Reading with Relevance Implementation Guide

Reading with Relevance

Implementation Guide for JMCS

Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a Ph.D.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

We Beat the Street
The House on Mango Street

The Hunger Games

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 3
4
Awarding Credits Using Reading with Relevance 5
Keeping Track of Inventory 6
Before You Begin 7
General Facilitation 8
A Lesson at a Glance 11
Suggested Lesson Format 13
Sample Lesson for Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a PhD 15
Introductory Activities 17
19
Kate Kinsella Vocabulary Model 21
Frayer Vocabulary Model 22
Vocabulary’s CODE from The Core Six 23
Common Latin Roots 24
Common Greek Roots 25
Which Words Do I Teach and How? – A Visual Guide 28
Which Words Do I Teach and How? 31
Reading Aloud 34
“11 Alternatives to Round Robin and Popcorn Reading” 38
Challenging Higher-Level Readers 40
“50 Alternatives to the Book Report” 42
Supporting Lower-Level Readers
“Think Alouds: Modeling What Good Readers Do” 43
Heterogeneous Versus Homogeneous Reading Groups
“Grouping Students: Heterogeneous, Homogeneous and 44
Random Structures” 46
Reading for Meaning: Activity from The Core Six 48
Discussion 54
“The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies”
Circle of Knowledge: Activity from The Core Six 55
“Language Strategies for Active Classroom
Participation” 56
Going Deeper with Questioning 57
Deeper Question Stems 58
Journal 60
Extension Activities 62
Essay and Appendix 64
Graphic Organizer for Essay Preparation 65
Basic 5 Paragraph Essay Graphic Organizer 66
LDC Task Templates for Grades 6-12 68
Optional Demands for Adding Rigor to Teaching Tasks
2
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AWARDING CREDITS USING READING WITH RELEVANCE
*Each session is worth 0.25 credits for complete participation:
This may vary depending on the depth of each activity. If you choose to go deeper with a discussion, a journal
prompt or the vocabulary, for example, you may assign additional credit.

Each session includes –

 Vocabulary
 Reading participation
 Discussion participation
 Journal prompt
 Quizzes, midpoint reviews and tests are included in session participation

*Each vocabulary extension using one of the suggested graphic organizer may be worth 0.05 credits per word

*Each extension activity may be worth 0.05 – 0.1 credits depending on the depth of the assignment and student
work.

*Each completed process essay may be worth up to 1 credit:

 Graphic organizer (provided in this guide) = 0.25
 Outline = 0.25
 Rough draft = 0.25
 Typed final draft with completed editing/revising checklist = 0.25

ACTIVITY CREDITS
Complete session participation
0.25
Vocabulary extension 0.05 per word
0.05 – 0.1
Extension activity 1

Completed process essay 2.9 total credits
EXAMPLE:
A student completes the following for Street Life:

 7 sessions of full participation
 3 extension activities
 Completed process essay

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KEEPING TRACK OF INVENTORY
You are required to maintain proper inventory upon receipt of all Reading with Relevance materials.
Items to be inventoried are:

 Teachers’ guides
 Student copies of books
Upon receipt of materials, please follow these procedures:
1. Request “Property of JMCS” inventory labels from Amanda Armitage (email

[email protected]).

2. Upon receipt of the inventory labels, label your teacher’s guide.

3. Upon receipt of the inventory labels, label all student books.

4. Update your site inventory with the teachers’ guides and student books you’ve received by going to the
JMCS Dashboard > Inventory > Add new inventory page. All items fall under the category of “books”.

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SUGGESTED LESSON FORMAT
I. Set the Lesson Objective: What will students DO and PRODUCE today? What is the theme

for the day?
a. What will students do today?
b. What will they produce to demonstrate they’ve learned it?
c. What is the social and emotional theme for the day and what will students reflect on?

II. Introductory Activities (5 min)

*Students should have a dedicated Reading with Relevance journal or composition book in which
to complete all written activities. This will facilitate grading and tracking of assignments.
a. Vocabulary

i. Write 2-3 new vocabulary words on the board
ii. Students copy down the words in their journals

iii. Create a shared definition for each word and write it on the board while students record it
in their journals

iv. EXTENSION: Choose 1 word and complete the Kate Kinsella or Frayer model organizer

v. Place the 2-3 words on your classroom word wall after the session is over and encourage
students to use these words on a regular basis in their speaking and writing

b. Recap and Predictions
i. Ask a student to summarize the reading so far
ii. Ask for 2-3 predictions for today’s reading based on the title of the upcoming chapters

c. Highlight the Day’s Theme

i. Introduce the social/emotional theme for the day
ii. Ask a few students to share any personal connections they may have with this theme
d. Discussion Questions
i. Hand out the discussion questions and read through them together as a class

*SPOILER ALERT: Preview the questions before the day’s class! If they will give away
a major plot twist or an anticipated ending, think of ways to guide the focus of the
reading towards the questions without giving the actual questions ahead of time.

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III. Reading Aloud (30 min)

a. For the first 1-2 sessions of every new book, the instructor should consider reading the entire
session aloud. This allows students to become comfortable with the story and exposes them to
fluent reading.

b. Choose one of the reading aloud strategies from the “11 Alternatives to Round Robin” article in
this guide and begin reading.

c. Do not force students to read aloud. Encourage and support all students who wish to read.

d. Allow students to take notes on the discussion questions as the answers come up or jot down
page numbers where they may find the answers afterwards, but do not stop to discuss the
questions whole class during the reading.

e. Keep track of your time and take over the reading when you need to in order to stay within the
time frame.

