How do we create a reading culture in our schools? Part 3

[Kelly Gallagher]

When the strands get too long, we'll begin anew.

I'd like to hear some thoughts on "word poverty." Have you read Mark Bauerlein's "The Dumbest Generation"? I do not like the title because I think older generations often fall in the trap of erroneously thinking that their generation is smarter. These kids in front of us are often exceptionally smart (though not always skilled). But Baurerlein makes an interesting assertion: that this generation of students is the first generation that do all of their socializing laterally. They text each other. They communicate via MySpace. They talk incessantly on the phone. As a result, Bauerlein argues, they have sort of surrounded themselves in a giant entertainment bubble. They have insulated themselves from important knowledge. They have cut off much of their pipeline to wisdom: parents, grandparents, relatives. And there is less time to read.

As I mention in Readicide, I think the largest reading problem facing my adolescents is their lack of prior knowledge and experience coming to the printed page. They can read the words, but they often cannot comprehend the words because they don't have the background or context to make meaning. Lack of prior knowledge goes hand in hand with word poverty. They feed on each other. If they don't understand words, they will stop reading. If they stop reading, they will understand fewer words. And the cycle begins---a cycle made worse by spending three hours a day on MySpace.

One example: I gave my students a political cartoon that made fun of Vladimir Putin. I chose Putin because I knew that my 9th graders would not know him. The point? You can know every reading strategy known to humans, but there is no way you will comprehension the Putin cartoon unless you come to the page with the "right" prior knowledge. Questioning the text did not help them. Visualizing did not help them. Marking the text did not help them. If you don't know Putin, you will NEVER understand this cartoon---there simply is not enough context.

It seems to me that one of our biggest tasks if we are to save some of our students from Readicide is to develop a very intentional plan to shore up their large gaps found in their prior knowledge. I also feel this does not get any where near the attention it deserves in our schools.

Agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Approaches?

[Nate Stearns]

What is an analogy & pun warmup? It sounds like something where they have to figure out the analogy...Something like school is to a earthworm as The White House is to ________? Do these come from a book or are they staff-created?

[Debbie Samuels]

Nate,

There are kid-friendly pun of the day websites we use. They also make frequent appearances in email attachments from retired teacher friends. My school computer was just carried away by our tech - one too many blue screens in the middle of my work. Would be happy to send you my analogy file when I get my machine back next week - assuming it survives reconfiguring and a new hard drive.

[Lynne Kelsey]

When I started teaching seniors a few years ago, every once in a while I would catch myself using a word that was completely appropriate to the class discussion, but that I suspected my students did not know. Nine out of ten times, I was right. I started developing a word list that was aligned with the literature we were reading in class, but that was geared toward discussing and writing about the reading; this ultimately became my MA research (and got the fancy name of "KnowCabulary"). Maybe it's because I came to teaching later in life, but this seems to me to be the logical way to teach new words, because the vocabulary is in a context that students are currently working with. I introduce 10-15 words a week; students write paragraphs about the current reading using the vocabulary for homework; the words are posted on the classroom walls to remind them (and me!) to use them during discussions. It's working for me - as part of my research I gave an unannounced test on 45 words we had studied for Macbeth, three months after completing that unit. To make sure they weren't just associating the words with Macbeth, I wrote the test so that the questions were completely unrelated to the play. The average of all four of my college prep classes was 75%, with absolutely no review...a mighty big difference from the usual learn-it-for-the-test, forget-it-the-next-day result!

[Jacque Seidl]

I just finished my first year of teaching (yes!!) and I feel that the way I approached vocabulary with my class of seniors evolved throughout the year. Being a first year teacher, I'm still pretty young and remember cramming for vocabulary tests- memorizing the word and the definition, but having no idea how to use it in a sentence. As a teacher, I can now reflect and see that a new vocabulary word is useless if I am never going to be able to use it in everyday conversation.
Knowing this, I structured my vocabulary lessons like this- I introduce 10 new words every week. We spend Monday getting familiar with the word and its part of speech. Throughout the week, we write assignments over what we are reading using the words (just like Lynne Kelsey), create activities for Wednesday to keep the words fresh, and work the vocabulary words into our discussions as much as possible. As the teacher, I have to constantly think of how I can get these words to fit. But it is always a great feeling when a student use it (and in the correct context). I give weekly tests on Fridays, but have been known to throw prior words on the tests and make students write sentences.
I have found that vocabulary has been a great addition to my classroom and I have seen my students' and my own vocabulary improve throughout the course of the year.

