Launch Writing Circles: One Strategy to Choose a Topic (stack the deck)—41 Day 3 Talking With Your Peers—45 PRC2 Student Form Overview—47 Independent Writing: Choosing a Genre to Fit Your Topic—49

Day 4 Set Up Your Vocabulary Notebooks—53 Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (Hotspot)—56 Day 5 Nonfiction Text Features—60 Independent Writing: Visualization to Write Long—62 Day 6 An Introduction to PRC2—65 Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (I Wonder…)—68 Day 7 Moving with Your Partner—71 Independent Writing: Making Connections to Write Long—73 Day 8 Writing Circles: Giving feedback (What if….)—76 Day 9 Previewing the PRC2 Text—79 Independent Writing: Two Revision Strategies—82 Day 10 The Heart of PRC2 – Partners’ Reading and Discussing Together—85 Writing Circles: Reading Aloud to Edit for Sentence Boundaries—87 Day 11 Asking Good Questions with the Prompt—90 Independent Writing: Self-Editing and Publishing—92 Day 12 Celebration—95 Day 13 Writing Circles: Argument As Activism—97 Day 14 Courteous Conversation: Using the Sidebar—100 Writing Circles: Looking at Mentor Texts—102 Day 15 Citing Textual or Pictorial Evidence—105 Independent Writing: Pre-writing—107 Day 16 Making Connections—110

Independent Writing: Drafting a Lead—112 Day 17 Independent Writing: Drafting the Body—115 Day 18 Independent Writing: Counterargument—118 Day 19 How to Extend Conversation in Partner Reading—121 Independent Writing: Drafting the Conclusion—122 Day 20 Asking Good Questions: Moving Away from the Prompt—125 Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (What if….)—127 Day 21 Using Content Vocabulary in Conversation—130 Independent Writing: Revising for Logic (Sequence and Transitions)—131 Day 22 Independent Writing: Revising for Pacing—134 Day 23 Writing Circles: Editing—137 Day 24 PRC2: Thick vs. Thin Questions—140 Independent Writing: Publishing—142 Day 25 Look At All We Learned—145 Celebration—146 Day 26 Post-assessment: Confer and Revise—148 Day 27 Reflection—151

Vocabulary Strategies—153 Vocabulary Games—172 Read Alouds—179 Appendix—186

“Finding My Place in the World” Summer Bridge 2011

Rationale

I

n December 2010, the Office of Reading and Language Arts launched an initiative focused on “Every Student, Every Day,” which promises all of our students that they will have daily opportunities to:

w w w w

Read something they like and understand; Hear a fluent adult read aloud; Write about something that’s meaningful to them; and Talk about what they’ve read and written.

Now, we are applying these principles to the design of our 2011 Summer Bridge program. Using experiences gained in the Office of Reading and Language Arts to guide our work, our teachers will be able to differentiate instruction for the variety of learners in our summer classrooms. Through the minilesson, teachers will provide short, explicit bursts of instruction to meet the needs of most students, then release them to spend most of their time practicing independently or in small groups. Differentiation is possible because students will be reading and writing at their own level during this extended period, with support from their peers and from their teacher. At the end of the lesson, teachers will reconvene the entire community of learners to share the reading and writing work accomplished that day.

We read to understand, and we teach readers to read, not so they can meet the requirements for promotion, but so they will read throughout their lives. Reading should always start and end with making meaning. We must help our students orchestrate three cuing systems—meaning (what is happening in the pictures/book), syntax (what the book sounds like) and visual (looking at the word and using what we know about letters and sounds).

Research also shows that active, thoughtful readers construct meaning by drawing on comprehension strategies such as Prior Knowledge, Visualization, Inferring, Questioning, Determining Importance, and Synthesizing. Readers of all ages need

explicit, long-term instruction in these strategies.

Similarly, we write to share our thinking with the world, not to answer a prompt. The writing process begins long before an author puts pen to paper.

Exploration is crucial to developing purpose, finding and focusing on a topic, deciding the genre (or form) to use, calling up models of language from life experiences and reading—just about everything related to creating a written text. The process is recursive; that is, writers’ cycle in and out of the various steps or stages. It is not a lockstep process as writers move back and forth on the journey to a final draft or published project.

To be effective in this model, teachers must first become acquainted with their learners, so the summer program will begin with assessments designed to give teachers a snapshot of their students’ strengths and needs at the outset. During the program, teachers will frequently confer with students and review their readers’ and writers’ notebooks.

Notes from conferences, classroom observations and review of notebooks will inform their planning of minilessons, small group instruction and one-onone conferences. However, their planning must still allow students to work with authentic texts and to choose texts as well as topics for their writing. We must always allow students to explore their passions while also gaining competence with text, in order to encourage their lifetime engagement with literacy.

Ch C Chicago hic hic i aagggo o Public Pub Pu bllicc Schools Sch choo ools olss - Summer Sum umme mme merr B Br Bridge rid dge 22011 0111

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Daily Summer Bridge Schedule The Chicago Public School Summer Bridge program is based on the principals of a balanced literacy philosophy where students read, write, think about and interact with text every day. Teachers’ expertise and knowledge of their students is essential for selecting and guiding literacy activities that meet the specific needs of their students. Therefore, teacher’s choice is built into the Summer Bridge Program. Teachers determine their students’ literacy needs though ongoing formative assessments such as teacher/student conferences, fluency snapshots, and observations of specific activities. Based on the information gained through these formative assessments, teachers will select the read loud and vocabulary activities that best meet the needs of their students.

The schedule for the reading and writing sections of the day is below. This schedule is for the regular track schools. Track E schools will need to extend the times accordingly, and may allow for additional time for any components.

Reading Number of Minutes 10

Core Components Read Aloud

20

Independent Reading/Conferring

10

Share/Write About Reading

10

Whole Group Instruction/Mini Lesson

20

PRC2 (Mon, Tues, Wed.) or Vocabulary (Mon., Fri.) Whole Group Wrap-Up

5

writing Number of Minutes 10

2

75 Minutes

60 Minutes

40

Core Components Whole Group Instruction/Minilesson Explicit Writing Techniques & Components Guided Practice

10

Whole Group Wrap-Up

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model The Gradual Release of Responsibility is a research-based instructional model developed by Pearson and Gallagher (1983). In this model, the responsibility for completion of a task shifts gradually over time from the teacher to the student.

The whole/part/whole instructional model used by this Summer Bridge program incorporates this approach. For each of the techniques listed in this guide, the modeling phase is vital. By modeling

the technique and then providing ample time for guided practice both with a partner and independently, you are ensuring student success. Within the gradual release framework, the opportunity for peer learning occurs during a collaboration phase.

Partner reading provides an avenue for students to work collaboratively at a common instructional level while consolidating their understanding of the text that they are sharing (Fisher & Frey, 2008).

The CPS Summer Bridge program puts the student in the forefront of instruction. Using the model illustrated below, teachers spend time to model the instructional practices then gradually release the responsibility to the students. Giving students enough time to practice activities with partners facilitates collaboration and peer learning. Gradually transitioning to independent practice ensures student success. Additionally, this model provides teachers with multiple opportunities to observe students’ behavior, identify and address areas of confusion, and assess mastery.

The model below illustrates the four phases of learning as the responsibility gradually shifts from teacher to student.

Focus Lesson

“I do it” “We do it”

Guided Instruction Collaborative Independent

“You do it together”

“You do it alone”

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

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Read Aloud

Read Aloud is an important component of effective literacy instruction that improves comprehension, vocabulary, and listening skills. Students need exposure to expressive and fluent readers who model reading for them. In addition, read aloud helps children learn to enjoy books that might be beyond their ability to read independently. For interactive read aloud, teachers gather students in a meeting area, or invite older students to draw their chairs closer. As they read, teachers assist students in constructing meaning from text by thinking aloud, or modeling comprehension skills and strategies and appropriate reading behavior. They also pause their reading to allow students to discuss or write their thoughts and ideas about the text, or engage in other activities designed to involve students in meta-awareness of reading strategies. In order for this practice to be effective, teachers must carefully

select their text and the passages that they want to highlight.

The Read Aloud lessons included for Summer Bridge 2011 were designed so that the students can employ the strategy focus in their independent reading. The literacy block schedule was specifically designed for this. The teacher will also confer with two or three students each day during this time and discuss with students how they are using the read aloud strategies.

The lessons that begin on page 185 have suggested stopping points, but the teacher knows the students best. If you feel that the text can be used in another way that will help your students understand, you can use the Read Aloud lessons as a guide and plan your own.

Picture Books The Table Where Rich People Sit (6/8) The Wednesday Wars (8th) Diego: Bigger Than Life (6th)

Byrd Baylor Gary D. Schmidt Carmen T Bernier - Grand

Anthologies The Rose that Grew From Concrete (6/8) When I Was Your Age (6th) America Street (8th) 4

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Tupac Shakur Amy Ehrlich Anne Mazer

Independent Reading Students become better readers by reading.

Independent reading builds fluency, stamina and creates a positive attitude toward reading. During Independent Reading, students are given time to choose materials to read on their own. The activity encourages engagement because the book selection reflects the reader’s personal choice.

The teacher provides quiet time and a comfortable environment conducive to reading. Students

read independently for information or for pleasure. They may be reading online, in periodicals, from classroom libraries or their own materials. It is important that the teachers assist students with text selection. A students’ independent reading book should be one that the student can read without assistance. It is vital that the students have the full 20 minutes per day to read independently.

For Teachers • The teacher has explicitly taught strategies for choosing an appropriate text; • Both teacher and students have worked together to balance interest and reading ability in text selection; • The teacher has assessed the readers in the classroom for reading levels and interests; • Teacher conferring with students in order to scaffold their reading • The teacher has worked with students to set and monitor appropriate goals.

Title

Author

Lexile Genre

Ask Me No Questions

Marina Budhos 790

Realistic Fiction

Bang

Sharon Flake

Realistic Fiction

590

For Students • Students browsing the classroom library to select books; • Students actively engaged in self-selected reading materials • Students reading in corners of the room, in the meeting area, on cushions or pillows; • Students recording his/her reading in logs.

Description As part of a U.S. government crackdown on illegal immigration after 9/11. The Hossains have lived illegally in New York for years, and following their father's arrest and detention, the teens put together the documentation and make a case that shows them as individuals rather than terror suspects.

Up–Mann and his friend Kee-lee have grown up in the inner city and two years ago, his sevenyear-old brother was killed in a drive-by shooting.

Mann's father wants to toughen up his son, so he takes both teens out into the woods and leaves them. Mann learns much about himself as he matures to adulthood.

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Title

6

Author

Lexile Genre

Cruisers Book 1

Walter Dean Myers

810

Realistic Fiction

Eggs

Jerry Spinelli

610

Realistic Fiction

Forged by Fire Sharon M. Draper

780

Realistic Fiction

Freak the Mighty

1000

Fiction

Make Lemon- Virginia Euwer ade Wolff

890

Realistic Fiction

New Moon

Stephenie Meyer

690

Fantasy

One Crazy Summer

Rita WilliamsGarcia

750

Historical Fiction

Rodman Philbrick

Description Zander and his friends are known as the Cruisers in their Harlem school for gifted kids, primarily for being fine with Cs and not into “that heavy competition thing.” They’ve also started an unofficial newspaper, The Cruiser, that isn’t explicitly designed to ruffle the school administration’s feathers but has a knack for it anyway.

David has recently lost his mother to a freak accident, his salesman father is constantly on the road, and he is letting his anger out on his grandmother. David and Primrose forge a tight yet tumultuous friendship, eventually helping each other deal with what is missing in their lives.

Gerald Nickleby is a young basketball player who discovers his innate strength and determination while protecting his stepsister's safety and his mother's honor.

Maxwell , an eighth grader who describes himself as a "butthead goon," has lived with grandparents Grim and Gram ever since his father was imprisoned for murdering his mother. Mean-spirited schoolmates and special ed haven't improved his self-image. His unusual friendship with Kevin, aka Freak, a genius with a serious birth defect that's left him in braces and using crutches. Together they become Freak the Mighty, an invincible duo.

LaVaughn needed a part-time job. What she got was a baby-sitting gig with Jolly, an unwed teen mother. With two kids hanging in the balance, they need to make the best out of life -- and they can only do it for themselves and each other.

Recovered from the vampire attack that hospitalized her in the conclusion of Twilight, Bella celebrates her return. The bloodthirsty hankerings of fans of the first volume will be satisfied and leave them breathless for the third.

It is 1968, three black sisters from Brooklyn are put on a California-bound plane by their father to spend a month with their mother, a poet who ran off years before and is living in Oakland. This book immerses readers in a time and place and raises difficult questions of cultural and ethnic identity and personal responsibility.

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Title

Author

Lexile Genre

Seedfolks

Paul Fleischman 710

Fiction

Tears of the Tiger

Sharon Draper 700

Realistic Fiction

The Dreamer Pam Munoz Ryan

650

Fiction/ Poetry

The Outsiders

S.E. Hinton

750

Realistic Fiction

The Skin I’m In

Sharon Flake

670

Realistic Fiction

Twilight

Stephenie Meyer

720

Fantasy

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

770

Fantasy

Description Thirteen very different voices—old, young, Haitian, Hispanic, tough, haunted, and hopeful—tell one amazing story about a garden that transforms a neighborhood.

A hard-hitting story of the unraveling of a young black man who was the drunk driver in an accident that killed his best friend. Andy cannot bear his guilt or reach out for help which leads to his suicide. Counselors, coaches, friends, and family all fail him.

Neftali Reyes, sees, hears, and feels poetry all around him from an early age. Luckily he finds understanding and encouragement from his stepmother and his uncle, whose humanitarian and liberal attitudes toward nature and the rights of the indigenous Mapuche people influence his developing opinions. Interspersed with the text are poems that mimic Neruda's style .

Ponyboy is a greaser and has to go on the run when his friend Johnny kills a rival soc (short for social). This timeless classic deals with class wars, internal and external conflicts and untraditional, yet caring families.

Maleeka suffers every day from the taunts of the other kids in her class. A new teacher's attitude surprises Maleeka. Miss Saunders loves the skin she's in. Can Maleeka learn to do the same?

In Twilight, an exquisite fantasy by Stephenie Meyer, readers discover a pair of lovers who are supremely star-crossed. Bella adores beautiful Edward, and he returns her love. But Edward is having a hard time controlling the blood lust she arouses in him, because--he's a vampire.

The fantasy futuristic society requires 16 year olds to get an operation to make them “pretty”, and there is an ongoing war with the younger “uglies”. The story follows Tally as she tries to save her friend Shay from the rebel settlement.

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Independent Reading Conferences During teacher-student conferences, we become aware and understand students’ strengths and their areas of need. Through one-on-one conversations, we can learn whether a student is having difficulties with the reading level of their independent reading text or whether they are using a strategy correctly.

It is during this time that we can provide intensive, individual guidance that will lead the student to understand how strategies are used or help the student go deeper in their understanding. At the end of the conference, teachers have documentation of what strategies/techniques or skills their students’

will work on and students leave knowing what skills/ strategies/techniques they need to practice. Students also learn that they will be held accountable for their independent reading and understand that application of their work will be reviewed and discussed during the next conference. The goal is to prepare the student to become independent problem-solvers/ thinkers (Keene & Zimmermann, 2007).

Teachers are required to confer with each student at least once per week.

For Teachers: • Provide time everyday to confer with 3 students • Allow students to read aloud from their independent book for 2-3 paragraph or 1 page • Identify a success and an area of need for the student • Assess student’s progress while they independently apply a skill or strategy • Stay focused; avoid conferring about multiple teaching points • Provide immediate, explicit instruction • Model a specific skill or strategy that may help address student area of need • Understand that depending on the student’s needs, conferences can take anywhere from 30-45 seconds to 5-7 minutes • Teacher may select to confer on a specific skill (comprehension, fluency, etc.)

For Students: • Know that meeting with teacher means that he/she will discuss application of a skill or strategy learned or one that has been suggested for practice • Prepare to share during conferences • Take notes related to the assignment • Work to solve problems independently as he/she reads or writes Independent Reading conference forms are on page 191 8

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Responding to Reading We engage in reading on a daily basis and we may respond to our thoughts about our reading through a variety of methods, whether it be in writing, orally, or an artistic representation (Keene & Zimmermann, 2007). According to Angelillo (2003), our writing extends beyond our classrooms – e-mails to friends, greeting cards, journal writing, or in the case of our students, social networking, favorite music, video games, movies, and so on. In addition to writing about their reading in the language arts class,

students can transfer the reading and writing skills developed through literature to their content area course work. Such skills as “talking to shape ideas, taking notes, collecting evidence, categorizing information, drawing conclusions, and having insights” can also be applied to non-fiction authentic writing such as “feature articles, reports, and news releases” (Angelillo, 2003, p. 101). The following are examples of the various ways students can express their thinking about their reading:

Written:

• Reader’s/Thinking Notebook – letters to other readers and authors about their thinking or how they used a strategy that helped them to understand their reading. Students can also read, think and write about… o What they find interesting or surprising o How the story makes them feel o What the book makes them think about o Their reaction to the characters o How the book reminds them of your life o What they don’t understand, find confusing, or have questions about o What they want to remember about the book o What they learned • Double entry journal that may include a quotes or a key points from the text written on the first column and the student’s thinking about the quotes or points written on the second column • Fluency responses – while reading the story, the students writes their thoughts about what they are reading

Artistic:

• Sketch images or symbols about their story (during or after reading) • Sketch images from a particular moment in a text

Oral:

• Turn and talk – a brief conversation on a topic (before, during or after) • Small and large group sharing • Think-Pair-Share

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PRC2 : Partner Reading and Content, Too

P

RC2 (Partner Reading and Content, Too) is included in this summer program because it can increase students’ engagement with informational texts, expand their knowledge of academic content, provide many opportunities for students to work together as they learn to use informational texts, and help them deepen their understanding of what they read by engaging in short discussions with their partner as they read through a text together.

This form of Partner Reading has been developed by Chicago teachers, first as part of the Middle Grades Project and later through Project ALL funded by the Chicago Community Trust as an instructional process to be used by content-area teachers to provide reading in the content areas (Ogle, 2004). Students are partnered together by the same reading level in independent-level content specific materials that they read and discuss together while the teacher moves around making observational notes on the students’ use of vocabulary, comprehension, and discussion. These anecdotal notes give the teacher the information needed to identify and to pull together students with similar needs and to explicitly teach them according to those needs.

The expectation for 21st century learners is that they can navigate a range of informational texts, critically engage with the content, read multiple texts on the same topic, build their understanding of the ideas contained within them and synthesize and critically respond to ideas across texts. The new Common Core State Standards shift the reading expectations for middle graders to critically reading informational texts, reading multiple texts on the same theme or topic, and prioritize integrated instructional units.

PRC2 helps teachers differentiate the reading experiences of all students based on their reading levels, a priority of RtI instruction. By partnering students who have similar levels of reading develop-

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ment in materials they can read students are more motivated, relaxed and thus can experience success.

PRC2 is based on five key research-based foundations Ogle & Correa-Kovtun (2010), “Students need to read daily from materials at their instructional and/or independent reading level if they are going to improve as readers. This means that classrooms need to make available materials at a range of reading levels in the content being studied. (Allington, 2007; Blachowicz & Ogle, 2008; Allington & Cunningham, 2007) Students need regular opportunities to talk and use academic vocabulary and discourse to make the concepts their own and to internalize the new ways of expressing ideas (August & Shanahan, 2007; Marzano, 2007; Echeverria, Vogt & Short, 2004).

Learning is enhanced when students ask and answer their own questions. An inquiry approach to learning helps students become metacognitive and take ownership of their learning (Guthrie, 2001; Almasi, 2008; Ogle, 1986).

Factual knowledge is important in content learning, however, students need regular opportunities to think at higher levels. Time for reflection and sharing of points of view help students clarify ideas and deepen their understanding (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 2003; Nichols, 2006; Medd & Whitmore, 2001).

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

PRC2: Partner Reading and Content, Too

Students need to be guided in using informational texts and textbooks. Learning to identify and use external text features and identify internal text structures are tools that need to be taught in the intermediate grades. (Blachowicz & Ogle, 2008; Ogle

& Blachowicz, 2001) Strategies for reading carefully, making notes of new ideas, and blending visual and narrative content are also necessary (Ogle, Klemp & McBride, 2007).”

PRC2 addresses the priorities established by RTI and Common Core Standards. This process has many layers and requires that teachers be tenacious in “staying with it” until the PRC2 model becomes routine for students. Students are often not accustomed to reading informational texts carefully, asking and responding to their own questions of the texts they read, and discussing ideas with their classmates as partner. Attending to new academic vocabulary and using these terms frequently enough to “own” them is another important benefit of PRC2. It is at this time, that teachers need to spend time helping students mover deeper with the process. The key is for teachers to gauge what their students need and help them develop mastery.

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PRC2: Partner Reading Framework I. Partners preview cover of book and Table of Contents A. What is it about?

B. How is it organized?

C. Look through the book (chapter-by-chapter walk-through) and notice: 1. Organization - Chapters and content 2. Headings and Sub-headings 3. Pictures and Captions 4. Illustrations 5. Diagrams 6. Boxed Information 7. Highlighted vocabulary Boldface Italics 8. Resources in the book - glossary, index, suggested websites, 9. Author’s information and book cover information

II. Read the book with a partner A. Looking at first two pages of text--Partners decide who will read page 1 and who will read page 2. silently, thinking about meaning and developing a B. Partners read both pages silently question to ask their partner.

C. Partner 1 reads page 1 aloud while partner 2 listens & is ready to answer a question.

D. Partner 1 asks one question and Partner 2 answers. If partner 2 does not recall, he/ she is given the book and finds information to answer it. The objective is to discuss what was read.

E. Reverse — Partner 2 reads the page while partner 1 listens. Partner 2 asks one question and Partner 1 answers.

F. Repeat cycle until the book is finished.

G. Bring back the class and have students discuss one thing about what they read.

The goal here is for students to go beyond the text & engage in discussion.

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

3-Minute Reading Assessment The 3-Minute Reading Assessment is intended to gauge a student’s 1-minute timed oral reading rate, using a grade level text as one measure of fluency.

The 3-Minute Reading Assessment helps teachers quickly screen students for reading problems, such as low word recognition, poor fluency rate, and inadequate comprehension. Research supports the notion that the ability to read fluently (at a good rate, with good accuracy and proper intonation and phrasing) is highly correlated with many measures of reading competence (Shinn, 1989; Streicker, Roser, & Martinez, 1998). For the reader, fluency requires

good decoding skills, the strategies to orchestrate these in reading real text, and comprehension to monitor what is being read to make sure it sounds like language. All teachers in the Summer Bridge will receive the 3-Minute Reading Assessments: Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension: Grades 5-8, that includes leveled passages with ready-to-use assessments, rubrics and grade-level norms make interpreting the data simple and easy, and record-keeping forms allow teachers to document and monitor student performance during Summer Bridge.

The 3-Minute Reading Assessment (Rasinski & Padak, 2005) will be scored for word recognition accuracy, fluency through reading rate; fluency through expression; and comprehension. Teachers will use these scores for a two purposes: As a pre and post assessment to measure all of the above and a way to group students for the partner reading process, PRC2. Students with similar reading rates and accuracy will be paired together to facilitate peer learning and collaboration.

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Minilessons

A minilesson is an opportunity for teachers to support their learners with new strategies or with a deepening of strategies that they have already begun to use. During the minilesson, teachers state a teaching point and connect this day’s work to the work that their students have done before and will continue to do in the future. Following the connection, teachers model, explain and/or demonstrate exactly what they want students to do, and chart key points for students to hold onto during independent practice. After the initial explanation and modeling, students practice the skill or strategy while teachers listen in and provide additional support.

We have provided a recommended sequence of minilessons, which teachers should adapt to meet their students’ needs. Teachers make decisions as to what skills and strategies to teach in a whole group minilesson by thinking about their observations of students’ reading and writing behaviors and their review of students’ notebooks. Teachers will want to think, “What do most of my students need?” and teach those skills and strategies in the form of a whole group minilesson.

Minilessons need to be no more than 10 minutes to protect the students’ daily reading and writing time and the teacher’s time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction.

Minilessons should be conducted prior to PRC2 and writing so that the teaching point, skill, and/or strategy is modeled, explained, demonstrated and charted for student reference prior to the activity. Students then work with a peer to practice the skill or strategy addressed in the minilesson.

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Writing

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Writing

One of our key goals for the Summer Bridge Writing Workshop is to help our students take ownership of their own writing. Sixth and eighth grade students find themselves in our Summer Bridge classrooms for a variety of reasons. The eighth graders may have earned a final grade of D or F in their writing class, or may have scored 14 or lower on the District-Wide Writing Assessment. These students need effective instruction in persuasive writing, the genre used for the district’s writing assessment and the first of the genres specified in the Common Core Standards: CC.K-12.W.R.1 Text Types and Purposes: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

But any of our students may be in Summer Bridge because of their difficulties with reading, math, or attendance. What we can assume is that during the previous year, the majority did not feel successful in school. For this reason, we need to focus on students’ attitudes towards writing and towards school as much as on their mastery of specific writing skills.

To meet both of these goals, we are starting the unit with writing circles designed to increase student motivation to write, build their writing stamina, and teach writing process, a new and crucial element in the DWWA. These writing circles, modeled on literature circles, allow students to scaffold each other’s choice writing so they have ownership of their writing without feeling that they face the blank page by themselves. In the second part of the unit, we will use these circles as a foundation to support instruction in the genre of argu-

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Writing Circles

As Jim Vopat has presented this practice in his book, Writing Circles (Heinemann, 2009), writing circles are groups of four to six students who think of themselves as a group and who work together over time. They name their group, they develop topics by consensus, they all write on the agreed upon topics but make individual choices of genre, they share their writing with each other, and they offer each other feedback. Students repeat this cycle of work several times before selecting one draft to revise. At that point, the writing circle becomes a publishing circle where students support each other in revision, editing, and publishing.

Minilessons for writing circles focus on how circles work together as well as on craft. During the time that circles are meeting, teachers join in the work as participants and as coaches. After each circle meeting, students reflect on their individual and collective work, and share their circle’s writing with the whole class. Specific instructions for leading students through this process will be included in the individual lesson plans.

In this unit, we will carry the work of writing circles into the second half of the summer program when students will receive instruction in writing arguments. At that point the genre will be pre-determined but the content will be the student’s choice. The writing circles will take the place of partnerships in the writing workshop as students plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish their persuasive letters.

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Writing Workshop

Essential Questions Essential questions focus our instruction and our students’ learning over the course of a unit of study. They are big questions that are worth discussing over and over again as we make our way through the unit. Students should have ideas about these questions coming into the summer program, but will not yet be able to give in-depth answers. Their answers should be a work in progress through the summer and beyond.

• • •

If I could change something in the world where I live, what would I change?

How can I develop arguments that persuade other people that they should agree with me?

Why is it important that I write every day? How can I support my classmates in their work as writers, and how can I receive support from them in turn?

Unit Objectives By the end of Summer Bridge, our sixth and eighth grade writers will be able to: • • •

Use the genre of argument to express their sense of place in the world, and how they would like to shape the world around them; Use the writing process to write focused, organized arguments bolstered with convincing evidence; and Participate fully in small and large writing communities that support their work as writers.

Materials Our middle school writers will receive the following resources to support their work as writers this summer: • Getting to Yes: A selection of persuasive letters written by Chicago Public Schools students • Composition notebooks to use as both a reader’s and a writer’s notebook • Other supplies will be available in the classroom: looseleaf paper, post-its, index cards, colored pens, chart paper, markers, pens, and pencils.

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Writing Workshop Preparation You will want to write alongside your students and use your writer’s notebook and your finished writing as models for them, so your first step is to make sure you have your own notebook. You may want to continue writing in a notebook that you use all the time, or you may want to dedicate a notebook to this summer’s work. If you want your students to decorate and personalize their notebooks, you will want to do the same with yours. You will certainly want to write your own persuasive letter, if not right away, then before you reach the second half of the unit where you will shift your focus from writing circles to the genre of argument. If you have taught writing process and the genre of argument and have exemplary papers from your former students, select some of those pieces to use in minilessons, strategy lessons, and conferences. Your own writing and your students’ writing will be more powerful mentor texts than any we can provide for you, though you may also want to look at the examples in the student handbook.

Newspapers are a great source of mentor texts in a variety of genres (for the writing circles). Their online versions are searchable. In particular, current editorials and op ed pieces (opinion articles from the page opposite the editorial page) could be useful to students as they develop their own arguments in the second half of the program. If you can find a copy of I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff in the public library or the school library, it will be an amusing and effective mentor text for their persuasive letters.

Assessment You will begin the Summer Bridge writing program by administering the first section of the District Wide Writing Assessment that seventh and eighth graders took during the school year; the directions are the same as those in this year’s DWWA, but include a choice of prompts. Students will write their plan and first draft on looseleaf paper instead of test booklets, and the assessment will not be sent out for an external score. You will use the same rubric as for the DWWA. At the end of the summer program, you will administer the second section (conference and revision) of the assessment that you will score with the same rubric. Report forms included in the Appendix will allow you to measure the growth that students have experienced over the duration of the program.

