Thursday, May 7, 2015

Lori Oczkus' Last Chapter on "...Close Reading & Comprehension of Informational Text"

Alas, our last chapter! If you are posting comments for college credit, it's due by May 30. 

If you still want a college unit for $60, but missed out… let us know. We can continue to offer college credit through our book blog in the summer along with Luci Calkins' latest 5 star book: Writing Pathways: Performance Assessments and Learning Progressions, Gr. K-8.  But blog and let us know you're interested!

Now for Ch. 5 on p. 145- Interactive Strategy Lessons for  Informational Text: Comprehension Strategies for Common Core State Standards (CCSS)!

Lori says using the proven strategies along with the CCSS framework (inferring, predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarizing, synthesizing & evaluating) in "a variety of increasingly complex text" is giving  students a flexible toolbox of support.
Where do we start?
  • use strong mentor texts (Which ones? Eureka award nonfiction booklists on CRA's web site under awards will help along with Lori's chart 5.1 on p.148)
  • interactive think alouds (e.g. see #3 and 4 on p. 165-166)
  • cooperative guided practice (see lessons)
  • try the lessons on p. 147-155 to help students set a purpose for reading
  • lessons on p. 159-165 support students to find key idea & details
  • lessons on p. 168-178 scaffolds students in understanding text structure
  • lessons on p. 182-188 facilitates students' integration of knowledge & ideas
  • get your volunteer Moms, Dads, grandmas, etc. to run off the great student work & book marks on p. 232-251
Know what QBTTT means? Try Lori's fabulous modeling on p.165- #1! Just like the kids, you'll never forget it!

Hope you've had as much fun with this book as I have. Thanks Lori! please join me in hearing lori keynote at cra's institute at riverside's convention cntr. on october 23-24, 2015!


Wishing you a strong finish to your school year, quarter, semester, or spring!
Lynn Gurnee,
CRA Past President
CCRA President 

3 comments:

  1. Chapter 5:
    • I like the sentence frames and whole brain movements suggested on page 165 to help students answer questions.
    • QBTT -Question Back To The Text. This is great scaffolding. The materials in appendix B will help students to determine their purpose for reading non-fiction text.
    • In the QBTT the students will love making up their own text dependent questions and then challenge the other groups with the paper wad toss. The stroll line is also a great activity to use so that the students can practice the strategy.
    • The text walk is great because students are guided through the text for different purposes. I talk to my students about their wonderings and questions. We talk about the fact that sometimes as they read it may trigger a question that is not answered in the text, but might then we can do further research to find the answer
    • I love the text structures chart on page 169. That will make a great chart for my classroom. The clue words will be a great help to students. I can see using the text structure graphic organizer as part of a center activity. There are so many great resources in the appendix.
    • I know I can use these lessons to support the curriculum in my classroom and feel more confident with these scaffolds, my students will be able to meet the more rigorous standards.

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    Replies
    1. Great comments, Margaret! Glad to see you were motivated by these strategies, tools, and lessons! Hope you have a strong end of the year finish and a fabulous summer! Also hope to see you in Riverside in the fall! Looking forward to seeing Lori and hope you are as well.

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  2. Hi, I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly (I have never done a blog before). I am interested in the summer reading book club on Lucy Calkins' book. Could you let me know how to join up and what I need to do? Thank you!

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