IV. Discussion (10 min)

a. For each discussion question, have students pair/share with a partner first and then share whole
class. This way all voices get heard.

b. Call on different students for each question. Do not allow one student to dominate, although
they may always contribute to the discussion after others have had their say.

c. EXTENSION: Choose an alternative discussion strategy from “The Big List of Class Discussion
Strategies” in this guide.

V. Journal (10 min)

a. Write or project both journal prompts on the board.

b. Allow students to choose which prompt to answer.
c. Give students freedom to write as they please – do not worry about grammar, spelling or proper

structure. This is a free-write.

d. Provide sentence starters and/or sentence frames for struggling writers or for students who have
difficulty getting started.

e. Do not force students to share their writing. This is personal and a safe activity for expression.

f. EXTENSIONS: Students may type their response after handwriting it and work on computer
skills. Students may revise their prompt and practice editing and revision skills after their initial
free-write.

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VI. Extension Activity (5 min)

a. Do this if you have time.

b. Give this as an activity for your early finishers (and allow all to complete it for homework).

c. Use this to fill time later in the day if you need to but make sure the activity is used before the
next day’s reading. It is not meant to occur after the next session but as part of the current
session.

VII. Essay Preparation (20 min every other session)

a. Every other reading session, give students the graphic organizer they will use to help them
prepare for their essay.

b. Provide 20 minutes for students to review the essay prompts, review the reading so far and fill in
evidence they would use for responding to the prompts.

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SAMPLE LESSON for Street Life: Poverty, Gangs, and a Ph.D.

SESSION ONE

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Project or write on board for students to see
Today you will begin a new book and read pages 1-15, understanding the story and learning 3 vocabulary
words. You will also learn about metaphors. You will demonstrate your learning by completing a
vocabulary exercise, answering discussion questions and creating a metaphor for your life.

Today’s theme relates to expectations and obstacles.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES: 5 minutes
Write these words on the board and have a class discussion about their meaning:

a. transmits
b. fatalistic
c. debilitating

Create a shared definition for each word and write it on the board. Students copy the definition into their
journal.

Read the title of the book and ask a few students to predict what the book will be about and why they think
that.

Remind students of the social and emotional theme for the day. Ask them to take a minute to think about
what others expect from them, what obstacles they face and how they overcome these obstacles. Have 1-2
students share.

Hand out or project the discussion questions and read through them together as a class. Tell students they
may jot down short answers or accompanying page numbers as you read but you will not answer them until
the end of the reading.

READING ALOUD: 30 minutes
Pass out copies of the book to each student (if needed, students may partner up). Because this is the first
session, you (the teacher) should read the entire session aloud and ask students to follow along.

DISCUSSION: 10 minutes
After reading, give students 3 minutes to answer the discussion questions on their own. Then have them
partner up and share answers, finishing the discussion questions. Finish this session by calling on 1-2 students
to answer each question.

JOURNAL: 10 minutes
Hand out or project both journal prompts. Tell students this is like a free write. They should focus on
sharing their thoughts and getting their words on paper, not on spelling and grammar. After 10 minutes of
writing, ask for volunteers only to share their responses.

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EXTENSION ACTIVITY: 5 minutes to introduce, give as homework
Have students return to the opening line of the book and re-read it. What does Dr. Rios mean by this line, “I
am a rose that grew from concrete”? Explain the concept of a metaphor and how this example is a metaphor.

Have students think about an idea or an image that defines them and create a metaphor for their life, using the
handout “My Metaphors”. Ask them to write about why that metaphor defines them.

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INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITIES
10% of your lesson time (or 5 minutes in a 60 minute lesson)
RECAP THE STORY AND MAKE PREDICTIONS

 Reviewing what has been read should be very brief. You can guide this by reviewing specific
characters, plot occurrences or asking specific questions regarding what students should remember.

 Use the title of the upcoming chapter to have students make a prediction about what they might read
today.

VOCABULARY TIPS AND RESOURCES

*Keep vocabulary simple! Choose 2-3 words to teach for each session.

 Write word on the board
 Discuss and define together
 Students write word and definition in journal
 Put words up on a Word Wall in your classroom and encourage regular use

*Want to go deeper with vocabulary?

 Students complete either Frayer model or Kate Kinsella model for each word you’ve chosen to teach
from the session (see next pages for templates).
o For lower-level students, use the Kate Kinsella model as it is less intense

 Choose from the list of CODE activities from The Core Six (see next pages for activity ideas).
 Have students identify the Latin and Greek roots of words using the charts included in this section.

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WORD Kate Kinsella Vocabulary Model
PICTURE

_________________________________
OTHER FORMS OF THE WORD

_________________________________ _________________________________

Synonym Antonym

IN MY OWN WORDS:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

SENTENCE:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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SAMPLE: Kate Kinsella Vocabulary Model

WORD PICTURE
FATALISTIC

OTHER FORMS OF THE WORD
FATAL

FATALIST
FATALISM

___________PESSIMIST_________ ____________OPTIMIST______________

Synonym Antonym

IN MY OWN WORDS:

Fatalistic means to think negatively about things and to feel like nothing will ever turn out right.

SENTENCE:

She had a fatalistic view of her future and felt like she would never reach her goals.

