From the Known to the New Scafolding for Deeper Reading with Media/Pop Culture

Presented by: Katie RotchfordBoise State Writing Project Teacher ConsultantEnglish/ESL Teacher, Mountain View High [email protected]

FROM THE KNOWN TO THE NEWSCAFOLDING FOR DEEPER READING WITH MEDIA/POP CULTURE

“Tis the good reader that makes the good book.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

IDENTIFY THE CENTRAL THEME/MESSAGE

Instructions:

Read the poem to yourself silently.

Write a paragraph identifying the central theme of this poem. Be sure to include several pieces of textual evidence to support your claim.

Instructions:

Watch the video clip and as you watch see if you can identify a social criticism the screenwriters make through the use of humor. Jot down some ideas if you need to

Turn to a neighbor and share your ideas.KATIE ROTCHFORD,TEACHER CONSULTANT - BOISE STATE WRITING PROJECT

KATIE ROTCHFORD,TEACHER CONSULTANT - BOISE STATE WRITING PROJECT

ON TEACHING READING

What do you need to be a successful reader?

“If we simply assign reading without teaching students how to read, we’ll get poor reading… When it comes to reading challenging text, not enough attention has been paid to understanding the steps we can take to provide effective scaffolding for our struggling readers.” (Gallagher, 2004)

Less than 60% of teachers of English (grades 6 – 12) value teaching the process of reading (Applebee, 1990)

It becomes important to ask ourselves: “Am I assigning challenging reading, or am I teaching challenging reading?”


IMPORTANCE OF SELF BELIEF

“Some kids are born good readers and some kids aren’t. I’ve always been a bad reader and I always will be. It’s too late for me.” – 8th grade student (Tovani, 2000)

Students have long ago learned to access and deeply read “texts” in pop culture – they make connections, ask questions, infer and synthesize – but they are often unaware of the sophisticated reading moves they are making.

In order to become proficient readers, students “must be aware of their own comprehension.” (Keene and Zimmerman, 1997)

“The most important lessons in English this year were the lessons on what a good reader does… I hadn’t realized that they do all that work. I realized that I do a lot of what a good reader does.” – J.L., 9th grade MVHS student


WHY MEDIA AND POP-CULTURE?

Newkirk argues our “media environment provides cultural props that children can use to improvise their way into literacy.” (2009)

Pop culture texts allows us to utilize a student’s reading expertise and help students become metacognitive about the “reader” moves they are already expert at using

Using these alternative “texts” allows teachers to scaffold procedural knowledge for teaching analytical reading

With more difficult text, students approximate reader moves they learned by “reading” media and pop-culture texts


USING POP CULTURE

Choose texts that do two kinds of work: frontload conceptual knowledge and begin scaffolding procedural knowledge

Begin by setting a purpose for the “reading” – relates to conceptual knowledge

“A reader’s purpose affects everything about reading. It determines what’s important in the text, what is remembered, and what comprehension strategy a reader uses to enhance meaning.” (Tovani, 2000)

This will guide even unconscious acts of reading


FIVE KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE(H ILLOCKS , 2006 AND ADAPTED FROM WILHELM , 2010)

Declarative Knowledge of Form

(What conventions are used to construct meaning)

Procedural Knowledge of Form

(How to organize to construct meaning)

Knowledge of Purpose and Function

Declarative Knowledge of Substance

(What the meaning of the material and structure is)

Procedural Knowledge of Substance

(How to “get” the meaning)


READING VISUAL MEDIA

Step 1: Introduce text

Step 2: Give a purpose for reading

What makes this commercial humorous?

Step 3: First Draft “read” of the video (watch it)


TELEVISION COMMERCIAL


FIRST DRAFT READING

First Draft reading: Getting the basics (the who, what, where, when, and how) – surface level comprehension (Gallagher, 2000)

Beyond First Draft reading – sophisticated inferences

Agree it’s funny?

