Reading Comprehension in the Math Classroom

Sara Suckstorff

TE 846 12/8/12

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Introduction: Setting, Student, and Goals

In order to successfully meet the goals of this project, I wanted to make sure I selected

the appropriate student, administered my lessons in the appropriate setting, and focused on

strategies that would benefit the literacy development of the selected student. Admittedly, I still

lack some confidence in my ability to integrate literacy skills into my daily lessons. I teach 6th

grade math and feel that our math curriculum, while focusing on important skills and strategies

like cooperative learning, and self-guided investigation and exploration, does not leave much

room for teachers to add additional content. Integrating literacy into my math activities is only

part of what I am going to focus on for this project--the other part concentrates on reading

comprehension strategies. I will first provide some background information on the structure of

our school day.

I am one of three sixth grade math teachers at an International Baccalaureate middle

school in Charlotte, NC. Our student’s move with the same “home-base” group to their four core

teachers (math, science, language arts, and social studies). Students then become dispersed

among their 6th

grade peers to attend their elective subjects, and finally return to their home-base

teacher’s classroom for the final 45 minutes of the day.

The final period is called “Academic Enrichment,” during which our sixth graders

participate in lessons and activities surrounding current events, work through inter-disciplinary

units, and engage in community and service projects. Students seem to really enjoy Academic

Enrichment, and I also look forward to teaching it. Academic Enrichment lessons are created by

the sixth grade team of teachers and are structured to be a time when students participate in

activities that extend their learning outside of content-specific curriculum. This year students

have already researched the presidential election, participated in a Martin Luther King Jr. writing

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contest, attended weekly exploratory clubs, and engaged in Advisory lessons on bullying,

organization, goal-setting, and communication. Because of the exciting, diverse, cooperative, and

safe atmosphere surrounding Academic Enrichment, I thought it would be the perfect time to

administer my literacy lessons to my focus student (Standard IV: Ability to establish a caring,

stimulating, inclusive, democratic, and safe literacy learning community where students take

risks and work independently and cooperatively).

In order to determine which student to work with, I sought the advice of the language arts

teacher on my team, Mrs. Carth (all names in this project are pseudonyms to maintain privacy).

It is said that, “in order for students to reach their established literacy goals, all school personnel

must be involved in the instructional process,” which is the practice of my four-person team

(Dennis, Dec., 2009 - Jan., 2010). We teach the same four classes of students, and discuss their

progress, successes, challenges, academics, and behavior on a daily basis. Even though I don’t

explicitly teach reading and writing, I have been able to assess which students struggle through

classroom activities. However, I wanted to receive additional input from Mrs. Carth to inform

my decision of with whom to work.

I decided to focus on a student named Evan for these literacy lessons. Mrs. Carth had

already identified Evan as a student who struggles with reading comprehension. Mrs. Carth and

I examined data received from the language arts Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test

taken by Evan and his classmates. MAP is a program that provides online adaptive exams that

our students take three times a year (NWEA, 2012). These tests are taken in language arts and

math classes and measure students’ growth within these two subjects. The content is aligned to

the Common Core State Standards and along with these assessments comes a plethora of data

about students’ skills. Evan’s MAP score on the Fall language arts assessment was a 190. I have

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included a break-down of normed Language Arts MAP scores based on students across the

nation (Appendix A). From this chart you can see that Evan’s MAP score places him around a

3rd

grade reading level. While this one score is certainly not enough information to gauge Evan’s

language arts skills, it is an additional data point that needs to be considered. With this data in

mind, I wanted to work with Evan on this project to support his literacy development (Standard

III: Knowledge of literacy learners’ understandings, skills, strategies, interests, values, and

aspirations).

Evan is 12 years old, loves football and math, and lives with his mom and step-dad. I

learned that Evan attended private school for four years and then transferred back to public

school in sixth grade. As a result, our school lacks state-testing data on Evan. Private school

students do not take the same End of Grade Tests (EOGs) that public school students in the state

of North Carolina must take. Students’ scores on this test are used by my school’s administrators

to place them into ability-leveled classes. Since Evan’s record does not contain this data, our

assistant principal had difficulty determining what home-base to place him in at the start of the

school year (Blane, 2012). As the year has progressed, Mrs. Carth has noticed that Evan’s

reading skills are behind that of his classmates. However, she believes it is beneficial for Evan

to be in a class with higher-leveled readers and writers that “help boost his performance”

(McCarth, 2012). Evan does not receive any instructional modifications or support, and is in an

honors math class. Evan’s first language is English and he does not speak a second language at

home (Standard III: Knowledge of literacy learners’ understandings, skills, strategies, interests,

values, and aspirations).

Although this case study is focused on Evan and his literacy skills, I chose to also teach

these lessons to two other classmates for a few specific reasons. First, I did not want Evan to

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feel like he was being singled out by me, nor for his peers to think similarly. It is not uncommon

for me to be working with small groups of students on certain topics, so this was a more

comfortable situation for all. I taught these two literacy lessons while my other students were

working on a separate activity in the classroom. Secondly, I wanted to be able to obtain more

data about the outcome of my lessons in order to have a more complete view of this project. By

involving two more students I have the ability to compare Evan’s outcomes with those of his

peers to create stronger observations and conclusions. I decided to ask two students to

participate in this lesson who I know Evan is comfortable around; Sam is an advanced reader and

Molly excels in math but not enjoy language arts.