In addition to this summative assessment, you will be using your observation of students’ writing behaviors (teacher observation checklist in Appendix), your conferring notes (template in Appendix), and your review of student notebooks (rubric in Appendix) as formative assessments that drive your instruction.

We have noted suggestions for when to collect notebooks in the overview of all the lessons, and in the Assessment section of each lesson, but you’ll know when your students reach a point where they need your feedback. It is crucial to read the notebooks frequently in order to really know what progress your students are making and how to adapt the lessons to meet their needs. The lesson plans are meant as a guide and as support for your work: if your data suggests that your students have other needs than those met by the lessons, please modify the lessons to meet your students’ needs.

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Daily Lessons

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Day 1 Reading Read Aloud

The format of today’s lessons will deviate slightly from the standard schedule. Routines, rituals and procedures will need to be established in order to help ensure success.

Establishing Routines

Independent Reading Fluency Assessments (5 Students)

Choosing A “Just Right” Book

Minilesson Responding to Reading Using: Say Something

PRC2 No PRC2 Lesson Today

Writing Minilesson Pre-Assessment

Independent/Collaborative DWWA: Plan and Draft

Closure DWWA

Assessment DWWA 22

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Day 

Establishing Routines Objectives Clearly define classroom procedures and routines. Provide time to introduce, teach, model, and practicing procedures until they become routines for students.

Materials: • Chart paper, markers • Student Handbook

Preparation “The very first day of school is the most important day of the school year.”

According to Harry and Rosemary Wong, authors of The First Days of School, what effective teachers do on the very first day will determine the success of the class.” (Wong & Wong, 1998)

Instructional Activities “The Seven Things Students want to Know on the First Day of School” 1. Am I in the right room?

2.Where am I supposed to sit?

3.What are the rules in this classroom?

4.What will I be doing this year?

5. How will I be graded?

6.Who is the teacher as a person?

7.Will you treat me as a human being?

Today, the focus will be to make students feel comfortable with the routines and rituals of the summer school day. Provide the physical classroom space in a way that supports partner and small group interaction. Assign seats the very first day, explaining that until you know them a little better that will be their seats. Until beginning of term assessments are administered and analyzed you will not be able to partner them for PRC2. Once partners are established, then a more permanent seating arrangement is necessary.

There are four minilessons that are designed to address the needs that student have in establishing routines and rituals. These minilessons are different than the minilessons you will be using for the rest of the summer. In these lessons, there is a lot of teacher talk instead of student talk. Because of the nature of the day’s purpose they will be teacher focused. However, it is important to note, that the goal of Summer Bridge is to provide opportunities for students the following each day: to read something they like and understand, hear a fluent adult read aloud; write about something that’s meaningful to them; and talk about what they’ve read and written.

Prepare the chart that outlines the daily schedule of “Our Literacy Block” before starting the day. A chart that outlines the week’s schedule might also be helpful.

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Reading Day 

Reading Number of Minutes 10 20 10 10 20 5

Core Components Read Aloud Independent Reading/Conferring Share/Write About Reading Whole Group Instruction/Mini Lesson PRC2 (Mon, Tues, Wed.) or Vocabulary (Mon., Fri.) Whole Group Wrap-Up

writing Number of Minutes 10

40 10

75 Minutes

60 Minutes

Core Components Whole Group Instruction/Minilesson Explicit Writing Techniques & Components Guided Practice Whole Group Wrap-Up

Minilesson 1 Getting To Know You (20 Minutes) Model this activity that is in the Student Handbook.

Say:

“You will take turns asking questions to learn more about each other. After you learn enough about your partner to write description using the letter of his/her name, you will introduce them to the rest of us.”

1. Write your classmates first name in a vertical direction in large letters. Ask them questions that will help fill in descriptive words or phrases that begin with the letter of their name that they are working on.

2. Fill in descriptive words for each of the letters of their name.

3. Have your classmate do the same for you.

4. Take turns introducing each other to the rest of the class.

Say: “Let’s do it with my name, (insert your name). What questions might you have that will get me to open up to me?”

Brainstorm questions that will solicit response. Some might include, what are your hobbies? how many siblings do you have? what’s your favorite sport? what do you like doing on your free time? what makes you a good friend?

Have students ask you the questions the class brainstormed and answer them. Write your name on the board. Have students fill in descriptive words and phrases about you.

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Reading Day 

“Now, I want you to do this with a partner. Turn to the page of your Student Handbook. Be ready to introduce your classmate to us.”

Minilesson 2 Establishing Norms For The Classroom (10 Minutes) Class norms are the behavioral expectations or rules of the class. Class norms inform us how we are expected to behave towards each other and towards the materials we use in school. Students who are partners in composing class norms are more likely to experience a level of ownership, participate in instruction, and engage in mutually respectful and cooperative relationships. In addition, developing norms together shifts some of the responsibility for supporting and encouraging socially appropriate interactions from the teacher to the students. It also helps to ensure that students indeed understand the classroom community’s expectations and provides the rationale for them to monitor and change their own behaviors. Norms may be written at either a general or specific level. Norms written at a general level do not specify the particular behaviors in which students are expected to engage and are applicable in a wide variety of situations.

“We will be a learning community for the next several weeks. As we are a new to our specific community, we need to develop some shared rules for this class. Let’s brainstorm together on how every member of this class should be expected to behave towards each other and towards the materials in our classroom. What are some good rules?”

Elicit responses from class. Write down all responses on chart paper.

“Let’s look at these rules carefully. Can we combine any? Are some repeated? Is there rule that is important and not listed?”

Combine, delete, revise until you have general rules.

“As I read each one, I need to see a thumbs up if you agree it is an expectation that should be included for all of us to follow. If you don’t agree give it a thumbs down and explain why it shouldn’t be included. We will then have to vote as a class if it stays or goes with a majority deciding.”

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Reading Day 

Keep the norms up and for the first several weeks, review the norms first thing in the morning. If behaviors don’t meet the norms, remind students that they voted on norm and must try to honor it.

Examples of classroom norms: Grade 6 • • •

• •

Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Respect people for who they are.

Be mindful of other people’s feelings, thoughts and beliefs.

Be willing to try new things.

Help each other learn.

Grade 8 • • • • •

Help at least one other person each day.

Be willing to stand strong.

Include others.

Respect self, others, and property.

Make informed decisions.

Minilesson 3 Our Literacy Block (10 Minutes) Review with students what your day will typically look like for the literacy block. Explain that every day you will be reading a Read Aloud that requires them to think. Set the expectation that you will expect them to use what they learned during the Read Aloud to transfer over to when they read independently. Students must read independently for the entire 20 minutes during Independent Reading.

While they are reading, you will be conferring with approximately 3 students a day.

Explain that they will be learning a new way of reading informational text that is called Partner Reading and Content, Too or PRC2 for short. Students must be engaged with their partner’s reading, thinking and discussing for the entire 20 minutes of PRC2 time.

Explain that Monday through Friday they will always listen to a Read Aloud, read during Independent Reading, share/write about their reading, and write. Tell them that on Mondays they will be working on vocabulary; Tuesdays through Thursdays they will be doing PRC2; and on Fridays they will be playing vocabulary games.

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Day 

Reading Number of Minutes 10

Core Components Read Aloud or Think Aloud

20

Independent Reading/Conferring

10

Share/Write About Reading

10

Whole Group Instruction/Mini Lesson

20

PRC2 (Mon, Tues, Wed.) or Vocabulary (Mon., Fri.) Whole Group Wrap-Up

5

writing Number of Minutes 10 40

Core Components Whole Group Instruction/Mini-Lesson Explicit Writing Techniques & Components Guided Practice

10

Whole Group Wrap-Up

Minilesson 4 Grades and Assessments (5 Minutes) Explain to students that you will be assessing them to inform both you and them about their understanding at a point when timely adjustments can be made. They will not be “graded” while they are practicing a new skill or concept that they have just been introduced or are learning. Tell them part of these assessments will be during your conferencing time, rubrics, self and peer assessments, and observations.

Tell them that they will also have assessments whose purpose is to evaluate if they have learned. Some of these will be pre and post test; some on the computer, others on paper and pencil. Explain that some of them will have to do the ISAT again.

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Reading Day 

Closure “We will be practicing some of these classroom procedures until they become routine. I’ll leave these charts up until you know the schedule.”

What if?

If some students miss the first day, it is important to find time to review the norms and explain they were developed and agreed upon by the class and he/she is expected to follow and respect them. Review the weekly and daily schedule and show them where the charts are displayed. It is important that they understand the grading and assessment.

Assessment Note students that need additional support with procedures to break them down.

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Reading Day 

Choosing A “Just Right” Book

Materials:

Objectives Students need to know how to choose an independent reading book in order to build comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary.

• Anchor chart titled: “5-finger rule”

• Independent Reading books

Preparation Choose three books that you could use to model what a reader looks like while reading. Use an easy, hard, and a “just right” t” book to demonstrate each of these.

le ger Ru n i F e v Fi

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

Easy 0-1 ht” 2-3 “Just Rig Hard 4-5

Explain the importance of finding a just right book during independent nt reading. Choose three books that you could use to model what a reader while ader lo looks like k whi hille hi le rreading. eadi ea ding. Use an easy, hard, and a “just right” book to demonstrate each of these. Then ask students to tell you what they noticed about how you read the books. Log their observations. Use the anchor chart to explicitly teach them how they decide to pick a book. Explain and model the 5-finger rule.

1. Select a book you want to read.

2. Open the book to an average length page.

3. Hold up all five fingers on one hand.

4. Quietly (but aloud) read the page. Every time you read a word the student will not be able to read, sound out, or comprehend, put down a finger.

5. At the end of the page, take note of how many fingers are still up. If all five fingers are down, the book will be too hard for the student. If all fingers are still up, more likely the book will be too easy.

Assessment

What if?: During reading conferences, if you notice that a student has picked a book that is either too hard or too easy, you may follow-up with the Goldilocks’ method.

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

When pulling students to conference for reading listen to them read to see if they are in a “just right” book.

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Read Aloud Day 

Responding to Reading Using “Say Something” Book: The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Materials: • • •

Say Something rules chart, Sample reader response chart, category chart, The Rose That Grew From Concrete, p71

Objectives • Students will comprehend what they are reading as they predict, question, clarify, connect, and/or comment.

• Students will have the ability to respond to text at a deeper more meaningful level.

Preparation Read the p 71, from The Rose That Grew From Concrete, “1 for April”, several times. Once you have familiarized yourself with the poem, think about questions that you might ask yourself or questions that you think your students may ask. Questions are provided for you in the lesson, but add questions as you see fit. You will use the Fishbowl method, page 190, to demonstrate the technique to the class. If an adult is not available, decide on a student that you would like to work with when demonstrating this technique for responding to reading. Have the student read the poem in advance and have them ask questions or use the questions provided for the Fishbowl. On chart paper, write the “Say Something” categories: make a prediction, ask a question, clarify something, make a comment, and make a connection. Make a chart with the rules for Say Something (see below). Write response (see below) on chart paper to display after the Fishbowl.

Rules for Say Something With your partner, decide who will say something first.

When you say something, do one or more of the following: • make a prediction; • ask a question; • clarify something you had misunderstood; • make a comment; and • make a connection.

If you can’t do one of those five things then you need to reread.

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Thinking T hi Points & Activities Sample Response: In the poem, “1 for April,” Tupac seems to have a deep connection to April. Even though he hardly knows her, he says that he only has eyes for her and his cold heart has finally opened. I connect with the text because my uncle changed when my cousin was born. He used to be a little mean, and now he is friendly and loving—most of the time. His cold heart seemed to open just like Tupac’s. Having children must really be a special experience if it can change a man.

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Read Aloud Reading Day  Book: The Rose That Grew From Concrete

Minilesson Read “1 for April” to the class and let them know that you will use the Fishbowl model to demonstrate how you would respond to reading verbally with a partner and then translate that into writing. Refer students to the chart and tell them that these are things that we can do when responding to reading.

Explain that though poetry is short, it requires deep thought to comprehend. Asking questions and discussing with a partner will help them to figure out the meaning at a deep level.

Review the rules for Say Something.

Teacher

Student or Colleague

“I predict that he is talking about his child.”

“Why do you think that? He says that he barely knows you.”

“I think that because it may be that the child isn’t born yet or just born.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I need to clarify lines 7 and 8, My nonchalant cold heart finally has eyes only 4 April. What do you think that means?”

“Well, if you only have eyes for one person, I think it means that you can’t see anyone else.

They are really important to you. That would make sense if he is talking about his child.

When my aunt had my cousin, she didn’t seem to care about anything but my cousin. He was the most important thing to her.”

“I think I will write about how I can connect his feelings to those of people I’ve seen with kids. They are so protective and loving, and my mom is like that and so is my grandma.”

“Poetry is very personal, and I can make connections too.”

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Reading Read Aloud Day  Book: The Rose That Grew From Concrete Display the sample response on the chart paper to students. Have the students read it, respond, and ask questions about it.

Ask: “Do you think it helps to have guiding questions when you read? How does it help when you talk to someone before you write about your reading? Does it help you to comprehend text?”

Closure “You will be reading independently every day, and you will need to respond to your reading.

Everyone will first have the opportunity to discuss their reading with a partner and then write.

You should think about predicting, questioning, clarifying, commenting, and connecting as you read and use it in your discussion and to help comprehend the text.”

What if?

If students don’t seem to understand the first time, demonstrate other ways to respond to reading. Perhaps, they could predict what the story is about by looking at the table of contents and pictures. The students also have the option to draw pictures (this is only an option two times a week, but it may get them started).

Assessment Student Responses & Student Discussion

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Writing Day 

Pre-Assessment: Plan and Draft Objectives Students will be able to: • Demonstrate their level of mastery in persuasive writing by drafting an argument in response to a prompt.

• Demonstrate their level of mastery in writing process by planning their argument before they draft.

Materials:

• Looseleaf paper • Pens • Pencils

Preparation Review the procedures for the first day of the District Wide Writing Assessment (see below), which will be used as a pre-assessment for Summer Bridge. Write the prompts on chart paper or on the board.

Since this is an assessment day, it will not follow the pattern of the writing workshop.

To ensure standardized administration conditions, this lesson contains oral directions that teachers will read to the students.

Instructional Activities Say on Day 1: “Look at the persuasive writing prompts that I’ve posted. You will be choosing the prompt that you want to write about. Listen as I read both the prompts and the directions.”

Prompt #1: The Supreme Court has allowed schools to use random locker and backpack/

bookbag searches to check for guns, knives, and other weapons. Your principal has decided that anyone caught with these weapons will be immediately suspended, saying that random searches will not only guard against illegal weapons at school but will also help students feel safer. What is your position on this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your ideas.

Prompt #2: There is a service requirement in Chicago Public Schools for high school stu-

dents, so that high school students have to give 10 hours per year to serving others as tutors, camp counselors, Sunday School teachers, errand-runners for the housebound, etc. Some people believe that this program is an excellent idea that promotes good citizenship and a sense of community. Others feel that if you force people to volunteer, then it isn’t really volunteering. How do you feel about this issue? Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

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Reading Writing Day 

Here are the instructions for this assignment: This is a writing assessment. Today is the start of a 2-part process to write an argument that supports your opinion about an issue. Today, you will plan and draft your argument. At the end of our program, you will review what you write today and confer with a partner before revising your argument.

2. Write your name and “Plan” on one piece of looseleaf paper. Take ten (10) minutes to plan your paper by making notes on this page. You may choose to do this using the tools you like best such as an outline, web, student generated graphic organizer, etc.

3. On another piece of paper, write your name and “First Draft.”

4. Begin your paper by taking one position on the issue.

5. Think about your reasons for taking this position, and support them with evidence.

6. Organize your ideas carefully so that your argument ends with a conclusion that ties your ideas together.

7. Today, you will not be able to talk with a partner, and I will not be able to confer with you.

8. If you finish early, take time to reread and revise your work. You will have 45 minutes to plan and draft your writing, unless you need an additional 10 minutes. Remember to take the first 10 minutes to organize what you want to say and write a plan on the page you labeled “Plan” before you write your first draft.

You may cross out and rewrite Read your writing topic very words or make other changes, carefully. You are to write your but write clearly. It must be own ideas, reasons, and deeasy to read. scriptions.

1.

It is now time to plan and draft.

When students have finished their work, collect both their plan and their first draft, making sure their name is on both papers, and set them aside for the post-assessment.

Thank them for the seriousness with which they have focused on their writing.

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Reading Writing Day 

Assessment This is a two-part assessment; Record your scores on the report form included in the Appendix, but do NOT write on the students’ papers. Focus your Process score on the planning that you see demonstrated in the students’ papers. Please make sure to include comments on all traits to help you plan instruction: look for traits in which your students have already developed competence, and traits that might be the focus of minilessons or small group instruction when you get to persuasive writing in the second part of the program.

In addition, you may want to take notes on students’ writing behaviors that you observe. There is a checklist in the Appendix that you can use for your notes, today and for the rest of the summer.

What if?

If a student writes nothing at all, ask what s/he is thinking or feeling, and what support would be needed for the student to respond to the prompt. If you do help the student to launch their writing, make a note so that your support enters into your scoring of their work. For Summer Bridge, the DWWA is a baseline assessment; you will learn more if a student writes something, even with your support, than if s/he writes nothing.

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Day 2 Reading Read Aloud Thinking About Reading

Independent Reading Fluency Assessments (5 Students)

Minilesson KWL Lesson on Social Justice Unit

PRC2 No PRC2 Lesson

Writing Minilesson Launch Writing Circles: One Strategy to Choose a Topic

Independent/Collaborative Circles form, choose group names and first topics; complete reflection.

Closure Share names and topics

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist 36

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Read Aloud Day 

Thinking about Reading Ob Objectives bjectives j e c t ive s Students will be able to: Express to their peers/teacher how the author makes them feel and what they think about while reading.

Materials: • The Table Where Rich People Sit by Byrd Baylor • Chart paper, markers • Independent reading books

Preparation Tell students the purpose of reading The Table Where Rich People Sit is to enjoy a story about a girl who feels poor, though her parents say they’re rich.

Thinking Points & Activities Minilesson

Begin by previewing the cover and ask, “What does the cover remind you of?”

Read the first three pages to “… we don’t have enough of it.” This reminds me of a time when I was younger when all our furniture and clothes were bought at secondhand store. This text to self connection helps me understand how she feels. Ask, “What text to self connections can you make to this part of the story?”

Continue reading to “… in some beautiful wild place again.“ on page 6.

I am noticing that the illustrator uses warm colors on every page. Some parts are shades of red like the car on this page. I think the illustrator wants the reader to notice the scenery that surrounds the family and its significance. Ask, “Why do you think the illustrator chose this painting technique”?

List each kind of thinking on chart paper. Tell the students they will do all of the following: • Think about what they like or dislike • Make and adjust predictions • Make connections to self, other texts, or the world • Ask questions • Create mental pictures • Notice the language or style of writing • Think about the characters’ actions. Do you agree or disagree?

• Think about something that confuses them.

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Reading Read Aloud Day  Book:

The Table Where Rich People Sit

Tell students while you’re reading: “I want you to mark one place in your book where you might share some of your thinking with your peers.” After independent reading, have students share their thoughts with each other. Explain that this is how we talk with each other and learn about each other’s books.

What if?

What if students are struggling with this concept? Cue students to the thinking chart. Repeat the Think Aloud with individual students or in small groups during independent reading.

Assessment While the students are sharing, take notes on whether students are able to identify a part of the text to talk about. Are the students using the various types of thinking chart?

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Reading Day 

Social Justice – Are you ready for a “just” world?

Objectives Demonstrates ability to tap background knowledge, curiosity, and engagement around theme of unit.

Materials:

• Markers to add ideas to chart; • 5 large-sized Restickable chart papers

Preparation The KWL (Ogle, 1986) framework allows students to think about what they Know (K), what they Want (W) to learn, and ultimately, what they did Learn (L), which places the students as the keepers and seekers of their own knowledge.

Be prepared to extract the student’s background knowledge. All students have background knowledge. The reason to do the K column of the K-W-L is to have students bring to mind something they already know, as a hook to which new information can be attached. Some people who use K-W-L complain that their students either don’t know anything or what they know is wrong. That’s a great sign that the students have been asked not about what they know, but about what they don’t know. Please “know” this: ALL students have background or prior knowledge. As teachers, we have to know our content well enough that we know how it’s like something that would be familiar to our students. That should determine what we ask in the K column. It may or may not be the topic.

Before beginning this lesson, take 5 large-sized restickable chart papers to serve as an anchor chart of their learning of the unit. Use one large-sized restickable chart paper and mark an “K”, one large-sized restickable chart paper and mark an “W”, one large-sized restickable chart paper and mark an “L”, one large-sized restickable chart paper and mark an “Categories of Information We Expect to Use”, one large-sized restickable chart paper and mark a “Where Will Find Information”.

Instructional Activities The teacher guides students in brainstorming what they already know about the topic and elicits their questions. The teacher serves as a scribe and records the students’ responses on the board, overhead transparency or large sheet of paper, accepting all the students’ responses without editing or correcting their ideas.

Teachers must lead students into thinking about how the topic is likely to be organized by asking, “What categories of information do we expect on this topic?” These are listed under the Know column and can be use to elicit questions. For example, as students brainstorm what they already know about social justice and come to the listing of categories, they suggest that groups, contributions, and problems are likely. Then they revisit the list of what they brainstormed and note that there is nothing about citizenship, forced migration, 39 Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Day  and reasons for leaving country of origin. This leads to the Want to know column and the beginning of some real inquiry for students. It is important for teacher(s) to lead them into thinking of the big categories in social justice like reasons for emigration and common problems among different groups of immigrants.

The teacher writes down the class contributions and then asks students to individually create their own KWL charts that they will use to record what they learn.

Students turn to their resources and make notes in the Learned column as they encounter new information or find confirmation of points that were contested by the class. The third column (Learned/Still need to Learn) is where students write what they learned and also what they realize they still need to learn to serve as a guide for ongoing thinking. This open-ended extended attention to topics by students is one of the major advantages of using the KWL process.

KWL – Social justice What do we know?

What do we want to learn?

What did we learn?

or

and

What do we think I will learn?

What do we still need to learn?

5. What does social justice really 1. Social is people and justice is mean? fairness, so it must be about 6. Why is social justice people having fairness important?

2. MLK fought for justice for 7. Can kids/teens do anything black people. about social justice?

3. Women didn’t have fair pay in the old days.

4. A judge decides what is fair.

Categories of Information We Expect to Use Where We Will Find Information A. Problems faced

E. Forced migration

1. On the internet

B. Citizenship

F. History of social justice

2. In our social studies book

C. Problems forcing emigration G. Contributions of immigrant groups D. Immigrant communities

3. Classroom library books 4. Summer Bridge PRC2 Text Set

From Ogle, D. (2002). Coming together as readers. Arlington Heights, IL: SkyLight Professional Development, p. 71.

Closure

We will be learning a lot about Social justice during our PRC2 time. I want you to finish filling out your own chart. As you read and learn about Social justice, add that to your “What did I learn and still need to learn” column.

What if?

A student says, “I don’t want to learn anything.”

If you come across a student who says something across those lines, tell them that their “W” will stand for “What do I think I will learn about this topic?”

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Reading Writing Day 

Launch Writing Circles: One Strategy to Choose a Topic (stack the deck) Objectives Students will be able to: • Demonstrate their mastery of persuasive writing by drafting an argument in response to a prompt; • Demonstrate their mastery of writing process by planning their argument before they draft.

Materials:

• Students’ writing note-

books, pens, pencils

• Teacher’s writing • •

Preparation Start your own writing notebook, k making ki k sure to ddate each entry. Write about one or two topics that interest you and that you believe would interest your students; write about as much as you expect your students to write in responding to a topic. Prepare your chart for reflections.

Decide how you will group your students. These circles will stay in place for the entire summer program so you want to use data from the pre-assessment to group students productively. Use the scores and comments from scoring the pre-assessment, but also think about your observations of the students’ writing behaviors. You probably do not want to place all the reluctant writers in one circle where they can reinforce each other’s avoidance of writing, though you may want to cluster students at similar proficiency levels so that you can provide targeted support. Make a sign for each circle, listing the students’ names and leaving room for their circle name. Finally, think about norms: how to listen carefully to each other, how to take turns in the circle, how to use low voices so all the circles can work at the same time, how you want your class to respond to each circle’s sharing at the end of the period: applause, finger-snapping, whatever ritual seems right to you and to your students.

• •

notebook as mentor text Index cards Signs for each circle with the names of the 4-6 students in that circle: leave room for the group’s self-selected name, and post the sign where you want that circle to meet.

Chart for norms (collaborative work) Chart for reflection questions: (See page 43)

Instructional Activities Minilesson Draw the students into a circle, or invite them to move their chairs a little towards you to establish that the minilesson is a moment for everyone to be together. Reassure students that they will not have to write again in response to a prompt you’ve chosen, but tell them that their on-demand writing helped you get to know them more quickly as writers. Now they will be working together in writing circles, small groups that will choose their own topics. Though the group will have to agree on a topic, each individual student will then choose what genre to use in writing about that topic. Make sure that when you say “genre,” your students understand that you’re talking about the form and structure of their writing, whether it’s narrative (or the telling of true stories), argument (or persuasion), poetry, drama, explanation, fiction or made-up stories.

(That is the topic for the next minilesson, so you don’t need to go into detail now.) Share your hope that working in a group of friends will help students own their writing and have fun with it, while also writing longer and stronger. Today you will have to give a series of directions, so establish a signal to get students’ attention (a chime, a raised hand, a series of claps) for each new step. You should also establish norms for collaborative work; use the chart you created in advance.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Distribute three index cards and a notebook to each student. Ask the students to write their name on the notebook, and then to take three to five minutes to write one topic they might like to write about on each card (but no names on the cards). When they’ve written their topics, they should find the sign for their circle.

•

Once students are in their circles, their first job is to select a name for themselves, something that reflects who they are. They should not take more than five or ten minutes for this task: If they are hesitant to name themselves before they get to know each other, they can call themselves “Under Construction” or some other temporary name for the first session, and name themselves the following week.

•

Once circles have a name, even if it’s temporary, students shuffle their index cards and redistribute them randomly so that everyone has 3 cards again, but probably not their own. From these three cards, each student chooses the one that is most interesting to them; encourage them to keep the others for later.

Cards are passed to the left: each member of the circle marks the card with a plus (or a star), a check (or a question mark), or a minus (or an X) to indicate that they like the topic, they could live with the topic, or the topic won’t work for them.

•

Doing this will allow the circles to eliminate any topics that a circle member can’t write about. A consensus topic may already be clear from the remaining cards, or the students may need to talk about the two or three topics that remain. If they are able to choose quickly, then they can begin to talk about how they will each write about the topic, though the choice of genre will be the topic for the next minilesson so you shouldn’t insist that they make this choice today.

•

What they should decide on is two roles that will rotate through the group: who will speak for the group today, who will be the first writer to share in the next circle, and who will be the timekeeper to make sure everyone has time to share and receive feedback. This information should be recorded in the day’s reflection, which students should begin once they’ve made all their decisions. You will have posted the questions for the reflection as part of your preparation.

•

While students are discussing all of these tasks, circulate from group to group and provide support as needed, without taking over the decision-making from the circle (see What if? section below).

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure When the circles are ready, or 10-15 minutes before the end of class even if some are experiencing difficulty, call the whole group together again as you did for the minilesson. Ask each circle to report (they chose a spokesperson) on their name and topic. Establish the norms for responding to each sharing: applause, or snapping fingers, or whatever norms feel right to you and your students. Before students leave, they should have completed the reflection questions listed on your chart. Make sure they’ve dated the page and titled it “Reflection.”

What if?

What if students don’t seem to be able to settle on a name or a topic? As mentioned above, they can choose a temporary name that indicates that it’s temporary, such as “Under Construction.” They do need to decide on a topic, however, and it needs to be the students’ topic, not yours. If you over-prepare by putting a few topics in your back pocket, you will ensure that students rely on you for topics throughout the summer. What you can do is ask questions, for example: Who was the last person you spoke to before you left home this morning? Who was the first person you saw when you arrived at school? Did you notice anything on your way to school? What did you hear other kids talking about when you got to school? Did you hear anything on the radio this morning, or see anything on TV last night that caught your attention? Does any of that start an idea for a writing topic?

Chart for Reflection Questions

e nt : Assessm va r o b se r Teache t checklis

• • • •

tion

Date Writing circle name Choice of topic Roles: spokesperson for today, first writer and time keeper for next circle

Reflection on today’s writing circle What went well? What was difficult? Did you hear anything interesting from another circle?

