This page is intended to provide Country Dale parents with information about the new Developmental Studies Center literacy program.  Definitions of the components of the Reading and Writing Workshop model are shared as well as additional resources for both parents and students.  These resources will support the model that is engaging our students at the same time it is improving their literacy skills.

Making MeaningMaking Meaning

In the Reading workshop model, students listen to a teacher read quality text from a variety of different genres such as non-fiction, fiction, biography, fantasy, etc.  Teachers model fluent, expressive reading as well as their thinking when they read so that students can begin to understand how to read critically and think about their own thinking.

Following the read-aloud, a mini-lesson helps students to focus on a comprehension strategy, vocabulary, word work, or other procedures that the student will follow during independent workshop time.  The comprehension strategies, that help students to make meaning of their reading, include retelling, making connections using what they know, visualizing, wondering/questioning, understanding text structure of non-fiction text, making inferences, determining important ideas, summarizing and synthesizing.

Retelling

WHAT IT IS: Good readers use retelling to identify and remember important ideas or sequences of events that they need to know or recall.  Students in K-2 retell stories using setting, character, and plot to organize their thinking.

Using Schema/Making Connections

WHAT IT IS:  Good readers construct meaning by connecting their prior knowledge to information in the text. Students activate piror knowledge before, during, and after reading.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

            Does this remind me of something?

            Has this ever happened to me?

            Do I know someone like him or her?  Am I like this character?

            Have I ever felt this way?

            What do I already know that will help me understand what I'm reading?

            Does this information confirm or conflict with what I've read in other sources?

 

Visualizing

WHAT IT IS:  Good readers form visual and other sensory images during reading to better understand, remember, and enjoy texts.  Students visualize to make sense of figurative language and deepen their understanding of poems and stories.

 QUESTIONS TO ASK:

            What are the pictures/scenes in my mind?

            What do I hear, taste, smell or feel?

            What do the characters, the setting,a nd the events of the story look like in my mind?

            Can I picture this new information?

Wondering/Questioning

 WHAT IT IS:  Good readers ask questions about a text to focus their reading, clarify meaning, and delve deeper into the text.  Students generate questions before, during, and after reading to make sense of text, and they analyze their questions to deepen their understanding of the reading.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

                    What is the author saying?

                    Why is that happening?

                    Why did this character....?

                    Is this important?

                   This makes me wonder_______?

                   How does this information connect with what I have already read?

Making Inferences

WHAT IT IS:  Good readers use prior knowledge and information in a text to create meanings not explicitly stated, moving from the literal to a deeper understanding of texts.  Students make inferences to think more deeply about both narrative and expository texts.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

                     What do I think will happen next?

                     Since ____happened, I think ____ will happen next.

                     While looking over the material before reading, I predict I will learn about ____.

                     I'm guessing this will be about ______.

                     This title/heading/picture makes me think _____.

                     Although the author hasn't told me this, I think _____.

Determining Important Ideas

WHAT IT IS:  Determining the important ideas in texts helps readers identify important information that is essential.  Students identify information that is essential to know and remember.

 Understanding Text Structure

 WHAT IT IS: Students use their knowledge of narrative and expository text structure to improve their comprehension.  Students use story elements (setting, characters, plot) to help them understand stories, and identify and use features (e.g., headings, subheadings) and relationships (cause and effect, compare and contrast) to help them comprehend expository texts.

Summarizing

 WHAT IT IS: Good readers identify and bring together the essential ideas of a text as a way of understanding what they have read and communicating it to others.  Students identify important ideas in a text and use them to develop oral and written summaries.

QUESTIONS TO ASK:

             This story is mainly about...

             How is the story organized?

             The author's most important ideas were...

             How does the text's organization help me?

             What are the key words?

             Are the ideas in the text supported with convincing evidence?

            

Synthesizing

WHAT IT IS: Synthesizing is a complex process that requires readers to visualize, use schema, question, infer, and summarize to develop new ideas and understandings based on information in a text.  Students in grades 4-6 synthesize to form opinions and make judgments about texts.

  

Students literacy skills will grow if they are able to read a wide range of quality books that are “just right” for them.  Each child is assessed, depending upon their grade level, through multiple measures (Measures of Academic Progress, Running Records, Qualitative Reading Inventory) to determine their individual reading level.  Each child learns how to choose books that he or she will be able to read and apply comprehension strategies to.

“The greatest power of conferring is knowing each child as a reader and a thinker and sharing the joy of rich conversations about literature.  A teacher learns if a child is applying specific strategies as he or she reads.  The teacher can then target confusions and clarify understandings.”

Teachers confer with their students both formally and informally by listening to each child read.  While listening to a child, the teacher is focusing on several important reading behaviors.  Has the child selected a “just right” book; is he able to read with expression and fluency?  Or does the student have difficulty decoding words in the book which affects his ability to read “smoothly” and with expression?  Can the child answer questions about the book that ensures he understands what he is reading?  Can the student apply the strategies that have explicitly been taught in the literacy program?  The teacher will ask specific questions that relate to the particular comprehension strategy that the student is expected to demonstrate understanding of.  Based on the information the teacher gains from this valuable conference, she will create a target, or teaching point, for the student to work on and check back on his progress the next time they confer.

 

                                                       Student/Parent Resources

LITERACY WEBSITES
Between the Lions http://pbskids.org/lions/ stories from the PBIS show are posted online  for parents and kids to read together, with links to associated games
Kids Reads http://www.kidsreads.com/iondex.asp book reviews, related games, and information about  author
Suessville http://www.seussville.com word puzzles, matching games and other activites related  to Dr. Seuss

 

 

Thank you to our Countrydale parents who attended the October 5 Literacy Information Night!

For those parents who were unable to attend, please access the General Overview and Classroom presentations linked below.

General Overview presentation

Classroom presentation