[Gary Anderson]

For what it's worth, I use Greek roots as the basis for vocabulary development. We do 25 roots, and it takes all year. Each root has 5-10 words associated with it.

We first focus on guessing what each word means. I stress that we are practicing what to do when we encounter unfamiliar words in our real-world reading. Students have usually had plenty of practice using context clues, examining what is going on around the word, but we focus on what is going on within the word--i.e., the Greek root. Then we define it and play with it.

As the year progresses and we have more and more words under our belts, students begin to bring in examples of the vocabulary words that they have found "in the wild." We call these Vocabulary Adventures. For example, they will encounter Anglophile in their history class and come in all excited, or endocrine will surface in biology. They frequently express pride in being the who knew what a particular word meant when it came up in another class. Eventually they will find the words in magazines or books they're reading, and we make a pretty big deal out of it when they bring the examples to class.

Readicide (page 43) quotes a study that says, "Each time an unfamiliar word is seen in print, a small increase in word knowledge typically occurs," so I try to choose words that are likely to appear in academic and/or real-world reading situations.

The book I use is a section of Vocabulary for the College-Bound Student by Harold Levine, but I've adapted it fairly liberally. I recommend the book though.

Today I read final exam essays and was pleased to find any number of our vocabulary words from this year embedded naturally and authentically in my students' writing.

As Lynne suggests above, there isn't much point to doing vocabulary unless we can make it stick. Repeated exposure and usage of the words is what makes them stick, especially if the words are encountered in non-classroom situations.

[Mindy J]

One example: I gave my students a political cartoon that made fun of Vladimir Putin. I chose Putin because I knew that my 9th graders would not know him. The point? You can know every reading strategy known to humans, but there is no way you will comprehension the Putin cartoon unless you come to the page with the "right" prior knowledge. Questioning the text did not help them. Visualizing did not help them. Marking the text did not help them. If you don't know Putin, you will NEVER understand this cartoon---there simply is not enough context.

My thoughts exactly. I have been asking fellow teachers about this idea for the last couple of years. And I usually get something along the lines of, "That makes sense." And then we continue just to teach those strategies.

With content (I teach 5th grade), I really make sure we understand the science and social studies topics. We explore and think and question. My whole goal on that is to help them understand their world better. I'm hoping this carries over into their reading.

But I want to do more to help with their general knowledge. I am going to incorporate something like the article of the week that you do. I also thought about showing short video clips on a regular basis. High interest, varied topics. Just to watch. No grades, just discussions. Maybe that will help with the background knowledge that I believe is making kids "poor" readers.

[Kelly Gallagher]

Bob Marzano was a consultant for our district a couple of years ago. A nice man with a lot of good ideas. I asked him why our high school's SSR program didn't work, and he point blank told me that school-wide SSR doesn't work very well after about eighth grade and definitely not after tenth.

I agree and I disagree. In many cases, Marzano is correct. High schools are a tough place to have a campus wide SSR program. I have seen it fail on numerous campuses. However, under the right administration and the right teacher leadership, SSR can work at the high school level. But it takes someone who has the ear of the faculty someone to not only sell it, but to maintain it. An SSR program is like a car. Sometimes easy to start, but it will break down if it is not constantly maintained.

[Emily Kissner]

I agree that there are huge gaps in prior knowledge. I do think that we need a plan to address this, but I'd like it to be more process-oriented than content-oriented. For example, I'd rather see teachers work with students to help them learn about their schema and how to add to their schema instead of having kids memorize lists of names and numbers. I also think it's important to help students learn to identify the gaps in their background knowledge, and know what to do to fill those gaps.

[Teresa]

I had seen Bauerlein speak about his book on Book TV on C-Span, and I was intrigued. I presented Bauerlein's argument to my students, and I couldn't wait for their response. Some did agree with him, but many, as expected disagreed. I do think, though, that many had never thought of this perspective at all--that "they have cut off much of their pipeline to wisdom." Cultural literacy is so important, so this year, I've made an effort to have them read much more non-fiction. I've talked to them about the importance of watching the news, and reading multiple perspectives on the same issues. This was quite natural and apt discussion when we read, 1984.
Have you ever noticed that many students don't understand idioms, axioms, etc.? If I say something as simple as "that ship has sailed," I may see several blank stares. It seems to me that they are simply not paying attention to the language around them, but then again, if they're constantly on MySpace and texting, and not reading, and not spending time with parents, and older relatives, then how often are they exposed to the wonderful figurative aspects of language?