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Frayer Vocabulary Model

DEFINITION: CHARACTERISTICS:

WORD

EXAMPLES: NON-EXAMPLES:

OTHER FORMS OF THE WORD:
__________________________________________________________________________________________
SENTENCE:

__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

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SAMPLE: Frayer Vocabulary Model CHARACTERISTICS:
Negative
DEFINITION: Pessimist
To accept things as they are; to submit to Quitting
fate
Fixed mindset

EXAMPLES: WORD NON-EXAMPLES:
FATALISTIC

Quitting track because you can’t Going to track practice every
run fast enough and don’t feel you’ll day because you know you will get better
ever improve
over time
Not studying for your math test because
you always do poorly anyway Studying hard for your math test and
working with a tutor to help you with the
trickiest problems because you believe you

can learn it

OTHER FORMS OF THE WORD:

Fatal, fatalism, fatalist
SENTENCE:

She was fatalistic about her ability to earn a college degree since no one in her family had ever done it
before.

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Vocabulary’s CODE: Activities from The Core Six
Connect Organize Deep-Process Exercise

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Latin Root Common Latin Roots Example
ambiguous, ambidextrous
ambi Definition
aqua aquarium, aquamarine
aud both audience, audition
bene water
cent to hear benefactor, benevolent
circum good century, percent
contra/counter one hundred
dict around circumference, circumstance
duc/duct against contradict, encounter
fac to say dictation, dictator
form to lead conduct, induce
fort to do; to make factory, manufacture
fract shape conform, reform
ject strength fortitude, fortress
jud break fracture, fraction
mal throw projection, rejection
mater judge judicial, prejudice
mit bad malevolent, malefactor
mort mother maternal, maternity
multi to send transmit, admit
pater death mortal, mortician
port many multimedia, multiple
rupt father paternal, paternity
scrib/script to carry portable, transportation
sect/sec to break bankrupt, disruption
sent to write inscription, prescribe
spect to cut bisect, section
struct to feel; to send consent, resent
vid/vis to look inspection, spectator
voc to build destruction, restructure
to see televise, video
voice; to call vocalize, advocate

Reproduced with permission from Corwin Press. 21

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Greek Root Common Greek Roots Example
anthropo anthropologist, philanthropy
auto Definition autobiography, automobile
bio man; human; humanity
chron biology, biography
dyna self chronological, chronic
dys life
gram time dynamic, dynamite
graph power dysfunctional, dyslexic
hetero bad; hard; unlucky
homo thing written epigram, telegram
hydr writing graphic, phonograph
hyper different heteronym, heterogeneous
hypo same homonym, homogenous
logy water hydration, dehydrate
meter/metr over; above; beyond hyperactive, hyperbole
micro below; beneath hypothermia, hypothetical
mis/miso study of biology, psychology
mono measure thermometer, perimeter
morph small microbe, microscope
nym hate misanthrope, misogyny
phil one monologue, monotonous
phobia form; shape morphology, morphing
photo/phos name antonym, synonym
pseudo love philanthropist, philosophy
psycho fear claustrophobia, phobic
scope light photograph, phosphorous
techno false pseudonym, pseudoscience
tele soul; spirit psychology, psychic
therm viewing instrument microscope, telescope
art; science; skill technique, technological
far off television, telephone
heat thermal, thermometer

Reproduced with permission from Corwin Press. 22

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Which Words Do I Teach and How? – A Visual Guide

TIER THREE WORDS

Must be taught explicitly and repeatedly
Found in informational text
Specific to a domain of study

Generally explained in the text
Students have not normally been exposed to these words
Examples: economics, isotope, amino acid, axis, deposition

TIER TWO WORDS

Should be taught explicitly and repeatedly
Words not common to everyday speech
Characteristic of mature language users

Academic words that appear in literary and informational texts
May have multiple meanings

May require understanding roots, prefixes and suffixes
Examples: masterpiece, fortunate, industrious, benevolent

TIER ONE WORDS

Do not need to be pre-taught but can be taught in the moment
Words common to everyday speech

Generally learned through conversation
Examples: run, dog, orange, study, animal, law

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Which Words Do I Teach and How?

Excerpted from The Significance of Vocabulary in the Common Core State Standards for ELA/Literacy
David Liben - Student Achievement Partners, Winter 2013

…Words that can be quickly explained should be explained in the moment of encounter. This often includes concrete
words, words with single meanings, and words reflecting meaning or shades of meaning that are part of the students’
experiences. The explanation will enhance and not impede comprehension because it was swift and unobtrusive
(Biemiller 2010). Words that need more explanation will ideally be taught in context, and then reinforced after, as these
explanations will be more elaborate and time-consuming (Beck McKeown and Kucan 2007, Biemiller 2007). This
includes words that are abstract, words with multiple related meanings, and words reflecting meanings or shades of
meaning that are likely not part of the students’ experience.