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Day 3 Reading Read Aloud Talking With Your Peers

Independent Reading Fluency Assessments (5 Students)

Minilesson PRC2 Student Form Overview

PRC2 Students may begin practicing the process if time allows

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Choosing a Genre to Fit Your Topic

Independent/Collaborative Independent Writing (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share genres chosen; choose a topic to suggest at next circle

Assessment 44

Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Read Aloud Day 

Talking With Your Peers Ob Objectives bjectives j e c t ive s Students will be able to: Demonstrate how to effectively speak and listen to one another through sharing of books and discussion.

Materials: • Independent reading books

• Chart paper, markers • The Rose That Grew From

Concrete by Tupac Shakur

Preparation In a previous lesson, we talked d about b how h to think hhii while we read. We also shared our thoughts with our peers. Today, we are going to learn how to actively listen to each other so that we are learning to our maximum potential. Ask, “What does an active listener look like?” Chart student responses on chart paper.

Sample responses may include the following: 1. Take turns speaking 2. Share, one person at a time 3. Look and actively listen to the speaker 4. Etc.

Thinking Points & Activities Minilesson “Now, we are going to practice actively listening with The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur.” Establish knowledge base by asking, “What do you know about the man on the front cover?” “Do you know what his music is about?” Build background by explaining, Tupac was a well known hip hop artist in the 1990’s and appeared in various films such as Poetic Justice with Janet Jackson. Many albums were released after his murder, just like this book of poems. “I know Tupac Shakur was a real person; to understand him I need to look for details in the text that tell me what he was like.”

Read page 3 of the book The Rose that Grew from Concrete.

“I know Tupac was poor before he became famous, which isn’t easy. In the text, he tells of a rose growing from concrete. I think he was able to grow like the rose and overcome those challenges, which is the concrete. With a partner, I want you to actively listen to his/her response to today’s question.”

Ask, “What do you predict we will learn about Tupac as a person/character? Why?”

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Reading Read Aloud Day  Book:

The Rose that Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur;

Closure “After independent reading today, we will share our thinking about what we are reading with each other. Then we will reflect on how well we talked with our peers.”

Assessment Students will self-evaluate how effectively they shared using a “fist to five.” Read one statement. Then students will raise their fingers on a scale of 5 fingers to one finger, 5 meaning they felt they did it very well, one finger, they didn’t do it at all. Repeat with each statement, noting which behaviors students need to practice.

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Reading Day 

PRC2 Student Form Overview Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate knowledge of accurately and carefully documenting the PRC2 process with their partners.

• Student handbook “Wow! Look at All I’ve Read!â€?

Preparation It is important that teachers guide students through each of the selfmonitoring forms and explain what the purpose of the form is and how they should be filled out.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Say:

“When you actively participate in PRC2 you are expected to use and keep PRC2 forms up to date.

Take out your Student Handbook and turn to page marked “WOW! Look at ALL I’ve Read!� sheet.

This is a reading log for you to log your non-fiction text. Write the date and the page numbers read, the title of the book, the author’s name, the name of your regular partner or another partner that you might have read with, and at the end of the book, mark “yes� or “no.� It is important to fill out this form after each PRC2 lesson. This will help you remember where you left off the previous day. It will also help me see if you are reading too much, and not discussing the text enough. Or, it will tell me that you are talking too much and not reading enough.�

Non-Fiction Text Reading Log Student Name Date(s) and pages read

WOW! Look at ALL I’ve Read!

Title

Author(s)

Partner(s) I Read With

Recommend?

YES/NO

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Reading Day 

Minilesson continued...

Say: “Now turn to the PRC2 Questions sheet in the Student Handbook. These four PRC2 questions will help you start your conversations with your partner. They are questions that make you think. Use this page to guide your questioning until you know them well. Remember, not all questions make sense in all situations, so pick the question carefully. You will notice that on the side of the PRC2 Questions sheet you have prompts to extend your conversations. We will learn more about these later. An important part of the PRC2 Questions sheet is that it includes a place to put new content vocabulary words that you encounter during your reading. At the bottom of the page you can add words that are new to you, words that are important to the content that you need to remember, or words that you would like to remember and study more deeply.”

Option The PRC2 Question sheet is to help scaffold student discussion. Some teachers have students fill in one of the boxes after the 20 minutes of PRC2 as an artifact of the conversations students had. Reading informational text is the priority as is discussion.

Say: “One Read & Recommend sheet is completed by partners (see page Student Handbook). It is filled out after you have finished reading the book. The Read & Recommend sheet helps you think about what you learned. It is also a recommendation for your fellow classmates to read if you recommend it. Let’s look at a student sample. This class was learning about Social Justice.

Read the student responses. What do you notice about their writing?”

Elicit responses.

If students don’t include that the students wrote in complete sentences, explained and gave specific information, and were thoughtful in their responses, add those comments. The expectation is that they produce thoughtful responses. This might need re-teaching to those students who turn in one sentence responses.

Say: “Lastly, turn to Questions Page of your Student Handbook. Words that you use during PRC2 time that are on your PRC2 Questions sheet are placed here. Use these words, play with these words, and learn these words because they are words you chose as important to remember.”

Assessment

Closure

We will be using these forms and they will become easier to use and fill out.

Once we begin PRC2, we will use some more than others. We will use ‘Wow! Look what I’m Reading’ sheet and the PRC2 Questions sheet every time we practice PRC2. We will use the Vocabulary Notebook in your Student Handbook weekly. We will use the Read & Recommend sheet when we are done with the book.

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Observations & Looking at Student Handbooks

Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Choosing a Genre to Fit Your Topic Objectives

Students will be able to: • Select a genre for their response to the writing circle’s consensus topic • Write independently to generate a sufficient response to the topic

Preparation Choose a topic that is NOT one of those selected by the writing circles.

Create a chart with the title “Genres.” If you’re feeling brave, wait to generate that list with your students, and be prepared to rehearse (orally, or projected from your laptop or a document camera) a response to the topic you’ve selected for each genre that students suggest. For example, if you’ve chosen “Dogs” as your topic and the students suggest “Narrative” or “Memoir,” you could recount your memory of a childhood pet. If they suggest argument or persuasion, you could rehearse a persuasive letter to your husband about why your family should NOT get a dog. If they suggest poetry, try a few lines that evoke the rhythms of a dog running with his owner in the park. If they suggest a compare-and-contrast essay, compare the benefits and disadvantages of dogs vs. cats. And so forth.

Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks, pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for list of genres (list provided in Appendix) • A newspaper will have examples of many of the genres on your chart—certainly narrative and persuasive, probably explanation.

• Conferring template (in Appendix) or other tool for recording notes from conferences and small group sessions

If your teaching style is careful preparation rather than spontaneous thinkaloud, then list half a dozen genres on your chart and be ready with your rehearsals—oral or written in your notebook—when you walk into the classroom. Do NOT include all of the genres listed in the Appendix on your chart—that would be overwhelming for you and your students. You and they can add to the list as the circles continue their work.

Look through a newspaper to find mentor texts of different genres—there are often narratives (human interest stories), always arguments (editorials and op ed pieces), frequently explanations. If you can pick up a Tuesday New York Times or find it online—there is a pay wall now, but not for the first few times you use their online content—there is a science section that will have explanations.

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Reading Writing Day 

Instructional Activities Minilesson Celebrate with your students that the circles have already taken on their own identities with their selection of names and topics. Today will be an independent writing day, so the students’ first decision will be what genre to use in responding to their circle’s consensus topic. Any topic will lend itself to a variety of genres.

Again, make sure that your students understand the term “genre,” and then use your chart to rehearse different kinds of responses to a pre-selected topic, as described above in the Preparation section.

Ask students to date the page where they’re writing, and use the circle topic as a working title—they can change it to something more interesting later. Establish norms for independent writing days. Most writers appreciate quiet and privacy when they write.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

•

•

50

Students will be writing independently in response to their circle’s topic. You’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors: who gets started quickly, who gets started but then runs out of steam right away, who has trouble starting.

If there is an individual student who is stuck, sit down next to that student for a writing conference, or invite her (or him) to sit with you in a space where your conversation will not interrupt other students’ work. If there are several students who have trouble starting or continuing to write, convene a small group for guided writing (see What if? section below). Use the template for conferring notes in the Appendix, or another record-keeping system that works for you, to take notes on your one-on-one conferences or small group sessions.

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, select a student whose work feels strong and who appears to be confident as a writer. Invite that student to help you demonstrate feedback during the next day’s lesson.

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Writing Day 

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite them to share the genres they chose for their response. You may want to write checkmarks on your “Genres” chart as they share, so you and the students can see whether they are experimenting with a variety of genres, or sticking to the tried-and-true.

Before students leave, they can jot a note in their notebook about a new topic they can suggest at the next circle meeting. You will be offering strategies to help them do that, so don’t worry or let them worry if nothing comes to mind right away. They can sleep on it and come up with a suggestion in the next class session.

Assessment Teacher Observation & Conferring Notes (In Appendix)

What if?

What if students can’t get started, or run out of steam right away? As with topic selection, you do NOT want to take away the students’ ownership of their own pieces. Often students can write more easily if they rehearse out loud before they write, and your clarifying questions or their classmates’ questions can help them extend and deepen their response to the topic. They may need more support in understanding the genres on your chart; if you have mentor texts available (that newspaper you looked through), a demonstration will make this conversation easier.

You can help a student or a small group plan with an outline or a web or other graphic organizer in their notebook, and you can scribe for a student who is really not writing at all, but present that intervention as “just for today,” as you will want to help this student build autonomy through the summer.

What if other students get off task while you’re conferring with an individual student or leading a small group? It’s worth taking the time to establish norms for independent writing. Use proximity, locating your conferences or small group work near other students and circulating around the room between conferences and small group sessions. Think of your students as writers and help them think of themselves as writers: encourage students to find a space in the classroom that is private and quiet. As a suggestions, if you Google “writers’ spaces” or “writers’ rooms” and click on “Images,” you’ll find lots of photos to share of the nests that writers have created to nurture their writing. Praise students when the class meets your expectations for a writing environment.

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Day 4 Reading Read Aloud Choose from Read Aloud section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment (Make-Ups)

Minilesson Vocabulary Setting Up Your Vocabulary Notebooks

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (Hotspot)

Independent/Collaborative Circles share drafts, give feedback, choose a new topic; complete reflection

Closure Share new topics

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Review notebooks 52

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Reading Vocabulary Day 

Set Up Your Vocabulary Notebooks Objectives Demonstrate understanding of new and difficult vocabulary. b l Harvest words for use in activities and games.

Materials:

• Student Handbooks

Preparation Each student will have a section of their Student Handbook that is designated as the Vocabulary Notebook. They will have several pages to record words as they read them during the Interactive Read Aloud, Independent Reading, and Partner Reading time. The teacher may have words that they want students to include in their notebooks as well. For instance, the teacher may want to include one or two words from the Interactive Read Aloud for all students to add to their notebooks.

Summer Bridge Vocabulary Process Teacher and students read and gather words that are interesting, difficult, or important.

Students record the words in their vocabulary notebooks.

Students add the words to the classroom vocabulary bulletin board or word wall.

Use words in Friday game day.

Use words for weekly activities to deepen understanding of words.

Following the Marzano vocabulary instructional steps below, explain the chosen term in your own words.

Then, explain your thinking: which features, word parts, background knowledge, context, led you to this description? You can use the example on the following pages to describe the word Bullying. Have the students record the term and write a definition in their own words in their vocabulary notebook. If they have a clear enough understanding, they may create a visual representation. It might be a drawing or diagram, as in the example, showing that they understand the term.

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Reading Vocabulary Day 

The following are the steps in the Marzano vocabulary process for learning new terms.

Step 1: Teacher Provides Description, Explanation, or Example of the New Term • Teacher explains new term by using conversational descriptions, explanations, and examples.

• Teacher identifies the critical features that form the basis of the description, containing all elements considered important to an accurate understanding of a word.

Step 2: Students Restate the Explanation of the New Term in Their Own Words • In order for students to store meaning of words in their long-term memory, students are asked to restate in their own words what the teacher has presented about the new word.

• Students are asked to construct their own explanation based on what the teacher has presented.

• Students are asked to complete in the vocabulary notebooks the sections of Term and My Description.

Step 3: Students Create Nonlinguistic Representation of the Term • Students are asked to represent information non-linguistically, immediately after they have generated their own linguistic description of the word to the section of the vocabulary notebooks entitled, My Representation. These representations can be in the form of graphic organizer, pictures, and pictographs.

Step 4: Students Periodically Do Activities That Help Them Add to Their Knowledge of Vocabulary Terms • In the following vocabulary sessions, students will add to notebooks and use the words in their notebooks in activities that teachers will choose. Students should also post their words on a room bulletin board used to harvest words for study and for games.

• After these activities, students are to go back to their notebooks and record in their New Insights section.

This will help them to record their deepening understanding of a word.

Step 5: Periodically Students Are Asked to Discuss the Terms with One Another • Teachers should periodically organize students into groups and ask them to discuss the terms in their vocabulary notebooks.

Step 6: Periodically Students Are Involved in Games That Allow Them to Play with the Terms during Friday Games • Use a variety of games that enhance vocabulary development. These games can be commercial, teacher made, or student made. See the section on Friday Games for suggestions on easy games to create. Use the words harvested from reading to notebook and from notebook to Word board to play these games.

Adapted From: Academic Achievement: Research on What Works in School (2004), Chapter 5:

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Reading Vocabulary Day 

Sample Notebooks Date:_____July 5_________________________ Term/Phrase: My Visual Representation: bullying

My Description: Someone who hurts, scares, or leaves someone out on purpose

New Insights: A bully can rob a person of their self-esteem by calling names or teasing. I read about how bullying can also take place over the internet. This is called cyber-bullying

Date:_______________________________________ Term/Phrase: My Visual Representation:

My Description:

New Insights:

They will not fill out the New Insights portion until they have had additional interactions with the word through activities, reading in new contexts, and/or playing Friday games with the word.

They will add to this notebook throughout the week during Partner Reading, Interactive Read Alouds and Independent Reading. The teacher may have to be particularly directive with more passive students about adding words, asking directly during conferences if they know what a word means.

Closure Say: “We are always encountering new and difficult words. Each day we will choose words from our reading to add to our vocabulary notebooks. This will help us continue to grow as readers.”

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (Hotspot) • •

• • • •

Materials:

Students’ writing notebooks, pens, pencils Signs for each circle with the names of the 4-6 students in that circle: these signs should now have the circles’ names at the top Chart for norms (collaborative work—see Day 2) Chart for reflections (see Day 2) Chart for prompts to keep circle conversations going Chart for strategies to select new topics

Objectives Students will be able to: • Work collaboratively in their circle to offer each other feedback on their drafts; and • Make use of the routines established in their first circle meeting to begin a new cycle of writing.

Preparation Select a topic that a writing circle HAS chosen and write in response to it. You’ll want to base your choice on your judgment of which group is likely to need the most intervention, rather than on your interest in the topic (let’s hope that circle picked an intriguing topic!).

In preparation for demonstrating feedback, prepare a specific compliment that you can offer to the student who has agreed to be in the fishbowl with you. You may also want to ask that student to read one of your pieces and look for the “hotspot”—that is, the part s/he likes the best; make sure the student can say why s/he likes that part so much.

Instructional Activities Chart for prompts to keep circle conversations going • Can you tell me more about…?

• I heard you say…that makes me think….

• Why did you say….?

• I agree with you because…

Chart for strategies to select new topics • Take another look at the index cards from Day 2 • Burning questions: what do you really want to know more about?

• Timeline of your life (you may have a copy of Lucy Calkins Units of Study—this strategy is discussed in Session 11 of Launching the Writing Workshop) • Heartmap: place the most important things —people, moments, places, objects—at the center of your heart, and work outward towards the edges (many teachers associate this strategy with Nancie Atwell, but the first person to suggest it was Georgia Heard in Awakening the Heart)

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson Offer your students some specific praise for their writing work on the previous day, but make it real—you can talk about their stamina, the quiet atmosphere they created, the thinking you noticed individual students engaged in.

Today they will be meeting in circles to share their work. Remind them how scary it can be to share a rough draft, and refer to your chart to review the norms you’ve already created for collaborative work, including the roles they set (first writer to share, timekeeper). Of course, if a student is absent, the circle will have to adjust these roles.

The new strategy you’re introducing today is a way to offer feedback that will lift the level of the entire circle’s writing. We learn by building on our strengths more than we learn from hearing about our weaknesses, so the circles will start by looking for the “hotspot” in each other’s writing. They will name the place where the writer has been especially effective in his/her work, and explain why they like that part. To demonstrate, call up the student you’d asked earlier to join you, and read a part of the draft aloud. Speak to the student, telling her (or him) what you especially appreciate in that segment. Ask if s/he has any questions about your feedback. If possible, ask her (or him) do the same for your piece, reading a section aloud and saying what s/he likes about it. Show your students that you’re marking the “hotspot” in your own notebook with a highlighter, or a star in the margin, and a jot about what your partner liked about that segment. They should also take notes on their circle’s feedback, in the same way. Before you send them into their circles, ask students to name what they saw you and your partner do in your talk about the drafts. You should also point out the chart you made to help them keep the conversation going if they run out of things to say in response to each other’s drafts.

After students share in their circles, they will need to get ready to share in the whole group and then start a new cycle of drafting, so warn them you will stop their work in time for those preparations. Remind the timekeepers to make sure everyone in the circle gets equal time to share and hear feedback.

Independent and Collaborative Work • •

•

Begin by circulating from group to group with your teacher observation checklist, listening to the tone as well as the content of the talk, coaching as necessary.

Once you are confident that the conversations have been launched in an appropriate way, you can join the circle whose topic you prepared. Join as a writer and an equal member, not as teacher.

Stop 10-15 minutes before the end of class, and ask the circles to choose a spokesperson to share at least one hotspot they picked out as a circle.

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Reading Writing Day 

Midpoint Reminder Twenty minutes before the end of class, remind the circles that everyone needs an opportunity to share and there are only five minutes left. After those five minutes, ask the circles to shift the discussion to their next topic; refer to your new chart. Circles must also choose a spokesperson to share one hotspot from their circle, a first writer for the next session, and a timekeeper for the next session.

Closure Reconvene the whole group and share some comments you noticed from the conversations that show how students are taking ownership of their writing. Invite the spokesperson from each group to share a hotspot from their group. Re-establish the norms for acknowledging each circle.

Leave five minutes at the end for students to complete the reflection questions (already posted on the chart). Remind students that they should be dating the page where they write their reflection, and title it “Reflection.”

What if?

What if students run out of things to say in their circle sessions? That’s why you made the chart with sentence stems, and you can remind students that chart is there to support their work if you hear them go silent. You may want to join a circle and model ways to offer specific feedback. If a circle has completed their sharing, encourage them to select their next topic and discuss how each student will respond to the consensus topic (individual choice of genre). They can start writing their reflection, as well. The circle conversations are central to the students’ progress as writers, however, so it’s worth taking the time to support these conversations.

Students will echo your language if they have sufficient opportunities to hear it.

Assessment

Teacher Observation Checklist & Review of student notebooks (rubric in Appendix)

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Day 5 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Begin conferring with students

Minilesson Nonfiction Text Feature

PRC2 Begin or continue PRC2 process; Teacher observations

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Visualization to Write Long

Independent/Collaborative Independent Writing (teacher-student conferences guided writing groups)

Closure Share how visualization helped/didn’t help

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day 

Nonfiction Text Features Materials:

• A copy of a page of text with text features blocked out and replaced with boxes (overhead or 1 copy per pair in Student Guide) • PRC2 books students are currently reading (This Example is from Making Good Choices About Fair Trade - Pages 26 & 27)

Objectives Understanding that learning about the various text features will help gain a better understanding of how to navigate through a nonfiction text.

Understanding the function of various text features will allow students to be able to see how nonfiction texts are organized.

Preparation Teaching how text features, such as bold words, headings and graphics, can help students gain a better understanding of nonfiction text is an important step in teaching students how to effectively navigate nonfiction text.

Make a copy of the student page on a transparency if you choose to do this using an overhead.

Instructional Activities Minilesson

Use the page in the student guide that has text features blocked out. You can choose to do this whole-class (use an overhead) or in pairs (using the provided copies for each pair). First, ask students what text features are missing and have them identify what text feature belongs in each empty box. Then, ask students to write headings they think might go in the empty boxes. Ask them to identify what photos, diagrams, graphs, etc. might the author have used to support the text. Invite them to sketch what they think would be helpful to understanding the text better and write a caption to match their sketch.

Have students sit with their partner reading partners and distribute their books. Ask students to identify the text features on the page they are about to read and use them to predict what they might read about today. Ask them to study the headings and turn each one into a question. This will give them a purpose for reading. After reading the page, ask students to discuss how the text features helped them to better comprehend the text.

Closure “Remember to always use the text features to help you understand better. I will be collecting this tomorrow.”

Assessment

What if?

What if students are still having problems with text features?

Develop games around text features for practice.

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May complete one page independently and graded.

Reading Day ď™ˆ

Fair trade is more than just a good idea.

There are reasons to promote fair trade, which will benefit small businesses and large corporations. People make business decisions not only to be honest and affair but also to earn a profit. A business that relies on fair trade may not make profits quite as big as those of a company serving only its own interests. But a fair trade business will earn reliable profits over a longer period of time and will benefit from a stronger economy.

Free trade agreements between countries often give investors opportunities to profit from using up resources and workers in other nations. These agreements can also result in funneling natural resources into short-term development projects, such as a cobalt mine or the clear-cut logging of tropical mahogany trees. The investors are

not responsible for the local ecology, pollution, or workers, and laws are often not enforced. Investors may not be concerned with a foreign nation’s long-term economic future, only their own short-term profit. Free trade agreements allow corporations the freedom to use up natural resources in less developed nations. It is important for these trade agreements to be written carefully in order to encourage those investors who support the sustainable development of resources.

PAGES 26 & 27

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Visualization to Write Long

Materials: • Students’ writing note books, • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing note book • Chart for list of genres (from Day 3)

Objectives Students will be able to: Use visualization as a strategy to extend their writing

Preparation Choose a topic that is NO NOT OT OT one off those h selected by the writing circles. In your notebook, write a quick response to the topic in the genre of your choice.

If you’re brave and spontaneous, you can plan on expanding this first response as a demonstration during your minilesson. If you are the person who wants everything laid out in advance, take a new page of your notebook to write a longer response to the topic, adding sensory details. To do this, use the strategy you’ll be teaching during your minilesson: close your eyes and re-enter or imagine the scene or the moment that is associated with your topic. Even if you’re not writing memoir, this is a useful strategy. An argument or an explanation can be strengthened with precise examples or well-told anecdotes.

Be ready to add more genres to your chart if students don’t have suggestions.

Use your review of student notebooks to plan conferences and small group sessions for today.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Remind students that they can each choose a genre to respond to the topic chosen by their circle, and refer to the chart that anchored your lesson on Day 3. Ask students to suggest one or two new genres to add to the list. If they don’t have new ideas, be ready to add more; remember, there’s a list in the Appendix.

Tell students that writers often have to push themselves to write more, to write longer about their topic. The writer knows exactly what he means—it’s all there in his mind, but it may be there as images instead of words. In order to give his reader as clear an idea as he has, he has to get everything down on paper that he has in his mind.

Use the writing you prepared in your notebook to demonstrate writing long. Really close your eyes, if only for a moment, and describe the images you visualize, or see in your mind. Try to use all of your senses. Remind students that they can use this kind of visualization for all genres of writing, not 62

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson continued... just memoir or poetry. An argument can be strengthened with an anecdote or emotional appeal that uses sensory details, or an explanation can be clarified with precise examples.

Ask students to date the page where they’re writing, and use the circle topic as a working title—they can change it to something more interesting later. Remind students of the norms for independent writing days. Suggest that they give themselves a goal—for example, writing a full page, no cheating with big handwriting or wide margins!

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently in response to their circle’s topic. You’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

If there is an individual student who is stuck, sit down next to that student for a writing conference, or invite her (or him) to sit with you in a space where your conversation will not interrupt other students’ work. If there are several students who have trouble starting or continuing to write, convene a small group for guided writing (see What if? section below). Use the template for conferring notes in the Appendix, or another record-keeping system that works for you, to take notes on your one-on-one conferences or small group sessions.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, select a student whose work feels strong and who appears to be confident as a writer. Invite that student to help you demonstrate feedback during the next day’s lesson.

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite them to talk about whether visualization was helpful to them as they wrote today, and whether they met their goal for how much to write.

Before students leave, they can jot a note in their notebook about a new topic they can suggest at the next circle meeting. If they can’t think of one right away, they can sleep on it and come up with a suggestion in the next class session.

Assessment

Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring notes

What if?

What if students can’t reach their goal for how much to write, or struggle with sensory details? In a one-on-one conference or a small guided writing group, suggest that they draw what they’re writing first. Use questions to help them add to their drawing.

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Day 6 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson An Introduction to PRC2

PRC2 Conferring and Observations

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (I wonder...)

Independent/Collaborative Circles share drafts, give feedback, choose a new topic; complete refelction

Closure Share new topics

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist, Review notebooks 64

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Reading Day 

An Introduction to PRC2 Objectives View a video that shows PRC2 in action to better understand the PRC2 process.

Materials: • PRC2 Video • DVD player, TV, (or Laptop, LCD player) • Student Handbook

Preparation Before viewing let students know they h willll bbe viewing a classroom of students working on PRC2: Partner Reading and Content, Too, a partner reading routine which they will be engaging in throughout the summer program. Partners with similar reading levels read short, informational texts that are part of a text set on the particular unit being studied. Students learn to preview and identify key features of the text and then read the text together sharing in reading orally, questioning and discussing, and then attend to important content vocabulary. Informal assessments used as pre- and post-tests help teachers and students monitor their fluency, conceptual understanding, and vocabulary. Results from classrooms have provided evidence of the strength of PRC2 in supporting content literacy and of the impact on students’ self-confidence and satisfaction.

Using results from the 3-Minute Reading Assessment, partner-up students at similar fluency and comprehension levels. Choose a book from the text set guide for each partner pair, which is at their independent or low instructional level. Select one place in the classroom where the PRC2 book bin will always remain.

For this lesson, secure a DVD player and TV with your school prior to the lesson. You can also secure a LCD player and connect it to a laptop and run the video from there. **See the “What If?” if this is not an option** (page 67)

Instructional Activities Have students take out their Student Handbook and turn to the Intro to PRC2 page. Post the questions from page 66 of this guide on the board and refer to them before showing the video.

Say: “As you watch this video, I want you to jot down the answers. We will share out your responses after the video.”

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Reading Day  What do you see the students in the video doing?

How do students deal with moving into partners (OR previewing the book, ) while they are reading?

What are the steps that students are following?

What are the subtitles in the video? Why did the authors of the video choose to highlight these sections of PRC2?

5. How do the students deal with unknown words while they are reading?

6. What do you notice about their conversation? The voice level in the room? Their body language with one another? The way they speak to one another?

1.

2.

3.

4.

After viewing the video have students respond out loud to the questions written on the board. While they are responding, write down and highlight key elements of partner reading.

Key Elements 1. Students are working side-by-side using a shared book. They are helping each other with vocabulary words and having conversations about what was read.

2. They move safely and quietly around the room. One student gathers materials while the other takes a seat in their assigned spot.

3. A. Students turn to a new page and decide which part they are responsible for asking a question about.

B. Both students read the entire page or the two-page spread silently and think of a question they may be able to ask their partner.

C. Each student rereads only his page (or paragraph, depending on length of text) with the purpose to think of a good question for that part of the text and to be familiar with text for a “performance” read to their partner.

D. Students may ask each other meaning and pronunciation of unknown vocabulary words.

E. Each student reads their part of the page out load and asks a question to their partner that will spark conversation.

F. Each student listens quietly while their partner responds to their question.

4. They ask their partner for help, or raise their hand and ask the teacher if they don’t understand a word.

5. Each person is taking a turn asking a question and responding. They are using their “6-inch voices.”

They are actively engaged and listening to their partner.

If time permits, you may want to replay the video for the class to reinforce their conversation.

Closure

Tomorrow we will be picking out a place that you will use every day we do PRC2. You will be expected to move around as quietly and quickly as you saw other students do in the video. I want you to remember the important elements of what you saw today.

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Reading Day 

What if?

I am not able to view the video?

If you are unable to view the partner reading video this lesson needs to be modeled using a fishbowl technique (see page 190). Before the start of the partner reading lesson (either during a previous class, or during silent reading) take two students and show them the directions for partner reading.

Go through the steps once and have them write down the key elements as you explain them. Have them look at the pages they will be modeling so they may start to think of questions to ask and how they will converse about the page.

During the fishbowl have them sit in the front of the room near the board with the rest of the students sitting around them. Have them model partner reading once, without stopping, the entire time through.

Then, have them model it a second time. As they model the steps of partner reading, stop during each step, write it on the board, and briefly explain what they did during each step. Highlight the key elements that were discussed earlier in the lesson.

