Small Group Reading: Deeper Reading

Deeper reading is based on a guided reading lesson, with the objective to get students deeper into texts.  This is where I do my guided close reading.  I take a text we have worked with before either in guided reading or as a whole class and we look deeper at it.  I choose small, significant parts of the text and we have a discussion about it.  After reading the book Notice and Note, I plan on using this time to reinforce understanding of looking for signposts in this small group time as well.  This is also the time I reinforce whole group language lessons as we look deeper at places in texts where language elements we have learned about are apparent. 

I generally meet with this group for about 20 minutes.  Since I meet with the guided reading group first, I sometimes ask this deeper reading group to read the selection or answer some questions about the text on their own first, while I'm meeting with the guided group.  This is helpful for longer texts or selections I want to really dig into.  This is most often the case for my highest reading groups. 

How do you work in close or deeper reading with smaller groups?

Notice and Note Post 12

 Here are my notebook pages for Again and Again and Memory Moment.  I mentioned in Post 11 that I didn't write down as much of my own reflection with these last ones, hoping that students will do more on their own.  If you weren't aware, most of the printables for the text selections from the book can be found online on the publisher's website here.  They're in easy to print PDF format.  There's one or two missing due to copyright, but I easily found them online with a quick search. 

Be sure to read the host post by Meg of The Teacher Studio here and any other posts that have been linked up. 

What did you learn from the Again and Again and Memory Moment signposts? 

Notice ant Note Post 11

First, I need to finish Post 10.  Here are the pictures of my response notebook for Aha Moment

Two page spread

Left side close

Right side under the text glue-in

Then I thought I needed lessons on Theme and Conflict, so here are my pages for those.  

The glue-ins come from two great sets.  Theme is from Nicole Shelby's set here and Conflict is from Lovin' Lit's set here.

Now, for the two signposts in Post 11.  Here are the pictures of my response notebook for Tough Questions: 

Left side explanation and beginning of response. Right side, response continued and text glue-in.

Then I thought I needed a lesson on question types to help students generate their own questions as well as analyze the questions within text.  So, here's my page on QAR.  I created the foldable using a template from 4mulafun's foldable set found here.  

Finally, here's Words of the Wiser:

I left the reflections blank where students are more on their own in the lesson.  Now that we've done a few, I'm hoping students will be able to do more on their own.  

Be sure to read the host post for this section from Mary at Guided-Math here and any of the other posts that have been linked up. 

There we go, we just have 2 more posts in this blog book study left.  I have LOVED it!  What did you learn about Tough Questions and Words of the Wiser? 

Small Group Reading: Genre Activities

My friend and colleague introduced me to this concept.  I believe she learned about it in a BER presentation.  I love this idea because I feel like it gives my students exposure to more texts than I would otherwise be able to.  For this activity, I set up 8 Genre stations. With 8 set up at one time, I only have to change the activities once every 8 weeks because students only do one per week.  Sorry, no pictures (I took everything down in my classroom before I thought to take pics.), but I'll be sure to do another post as soon as I get them up for the fall.  I put my activities in tote bags hung on command hooks around the room.  I number each bag.  Some of my teammates have a magazine organizer box on the counter for each activity and number the boxes.  The activities might include: 

• Read several articles from a magazine (like time for kids or NG kids or Highlights).  Choose one article and summarize it.  Or compare/contrast two articles, etc. 
• Read a wordless picture book and write a story to go along with it. 
• Read several poems or jokes.  Choose one to share with the class. 
• Read the different versions of Cinderella (or any tale) and compare/contrast them
• Read the book I'll Fix Anthony and then write about the relationship you have with your sibling(s)
• Read one of the fact books (I include several to give choice) and tell some of the most interesting things you learned about the topic. 
• Read about one of the 50 states in this state atlas and share what you learned. 

And many more, the possibilities are endless and you can tailor the activities to whatever your students need. I've created several response sheets to accompany texts you likely already have in your classroom.  Just pair the text with the response sheet and you have your genre activities ready to go.  

The set contains 16 response sheets, that's enough for two complete rounds if you choose to do 8 at a time like I do.  I usually can get through 3 rounds, or 24 activities during the year.  That gives you room to add task cards or other activities/ games, etc. that you already have on hand.  You can get the set here. As I add more response sheets, I'll update the set.  Right now, the set is on sale at an introductory price.  To help you get started, I've made one of the activities a freebie, which you can get here.  

In my last post, about structure, I showed you how I keep groups organized and rotate them around the different assignments.  You can read that post here. 

