Reading Engagement Strategies Allison Jones 4/1/15

-Ancient Chinese Proverb Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand. -Ancient Chinese Proverb

What does active engagement look like in the classroom? Draw a series of pictures that represent your answer OR Write a series of words describing your answer

Active engagement refers to the joint functioning of motivation, conceptual knowledge, cognitive strategies, and social interactions in literacy activities. (Guthrie & Anderson, 1999) Active learning involves providing opportunities for students to meaningfully talk and listen, write, read, and reflect on the content, ideas, issues and concerns of an academic subject. (Meyers & Jones, 1993)

(Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003) In a study examining the achievement of 792 students in 88 classrooms (grades 1-5) in nine high-poverty schools the researchers found: A significant, positive correlation between active learning environments and growth in reading comprehension, whereas the correlation was negative in passive learning environments. (Taylor, Pearson, Peterson, & Rodriguez, 2003)

Students are not attentive to what is being said in a lecture 40% of the time. Students retain 70% of the information in the first ten minutes of a lecture but only 20% in the last ten minutes. Meyer & Jones, 1993

WHAT IS ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT? Make sure to put this in your OWN words! Look-Lean-Whisper LOOK – make eye contact with your table partner so you know you have his/her attention LEAN – move closer together so you can hear each other WHISPER – speak in a soft tone so other pairs don’t hear you WHAT IS ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT? Make sure to put this in your OWN words!

Active Engagement & Conceptual Knowledge Engaged readers gain knowledge and experience as they read by continually activating and extending their understanding. They apply knowledge to answer a new question or to solve a problem. Two methods of activating students’ knowledge building are: -Self-explanation -Concept mapping

Cognitive Strategies Used to integrate new information, communicating, and representing their understanding Help students succeed at higher order tasks Activate prior knowledge Self-questioning Monitoring comprehension Summarizing

Social Interaction Using social interaction increases student engagement as well as learning. They can learn from each other things they may not learn from the teacher.

10:2 Theory Pausing for a couple of minutes every so often throughout instruction allows students to digest the information, and minimizes information loss. Pause for about 2 minutes after every 10 minutes of direct instruction. This is time that can be used to respond to what is being taught.

Tell-Help-Check TELL – Partner 1 retells important information without using notes HELP – Partner 2 listens, asks questions, and prompts Partner 1 using notes CHECK- both students check their notes to confirm accuracy

Anticipation Guide Create excitement for your lesson Happens before instruction begins Give a guide to students with statements Have students agree or disagree with the statements Encourage debate on the topic After reading – students may change their opinions

Sample Anticipation Guide Statement Agree/ Disagree Were you correct? Yes/No Page Number Evidence

Review Strategy: I Have the Question, Who Has the Answer? Materials Two sets of index cards, one set contains questions related to the learned skill, the second set contains the answers. Hint: To keep students engaged, prepare more answer cards than question cards. Process Distribute answer cards to students. Read one question card and say, “The question is ___ Who has the answer?” All students check their answer cards to see if they have the correct answer or a possible one. If a student thinks he/she has an answer, she stands and reads the answer. Fill in strategy matrix.

Ways of signaling the class for engagement: Set up signals for transitions in the class Class/Yes – choral response – teacher says CLASS, students respond YES – gets attention Teach/Ok – signals Think/Pair/Share

Signals cont. Hands & Eyes – for BIG teaching points – hands on the desk, eyes on the teacher – full focus

Response to Learning Turn & Talk – partners sit knee to knee and discuss taught information for 1-3 minutes – teacher walks around and monitors conversations Micro Lectures – deliver mini-lessons (30 sec. – 1 min.) then students summarize lesson with partner

Response to Learning Gestures – create signs for specific things to help memory Thumbs up – instant check of understanding – Thumbs up, middle or down Journals – create editorials where they state and back up opinions on the topic

Response to Learning Journal – what is the most important part of the lesson? – opinions – students can’t be wrong if they have support 4 Squares – put signs around the room – ask a questions – students go to their opinion then must justify it – Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree

Response to Learning Use post-it notes while reading – Have questions that students must answer. When they answer the question, put the post-it where they found the answer. RAFT – writing assignment – Role, Audience, Format, Topic ex. – Student, Principal, Letter, Extended Spring Break

Response to Learning KWL – students make columns – What I Know, What I WANT to Know, What I Learned – fill in chart as you go through the lesson Authentic questions – every student writes 1 or more questions on strips of paper. Combine classes questions on a piece of paper – answer all the questions throughout the lesson

Response to Learning Jumbled Summary – Present randomly ordered key words and phrases from a lesson. Set a timer and have students unscramble 4-Square Draw – students divide paper into 4 squares – pick a topic – students sketch 4 different illustrations of a concept