Assessment Exit Slip in Student Handbook

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (I Wonder…)

Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for prompts to keep circle conversations going (see Day 3) • Chart for reflections (See Day 3)

Objectives Students will be able to: • Work collaboratively in their circle to offer each other appropriate feedback on their drafts; and • Make use of the routines established in their first circle meeting to begin a new cycle of writing

Preparation Add “hotspot” and “I wonder” to your chart for collaborative norms, or create a new chart entitled “Feedback.”

Select a topic that a writing circle HAS chosen and write in response to it. You’ll want to base your choice on your judgment of which group is likely to need the most support with giving feedback, rather than on your interest in the topic.

In preparation for demonstrating how to give feedback, prepare a specific wondering about the piece written by the student who agreed to be in the fishbowl with you—that is, to model in the center of the classroom as the other students watch. You may also want to ask that student to read one of your pieces and wonder about some aspect of your writing.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Offer your students some specific praise for their writing work on the previous day, but make it real.

Today they will be meeting in circles to share their work. Remind them how scary it can be to share a rough draft, and review the norms you’ve already created for collaborative work, including the roles they set (first writer to share, timekeeper), and the strategy they used last time for offering feedback (“hotspot”). The new strategy you’re introducing today is another way to offer feedback that will lift the level of the entire circle’s writing.

In the previous lesson, you talked about how writers have a clear picture in their own mind, but can struggle to get it all down on paper. One way we can support each other as writers is to show each other where we want to know more about the topic. Today when the circles meet, writers should continue to point out hotspots where their classmates are writing very effectively, but they should also wonder aloud about some aspect of the writing that they want to hear more about. Invite the student you selected in advance to demonstrate this kind of talk: read a passage aloud from her paper, and say “I wonder….” Then ask the student to do the same for your writing.

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson continued...

After students share in their circles, they will need to get ready to share in the whole group and then start a new cycle of drafting, so warn them you will stop their work in time for those preparations. Remind the timekeepers to make sure everyone in the circle gets equal time to share and hear feedback.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Begin by circulating from group to group with your teacher observation checklist, listening to the tone as well as the content of the talk, coaching as necessary.

•

Once you are confident that the conversations have been launched in an appropriate way, you can join the circle whose topic you prepared. Join as a full member, not as a super-member because you’re the teacher.

•

Stop 10-15 minutes before the end of class, and ask the circles to choose a spokesperson to share at least one wondering that they discussed as a circle.

Closure Reconvene the whole group and share some comments you noticed from the conversations that show how students are taking ownership of their writing. Invite the spokesperson from each group to share a wondering from their group. Re-establish the norms for acknowledging each circle.

Leave five minutes at the end for students to complete the reflection questions (already posted on the chart). Remind students that they should be dating the page where they write their reflection, and title it “Reflection.”

Assessment

What if?

If students have not had the experience of collaboration before, they may be hypercritical in their approach to each other’s writing. You can probably hear that in the tone of voice even if you’re participating in another circle and can’t hear the actual words. You’ll want to stop any feedback that makes a writer feel less confident in his or her work. Make it clear that put-downs are never acceptable. Your model is very powerful in setting the tone for feedback.

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Teacher Observation Checklist & Review of student notebooks

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Day 7 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Moving With Your Partner

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Making Connections to Write Long

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share how the strategies helped/ didn’t help.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes 70

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Reading Day 

Moving with Your Partner Objectives Quietly getting materials, moving into place, and starting to read will make transitioning to PRC2 each day an easy process.

Materials:

• Student Handbooks

Preparation It is important that students be given explicit instructions on the behaviors expected by the classroom teacher as they move into partnerships. Although expectations may vary from teacher to teacher, there are a few conventions that will help any classroom move into the partner reading session more smoothly. Once students are able to proceed independently, you will be free to observe and have conferences with student pairs.

Instructional Activities Minilesson It is helpful to have a basket with partner folders already set up. Many teachers choose to place one prelabeled partner folder inside of the other, with the Student Handbooks set up inside the folders. Later, you can show students how to choose a new book when they have completed their book.

Model the behaviors you expect. With a student volunteer (or two if you choose to direct them instead of modeling), show students how to appropriately and quietly get their folders and move to a spot in the room.

Some teachers choose to have students move to their spots with their partners, and some have students get their own folders from the designated basket. Some teachers prefer to choose the partner spaces and some allow students to choose their own. Do what is most appropriate for you and your students. Choose what is best for your classroom.

Have student practice the routine. Discuss what worked well, and what may need work. Practice as many times as needed to make sure students understand what is expected of them.

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Reading Day 

Closure Say: “Remember to quietly and quickly pick up your materials and settle down on this same spot every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Tomorrow we will actually begin previewing our books together.”

What if?

If students are wasting time collecting materials, you can have your students’ practice again anytime they need a refresher. It is important that students learn to be independent during this procedure, so that you are free to observe and conference with students. Rehearse procedures anytime you need during the unit or any time you choose to make a change in the procedures.

Assessment Informal observations such as taking observation notes on each group.

When a group is able to follow the classroom routine that has been established, they no longer need the practice of moving about the room. Another observation could entitle students filling out an exit slip that explains the procedure of moving around the room.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Making Connections to Write Long Materials: Objectives Students will be able to: Use connections as a strategy to extend their writing

Preparation Choose a topic that is NOT one of those selected by the writing circles.

Write a quick response to the topic in the genre of your choice.

• Students’ writing notebooks • Teacher’s writing notebooks • Chart for list of genres (from Day 3) • Chart to list strategies for writing long • Visualization • Connections

If you’re brave and spontaneous, you can plan on expanding this first response as a demonstration during your minilesson. If you are the person who wants everything laid out in advance, take a new page of your notebook to write a longer response to the topic, adding connections—to your experience, to a text or a movie or a song, to something you’ve observed in the world. To do this, use the strategy you’ll be teaching during your minilesson: ask yourself what this topic reminds you of. Try to use a connection beyond personal experience, and make sure your connection adds depth to your topic and not just more words. For example, if you’re writing about how your school needs to update the books in the library, you could relate your school’s situation to a newspaper article you read about the parents at Whittier who organized protests and actually occupied the field house that served as the school library, so it wouldn’t be torn down. That might remind you of famous protests by Dr. King or Cesar Chavez, so now your local issue is connected to some of the most important events and people in American history.

Be ready to add more genres to your chart if students don’t have suggestions.

Use your review of student notebooks to plan conferences and small group sessions for today.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Remind students that they can each choose a genre to respond to the topic chosen by their circle, and refer to the chart that anchored your lesson on Day 3. Ask students to suggest one or two new genres to add to the list. If they don’t have new ideas, be ready to add more; remember, there’s a list in the Appendix.

The last time your students were preparing to write about their circle topic, you suggested that they use visualization to write longer; make sure they remember how to use that strategy, which may work for them again. Tell students that writers have more than one strategy to help them write longer.

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Reading Writing Day  Use the writing you prepared in your notebook to demonstrate how a first thought can be extended. Even if you write your extension in advance, think aloud about how you grew your first draft by connecting your ideas to other experiences, texts, or thoughts. Show how the connections add depth to your writing, and aren’t just a filler.

Ask students to date the page where they’re writing, and use the circle topic as a working title—they can change it to something more interesting later. Remind students of the norms for independent writing days.

Suggest that they give themselves a goal of writing a little more than they did the last time.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently in response to their circle’s topic. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, select a student whose work feels strong and who appears to be confident as a writer. Invite that student to help you demonstrate feedback during the next day’s lesson.

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson.

Invite them to talk about the strategy they used to write today, and how it helped them.

Assessment

What if?

Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring Notes

What if students can’t reach their goal for how much to write, or struggle with making connections? In a one-on-one conference or a small guided writing group, suggest that they create a web to brainstorm connections. Urge them to think of EVERYTHING that comes to mind when they think about this topic, whether or not the connections they’re generating are useful. After they have a full web, they can be selective about which ones they include in their draft. Use questions to help them add to their web and then select connections for the day’s work: What else can you tell me about…? Have you ever heard about or read about someone else who had a similar experience (or idea)? Does that remind you of anything you’ve read or a movie you’ve seen or a song you’ve heard? Does that remind you of something that looks the same in some way (or sounds, smells, feels the same)? What does that memory or connection make you think about?

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Day 8 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Mini Lesson Vocabulary Choice of Activities and Games

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Giving feedback (what if...)

Independent/Collaborative Circles share, choose one piece to revise; complete reflection

Closure Share choice of piece to revise

Assessment Teacher observation checklist, conferring notes, review notebooks Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Giving feedback (What if….)

Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Signs for each circle • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for prompts to keep circle conversations going (see Day 3) • Chart for reflections (See Day 3)

Objectives Students will be able to: Work collaboratively in their circle to offer each other feedback on their drafts

Preparation Add “What if” to your chart for collaborative norms, unless you have a separate chart for feedback strategies.

Select a topic that a writing circle HAS chosen and write in response to it. If there is a group you haven’t joined yet, use this opportunity to spend time with them.

Prepare a specific suggestion to improve the piece written by the student who agreed to be in the fishbowl with you. You may also want to ask that student or a colleague to read one of your pieces and suggest a way you could make it better. Request written comments (or post-its) on your draft, and ask them to be hard on you so you can model a positive response to criticism.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Offer your students some specific praise for their writing work on the previous day, but make it real—if possible, focus on growth that you have observed in the group or in individuals’ work.

Today they will be meeting in circles to share their work. Remind them how scary it can be to share a rough draft, and review the norms you’ve already created for collaborative work, including the roles they set (first writer to share, timekeeper), and the strategies they’ve already used for offering feedback (“hotspot” and “I wonder”). The new strategy you’re introducing today is a way to help each other revise one of their pieces, which will be their focus for this week.

Today when the circles meet, writers should continue to point out hotspots where their classmates are writing very effectively and wonderings that they have about each other’s pieces, but they will also be helping each other select one of their three pieces to revise. Invite the student you identified in advance to demonstrate this kind of talk. Read a passage aloud from his paper, and praise what he has done especially well before suggesting a specific strategy for strengthening the piece: “What if you….” Make sure the student understands what you have suggested, then ask the student to do the same for your writing. Model how you’re writing notes about the suggestion you hear; ask clarifying questions if you’re not sure what the student wants you to do.

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson continued...

It’s very important to tell your writers that they do not have to do what their classmates suggest—they are each the boss of their own writing. They do have to listen carefully to each other, and take notes on what they hear. Later they can make decisions about which piece to revise and how to revise it, just as they made their own decisions about how to write in response to the group’s consensus topic. Since they don’t have to do what their classmates are suggesting, there is no need to argue about it. During feedback, the writer should be silent except for asking clarifying questions, if needed.

After students share in their circles, they will need to get ready to share in the whole group, so warn them you will stop their work in time for those preparations. Remind the timekeepers to make sure everyone in the circle gets equal time to share and hear feedback.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Begin by circulating from group to group with your teacher observation checklist, listening to the tone as well as the content of the talk, coaching as necessary.

•

Once you are confident that the conversations have been launched in an appropriate way, you can join the circle whose topic you prepared. Join as a full member, not as a supermember because you’re the teacher.

•

Stop 10-15 minutes before the end of class, and ask the circles to choose a spokesperson to share at least one suggestion for revision that they discussed as a circle.

Closure Reconvene the whole group and share some comments you noticed from the conversations that show how students are taking ownership of their writing. Invite the spokesperson from each group to share a “What if” for revision from their group. Re-establish the norms for acknowledging each circle.

Leave five minutes at the end for students to complete the reflection questions (already posted on the chart).

Remind students that they should be dating the page where they write their reflection, and title it “Reflection.”

While unadulterated praise is not as destructive as put-downs, praise is not enough to help emerging writers revise. You will be offering specific strateTeacher Observation gies for revision in your next minilesson, but your minilesson will not be a reChecklist sponse to an individual writer’s piece, and you will not have time to confer with & each writer before s/he revises. The circles can be of real help to your students Review of student if they take on the job of offering suggestions for revision, but students may be notebooks afraid of hurting each other’s feelings. If you hear that a circle is stopping short of constructive criticism, explain that offering this feedback is not an attack but a way to support each other. If you can, get a colleague or a friend to give you a rigorous critique of one of your pieces, and write those comments on your draft. If you model for your students that you welcome that critique even while you reserve the right to make your own decisions, that will help your students to offer this service to each other.

What if?

Assessment

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Day 9 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Previewing the PRC2 Text

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Two Revision Strategies

Independent/Collaborative Independent Writing to revise (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share which strategy was most helpful

Assessment 78

Teacher Observation Checklist, Conferring notes, Review notebooks Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Day 

Previewing the PRC2 Text Objectives Students will be able to: • Demonstrate understanding that previewing the book helps readers become familiar with what is read.

• Demonstrate understanding that previewing also lets you think about other books you have read in the past that might be similar.

• Demonstrate understanding that previewing also lets you notice information that you might have skipped if you read only the text.

Materials: • The Knights of Labor and the Haymarket Riot: The Fight for an Eight-Hour Workday. - From the Text Set

Preparation This lesson describes a key part of the PRC2 procedure: the deep previewing of the text. Previewing the text is important because it provides students with an overview of the text structure and vocabulary. That, along with pictures, diagrams, maps, sidebars, and captions can help students begin to develop schema about the book and the topic. Previewing can also help students activate prior knowledge, ask activating questions about the text, and predict what they might learn in the book.

Choose a book to model that has a good visual representation of the elements above.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Sit so that the whole class can easily observe and hear you. Ideally, a Fishbowl has the people modeling in the middle, with the class surrounding them (see “Fishbowl” on page 190). You will “think aloud” with your partner (a student with whom you may have practiced). For an explanation of a Think Aloud, see page 189. You can provide and observe focus for students, such as listing and/or tallying the text features that partners discussed.

The Think Aloud will include a thorough overview (including comments, questions, and predictions about the book) of the text features in the book. The text features will include all relevant text features in a particular book. It might include title, cover art, back cover, book flap, table of contents, index, glossary, internet resources, pictures and captions, heading and subheading, maps, timelines, and primary sources. For the Social Justice Unit you may pick The Knights of Labor and the Haymarket Riot: The Fight for an Eight-Hour Workday. Model previewing.

Say: “On the cover of the page I see an illustration and several old photographs – some are of people, events, a map, a newspaper article, and one that looks like it’s related to voting. After reading the title, I wonder who The Knights of Labor were, what was the Haymarket Riot, and why did they have a riot? Well, I’ll have to read to find out!” ng Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day  Turn to Table of Contents and Say: “While reading the Table of Contents, I notice that there are chapters on the Knights of Labor and The Haymarket Riot. Great.”

Turn to pp 4 and 5 and Say: “This article is from an old Harper’s magazine. It sure does look different now. Wow, the caption says that children were factory workers for more than 10 hours a day. I guess they didn’t attend school.

Why?”

Browse to p 17 and Say “OK, here’s an illustration of Uriah Stephens. The caption says he helped to start the Knights of Labor. I guess I will learn about who they are.”

Browse through the pages and comment. Browse to page 29 and Say: “Here’s a glossary. I guess these will be all the new words I’ll need to understand, and if I want more information on this topic, I can visit web sites the author is recommending on page 30.”

Turn to page 31 and Say: “This book also has an index – great, if I need to look up a topic quickly, I can find the page number in this section. Well, I’m looking forward to reading this book. I think I’ll learn about why people had to fight for an eight-hour workday!”

Remind students that they are NOT to read the text, only look and discuss text features. It should take an entire 20 minute partner reading session for the students to complete the previewing task. Pull the students together after the 20 minute session. Ask a few students to share their previews.

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Reading Day 

Closure “As you preview your book you want to make sure that you are previewing everything on the page; title, cover art, back cover, book flap, table of contents, index, glossary, Internet resources, pictures and captions, heading and subheading, maps, timelines, and primary sources. Spend time discussing and questioning what you see. However, do not read the text yet.”

What if?

As you move around the room, you will notice that some students are finished after a few minutes. Ask them if they have previewed every aspect of the book. Ask them a few questions about random text features. If they are not able to answer your question that pertains to the particular text feature, have them begin start from the beginning and start previewing more deeply.

Assessment Use the PRC2 Observation Notes Sheet (see page 193) noting which students need to have more practice on discussing the text features.

Pair students that have mastered previewing with those that need to practice so they can discuss the features together.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Two Revision Strategies Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Teacher’s writing notebooks • Chart for list of genres (from Day 3) • Chart to list strategies for writing long • Visualization • Connections

Objectives SStudents d willll be b able b to: • Use their circle’s feedback to revise their writing; and • Rethink sequence and pacing as they revise their writing.

Preparation Choose one of your pieces to revise. If a colleague, a friend, or a student has offered comments, choose a comment that you can use, and one that you can’t.

Rewrite, using the comment that makes sense to you, and be prepared to think aloud about which comment you used (and why), and which comment you didn’t (and why).

Next, see if you can start your piece at a different point. If it’s a narrative piece, that means starting at a different point in time. If it’s an argument, you could rearrange which reason goes first. If it’s an explanation, think about whether your sequence is clear and logical. Poems can start at different points, as well.

Look for a place where you can linger and add more detail, perhaps using the strategies you’ve already taught (visualization, connections). Look for a place where you have extraneous detail that doesn’t add anything, and see if you can speed up.

Be ready to think aloud about all these decisions during your lesson. Alternatively, be prepared to revise in front of your students (using a laptop or a document camera connected to a projector), perhaps responding to your students’ suggestions.

Your review of student notebooks will help you plan for one-on-one conferences and small group sessions for today.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Now that your students have written three drafts, it is time to select one to revise and publish. The circles have made suggestions about which piece to revise and how to do it, but each writer is the boss of his or her own writing. Your writers will need to decide which piece they are most committed to, or which one has a clear path to revision. They will also need to figure out how to revise.

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson continued...

The first strategy is to review their circle’s comments. While they don’t have to do what their circle suggested, they have to take those suggestions seriously. Writers write for an audience: if their audience is troubled by something in the piece, that passage is worth thinking about. Perhaps the specific suggestion is the wrong one, but will point to an underlying problem that can be resolved in a different way. If possible, demonstrate with your own writing (see Preparation section above).

Two other strategies may be helpful. Use your own writing to demonstrate how a writer can revise the sequence or pacing if their piece (see Preparation section above). Remind your writers that revision is a process of seeing all over again, so the norms for revision will be the same as for drafting: silence and privacy.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they work on revision; the norms are the same as for drafting, since the work is very similar. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, select a student whose work feels strong and who appears to be confident as a writer. Invite that student to help you demonstrate editing during the next day’s lesson.

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite them to talk about the strategy they used to revise today, and how it helped them.

What if?

Assessment

Revision makes many emerging writers uncomfortable. Reading the piece aloud can help them see what needs work. They did this in their circle, but they may need to do it again with you. Hearing it aloud may help them see where they can make changes. As you’ve done all along, be careful to leave the control in the students’ hands—don’t tell them how to revise, but use questions to suggest places where they can do some useful work. If a segment is unclear, your questions can highlight what you don’t understand, or what you want to know more about.

Teacher Observation Checklist

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Review of student notebooks Conferring Notes

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Day 10 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson The Heart of PRC2

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Reading Aloud to Edit for Sentence Boundaries

Independent/Collaborative Writing Circles: Reading Aloud to Edit for Sentence Boundaries

Closure Share what worked/didn’t work in editing experience.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist 84

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Reading Day 

The Heart of PRC2 – Partners’ Reading and Discussing Together Materials: Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate the PRC2 Reading the Text Together process.

• Student handbook (Page 10 )

Preparation After the students have previewed the text, they will learn the process that is at the heart of PRC2 – engaging with the text and his/her partner in discussions around the text.

Instructional Activities Minilesson “We are going to learn the process that is at the heart of PRC2. You will be reading and discussing the text with your partners. For now, let’s pretend that I am a partner and the collective group of you is my partner. These are the steps: 1. Take turns reading the pages of this book by first deciding who will read page one, and who will read page two aloud.

2. Both read the first two pages silently, thinking about what they mean. If there are some words you don’t know how to say, ask your partner. If your partner doesn’t know, raise your hand and ask the teacher or use the glossary.

3. Silently reread the page that you will read aloud thinking of good expression and pace.

4. Choose one of the four questions on the PRC2 Question Sheet you want to ask your partner 5. The first person reads his/her page aloud, while the other partner listens and thinks about the ideas.

6. The reader asks the listener the question he/she chose for that page. The listener explains what he/she thinks. The partners talk about ideas and any questions they have.

7. Then partner 2 takes a turn, reads page two aloud to the partner. The listener thinks about the ideas.

8. The reader asks the listener the question he/she chose for that page. The listener explains what he/she thinks. The partners talk about ideas and any questions they have.

9. Continue taking turns until finished.

10. Be ready to share one thing about your reading together to the class.

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Reading Day  “So, let’s try this together. Turn to page 10 in your handbook.”

1. Let’s decide who will read the first page and who will read the second page. Okay, I’ll read the first page and you all, as my partner, will read the second page (or vice-versa).

2. Let’s now read both pages silently to understand what the author is saying. Sometimes you will have pages that build on an explanation given before or after your page, so it is important to read both.

3. Now, let’s silently reread only the page we will read aloud for the purpose of a performance read – how would an actor read it? With expression? What’s your pace?

4. I’m going to choose one of the four questions on the PRC2 Question sheet that I want to ask you. You think of one question from your page to ask me.

5. I’m going to read my page aloud, while you listen to me and think about the ideas I’m reading. (Read your page aloud.)

6. I’ll ask you a question that I picked from my PRC2 Question sheet. (Ask one of the questions). Now, let’s discuss my question.

7. Then you take a turn (have students read in unison). Read page two aloud to me while I think about the ideas.

8. Ask me a question you chose for that page (pick one student to ask the question). I will explain what I think. We’ll talk about ideas and any questions they have.

9. We’ll continue taking turns until finished.

10. Be ready to share one thing about your reading together to the class.”

Review the process. Highlight that you always silently read both pages once, silently reread only the page you read aloud, and finally read one page aloud; they choose a question from the PRC2 Question sheet; they discuss the question before moving on to the next partner; and finally, pick some content words from the text that they want to explore deeper.

Closure Say: “Always remember that you can see the PRC2 Guide sheet to help remind you of the process. It’s important to read, reread, and discuss to help you understand better.”

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Reading Aloud to Edit for Sentence Boundaries Materials: Objectives Students will be able to: • Work collaboratively with their writing circle to edit their piece; and • Read aloud to edit for sentence boundaries.

Preparation

• Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Signs for each circle • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for reflections (See Day 3)

You already chose a student to help you model the strategy in today’s minilesson. You will need to show the student’s writing to your students, either by typing it as is into a Word document that you can project from your computer, or by using a document camera or overhead. If you have none of these options available, make photocopies or copy a few sentences onto the board or chart paper. Practice reading it aloud in a way that emphasizes the punctuation, even if the punctuation is wrong.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Now that students have revised their piece, they are ready to edit, the last step before publishing. Tell students that professional writers work with copy editors who catch all their mistakes. Today they will be copy editors for each other in their circles.

It’s hard to see mistakes because we see what we expect to see. One way to make sure we notice what needs to be fixed is to read the piece aloud. That is especially helpful to make sure we’ve used punctuation and paragraphing to match our breathing and thinking: a comma for a short pause, a period for the full stop after a sentence, a new paragraph and an even longer pause for a new idea. Model with the student writing that you prepared and a colored pen or pencil. You can also use post-its if you or your writers are uncomfortable with the idea of writing on someone else’s draft.

Remind students of the norms for collaborative work (chart).

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Writing Day 

Independent and Collaborative Work Circulate with your teacher observation checklist, coaching the circles as they read the pieces aloud for sentence boundaries. You may need to model again in a circle, using one of the pieces from that circle. If you have access to a document camera, do this work at the document camera so everyone in the circle can see what you’re doing; otherwise, invite students to crowd around so they can see. Only edit one paragraph, so that the students have ample opportunity to practice this strategy on their own.

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite them to talk about the experience of editing together, what worked and what didn’t work. That will prepare them to complete their reflection.

What if?

What if students don’t catch all their errors? They won’t, and experts suggest that we should focus on one convention until students gain mastery—in this case, sentence boundaries. The goal here isn’t perfect papers; it’s learning a strategy they can practice again and again until they are more perfect— although, as you said in your minilesson, even published authors need copy editors.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist

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Day 11 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Asking Good Questions with the Prompt

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Reading backwards to catch errors; publishing

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to edit and publish

Closure Prepare for celebration

Assessment Published piece Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day 

Asking Good Questions with the Prompt Materials: • PRC2 Questions Sheet (page 196)

Objectives Demonstrate learning of the four types of PRC2 questions to help understand the text better. Students demonstrate the use of these questions to ask partner as a jump-off point to begin good conversations.

Preparation Asking questions and responding to questions is a big part of PRC2 and will help students understand the text better. These questions provide a scaffold for students to ask inferential or interpretive questions. Here are four different questions that students ask after reading each page. The PRC2 student guide for your unit has a sheet to support students learning to ask good questions. Questioning text is a way of supporting comprehension by requiring active engagement with the text. This may mirror or be an extension of other questioning lessons your students may know, including QAR or Thick and Thin questions. Please use the terminology that your students are familiar with to help them form deeper questions that ask their partners to think critically.

The four questions included on the PRC2 Questions Sheet are there to support students’ early in their understanding of critical thinking questioning.

Familiarize yourself with the PRC2 Questions Sheet.

Instructional Activities Minilesson The PRC2 Questions Sheet includes four generic critical thinking questions. The four questions and reasoning as to why each of them is included on the sheet are: 1. What was most interesting? Why? And, What was most important? Why? These first two questions are intended to have students think deeply enough about the text to form an opinion, and to explain why they chose that idea. How and why questions support a student in thinking critically about text. This type of question also allows an opportunity for students to disagree and have a discussion supporting their opinions.

2. What connections can you make? This question is intended to have students connect to self, other text, or learning. This supports comprehension by adding to their schema (a mental framework centering on a specific theme that helps organize information).

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Minilesson continued...

3. What could the author have made clearer? This is to help students identify areas that are confusing, and raise their awareness that the author’s intention is to accurately communicate information to the reader.

These questions are intended as a scaffold for students and teachers beginning the PRC2 procedure. The PRC2 Questioning Sheet is not intended to be written on, but should instead serve as a guide to develop the conversations between group members.

Using the four questions can be taught using a “turn and talk” technique.

Remind students of the PRC2 process. Use one of the books from your PRC2 text selection. Choose a section to demonstrate the process for using the PRC2 questioning sheet. Remember to demonstrate how to read your section three times. The first time, read both pages, silently. The second time reading, read just your page or section of the text. After reading your section, tell the class that “you will now look at the four questions on the sheet and decide which one fits best with the text you have just read.” Explain that each student “should be able to answer the question themselves and that they should not use a question if they are unsure how they would answer it.”

After modeling this for the class, tell the class that you will read another page to them out loud two times.

Have them think of an answer to one of the questions that is on the PRC2 questioning sheet. That is the question they should ask their partner. Have one student turn to the other and ask them their question.

Give a few minutes for their partner to answer. Ask the class to share the question they asked and how their partner responded.

This process may be repeated so that the other person in their group has an opportunity to think of which question they would ask.

Closure Tell students that they are expected to use questions that extend conversations and are not questions that elicit yes and no responses. Tell them that when you move around you will be observing the types of questions they are asking each other.

Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Assessment Observation Notes (to note if students understand and use these questions or are reverting to literal questions). See Teacher’s guide page 193

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Self-Editing and Publishing Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Teacher’s writing notebook • Highlighters • Dictionaries -online or in print • Computers or special paper and other materials for publishing

Objectives Students will be able to: • Read their piece backwards to catch spelling errors;and • Take ownership of their writing through publishing.

Preparation If you can arrange for students to work in a computer lab or with laptops and a printer, do so. Think ahead about how students will save their work: there is nothing more frustrating than losing a piece that you’ve been working on for a long time. Plan a lesson on how to use spellcheck.

If you don’t have access to computers, see if you can provide special paper and pens for publishing.

Check one of your own drafts for errors. If you write without errors, rewrite a piece of your own with misspelled words. You’ll need to show students what you’re doing, so type it as a Word document to project, or arrange to use a document camera or overhead. If no equipment is available, you’ll need to copy a few sentences on the board or on chart paper. If you are not using computers, you will be reading a paragraph from your piece backwards; you may want to practice.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Now that students have worked on editing with their writing circles, they will take one last look, especially at spelling. Remind them how hard it is to see past what we expect to see in order to find our own mistakes. In addition to reading aloud, another strategy is to read backwards so you focus on each word instead of the word in context. (You’re reading the sentences backwards, not the words—this isn’t pig-latin.) Demonstrate with your own writing, highlighting misspelled words as you find them. Show them how you sound them out (aloud) to help you figure out where to look in a dictionary for the right spelling.