For the Genre Activity assignment, I place a numbered strip to the left of the group list.  Students are to complete the Genre Activity that corresponds to the number next to their names.  I just change the numbered strip at the beginning of each new rotation, about once a week.  When all students have rotated through all the activities, I switch out the activities and start back with number 1 at the top. 

All of the other four rotations meet with me at some point at my reading table.  However, I don't meet at the table with this last group.  Instead, they share their responses with the class during a 10 minute "Genre Share" at the end of the reading time.  Each student takes a turn presenting.  This is the way I "meet" with them and it holds them accountable for getting it done.  It's super embarrassing for it to be a students' turn when they are not prepared.  

Just a note, I always start each week with my highest reading group at the genre activities.  That way, the rest of the students have the best examples to follow for doing the activities the rest of the week.  I've found my lower students do a much better job with this example set for them.  

Want to win a full set of the new Literature Response Activities pack?  Enter below for your chance to win.  Remember, the set is at a special price for a limited time.  If you purchase the set and are selected as a winner, I'll let you choose anything in my store for the same value for me to send you in place of the Literature Response pack. 

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Notice and Note Book Study Post 8

Section 6 is so helpful in teaching how to explain the signposts to your class.  It also gives some text suggestions and some models for teaching the signposts to your students.  I'm so excited about all I'm learning this summer and planning for next year.  I'm ready to dig into planning for the beginning of the year and my reader's response journals.  My plan is to start the year off with a lesson each day to introduce each of the signposts using short texts.  Then, I'll continue to support students as we read our class novel together.  Students will then have more of their own opportunity to find examples of signposts in their literature circle texts.  My biggest hurdle is going to be training myself to use that generalizable language.

One conundrum that I have is in regards to the anchor charts.  I'm debating between making the chart before hand and making it during the lesson with the students.  I've held the position that students take more ownership and use if you build the chart together, but my students didn't use it much.  So, I wonder if it really matters.  What are your thoughts on the matter?

Notice and Note Book Study Post 7

The sections of the book for part 7 today are pretty short and to the point.  The first section introduces the questions that accompany the signposts.  As I read, I wondered how having just one question would work when there are so many different circumstances in which a signpost might be observed.  After watching the accompanying video to this section by the authors, which can be found here, I was happy to hear that the authors struggled with the same idea.  They realized however, that after starting with the anchor question, other questions to further understanding naturally occurred in discussion.

The next topic is a difficult one for me.  I find myself often in the position of telling to be able to move on rather than taking the time to teach students to "fish" for themselves.  I love that the signposts help us generalize examples for students so that they are better able to comprehend on their own.  This is certainly a new habit I'm going to have to build myself, and a bit scary to tell you the truth.  I just have to remind myself that the students don't know how it's "supposed" to be, so if I make a mistake in my mind, they don't know it and I can just keep improving and working toward making it better.

Now I'm not one to re-invent something that has already been done and is terrific.  There are many fantastic free resources in the way of bookmarks and posters for you and your students to use to support you in teaching the signposts and anchor questions.  Here are some of my favorites. 


Teaching with a Touch of Twang did a great bookmark and response sheet in her last post on our book study here. 

Now's she's updated this same response sheet to include the anchor questions.  Get the updated sheet here. 

From Tori Gorosave on TpT:

Do a search for Notice and Note on TpT and you'll find several formats of posters, book marks and response forms to suit your style and needs. 

How do you teach your students to "fish" and wean them to find their own points of comprehension? 

Notice and Note Book Study Post 4

Welcome to part 4 of our book study.  Brenda at Primary Inspired wrote about Chapter 7: Do Text-dependent Questions Foster Engagement? and I'll be focusing on Question 8: Must Everyone Read the Same Book? I love the short answer that the authors give of: "...yes, at least from time to time."  

I read books with my students in a variety of ways.  We begin the year with a whole class novel.  This allows me to model and teach all the students how I want them to respond in their notebooks and to introduce comprehension strategies, etc.  I'm excited to add teaching the Notice and Note signposts to this beginning novel.  I'm planning to use the book Maniac Magee this year.  Last year I used Witches, but a 4th grade teacher used it as her end of year book and I just couldn't bring myself to start with a book many of them will have ended on last year.  My teammate also does a class novel in December and we all do one again in May.  I think I may add the December class novel to my plans as well.  

We all read the same text daily from our text, Journey's.  We term it shared reading in our district and the point is for every student to be reading the same text together.  They are grade level so every student, regardless of reading level is exposed to grade appropriate level and instruction.  This is the time I introduce sills to the whole class.  We discuss comprehension and reading skills at this time.  This is also the time I do some close reading with our basal story.  It is my "to students" time of reading.