What makes it funny?

Synthesis Spider

Name how we know what we know


SECOND-DRAFT READING

We know and have named the main message of the commercial, but how do we know it?

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft – you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft – you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth to see if it’s loose or cramped, or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy.” (Lamott, 1994).

Second draft reading: Moving beyond the surface level comprehension to inference, analysis and synthesis (Gallagher, 2000)

Step 4: “Second-draft” read to find the “clues” (or key details) that helped you to name the main message of the commercial

Step 5: Model naming how these clues helped us to identify the main message of the commercial


ROLE OF POSITIVE FEEDBACK AND NAMING

Step 6: Ask students to contribute to the naming of clues and connections

Step 7: Invite students to participate in a third, fourth, draft reading

On-going Step: When they participate provide immediate, specific positive feedback. NAME the “reader” moves students are making. NAME students as readers

Validate your feedback by defining this participation as deeper level reading

DEFINING TEXT What does the word “text” mean to you?

Merriam Webster Dictionary Definition: TEXT: 1 a (1) : the original words and form of a written or printed work

My definition of text: “Anything that was created for the purposes of conveying meaning.” This would include :

Novels, short stories, poems, etc. Comic strips and Graphic novels Song lyrics Musical scores Visual art Television shows and movies Advertisements (television and print) Internet content (webisodes, blogs, etc.) Video gamesKATIE ROTCHFORD,TEACHER CONSULTANT -

BOISE STATE WRITING PROJECT


DEFINING READING Reading – is the act of making meaning of text

Heuristic for Making Meaning Identify the Subject Look for Key Details Make Connections Between Key Details Hypothesize about the Main Idea/Lesson/Theme of the text

(Wilhelm, presentation 2009)

Within this frame, students believe they are reading, are capable of reading, and your feedback in meaningful and believable

“When I would read a book, I wouldn’t be able to understand it. It would just be a big slur of words going through one ear and out the other ear. Being a better reader has changed the way I see books. In the future, I know that I will be reading a lot more books.” -9th grade MVHS student


TELEVISION COMMERCIAL


FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AND THE COMMON CORE STANDARDS

These activities are great tools to allow you to evaluate where students are as readers and if they are progressing

Reflects Common Core Standards: Students practice identifying Key Details and the function of those Key Details, identify elements of Craft and Structure, make supported arguments about central ideas and theme, and provides multiple genres of text (both visual and media)

Also becomes visible proof to students of what they know and how they know it (Declarative and Procedural Knowledge of Substance) – Important as the move toward more difficult texts

“The SKCM chart is very useful. This helps a lot to find the main idea in the book you’re reading. It also helps you understand it more. This has helped me understand more books.” – 9th grade ELL MVHS student


READING WITHIN TEACHING MODELS (WILHELM, 2009)

One Sided Models Two-Sided Models

Curriculum Centered Student Centered Teaching/Learning Centered

Reading Instruction

Phonetics; Whole WordJeanne Chall

Whole LanguageNatural Language Learning Ken and Yetta Goodman

Reading RecoveryGuided Reading

Theoretical Orientation

Bottom Up Top Down Interactive

How Learning Occurs

Transmission of Knowledge – Teaching is telling

Acquisition of knowledge Transformation of Participation

Corresponding Literary Theories

TraditionalNew CriticismCorrect meaning is IN the text and can be discerned through close reading and scientific analysis

Subjective Reader Response Responsibility for producing meaning lies with the reader.Meaning is a private decision and subjective recreation.

Transactional Reader Response and Authorial Response.Literary Meaning results from conversation (transaction) of reader and author through the medium of text

Student’s Role “Empty Vessel” – receive meaning Active constructor of individual meaning

Collaborative participant learning how to create meaning to participate in and create culture

Valid Interpretation

Purely Textual Must account for reader perception, affective and associative response

Must account for textual coding but respond to this as interanimated with reader’s needs, questions, experiences, and judgments


TEACHING/LEARNING CENTERED READING

The transaction between the reader and the text is the at the heart of any literary experience (Rosenblatt, 1938).

