Avoiding Eye

Trauma: Incorporating

Reading and Writing Without Grading So

Much Your Eyes Bleed

As you come in, please jot down what concerns you most about incorporating

writing into your subject area.

There’s No Need for Bleeding Eyes...Learning Targets:

★READING: Three quick (and painless) ways to get your students to engage and understand assigned reading.

★WRITING: Easy, adaptable strategies to get students writing regularly in class in any subject area.

Assignment: Read this passage and make note of what is important. (You have a copy of this on your green handout.)

“Given the impact of language, strategies, background, purpose, and assimilation and accommodation on discourse processing, the notion of reading and writing as monolithic abilities becomes untenable. All acts of literacy are not equal. Reading and writing do not consist of a set of subskills that can be easily isolated, practiced, mastered, and then used with the same degree of proficiency or facility from one text to the next. Rather, language performance changes as the relevant factors impinging on the literary process change. As conditions and contexts vary, so too will the process and the product of the literacy event” (Kucer 132).

Questions:★ How did you

know what was important?

★ Can you recall what you read to the point that you could explain it?

Three Things:

1.PURPOSE: Always tell your students what they need to look for and why they are reading the text.

2.BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: Before assigning a text, make sure the appropriate background knowledge is in place.

3.VOCABULARY: Preview the text and anticipate vocabulary that might prohibit your students from fully understanding the text.

Remember these three things when incorporating

reading into your instruction.

Setting a PurposeBefore you assign the reading, ask yourself these things:

★ Why are my students reading this?

★ What understanding should they have when they are done?

★ What do I think is an important focus for my students?

★ What do they need to know to be successful on the test, essay, lab, etc.?

When you assign the reading, tell your students some or all of these things:

★ You are reading this because ______.

★ You should understand ______ when you are done.

★ Please focus on _________________.

★ You need to know ________ for the test, essay, lab, etc.

Understanding Background Knowledge and the Brain

★Our brains take new information and sort, discard, and/or add it to our existing information.

○ If we have no previous understanding, our brains will sort and discard the information.

○ If we have some understanding, our brains will have a way to link the new information to existing information. This will either add to the existing information or modify the existing information to allow for new ideas.

Background Knowledge- How sweet it is...★Content: What concepts do my students need to know to

understand this?

★Text-structure: Do my students know how to read this text? ○ Do they know how to read the charts/graphs/maps?

○ Do they understand the headings and subheadings?

○ Do they understand the purpose of a sidebar, endnotes, or captions?

★Other: What else do they need to know to remember this information?

Vocabulary

Consider these things about your text before assigning the reading:

1.What words do they need to know in order to comprehend this text?

2.Keep the list small.

3.How will I help my students with the vocabulary?

It’s not just the bolded words in the back.

Now try this:Read the passage on page 130 of Dimensions of Literacy that has been boxed. Consider these things:

PURPOSE: To understand the relationship of background knowledge and construction of meaning.

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: Think about the information I shared regarding how our brains adapt to new information.

VOCABULARY: Anticipated vocabulary words have been identified and are defined in the margins.

Resources:★ The blue packet has the

following things for your use:○ Activities for building

background knowledge, pre-reading strategies, and vocabulary instruction.

○ Academic key words used on ISTEP in math, language arts, and science.

○ A reading strategies help chart for struggling readers.

○ If you have other questions, let me know!

Once upon a time, there was a ______ teacher who needed his/her students to write more.

But I suck at grammar!Relax! Your job is content. Most grammar

issues can be largely ignored.

“Grammar” to focus on:➔ Subject-specific things like citations, equations, terminology.➔ Structures that impede meaning.

The grading will kill

me!I get this one. Really.

●Focus on short written pieces.

●Focus on meaning rather than grammar.

●Grade short pieces often rather than in collections.

●Develop a system.

Writing doesn’t work in my subject.

Some subjects are easier to work writing into than others. Keep these things in mind:

● Use your language. Writing isn’t always sentences and paragraphs.● Be consistent. Sometimes students resist writing in certain subjects. Persistence is key.● Think outside the essay. Students don’t have to write essays to be writing. They can write plays,

stories, poetry, letters, abstracts, lists, instructions or directions, and dozens of other options.

Resources:The purple packet contains a variety of quick writing activities with suggestions for some of the content areas. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s just something to get you started!

Questions?

You are welcome to stay here as long as you like to ask questions, reflect on what you’ve learned,

or sketch out some ideas.