Understanding how words are classified into tiers can help educators plan effective vocabulary instruction. All text can be
broken down into three tiers of words (Beck and McKeown 2002), each with its own implications for instruction:

Tier one words are the words of everyday speech usually learned in the early grades, though not at the same rate
by all children (Biemiller 2007). These words are extremely important to early learning, but because they are
learned largely through conversational language, they are not often considered challenging beyond the early
grades. (Biemiller’s work shows us that though many students learn these words in the elementary years, lower
income students learn them later, thus slowing their vocabulary growth and making catching up to their more
affluent peers extremely difficult…)

Tier two words are “words that characterize written and especially academic text—but are not so common in
everyday conversation” (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan 2008). Tier two words appear in all sorts of texts:
academic texts (relative, vary, formulate, specificity, accumulate), technical writing (calibrate, itemize, structure),
and literary texts (misfortune, dignified, saunter, faltered, unabashedly). Tier two words are far more likely to
appear in written texts than in speech. The Standards refer to tier two words as academic vocabulary. These words
require particular instructional attention as they are often vital to comprehension, reappear in many texts, and
frequently are part of a word family or semantic network. The challenge to teachers is to be alert to the presence
of tier two words, determine which ones need to be taught, and which words deserve more time and effort for
richer understanding. Tier two words can carry disproportionate weight in conveying the meaning of a text, and a
reader who doesn’t understand even a single such weighty word might have his or her comprehension thrown off
track. This is equally true of informational and literary text. For these reasons, the CCSS demand significant
instructional attention to these words. Instruction of tier two words might begin with carefully looking at the key
role these words play in the text (followed by examining the variety and shades of meaning for each of these
words). This in turn would be followed by careful attention to the spelling, pronunciation, and morphology of the
words so they can become a firm part of the students’ vocabulary. This focus on precise meanings in varied
contexts, combined with morphology, will also provide necessary repetitions...

Tier three words are far more common in informational passages than in literature. They are specific to a domain
or field of study (lava, fuel injection, legislature, circumference, aorta) and key to understanding a new concept
within the text. Because of their specificity, tier three words are often explicitly defined by the text and repeatedly
used. Thus, the author of the text takes care to have the text itself provide much support in the learning of tier
three words. In addition, as they are the words that contain the ideas necessary to a new topic, teachers often
define and reinforce tier three words prior to and after students encounter them in a text. Therefore, students’
acquisition of tier three words is generally encouraged by teachers as they know that the student has likely not
encountered these terms before.

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READING ALOUD
40% of your lesson time (or 25 minutes in a 60 minute lesson)
GENERAL NOTES ON READING ALOUD:

* For the first 1-2 sessions of every new book, the instructor should consider reading the entire session aloud.
This allows students to become comfortable with the story and exposes them to fluent reading.

* Listening to fluent readers read aloud helps build fluency, engagement and listening comprehension skills.

* If students are reading aloud, they must be supported by a safe and respectful environment. If they do not feel
safe and comfortable, reading aloud will be harmful instead of helpful.

* Reading aloud is important for all students to do in order to build fluency and stamina. If a whole class setting
is not a safe environment, create small groups or other opportunities for students to read aloud comfortably.

* If the class is structured as small reading groups, the teacher and career pathways coach should spend time
listening to and reading with each group as much as possible. Teachers and coaches should be actively engaged
with each group every week. See the section titled "Heterogeneous Versus Homogeneous Reading Groups" that
follows.

*In addition to the structure recommended by Reading with Relevance (which is recommended for small
reading groups with an instructor), the following pages contain some additional research on reading with
students and some strategies for reading a text with a larger class. (Keep in mind different strategies will work
with different groups of students! Your students might love or hate a strategy, so change it up as you see fit.)

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“11 Alternatives to "Round Robin" (and "Popcorn") Reading”

DECEMBER 1, 2014 WWW.EDUTOPIA.ORG

Round Robin Reading (RRR) has been a classroom staple for over 200 years and an activity that over half of K-
8 teachers report using in one of its many forms, such as Popcorn Reading. RRR's popularity endures, despite
overwhelming criticism that the practice is ineffective for its stated purpose: enhancing fluency, word decoding,
and comprehension. Cecile Somme echoes that perspective in Popcorn Reading: The Need to Encourage
Reflective Practice: "Popcorn reading is one of the sure-fire ways to get kids who are already hesitant
about reading to really hate reading."

Facts About Round Robin Reading
In RRR, students read orally from a common text, one child after another, while the rest of the class follows
along in their copies of the text. Several spinoffs of the technique offer negligible advantages over RRR, if any.
They simply differ in how the reading transition occurs:

 Popcorn Reading: A student reads orally for a time, and then calls out "popcorn" before selecting another
student in class to read.

 Combat Reading: A kid nominates a classmate to read in the attempt to catch a peer off task, explains
Gwynne Ash and Melanie Kuhn in their chapter of Fluency Instruction: Research-Based Best
Practices (PDF, 177KB).

 Popsicle Stick Reading: Student names are written on Popsicle sticks and placed in a can. The learner whose
name is drawn reads next.

 Touch Go Reading: As described by Professor Cecile Somme, the instructor taps a child when it's his or her
turn to read.

Of the thirty-odd studies and articles I've consumed on the subject, only one graduate research paper claimed a
benefit to RRR or its variations, stating tepidly that perhaps RRR isn't as awful as everyone says. Katherine
Hilden and Jennifer Jones' criticism is unmitigated: “We know of no research evidence that supports the claim
that RRR actually contributes to students becoming better readers, either in terms of their fluency or
comprehension." (PDF, 271KB)

Why all the harshitude? Because Round Robin Reading . . .

 Stigmatizes poor readers. Imagine the terror that English-language learners and struggling readers face
when made to read in front of an entire class.

 Weakens comprehension. Listening to a peer orally read too slowly, too fast, or too haltingly weakens
learners' comprehension -- a problem exacerbated by turn-taking interruptions. (PDF, 177KB)

 Sabotages fluency and pronunciation. Struggling readers model poor fluency skills and pronunciation.
When instructors correct errors, fluency is further compromised.