If you have access to computers for publishing, an alternative minilesson is how to use spellcheck.

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Minilesson continued...

Establish your expectations for publishing as well: what are the protocols for using computers if you have them, what materials are available if you’re not using computers. Students will want to know what color ink you allow, one side of the paper or not, what size margins. On computers, too, students will want to know what fonts they can use, in what size. Encourage them to use the format that grown-up writers use for submitting pieces for publication: Times New Roman 12 point, single-spaced for poetry and double-spaced for prose, with the margins already established in Word. The title can be larger and bold. Make sure that students are saving their work as they go.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be working independently as they work on editing and publishing; because they may need to move around the room to find materials, it may not be as quiet as during drafting and revision, but it should be as quiet as possible. Editing is fussy work.

•

Look over your students’ shoulders to make sure they are following your protocols—no one likes finding out later that she did it all wrong.

Closure Make sure that students’ work has been saved and printed (two copies) if you are using computers. Tell students that they will be sharing their piece with the whole class the next day; if they printed two copies, one copy can go home for them to practice reading aloud. If they wrote the final draft by hand and turned in their only copy, they can rehearse with their last draft. It is helpful to read to a friend or family member or even a mirror so they can practice making eye contact and projecting their voice.

Assessment

Published piece (rubric in Appendix)

What if?

What if students don’t finish publishing? Look ahead at the next lessons—can you afford an extra day? There are four drafting days planned for the persuasive letter; maybe your students will only need three. If not, perhaps it’s more important to do a good job of publishing than to have a whole class celebration where students read their pieces aloud—they’ve had lots of chances to share their piece with their circles. If you have to skip the whole class sharing session, ritualize the final collection of finished pieces so that students feel that they’ve reached an end point and accomplished something important.

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Day 12 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Vocabulary Games/Choice

Writing Minilesson Celebration

Independent/Collaborative Sharing Session (Whole Class)

Closure Appreciation

Assessment 94

Published piece, participation in celebration Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

Reading Writing Day 

Celebration Objectives Students will be able to: • Take ownership of their writing through publishing

Materials:

• Students’ final pieces

Preparation Arrange your classroom to facilitate sharing—in a circle, students can feel that they are truly sharing and not performing. If possible, invite additional people to attend: other school staff, parents, community members. Having an authentic and extended audience helps students think of themselves as writers, and see the impact of their words on others.

Think through how you will manage the sharing session: who will be your first reader (you may want to invite a first reader in advance), how you will introduce each reader if you have a larger audience, what response you will invite from the class. This is not an opportunity to suggest revisions, but a celebration of completed work.

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

Establish the protocol for the day’s sharing: the order in which students will read, what response is expected. Remind students that this is a moment for celebration, not further revisions. Tell them how proud you are of all their work in preparation for this day.

Independent and Collaborative Work You are the MC for this event: introduce each reader, perhaps with the name of their circle as well as their own name, model the response that you expect.

Closure

Thank students for their participation and be sure to collect their finished piece if you have not already done so.

What if?

Assessment Published Piece Participation in Celebration

W What if a student isn’t comfortable sharing their piece with the class? Be as eencouraging as possible, since sharing the work with the class is an important sstep towards developing an identity as a writer. If it is your judgment that an iindividual student is truly not ready, you can change the order of readers, or yyou can offer that student an opportunity to have someone else read it—a ffriend or yourself. You can offer the opportunity to share it more privately.

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Day 13 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Vocabulary

Vocabulary Strategy Choice

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Argument as Activism

Independent/Collaborative Circles create charts: ‘If We Ruled the World’

Closure Share charts (gallery walk)

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Charts 96

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Argument As Activism Objectives Students will be able to: • Understand that argument is a way to assert your place in the world; and, • Unpack the essential question: ‘If I could change something in the world where I live, what would I change?’

Preparation Write “If I could change my family….If I could change my school….If I could change my city….If I could change my country….If I could change ( )….” at the top of enough chart papers to provide one prompt for each circle. Revisit your norms for collaborative work: for today’s work, they may change a little, since circles will be discussing their ideas but not in the form of written drafts. The basics should be the same: use low voices, take turns, make sure someone is recording the circle’s ideas, choose someone to report out to the whole class.

Materials: • Chart paper, markers • Signs for each circle • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for reflections (See Day 3)

Instructional Activities Minilesson Tell your students that we are now going to be doing a different kind of writing with their circles for the rest of the summer. Ask them if they have ever said, “When I grow up, I won’t do that to my kids!” or “If I ran the school, I would…,” or “The President ought to….” You can add your own examples of times when you’ve wanted to take over and do things right.

Invite your established circles to each discuss a wish list: what they would do differently if they ran their families, their school, their city, their country…(one community per circle). Explain that they need to reach consensus or agreement on three changes they would make, and write them on a chart paper that you provide for them.

Independent and Collaborative Work Circulate with the teacher observation checklist. Listen in to the circles’ conversations, helping quiet students participate and noting especially interesting responses so you can make sure they are recorded.

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Writing Day 

Closure Invite each circle to report on the changes they want to make. Ask the class how they could make these changes in real life. If they don’t talk about speaking out, suggest that we can use our powerful writing to make a difference in the world. We can write letters and circulate petitions and make speeches. When we publish our ideas, we gather people to support our proposals. But it’s not enough just to say, “This is what we should do;” we have to make a case that our ideas are the best ones. Explain that making a case for our own ideas, and understanding the arguments of others, is the work we will do for the rest of the summer, because it should be the work of our lives to make our world a better place, not just for ourselves but for our communities. That’s how we assert our place in the world.

Remind students to complete a reflection in their notebooks before they leave.

What if?

What if students suggest changes that are inappropriate or unrealistic? They will. You can test their suggestions with questions (“How likely is it that you and I will see the day when that happens?

Could you add one or two suggestions that we can realistically hope to see? What impact would that change have on other people?”). You should feel free to assert your own values if students offer suggestions that are destructive of the wider community (“Put everyone in jail who lets their dog poop in my yard!”). But it is essential to affirm students’ ideas, too, if we are serious about helping them become their own people. Find a way to speak up for your values without implying that their values are unacceptable.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Student-generated charts

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Day 14 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Courteous Conversations: Using the Sidebar

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Looking at Mentor Texts

Independent/Collaborative Circles read and discuss student letters; complete reflection

Closure Share responses

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Courteous Conversation: Using the Sidebar Materials: • PRC2 Questions sheet (page 196)

Objectives Students will be able to: Use different ways to extend polite conversation with their partner.

Preparation A key part of the Partner Reading procedure is supporting students with having courteous conversation with their partners. It also supports students in deepening their comprehension through meaningful conversation. Teaching students to use the sidebar to support their conversation gives explicit support for these strategies.

Instructional Activities Minilesson A Fishbowl technique is good for this. In a Fishbowl, two people demonstrate the process to the class, and the class observes the process. (See page 190 for a more detailed explanation). You could do this with an experienced student.

Depending on the experience of the students, you may want to divide this into different minilessons, perhaps one for each major section. Students with experience may just need a review of the categories.

For each of the following, make sure that students have a copy of the PRC2 Questions sheet, and point out the sidebar. Direct students to mark the responses they hear you and your partner use to help them to focus on the sidebar. This will help later when you are encouraging students to use the sidebar during their conversation. For each section, use the vocabulary listed under that section.

Receiving what the partner says: Model with a partner courteous reception of the response the partner gives to the question (make sure to point out that the sidebar has examples).

More elaboration and extension of the idea: Model with a partner how to elaborate on a response. You may want to show the difference in the depth of conversation when there is and isn’t elaboration.

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Minilesson continued...

Clarification: If you are modeling this as a separate minilesson, you may want to discuss some examples of the types of responses that might need clarification. After doing so, model those clarifying questions with your partner.

Making connections: Model with a partner how to make a meaningful connection to a response.

You may want to show them what a poor or off-topic connection looks like as well.

Add a different perspective: Model with a partner how to add a different perspective, or disagree in an agreeable way. Again, modeling the “wrong” way to do this may be clarifying for some students.

Whether you do this in one or several sessions, it will be useful to create an anchor chart for students to use as reference throughout the process.

Say: “I will be observing the types of courteous conversations you are having with your partner during PRC2 and when you are having conversations throughout the day.”

What if?

If more conversation stems are needed, see page 196of the appendix, for a more extensive list.

Have students categorize stems under the following categories: receiving what the partner says.

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Looking at Mentor Texts Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Getting to Yes: Student handbook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for persuasive strategies

Objectives Students will be able to: Analyze the strategies used in a sampling of persuasive letters

Preparation Write your own persuasive letter. Make sure that you have a clear thesis on an issue that you and your students care about, and that you use a variety of strategies. It is especially helpful if you can tailor your argument to your audience; in one of the teacher letters included as models in the Appendix, we led with counter arguments because the principal we were addressing tends to push back quickly. You may want to use the “Insert comment” feature of Microsoft Word to mark the strategies you’ve used in your letter. If you don’t have a document camera or an overhead, make photocopies.

Prepare a chart for persuasive strategies. You can include counterargument, fact, anecdote, emotional appeal, outcome or solution, responding to audience.

Or you can generate a list of strategies with your students as you model with your own letter.

Decide how you will assign letters for each circle to read: do you want to choose a letter for each circle, or allow circles to choose for themselves? Is it important to you that each circle has a different letter to analyze?

Instructional Activities Minilesson Show your letter to students, using a document camera or overhead, or projecting from your computer.

Read it aloud to them, emphasizing your thesis (you may need to define that term) and explaining the variety of strategies you used to make your case. If you didn’t use the “Insert comment” feature in Word, draw an arrow to the margin and write the name of the strategy there. Take the time to define each strategy and to talk about how you collected the information you used. For example, if you used a statistic, where did you find it? If you used an anecdote, how did you choose it? Then show students the chart you prepared with strategies they can use to analyze arguments (or add each strategy to the chart as you reach it in your letter). Explain that circles will be examining student letters to see how they tailored their strategies to their audience, and assess whether they find the letters to be convincing. They should identify the letter they read as their heading, and then make a list in their notebooks of each strategy they find, including the passage from the letter that illustrates that strategy.

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Independent and Collaborative Work Circulate with the teacher observation checklist. Listen in to the circles’ conversations, helping quiet students participate and noting especially interesting responses so you can make sure they are recorded. Remind each circle to choose a spokesperson to share out to the whole class.

Closure Ask each circle to share their letter, reading it aloud and pointing out the thesis, audience, and strategies used. Invite them to share their judgment of the arguments and whether they are convincing, being sure to say why they found them effective or ineffective. If students have missed an important strategy, feel free to add it in. If they aren’t able to back up their judgment, ask follow-up questions to elicit their thinking.

What if?

If students haven’t already had instruction in persuasive strategies, one minilesson won’t be sufficient guidance to allow the circles to analyze a letter on their own. You may need to help a circle identify the strategies in the letter they’re reading. Ask them to describe what they’re seeing even if they don’t know the term usually used in our classrooms: you can name a strategy once students describe it, and their description (even without the term) will allow them to practice the analytical thinking you want them to develop.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist

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Day 15 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Citing Textual or Pictoral Evidence

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Pre-Writing

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to plan (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share Plans

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring Notes 104

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Citing Textual or Pictorial Evidence Objectives Students will be able to: Exhibits use of text and graphic evidence from the book to support ideas.

Materials: • A sample book used in PRC2 • Student Handbook • Citing Textural or Pictorial Evidence sheet in Student Handbook

Preparation As students become more comfortable f bl with i h the h partner reading procedure, their conversations should become more in-depth. Using textual and pictorial evidence to support one’s ideas is important to having a strong conversation.

Spend some time before this lesson practicing with one student or the DFT in your building to demonstrate a discussion in which you use textural or pictorial evidence to support your answer that your partner asked. Be sure that the question was rich enough that you could go back to the text or picture to support your answer.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Sit so that the whole class can easily observe and hear you. Ideally, a fishbowl demonstration has the people modeling in the middle, with the class surrounding them. You and your partner (an experienced student with whom you have practiced) will demonstrate a conversation in which you support your ideas with textual or pictorial evidence, by referring to the text or graphics in the text.

Give the students observing the fishbowl focus questions to ensure that their attention is on the demonstration. Sample focus questions/activities might include: 1) Tally the number of times the demonstrators refer to text or pictures; 2) How did the partner respond to a textual or pictorial reference made?; 3) How did citing evidence enhance the depth and quality of the discussion?

After the demonstration and a brief discussion about citing evidence to support your ideas, instruct students to focus on referring to the text and graphics while conversing with their partners. Tell them you will be listening to conversations, looking for good use of evidence to support ideas.

After pairs have been given time for partner reading, ask students to share their observations about how their partner may have cited evidence from the text. You, as the teacher, can also point out one or two partners that you noticed referred to the text or graphics in their discussions.

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Closure Say: “I will be observing your conversations today seeing that you use textural and non-textural evidence to support your discussion.”

What if?

What if students still aren’t using textual or pictorial evidence?

If reteaching is necessary, focus on one of the two elements, either textual or pictorial, before asking for the other.

Assessment PRC2 Observational Sheet with specific focus on students’ use of text and graphic evidence to support their ideas during partner discussions.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Pre-writing Objectives Students will be able to: Use a planning tool for pre-writing

Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Planning tool (in Appendix)

Preparation If you didn’t make a plan for your persuasive letter, go back and do one now, using the planning tool in the Appendix or another if you have a favorite graphic organizer for this purpose. If you have no equipment in your classroom, make copies of your plan.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Remind students that they’ve been making arguments since they began to talk. They have lots of practice trying to talk their parents and their teachers and their friends into doing things their way. This summer, they are simply learning to argue more convincingly.

Use the document camera or an overhead or project your plan from your computer, or distribute copies.

Show them how the plan helped you organize your ideas. It also helped you see whether you had planned for a variety of strategies (fact, anecdote, emotional appeal, outcome…), which would strengthen your argument.

Tell them that they will be doing similar work today, using a plan like the one you used, or another if they have a favorite way to plan arguments.

First, of course, they will have to settle on their audience. They should think about who makes decisions in their lives—parents, teachers, coaches, etc.—and what decisions they make. Tell students that you hope they will really deliver (or mail) these letters, so they will want to choose their audience carefully.

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Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they plan; remind them of the norms for independent writing. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for really complete and thoughtful plans that you want students to share with the whole class. You may even want to interrupt the workshop to share a strong plan that might support the rest of the class as they work.

Closure Invite students to share plans with their neighbor for the last few minutes of class, noting any questions their partner has.

What if?

Watch for students who are including several different theses in their plan, rather than focusing on one, or repeating the same argument over and over rather than including a variety of reasons.

These are students who may need a conference or, if there are several students experiencing similar difficulties, a small group guided writing session. As always, use questions to help your students think through their difficulties, rather than telling them what to do to fix their plans.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring Notes

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Day 16 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Making Connections

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Drafting a Lead

Independent/Collaborative Independent Writing to rehearse leads (teacherstudent conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share Leads

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day 

Making Connections Materials:

• A book used during PRC2

Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate understanding that when making connections to what they are currently reading to something else that they have read in the past or something experienced in their own life, that they will remember more of the text and it will be more meaningful.

Preparation Making connections between texts and d synthesizing one’s learning by discussing similarities and differences in one’s reading is important to having a strong conversation. Spend some time before this lesson practicing with one student or the DFT in your building to demonstrate making meaningful connections to the text. It is important that exemplary connections are used and note that superficial connections are not helpful to their understanding. You may want to learn more about text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world strategy see page 200).

Instructional Activities Minilesson Sit so that the whole class can easily observe and hear you. Ideally, a fishbowl (see page 190) has the people modeling in the middle, with the class surrounding them. You and your partner (a student with whom you have practiced) will demonstrate a conversation in which you make connections between what you have read and what you already know.

Your previous knowledge could come from your general prior knowledge or from recent readings. For example, you might read a statement and then say, “Oh, I remember reading something about this last week! I learned….” (text-to text) or “This reminds me of what I saw on the news, when ……” (text-to world) or “This happened to me too ….” (text-to-self).

After the demonstration and a brief discussion about making text-to-self, text-to-text and text-to world connections, instruct students to focus on making connections while conversing with their partners. Tell them you will be listening to conversations, looking for students who make strong connections between texts and prior knowledge.

After pairs have been given time for partner reading, ask students to share their observations about how

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their partner made connections. You as the teacher can also point out one or two partners that you noticed made excellent connections as you circulated the room.

Closure “I will be observing the types of connections you are making with your partner. Be ready to share out excellent connections that you or your partner made.”

What if?

What if students are still having trouble making connections?

For students that are having trouble making connections have them think about ways the information relates to what they already know. Have them jot down questions that they still have on the topic. Spend time with those partners that are having trouble making connections and supply them with the opportunity to discuss their questions with you.

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes noting connection students are making with text-to-text, text-to-self and text-toworld.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Drafting a Lead Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Chart paper and markers • A document camera or an overhead • Getting to Yes: Student Handbook

Objectives Students will be able to: • Identify elements of successful leads; and • Rehearse several leads to their persuasive letter.

Preparation Choose a student letter from Getting to Yes to use as a mentor text during your minilesson. Choose a letter that does NOT have a strong lead, such as the one by Odalys. If you don’t have access to a document camera, you can write the lead on a chart.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Explain that when you’re writing a letter, you want to entice the reader to keep reading. In this case, the reader may not want to read the letter because it’s asking him or her to change in some way, and most of us do not like changing our minds or behaviors. So it is especially important to catch and hold the reader’s attention at the beginning.

Show students the model letter that you’ve chosen for this lesson, and ask students to comment on the lead. Is it enticing? Would a reluctant reader keep reading? If not (and you deliberately chose a model that does NOT have a strong lead), what do they suggest? Use their ideas to draft a new lead on chart paper, a document camera or an overhead, and name the strategy they use. Make sure the thesis is clearly stated in the revision, but be open to whatever strategy students suggest for improving the sample lead – they’ll have a chance to try something else in a minute.

Celebrate students’ revision of this lead, but tell them that there are more good ideas where this one came from. Ask them to work with a partner for five minutes to draft a new lead for the letter, using a different strategy. If the class version used rhetorical questions, maybe the partners could try an anecdote. If the class version approached the reader with deference, maybe the partners could try shaming the reader. This is just 112

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Minilesson continued... practice so don’t let the conversations go very long. Ask one or two partnerships to share their ideas, and then invite students to work on their own leads, writing at least two versions before moving beyond the lead into the rest of their argument.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they draft; remind them of the norms for independent writing. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for interesting leads that you want students to share with the whole class. You may even want to interrupt the workshop to share a strong lead that might support the rest of the class as they work.

Closure Invite students to share leads with their neighbor for the last few minutes of class, noting any questions their partner has.

What if?

What if students write several leads quickly and are ready to move on? There is no reason why the whole class has to write in lockstep. You haven’t offered a minilesson on developing the arguments, but it would be surprising if this were the first time your students were writing persuasive pieces.

Let them write at their own pace.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring notes

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Day 17 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Vocabulary Activity/Game Choice

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Drafting the Body

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to develop arguments (teacherstudent conferences, guided writing groups

Closure Share arguments

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes 114

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Drafting the Body Objectives Students will be able to: Generate evidence to support each of their arguments

Preparation

Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Chart paper and markers • A document camera or an overhead • Getting to Yes: Student Handbook • Teachers’ writing notebook

Choose a student letter from Getting to Yes to use as a mentor text during your minilesson. Choose a letter that does NOT use enough support for the arguments, and highlight one paragraph that you want to focus on. You are not giving students enough time or direction to research their arguments, so you want to use examples where the details are available without research. For example, Jennifer’s plaintive letter about needing more jobs would have been stronger if she had told a small story from her time living in the house that her family might lose, so readers could see what it meant to her (anecdote).Tiniya’s logical argument against weekend homework would have been stronger if she’d included a record of how long she invested in homework during a specific weekend (fact).

Instructional Activities Minilesson Direct students’ attention to the letter and the specific paragraph you’ve chosen to discuss. Invite students to suggest revisions, as you did the day before. Be sure to name the strategies they’re using as they suggest additions. Focus especially on adding anecdote and factual evidence where students can gather such evidence without extensive research.

After the class has worked together to revise one paragraph in one letter, ask them to work in partnerships to revise another. Again, give them a tight limit for this work as it is only practice for their own writing, and then ask a few partnerships to share their revisions, naming the strategies they used to extend the original paragraph.

Remind students that they need to do this work in their own letters as they continue to draft. Suggest that they begin this day’s work by rereading what they’ve written so far, and seeing where they could add more compelling detail.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they draft; remind them of the norms for independent writing. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for strong evidence that you want students to share with the whole class. You may even want to interrupt the workshop to share a paragraph that might support the rest of the class as they work.

Closure Invite students to share their strongest argument with their neighbor for the last few minutes of class, noting any questions their partner has.

What if?

An issue that emerged on the District Wide Writing Assessment is that students sometimes overpromise in their leads if they preview their arguments. They expect to offer a particular piece of evidence but then decide against it later. Or they may under-promise and over-deliver, adding evidence that they didn’t preview in the lead. In your conferences and small group sessions, make sure that students relate their evidence back to their opening paragraph so the letter maintains a single focus throughout.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring Notes

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Day 18 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Mini Lesson Vocabulary Strategy Lesson

Vocabulary

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Drafting the Conclusion

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to rehearse conclusions (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share conclusions

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Counterargument Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Chart paper and markers • Pens, pencils • Getting to Yes: Student Handbook • Document camera or projector • Teachers’ writing notebook

Objectives Students will be able to: Practice the use of counterargument

Preparation Choose a student letter from Getting to Yes to use as a mentor text during your minilesson, and highlight the counterargument. The two letters on homework—by Tiniya and Jonathan—both include counterarguments with explicit transitions: •

•

Tiniya: “I understand that you are worried about students watching too much television and not being prepared for school. But there are plenty of things to do over the weekend.”

“I know what you’re thinking, and I understand. I know homework is supposed to educate us to practice and master skills, but sometimes you show us how to do something, then the next day, you find out that nobody understood the strategy.”

If you can find a copy of I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff in the public library or the school library, reading it aloud would be an alternative minilesson.

It’s a picture book in which a mother and son negotiate the son’s desire to have an iguana as a pet, and the boy answers every objection his mother can raise.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Project the letter(s) you’ve chosen to discuss, with the counterargument highlighted. Explain that the best way to “get to yes” is to meet the opposing arguments head-on. If you want a dog, and you think your mother is worried that she’ll end up walking the dog in the mornings when she is already rushing to get ready for work, offer to walk the dog yourself. To do this work, you have to think your way inside your reader’s mind: what is s/he thinking? How will s/he argue against you? Then you have to come up with an answer, a way to “counter” the opposing argument.

Invite students to turn-and-talk in order to rehearse a counterargument, then ask one or two partnerships to share their ideas. During class today, ask students to try adding a counterargument to their letters.

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Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they draft; remind them of the norms for independent writing. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for effective counterarguments that you want students to share with the whole class. You may even want to interrupt the workshop to share a counterargument that might support the rest of the class as they work.

Closure Invite students to share their counterargument with their neighbor for the last few minutes of class, noting any questions their partner has.

What if?

Students may need to rehearse their counterargument aloud with you, in a conference or small group session. Sometimes when you help them rehearse out loud, however, they write their counterargument as dialogue—remind them that letters are written in one voice (the letterwriter’s), not two. But a sentence stem like “You may think that…but….”can be helpful.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist Conferring Notes Review of student notebooks

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Day 19 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson How to Extend Conversation in Partner Reading

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Drafting the Conclusion

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to rehearse conclusions (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share conclusions

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes 120

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Reading

How to Extend Conversation in Partner Reading Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate the use of prompts or conversation stems to help extend conversation when discussion seems to be short and not very thoughtful.

Day 

Materials: • Markers to add ideas to chart • Partner reading materials • Teacher/Student created anchor chart titled: “How to Extend Conversation”

Preparation Because students need explicit instruction on how to extend and deepen dialogue to enhance comprehension. Research shows that having conversations about text strongly supports student comprehension. Spend some time before this lesson practicing with one student or the DFT in your building to demonstrate a stalled or stagnated discussion.

Have chart paper and markers ready to create an anchor chart together.

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

It will be helpful to model this lesson. You may choose to use the “Fishbowl Technique” to model. Sit with a partner and demonstrate getting stalled in a conversation. Ask students how interesting is it to be in a stalled conversation? Tell the students it is useful to have conversational prompts to get the conversation moving again. You might ask the class if they can come up with some. If not, some ideas you may want to use could include: • • •

Tell me more of your thinking about ...

Let’s talk a little more about ...

I’m not sure I understand ... Can you tell me more about that?

Have the class practice this technique with their partners. Listen in, and if you hear good prompts to extend the conversation, note them. Support students by directing their attention to the chart if they get stuck, and do not use the prompts. During the whole-group Wrap Up/Share, add the prompts you noted to the list. This lesson can be repeated as needed.

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes

Closure “I will be listening for use of conversational prompts to extend your conversations.”

What if?

What if the anchor chart is not enough?

If you have a recording device, have students volunteer to have their conversations recorded. Have students listen to the conversation and give suggestions on how improve and extend the conversation with specific prompts.

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Drafting the Conclusion Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Chart paper and markers • Pens, pencils • Getting to Yes: Student Handbook • Document camera or projector • Teachers’ writing notebook

Objectives Students will be able to: Write a conclusion that ties their argument together without repeating their introduction

Preparation Choose letters to model closing paragraphs. For example, Salvador’s letter has a clearly individual voice throughout, including in the conclusion. Odalys ends with a specific solution to the problem which she discussed in her letter.

Your review of student notebooks will help you plan conferences and small group sessions for today’s class.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Tell students that when they have made their arguments, they need to close the deal with a strong paragraph, though they may then want to write a short “thank you” before signing the letter. Project the closing paragraphs that you have chosen to highlight, and think aloud about the ways these writers each closed their deal without simply repeating their lead. Ask students to be ready to share their closing paragraphs before the end of class.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

•

•

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Students will be writing independently as they finish their drafts; remind them of the norms for independent writing. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors .

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for effective conclusions that you want students to share with the whole class. You may even want to interrupt the workshop to share a closing paragraph that might support the rest of the class as they work. Also, invite a student with a strong draft to demonstrate feedback with you during tomorrow’s minilesson.

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure Invite students to share their conclusion with their neighbor for the last few minutes of class, noting any questions their partner has.

What if?

Conclusions should follow from the particular argument that the writer makes: one issue that emerged from a review of this year’s DWWA papers is that sometimes a cohort of students learns one strategy so thoroughly that everyone in that class writes their conclusion (or their lead) in exactly the same way. They may be working with an effective formula, but it’s only one strategy. Writers need a whole repertoire of different strategies. On the other hand, since conclusions should be as individual as the letters they conclude, it can be hard to support all the different writers in your class with one minilesson. A question that may help your students think about their conclusion is, “What would happen—what would be different—if your reader agreed with you after reading your letter?” In other words, ask your students to project themselves into a future in which everything has turned out as they wished. What impact would that one change have on themselves and others?

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring Notes

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Day 20 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Asking Good Questions: Moving from the Prompt

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (What if...)

Independent/Collaborative Circles share drafts and offer feedback; complete reflection

Closure Share a “What if� from each circle

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; 124

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Reading Day 

Asking Good Questions: Moving Away from the Prompt Objectives Students will be able to: Create questions using the PRC2 Questions sheet as a model to ask their own questions.

Preparation The PRC2 Questions sheet is important for students to use as they begin the PRC2 process. It scaffolds them both in the use of deep questions and having sustained academic conversation, but the time may come when students can move away from the sheet and formulate their own deep questions.

Materials: • A page of text that all students can see • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for prompts to keep circle conversations going (see Day 3) • Chart for reflections (See Day 3)

Instructional Activities Minilesson 1. Read the text aloud. Remind the class of the four basic questions: What was most important? Why? What was most interesting? Why? What connections can you make? How? What could the author have made clearer? How? 2. Demonstrate how to make those questions more specific to the text. For instance, with a text from the Social Justice text set, you might say; What is most important thing to remember about fighting for social justice? Why? or What is most interesting of being an activist? Why? or What connections can you make about how social injustice has affected you or someone you know? or What could the author have made more clear about the impact of doing little things and still being able to make a difference in the lives of others?

Demonstrating how the questions from the PRC2 Questions sheet can be made more specific to the actual page of text that the students are using will help students create a bridge between the highly scaffolded PRC2 Questions sheet, and the ultimate goal of having students have a deeper, but more spontaneous, academic conversation.

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Reading Day ď™…ď™ƒ Providing a bookmark as an intermediate scaffold might be helpful. Having discussions around deep questions is one of the most challenging tasks we are asking students to engage in, and a very gradual release of responsibility is essential. Students have a bookmark for discussion in their handbook.

Closure Remember you can make the PRC2 Questions more specific to ask your partner as you discuss the text, or you can use your bookmarks to help you ask questions to your partner.

