Overview

This section contains samples of the kinds of activities that engage students in texts and give them hands-on practice with different types of texts, narrative as well as informational. They are meant to enhance existing curricula, particularly for English and Social Science, (see the Summary Report on the National Youth Literacy Demonstration Project for descriptions on how these and other subjects were taught). The materials included in this section illustrate the kinds of practices and activities that support and challenge adolescents for whom reading has ceased to be fun and now struggle to make sense of what they read. All support active learning by asking students to interact with each other and with the texts, to think and discuss and make connections between their own lives and what they read and hear. Only a sample of the many activities that teachers in the New School Canada used with their students. They illustrate an approach that blends deliberate teaching with aspects of explicit instruction in order to foster engaged learning and thoughtful reading and writing. The activities included here are meant to spark discussions about other types of learning tasks that help disengaged students discover the pleasure and value of reading.

Since, for most fiction that is part of the standard English reading list, commercial curriculum materials are available, these materials are not included here.

Introducing Students to Poetry and Using Jabberwocky to Show how English Works

The hands-on activities in this section include an extensive Introduction to Poetry along with support materials (there are references to TV 411 segments and a short biography of the writer Jimmy Baca). These materials invite learners to read, write and interpret poetry (See also the lesson plan on Jimmy Baca in the Lesson Plan Section).

By the time students are adolescents, they often hate poetry. (“I just don’t get it.” is a common complaint.) To help students enjoy and find meaning in poetry, the unit contains several short poems that are easily accessible, including poems that speak to sensibilities of adolescents (Tupac Shakur). Included as well are longer narrative poems that challenge students’ understanding and prepare them for further studies in high school English. Related activities invite students to make connections between themselves and a writer (Why Write Poetry and You and Jimmy Baca).

To help students gain a sense of the rhythm and tone of poetry without having to worry about sophisticated vocabulary, there is an example of Jabberwocky and an activity focusing on Parts of Speech. Jabberwocky provides an example of both foreboding and exhilarating language that allows students to see that they already have a sound understanding of how English is organized and even nonsense words can be used to express mood and action. Since grammar terminology and concepts related to parts of speech often befuddle students, a “cheat sheet” on grammar (Grammar Review) is included as a resource for both teachers and students.

Reading Deeply and Reading Widely and Using Reading Logs

If students are to become proficient readers they must read both deeply and widely. Deep reading (or intensive reading) happens through an intense study of texts and the use of strategies that make information and ideas accessible and draw students into stories. Wide reading (also known as extensive reading) focuses on inviting students to read multiple texts (informational, narrative) on the same subject or to select books they want to read for pleasure. The teachers at the New School Canada had used Sustained Silent Reading accompanied by Reading Logs. An example of a Reading Log is included in this section to show how students can be encouraged to keep track of what they read, give their opinions and respond from a personal level, telling what they liked or didn’t like about a story. The log also allows students to indicate whether a particular book they chose seemed easy or difficult for them and asks them to briefly summarize a section they have read. Students are invited to write down the connections they see between the story and their own lives or between the story they are reading now and others they have read in the past.

Seven Habits of Successful Readers

If struggling students are to become competent readers, they must learn how to approach a piece of writing and develop the habits of mind that make comprehension possible. The set of hands-on activities included in Seven Habits of Successful Readers asks students to apply comprehension strategies to short passages so that these habits can become automatic. Other activities focused on comprehension (Cemetery Path; Thingamajigs) reinforce these processes focusing on previewing and predicting, along with confirming or revising predictions. Both the Seven Habits and Thingamajigs also include PowerPoint slides that teachers can use to prepare the whole class for both independent practice and peer supported learning.

Intensive Practice with Strategies to Use with Informational Texts and Textbooks

A set of strategies that help students approach textbooks and other informational texts is included in this section along with a related activity that lets students experience the relationship between building background knowledge and increasing their vocabulary (Building Background Knowledge). All of these processes can (and should) be used with different kinds of texts and genres, including the General Interest Readings that are posted elsewhere on this site. Since many of the academic texts all students are expected to read feel overwhelming to students, they need to learn how to engage the ideas in a text, add their own thoughts, and integrate ideas into what they know by putting key concepts into their own words. The ZAP strategy provides hands-on practice with this process.

The Textbook Survival Strategies offers students intensive practice in navigating textbooks and helps them understand that text features, such as headings and subheadings, charts and graphs, illustrations and other text aides, provide clues to both organization and the meaning of a textbook. This guide to understanding textbooks walks students through a series of activities applicable to a number of subjects, but social science in particular.

Anticipation Guides and Pre-Reading Discussions to Activate Background Knowledge

Two examples of Anticipation Guides are included here (Pre-Reading Discussion and What Do You Think? An Anticipation Guide) An activity that asks students to use higher order thinking skills to sort vocabulary into categories and give reasons for the connections they see between words and concepts (Sort and Predict) Sort and Predict invites students to see commonalities between words and examine semantic relationships. The example used in this activity relates back to the biography of the writer Jimmy Baca, but the strategy can be used to prepare students for any reading.

These types of pre-reading activities help students activate background knowledge and build curiosity about a theme or a text (in this case and How We Think and Learn and Multiple Intelligences). Whenever these types of pre-reading activities are used, students tend to read more purposefully, looking for confirmation of their opinions or predictions. Participation in pre-reading discussions gives students the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences so that interest is stimulated in a theme or follow-up reading. In the example of a group discussion included here, students discuss their own experience of having learned ideas and skills consciously or incidentally and, in the process of talking about their lives, are introduced to concepts such as conditioned learning, phobias, peer pressure or media influence, all ideas that appear in a set of readings related to How We Think and Learn.

A short reading and set of activities that emphasizes the value of background knowledge as a basis for future learning - the more you know, the more you know.