Allows students to have a “quiet conversation” about books with their learning community – examining and evaluating their different responses to a shared text (Rosenblatt, 1938)

Students create of culture of creating meaning together

Students are allowed to take some ownership for their interpretations and gain more autonomy and control over their learning.


VYGOTSKIAN PERSPECTIVE: STUDENT/TEACHER INTERACTIONS

( A D A P T E D F R O M W I L H E L M , 2 0 0 1 )

Student Responsibility •Zone of Actual Development

•What student can do alone, without assistance

Teacher Responsibility

•Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)•Assistance provided by more capable others (teacher) – Adult uses language to

model process

Joint Responsibility

•Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)•Transition from other assistance to self assistance – Adult and student share

language and activity

Self Responsibility

•New Zone of Actual Development•Assistance provided by self – Student’s silent, abbreviated dialogue with self•Internalization, automatization – inner dialogue internalized to inner thought


PICKING THE NEXT TEXT

Pick activities that do two kinds of work (scaffold for content by defining purpose, and scaffold for procedure by modeling)

Creating a ladder of text to help students move through the ZPD, by scaffolding in more difficult text (start small… move to big):

T.V. Commercials to Movies

Visual art to Graphic Novels

Song lyrics to short stories to novels

This is a recursive process through out the year, repeating with each type of pop culture/media texts for each unit


ADDING DIFFICULTY When a text becomes too obscure for students immediately

identify the main idea/theme, reverse the order, but using the “Heuristic for Making Meaning” (adapted from Wilhelm, 2009)

Heuristic for Making Meaning:

First Draft Reading

1. Identify the who or the what (… the subject)

2. Identify key details (important elements)

Second Draft Reading

3. Hypothesize about the connection between key details

4. Analyze these connections and look for patterns (Main Idea, Lesson, Theme)

Subject, Key Details, Connection between Key Details, Main Idea/Theme/Lesson: S.K.C.M.


“GUERNICA” BY P. PICASSO


S.K.C.M. ACTIVITY

First Draft Read (surface level comprehension)

1. Subject:

2. Key Details:

Second Draft Reading (inference, analysis, synthesis)

3. Connection between key details:

4. Main Idea/Theme/Lesson:

Create Synthesis Spider from this activity


MOVING TO DIFFICULT TEXT

With each different type of text, the rules change slightly - TELL students this!

Begin by modeling with each type of text to help students move through the ZPD

Use of grouping to help students move through ZPD

Gradually release responsibility

Recursive process – give students multiple opportunities with each kind of text


SONG LYRICS

“Pablo Picasso” by Citizen Cope

The woman that I loveIs forty feet tallShe's a movie starShe's all in the papersAnd everywhere I goPeople hand me quartersAnd they pat me on the backThey treat me like I’m famousI'll never leave her side'Cause today can be dangerousAnd when the night arrivesThe light hit her featuresAnd the cars drive byJust so they could see herAnd she never bats an eyeWhen someone takes her picture

Mr.Officer if you've come to take herThen that means one of usGonna end up in a stretcherGonna end up in the papers, going end up in the papers, yeah

If i had a pistolI'd brandish it and wave itShe's the only one alive that knows that I'm not crazyShe's gonna testify on my behalfDown at the NavySo I can get some peaceAnd provide for my babiesI got a stick and a bottleI'll pretend I got a razorHelicopters and cameras all shottin' for the stationThey say that a wild man defending his ladyBut for some odd reason they keep calling you a painting


LITERARY (OR “CHALLENGING”) TEXT

The rules change again when you move from visual types of text, to songs, to literary text

Always set a purpose before reading so students know where to start

Introduce Rules of Notice as a way to help identify key details (Rabinowitz, 1987)