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes (Note the types of questions students are asking. Gauge if more work around questioning is needed.)

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Giving Feedback (What if….)

Objectives Students will be able to: Work collaboratively in their circle to offer each other feedback on their drafts

Preparation Prepare a specific compliment and a specific suggestion to improve the letter written by the student who agreed to be in the fishbowl with you.

Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for norms (collaborative work including revision strategies See Day 8) • Signs for each circle

Instructional Activities Minilesson Offer your students some specific praise for their writing work over the past days, but make it real—if possible, focus on growth that you have observed in the group or in individuals’ work.

Today students will be meeting again in circles to share their persuasive letters. Remind them how scary it can be to share a rough draft, and review the norms you’ve established for collaborative work. They’ll need to decide on a first reader and a timekeeper, since they haven’t worked together in a while. Remind them as well of the strategies they’ve already used for offering feedback (“hotspot,” “I wonder” and “What if…?”).

They should use the same strategies for their letters that they used for their earlier pieces.

Invite the student you identified in advance to demonstrate this kind of talk. Read a passage aloud from her letter, and praise what she has done especially well before suggesting a specific strategy for strengthening the piece: “What if you….” Make sure the student understands what you have suggested—perhaps ask her to say it back to you in her own words, and write a note in her notebook so she doesn’t forget. In their circles, students will also want to ask clarifying questions and take notes on their friends’ feedback.

Remind your writers that they do not have to do what their classmates suggest—they are each the boss of their own writing. They do have to listen carefully to each other, and take notes on what they hear. Later they can make their own decisions about revision. Since they don’t have to do what their classmates are suggesting, there is no need to argue about it. During feedback, the writer should be silent except for asking clarifying questions, if needed.

After students share in their circles, they will need to get ready to share in the whole group, so warn them

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Reading Writing Day 

Minilesson continued... you will stop their work in time for those preparations. Remind the timekeepers to make sure everyone in the circle gets equal time to share and hear feedback.

Independent and Collaborative Work •

Begin by circulating from group to group with your teacher observation checklist, listening to the tone as well as the content of the talk, coaching as necessary.

•

Once you are confident that the conversations have been launched in an appropriate way, you can join a circle that seems to need support in order to offer helpful feedback.

•

Stop 10 minutes before the end of class, and ask the circles to choose a spokesperson to share at least one suggestion for revision that they discussed as a circle.

Closure Reconvene the whole group and share some comments you noticed from the conversations that show how students are referring to strategies you’ve presented in minilessons. Invite the spokesperson from each group to share a “What if” for revision from their group. Re-establish the norms for acknowledging each circle.

Leave five minutes at the end for students to complete the reflection questions (already posted on the chart). Remind students that they should be dating the page where they write their reflection, and title it “Reflection.”

What if?

What if there isn’t time for each student to get feedback in the circle?

The letters may be longer than the pieces students wrote earlier in the summer. You can allow one-on-one conferences to take place the next day, when most students will be working on revision.

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Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist

Day 21 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Minilesson Using Content Vocabulary in Conversation

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Revising for Logic

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to revise (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share revision for transitions

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day 

Using Content Vocabulary in Conversation Materials: • A list of vocabulary words based around the theme being studied (see the Student Handbook for a list of terms).

Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate that it’s not enough to learn new words; they also need to practice how to use them correctly in conversation.

Preparation Students who use content vocabulary b l fluidly idl idl and naturally in conversation demonstrate a deep understanding of new words. By demonstrating a strong conversation in which partners use content vocabulary, students will gain an understanding of the importance of not only learning new vocabulary, but of using it in conversation.

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

Give a list of words to be used in the conversation to the students who will be demonstrating the conversation. Allow them time to rehearse a conversation which will include the vocabulary words listed.

You may decide if you want to demonstrate this conversation yourself (a student with whom you may have practiced), or select 2 students whom you have noticed using content vocabulary in their conversations to demonstrate.

Sit in the center of the room, facing the student you will be conversing with (or have the students face each other). If your students are unfamiliar with the “Fish Bowl” demonstration, explain briefly that they will be observing a conversation and that they should be prepared to discuss the demonstration afterward (see page 190).

Have the students in the center of the room discuss the topic. Ask students observing the conversation to check off each word the pair uses in conversation. This will keep students attentive to the conversation, while collecting evidence that the demonstrating students are indeed using vocabulary in conversation.

After the Fish Bowl demonstration, discuss with the class what they noticed about the use of content vocabulary in conversation. Did the demonstrating pair use vocabulary words?

Was their use of the words natural, or did it seem forced? How did the use of vocabulary enhance their conversation and their understanding of the content?

PRC2 Observation Sheet noting content vocabulary that was used Have students use their vocabulary sheets to mark specific in student conversations. content vocabulary that they are unsure of using correctly in conversation.

Assessment

What if?

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Reading Writing

Independent Writing: Revising for Logic (Sequence and Transitions) Objectives Students will be able to: • Use their circle’s feedback to revise their writing; and, • Think about sequence and transitions as they strengthen the logic of their argument.

Preparation Photocopy one of the letters from Getting to Yes, or your own persuasive letter. Cut up the photocopy so each paragraph is on a separate piece of paper. If you don’t have a document camera, make a copy for each student or each circle. It will save time in class if you cut the paragraphs apart yourself.

If some students didn’t get adequate feedback in their circles, set aside a space for one-on-one peer conferences.

Day 

Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for revision strategies: • What problem led my circle to make this suggestion?

• Sequence: Are my paragraphs (stanzas) in the right order?

• Pacing: Are there places where I should slow down or speed up?

• Chart for transitions (list in Appendix)

Instructional Activities Minilesson Now that your students have heard their circle’s feedback, it’s time to revise. As it was before, the first strategy is to review their circle’s comments. While they don’t have to do what their circle suggested, they have to take those suggestions seriously. Writers write for an audience: if their audience is troubled by something in the piece, that passage is worth thinking about. Perhaps the specific suggestion is the wrong one, but will point to an underlying problem that can be resolved in a different way.

Another strategy you presented earlier is to revise the sequence of the piece. This is when you take out your pieces of paper, each with a paragraph from a letter. If you’re using a document camera, you can demonstrate how changing the sequence can change the logic of a piece, and make it build towards a stronger argument. If you’re not using a document camera, distribute the paragraphs to circles and ask them to try out different sequences. After this demonstration, refer to your chart of transitions and tell students that the sequence will be clearer to see if they use transition words to link each paragraph to the next. If you have a document camera, you can point out the transitions in your model. Otherwise, you’ll include that point in your editing lesson.

Remind your writers that revision is a process of seeing all over again, so the norms for revision will be the same as for drafting: silence and privacy.

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Independent and Collaborative Work •

Students will be writing independently as they work on revision; the norms are the same as for drafting, since the work is very similar. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, watch for students who are using transitions effectively, and ask them to share at the end of the class. Also look for students who are already revising for pacing—adding or deleting details as they write their second draft. Ask one of these students to let you share their first and second drafts during your minilesson the next day.

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite the students you selected to read a few paragraphs, identifying their transitions. If you have a document camera, this point will be clearer.

What if?

What if a student’s letter doesn’t need work on sequence or even transitions? Find out what the circle suggested, as a first step. If the circle didn’t offer specific suggestions, this writer may need you to read the letter and offer your own. Your next minilesson will focus on pacing; if one of your writers can revise for pacing today, you’ll have a ready-made mentor text for tomorrow. In any case, there is no such thing as a perfect first draft: even the most proficient writer can make a draft stronger in revision.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist & Conferring notes

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Day 22 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Confer with 3 students

Mini Lesson Vocabulary Activity/Game Choice

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Revising for Pacing

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to revise (teacher-student conferences, guided writing groups)

Closure Share before/after paragraphs

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; Conferring notes Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Revising for Pacing Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Teacher’s writing notebook • Chart for revision strategies: • What problem led my circle to make this suggestion?

• Sequence: Are my paragraphs (stanzas) in the right order?

• Pacing: Are there places where I should slow down or speed up?

• Chart for transitions (list in Appendix)

Objectives Students will be able to: • Use their circle’s feedback to revise their writing; and, • Think about pacing as they revise their letter.

Preparation If you don’t have a student letter to use as a model for this lesson, you’ll need to create one. Go back to your own persuasive letter, and revise one paragraph to slow down, another to speed up. If you like the level of detail in your letter, create a fake first draft with one paragraph lacking detail and another overflowing with the wrong details.

Instructional Activities Minilesson The last strategy your writers used when they were revising their writing circle piece earlier in the summer was to look at pacing: where they needed to linger, adding detail, and where they needed to speed up by cutting extraneous detail. Use both drafts of the letter you’ve prepared—a student’s letter or your own— as a mentor text to demonstrate this strategy. Think aloud, or ask the student writer to think aloud, about the decisions made. Remind your writers that revision is a process of seeing all over again, so the norms for revision will be the same as for drafting: silence and privacy.

Independent and Collaborative Work

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•

Students will be writing independently as they work on revision; the norms are the same as for drafting, since the work is very similar. As usual, you’ll want to begin this period by circulating through the classroom with your teacher observation checklist, making notes of the students’ writing behaviors.

•

Once students are launched, use this time for one-on-one conferences and small group instruction, recording your notes as you go.

•

As you observe your students’ writing behaviors and read over their shoulders, choose a student with a strong letter but some language issues to volunteer their letter as a mentor text for the editing minilesson that’s coming next.

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Ask students to share which revision strategies were the most helpful for them.

What if?

What if a student’s letter doesn’t need work on sequence, pacing or transitions? You may have students in your class who are strong writers who came to Summer Bridge for help in math, or because they freeze on standardized tests. One option is to work with a student on editing strategies that you can then demonstrate in the next minilesson. Another is to introduce a more sophisticated lens for rereading and revision, such as checking their letter to be sure that they’ve used multiple strategies in developing their arguments. That’s one way to keep your reader’s attention, and also make sure your score for support on the District Wide Writing Assessment is high.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist Conferring notes Review of student notebooks

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Day 23 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment (5 students)

Minilesson Choice of vocabulary strategy

Vocabulary

Writing Minilesson Writing Circles: Editing

Independent/Collaborative Circles help each other edit

Closure Share experience of collaborative editing

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist; 136

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Reading Writing Day 

Writing Circles: Editing Objectives Students will be able to: Work collaboratively with their writing circle to edit their piece

Preparation Prepare a chart with editing strategies: • Read aloud for punctuation and paragraphing • Comma for short pause • Period for full stop at end of sentence • Big pause and new paragraph for new idea • Read backwards for spelling

Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Getting to Yes: Student handbook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for editing strategies • Chart for reflections See Day 2 • Online and print dictionaries

You already chose a piece of student writing to use in today’s minilesson. (If you didn’t, use one of your own and rewrite it with spelling errors, if necessary.) You will need to show this piece to your students, either by typing it as is into a Word document that you can project from your computer, or by using a document camera or overhead. Choose a paragraph to focus on, and highlight the transitions. Practice reading it backwards and slowly.

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

Remind students that it’s hard to see mistakes in our own writing because we see what we expect to see.

You’ve already demonstrated two strategies to make sure we notice what needs to be fixed: reading aloud, especially for punctuation; and reading backwards, especially for spelling. Refer to your charts (transitions and editing strategies). Model with the student writing (or your own) that you prepared, and a colored pen or pencil. If you or your writers are uncomfortable with the idea of writing on someone else’s draft, use post-its.

Remind students of the norms for collaborative work (chart).

Independent and Collaborative Work Circulate with your teacher observation checklist, coaching the circles as they read the pieces aloud for punctuation and read backwards for spelling. Remind them to check for transitions, as well. You may need to model again in a circle, using one of the pieces from that circle. If you have access to a document camera, do this work at the document camera so everyone in the circle can see what you’re doing. Only edit one paragraph, so that the students have ample opportunity to practice this strategy on their own.

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure Ten minutes before the end of class, reconvene the students as a group, as you did for the minilesson. Invite them to talk about the experience of editing together, what worked and what didn’t work. That will prepare them to complete their reflection.

What if?

What if students feel overwhelmed by using all three strategies you’ve taught for editing?

That’s OK: they can focus on one. Help a circle or an individual student to decide which strategy will be the most useful for them.

Assessment Teacher Observation Checklist

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Day 24 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment for 5 students

Minilesson Thick vs. Thin Questions

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Independent Writing: Publishing

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to publish (teacher-student conferences; guided writing groups)

Closure Prepare for celebration

Assessment Published letter Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Day 

PRC2: Thick vs. Thin Questions Materials: •

A book used during PRC2

•

Teacher/Student created anchor chart titled: ‘Thick vs. Thin Questions’

•

Markers to add ideas to chart;

•

Partner Reading materials

Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate the use of higher order thinking (thick) questions.

Preparation If, after teaching lessons on “Asking good questions: using the question sheet” and “Asking good questions: moving away from the prompt sheet”, students are still asking thin, shallow, “right there” questions, you may want use this lesson. When students question informational text, they often have difficulty formulating deep, complex questions that create rich conversation.

After viewing the video have students respond out loud to the questions written on the board. While they are responding write down and highlight key elements of partner reading.

Instructional Activities Minilesson As you listen on students during their partner reading time, you may note that without the support of the generic questions on the prompt sheet, students are reverting back to “thin” questions.

Thin questions deal with specific content or words, and answers are close-ended and short.

Example: Where did the story “The Three Bears” take place?

A thick question is a more complex question that requires a longer, more thoughtful response, and is opened ended, encouraging conversation.

Example: Why do you think the three Bears did not lock their door?

As a group, direct the student’s attention to the anchor chart. Let them know that question stems can be helpful when asking questions. It is a support to guide students to ask more complex, open ended questions. Assuming the students are familiar with the story “The Three Bears”, have students think about whether the following questions are thick or thin questions: Who where the main characters in the story?

When did this story take place?

How would you feel if someone broke into your house?

Do you think Goldilocks would try this again?

Why do you think Goldilocks ran from the house?

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Reading Day 

Closure When you think of what type of question you’ll ask your partner, remember to use “thick” or high order thinking questions that will make your partner think deeply about the text. Try never to ask a question that your partner can respond only with “yes” or “no”.

What if?

Alternatively or additionally, you may want to practice coming up with thin or thick questions about a nonfiction passage in one of the student books. Doing this as a group may provide the support the students need in order to more effectively pose thick questions of their own while they read. You may want to spend some of your end of class sharing and wrap up time having students share their thick questions. You might add those question stems to the chart to provide students with more options.

Thick vs. Thin Questions Thin Questions When? Where? Who? How many?

Thick Questions Why do you think…?

What if…?

What might…?

How is this like….?

Assessment PRC2 Observation Notes noting the types of student questions that are being used

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Reading Writing Day 

Independent Writing: Publishing Materials: • Students’ writing notebooks • Pens, pencils • Getting to Yes: Student handbook • Chart for norms (collaborative work - See Day 2) • Chart for editing strategies • Chart for reflections See Day 2 • Online and print dictionaries

Objectives Students will be able to: • Take ownership of their writing through publishing • Use appropriate letter format

Preparation If you can arrange for students d to workk in a computer lab or with laptops and a printer, do so; otherwise, see if you can provide special paper and pens for publishing. If you are using computers, think ahead about how students will save their work. There is nothing more frustrating than losing a piece that you’ve been working on for a long time.

Prepare a chart (or two) that specifies the format you want students to use: formal and informal letter format, font, size, margins, alignment, indent or skip a space for paragraphing. If letters will be handwritten, specify ink or pencil, black or colored ink, single or double-sided, margins.

Instructional Activities Minilesson

Demonstrate letter format for students. They will use a different format for writing to President Obama than for a letter to their friend or their mother.

Establish your expectations for publishing as well: what are the protocols for using computers if you have them, what materials are available if you’re not using computers. Students will want to know what color ink you allow, one side of the paper or two, what size margins. On computers, too, students will want to know what fonts they can use, in what size. Encourage them to use the format that grown-up writers use for writing formal letters: Times New Roman 12 point, single-spaced, with the margins already established in Word. Remind them to use spellcheck, and make sure that students are saving their work as they go.

Independent and Collaborative Work

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•

Students will be working independently as they work on publishing; because they may need to move around the room to find materials, it may not be as quiet as during drafting and revision, but it should be as quiet as possible.

•

Look over your students’ shoulders to make sure they are following your protocols—no one likes finding out later that he did it all wrong.

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure Make sure that students’ work has been saved and printed (two copies) if you are using computers. Tell students that they will be sharing their piece with the whole class the next day; if they printed two copies, one copy can go home for them to practice reading aloud. If they turned in their only copy, they can rehearse with their last draft. It is helpful to read to a friend or family member or even a mirror so they can practice making eye contact and projecting their voice.

What if?

What if students don’t finish publishing? This time students have not had as many opportunities to share with their circle, so it’s important to have a whole class sharing session at the end. If necessary, you can take an extra day to finish publishing, and then shorten the celebration a little to allow time for the final reflection.

Assessment Published letter (same rubric as for preand post-assessment)

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Day 25 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment (5 students)

Minilesson Closing Activity: Look At All We Learned

PRC2 Observe and Confer

Writing Minilesson Celebration

Independent/Collaborative Sharing session (whole class)

Closure Appreciation

Assessment Published letter 144

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Reading Day 

Look At All We Learned Materials:

Objectives

• Any teacher/student created anchor chart such as the KWL or vocabulary charts • Student Handbooks • Text set books

Students will be able to: • Synthesize their learning with a partner; and • Present that information with a small group of students..

Preparation Create groups of 3 or 4 students, being sure that none have PRC2 partners in a particular group. This lesson will help student’s synthesize their learning about the particular theme studied and present it to others in the class.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Tell students that they will be synthesizing their learning for the past 6 weeks around the classroom theme.

Have students sit with their partners and have each fill out the ‘Looking At All We Learned’ sheet in the Student Handbook.

Remind them that they can look at the charts developed by the class, review the vocabulary they chose from the PRC2 content books, review with their partner the learning they experienced together, have them review the books they read pull out fun facts that they remembered, and write questions that they still have.

Give them about 20 minutes to fill out the Look at All We’ve Learned sheet. Once they are done, have students sit in the groups that you created to share their information. Tell them that they will have about 3 minutes each to share what they learned with the rest of the group.

Assessment

Closure Have student share out to the larger class. Add information on what they learned to the KWL chart that was created at the start of Summer Bridge.

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Teacher will gauge students engagement and use PRC2 Observation Notes to mark their sharing of information to the small group.

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Reading Writing Day 

Celebration Materials: • Students’ final letters

Objectives Students will be able to: Take ownership of their writing through publishing

Preparation Arrange your classroom to facilitate sharing—in a circle, students can feel that they are truly sharing and not performing. If possible, invite additional people to attend: other school staff, the recipients of the letters. Having an authentic and extended audience helps students think of themselves as writers, and see the impact of their words on others.

Think through how you will manage the sharing session: who will be your first reader (you may want to invite a first reader in advance), how you will introduce each reader if you have a larger audience, what response you will invite from the class. This is not an opportunity to suggest revisions, but a celebration of completed work.

Minilesson

Instructional Activities

Establish the protocol for the day’s sharing: the order in which students will read, what response is expected. Remind students that this is a moment for celebration, not further revisions. Tell them how proud you are of their work throughout the summer.

Assessment Published letter (rubric in Appendix)

Independent and Collaborative Work You are the MC for this event: introduce each reader, perhaps with the name of their circle as well as their own name, model the response that you expect.

Closure Thank students for their participation and be sure to collect their finished letters if you have not already done so. If students printed two copies, one should now be delivered to the intended recipient. If not, try to make copies so they can deliver a copy later and keep one in their portfolio.

What if?

What if a student isn’t comfortable sharing their letter with the class? Be as encouraging as possible, since sharing the work with the class is an important step towards developing an identity as a writer. If it is your judgment that an individual student is truly not ready, you can change the order of readers, or you can offer that student an opportunity to have someone else read it—a friend or yourself. You can offer the opportunity to share it more privately.

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Day 26 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment for 5 students

Minilesson Post Assessments: Concept Web, IMPACT Test

PRC2

Writing Minilesson Post-assessment

Independent/Collaborative DWWA: Confer and Revise

Closure DWWA

Assessment DWWA Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Reading Writing Day 

Post-assessment: Confer and Revise Materials: • Prompts from preassessment • Pens, pencils, looseleaf paper • Talk stems for peer conferences (in Appendix, page 198)

Objectives Students will be able to: • Demonstrate their mastery of persuasive writing by completing an argument in response to a prompt; and • Demonstrate their mastery of writing process by conferring with a peer and then revising their own argument.

Preparation Review the procedures for the second day of the District Wide Writing Assessment (see below), which will be used as a post-assessment for Summer Bridge. Based on your experience with these students over the summer, decide how you will partner your writers for the peer conferences, and how you will configure your room to allow partners to see each other’s papers and hear each other read aloud.

Instructional Activities Since this is an assessment day, it will not follow the pattern of the writing workshop. To ensure standardized administration conditions, this lesson contains oral directions that teachers will read to the students. Before you begin, distribute the plans and drafts that students wrote on Day 1, and the handout of sentence stems to support their conferences.

Say: 1. This is your post-assessment that allows us to see how you’ve grown as a writer. Today, you will review the argument you wrote at the beginning of the summer, and confer with a partner before you revise your argument.

2. You have been seated with a partner. You may read your draft aloud in a soft voice, or exchange papers with your partner and read your partner’s paper silently. On a new piece of looseleaf paper, write “Conference Notes.” You will use this paper for notes to your partner. It may be helpful to use some of the sentence stems on the handout to start your conference.

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Reading Writing Day  3. You will have 10 minutes to read your partner’s first draft and provide written feedback. After 10 minutes you will give your papers back. Read your partner’s comments and discuss the suggestions. If you want to read paper aloud to your partner, you may do so in a soft voice.

4. After your conference, write “Final Draft” on another piece of looseleaf paper. You will have 40 minutes to revise and rewrite your first draft on that page. Consider the comments made by your partner and everything you’ve learned this summer to show your best effort as a writer at this point. This will be your second and final draft.

5. If you need additional space, please ask me for additional paper, being sure to write your first and last name at the top of each piece of paper.

6. Check that you have correct sentences, punctuation, and spelling.

You will have 60 minutes to confer with a partner, revise and rewrite a final draft. Take the first 10 minutes to read your partner’s piece or read your draft aloud. Write notes on the sheet you’ve labeled “Conference Notes.” Take the next 10 minutes to discuss your feedback with your partner. Remember, you both need an opportunity to talk and receive feedback.

You may cross out and rewrite words or make other changes, but write clearly. It must be easy to read.

It is now time to begin the conference. Please keep your voices low so everyone can concentrate.

After twenty minutes, say to students: Finish up your last thought and begin writing your second draft independently and silently. You will have 40 minutes to write your final draft.

Providing Help to Students During the Assessment Do not suggest ideas, and do not comment on or evaluate student work during the process. Please notet hat neither dictionaries nor thesauruses can be used except as allowed by law for students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with appropriate IEPs. The purpose of the assessments is to gather an authentic representation of student achievement and process at the independent level.

If students have questions about the assessment, encourage them to read the prompt and directions carefully and do their best.

What if?

Assessment You may want to take notes on the students’ behaviors during the conferences: what you see them doing, and what you hear them saying.

After you collect their papers, you will use the rubric included in the Appendix to score the papers, and the report form included in the Appendix to record their scores. Focus your scoring for Process on the revisions and editing that you see demonstrated in the second draft.

If students do not offer each other useful feedback, remind them that peer conferences are only one tool they can use in revising their papers. They should reread their arguments and think about what they’ve learned about persuasive writing to evaluate their partner’s comments and decide on changes they will make in their second drafts.

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Day 27 Reading Read Aloud Teacher Choice from Read Aloud Section

Independent Reading Fluency Assessment (5 students)

Minilesson Reflection

PRC2

Writing Minilesson Reflection

Independent/Collaborative Independent writing to complete reflection

Closure Share reflections

Assessment Reflection 150

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Reading Writing Day 

Reflection Objectives Students will be able to: Reflect on their growth as writers.

Materials:

• Students’ writing notebooks • Reflection questions (in Appendix)

Preparation It will be easier for you to read d the h refl flections i and d assess students’ growth if you can collect their responses, so you don’t want students answering in their notebooks. Make copies of the questions if possible. Otherwise, you can chart the questions for students to copy onto looseleaf paper, but it will be time-consuming and students will find it annoying.

Instructional Activities Minilesson Ask students to comment on their experience of sharing letters on the previous day: how did they feel about their own accomplishments and their circle’s? What letters (aside from their own!) did they find especially interesting, and why?

On this last day of Summer Bridge, you are asking them to think back over the whole summer: the choice writing they did with their writing circle, and the persuasive writing they just finished. Review the reflection questions with the class, asking students to restate the questions in their own words and raising any clarifying questions they need to ask. Share your own thoughts about the ways you’ve seen them grow as a community of writers.

Independent and Collaborative Work Students will be working independently to answer the reflection questions. Remind students of the norms for independent writing: quiet and privacy. As they work, use the teacher observation checklist to compare the writing behaviors you observe today with the behaviors students exhibited in the opening days of Summer Bridge: What growth do you see?

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Reading Writing Day 

Closure

Thank students for their thoughtfulness, and ask students to share one-way in which they grew as writers over the summer. Be sure to collect their reflections before they leave, but invite them to keep their notebooks and portfolios of completed work.

What if?

Students may find it difficult to acknowledge their own growth as writers, especially if they didn’t want to attend summer school in the first place. If you see that happening, reconvene the circles so that students can tell each other what changes they observed in each other’s work. Students may then be able to write their responses, but it’s more important that they succeed in the thinking required for this reflection than that they complete the written form. If you have to sacrifice the time to write responses in order to support their thinking aloud, do so.

Assessment Reflection questions

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Vocabulary Strategies

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Reading Vocabulary

Answers on page 201

Social Justice Idea Web

Idea Web Assessments – Pre-Test on Prior Knowledge & Post-Test on Knowledge Learned Name Date Directions: Choose words from the lists below and put them under the appropriate category or concept. Use as many of the words as you know and only use the word once. Some categories will have blank spaces even though you used all the words.

Susan B. Anthony suffrage Haymarket Riot

Jesse Jackson

union

boycott

Alice Paul

Cesar Chavez

integration

segregation

Thurgood Marshall

Mohandas Gandhi Fair Trade

migrant farm worker emancipated

Justice for Women

gender abolition

Equal Rights Amendment

Dolores Huerta

Justice for African Americans

Social Justice

Justice for Workers

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1920 voting rights strike

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Reading Vocabulary

Genetics Idea Web

Answers on page 201

Idea Web Assessments – Pre-Test on Prior Knowledge & Post-Test on Knowledge Learned Name Date Directions: Choose words from the lists below and put them under the appropriate category or concept. Use as many of the words as you know and only use the word once. Some categories will have blank spaces even though you used all the words. chromosome

cloning

diversity

DNA

dominant

genetic counseling

genotype

inherited trait

meisosis

mutation

nucleus

offspring

phenotype

Human Genome Project protein

reproduction

ribosome

DNA fingerprinting

gene expression genetic engineering

recessive

gene therapy mitosis DNA replication

Current Practices

The Cell

Genetics

Nuts and Bolts of Heredity

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Reading Vocabulary

Vocab-O-Gram Materials: • Narrative story •

(interactive read aloud would work well); Copies of vocab-ogram sheet for each small group or a reproduction on chart paper or overhead transparency to complete as a class.

Objectives To activate background knowledge about a story and generate interest in and questions about the story.

To integrate vocabulary with structure to create a deeper understanding of words, story structure, and prediction.

Instructional Activities

1. Discuss the vocabulary words from the story.

2. Place the vocabulary words in the category on the graphic organizer where you think the author will use the words: setting, characters, conflict, plot, and resolution.

3. Make predictions about the story using the vocabulary words to answer each of the questions in each of the story structure categories.

4. Students should list questions they have prior to reading the story. The vocabulary words, discussion, and elements of story structure will prompt students’ questions.

5. Words that are too familiar or words that don’t make sense in terms of students’ questions and predictions can be listed in the Mystery Words space on the graphic organizer.

6. After reading, students revisit their Vocab-o-Grams to answer the questions they wrote, define or describe context for mystery words, and revise predictions to reflect information from the story.

7. Vocab-o-Grams can then be used to scaffold writing about the story.

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Vocab O-Gram Use the vocabulary word in the word bank to make predictions about the story we are going to read.

You can use the words more than once to make your predictions. Think about how you think the author of the book will use the words in the story. List the words you think will go in each category of the story structure and then use the words to make predictions and answer questions about the structure. If there are words your group can’t use because you don’t know them well enough, put them in the section titled Mystery Words.

Word Bank:

Setting: How will the author describe the setting?

Characters: What predictions can you make about the characters?

Conflict: What will the conflict be?

Who will be involved?

Plot: What will happen in the story?

Resolution: How will the story end?