To be clear, oral reading does improve fluency, comprehension and word recognition (though
silent/independent reading should occur far more frequently as students advance into the later grades).

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Fortunately, other oral reading activities offer significant advantages over RRR and its cousins. As you'll see in
the list below, many of them share similar features.

11 Better Approaches

1. Choral Reading
The teacher and class read a passage aloud together, minimizing struggling readers' public exposure. In a 2011
study of over a hundred sixth graders (PDF, 232KB), David Paige found that 16 minutes of whole-class choral
reading per week enhanced decoding and fluency. In another version, every time the instructor omits a word
during her oral reading, students say the word all together.

2. Partner Reading
Two-person student teams alternate reading aloud, switching each time there is a new paragraph. Or they can
read each section at the same time.

3. PALS
The Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS) exercises pair strong and weak readers who take turns reading,
re-reading, and retelling. (PDF, 177KB)

4. Silent Reading
For added scaffolding, frontload silent individual reading with vocabulary instruction, a plot overview,
an anticipation guide, or KWL+ activity.

5. Teacher Read Aloud
This activity, says Julie Adams of Adams Educational Consulting, is "perhaps one of the most effective
methods for improving student fluency and comprehension, as the teacher is the expert in reading the text and
models how a skilled reader reads using appropriate pacing and prosody (inflection)." Playing
an audiobook achieves similar results.

6. Echo Reading
Students "echo" back what the teacher reads, mimicking her pacing and inflections.

7. Shared Reading/Modeling
By reading aloud while students follow along in their own books, the instructor models fluency, pausing
occasionally to demonstrate comprehension strategies. (PDF, 551KB)

8. The Crazy Professor Reading Game
Chris Biffle's Crazy Professor Reading Game video (start watching at 1:49) is more entertaining than home
movies of Blue Ivy. To bring the text to life, students . . .

 Read orally with hysterical enthusiasm
 Reread with dramatic hand gestures

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 Partner up with a super-stoked question asker and answerer
 Play "crazy professor" and "eager student" in a hyped-up overview of the text.

9. Buddy Reading
Kids practice orally reading a text in preparation for reading to an assigned buddy in an earlier grade.

10. Timed Repeat Readings
This activity can aid fluency, according to literacy professors Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones (PDF,
271KB). After an instructor reads (with expression) a short text selection appropriate to students' reading level
(90-95 percent accuracy), learners read the passage silently, then again loudly, quickly, and dynamically.
Another kid graphs the times and errors so that children can track their growth.

11. FORI
With Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI), primary students read the same section of a text many
times over the course of a week (PDF, 54KB). Here are the steps:

1. The teacher reads aloud while students follow along in their books.
2. Students echo read.
3. Students choral read.
4. Students partner read.
5. The text is taken home if more practice is required, and extension activities can be integrated during the

week.

I hope that the activities described above -- in addition to other well-regarded strategies, like reciprocal
teaching, reader's theater, and radio reading -- can serve as simple replacements to Round Robin Reading in
your classroom.

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Challenging Higher-Level Readers
IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE HIGH-LEVEL READERS:

 Have them form a book club following these guidelines:
o They will read the same book as the rest of the class.
o They will read as their own group, away from the whole class reading.
o They will read at their own pace within their group.
o They will maintain the same group for the duration of the book.

 Structure of the book club:
o The group reads the same pages that the rest of the class is reading.
o They use the discussion questions from the teacher’s guide as their group discussion questions
(these are still given to students before reading starts).
o In their group, they read together each session. This is not a silent reading group.
o They may decide how to use the discussion questions: as they go or once the reading is finished.
o Once they’ve read and discussed, they complete a written reflection in their journals for the day’s
session:
 PART ONE – Self-reflection:
 What went well in your reading group today?
 What was something you did to help things go smoothly or not?
 What can you work on improving next time?
 PART TWO – Reflection on one discussion question:
 Write a paragraph response to one discussion question of your choice
o Your own response to the question
o What others discussed during the whole group discussion
o Your response to others

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 If students in this book club are constantly finishing early or want to go deeper with the book, have them
complete an individual project of their choice that aligns with one or more of the book’s major themes.
See the Generic Project Options list in your Benchmark Course Outlines manual for some options. You
may also refer to “50 Alternatives to the Book Report” that is included in this guide for other ideas.

IF YOU HAVE A SINGLE STUDENT WHO IS A HIGH-LEVEL READER:

 OPTION 1 –
o They read the same book as the class but at their own pace.

o For each session they read on their own, they complete the discussion questions in their journals
as a writing assignment. They also take notes for their final essay as they go, using the graphic
organizer provided at the end of this guide.

o When they finish with the book, they work on an extension project of their choice. See the
Generic Project Options list in your Benchmark Course Outlines manual for some options. You
may also refer to “50 Alternatives to the Book Report” that is included in this guide for other
ideas.

 OPTION 2 –

o Allow them to read the same book at the same pace as the rest of the class but on their own (in a
separate location, a quiet spot away from the whole class reading).

o Give them the discussion questions ahead of each day’s reading just as you do for the rest of the
class.

o After reading, they should complete a written reflection in their journals for each day’s session:
 PART ONE – Self-reflection:

 What went well in your reading today?

 What can you work on improving next time or how can you challenge yourself
the next time you read?