One of my goals was to focus on reading comprehension in math. This is something

that my colleagues and I see our students struggle with in many different contexts (Brown &

Kollar, 2012). For example, students can solve a basic fraction multiplication problem, but when

that skill is embedded in a word problem they fail to answer it correctly. I often see this

disconnect in Evan’s work. When I examine his shown work, I notice he often performs the

main math skills properly, but his final answer is incorrect. I’ve realized this is because he has

not fully understood what the question is asking, and therefore, he misses the last step or two in a

multi-step problem. At the root of this disconnect is Evan’s inability to fully comprehend the

problem and then apply that knowledge to determine the correct steps or numbers needed to

solve it. Therefore, one goal of mine is to give Evan more ways to engage with text before,

during, and after reading. If I can teach Evan a process through which to work while he is

reading, I hope to be able to positively influence his comprehension abilities (Standard I:

Knowledge of learning and child development theories and the processes of reading and writing

to inform literacy assessment and instruction).

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A second goal of mine is to teach Evan strategies for organizing facts and pulling out

important pieces of information from whatever source he may be using. I’ve noticed that Evan

tends to miss important details needed to solve a problem. This can result in confusion or

careless errors being made. I want to teach Evan a strategy for slowing down in his work and

organizing the information presented in a text so his comprehension of that text will hopefully

increase.

Based on these observations, I chose to focus on two literacy strategies that help to negate

these challenges: the “cluster diagram” and “SQ3R” strategies. The goals of these instruments

are to help students organize or classify information, be thorough, engage with text, and

therefore, help with reading comprehension. Success in these areas will not only improve Evan’s

math performance, but should translate into success in all his other content areas (Standard VI:

Ability to use a variety of approaches and activities, derived from high-quality research, to help

students improve their literacy skills).

Cluster Diagram and SQ3R: What are They?

I discovered the cluster diagram (Appendix B) graphic organizer from the curriculum

materials used by our school’s language arts department. Mrs. Carth gave me teacher access to

the students’ language arts online textbook, which also comes with supporting materials and

resources for students, teachers, and parents (Holt McDougal, 2012). As I explored the various

literacy tools, I was drawn to the cluster diagram because of the importance it places on the

recognition and organization of facts—one of my goals for Evan to progress in. Since the role of

a graphic organizer is, “to make concepts more concrete, depict relationships, serve as an aid to

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memory, and use context to enhance learning,” I thought this would be a great resource for Evan

(Ehren, 2005).

In this cluster diagram, the overall theme or topic of the reading gets placed in the center

circle, signifying its importance. The main ideas become branches off of this (four such spaces

available on this specific diagram) and then even smaller circles protrude from the four main

ideas. These smallest circles are the supporting facts that come directly from the reading.

I have seen other graphic organizers, like the Web Diagram, in which students simply

pull out facts and place them randomly around a center topic (see Appendix C as an example).

One reason I wanted to use the cluster diagram, as opposed to another option, is the emphasis

placed on the hierarchy of facts. This cluster diagram is similar to the traditional outline but just

formatted differently, using circles and a web-like effect to aid in organization (Standard V:

Ability to select, adapt, create, and use rich and varied assessment and instructional resources

that enhance students’ literacy achievement).

One Common Core writing objective being taught, practiced, and applied by our 6th

grade

students is how to correctly create and format a five paragraph essay: introduction with thesis,

paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting ideas, and a conclusion (CCSSO, NGA, 2010). I

learned from speaking with Mrs. Carth that Evan in particular (as well as many of his

classmates) struggle to create topic sentences and include supporting details in these paragraphs

(McCarth, 2012). I wanted to use this cluster diagram graphic organizer to support and develop

Evan’s abilities to pick out important facts and see the organizational structure of these bits of

information (Standard II: knowledge of curriculum content and grade-level performance

expectations).

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My second literacy strategy is called SQ3R (Appendix D). SQ3R stands for survey,

question, read, recite and review. These five actions are completed before, during, and after

reading to help, “enhance comprehension and retention of information” (Literacy and Learning:

Reading in the Content Areas, 2002). The main sections of SQ3R almost perfectly align with the

set of 6 strategies described by Smith and Read that are “important to student comprehension”:

prediction, monitoring and clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and visualizing (Smith & Read,

2009). SQ3R has simply taken those strategies and compacted them into an easily accessible

format.

Within SQ3R, the first step is to “survey”. The survey portion involves students getting

an overview of the material by looking at chapter titles, reading the introductory and summary

paragraphs, looking at bold and italicized text, and examining any diagrams, pictures, maps, or

captions included. This survey step is supposed to help students preview the material and, “give

enough information to generate individual purposes for reading the text” (Literacy and Learning:

Reading in the Content Areas, 2002). Questioning involves looking at any pre-reading questions

that may have been provided and using these to help guide the reading. If these are not available,

then students are instructed to turn section headings into questions that allow them to search for

answers as they read.

