ADOLESCENT ACCELERATED READING INITIATIVE AARI ADOLESCENT ACCELERATED READING INITIATIVE Presentation by: Cyndi Settecerri

What it is and what it isn’t AARI is NOT a new “trick” to add to your instructional toolbox AARI is a PARADIGM shift in reading instruction and metacognition for teachers as well as students

EXPOSITORY TEXT STRUCTURES

working through a text BEFORE READING Identifying READER’S AIDS Help kids concentrate on the content in the book Teachers plan questions that focus on pre- reading and help kids work through the text for answers (unlike our previous prior knowledge instruction)

REAder’s aids Look at Table of Contents What vocabulary is highlighted/italicized/bold? What are the clues for global structure? Look at pictures (captions?) Look at maps/graphs

WORKING THROUGH TEXT DIRECT GUIDED READING Responsive teaching - scaffolding with one student until comprehension makes sense Inferential questioning - follow student’s response with another question QUESTIONING - QAR (question answer response) and QtA (question the author) Textual analysis through text structures Building a reading community (:(

EXAMPLES (from “All kinds of wheels” text) Does the picture prove the text? Does the author give us a clue about which of these are wheels? Why would a train need many wheels? Do all wheels roll on the ground? Why does an airplane need wheels?

text mapping after reading - text structure analysis Introduction BEAVERS RABBITS MOLES Some animals live underground Some animals live in the water Animal Homes FROGS Some animals live in the tops of trees KOALAS Conclusion EAGLES

What does research tell us? MOST IMPORTANTLY - Authors and readers communicate through text (focus is ON THE TEXT) Curriculum theory tells us that more learnable text: presents important domain content, takes developmental level of learners into account, presents lots of examples of the important content Research suggests these features for comprehensible text: well organized, pattern is signaled, content connects the new to the known, text is interesting to readers

AARI - TEACHING APPROACH Variety and range of QUESTIONS Scaffolding with a student until they GET IT! Rephrasing and plenty of wait time Questions BUILT ON each other Cognitive TENSION is good! Distinguish between EXTENSION and INFERENCE QUESTIONS Bringing the STRATEGY to the surface - making concrete the THINKING PROCESS

Text structures - graphs Line Topical Net Matrix

Topical Net for Lions book baby lions habitat activity LIONS reproduction hunters protection groups

Matrix for SPIDERS Book Color Tarantulas Jumping Spiders Trap-door Spiders Size Biggest of all NIT Hunt / Prey Kills with sharp fangs Shed long hairs to poison their prey Jumps to sneak up on insects Legs used for jumping Make silk in tunnel Raises trap door at night Looks Like Hairy Short legs

TEXt structure - graphs Main Idea Linear String Falling Dominoes

Text structure - graphs Supporting Details Main Idea Argument Hierarchy

HIerarchy for Animals in Danger book Mammals Birds Reptiles Insects Spiders Hyacinth Macaws Beluga Whales Giant Pandas Turtles Spotted Owls Karner Blue Butterflies American Alligators Komodo Dragons Tarantulas Snow Leopards Copper Butterflies Mountain Gorillas African Elephants Bald Eagles

text structure - graphs Branching Tree Any structural pattern can be global (the overall structure of a text) or a local sub-structure (an internal rhetorical within the global structure)

RTI - Tier 3 intensive intervention focused on closing the gap 4-5 days a week (45 minute sessions) Assessment through QRI @ beginning, middle and end of 20 weeks 3-5 students in a group Students are grouped by reading level not grade level Classroom teacher support is CRUCIAL for transition back to textbooks Inferential questions (teacher “talks” with these types of questions) Gradual release of responsibility Teach text structures - aim for high level of thinking

Walk through the textbook Look at textbook for the clues to global structure of the chapters as well as the entire textbook Look for places in the text where you need to fill in background knowledge Identify 2 or 3 major concepts that you would like your students to study WHAT PARTS OF THE TEXT WILL I USE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS??

Questions?????