Model “reading” using Think-Aloud Strategies (Tovani, 2000 and Wilhelm, 2001)

After coding text, plug information into graphic organizer

Depending on difficulty begin with SKCM or Synthesis Spider


EFFICACY WITH DIFFICULT LITERATURE

Student’s have developed confidence in their abilities to read deeply

Student’s have developed motivation to read deeply

Student’s are able to name themselves as readers and the “reader” moves they make

Student’s are able to use this thinking strategy beyond the classroom, growing into discerning adults


EXPANSION/EXTENSION

In what ways could you use pop culture, media, art texts might you be able to use in your classroom?

In what ways can you model this thinking process in your classroom?

Ideas others gave me for expansion/extension:

English: Graphic organizers become pre-writes for literary analysis; Preparation for Picture Maps, Theme Drawings, Drama Activities

Social Studies: SKCM used identify with pictures the 5 themes of Geography, Photograph and Period Art to demonstrate events in history

Science: Photographs and Diagrams to explore geology, cellular biology

Visual Art: explore how meaning is created in visual form


TEACHING THINKING

We live in a world where “the media culture is so powerful that children have no power to resist or challenge or even consciously be aware of the ‘message[s]’” presented to them (Newkirk, 2009).

By teaching students to analyze and synthesize pop-culture media content, we are creating individuals who are able to critically examine messages being disseminated through the media.

“The most important lesson I learned this year was looking into detail. We were able to really get into stories and notice things most people wouldn’t. A lot of the movies or books we read, I’d already read and seen. But this time I noticed things I hadn’t before. For me that was really big because it totally changed how I had viewed it previously.” – 9th grade MVHS student

“Of all that I’ve learned this year, I think the most important thing I’ve learned is that deeper meaning is everywhere, you just have to know how to find it.” – 9th grade MVHS student


BIG IMPORTANT THANKS…

Because I am not certain that I have had original idea to present to you but rather a synthesis of ideas, readings, and conversations with people vastly more intelligent than me…. This is just what I have done with it, and I would like to say thank you to:

The experts: Cris Tovani, Kelley Gallagher, Jeff Wilhelm, Peggy Jo Wilhelm, Erica Boas – all of whom I am grateful for and have taught me the true meaning of Newton’s quote:

“If I have seen further than others, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”

My colleagues: Anna Daley, Colin Kohlmeier – tremendous thinking partners!

My mom and pop – who are both educators and who tolerate my hour long conversations on pedagogy and remind me why I love this profession

WORKS CITEDApplebee, A.N. (1990). Literature instruction in American schools. Report Series 1.4. Albany, NY: Center for the Learning and

Teaching of Literature.

Gallagher, Kelly. (2004) Deeper Reading: Comprehending Challenging Texts 4-12. Portland, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.

Hillocks, George Jr. (2006) Narrative Writing: Using a New Model for Teaching. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.

Keene, Ellin Oliver and Susan Zimmermann. (1997) Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader’s Workshop. Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann.

Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life. New York, NY: Anchor

Newkirk, Thomas. (2009) Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Heinemann.

Rabinowitz, Peter. (1987). Before Reading. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press

Rosenblatt, L.S. (1938). Literature as Exploration. New York, NY: D. Appleton-Century Co.

Tovani, Cris. (2000) I Read it, But I Don’t Get It: Comprehension strategies for Adolescent Readers. Portland, MA: Stenhouse Publishers.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2007) Engaging Readers & Writers with Inquiry. Scholastic: New York.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2001) Improving Comprehension with Think-Aloud Strategies. Scholastic: New York.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. (2010) Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write: Using Inquiry Strategies to Promote Students Reading, Writing and Discussion.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Peggy Jo Wilhelm and Erika Boas. (2009) Inquiring Minds Learn to Read and Write. Scholastic: Markham, Ontario.

Documents

From the Known to the New Scafolding for Deeper Reading with Media/Pop Culture