The read, recite, and review steps are the final phases of the SQ3R process. After

students have read the passage, they attempt to “recite” or answer the guiding questions without

looking back at the text. “This step helps in transferring information from short-term to long-

term memory” (Literacy and Learning: Reading in the Content Areas, 2002). And finally, the

review section is when students check back over their answers and use the text to verify the

accuracy of the information they learned. This is important because it provides immediate

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feedback to students and helps them retain information (Literacy and Learning: Reading in the

Content Areas, 2002). I’m hopeful Evan will be more proactive in employing these skills, even

when not explicitly instructed by a teacher.

SQ2R is an almost identical comprehension strategy that was presented in our course

materials. However, I know that my students have previously been exposed to SQ3R in their

language arts classes. I wanted to keep the consistency between teachers and content areas to

avoid confusion, so I proceeded with SQ3R (Standard II: knowledge of curriculum content and

grade-level performance expectations).

Cluster Diagram Lesson Description

I began this lesson by engaging my three students in a brief discussion about how long it

would be until they were able to drive a car (5 years for both). I also asked if they have ever

seen the Disney movie “WALL-E” where the overweight human characters are driven around by

computerized chairs. All three students had seen this movie and knew exactly what I was talking

about. This was the perfect segue into introducing the article I chose to use with this strategy. I

found it in the Los Angeles Times online newspaper entitled “Self-driving cars are approaching

fast—and safely” (Appendix E). However, I didn’t want my three students to jump right into

this activity without group practice and modeling for support.

I introduced the cluster diagram graphic organizer to the students and asked when they

have used graphic organizers before. “In language arts class!” was the first response from Sam.

Evan added that their social studies teacher, Mr. Hare, had recently taught the students how to

complete a “different looking” graphic organizer using information about ancient civilizations

which they are currently studying. I explained that we were going to use this cluster diagram to

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organize facts presented in our informational article entitled, “Gain for Gorillas” (Appendix F)

found on the Time for Kids website (Keady, 2012). The students immediately wanted to share

facts they knew about gorillas, but in order to keep the lesson on track I asked them to write

down their connections so we could discuss it after the lesson.

I then took a few moments to ask students to predict how the cluster diagram is

organized, simply by looking at the circles. Sam suggested we used highlighters to show the

different “levels” of facts, which we did (Appendix G). I asked the students in their own words

to describe the different circles, which is what you also see labeled. I explained to students that

the use of this diagram is supposed to help you organize facts and therefore increase your

understanding of what you are reading. I paused for questions and then we delved into the

article.

As a group we “popcorn” read “Gain for Gorillas” and then began completing the cluster

diagram together (but each creating our own artifact). Filling in the main topic of “mountain

gorillas” was very easy, but we took a few extra moments to discuss the different possibilities for

the four big supporting details. I also stressed to students that they did not have to fill in every

single circle on this diagram. On the other hand, if they needed to add in circles, I encouraged

them to do so. I wanted to make sure students were comfortable changing around the format of

this graphic organizer to best suit their needs. The completed cluster diagram we created

together can be seen in Appendix H.

After we finished, I asked a few questions: “Now that we are done, how do you think this

helped you organize the important facts in this article?” Evan said he liked the way it looked,

and that it was easy for him to see the connections. Molly thought that it was “cool” to read

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about Gorillas, but “next time I wouldn’t need to fill in a diagram unless what we read was more

complicated.”

This was my cue to pass out the article about self-driving cars I had piqued their interest

with at the beginning of the lesson. At this point, we only had a few minutes left of class. As a

group we scanned the article together and then I assigned a second cluster diagram as homework,

using this LA Times article as reference. I told the group that this article is about an interesting

topic, but its written for adults--that means there will probably be some challenging vocabulary.

I asked if the students would still be comfortable completing this tonight on their own, and they

said yes. I thanked Evan, Sam, and Molly for working with me and we wrapped up the block.

The following day during first block, I collected these students’ cluster diagrams. I was

curious about how much information they were able to attain, so I gave them a very brief reading

comprehension assessment (Appendix I) . Some of the questions were basic fact recall, while

others required students to make connections from their life to the article’s content. Evan’s

assessment answers can be seen in Appendix J, with analysis and reflection on this assessment

piece is forthcoming.

SQ3R Lesson Description

For this lesson, I started things off with an informal discussion about SQ3R. I know that

the students had been introduced to this by Mrs. Carth towards the start of the year in language

arts, but I wasn’t sure the extent of their familiarity. In order to review this strategy with my

three students, I had already created a visual SQ3R picture (using a snake and 3 mice) with the

titles of Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. I showed this to the students and then asked

them to give me as much information about each heading that they could collectively remember.

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I went around the circle multiple times allowing each student to contribute as much as they were

comfortable with. By the end we had a great looking graphic that I kept out for the rest of the

lesson (Appendix K).

I then facilitated a quick discussion about the reasoning behind using SQ3R—“what is

the purpose of this strategy?” Sam said that it, “gives you more information about whatever

you’re reading”, and Evan said, “I think it will help me understand things that are confusing the

first time I read them.”

