WANTED…Words for Readers

by Laura Robb

Years ago, when I asked a seventh-grade student how I could help him with reading his response, “Give me words” replayed in my mind for several days. His reply haunts me to this day because a lack of words not only affects students’ reading, it also impacts their ability to think and communicate ideas through writing and speaking. The time to address students’ need for words starts the day children begin school and should continue through high school.

Each year groups of capable, smart students arrive in Pre-K and kindergarten lacking vocabulary and background knowledge.  Also limited is the number of books read aloud to them by an adult as well as the amount of meaningful talk they hear. You can’t change children’s past experiences. But youcan step-up word learning and close this vocabulary gap by reading aloud, by understanding that volume in reading enlarges vocabulary, and by teaching words in groups. 

A study conducted between 2009 and 2011 by the National Association of Educational Progress (NAEP), the nation’s report card, revealed a strong correlation between students’ vocabulary and comprehension scores. By boosting students’ word knowledge and enthusiasm for learning words, we can gradually improve their reading skill and develop lifelong readers and learners.   

Teach Words in Groups

When groups of words have a common connection, it’s easier for students to understand and remember them. If you teach words in groups, you offer students a large palette of related words to reflect on and discuss before, during, and after reading. Write the words students suggest on chart paper or post them on a white board.  Revisit the list often, add new words, and discuss a few each day. The more students meet the word through reading and listening to others use them during discussions, the sooner they’ll absorb the words.

Before Reading invite students to find groups of words:

• Related to a concept they’re learning such as community, devastation, discrimination, or instruments. While studying members of a community, first graders suggested: neighbors, minister, postman, policemen, teachers, principal, doctors, nurses, friends, bankers, lawyers, plumbers, house builders, mom, dads, cats, dogs, people who sell things.
• Associated with a specific genre such as mystery, realistic fiction, fantasy, etc.  Third graders suggested this group of words as they read mysteries: detectives, police, crime, red herring, a hook, suspense, suspects, cliff hangers.

• Connected to themes or topics such as obstacles, relationships, and disasters, or weather. Half-way through their reading unit on natural and man-made disasters seventh graders list included: hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, blizzards, ice storm, thunder and lightening, electrical explosions, divorce, death, epidemics, pandemics, war.

During Reading model and think aloud how to use context clues to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word while reading aloud to students. Then invite them to practice during a small group guided or strategic reading lesson. Show students that context clues can be in the sentence with the word, or clues can come before or after. Take it a step further and jot all the forms of a word on chart paper.  During guided reading, a fifth grader used context to figure out the meaning of survival. To wrap-up the lesson, I introduced and discussed with the group: survive, survived, surviving, survivor. In addition to related words, it’s also beneficial to teach multiple forms of a word.

After Reading continue to enlarge students’ word knowledge by teaching:

• Word families: “ain” family: brain, chain, gain, main, maintain, rain stain
• Prefixes and sets of related words show how the prefix changes a word’s meaning. Prefix “un,” meaning not: uninterested, unintelligent, uncaring, unmanageable, unexplored, etc.
• Synonyms and antonyms: kind, helpful, compassionate, warm, sympathetic; hurtful, cruel, unhelpful, destructive, cold, distant, etc.
• Words for directions: list, explain, define, compare/contrast, state, express, support, etc.

Closing Thoughts

Be intentional and relentless with enlarging students’ vocabulary by:

• Teaching sets of words, discussing them, and consciously using them in to show students how they work. 
• Having 15-20-minutes of self-selected independent reading daily. Volume in reading matters!
• Increasing the amount of purposeful student talk through partner, small group, and whole class discussions.
• Helping students visualize words, for what they can picture they understand.
• Developing students’ curiosity about the multiple meanings of words.

Teaching words in groups doesn’t require lengthy lessons. You can do this as a transition from one topic or subject to another, or take a few minutes at the start or near the end of class. Spiral back and revisit words.  By keeping in the forefront of your mind the relationship of vocabulary to reading comprehension, you’ll surely take snippets of time to enlarge students’ word knowledge!

Follow Laura on Twitter @LRobbTeacher

Check out Evan’s blog posts on ScholasticEDU!

Learn more about Laura’s ideas on reading- check out- Teaching Reading in Middle School

By Todd Nesloney

I’m sure you’ve all heard that phrase in one variation or another. But when you genuinely take the time to pause and reflect on the idea, ask yourself, How often do you truly make every moment count?

Sometimes those moments may exist within your personal lives. Making sure you take time for yourself means: slowing down long enough to plant a flower garden; create a piece of artwork; indulge in a Netflix binge; or even just walk through the local park.  When you set aside moments to slow down and spend time with yourself, you’re making moments count.  You’re acknowledging that personal moments can fuel you with energy, creativity, and a desire to reflect.

So many of us, especially educators, find ourselves spinning our wheels constantly trying be better, working harder, taking on more projects.  And in doing that, we often allow special, quiet moments slip right by us. Unnoticed.