After the first class novel, students start literature circle groups.  I choose 6 books, usually on a similar theme.  I give a book cover intro to the class and let students choose.  I only allow 8 in a group and usually start with my lowest readers so I can direct them to the books that are better suited to their levels.  Once all 8 in a group are taken, students coming after have to choose a new book.  Students who are disappointed they didn't get their first choice are often pleasantly surprised at how much they end up liking the book they get "stuck" with.

Then I have my guided reading groups, I usually choose shorter texts or articles for this instruction so we can focus on comprehension skills, close reading and fluency. I also try to do a lot of non-fiction.  They get their novels and fiction in literature circles and choice reading.

I have a decent sized class library and students are always expected to read if they finish an assignment or feel like they have nothing to do.  Of course I'm always looking to build my library, but my students seem to find some great treasures there and for the most part, they do choose to choice read when they have extra time.

I'm going to work more on the idea of becoming a community of readers this next year.  I'm planning to have each literature circle group comment and converse in an edmodo group about their reading sections each week to help them be better prepared for the group conversations on Friday.  I'm also planning to participate in the Global Read Aloud Project.  You can find more information about joining that here.  I'm looking forward to connecting with classrooms from around the world who are all reading the same book.  We'll be reading The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm.  It's a brand new book coming to print in August.  You can view and purchase an advance copy of it by clicking the cover below.

I'd love to connect with any classes that decide to read along as well.  The other choice that might be appropriate for fifth grade is One for the Murphys by Indy Mullaly Hunt.  I understand that this one is a little more serious in nature with more heavy themes.  I didn't think that was what I wanted to read near the beginning of the year.  If you're interested in looking at this one, click on the cover below.

I did get the book though and will read it myself and consider it as a read aloud later in the year.

What is your way of balancing that everyone in the class gets some experiences all with the same book while still providing choice and accommodations to meet everyone's learning needs? Please add your comments or link up with us below.

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Notice and Note Book Study Post 3

Welcome to Section 3 of our book study.  I spent yesterday at a state organized professional development focused on supporting teachers in implementing the common core in English Language Arts.  I was so excited to share how wonderful Notice and Note is and and some insights that pertained to our topics that have come from my learning by reading this book.  I get to spend the next three days in PD as well.

Since it's nearly midnight as I'm writing this and I have to get up to attend more PD tomorrow, I'm going to make it short and sweet. I'm sure you'll gain some great insights from the other participants who link up or leave comments.  

Question 6: What is the role of talk?

I marked on page 29 the sentence "Authentic questions, by contrast, are questions for which you really don't know the answer." The best conversations we've had in my classroom have revolved around authentic questions.  Students return with their own questions, and answer and question one another.  Unfortunately, most of these happen unplanned when a question pops into my mind spurred by a reading or comment from a student.  Purposefully planning such questions would probably be more meaningful and would make them occur with more frequency. 

Question 7: What is Close Reading? 

In the PD I'm attending, we discussed what close reading is.  Many teachers want a formula or outline to follow. Then they can say, I did such and such, therefore I'm going close reading.  Close reading is more than just an outline to follow.  I think a term that might better describe it is deep(er) reading.  It's what I call looking more closely at the text in my classroom.  I love this sentence on page 36: [Close Reading] "It should imply that we bring the text and the reader close together." It's not a step by step, formulated process.  It is reading several times, for different purposes each time with the ultimate goal being to bring the text and reader together.  Additionally, the repeated readings don't have to be of the entire passage over and over.  You can purposefully choose specific sections to drill down into and examine closely. 

Please join us by linking up below or commenting your thoughts on this section.  Late to the party? Visit here to see the schedule and all the details. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Notice and Note Book Study Post 2

This section of the Notice and Note Book Study is being hosted by 

Be sure to head to Heather's main post here.  You can join the fun too and link up your post or comment or ask questions in her comment section of the post.  

Question 3: Where Does Rigor Fit?  I recently heard some ideas about the word "rigor" that really resonated with me.  I am pretty sure they came from a presentation from George Couros at the Utah Educational Technology Conference I attended a few months ago.  He pointed out that the word rigor seems like such an unlikely word to use for what we mean when using it recently in education.  The etymology of the word is from Latin meaning to be stiff.  It is most often used to describe the state of a living thing after death and the body stiffens.  It also has the meaning to be harsh, strict or extreme.  In what way do we desire these attributes for our readers? We desire to increase the difficulty level with which our students are able to work with a text in order to deepen their understanding.  Perhaps we could find a different word to describe this act?  I simply use the term "Deeper Reading" with my students to encompass the ideas of close reading and offering rigorous and meaningful lessons.  

