BEYOND THE BLUR:EMPOWERING STRUGGLING READERS

June PreszlerEducation Specialist, TIEAugust 15, 2007

THE ENEMY IN FRONT OF US Not a person But a thing “The biggest enemy our children have

are those things sitting in front of you and they’re called books.”—Gerard Baker

THE WARRIOR “What do you do with your enemies?

You conquer them.” “We have to redefine our enemies and

conquer them.”

COUNTING COUP “We have to count coup on books.” Three-Minute Pause (Struggling

Readers, page 21)

THE (BATTLE) PLAN Identifying the enemy Empowering the student Becoming a warrior Conquering the enemy

POWER OF CHOICE

Choice Theory (Glasser and Erwin) All behavior is purposeful Five basic needs that drive all

behavior: Survival Love and belonging Power Freedom Fun

POWER Power over Power within Power with

ACTIVATION THE ABC WAY Reading Strategies to Guide Learning,

page 7 Virtual World of Second Life

MAKING CONNECTIONS Text to self Text to text Text to world

More Strategies to Guide Learning, pages 5-7

THICK AND THIN QUESTIONS Thin: How many planes were involved

in 9-11? Thick: How did 9-11 change our lives?

More Strategies to Guide Learning, pages 22-24

CUSTODIAN What is a custodian? Read the story. As you read make notes

to yourself. Write any questions you may have. Jot down any ideas or thoughts that come to mind.

THREE-MINUTE PAUSE Discuss with a partner. Consider the following questions:

Who is the custodian? What is the custodian’s motivation?Why can’t the custodian “do it anymore…hardly step inside the room”?Think of one word that best describes this story. Why is your chosen word apt?

A LITTLE LIE GOES A LONG WAYS Three Facts and a Fib Strategies to Help Struggling Readers,

page 25

THREE FACTS AND A FIB1.When I took my son to college, I camped

out in the dorm parking lot for the first night…just in case.

2.I played soccer for a championship youth team in Brazil in the 1970s.

3.In one month, I traveled over 3000 miles for education-related business, had one accident in a BHSSC/TIE vehicle, and received two undeserved speeding tickets.

4. I began my professional career as a recipe writer for the Aberdeen American News.

SUMMARIZING When we summarize, we take larger

selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials.

Bare essentials: the gist, the key, the main points worth remembering.

Bringing Writing in Content Area Classrooms, pages 16-23

MARZANO:When working with struggling students, we need to understand that summarize academic learning doesn’t come automatically. In fact, we need to provide students with a variety of approaches to use as students attempt to summarize.

STRATEGY EXPLANATION Summarizing and note taking are identified

as two of the most useful academic skills for all students.

Summarizing and note taking are grouped together since both require students to distill and then synthesize.

RESEARCH ON SUMMARIZING• Students must delete, substitute and keep

information.• Students must analyze information at a deep

level of understanding.• Students must be aware of the information’s

structure in order to effectively summarize.

Marzano, et al: Classroom Instruction that Works, pages 30-32

So, why is the task of summarization such a difficult task for students?

What does the student need to do in order to be able to adequately summarize text?

WHAT STUDENTS USUALLY DO Write down everything Write down next to nothing Write way too much Don’t write enough Copy word for word

WHAT YOU WANT THEM TO DO Pull out main ideas Focus on key details Use key words and phrases Break down larger ideas Write only enough to convey the gist Take succinct but complete notes

TEACHING SUMMARIES Keep in mind—it’s not easy Hard to learn/hard to teach Model repeatedly Give students practice time

It is often said that the heart is the hardest-working muscle of the body. It has to be. The primary job of the heart is to pump blood throughout the body, and to do this job, it must beat steadily from long before you are born until the time you die. The heart may slow down occasionally, but it never totally rests.

Did you know you have more than 90,000 miles of blood vessels throughout your body? And your blood must travel this entire 90,000-mile course more than one thousand times each day. Each time your heart beats, it pumps about two ounces of blood through your system. This adds up to more than a gallon of blood pumped per minute. If you exercise hard—if you run for instance, or swim or play football—your heart may work up to twice this hard. By getting into good condition, you can prepare your heart to pump more blood with less effort.

This has to do with the amount of oxygen your heart uses. A normal heart uses about three-fourths of all the oxygen your body takes in. Your other muscles use the rest. But as your heart grows stronger, from exercise, it requires less oxygen to pump the same amount of blood. This is why a person who is out of shape gets breathless going up one flight of stairs, while a person in good shape can run up a big hill and scarcely breathe hard.

SUMMARIZING ACTIVITIES Quick Summaries

Don’t Look Back 1 Sentence Paraphrase One-Word Summaries Refine and Reduce

Jones, Lawwill, Wormeli

SUM IT UP! Students imagine they are placing a

classified ad or sending a telegram. Each word costs 10 cents, and then tell

them they can spend "so much." For instance, if you say they have $2.00 to spend, then that means they have to write a summary that has no more than 20 words.

Adjust the amount they have to spend, and therefore the length of the summary, according to the text they are summarizing.

Pat Widdowson of Surry County Schools in North Carolina