I directed students to the informational article used for this lesson, entitled “Mission:

Space Jump” (Appendix L) about the record-breaking 24 mile jump from space completed this

past October by Felix Baumgartner. Since we had just reviewed the SQ3R strategy, and students

had used it before, I asked them to each complete their own SQ3R on the article. It took the

students about 15-20 minutes to complete this, and at the end we came back together to discuss

our notes.

During this discussion Sam noticed that Evan had highlighted a lot of his article, but he

had more annotations than Evan (Evan’s SQ3R article can be seen in Appendix M). We took a

few moments to go through the text, paragraph by paragraph, since the students wanted to share

their comments. I took a few moments to allow each student to verbalize the annotations or

reactions they had written during the SQ3R before we moved forward (Standard IV: Ability to

establish a caring, stimulating, inclusive, democratic, and safe literacy learning community

where students take risks and work independently and cooperatively).

I then asked the students to envision how this strategy could be used specifically in math

class. Evan said that this could be used when we work on word problems, and Molly said the

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“review” step might be like, “on a test when you tell us to check over our work.” I asked what it

might be like to “survey” a math question, since our problems in class usually don’t have titles or

subheadings like an article might. Sam said, “you could scan the problem for key words that pop

out at you. They’d probably give you a hint on whether to add or subtract.” And Evan added in,

“yeah or multiply and divide.” I asked Molly what she thought, and she responded, “maybe for

the “question” step you could put what the problem is asking into your own words.”

In order to use these suggestions, I asked the group to complete two math problems using

SQ3R while trying to solve the problems. The math problems used can be seen in Appendix N.

Since class was almost over, I asked the students if they felt comfortable using SQ3R in this

method at home, and they said yes. I again thanked these three students for working with me

and we wrapped up the lesson.

Lesson and Data Analysis

In analyzing these two lessons, along with Evan’s work, I see that he made progress

towards the goals I set at the beginning of this project; however, he still has areas of weakness.

In examining Evan’s cluster diagram about the self-driving cars, a few problems become

apparent (Appendix O). If you were to just read Evan’s diagram without referencing the article,

you might not see any problems with it. He has four main ideas, “self-drive, speed control,

automatic steering, and braking,” and he has included three supporting details with each one.

However, a closer examination of these facts reveal that only a few of them specifically come

from the article. For example, under the “speed control” heading, his fact of, “if it is about to hit

a tree it will slow down” is nowhere stated in the article. Also, some of his supporting details are

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redundant (two facts both discuss the car slowing down if it gets too close to a car or tree, and

two facts both state how the car adapts to roads).

Similarly, some of the main themes in the article (the safety of these cars, testing

procedures) are not included in Evan’s diagram. At first I thought this observation shows that

Evan is still struggling to pull out the main theme(s) in a text. But then I realized he might not

have even used the text to complete this assignment. When I asked Evan if he had referenced the

article at home to help him with the cluster diagram, he said, “Well, sort of, for a few minutes.

But then when I stopped working to eat dinner I couldn’t find the article afterwards.” Had Evan

been able to reference the article through the entirety of the assignment, maybe his product

would look different. Despite Evan not accurately completing this assignment, his responses do

show that he is able to extend his thinking and make connections to things that aren’t specifically

noted in the text. That being said, the data does not show that Evan independently demonstrated

the ability to pick out major themes in a text—one of my goals for this lesson.

For comparison, I have included Sam’s cluster diagram (Appendix P). An analysis of

Sam’s diagram shows that he was able to define the main themes or ideas in this article. He used

the three main headings of “testing, challenges, how it can help” and also included specific

pieces of information from the article in his web (“27% less damage” and “Acura and Benz

equipped with collision avoidance”). I noticed Sam also built-in some extension questions of his

own under the “challenges” heading: “Is it safe enough? What will the model look like? Will it

break down?” In taking a closer look at these two artifacts, it can be noted that Evan’s diagram

lacks the detail, text support, and main themes that I was hoping to see.

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Next, I wanted to analyze Evan’s answers to the reading comprehension questions used

as the assessment piece to this lesson (Appendix I). He remembered that California is the state

where self-driving cars where just made legal and that Google is one company doing much of the

testing. However, supporting details about the types of self-driving cars or locations of testing

sites were not remembered. Evan’s responses to the few questions at the end, where I asked

students to list pros and cons of these cars, show a basic knowledge of the article’s information.

Evan’s answer to the final question, where I asked students their own thoughts about this

technology, states that he thinks, “it’s pretty cool cause the car drives itself.” This response

doesn’t demonstrate a deeper level of thinking or connection-making that I thought the graphic

organizer would help facilitate.

With the SQ3R lesson, Evan engaged with the “Mission: Space Jump” text by

highlighting, turning section headings into questions, and writing investigative questions at the

end of the article (example, “was it cold in space?”) (Appendix M). This shows me that he was

actively engaging with the text and seemingly interested in this topic. Evan also drew a picture

of the snake and mice SQ3R graphic that we used during our lesson, which shows that he

remembered this visual representation.