Taking time to nurture yourself is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean you’re lazy, blase, self-obsessed, or unattached.  Instead, it shows how much you value your personal health and knowing that to be your best you need to be mindful of three elements: your mental, spiritual, and physical health. You will never be able to do what you’re meant to do unless you cultivate and maintain the creative fire within you.

Making every moment count also includes the students and adults you come in contact with every day. You can quickly allow the to-do list, constant stream of interruptions, and your own emotional reaction to events to distract you. Being engulfed by work can push aside those moments that fall right in front of you, waiting to be noticed–moments such as:

• That moment where the teacher across the hall is suffering through a recent cancer diagnosis. She longs for someone on her team to ask, “How are you doing?” so she feels she isn’t walking this road alone.  

• That moment where a child walks in with his head down, hating who he is, because that morning his father beat him again and spewed hateful untruths about the boy he raised.

• The single mother, who works three jobs to give her children the life she never had.  She struggles to get her kids to school on time and every morning keeps from making eye contact with the school staff fearing they’ll label her a “bad mother.”

• The high school senior who just learned of his acceptance into the college of his dreams but has no one to share the good news with.

• Or even something as simple as the little girl who passed her first test of the year and wants someone to tell her, “I’m proud of you.”

Moments like those I described exist, and they’re there for the taking.  The question though is Will you see them? There is scientific research that proves when you show gratitude to others, it increases your positive mood, more than it increases theirs. But will you understand the power of a single moment? Will you make it a priority to find ways to make moments matter for others?

“Make every moment count!”

You and I have heard it before. So today, let’s pay attention to the silent whispers of moments that are calling you to action:  moments when you reserve time to care for your mental, spiritual, and physical well being; moments when you reach out to support others crying for help. Grab and hold those moments close to your heart.  Take a deep breath and find the time to make every moment matter more than it ever has before.

Get connected with Todd Nesloney!

• Twitter @TechNinjaTodd
• YouTube!
• Facebook!
• Instagram
• Todd’s Website for speaking engagements- his books and more!

Effective leaders create positive cultures through reflection on their practice and the decisions they make.  In education, leaders can be teachers, administrators, and any of the many staff members who make up a school.  All can impact change!

Positive change is complex and often has many moving parts needed for a school to be effective.  A positive environment impacts the culture of a school. You can feel it; you can sense if a school has a good culture. Conversely, you can sense and feel if a negative culture exists in a school. Bottom line, the leader of the building sets the tone for the school and directly impacts the culture.

What does setting the tone mean?  I have known principals who certainly set a positive tone and others who have not set a great tone. What the leader of the school models and says permits others to do the same.  A principal who yells at students gives staff permission to yell. A principal who is never on time for meetings gives others permission to be late. A principal who dresses sloppy permits others to do the same.  Yes, everything done by the leader sets a standard, either through words or actions. As Todd Whitaker says in his book, What Great Principals Do Differently, when the principal sneezes everyone gets a cold.

The principal sets the tone but it cannot be done by one person; all staff has a responsibility to create the school they want.  If you are an administrator consider these reflections as you work to set the tone in your school. If you are a teacher apply these same reflections to your classroom.

As you review the seven points, here is a thought to consider. It is hard for one teacher to ruin the culture in a school, but the principal can absolutely do this independently.  Being a culture builder is one of many critical responsibilities of a principal.

Set the Example:  It is critical for the principal to set the example of what behaviors are acceptable in the school.  This requires consistency and a high degree of congruence between what the leader says and does. Inconsistency results in confusion and staff often not believing what the principal says.  

Say Hello:  Although this sounds small, people like it when the principal says “Hello.”  Walking by staff and ignoring them is rude and communicates an I don’t care about you attitude.  Always and I do mean always say “Hello” to students, staff, and parents. This simple change can make a big difference in how others see the principal, and the tone they set.

Be Interested: Students and staff appreciate the principal who is interested in what they are doing.  If interest is genuine, the principal communicates a sense of caring. If interest appears disingenuous, the effect is the exact opposite.  Use specific praise to compliment teachers and students on classwork or a performance you have seen.

Choose Positivity:  Appearing down or frazzled will have a negative impact on those around you. The principal sets a definable tone for communicating optimism and positivity.

Cultivate Relationships: Positive teacher-student relationships are always part of an effective classroom.  The same is true for a school leader. The principal needs to invest time to build positive connections with many groups: students, staff, parents, and the community.  Something as small as ignoring a parent in the grocery store can impact how others see you.

Be Fair and Consistent: Having favorite staff members is a morale killer.  Be consistent and fair to all staff. Treat every teacher like you treat your best teacher.  

An Open Door:  Desk work cannot be more important than communicating with people.  A message of “I’m too busy” does not help set the tone for a school.

School culture is like a garden it needs to be tended every day.  If the tone is positive, congratulations, you had much to do with creating it.  However, if you or others feel the tone is negative, take a look in the mirror to find the answer.