Questions: What questions do you have about the story?

Mystery Words:

(Blachowicz, 1988)

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Reading Vocabulary Example In the following example, high school students use the Vocab-o-Gram prior to reading: Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands (McCarthy 2002). Students use the words to predict the elements of the story, predict and question plot, and describe the connections between and among words in the word bank. Sample student responses include: • We think the author will use the words citrus, paradise, grove, and processing plant to describe the setting. Since the book takes place in Florida, the author might say, “The story takes place in a state which seems like paradise to Northerners. There are citrus groves near the processing plants that make orange juice.”

• We think there will be Crackers, Northerners, and Klansmen in the book. Florida Crackers might see the Northerners as arrogant. And, the Klansmen are bigoted.

• We think the conflict will be between Klansmen and the Northerners. If there is a cross burning, it probably means the Klan will attack black people. Maybe the Northerners will stand up for the black people.

• We aren’t sure what will happen but we think dynamite will be used to do something bad, and there will be a warrant for someone’s arrest.

• We think the story will end with someone’s secret coming out.

Our questions are: • • • •

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Is this a true story?

Where in Florida does it take place?

Who is prejudiced? Is it the Northerners or the Crackers or just the Klansmen?

Words we don’t know or can’t use to make predictions: diamond-backs, snake-charmed, debatable, stranger, dialect, and dominance.

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Reading Vocabulary

Base Words and Affixes Objectives Students will be able to: Decode and demonstrate understanding of longer words.

Materials: • Note Cards, card stock or sheets of paper with pre-selected words

Preparation Create a list of words based on common affixes. There are also many commercially available sorts in books such as Donald Bear’s Words Their Way (especially Syllables and Affixes stage, and Derivational Relations stage) and Kathy Ganske’s Mindful of Words. These are available in many CPS professional libraries. You can also search for words online by looking up by list, and you can use page 18-19 of the Roots and Affixes section of the reading assessment framework on the ISBE website: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/pdfs/iaf_reading.pdf You can provide teacher created note cards for sorts, or have students create from a posted list.

Instructional Activities Use base words and affixes and a focus for word sorts. For example, the prefixes uni-, bi-, and tri could be sorted in the following way: unicorn unicycle uniform union unique unison universe

biceps bicycle bifocals bilingual binoculars bisect

triangle triple triceratops tricycle trilogy trio triplets tripod It is important to talk about student discoveries and misconceptions during and after the sort. You may want to add terms to the student vocabulary notebook or the Word bulletin board or wall.

Closure Say: “Today and everyday as you read and come across difficult or unknown words, look at bases and affixes to see if what you already know about word parts can help you to figure the word out.”

What if?

If you notice that students are especially interested or challenged by this activity, you may want to extend the activity by having students notice words in their various texts that follow the patterns and adding them to a public anchor chart of affixes.

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Reading Vocabulary

Greek/Latin Roots and Affixes: Generate a Progressive Root Web Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: • Decode and define longer words; and • Recognize the relationships between common roots, and use those common roots to understand new words.

Preparation Prepare an overhead, chart paper or board with a blank web with the chosen root in the center.

Instructional Activities

In the following example, a teacher will introduce the word cycle to the students. Let students know that cycle means any complete round or series of occurrences that repeats or is repeated. It has Greek origin.

They will be familiar with the word in several derivations. On an overhead or chart paper begin the root web, adding bicycle and recycle initially, and describing the meaning of those prefixes, and then continuing along each branch, discussing how each affix changes or adds to the meaning of the word. bicyclists +s bicycling

+ ing

bicycle

+ ist

bicyclist

+ bi cycle + re recycler

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+ re

recycle

+ able recyclable

+s

+ un

recyclers

unrecyclable

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Closure Say: “When you read, especially informational books, you will see words that you don’t know, but have familiar roots, prefixes and suffixes. You can use what you know about Greek and Latin Roots to help you figure out the meaning of those words. Today, and everyday, look for these types of words as you read.”

What if?

For other words you can use to create your own progressive word webs, you can use the following resources: •

There are many word lists in commercially available books such as Donald Bear’s Words Their Way (especially Syllables and Affixes stage, and Derivational Relations stage) and Kathy Ganske’s Mindful of Words. These are available in many CPS professional libraries.

You can also search for words online by searching for Greek and Latin roots and derivations and you can use page 18-19 of the Roots and Affixes section of the reading assessment framework on the ISBE website: http://www.isbe.net/assessment/pdfs/iaf_reading.pdf •

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Reading Vocabulary

Exploring Antonyms and Synonyms: Making Word Continuums Materials: • Chart paper or overhead transparency

Objectives Students will be able to: Explore antonyms and synonyms in order to understand word meaning more deeply.

• Recognize the relationships between words and between concepts, giving a sturdier, and subtler, handle on gradations of word meaning.

•

Preparation Create a model of one or two blank continuums on an overhead transparency, board or chart paper. Have a couple of antonyms ready to help illustrate the activity (the example below and bad/good, sweet/bitter, big/small are some examples).

Instructional Activities Understanding that hot and cold, for instance, polar opposites, but that cool, icy, tepid, crisp, sweltering are words along a continuum, helps make synonym distinctions as well. Teachers can help students select descriptive words from their independent reading, the Interactive Read Aloud, or partner reading. Teachers may also choose words on their own that lend themselves to the continuum, although it is important for students to see some of the word pulled from text, since the ultimate lesson might be about author word choice.

1. Have a discussion with the students about antonyms and synonyms. Using hot and cold as your example will be useful for a variety of students.

Sweltering

Hot

Tepid

Cool

Crisp

Cool

Cold

Icy

2. Have students brainstorm synonyms with you. Have them work with you in placing the words on a continuum.

3. Finally, have students create their own continuums with antonyms, assuming students would come up with the antonyms with one another. Support them at the level that is needed. Working in pairs or small groups might be helpful, as brainstorming words works well in conversation.

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Have students share, if there is time. These artifacts are ideal for display.

Having students create a continuum for words can help them attend to the subtleties contained in author word choice. This can lead to students becoming more particular in the use of words in their own writing.

Closure Say: “Readers and writers are interested in words. When you are reading, notice the types of word choices authors make in describing things, and how using a particular word helps them communicate more specifically. Today, and every day, when you read or write, pay attention to word choice.�

What if?

If these examples are too easy for your group, you can choose more difficult antonyms and synonyms to explore. For instance: rural/urban, safe/dangerous, and timid/outgoing.

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Reading Vocabulary

Idiom Four Square Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: • Demonstrate understanding of idioms.

Preparation Create one or two blank quadrants, labeled as below, on your selected material for group presentation. Although students will easily be able to recreate the quadrant on paper, you may choose to create this yourself and duplicate for student use.

Instructional Activities Doing an online search using the keyword “idioms” will bring an avalanche of examples for you to use. Below are just a few: * Keep it under your hat. * Walking on air. * Burns the candle at both ends. * On cloud 9. * Put your foot in your mouth. * Born with a silver spoon in his mouth. * Between a rock and a hard place. * Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. * By the skin of your teeth. * Break a leg. * You’re pulling my leg. * You’re in the doghouse.

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* Barking up the wrong tree. * Let the cat out of the bag. * Can it. * Jump the gun. * Drive me up a wall. * My hands are tied. * Stick your neck out. * Play it by ear. * Out on a limb. * On your high horse. * Paint the town red. * Without turning a hair. * Shed some light on it.

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Reading Vocabulary Idiom

In Other Words

What It Says

What It Means

Model the strategy using an idiom selected from text or conversation. We could use this idiom from the Matt Christopher book, Comeback of the Home Run Kid: “After their winning streak, and intensive training schedule, the team’s defeat was a bitter pill to swallow.”

1. Write “a bitter pill to swallow” in the idiom quadrant. Ask students to share their ideas of the idiom’s meaning. Emphasize the context: after expecting a win, the team was defeated. Making inference rely on the use of context clues. This is particularly true of idioms.

2. After students have shared their ideas, write what the idiom means in the In Other Words quadrant. You might say because the team was so sure they would win because of their record and hard work, the loss was very difficult to handle. Students may have circumstances of their own that were “bitter pills to swallow” that they want to share.

3. In the What It Says quadrant, draw a picture of the idioms literal meaning. For instance, you could draw a cartoon of a person with a sour grimace, swallowing a pill.

4. Ask the students what to draw in the last quadrant the represents the idioms real meaning. They might suggest a couple of ball players showing extreme disappointment (head down, ball and bat on floor, sad face) with a losing scoreboard in the background.

Have students create the quadrant on notebook paper (or distribute copies if you have chosen to make them for students). Have students think of idioms they have heard or read about practice using the four squares. Have some idioms ready for students who need that support (see previous page).

Closure In the following week you may want to have students collect idioms from their reading, and repeat the activity the following week. You might say: “Idioms are a way that authors try to communicate in a colorful way.

If you don’t know the idiom, you could get confused as a reader. Today, and everyday, when you read, try to notice when the author is using idioms. If you don’t understand the idiom, ask a classmate or teacher to explain.”

What if?

If students seem to have difficulty grasping idioms, this is an activity that you may want to repeat.

Have students collect idioms from their independent reading for a week. Make sure they note page numbers so you can revisit them in context. Use those in-context idioms for your next lesson.

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Reading Vocabulary

Concept of Definition Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: Demonstrate understanding of the construction of dictionary definitions, in order to comprehend definitions and use the dictionary more effectively for difficult or unknown words.

Preparation Have dictionaries handy. Have several different dictionaries available if you can. Replicate the map on a white board, chart paper, or overhead transparencies. Have copies of the organizer for students, or have students draw the map on a piece of paper.

Instructional Activities What Is It Like?

What Is It?

Term

What Are Some Examples?

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The Schwartz and Raphael organizer allows a more specific and elaborated comprehension of the word.

1. Model the use of the organizer with the students. Start with a word student’s might be more familiar with from your Word bulletin board. Without some background knowledge, and general idea of the domain of the word, students will not be able to comprehend the dictionary definition. Starting with a word that is more familiar allows the students the space to read and think about the dictionary definition.

2. Explain that most definitions have two parts: the first part tells the category to which the word belongs, and the second part of the definition describes how the word is different than words and concepts in the same category.

3. Show how to use a word in the organizer. For instance, you might choose the word boycott from the 8th grade Social Justice Unit. The Webster dictionary defines the word: to combine in abstaining from, or preventing dealings with, as a means of intimidation or coercion: to boycott a store. The term boycott goes under term, and the category (or What It Is) is abstaining from (preventing dealings with). A discussion with the class will begin on What It Is Like (protest, giving up, not buying, not spending money on) and Examples Of (grape boycott, Olympic boycott, Wal-Mart boycott).

4. Have students choose a word from their Vocabulary Notebooks with which they have some familiarity.

You choose whether it is better for students to work individually, in pairs or small groups. Have them complete the concept map.

It would be helpful to repeat this activity over time.

Closure Say: “Dictionaries can help us understand unknown or difficult words, but only if we understand how dictionary definitions are written. Using this map to explore a word that you look up in the dictionary will help you better understand the word AND how the definition is constructed so you can better understand new words you are looking up. For the rest of our time, use this chart of Concept of Definition to help you look up and understand words from the dictionary definition.”

What if?

If students have difficulty understanding the words they look up even after the activity, you may want to have a stack of duplicated Concept of Definition Maps near the dictionaries. During independent reading, have students write down one difficult or unknown word. When they are at a natural break in their reading, have them use the Map to help them understand their word. Check in with the students to support them and make sure they are using the dictionary and the map correctly.

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Reading Vocabulary

Four Square Concept Map Materials: • Chart paper • Post-its • Teacher’s writing notebook • Duplicated bland Four Square Concept Maps (optional)

Objectives Students will be able to: Interact and explore word connections to understand difficult words more completely.

Preparation Create an anchor chart with a blank Four Square Concept Map on it. Use sticky notes to explore words, and allow reuse of the chart. You may want to have duplicated Four Square Concept Maps for student use, but students can easily make them from a model.

Instructional Activities

Definition

Synonyms

(Definition in the student’s own words)

Garbage Smog Oil Spill

Putting poison or contamination into the environment Word/Concept Examples

Pollution

Air Pollution Water Pollution Toxic Waste

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Non-Examples Clear Air Waste Management Recycling Conservation

Reading Vocabulary Process 1. In the center box, write the word/concept word. Ask students to discuss what the word means to them.

2. Point to the lower left-hand box and allow time for students to think of and suggest examples of what the word means.

3. Point to the upper right-hand box, asking them to think of examples of synonyms. Write two or three examples in each box.

4. Tell students to complete their maps, adding examples and non-examples.

5. Say that when they finish, they are to write a definition for the word in the upper left-hand box. Explain that if they choose, they can consult class dictionaries, but that the definition needs to be in their own words.

6. Call on volunteers to show their maps, read their definitions, and talk about them with the class.

Closure Show students that they can use the map in their vocabulary notebooks to explore difficult or unknown words. These maps are particularly useful for informational texts, so you may want to use them for partner reading.

What if?

If you find that students are not using the maps, and need them to explore difficult or unknown concept words, you may want to assign them to create one or two maps per book they read in partner reading.

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Reading Vocabulary

Categories Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: Practice generating vocabulary words around a topic, to develop schema and compare and contrast words.

Preparation Create a master grid on the overhead, chart paper or board to model the creation of the grid, and to use to record student responses at the end of the activity. You may want to pre-make and duplicate a grid with a teacher chosen word. You can provide more choice by having students choose the word and create the grid.

Instructional Activities 1. Have students draw a grid up to a 5x5 squares. Label each vertical row with a category (the teacher may choose the categories, if needed). You can fill in the classroom model as you go to help students follow each step.

2. Either you or a student can find a word to fill the number of columns. It is more meaningful if the word matches the unit of study. For instance, for 6th graders studying Environmental Impact, the grid might look like this:

P Words about pollution Word about energy Words about habitats

pesticide

permafrost

Words about resources

petroleum

O ozone

W

E

R

emission

radioactive

oceans

ecosystems

radiant energy rainforest

organic

ethanol

renewable

power plant

water pollution wind power

3. Students are given a time limit to fill in as many squares as they can. It is OK for students to use partner reading books to assist, as long as they can explain what the word means and why it belongs in that square. If they can’t, it becomes both a study and discussion opportunity.

4. Teachers should use the master matrix they created (and may have used to model), and add words to their grid as students share at the end of the activity.

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Closure Sharing and discussion of the content words is an essential piece, so that students hear new words, or gain a deeper understanding of words with which they are somewhat familiar.

What if?

This activity could first be done with fun or silly categories to help students learn how to perform the activity. If you have less proficient students, you could choose the content word and categories.

You could also make the grid smaller, reducing the challenge of the activity.

Extension You could turn this into a Friday review game, if you assign points and you don’t allow the use of the books (only after you have studied the unit for at least 3 days). You could assign 5 points for every square that the student has filled that no one else has, 2 points for square that others have filled in, but with other words, and one point for every square filled in with the same word as the others.

Challenges can be brought for inaccurate entries, and are scored zero if incorrect.

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Reading Vocabulary Games

Vocabulary Games

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When?

On four Fridays we are suggesting students spend 20-30 minutes playing vocabulary games

Why? It is important that students understand why we ask them to do particular activities . Be sure to emphasize to students the purpose of playing word games when introducing and playing them. When students play with words, they have multiple, meaningful interactions with words. Students need those deep interactions in order to integrate those words into their vocabulary. Making those interactions fun will encourage students to play with words outside of the school setting, providing ongoing, rich opportunities for word interactions. The more words students play with, the more connections they make between words, and the easier it will be for them to understand new words from word parts or context.

Word Review Games Word review games are particularly helpful for multiple interactions with words that the students are harvesting from both their independent and their partner reading with informational text. You can use the list of unit specific (6th grade: Bullying and Environment; 8th grade: Social Justice and Genetics) vocabulary to gather some of the words for these games. You may want to create an area on a bulletin board for students to add sticky-notes with words they gather from their partner reading and their independent reading.

You can use the words that you and the students have chosen to play all of the following games. As you add words over the summer, the categories and interconnections between words will grow more varied and richer.

WORDS, WORDS, WORDS Union

Magnificent

Chromosome

Outrageous

Random

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Reading Vocabulary Games

Card Games You can use card pairs to play variations of popular card games for small groups. One of the card pairs is a word harvested from students reading, and the other can be a definition, synonym or antonym, a picture symbolizing the meaning, a translation, a cloze sentence, or some other match appropriate to your class.

Union

The __ went on strike in order to get better working conditions

Materials Note cards, markers, dictionaries; the dictionary should be use to check the accuracy of student definitions, not to get the definition. Students are better able to understand and remember a word with their own definition.

Students can make the cards, but they need to use classroom resources, like dictionaries, to check correct spellings and meanings. The teacher will also need to monitor word and definitions for accuracy, as well as monitoring the games to make sure all students get to be involved. You can then play Fish, Memory, Rummy, and other paired card games. Below are two descriptions in order to get you started.

FISH - All the card are dealt and players pick one card from the player on their left, in turn. Pairs are placed on the table. The first player to pair all cards wins.

Old Teacher (A variation on Old Maid)—An extra card is prepared with a picture of a teacher. The game is played like fish. The person left with this card is the “old teacher.”

Memory—Word memory has students remember cards and find matches. Play with a maximum of 25 cards: 12 word cards, 12 march cards, and 1 wild card. Shuffle and place in a 5x5 grid. Have students turn and read a pair of cards, each in their own turn. If they are a match, the student takes the cards. If they are not, they are turned back over in the same place. Students may provide a match for the wild card orally. The student with the most cards at the end of the game wins.

Bingo— Any size group, even the whole class, easily plays this game! Students each have sets of word cards from which they can create a 5x5 grid, with a free square in the middle. A caller (the teacher or another student) calls out the definitions or other match (antonym, synonym, etc). The students put markers on the words that match. The first student to mark an entire row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally wins. The student can check (and get repeated practice) by reading the words and definitions. The cards can then be reshuffled, and play can begin again.

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Card Games continued...

Hink-Pink (Blachowicz and Fisher, 2006)—Hink Pink is a word guessing game. The clue is a phrase; the object is to think of the pair of rhyming words that matches the meaning of the phrase. Each word in the rhyming pair must have the same number of syllables.

-Hink Pink is a pair of rhyming one-syllable words.

-Hinky Pinky is a pair of rhyming two-syllable words -Hinkety Pinkety is a pair of rhyming three syllable words For example: Hink pink-- an angry father (Answer: mad dad) Hinky pinky—clothing budget (Answer: fashion ration) Hinkety Pinkety—an evil clergyman (Answer: sinister minister)

Materials Paper and pencil for brainstorming words; a rhyming dictionary can be used, if available.

To write a hink pink for others to solve: 1. Think of a set of rhyming words (bound, crowned, found, ground, mound, round, sound, hound) 2. Find two that can go together: pound hound 3. Write a clue: Hink Pink—rescue dog Model the process for students, and then have students create hink pinks for one another!

Word Jeopardy (Marzano, 2005, Bear, et al, 2010)—Create a grid of 4 or 5 columns and 3 to 6 rows.

Create headers for categories. They might include content words (Social Justice, Genetics, Bullying) and words from independent reading (adjectives, adverbs, homonyms, etc; alternatively, you can select words from your Interactive Read Alouds and put those stories as the headings). It is fun to include a general column for entertaining words. On the side you can indicate points.

! " # $

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Reading Vocabulary Games

Word Jeopardy contiued...

You can make this grid on a bulletin board, a tri-fold board, an overhead, or use an online template (for example, http://jeopardylabs.com/ (this is one of many found using the search term “Jeopardy template”). The clue to the word can be a definition in the form of question, for instance: What is a trait that tends to stay in the background in terms of genetics: blue eyes are a _______________ trait. Students can come up with these questions ahead, and they need to be checked by the teacher for accuracy.

Materials Any of the following that is most convenient: white board with markers, overhead transparency with markers, poster or tri-fold board, bulletin board, computer with projector, list of harvested vocabulary words from interactive read-alouds, partner reading, and independent reading.

Prepare the game board matrix ahead of time and the cell contents with a blank card or Post-it, or with the provided animation if you create it online. Place the students in teams. Each team should select a leader that will “buzz-in” (raise hand or ring a bell) and provide an answer. You may want to have each team answer in sequence if the “buzz-in” might make the students unruly. If the team leader called upon gives the correct answer, the team gets the points. If the answer is incorrect, the team gets no points, and another team gets a chance to answer and get the points.

Vocabulary Charades — This game can be done in teams on Friday game day, or any time the teacher wants to give the students a chance to move as individuals. In the team approach, the teacher names student teams, and one member acts out a term for the other team members to guess, using a time limit. Teams get points as they correctly guess the terms.

Materials Harvested vocabulary words from interactive read-alouds, partner reading and independent reading.

In the individual approach, the teacher has students stand next to their desk and use their bodies to show they know the meaning of the term called out by the teacher.

Name That Category: This game is modeled on the $100,000 pyramid, and helps students focus on the attributes of concepts associated with the terms. They try to guess the term listening to a list of words describing that term.

Materials Any of the following that is most convenient: white board with markers, overhead transparency with markers, poster or tri-fold board, bulletin board, computer with projector, list of harvested vocabulary words from interactive read-alouds, partner reading, and independent reading.

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Reading Vocabulary Games

$100,000 Pyramid Things That Happened During Women’s Suffrage Movement 200 Points

Types of Peaceful Protests

Famous Worker’s Rights Activists

100 Points

100 Points

Words Describing Farm Workers

Word Describing Factory Workers

Women’s Rights Activists

50 Points

50 Points

50 Points

Create a permanent template on a bulletin board, trifold or poster board, or overhead transparency. Each time you prepare the game, write a category name with each cell, increasing the level of difficulty with the points associated with the category. Hide the category names at the beginning of the round, perhaps with notecards or sticky-notes. To play the game, assign students to work in pairs or small groups. The clue giver on each team must see the game board. The guessers must sit so they can’t see the game board. As you revel the first category, have the clue giver to bein to list terms that pertain to the category (for instance, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Gloria Steinem), and list terms until the guessers name the category (in this case Women’s Rights Activists). Reveal the category as soon as it is guessed, and move to the next team. The example given is quite challenging, and would only be given toward the end of the unit when students have practiced the terms in other activities or games. This should be introduced with easier words so that students can become familiar with the format. For variations and online formats, use the search term “Vocabulary Pyramid Game” and you will find lots of sites and formats.

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Online Games If you have online access in your classroom or school, the following websites have free games for word play.

You don’t have to limit yourself to these. Search in any search engine, using the search term “word games” and “student” or “children,” and you will find countless games!

Word Scramble: An online version of the game Boggle: http://bit.ly/km5EAe Funbrain: This website has a variety of word games that are fun for students. Students can choose their level. Of particular interest are the games Word Confusion (students are asked to pick which word correctly completes the sentence) and Paint the Idioms (students are asked to choose the correct meaning for idioms) www.funbrain.com/words.html Mumbo Jumbo: An online, kid’s version of the addictive word-scramble game. Players are given a group of mixed up letters, and see how many words they can find in the letters. If they solve the biggest word using all of the letters, they qualify to go to the next level. http://bit.ly/iCw5Y4 Hangman: This site offers a variation on the popular game for middle school students. It gives definitional clues to words to help students solve the puzzle. http://bit.ly/lMUwZn

Board Games If you or your school has any of the following games, they can add a fun element with no preparation for you. This list gives some suggestions, but is by no mean exhaustive. If you have a great game that you have played with your family, you may want to add it to your games!

Boggle or Boggle Junior—Player link letters (and pictures in the Junior version) to create word within a time limit. Parker Brothers, 1988.

Outburst or Outburst Junior—Players yell out answers that fit categories within a time limit.

Western Publishing Company, 1989.

Pictionary or Pictionary Junior—Players sketch clues for teammates who have to guess the word from a drawn card. Golden and Design, 1993.

Scattergories or Scattergories Junior—Players draw cards that have six categories on them.

They must roll the die to determine which letter their answers must begin with to fill in each of the six categories. Milton Bradley, 1989.

Scrabble—The Classic crossword puzzle game that requires players to connect letter tiles up and down and across to make words of various point values. Milton Bradley, 1989.

Upwords—A three-dimensional crossword puzzle game. Players can create words in the classic crossword puzzle style, or by building up words by stacking letter tiles. Milton Bradley, 1988.

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Read Alouds

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Read Aloud America Street

“The No-Guitar Blues” Materials: • America Street book

Objectives Analyze how particular lines of dialogue and/or incidents in a story propel the action and reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.

Preparation Read the selection several times before reading it aloud to the class.

Mark your stopping points with Post-it notes. On the Post-it notes, you might want to include questions or prompts regarding your learning objectives. Stopping points are provided for each selection; but these are only suggestions. You know the specific needs of your students. You may adjust the Read Aloud to meet objectives that are more relevant to your particular class.

Establish seating arrangements that facilitate conversations. Designate a “thinking buddy” for students to reflect with during Read Aloud time.

They should be seated next to each other.

Introduction

Gary Soto is a Mexican-American writer born in Fresno, California, which is the setting for this story. Talking about himself, Soto has said that “...as a writer, my duty is not to make people perfect, particularly Mexican-Americans. I’m not a cheerleader.

I’m one who provides portraits of people in the rush of life.” In this selection, pay close attention to how the dialogue impacts the story and slowly reveals the true nature of the main character, Fausto.

Thinking Points & Activities Read aloud pages 68-76, pausing for the first time on page 69.

After reading about two-thirds of page 69, stop at the end of the paragraph where Fausto’s Mother says “but we’ll see.” Ask: “What does the dialogue between Fausto and his mother reveal? Does this conversation sound familiar? From the tone of this interaction, can you predict if Fausto will drop the idea of getting a guitar?”

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Read Aloud Reading

Book:

America Street

Continue to read to the end of the story on page 69, and have students listen closely to what the characters say to each other.

Closure Say: �Today, and every day, when you are reading narrative stories, consider how particular lines of dialogue and/or incidents in a story propel the action and provoke decisions that reveal aspects of a character.�

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Read Aloud

The Table Where Rich People Sit Materials:

• The Table Where Rich People Sit • Post-it notes • Reader’s notebooks

Objectives Students will be able to: Determine the theme or central idea of a text by considering multiple meanings for words and concepts presented.

Preparation Read the selection several times before reading it aloud to the class. Mark your stopping points with Post-it notes. On the Post-it notes, you might want to include questions or prompts regarding your learning objectives. Stopping points are provided for each selection; but these are only suggestions. You know the specific needs of your students. You may adjust the Read Aloud to meet objects that are more relevant to your particular class.

Establish seating arrangements that facilitate conversations. Designate a “thinking buddy” for students to reflect with during read aloud time. They should be seated next to each other.

Thinking Points & Activities “Today I am going to read a story aloud to you. While we read I want you to think about the title and particularly about the word rich.”

Before you start reading, ask students to take a minute and write their own definition for the word rich. Ask students to share their answers. Ask if anyone knows a different meaning for the word rich. If they do not know multiple definitions, prompt them to expand their definitions.

You may use the following examples: The milkshake was think and rich. What do you think rich means in this sentence? (having a large amount of choice ingredients like cream and eggs; heavy and sweet) The group was rich with ideas. What do you think rich means in this sentence (having a lot of something) The girls dress was a rich brown. What do you think rich means in this sentence? (a warm strong color)

Introduction

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Read Aloud Reading

The Table Where Rich People Sit Book: Read the book aloud, stopping to show students the illustrations.

After reading, ask students to talk with a their partner about one of the following questions: • • • • •

How does the family define rich?

Do you think they are rich?

How does the daughter’s definition of rich change?

What is the author trying to tell us about being rich with this story?

How is the author’s definition of rich different from your definition?

Walk from group to group, monitor discussions, and cue students to extend their discussions with follow-up questions: • • • •

Do you agree with what he says?

Can you explain that a little more?

Can you explain what he said to me?

Can you add anything to his answer?

Lastly, ask students to look at the definition they wrote for rich in their reading notebooks at the beginning of class and see if they can add to that definition.

Closure “Today, and every day, when you are reading a story, remember to think about what the words mean and how some words can have more than one meaning. Sometimes when we think about words having more than one meaning, we can understand what we are reading better.”

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Read Aloud

America Street

“The Journey”

by Duane Big Eagle, p 3-9

Materials:

Objectives Students will be able to: Use the title to determine the author’s purpose and theme.

Preparation Read the selection several times before reading it aloud to the class. Mark your stopping points with Post-it notes. On the Post-it notes, you might want to include questions or prompts regarding your learning objectives. Stopping points are provided for each selection; but these are only suggestions. You know the specific needs of your students. You may adjust the Read Aloud to meet objectives that are more relevant to your particular class.

Before Reading:

Thinking Points & Activities

Activate prior knowledge, read the title and author’s name to the students. Ask students what a journey is and how it is different from a trip. A trip is from one place to another but a journey indicates that it is over a long distance. Ask what the author’s name can tell us about the author. The author’s name is a Native American name. What do they know about Native Americans and Native American stories?