What Evan did not do was use the questions he created as guiding questions while

reading the article. He should have reviewed and answered these during the three R phases. I do

not see evidence of Evan following through with this important part of the SQ3R process.

In analyzing Evan’s two SQ3R math problems (Appendix Q), I see a few pieces of

evidence of his interaction with the text. First, he has underlined large sections of sentences. He

also re-worded the question in the first problem and used the space provided to draw a picture of

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the problem. Even though drawing diagrams are not part of the original SQ3R process, this

would certainly be useful in solving this specific pizza problem and I’m glad to see that Evan did

this.

One problem I noticed is that Evan’s answer to the pizza problem is incomplete. The

final part of the question asks for students to “explain your choice.” In this space Evan drew an

arrow to his answer of “1 ½ per person.” It seems as if he is offering this as his explanation, but

then his final answer is not written. In analyzing the drawing that represents the pizza and

people, I can see that Evan was solving the question correctly-- he simply did not complete the

problem. As previously mentioned, Evan has shown that he has great math skills, but misses

points on assessments for not answering questions properly. This error is an example of what I

was hoping my lesson would help Evan avoid, however this shows that my goals were not fully

met.

Lesson and Data Reflection

As mentioned, my goal of supporting Evan with his comprehension by using SQ3R was

not fully met. It is evident that Evan used some parts of the SQ3R process in both the “Mission:

Space Jump” article and his math work. Based on the data, however, the self-monitoring and

questioning referenced in this quote is still something that Evan has not mastered: “…it is not

enough to teach students comprehension strategies; they must also learn to monitor their use of

the strategies learned and to question their understanding of the text as they read.” (Dennis, Dec.,

2009 - Jan., 2010).

One issue I ran into during this process was running out of time during Academic

Enrichment. I did not envision these lessons needing more than 45 minutes, but during both days

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my lessons were cut short. This negatively affected the outcomes because I could not control the

work environment that Evan experienced while completing his homework. For example, since

Evan did not use the LA Times article when completing his cluster diagram, his results are not

completely valid. I also don’t know if there were outside factors that affected Evan’s

performance on the pizza party math problem since I was not observing him while he was

working. In the future, I would ensure that my assessments are completed at school under my

supervision so as to produce results that can be more accurately analyzed.

I’ve also realized that Evan’s incomplete SQ3R of “Mission: Space Jump” could be the

result of many factors: low motivation, low interest, and/or low ability. Even though we went

over the SQ3R steps together, I did not explicitly instruct students on how to annotate or

summarize. I knew that students had learned this strategy in language arts class, so I assumed

that only a general review would be required as a refresher. Whether or not that was the case,

this is an error on my part and could have been avoided with a pre-test. I should have pre-

determined if those specific skills within the SQ3R process still needed to be mastered.

While the data points to Evan not fully mastering the SQ3R strategy or the cluster

diagram, he did show improvement over the course of the two days. At first, I could tell Evan

was hesitant to work in our group. However, after the first few minutes spent talking about the

overweight humans in WALL-E, he quickly relaxed and seemed to enjoy his time in our group.

During the SQ3R lesson, I saw Evan ease into his own independent work more smoothly than I

normally see him transition in my math class. This could be due to the gradual decline of help

and support I gave during the lesson, which means added responsibility on each student as the

lesson progressed (Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011). I am also proud of Evan’s work

ethic during those two sessions as well as his excitement about it (Evan approached me during

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recess after the first lesson to say, “Miss Suckstorff are we going to do our reading group again

today during 6th

block?”) I am glad that I was able to create and foster that type of learning

environment for this small group of students (Standard IV: Ability to establish a caring,

stimulating, inclusive, democratic, and safe literacy learning community where students take

risks and work independently and cooperatively).

My next steps in supporting Evan’s literacy education is to speak with Mrs. Carth about

the results of my lessons and assessments. As a language arts teacher, she will be able to speak

to the quality of work he produced on the cluster diagram lesson and SQ3R. I do not know how

Evan’s SQ3R for this lesson compares to his work on other SQ3R activities since this is the first

one I have done with him. I would like to speak with Mrs. Carth (and his other core teachers) to

share my findings and discuss Evan’s growth since the start of the school year.

Conclusion

My overall goal for this project can be summed up by the following quote: “Effective

teachers of reading comprehension help their students develop into strategic, active readers, in

part, by teaching them why, how, and when to apply certain strategies shown to be used by

effective readers” (Duke, Pearson, Strachan, & Billman, 2011). While I had a few setbacks in

trying to reach that goal, I am happy about the successes during these lessons. The interactions

and conversations surrounding these two lessons were not only focused on literacy and current

events, but they helped to form stronger relationships between the students and myself. Evan

and his peers saw a strategy they thought would only appear in language arts class be applied to

another content area. And the students also learned that I am not just their math teacher, but

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someone who is going to support their work in all subject areas. In my eyes, that unexpected

discovery is just as powerful as an academic one.

