Presenters: Dr. Kelly Arnone, Molly Bottorff, Lisa Joseph, Emily Keifer, Michelle Kinggard, Angie Neely-Sardon, and Dr. Jodi Robson

November 4, 2016

"Fall" Into Reading and "Spice" Up Your Instruction

Learning Outcomes

• Explain the role of the discipline instructor in incorporating reading across the disciplines

• Identify reading weaknesses• Give an example of a reading skill to develop in your

discipline and explain how to implement a reading strategy that will strengthen this skill

• Discuss various ways to engage and motivate students• Summarize the benefits of connecting reading and writing

activities in disciplines

What do we know?

• SB 1720• According to the Department of Education, studies show that only half

the students who start college manage to complete a degree (Horning, 2007).

• Approximately 25 percent of all high school students read at “below basic” level (Horning, 2007).

• Students don’t understand the reading or just don’t read assignments. • Reading is more than reading words and scanning for surface

information.

IRSC Completion Rate for Full-time, FTIC and FTBA (completing any degree or

certificate)

Fall 2012 Co-hort 4 yr (200%) completion 43.8% (708 of 1617 completers)

IRSC Completion Rate for Full-time, FTIC (completing any degree or certificate)

Fall 2012 Co-hort 2 yr (100%) completion 21.9% (323 of 1474 completers)

Fall 2012 Co-hort 3 yr (150%) completion 34.8% (513 of 1474 completers)

Fall 2012 Co-hort 4 yr (200%) completion 42.1% (620 of 1474 completers)

ACT Study

• Half the student who take the test are not successful in college. (N=563,000 over 3 years)

• Half the students didn’t earn a score of 21 or better in reading section, and those with lower scores were not successful in college.

• ACT writers identify the following key features as weaknesses:

• Relationships – interactions between ideas is subtle or “embedded”• Richness – a large amount of complex information is shared through data

or literary devices• Structure – organization is elaborate or unfamiliar• Style – tone and use of language are complex and sophisticated • Vocabulary – word choice is challenging and requires a good

understanding of the context• Purpose – the purpose is not always clear

(Horning, 2007, pp. 5)

What does this mean to educators across disciplines?

• There needs to be a focus on reading across disciplines.

• We need to directly embed reading strategies across disciplines and promote critical thinking in the classroom.

• We need to find ways to engage and motivate our students to read that address various learning styles.

• Reading across the curriculum needs to be connected to writing across the curriculum.

• We need to consider how the new literacies of the internet are/can be used to develop reading skills that involve critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation as more information is available or read in this format.

Padlet

What is Padlet?

• Padlet is an Internet application that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online sheet of paper where people can put any content (e.g. images, videos, documents, text) anywhere on the page, together with anyone, from any device (Padlet Junction, 2015).

• Think of it like a multimedia friendly, free-form, real-time wiki (Padlet Junction, 2015).

Before Reading

• Padlet can be used before, during, or after reading to gather student’s ideas about a specific topic or skill.

• Today we will be using Padlet before we read an excerpt from a radiology textbook to help us activate our prior knowledge and point out some information we want to pay special attention to while reading. We will essentially be warming our brains up to the material.

Let’s take a look: https://padlet.com/lisajos80/w6rf3yqa874n

Jigsaw

What is Jigsaw?

• Jigsaw is a strategy that emphasizes cooperative learning by providing students an opportunity to actively help each other build comprehension. Use this technique to assign students to reading groups composed of varying skill levels. Each group member is responsible for becoming an "expert" on one section of the assigned material and then "teaching" it to the other members of the team (AdLit.org, n.d.).

• The Jigsaw strategy provides students the opportunity to take ownership of the material and become a part of the facilitation of their own learning.

Jigsaw – Pre-reading

Questions to prompt deeper thinking.

• What is the author’s purpose?

• What is the most important piece of information that you need to take away from this reading assignment and why?

Words to know before reading:

Ionization-Removal of an orbital electron from an atom

Electron binding energy-The energy required to remove an electron from an atom

Kinetic energy-Energy of motion

Password

What is Password?

• Password originated as a game show in the 60s and 70s. It has recently been adapted for the classroom.

• Password is an engaging, fun, and interactive way to assess knowledge of subject matter, critical thinking, communication skills, and quick wit.

• Password is presented in PowerPoint and easy to adapt to any subject matter.

After Reading

• The Password Game can be used before or after reading to assess prior knowledge and vocabulary, or to simply review.

• This afternoon the Password game is being used to assess understanding of key vocabulary from today’s reading.

• Let’s play!

Exit Slips

• What is an exit slip?

• An exit slip is a wonderful way to see what your students understood from your lesson

• It is an activity that you give during the last 4-6 minutes of class

• It asks a few questions covered in the lesson, which can check for understanding and/or help direct future instruction

• How can you use it in your classroom?

• Think of what you wanted students to learn from your lesson, then write 2-4 questions over what was taught

• The exit slip can be shown on the projector while students write the answers on a blank sheet of paper, or you can make copies of the exit slip to pass out

• You can add an exit slip slide to the end of your PowerPoint presentations and give students an index card to record their answers

• You can post exit slip questions as a weekly discussion post in Blackboard

Exit Slip Examples

3-2-1: Good for any discipline

• 3 things you learned

• 2 things you found interesting

• 1 question you have about the material

3-2-1 Compare/Contrast: Good for discussing wars, politics, elements in science, geometric shapes, health care issues and protocols, laws, public policy, philosophers, literature, genres of music or art

• 3 similarities

• 2 differences

• 1 question

3-2-1 Discipline Reading

• 3 main ideas or key points

• 2 supporting details

• 1 question about each idea

…but, I’m not a reading teacher.

You are not teaching your students how to read. You are guiding your students on how to read to learn your content.

…but, I’m not a reading teacher.

• SB 1720

• According to the Department of Education, studies show that only half the students who start college manage to complete a degree (Horning, 2007).

• Approximately 25 percent of all high school students read at “below basic” level (Horning, 2007).

• Students don’t understand the reading or just don’t read assignments.

• Reading is more than reading words and scanning for surfaceinformation.

Reading Process

•Before Reading• Activating background knowledge - Padlet

• Introducing difficult vocabulary – Padlet

• Setting purpose

• Planning for reading

Reading Process

•During Reading• Actively read text for understanding - Jigsaw

•Monitor comprehension

• Respond to text - Jigsaw

• Grand conversations -Jigsaw

• Explore text - Jigsaw

Reading Process

•After Reading• Summarize – Exit Slip

• Reflect – Exit Slip

• Question – Exit Slip

• Review - Password

References

AdLit.org. (n.d.). Jigsaw. Retrieved from http://www.adlit.org/strategies/22371

Horning, A. S. (2007). Reading across the curriculum as the key to student success. Across the Disciplines: A Journal of Language, Learning, and Academic Writing, 4. Retrieved from http://wascolostate.edu/atd/articles/horning2007.cfm

Padlet Junction. (2015, August 15). What is Padlet? Retrieved from http://jn.padlet.com/article/57-what-is-padlet