 PART TWO – Reflection on one discussion question:

 Write a paragraph response to one discussion question of your choice

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o Your own response to the question

o Additional thoughts or questions about the question

o They should participate in all class discussions after reading, despite what they read for the day.

o They may also choose to work on an additional project for the book to receive extra credits if
they continually finish ahead of time. See the Generic Project Options list in your Benchmark
Course Outlines manual for some options. You may also refer to “50 Alternatives to the Book
Report” that is included in this guide for other ideas.

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Supporting Lower-Level Readers

 For detailed information on supporting struggling readers visit this site:
http://www.rtinetwork.org/essential/tieredinstruction/tier1/effectiveteaching

 Struggling readers will best be supported in a structured, supportive reading group as opposed to
participating in a whole class reading format.

IF YOU HAVE MULTIPLE LOWER-LEVEL READERS:

 Form a reading group with these students that can be led by you or your career pathways coach. You
may run multiple groups depending on reading levels, each with a different focus.

 Meet with this reading group for each reading session (they will work with you separately from the rest
of the class – this means you will have to block out time to work with them as well as time to read and
run the session with the rest of the class).

 During your reading group, follow the same general reading process that you normally would:
o Introductory Activities –
 Highlight new vocabulary words
 Recap the story so far
 Make predictions about today’s reading
 Highlight the day’s theme and ask students for personal connections to the theme
(volunteer sharing)
 Hand out and review the discussion questions that you will focus on later
o Reading Aloud –
 You may begin by highlighting difficult words that students will encounter in the chapter
 Share them on a white board, pronounce them together
 Focus on using one reading comprehension strategy at a time
 Visualizing, making connections, questioning, inferring, determining importance,
synthesizing
 Focus reading time on using one of the above strategies – introduce the strategy to
students before reading and guide their use of the strategy while reading
o Ex. “Today we are going to practice visualizing while we read. When we
visualize, we create scenes from the book in our head as if we were
watching a movie. This helps us pay attention to details as we read.”

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o Stop every few pages and ask students to share or draw a
visualization/question/inference/etc…

 Students should each read a paragraph at a time as time allows, but if you need to take
over the reading to stay on track with time, do so.

o If this group of students will be present during the regular lesson with the rest of the class,
dismiss them at this point. If not, continue with the discussion questions and the journal prompt
within your small group.

IF YOU HAVE A SINGLE LOW-LEVEL READER:

 Provide this student with support prior to the whole class lesson, which they will also participate in.
 Pull the student for 5-10 minutes before starting the lesson:

o Preview the reading: who/what/why/when/where will the reading be about? What will happen in
this chapter? Give the student an overall summary and don’t keep any secrets.

o Preview 2-3 difficult words: introduce them, pronounce them, discuss their meaning and find
them in the text

o Give them the day’s discussion questions and preview those together as well
 Allow this student to skip reading aloud unless they want to. Your goal is to support their development,

not increase their anxiety. They must still be held accountable for following along.
 They will participate in the rest of the lesson just the same as all other students.

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Think Alouds: Modeling What Good Readers Do

*Reading a book aloud with your students is the perfect opportunity to model what good readers do. Here is
more information on how to do a think aloud while reading aloud:

Think-alouds

from http://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think_alouds

Think-alouds have been described as "eavesdropping on someone's thinking." With this strategy, teachers
verbalize aloud while reading a selection orally. Their verbalizations include describing things they're doing as
they read to monitor their comprehension. The purpose of the think-aloud strategy is to model for students how
skilled readers construct meaning from a text. Watch think-alouds in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi7RfnlkTL4#t=41

Why use think-alouds?

 It helps students learn to monitor their thinking as they read and improves their comprehension.

 It teaches students to re-read a sentence, read ahead to clarify, and/or look for context clues to make sense of
what they read.

 It slows down the reading process and allows students to monitor their understanding of a text.

How to use think-alouds

1. Begin by modeling this strategy. Model your thinking as you read. Do this at points in the text that may be
confusing for students (new vocabulary, unusual sentence construction).

2. Introduce the assigned text and discuss the purpose of the Think-Aloud strategy. Develop the set of questions to
support thinking aloud (see examples below).

o What do I know about this topic?

o What do I think I will learn about this topic?

o Do I understand what I just read?

o Do I have a clear picture in my head about this information?

o What more can I do to understand this?

o What were the most important points in this reading?

o What new information did I learn?

o How does it fit in with what I already know?

3. Give students opportunities to practice the technique, and offer structured feedback to students.

4. Read the selected passage aloud as the students read the same text silently. At certain points stop and think
aloud the answers to some of the pre-selected questions.

5. Demonstrate how good readers monitor their understanding by rereading a sentence, reading ahead to clarify,
and/or looking for context clues. Students then learn to offer answers to the questions as the teacher leads the
think-aloud.