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Bibliography

Blane, J. (2012, November 13). Administrator Interview. (S. Suckstorff, Interviewer)

Brown, P., & Kollar, A. (2012, November). Sixth Grade Math PLC Meeting. (S. Suckstorff, Interviewer)

CCSSO, NGA. (2010). Common Core State Standards. Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Dennis, D. V. (Dec., 2009 - Jan., 2010). "I'm Not Stupid": How Assessment Drive (In)Appropriate Reading

Instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Vol. 53 No. 4, 283-290.

Duke, N. K., Pearson, P. D., Strachan, S. L., & Billman, A. K. (2011). Essential Elements of Fostering and

Teaching Reading Comprehension. In S. Samuels, & A. Farstrup, What Research Has to Say About

Reading Instruction (pp. 51-93).

Ehren, B. J. (2005). Looking for Evidence-Based Practice in Reading Comprehension Instruction. Topics in

Language Disorders Vol. 25, No. 4, 310-321.

Holt McDougal. (2012, November 26). Holt McDougal Literature, Grade 6. Online Textbook Materials.

Keady, C. (2012, November 14). Time for Kids. Retrieved November 26, 2012, from

http://www.timeforkids.com/news/gain-gorillas/59721

Li, G., & Edwards, P. A. (2010). Best Practices in ELL Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

Literacy and Learning: Reading in the Content Areas. (2002). Literacy Strategies SQ3R. Teacher as

Learner Workshops. Southeastern Louisiana University, Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

McCarth, M. (2012, November 27). Literacy Interview. (S. Suckstorff, Interviewer)

NWEA. (2012). NWEA. Retrieved December 6, 2012, from Products and Sevices: MAP:

http://www.nwea.org/products-services/computer-based-adaptive-assessments/map

Smith, J., & Read, S. (2009). Early literacy instruction: Teaching reading and writing in today's primary

grades (2nd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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Appendix A

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Appendix B

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Appendix C

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Appendix E

← Back to Original Article

Self-driving cars are approaching fast — and safely As Google has worked on a fully self-driving car, some automakers have already employed

autonomous safety features that are reducing crashes.

September 30, 2012|By Jerry Hirsch, Los Angeles Times

Having a hard time parallel parking? Press a button on a touch screen and let the car park itself.

Want to stay a safe distance from the car ahead while traveling 65 mph? Switch on adaptive

cruise control and let a radar-linked computer handle the accelerator, slowing and speeding your

vehicle to keep pace.

The assisted-driving technologies that just a few years ago seemed so futuristic are already here,

bringing the auto industry one step closer to a George Jetson-like world where drivers may no

longer have to drive.

"We are looking at science fiction becoming reality in a self-driving car," Gov. Jerry Brown said

Tuesday when he signed a bill that would allow self-driving cars on California's roads.

Although that might be some years off, automakers already are pouring millions of dollars into

systems that hand more control of a vehicle to a complex network of sensors and computers.

Features such as collision avoidance systems that sense a potential crash and trigger the brakes or

an alert that tells drivers they are wandering into adjacent lanes are making their way into more

cars every year.

Industry, traffic and insurance experts believe that the advances are beginning to transform

driving in a way that will reduce accidents and injuries.

"This is the future," said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

"Vehicles are designed to protect people when crashes happen, but it would be even better to

prevent crashes from happening altogether."

Drivers are just beginning to experience these new features, and it's not always without a hitch.

That's what happened when Los Angeles attorney Randy Garrou test-drove the "intelligent

parking assist" feature in a Toyota Prius v hybrid. The system backed the station wagon into a

lamppost.

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"If that had been a human, the person would have been wiped out," said Garrou, who along with

the salesman escaped injury. The experience left him thinking that such autonomous driving

features "aren't ready for prime time."

An occasional glitch isn't stopping the auto industry and technology companies from speeding

into the self-driving car segment.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin said autonomous cars could be functional and safe for operation

on public streets within a few years. Think autopilot.

But the concept of handing over the steering wheel to a computer is making some people ill at

ease.

"It freaks me out," said Michael Sigman, a writer and music publisher who lives in the Laurel

Canyon section of Los Angeles. "It is totally fascinating, and I would like to see how they work,

but the idea of thousands and millions of people 'not' driving around in these things is very

scary."

Despite the uneasiness, there is some evidence that the early autonomous driving functions are

already improving safety.

Volvo's City Safety, a low-speed forward collision avoidance system, is one feature that has been

shown to be effective. The system is designed to help a driver avoid rear-ending another vehicle

in slow-moving traffic.

The Highway Loss Data Institute compared insurance claims for the 2010 Volvo XC60 SUVs

equipped with a forward collision avoidance system with claims for other 2009-10 mid-size

luxury SUVs that don't have the technology. The Volvos had 27% fewer property damage

liability claims. They also had fewer claims for bodily injury.

Acura and Mercedes-Benz vehicles equipped with other types of collision avoidance systems

that work at higher speeds had 14% fewer damage claims than those that didn't have the

technology, according to an institute study.

The auto insurance industry estimates that if all passenger vehicles were equipped with just four

sensor-based alert systems — forward collision warning, lane departure warning, blind spot

detection and adaptive headlights that pivot in the direction of travel based on steering wheel

movement — about 1 in 3 fatal crashes and 1 out of 5 injury crashes could be prevented or have

their severity lessened.