During Reading: Stop on the top of page 7 at the end of the first paragraph and ask about the word “delirium” (last paragraph p 7). Reread the paragraph and ask students if they can determine what it might mean. Delirium: confusion, anxiousness from being very sick. A temporary mental disturbance causes by a high fever often causing hallucinations and extreme confusion.

After Reading:

Continue reading to the end of the story.

Higher order questions for Turn and Talk: Do you think the author chose the title Journey to describe how far he travelled or how he changed as a person? Explain.

What do they think happened to Raoul? How did he get well?

Who was the girl in the red dress? Was she real? Why did the author put the girl in the story?

Closure “Today, and every day, when you are reading a story, remember to think about the title to help you understand the theme or central idea. The title the author chooses usually gives us a clue to his/her thinking”.

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Read Aloud

The Rose That Grew From Concrete “When Ure Heart Turns Cold”

by Tupac Shakur, p 13

Students will be able to: • Actively listen and engage in the Read Aloud; and • Use visualization to create meaning

Objectives

Materials: • The Rose That Grew From Concrete • Post-its • Reader’s notebook

Preparation Read the selection several times before reading it aloud to the class.

Mark your stopping points with Post-it notes. On the Post-it notes, you might want to include questions or prompts regarding your learning objectives. Stopping points are provided for each selection; but these are only suggestions. You know the specific needs of your students. You may adjust the Read Aloud to meet objectives that are more relevant to your particular class.

Thinking Points & Activities Introduction

Before beginning the Read Aloud, tell students that the book The Rose That Grew From Concrete, is about the life and work of rap artist and movie star Tupac Shakur told through his poems. The poems in this book were written in his notebooks starting when he was nineteen. Tupac died when he was twenty-five. Show students the book’s format. The book has the poem in Tupac’s handwriting on one side of the page and the typed, published version on the other.

The poem we are reading today contains a lot of images. While you read aloud, you want students to listen carefully to the words Tupac wrote and think about the images or pictures that come into their head.

Say: “I am going to read the poem to you twice, and I want you to listen to the words and see if you can use visualization to help you understand the poem.”

Say:

Read the poem slowly 2 times.

“Now I want you to think about the poem and use the paper to draw one image (or picture) that came to your head while I was reading. You can draw anything that you thought of while I read the poem.”

Closure “Today, and every day, when you are reading poetry or narratives, try to visualize or create pictures in your head to help you understand what you are reading.”

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Appendix

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Table of Contents Turn and Talk—188 Think Aloud—189 Fishbowl—190

Reading Reading Conference Log—191 Recording Reading Conferences—192 Observation Notes for PRC2—193 Steps of PRC2—194 PRC2 - WOW! Look at All I’ve Read!—195 PRC2 Questions—196 PRC2: Read and Recommend—197 Accountable Talk Question Stems—198 Answer Key: Idea and Concept Web—199 Making Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-to-World Connections—200

Writing Teacher Observation Checklist—201 Conferring Notes—203 Writing Circles Genres—204 Rubric for Writers’ Notebooks—205 Rubric for Published Piece (Writing Circles)—206 Part Two: Post Assessment - Talk Stems For Peer Conferences—207 Summer Bridge Pre-Assessment: Report Form—208 Summer Bridge Post-Assessment Report Form (Published Persuasive Letter)—209 Sample Teacher Persuasive Letters:—210 Plan: Letter To Decision-Maker—212 Transitions: How To Get From Idea To Idea—213 Summer Bridge Writing Workshop: Reflection—214 Resources—215 PRC2 Student Partnering Sheet Using 3-Minute Reading Assessments—219

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Reading Appendix

Turn and Talk

Turn and Talk is when a student talks with a partner and allows children a chance to test their ideas, gain input and grow them stronger, or change their minds and move their thoughts in a new direction.

As the students speak, the teacher listens to the conversations and assesses their understanding. The teacher can then use students with strong conversation to model for the rest of the class. Discussion helps focus students’ listening through the lens of a question or a particular way of thinking.

When planning turn and talk, teachers need to partner students strategically and have highly structured question(s) and limited time to talk. As the students become more comfortable with the process and their partner, the teacher can ease back and let the students talk with less structure and more time. If done well, turn-and-talk is a highly effective method to get students to discuss their thoughts.

Because there are only two people, it requires both to talk, so everyone has a chance to listen and express their ideas, questions and thoughts.

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Think Aloud

Think Alouds allow students access to the teacher’s thoughts and offer them the opportunity to observe how comprehension is obtained. Think Alouds need to be understandable, succinct, and unambiguous and illustrate the thought processes of proficient readers and writers. During a Think Aloud reading lesson, a teacher stops at specified points to make their thinking explicit. The teacher needs to be clear about how the strategy they are employing helps students understand the text. Successful Think Alouds require the focus to be on high-level use of the strategy, and they must explain how students can apply the strategy on their own.

For Summer Bridge 2011,For Summer Bridge 2011 Read Aloud lessons and some Think-aloud lessons

are provided. It is important that both types of lessons are used with students. The philosophy behind this is that the students may have already heard the text, so the teacher can concentrate on the strategy that is the focus such as metacognition. It is also important for the students to “see” into the teacher’s thinking and how she/he unpacks and uses strategies to assist in navigating through text for comprehension.

Tips for successful Think Alouds: • • •

Keep the focus on ideas beyond the literal and obvious Focus on strategies that have broad applications; not just the day’s text Use content-rich books that trigger excitement and passion in students

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Reading Appendix

Fishbowl

The fishbowl is a learning strategy in which students have the opportunity to listen to, and learn from, each others’ ideas or feedback, while they are participants in either an outer circle or in the center of the outer circle. The center circle participants serve as models for the outer circle and while they discuss a text, topic, or idea, the outer circle listens and takes notes. Both groups are engaged during the process – one, in discussion and the other in listening, observing and writing. After the discussion, the participants from the outside circle are invited to discuss their observations and to add to the discussion. The center circle will also have an opportunity to respond. The teacher may end the session with a whole group discussion on the process and how what they learn can help them in future sessions.

Points to consider:

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•

Remind each student to carefully consider what and how they offer as feedback because everyone will eventually be part of an center circle

•

Students from the outer circle may be assigned a student from the center circle to observe (you may have one center circle student being observed by two or three outside circle students)

•

Students may take notes on the skills used during discussion, non-verbal communication they observe, or discussion they hear

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Reading Appendix

Reading Conference Log Student: Date

Title and Page Number

Comments (fluency, comprehension, interest, etc.)

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Examples

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Reading Appendix

Recording Reading Conferences

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Reading Appendix

PRC2 Observation Notes

Oral Reading Notes

Title of Book: Date: # of Sessions w/ Book: Partner 2 Oral Reading Notes

Attends to punctuation, pronunciation, phrasing; attends to new and/or unfamiliar terms,; uses fix-up strategies

Attends to punctuation, pronunciation, phrasing; attends to new and/or unfamiliar terms,; uses fix-up strategies

Talking About Text

Talking About Text

On topic; key points identified; focused dialogue; good listening; elaboration of ideas;

On topic; key points identified; focused dialogue; good listening; elaboration of ideas;

Partner 1: Partner 2: Partner 1

Teacher Reflection:

Partners social behaviors, communication, pacing, motivation level, lack of understanding of content (comprehension), instructional needs, follow-up plans, etc.

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Reading Appendix

Steps of PRC2 PRC2: Partner Reading & Content Too Getting Ready to Read Together Choose a book together.

Find a place where you can sit next to each other.

Come prepared with your PRC2 folder with PRC2 Questions sheet, WOW! sheet, Read & Recommend sheet, as well as your Vocabulary Notebooks, and pencils.

Reading the Text Together Take turns reading the pages of this book by first deciding who will read page one, and who will read page two aloud.

Both read the first two pages silently thinking about what they mean. If there are some words you don’t know how to say, ask your partner. If your partner doesn’t know, raise your hand and ask the teacher or use the glossary.

Silently reread the page that you will read aloud thinking of good expression and pace.

Choose one of the four questions on the PRC2 Question you want to ask your partner.

The first person reads his/her page aloud, while the other partner listens and thinks about the ideas.

The reader asks the listener the question he/she chose for that page. The listener explains what he/she thinks. The partners talk about ideas and any questions they have.

Then partner 2 takes a turn, reads page two aloud to the partner. The listener thinks about the ideas.

The reader asks the listener the question he/she chose for that page. The listener explains what he/she thinks. The partners talk about ideas and any questions they have.

Continue taking turns until finished.

Fill out our WOW! Informational Log Be ready to share one thing about your reading together to the class.

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Previewing Look at the cover and title, and ask each other, “What do we think this book is about?”

Look for a table of contents, and ask, “How is this organized?”

Look through the book together, and ask, “Does the book have…”

Chapters Diagrams Headings Maps Pictures and Charts captions Index and glossary Special Author’s marked information vocabulary Book cover Talk about these features.

Thinking and Talking About the Text After reading the pages, share what you liked and learned about the text.

Attend to the vocabulary you wrote down on the PRC2 Question sheet.

Together fill out PRC2: Read and Recommend sheet Ask yourselves…

Are there words we want to remember?

If so, write them in the Vocabulary Notebooks.

Do we have more questions?

Do we want to read another book on this same topic?

Do we want to share any interesting information or thoughts with the class?

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Reading Appendix

PRC2 - WOW! Look at All I’ve Read!

Date(s) and Pages Read

Title

Author

Partner(s) I Read With

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Recommend?

Yes/No

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(Ogle & Correa, 2006)

Date:

Partner Page

to Page

□ What could the author make clearer? How? (Explain)

□ What was most interesting? Why? (Explain)

Vocabulary – What are important words to remember?

□ What connections can you make? (Explain)

□What was most important? Why? (Explain)

Title:

Name

Please choose one question to answer below:

PRC2 Questions

Receiving what the partner says: Thank you.

Those are good ideas.

That was interesting.

You helped me understand this in a new way.

More elaboration and extension of the idea: Can you tell me more?

What does that mean?

Can you think of another example?

What you said reminds me of…

Clarification: Can you explain that a little more?

I’m not sure what you mean, can you say it in a different way?

Where in the text did you find that idea?

Can you tell me why you think that?

Making connections: That’s an interesting connection…I was thinking of something else.

I made that connection will….

I think this is like…

I remember when…

I remember reading about…

Add a different perspective: That’s interesting.

I hadn’t thought of it in that way. I was thinking something different.

Reading Appendix

PRC2 Questions

Reading Appendix

PRC2: Read and Recommend PRC2: READ & RECOMMEND Partner _____________________________________________ Partner _____________________________________________ Title:____________________________ Author:_____________ 1. Would you recommend this book? ___Highly Recommended ___Good and Interesting ___Not Recommended 2. What did you like best about this book? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 3. What did you learn? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ 4. How would you make the book better? ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________ Ogle, 2006 Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011

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Accountable Talk Question Stems I agree with because ____________ .

I disagree with ________________________because __________ .

I still have questions about ________.

I want to add to what __________ said about ______ .

Based on my text, I think _________.

I don’t know what you mean by ____________; can you say more?

I disagree with the use of that text evidence because ____ .

A question that I have is _________ .

An example of ______________ is _________________ .

Our evidence is the same/different because _______ .

The relationship between __________ and ____________ is __________.

This reminds me of ________ .

I predict ____ because ____.

I understand _______ .

When we ________ , it helped me understand because ___________ .

The “Big Idea” is ________.

This is different because _________ .

This is the same because _________ .

I observed ________ .

I am confused by ________ .

To expand on what ________ said _______ .

Clarify what you mean by _______ .

How can you apply what you know about _______ to a new situation?

What in the text supports you idea that ______________ ?

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Reading Appendix

Answer Key: Idea and Concept Web Social Justice

Genetics

Justice for Women 1. Susan B. Anthony 2. Alice Paul 3. suffrage 4. 1920 voting rights 5. gender 6. Equal Rights Amendment

The Cell 1. DNA 2. meisosis 3. mitosis 4. nucleus 5. protein 6. DNA replication 7. Ribosome 8. chromosome

Justice for African Americans 1. Jesse Jackson 2. Thurgood Marshall 3. Mohandas Gandhi 4. integration 5. emancipated 6. segregation 7. abolition

Justice for Workers 1. Cesar Chavez 2. Dolores Huerta 3. Haymarket Riot 4. union 5. boycott 6. Fair Trade 7. migrant farm worker 8. strike

Nuts and Bolts of Heredity 1. diversity 2. dominant 3. gene expression 4. genotype 5. inherited trait 6. mutation 7. offspring 8. phenotype 9. recessive 10. reproduction Recent Developments 1. cloning 2. gene therapy 3. genetic counseling 4. Human Genome Project 5. genetic engineering 6. DNA fingerprint

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Making Text-to-Text, Text-to-Self, Text-toWorld Connections A goal for students is to become active participants in the reading process. One of the ways for students to do so is by interacting with the text and making connections to their personal lives. Students can connect their reading to other texts, to their own experiences, or to the world around them (Keene & Zimmerman, 2007).

Making connections activates students’ prior knowledge and helps them understand their new learning by being able to “see” how the reading relates to their own lives. As students use this strategy before, during, and after they read, they develop their metacognitive skills, which help them become proficient independent readers.

Points to Consider: Help students understand that the type of connections they make are not the major emphasis for reading, but how those connections help them understand the text.

Text-to-Text–The connections made can be to another book’s character(s), themes, or author. Students may use the following sentence frames: o This character reminds me of __________ because ___________ o When I saw the author’s name, I remembered another book __________ o I connected to the theme because I remember reading about __________ Text-to-Self – Students can think about similar experiences, feelings, thoughts, and reactions to their reading.

Students may use the following sentence frames: o I connected to _____________ because I have felt ______________ o ____________ made me think about a time when _____________ o This is similar to my life _______________ Text to World – Students can relate what they already know about the world and make connections that can help them make sense of their reading. Students may use the following sentence frames: o When I read the part about __________ it reminded me of an event I read about in social science class. o Last week I heard in the news that _____________ and this is similar to what is happening in the story. o I know that this is happening in ___________ and is related to what is happening in the story.

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Teacher Observation Checklist The teacher observation checklist is an opportunity for you to record your observations as you move around your room, reading over your students’ shoulders, or listening in to their conversations. It is a record of their on-task behavior: •

Does the child work independently and take initiative? After the minilesson, s/he has materials and gets started writing quickly.

•

S/he can work on writing for at least 30 minutes.

•

After finishing an entry, s/he knows to begin a new entry or work on one previously written.

•

If they are working in partnerships, or small groups, are they following the norms you’ve established for collaborative work?

•

If this is a celebration, are they offering to share their work? Responding appropriately to others’ work? Looking at the speaker, keeping their hands and mouths quiet?

There is also a column for notes where you can record your conferring notes, or notes from a guided writing group.

At the end of the week, you will tally your marks for a participation grade.

Students

Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Comments

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Reading Appendix Teacher Observation Checklist Students

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Mon

Tues

Wed

Thurs

Fri

Comments

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Conferring Notes Name

Research (What You Notice)

Compliment (What the Student Can Already Do)

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Teaching Point (What the Student Needs to Know Now)

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Writing Circles Genres

Writing Circle Genres (adapted from Writing Circles by Jim Vopat, Heinemann 2009, pp. 82-84); do not include all of these on your chart, a list of this length will be overwhelming to your students.

Advertisement/commercial Biography Blog Book blurb Breaking news Brochure Cartoon or comic strip Compare and contrast Description Diary/journal Editorial/opinion piece Eyewitness account Instructions/how-to Interview Letter (advice, complaint, love, “Dear John” or rejection, sympathy, inquiry, application, protest, apology….)

Memory/memoir Narrative Neighborhood sketch Newsletter Obituary Oral history Parody/satire Picture book Poetry Reports (informational writing, explanation, expository, all about…)

Review (movie, restaurant, music, live performance, book, painting or other artwork) Script (dramatic monologue, skit, one-act play) Speech (campaign, graduation, wedding, nomination, farewell, eulogy) Story (tall tale, science fiction, fantasy, parable, fable, fairy tale, mystery/suspense, love story, realistic fiction, adventure….)

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Reading Appendix

Rubric for Writers’ Notebooks

Points

Completeness

Process

Mastery of Skills

4

Exceeded expectations for new work; each entry dated and labeled; reflections completed for each writing circle session

Uses new skills independently and correctly; maintains skills already acquired; writing is authentic and expressive

3

Makes full use of writing process (appropriate to this stage of the current project), from pre-writing through drafting, conferring with teacher and circle, revision, editing and publishing; makes judicious use of feedback notes Makes use of writing process but may sometimes skip or give less weight to some aspect of the process; uses feedback notes inconsistently Makes partial use of writing process but skips some aspects of the process or does not use the process to improve skills; may not use feedback notes

Met explicit expectations for new work; each entry dated and labeled; reflections completed for each writing circle session Some new work, but not on track with assigned work; entries may not be dated or labeled; may have skipped some reflections after writing circle sessions Little or no new work; Little or no use of writing no dates or labels process to improve skills; ignores feedback notes

2

1

Uses new skills correctly when reminded; usually demonstrates skills already acquired; writing is careful Sometimes uses new skills correctly, sometimes backslides on skills acquired earlier; writing does not show thought or care

Very hard to read, does not demonstrate mastery of skills

11-12: A 9-10: B 7-8: C 5-6: D 3-4: F

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Rubric for Published Piece (Writing Circles)

Points 4

Choice of genre is appropriate to the topic; the writer has used the genre to interpre the topic in an individual way.

Choice of genre is appropriate to the topic.

3

2

Choice of genre is not the best match to the topic but the writer has made an attempt to fit the topic into the form.

Genre does not fit topic.

Little or no development.

1

11-12 9-10 7-8 5-6 3-4

206

Genre

Development

Mastery of Skills

Elements are fully developed with well-chosen detail; organization is clear and cohesive

Writing is expressive and authentic, with few if any errors in conventions.

Elements are adequately developed with appropriate detail; organization is clear.

Elements are partially developed; some details are missing or extraneous; organization may have gaps or digressions.

Writing is careful and thoughtful; errors do not interfere with reading.

May be difficult to follow the writer’s thought in some places; voice may be inconsistent.

Very difficult to read.

A B C D F

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Reading Appendix

Part Two: Post Assessment - Talk Stems For Peer Conferences

• • • • • •

I like the part where you…

I’m confused in this part because…

I’d like to know more about…

I don’t think you need this part because…

What’s the most important part? Can you add to that part?

Make sure you reread before revising, editing, and rewriting.

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Summer Bridge Pre-Assessment: Report Form

Students

208

Focus

Support

Organization Process Total

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Comments

Reading Appendix

Summer Bridge Post-Assessment Report Form (Published Persuasive Letter) Students

Focus

Support

Organization Process Total

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Comments

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Sample Teacher Persuasive Letters: Dear Mr. XXXXXX, This year, the social committee is raising funds by awarding teachers the privilege to wear jeans on Fridays if we make an extra contribution. I have paid my dues but not the extra $15.00, as I feel uncomfortable wearing jeans to teach when my students do not have the same privilege. We could be more even-handed, and at the same time raise useful funds, if we allowed students the same choice: Jeans on Friday if you pay a small amount of money.

Of course, children do not enjoy the same privileges as adults. They call me Ms. Lang; I call them by first name.

But you yourself justified our student dress code by invoking adults’ professional dress, including ours. Some work places have casual Fridays in order to build a sense of community; we could do the same by allowing students to join in our casual Fridays.

It might be too much to ask our families, struggling through this recession, to pay $15.00 all at once. I suggest that students pay in small increments so they can participate when they can afford to do so. The teachers’ $15.00 works out to be about $.40 per week, the cost of a reduced price lunch. We could ask students to pay $.40 per week, or $1.50 monthly. They could opt in when they were in funds, opt out when they weren’t.

Teachers may complain that collecting money is another record-keeping chore that takes away from instructional time. It could be made easier if we printed up class rosters rather than blank collection sheets. Then we could just check off the students who had paid. If we did it all the time, we’d get it down to a routine that doesn’t seriously interfere with our teaching. And anything that makes students feel better about school is likely to boost their performance and make up for the small amount of time lost.

This money could be used entirely on student incentives. If only 500 of our 1100 students paid $1.50 per month, we’d collect $750.00. We could use those funds to reward behaviors we want to encourage in our students: good attendance, improved achievement, or low detention numbers, for example. The rewards don’t have to be pizza parties. In one school where I taught, the principal handed out ice cream sandwiches in the lunchroom once a month to reward good attendance. It didn’t use up teaching time, the students’ attendance improved, and they loved seeing the principal in that role. I know that we want our students’ motivation to be internal and not based on bribes, but the treats are a way to communicate our values. When we don’t recognize their accomplishments, children don’t know they’ve accomplished anything.

I hope you will consider this suggestion. Just doing away with the unfairness in the current arrangement would encourage our students to feel more a part of our learning community, and invest the energy they need to invest in their learning.

Sincerely, Susanna Lang

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Dear Principal XX, Have you stopped to look at the students in the school lately? When you have a moment, just stand by the door and watch the students as they enter the building. What do you see? Their weight. Many of the students in the school are overweight for their age which is why I believe they should have more gym time and recess.

Currently the students in the school only have gym one to two times a week and only the students in grades Kindergarten through 2nd grade have recess. This is if the school is not closed for a holiday, or gym is not cancelled for an assembly. Having such a small amount of time for the students to move around means they are not burning calories or making their bodies stronger and healthier.

I feel that we should have the students take gym every day. The class periods are currently 40 minutes long. If the students have gym 5 times a week, that means they will be moving and active for 200 minutes a week. This may not seem like a lot of time, but it is better than not moving at all. Many kids are not active today because they are not able to go outside in their dangerous neighborhoods to play, or they play a lot of video games, so all they do is sit in the house.

I also think that students should have recess every day. Students are in school for over 5 hours a day and the only time they truly move is when they are walking from one class to the other, to the bathroom or lunch. This is not enough time for them to even work up a good sweat and really get their heart pumping. I don’t really consider this to be exercise.

This is why I think students should have more gym and recess in the schools.

Sincerely, XXX, A Concerned Parent (contributed by Valandra Jones, Manierre School)

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Plan: Letter To Decision-Maker You are writing a letter to someone who makes decisions that affect your life (parents, teachers, principal, disciplinarian, coach, political leaders, etc.), trying to persuade him or her to agree with you.

You will write more convincingly with a plan: Who are you writing to (audience)?

What do you want to convince them of (thesis)?

What are your reasons? You MUST have at least two; more is always better, though there is a point where “more” becomes “too much.” At the planning stage, however, there is no such thing as too much— you can choose your best arguments later. Remember the tools we’ve discussed: fact, anecdote, emotional appeal, outcome, solution.

1)

2)

more)

What do you think this person will say in response to your arguments?

How can you answer their objections (counterargument)?

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Transitions: How To Get From Idea To Idea

Importance • of course…

• more important…

• equally important is…

• most importantly…

Conclusion • in the end…

• finally…

• Cause and effect • because…

• this is caused by…

• one reason for this is…

• another reason is…

Opposing ideas • on the other hand…

• however…

• still…

• yet…

• but…

• nonetheless • nevertheless • another way to look at this is…

Examples • for example…

• another example is…

Similar ideas • I also think…

• similarly…

• along the same lines…

• in a similar way…

• likewise…

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Summer Bridge Writing Workshop: Reflection Use these questions to help you think about your experience as a writer this summer. It will not be graded, but it will help both you and me improve our work as we move forward—as writers, as teacher and learners—if you write complete and thoughtful responses.

1. How has your writing helped you think about what you want to change in the world?

2. How did your writing circle support your work?

3. What challenges did you face in your writing circle? Were you able to overcome those challenges? How?

4. What parts of the writing process were most comfortable for you this summer? Why?

5. What parts of the writing process were most difficult for you this summer? Why?

6. What new things have you learned how to do this summer?

7. What skills do you still need help on?

8. What advice do you have for us when we think about Summer Bridge for next year?

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Reading Appendix

Resources Accountable Talk K-12 Alliance/WestEd Cadre 4/09 Accountable Talk Stems retrieved on May 3, 2011, from h p://www.kcusd.com/190310622132748660/lib/190310622132748660/SentenceFrames1.pdf Allison, N. (2009). Middle school readers: Helping them read widely, helping them read well. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Baylor, B., & Parnall, P. (1994). The table where rich people sit. New York, NY: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Beers, K. (2003). When kids can’t read: What teachers can do. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Berger, M., & Berger, G. (2007). Healthy ea ng. New York, NY: Scholas c.

Bernier-Grand, C., & Diaz, D. (2009). Diego: Bigger than life. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Children.

Blachowicz, C., & Fisher, P. (2009). Teaching vocabulary in all classrooms (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Boelts, M., & Jones, N. (2007). Those shoes. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick.

Brinckloe, J. (1985). Fireflies!. New York, NY: Macmillan.

Calkins, L., & Kesler, T. (2006). Raising the quality of narra ve wri ng grades 3-5. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Calkins, L., & Mar nelli M. (2006). Launching the wri ng workshop. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Calkins, L., & Pessah, L. (2003). Nonfic on wri ng: Procedures and reports. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Catriona, C. (2007). Sharks. Great Britain: Usborne Publishing.

Common Core State Standards Ini a ve. Common core state standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies, science, and technical subjects. Retrieved May 4, 2011, from h p://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20 Standards.pdf.

Daniels, H., & Steineke, N. (2004). Mini-lessons for literature circles. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Ehlich, A. (2001). When I was your age, volume one: Original stories about growing up. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press.

Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2010). Guided instruc on: How to develop confident and successful learners. Alexandria, VA: Associa on for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Fletcher, R., & Portalupi, J. (2001). Non-fic on cra lessons: Teaching informa on wri ng, K-8. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Fountas, I., & Pinnell, G. (2001). Guiding readers and writers: Grades 3-6. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Heard, G. (1998). Awakening the heart: Exploring poetry in elementary and middle school. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Hoyt, L., & Sandvold, L. (2009). Interac ve read-alouds, linking standards, fluency, and comprehension, 6-7.

Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Keene, E., & Zimmermann, S. (2007). Mosaic of thought (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Lent, R. (2006). Engaging adolescent learners. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

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Nelson, M. (2008). Melt it, shape it glass. New York: Scholas c.

Nichols, M. (2006). Comprehension through conversa on: The power of purposeful talk in the reading workshop.

Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.

Mazer, A. (1993). America street: A mul cultural anthology of stories. New York, NY: Persea Books, Inc. Marzano, R. J. (2004). Building background knowledge for academic achievement. Alexandria, VA: Associa on for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Miller, E. (1997). Word web vocabulary: Volume 1. Cummaquid, MA: Sage Educa on Enterprises, Inc. Miller, E. (1997). Word web vocabulary: Volume 2. Cummaquid, MA: Sage Educa on Enterprises, Inc. Ogle, D. (2011). Partnering for content literacy, prc2 in ac on, developing academic language for all learners.

Boston, MA: Pearson.

Ogle, D., Klemp, R. & McBride, B. (2007). Building literacy in social studies: Strategies for improving comprehension and cri cal thinking. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Rasinski, T., Padak, N., Newton, R., & Newton, E. (2008). Greek and La n roots: Keys to building vocabulary.

Hun ngton Beach, CA: Shell Educa on Publishing.

Teachers College Reading and Wri ng Workshop (2010). The Reading and wri ng project. Retrieved May, 4, 2011, from h p:// readingandwri ngproject.com.

Teachers College Reading and Wri ng Workshop (2010). Teachers college reading and wri ng project K-8 con nuum for assessing narra ve wri ng 2007-2008. Retrieved May, 4, 2011, from h p://readingandwri ngproject.com.

Shakur, T. (1999). The rose that grew from concrete. New York, NY: Pocket Books.

Schmidt, G. (2007). The Wednesday wars. New York, NY: Houghton Miin Harcourt Company.

Templeton, S., Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., & Johnston, F. (2010). Vocabulary their way. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Vopat, J. (2009). Wri ng circles. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Willems, M. (2004). Knue bunny: A cau onary tale. New York: Hyperion for Children.

Wong, H., & Wong, R. (1988). The first days of school. California: Harry K. Wong Publica ons.

216

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Reading Appendix

PRC2 Student Partnering Sheet Using 3-Minute Reading Assessments

Percentile 90 75 50 25 10

WPM 177 153 127 98 68

Using fluency rates to partner students is the initial step. Of course, partnering students that would include similar comprehension rates and compatible personalities would be optimal. Until more information about students is obtained, partner students that are in close in fluency rates.

Once partners have been established, match them to appropriate materials to their independent level.

195 167 140 111 82

204 177 150 122 93

100% - 98% 97%-95% 94%-91% Below 90%

Independent Instructional Gray Area Frustration

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Reading Appendix

PRC2 Student Partnering Sheet Using 3-Minute Reading Assessments

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Chicago Public Schools - Summer Bridge 2011