The authors of Notice and Note also pointed out a similar notion in the section of this chapter titled "It's Rigor, Not Rigor Mortis" I appreciate these sections of text from the chapter that really resonated with me: 
"Rigor is not an attribute of a text but rather a characteristic of our behavior with that text.  ...rigor resides in the enerty and attention given to the text, not in the text itself." (pg. 20)

"The essential element in rigor is engagement.  The rigor has to be achieved by engaging the readers in a process that is sufficiently interesting or rewarding that they'll invest energy in the work." (pg. 22)

A question that has come to mind in this notion of rigor being about the interaction, is how does text leveling play a role in this?  Of course students must be able to access the text in order to dig deeper, but what about a text that might usually be considered too easy for a student?  I feel that sometimes students are able to easily read a text and understand surface comprehension, but miss all of the deeper, underlying meanings that can be gained from the text.  I am thinking that for digging deeper, it may be a fantastic idea to bring forward "easier" texts and increase the expectation for engagement and commitment to the text.  Then, slowly increasing the difficulty of the text while continuing the expectation of engagement and commitment. 

Question 4: What do We Mean by Intellectual Communities? 

This idea of having an intellectual community is one that I have desired, but not quite learned how to foster.  This last year, more than any before, I realized how willing my students are to do the bare minimum.  They weren't engaged in learning and didn't have that intrinsic desire to work hard and do more.  A small handful out of the 33 students in my class ever went above and beyond the minimum and many did just enough to brush the minimum and yet now quite reach it.  I would love to hear your ideas on how you achieve an Intellectual Community in your classroom or school!

Notice and Note Book Study Post 1

Welcome to the first post in this summer blog book study on Notice and Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst.  I had been eyeing this book for a bit and wondering how helpful it would be among the sea of many other professional development books.  I asked some fellow bloggers for ideas on good summer book study books and this one came up.  So, I decided to give it a go.  I'm so very glad I did!  I'm about half way through, and LOVE it!  I hope you'll join us this summer and read along.  Please make comments or link up your own blog posts to share your ideas on each section.  Be sure to stop by our information page here to get the details of this book study and a calendar of posts. 

Post 1 will cover Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 (through page 19). This first section of the book reviews the questions the authors asked as they were seeking information on what is helpful to students as readers and consider how to change their teaching based on current theories and practices. 

Question 1: Is Reading Still Reading? As technology continues to become more integrated into our way of life, we have to re-examine what we consider to be reading.  In tandem with thinking about what we consider to be reading, we have to consider the way we are reading and whether we are adequately preparing students to access and understand these various texts. The skills it takes for a student to navigate and read a website, blog, text, etc. are very different than a book which differs from a newspaper or magazine as well. 

At the end of each chapter, the authors offer some questions to consider and discuss with colleagues... that's all of you.  I do think the nature of reading is changing and as teachers, we have to be aware of that and willing to change what texts we teach and how we teach students to access and comprehend them.  I don't think reading will ever become obsolete, I do think the way we read will change and evolve. 

Question 2: What is the Role of Fiction? There is such a push lately for students to read more and more non-fiction.  So what place does fiction have in our classrooms now? I love this quote from Notice and Note: "Indeed, it is imaginative literature that offers readers a chance to think about the human issues that concern us all: love, hate, hope, fear and all the other emotions, problems, situations, and experiences of living."  How many of us feel that in addition to the content areas, we have also become teachers of societal norms, manners, behaviors, etc.?   I know that I have felt this way, and feel increasingly so with each school year that passes.  Fiction is a perfect way to teach literacy and integrate social skills.  The authors also write: "Living for a time in the book's imaginary world may make us better able to live in our real world."  What a wonderfully profound statement to consider!

As the summer continues, I hope to share how I structure and run my reading time in my classroom.  I've had several bloggers ask about how to effectively run guided reading, literature circles and reading lessons from a basal in the time they have.  With the help of a fabulous colleague, I have a solution.  One of the questions asked at the end of section 2 is how to strike a balance.  I hope that my posts about reading in my classroom will help to answer that question as I feel it very important to find that balance. 

What are your thoughts and reactions to these first two sections of Notice and Note? Add the link to your blog post to the linky below or share your thoughts in the comments of this post. 

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