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*Give students this checklist to use during your think aloud to encourage active participation:

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Heterogeneous Versus Homogeneous Reading Groups
*If you’d like to have your students read the book in small groups, consider the following:

Homogeneous Groups…

 Should be fluid and constantly changing, not permanent (may change from book to book, but should not
change from session to session within a book)

 Should have regular instructional meeting time with the teacher to increase skills
 Should be skill-based and skill-focused
 Can lead to stigmatization and low expectations if not implemented correctly

Heterogeneous Groups…

 Should include high, middle and low skill-level students
 Provide rich experiences to learn from one another
 Can be used for any activity

*If you choose to run small reading groups, this should be organized as a Reader’s Workshop or Guided
Reading model:

Reader’s Workshop
 Teacher teaches mini-lesson on one specific reading comprehension strategy students should practice (5-
10 min)
o Teacher introduces strategy
o Teacher models strategy for whole class with short piece of text
o Teacher explains how the strategy helps with comprehension
 Students break into groups to read book and teacher spends time reading and checking in with each
group
 Students complete individual reflection on the strategy used – how they used it, how effective it was

Guided Reading
 Students are grouped according to reading level
 Teacher meets with each group separately to read each session
 Groups focus on reading comprehension skills according to the group’s needs
 Follow the model described in the above section “If you have multiple lower-level readers”. Modify it
to challenge your higher level readers that you meet with as well.

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“Grouping students: Heterogeneous, homogeneous and random structures” by Erick Herrmann

“…Both heterogeneous and homogeneous groupings have their place in the classroom. The general
recommendation is to use heterogeneous groupings as a default. Seat students near peers that vary in levels of
achievement, proficiency, gender, etc.

For example, consider seating students in groups of four. These groups can be seated in a variety of formats:
four students at a small table, four desks pushed together, or students seated in rows that have been designated
as a small group that will work together in specific scenarios.

These heterogeneous groups should include one student that is high achieving, two students that achieve at an
average level and one student that is lower achieving. The idea is that each student benefits from having the
other students in the group. The richness of ideas and perspectives, as well as the shared learning help to benefit
each student in the group.

Students in these groups can work together on a variety of tasks, including reading to each other, working with
cooperative learning structures or group projects, as well as working independently. The teacher can then pull
homogeneous groups of students for a variety of purposes.

Homogeneous groupings are a great way to help specific students with skills they need to work on. For
example, you may have a group of high-achieving students come together to review their writing and expand on
a particular aspect that you are working on, such as adding a counter claim to argumentative writing, increasing
the number of citations, adding depth or details to the setting or characters, etc.

Another groups of students may need clarification on a particular skill in math. You might pull together a group
of English learners with a particular proficiency level to preteach vocabulary. There are many reasons you could
and should create homogeneous groupings.

It is important to keep in mind that these groups should be flexible groupings; students can enter and exit these
groupings for a variety of reasons. Homogeneous groupings should reflect a particular need of the group of
students. Because students have varying strengths and areas of need, these groupings should change to reflect
those needs or strengths…”

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Reading for Meaning: Activity from The Core Six
*If you’d like to add in more rigor and reading comprehension practice while reading aloud, use this strategy
(excerpted from The Core Six):

1. Identify a short text that you want students to "read for meaning." Any kind of text is fine—a poem, an
article, a blog post, a primary document, a fable, or a scene from a play. Mathematical word problems, data
charts, and visual sources like paintings and photographs also work well. The "Other Considerations"
section of this chapter (p. 15) provides more details on non-textual applications.

2. Generate a list of statements about the text. Students will ultimately search the text for evidence that
supports or refutes each statement. Statements can be objectively true or false, or they can be open to
interpretation and designed to provoke discussion and debate. They can be customized to fit whichever
skills, standards, or objectives you're working on—for example, identifying main ideas or analyzing
characters and ideas. (See Figure 1.2 on page 14 for details.)

3. Introduce the topic of the text and have students preview the statements before they begin reading.
Encourage students to think about what they already know about the topic and to use the statements to
make some predictions about the text.

4. Have students record evidence for and against each statement while (or after) they read.
5. Have students discuss their evidence in pairs or small groups. Encourage groups to reach consensus about

which statements are supported and which are refuted by the text. If they are stuck, have them rewrite any
problematic statements in a way that enables them to reach consensus.
6. Conduct a whole-class discussion in which students share and justify their positions. If necessary, help
students clarify their thinking and call their attention to evidence that they might have missed or
misinterpreted.
7. Use students' responses to evaluate their understanding of the reading and their ability to support a position
with evidence.

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Reading for Meaning Graphic Organizer

Evidence For (True) Statement Evidence Against (False)

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DISCUSSION
20% of your lesson time (or 10 minutes in a 60 minute lesson)
 The discussion questions should be written on the board and/or handed out to students before reading.
*Read the spoiler notice on the Suggested Lesson Format page at the beginning of this guide!
 Take time to review the questions before reading aloud.
 Previewing the questions will help to focus the reading and give students “look fors” while they are
reading.
 Using a think-pair-share model will ensure all students are able to contribute their thoughts and will
prepare students for a larger whole class discussion.
 Posting the sentence frames from “Language Strategies for Active Classroom Participation” (page 50)
will increase the quality of classroom discussions and provide students with academic discussion frames
to guide their conversations.
 Use 1-2 questions as an exit slip to ensure individual student comprehension. If students answer the
questions wrong, examine the reading format you’re using to ensure all students are supported and held
accountable for understanding and participating.

*Want to go deeper with the discussion questions?

 Have students take notes while reading and write down supporting quotes as evidence for their answers
to each question.

 Use these questions as practice for writing complete sentences and/or complete paragraphs.
 Have students choose one question they want to explore after the discussion is over. They write their

answer as a complete paragraph with a topic sentence and a concluding sentence.
 Use the questions as a discussion guide for small group work. *See the research provided in the Reading

Aloud section on setting up heterogeneous vs. homogeneous reading groups.

*Want to take the discussion deeper? On the following pages is a comprehensive list of discussion strategies
as well as The Core Six strategy “Circle of Knowledge”.