Website: Robb Communications

Blog: The Robb Review Blog

Twitter: @ERobbPrincipal

Facebook: The Robb Review Facebook

Podcast, The Robb Review Podcast

By: Linda Rief

In my latest book The Quickwrite Handbook (Heinemann, 2018) I described how I came to do what I called “quickwrites.” Year after year I noticed several kids, frequently boys, staring into space more often than they were putting words on paper. Talking to them, trying to help them with their ideas was not a big help. I read Don Murray’s work about writing fast to outrun the censor in all of us. Sounded good. But for those kids that continued staring into space, telling them to write fast didn’t help if they still couldn’t think of anything to write. That’s when I thought, if I put a short, compelling piece of writing in front of them to show them what someone else did, and encourage them to “borrow a line” and write as fast as they can for two to three minutes off that line, that might give them something to hold onto, something from which to build their own ideas. Write fast, I told them. Don’t think too hard. Don’t plan what comes next. You are writing to find writing—the words you didn’t know you were going to write until you wrote them.

And it worked, and has continued to work, for most of my kids.

Holding on to someone else’s line has been magical in helping my students find their own words. More often than not they can get rid of that line as they continue to draft their thinking in their words.

Maybe it was the notion of holding on to someone else’s line that led me to Nikki Grimes’ book One Last Word. In this book Grimes has found inspiration from many of the poets of the Harlem Renaissance to write her own poems. The poetry she is writing takes the form of what is called the Golden Shovel. In her words “The idea of a Golden Shovel poem is to take a short poem in its entirety, or a line from that poem (called a striking line), and create a new poem, using the words from the original. Say you decide to use a single line: you would arrange that line, word by word (one word under another), in the right margin. Then you would write a new poem, each line ending in one of those words.”

This is the first year I have tried this form with my students. We had just finished reading Refugee by Alan Gratz. As we read the book I asked them to collect lines that resonated with them from the three families’ stories. I asked them to write down questions that came to mind as we read, and to look up articles and pictures that might help them answer the questions. When we were done with the book I encouraged them to share response or reaction in any form they chose. But, I did show them One Last Word as a possibility.

Although this worked especially well after reading the book Refugee, because of its emotional topic, I imagine these examples could be used at any time for any kind of writing. These were the instructions and examples I gave my students, adapted from Nikki Grimes.

Write a poem by

• using the line/s from a poem, each word of the line becomes the last word in each line of your poem, or
• using a favorite quote from Refugee or any author or book you love, each word of the quote becomes the last word in each line of your poem, or
• using a newspaper headline with a compelling lead or poignant photo attached, each word in the headline becomes the last word in each line of your poem

I gave the students several examples from Nikki Grimes book One Last Word. I showed them how she took the poem “Hope” by Georgia Johnson and used the first line of that poem to shape her poem “On Bully Patrol.” Then I showed them what I wrote.

I used the last line from Mary Oliver’s poem “The Summer Day” because it is a line I use as a mantra in working with eighth graders: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

This is what I wrote, using that line:

Sometimes, in their writer-reader notebooks students tell

Truths that they are admitting to me

And so often I don’t know what

it is

That would help them cope with it

                        Whether the “it” is hunger or homelessness, self-doubt

         or bullying or even dysphoria. As a teacher you

Try your best to plan

A strategy to

Help each child do

What they need to do, with

Compassion and sensitivity. Your

Concern and helplessness make you worry that one

Day this wild

Child, who is only defending herself and

Trying to make the world work for her, will know what to do with her one precious

life.

Linda Rief

Many students found poetry by crafting their poems in this form. Sophie asked, “Do we have to stick with that form, one last word?”

“Absolutely not,” I told her. “Form should never drive what you have to say. It is only a suggestion. Let your words take the form that best fits what you want to say.”

Sophie wrote:

Tallying the Daily Dead

Line from Refugee by Alan Gratz, p.195

When you were in kindergarten

you learned how to tally.

You thought nothing of it,

nor should you have.

It was just a way

to count the numbers

that were put in front of you by a teacher.

You were always told

tallying should not be used for big numbers,

like 65.6 million people displaced at the end of 2016 or,

the 40.3 million displaced

within their own country or

perhaps not

the 22.5 million forced to flee

to another country.

In kindergarten,

you tallied numbers.

Now,

we tally lives.

Sophie M. 8^th grade

I am always looking for a variety of ways to help students get words on paper. No matter what way that might be, we need to remember: try the idea ourselves, give the students examples (ours, professionals, other students), give them choices within the framework, and let the framework go if they have other ideas. The bottom line in writing: finding every, and any way we can, to help students communicate their thinking in order to grow their voices.

References:

Gratz, Alan. 2017. Refugee. NY. Scholastic.

Grimes, Nikki. 2017. One Last Word. NY: Bloomsbury Children’s Books.

Rief, Linda. 2018. The Quickwrite Handbook. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.