Transportation officials and safety regulators are pushing the technology even further, looking to

a day when computers in a car communicate with other vehicles, traffic lights, toll roads and

other traffic infrastructure.

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Last month, about 3,000 vehicles equipped to share information about their speed and location

hit the streets in Ann Arbor, Mich., as part of the largest road test to date of so-called connected

vehicles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation, which is running the test in conjunction with the

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, says the test is an early step in

developing a system that will enable cars to work with one another to figure out routes and

traffic space to save time and fuel and increase safety.

Google believes that despite any mishaps with autonomous features working their way into

vehicles now, completely self-driving vehicles will be safer and more convenient than cars

driven by humans.

"Look at all the people who don't have access to transportation today but still need to live their

lives," said Anthony Levandowski, head of Google's Self-Driving Car Project.

"There are a lot of opportunities for making cars safer, more convenient and more accessible,"

Levandowski said. "The fact that you have to drive your car all the time is kind of a bug in the

car itself."

Texting, for example, becomes safe when the car drives itself.

Google ran a trial with a blind person who usually spends two hours on public transit to go to

work. Google's experimental self-driving Prius — with a licensed driver at the controls for

backup — was able to drive the person to work in just 30 minutes.

Brin believes such cars could provide transport to blind people who can't drive or other

individuals who shouldn't drive.

"Some people have other disabilities, some people are too young, some people are too old,

sometimes we're too intoxicated," Brin said.

Businesses could find commercial applications for self-driving vehicles such as taxi services or

the delivery of pizza and other goods.

The Google team has about a dozen self-driving cars in operation — all with a human behind the

wheel ready to take over at any time. The cars have driven a combined 300,000 miles in varied

traffic conditions without any accidents while under computer control.

"It is very much like cruise control," Levandowski said. "When you want the machine to drive, it

will drive, but when you want you can grab the steering wheel or press the brake and the

command is directly back in your hands."

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The cars operate by using cameras, radars and lasers to digitize the world and create a three-

dimensional model inside the vehicle's computer memory to tell it what is going on around the

car.

"You then can create algorithms that dictate how the computer drives the vehicle," Levandowski

said.

Google has been funding the project on its own, thinking that it will eventually be able to license

or sell the technology.

"The business model that emerges out of this is yet to be figured out," Levandowski said.

The approach is not unlike what it did to create its core search engine. Google figured out later it

could be a powerful, revenue-generating advertising format, he said.

There are still many kinks to be worked out. The suite of sensors feeding data to the computer is

way too bulky and expensive to fit in a mass-produced car. The vehicles still have trouble

mastering snow-covered roads, spotting and understanding temporary construction signals and

handling other tricky situations.

The challenge is to make sure the sensors figuring out what the world looks like outside the car

don't get confused.

That's why General Motors chose New York's Brooklyn Bridge to test the autonomous functions

it is building into its new Cadillac XTS and ATS sedans.

GM engineer Jim Nickolaou said the bridge's "intricate metal design and traffic volume" helped

his team tune radar sensors to separate permanent objects such as cables and guardrails from

vehicle traffic.

"Metal structures can confuse some types of radar into sensing a vehicle or obstacle is

approaching, causing an unnecessary warning or action from the safety systems," he said.

GM and other automakers are taking incremental steps toward autonomous vehicles instead of

attempting Google's approach of building a vehicle that can operate entirely on autopilot.

"We can add more functions over time," said Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer of research

and innovation at Ford. "We need to keep the driver in control and bring those technologies to

the market in a way that is affordable."

jerry.hirsch@latimes.com

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Appendix F

Gain for Gorillas

The total world population of mountain gorillas is rising

November 14, 2012

By Cameron Keady

CYRIL RUOSO—MINDEN PICTURES

The critically endangered species lives only in two regions of Central Africa.

Endangered mountain gorillas are close biological cousins to humans. Over the

past decade, people have made an extra effort to help their fellow primates. And

now, the results are proving to be positive. According to new information released

by the Uganda Wildlife Authority and World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the total

world population of mountain gorillas has risen in the last two years from 786 to

880. While mountain gorillas still remain an endangered species, this increase is

largely thanks to the actions of conservationists. “Mountain gorillas are the only

great ape experiencing a population increase,” said David Greer, WWF’s African

Great Ape Program Manager. “This is largely due to intensive conservation efforts

and successful community engagement.”

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GETTY IMAGES Mountain gorillas live in communities of up to 30 individuals.

Strength in Numbers

In 2000, the total population of mountain gorillas was only 320 individuals. The

low number was a result of illegal hunting, habitat loss, and disease. Since then,

the number has risen, but slowly.

Mountain gorillas live in Rwanda, Uganda, and Democratic Republic of Congo—

all countries in central Africa. To ensure more protection and care, nearly half of

the existing population lives in a national park. Bwindi Impenetrable National

Park, located in the northern part of Rwanda, is home to 400 mountain

gorillas. They have formed 36 social groups and are led by 16 male gorillas. Ten

of these groups have become used to human presence from research and tourism.