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The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Jennifer Gonzalez http://www.cultofpedagogy.com/speaking-listening-techniques/

Higher-Prep Discussion Strategies

Gallery Walk

a.k.a. Chat Stations

Basic Structure: Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of
students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either
of which will result in a conversation.

Variations: Some Gallery Walks stay true to the term gallery, where groups of students create informative
posters, then act as tour guides or docents, giving other students a short presentation about their poster and
conducting a Q&A about it. In Starr Sackstein’s high school classroom, her stations consisted of video tutorials
created by the students themselves. Before I knew the term Gallery Walk, I shared a strategy similar to it
called Chat Stations, where the teacher prepares discussion prompts or content-related tasks and sets them up
around the room for students to visit in small groups.

Philosophical Chairs

a.k.a. Values Continuum, Forced Debate, Physical Barometer, This or That
Basic Structure: A statement that has two possible responses—agree or disagree—is read out loud. Depending
on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. From
that spot, students take turns defending their positions.

Variations: Often a Philosophical Chairs debate will be based around a text or group of texts students have read
ahead of time; students are required to cite textual evidence to support their claims and usually hold the texts in
their hands during the discussion. Some teachers set up one hot seat to represent each side, and students must
take turns in the seat. In less formal variations (which require less prep), a teacher may simply read provocative
statements students are likely to disagree on, and a debate can occur spontaneously without a text to refer to (I
call this variation This or That in my classroom icebreakers post). Teachers may also opt to offer a continuum
of choices, ranging from “Strongly Agree” on one side of the room, all the way to “Strongly Disagree” on the
other, and have students place themselves along that continuum based on the strength of their convictions.

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Pinwheel Discussion

Basic Structure: Students are divided into 4 groups. Three of these groups are assigned to represent specific
points of view. Members of the fourth group are designated as “provocateurs,” tasked with making sure the
discussion keeps going and stays challenging. One person from each group (the “speaker”) sits in a desk facing
speakers from the other groups, so they form a square in the center of the room. Behind each speaker, the
remaining group members are seated: two right behind the speaker, then three behind them, and so on, forming
a kind of triangle. From above, this would look like a pinwheel. The four speakers introduce and
discuss questions they prepared ahead of time (this preparation is done with their groups). After some time
passes, new students rotate from the seats behind the speaker into the center seats and continue the
conversation.

Variations: When high school English teacher Sarah Brown Wessling introduced this strategy in the featured
video (click Pinwheel Discussion above), she used it as a device for talking about literature, where each group
represented a different author, plus one provocateur group. But in the comments that follow the video, Wessling
adds that she also uses the strategy with non-fiction, where students represent authors of different non-fiction
texts or are assigned to take on different perspectives about an issue.

Socratic Seminar

a.k.a. Socratic Circles

Basic Structure: Students prepare by reading a text or group of texts and writing some higher-order discussion
questions about the text. On seminar day, students sit in a circle and an introductory, open-ended question is
posed by the teacher or student discussion leader. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting
one another to support their claims with textual evidence. There is no particular order to how students speak, but
they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with others. Discussion is meant to happen naturally and
students do not need to raise their hands to speak. This overview of Socratic Seminar from the website Facing
History and Ourselves provides a list of appropriate questions, plus more information about how to prepare for
a seminar.

Variations: If students are beginners, the teacher may write the discussion questions, or the question creation
can be a joint effort. For larger classes, teachers may need to set up seminars in more of a fishbowl-like
arrangement, dividing students into one inner circle that will participate in the discussion, and one outer circle
that silently observes, takes notes, and may eventually trade places with those in the inner circle, sometimes all
at once, and sometimes by “tapping in” as the urge strikes them.

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Low-Prep Discussion Strategies

Affinity Mapping

a.k.a. Affinity Diagramming

Basic Structure: Give students a broad question or problem that is likely to result in lots of different ideas,
such as “What were the impacts of the Great Depresssion?” or “What literary works should every person read?”
Have students generate responses by writing ideas on post-it notes (one idea per note) and placing them in no
particular arrangement on a wall, whiteboard, or chart paper. Once lots of ideas have been generated, have
students begin grouping them into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit
within them, how the categories relate to one another, and so on.

Variations: Some teachers have students do much of this exercise—recording their ideas and arranging them
into categories—without talking at first. In other variations, participants are asked to re-combine the ideas
into new, different categories after the first round of organization occurs. Often, this activity serves as a good
pre-writing exercise, after which students will write some kind of analysis or position paper.

Concentric Circles

a.k.a. Speed Dating

Basic Structure: Students form two circles, one inside circle and one outside circle. Each student on the inside
is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. The teacher poses a question to the whole group
and pairs discuss their responses with each other. Then the teacher signals students to rotate: Students on the
outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person (or sitting, as they are in
the video). Now the teacher poses a new question, and the process is repeated.

Variations: Instead of two circles, students could also form two straight lines facing one another. Instead of
“rotating” to switch partners, one line just slides over one spot, and the leftover person on the end comes around
to the beginning of the line. Some teachers use this strategy to have students teach one piece of content to their
fellow students, making it less of a discussion strategy and more of a peer teaching format. In fact, many of
these protocols could be used for peer teaching as well.

Conver-Stations

Basic Structure: Another great idea from Sarah Brown Wessling, this is a small-group discussion strategy
that gives students exposure to more of their peers’ ideas and prevents the stagnation that can happen when a

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