BACKGROUND Born and raised in Bell County Married with one child(Emilee) Bachelor and Master Degrees at Union College Worked as a substitute teacher and teacher’s aide for 5 years. Taught for seven years in Special Education. Currently teaching English 2/Reading Revisited at Clay Co. High

Introduction Issue Students understanding of text structure specifically causal analysis. Reasoning Below average reading ability. Struggle with critical thinking. Following a logical order in writing.-

STANDARD Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

Sources

Types of resources Books Websites Professional Development Writing Consultant

Resources Most valuable and-learning and-learning Classroom Instruction That Works by Robert J. Marzano, Debra J. Pickering, and J.E. Pollock Writing Extraordinary Essays by David Lee Finkle Summarization in Any Subject by Rick Wormelli Angela Hilterbrand Writing Consultant

Findings Research showed the following: Using colors with struggling students increases their level of retention. Graphic organizers assist students in maintaining a focus throughout their writing. That explicitly engaging students in the creation of nonlinguistic representations stimulates and increases activity in the brain(Marzano et al.)

Viable solutions Using graphic organizers were beneficial in helping students organize their thoughts on paper. Strategies have helped students recognize causal text structure and transition words. Using text enhancements such as words in color has proven to be beneficial. Students are recognizing and using transitional words in their writing.

Activities Prewriting Bell work(identifying text structure) & (highlighting transition words) Casual analysis chain Sentence Strips Text Enhancements Kinesthetic activity involving sentence strips and text enhancements. Graphic organizers Portfolio piece

Successes and Challenges Challenges Prewrite : getting students to write something! Few could respond orally to prompt. Successes Sentence strips and color word strips Graphic organizers

Student Samples

Student Samples cont. Modifications: Bell work had to be read to them. Some students required a scribe. Color can be used by any teacher for instructional purposes such as: vocabulary, main idea, and text features. Movement can also be used by any teacher for instructional purposes.

WHY? Student struggles In reading/writing Analyzing text structure Organizing thoughts on paper Becoming frustrated with writing assignments. Teacher Learn different strategies to teach writing. Wanted a way to motivate students to write.

Conclusion Questions Causal analysis chain Sentence strip Transition words Next Steps