Engaging in Authentic Meaning Making

Jaylen is a typical 6 th grade girl; focused on friends, boys, and technology, but not necessarily on school. She is bright, but her grades are very low because she lacks motivation, and unless pushed, doesn’t put effort into improving her skills. As a 6 th grader, Jaylen must read to learn, so if her comprehension skills are low, she will struggle in every subject in school. My task is to help motivate her to improve her reading comprehension.

Urban Literacy Research According to my research on urban literacy, a hallmark of high- achieving urban schools is teachers who are willing to take the time to work with families “communicate high expectations for students’ success” (Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2008). I reached out to Jaylen’s mom several times in person and through . She gave me great insight into Jaylen’s background and connected me to Jaylen’s teachers; this connection was very valuable. Actions From Insights

Using a scale of 5 to 1…what overall rating would you give yourself as a reader? “I give myself a 5 because I read out loud in class and I have a good understanding of words unlike a lot of my classmates. I don’t stumble over my words a lot and I read right through hard words.” Describe yourself as a reader. “I’m a reader who reads easy books not hard books. I skip over hard parts. I like reading but then again I don’t and I hate getting reading logs without a prize reward. I also hate reading boring books for long periods of time (30 minutes). I can’t read long. I need to get stuck in the story; I fall asleep if they are long and boring.” These two statements stuck out to me in Jaylen’s Burke Interview. She views reading as a precise process of saying words without messing them up. Though she rates herself as a terrific reader she would also say she is unwilling to read anything that is “hard” or might make her stumble over words. For Jaylen, reading had little to do with…

Meaning Making and Comprehension go hand-in-hand… Experts say that even though research supports the idea that strategies can be taught to improve comprehension, less than 2% of language arts instructional time is spent on comprehension strategies (Flynt & Cooter, 2005).

The Strategy Lessons Armed with information from research and conversations with Jaylen and her mom, I planned the lessons. I chose texts that Jaylen wanted to read. We did lessons with old school techniques and technology, independent lessons and group lessons, and lessons that integrated art, music and writing.

Discussing Cabin Fever Jaylen discusses what she likes about the Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and what she remembers about this story: Cabin Fever.

Creating her own comic… After reading Cabin Fever, Jaylen created her own comic on We discussed a significant moment in her life as a reader, and she created a 4 slide comic based on that story. Her story was: A positive memory Full of detail Gave insight into how she views herself as a reader

Jaylen’s Comic My Comic Example … Jaylen did a great job with her comic. She was able to summarize the story into 4 main parts and use pictures to tell the rest.

Jaylen’s Beastly Diary This activity connected the Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Jaylen’s new book, Beastly. She has seen the Beastly movie, so she is writing a diary entry answering questions about the movie and about how the storyline connects to her life. We called it her Prologue.

Jaylen’s Beastly Diary Prologue

A discussion about the main character, Kyle…

The Main Character and I Making meaning has a lot to do with being able to connect to the characters in a story. Jaylen is identifying and comparing her characteristics with those of the main character, Kyle.

The Main Character and I Jaylen initially did not see any characteristics she shared with Kyle, but after a little discussion, she agreed that they are both: Social Love to talk

In this reading session, Jaylen ran across several words she did not know. We decided that our next session would focus on identifying and understanding these words. Listen to her encounter with the word “corsage”…

Jaylen is working through a list of words that she was unfamiliar with in Beastly. She tends to skip these words without taking the time to find their meaning. Corsage Mandatory Blunder Instincts Skulking Anonymous

On to Beastly Part 2…

Reading Beastly…

Group Read Aloud with Jaylen’s Friends Towards the middle of this project, Jaylen began to resist coming to our sessions. She wanted to hang out with her friends. We decided to do some group read-alouds and invite her friends into her reading process.

Questions, Predictions and Inferences I wonder… O “Where the witch came from?” O “Why Kyle is so popular if he’s such a jerk?” O “How he will become human again?”

The Inciting Incident Visual Prompt 1 Visual Prompt 2 We used these prompts in a discussion about how inciting incidents lead to character change.

The Inciting Incident Before the Inciting Incident After the Inciting Incident

Dr. Suess’ Birthday Party Every year our leadership clubs throw a birthday party for Dr. Suess for the younger students to enjoy. We read Dr. Suess books, make crafts and eat Green Eggs and pancakes. Jaylen assisted at the craft table at the party.

Jaylen excels in… predicting fluency comprehension Making connections

Jaylen needs to grow in… Meaning Making Skills Motivation Questioning Skills Focus and Perseverance Challenging Herself

Final Thoughts… Jaylen has all of the potential in the world to be an excellent student and an avid reader. Her biggest obstacle is not her skills; it’s her mindset. The next step is to help her see her potential and tap into what motivates her. If someone can unlock that, there is no limit to what Jaylen can do.