Family Ties

Mountain gorillas are highly social creatures that live in a community

environment. Typically, mountain gorillas live in a group of about 30 individuals.

The leader is a dominant older male who organizes the group for hunting and

nesting. This male can weigh up to 500 pounds and stand nearly 6 feet tall. Often

he will have silver hair on his back, marking his senior age and dominance within

the group. Like any community, gorillas depend on one another. Now, they are

depending on humans to help keep them alive.

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Appendix G

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Appendix H

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Appendix I

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Appendix J

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Appendix K

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Appendix L

Mission: Space Jump

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner makes a record-breaking 24-mile jump from space

October 15, 2012

By Kelli Plasket with additional AP reporting

JAY NEMETH—RED BULL STRATOS/GETTY

IMAGES

Pilot and skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumps out of a

space capsule from an altitude of 128,100 feet during a

manned flight for Red Bull Stratos, on October 14.

Austrian Felix Baumgartner—a pilot, skydiver and high-altitude jumper with the nickname

“Fearless Felix”—has jumped from some of the world’s tallest bridges and buildings. But on

October 14, he made the jump of his lifetime from a space capsule 128,100 feet (about 24 miles)

above ground, a world record-breaking height. That distance put him on the edge of space in the

stratosphere, the second layer of Earth’s atmosphere.

PREDRAG VUCKOVIC—RED BULL STRATOS/GETTY IMAGES

A helium balloon launches from Roswell, New Mexico, to carry Baumgartner and the

Red Bull Stratos capsule up to space. It is the largest balloon ever used for a manned

flight.

Baumgartner, 42, also broke the record for fastest jump by reaching speeds up to 833.9 miles per

hour during his free fall back down to Earth. For comparison, an average Boeing 737 airliner

flies at 40,000 feet at 600 miles per hour. At a press conference following the event,

Baumgartner said the experience was humbling and harder than he expected. “Sometimes you

have to go up really high to understand how small you are,” Baumgartner said.

A Long Way Down

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Baumgartner and a team of scientists, engineers and doctors spent five years preparing and

training for the project, called Red Bull Stratos after the project’s sponsor. For the space jump,

Baumgartner wore a specially designed space suit and was carried up to his jump point by a large

helium balloon from inside the Red Bull Stratos space capsule.

Even with careful planning, the mission had some obstacles. The jump was first scheduled for

October 8, but it was postponed several times over the week because of weather conditions.

Baumgartner finally began the ascent from Roswell, New Mexico, on Sunday, October 14. But

on the way up, Baumgartner’s faceplate began to fog up, making it hard for him to see. The team

considered aborting the mission, but Baumgartner was able to fix the problem

BALAZS GARDI—RED BULL STRATOS/GETTY IMAGES

Baumgartner celebrates after successfully touching ground in New

Mexico following his 24-mile jump from space.

After a smooth initial jump, Baumgartner began to spin out of control while still in the

stratosphere, but he eventually steadied himself. After four minutes and 20 seconds of free fall—

with about a mile left to go in the jump—Baumgartner released his parachute and landed safely

in the desert of New Mexico. From Earth, eight million people watched the space jump event

live over a YouTube stream.

Breaking New Barriers

Baumgartner’s space jump made headlines for breaking two world records and for making him

the first human to break the sound barrier. That’s the speed at which sound waves are produced

in the air. But world records weren’t the projects’ only goals. Baumgartner wore a monitoring

system to help the crew gather scientific data from the jump. They hope the data will benefit

future private space programs and high-altitude pilots. “We’re going to spend a lot of time going

through that data. It’s going to break incredible new grounds,” Dr. Jonathan Clark, the project’s

medical director, said.

Joe Kittinger, a pilot who set the previous world records for highest and fastest fall over 50 years

ago, mentored Baumgartner for the jump. Kittinger still holds the record for longest free fall at

four minutes, 35 seconds. “Records are meant to be broken. And better champions cannot be

found than Felix Baumgartner,” Kittinger said.

With his own goals completed, Baumgartner hopes to mentor someone else to break the records.

“I want to inspire the next generation,” Baumgartner said.

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Appendix M

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Appendix N

Math Problems:

1. You are invited to go out for pizza with several friends. When you get there, your

friends are sitting in two separate groups. You can join either group. If you join the first

group, there will be a total of 4 people in the group and you will be sharing 6 small

pizzas.

If you join the second group, there will be a total of 6 people in the group and you will

be sharing 8 small pizzas.

If pizza will be shared equally in each group, and you are very hungry, which group

would you rather join?

Explain your choice.

2. Vincent made three dozen cookies for the student council bake sale. He wants to

package them in small bags with the same number of cookies in each bag.

a. List all the ways Vincent can package the cookies

b. If you were Vincent, how many cookies would you put in each bag? Why?

c. Vincent spent $5.40 on ingredients for the cookies. The student council will pay

him back for the money he spent. For each of the answers in part (a), determine

how much the student council should charge for each bag of cookies so they make

a profit, yet still get students to buy the cookies.

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Appendix O

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Appendix P

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Appendix Q