Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Susan R. Easterbrooks
Georgia State University
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Akhtar, N., Bloom, L., Hollich, G.,
Smith, L., Tomasello, M., & Woodward, A. (2000). Becoming a word
learner: A debate on lexical acquisition . New York City, NY: Oxford
University Press.
2. Activating Prior Knowledge (or Building Background
Knowledge in the absence of prior knowledge)
- Demonstrations
- Multi-media
- Graphics
http://www.deafed.net/diversity/video_class.htm
http://www.deafed.net/PublishedDocs/Titanic%2012.doc
7. Using Summarization Skills (what do you think
the story is going to be about)
c. Class discusses answers. Why did one person say true and
another say false?
Before reading
To discover the needs, interests, and previous
experiences of students
To find out what students already know and
can do
To determine a particular approach or strategy
13. Remembering your Do Nots
a. Obtain a copy of the ideas that were generated during your Activation of
Prior Knowledge activity. This can be a list, a story map, an outline, a
graphic organizer, a semantic web, or any other visual tool the teacher
used or had students use to record activated prior knowledge.
b. Read one segment of the text at a time
c. Have students scan their Prior Knowledge source, locating information
that relates to the segment.
d. Have student discuss how the information in the text and the information
on the Prior Knowledge source relate to one another
e. Have other students explain how that information or connection is
important their lives
3. Asking questions that will need to be answered (SQ3R)
d. Recite Answer the questions that you generated. Get group input if
you are unable to answer the questions. If possible, generate some
new questions based on the information you have gathered.
(Repeat c and d with each new section.)
e. Review After completing the text, review questions and answers for
the entire text.
4. Searching for information segments
that match questions asked.
a. Note connections between words on your
brainstorm list and words in the text.
c. If you think you have found a connection but are not sure, read
from several sentences before the sentence containing the
information to several sentences after.
d. Reread
Story Star
6. Activating mental imagery based on prior knowledge, visual
cues, and information accumulated from the text.
b. Point out the problem to the students and tell them that you are going
to show them some steps they can use to Make an Inference.
c. Discuss what is meant by an inference. Compare it to the word
literal.
d. Use examples in the physical world of the students experiences. For
example, It is cold is a literal statement. Sam wants to put on a
sweater may be an inference he drew because it is cold. Maybe it is
true. Maybe it is not.
e. Using selected passages, brainstorm to activate prior knowledge.
e. Use a Think Aloud process to demonstrate how you drew your
inference.
Purposes:
To assess students' understanding and progress
To identify successes or difficulties and
confidence levels
To assess students' abilities to verbalize their
understanding and insights
To assess students' abilities to work together
while sharing ideas and completing tasks
10. Always stopping to use fix-up strategies when
needed
Reason for
Prediction Prediction
They ate their picnic lunch in the You usually eat a lunch after you pack it. A
1st park. park is a nice place to eat a picnic lunch. That
is why I think they eat their lunch next.
I think Tom will win first place in Everyone told Tom he did a good job on his
the science fair. robot. Also if the judges were speechless, I
2nd think that means Tom did a good job. That is
why I think that tom will win first prize.
3rd
4th
13. Applying Knowledge of Text Organization (narrative
and expository text have different organizational patterns)
Narratives have
a. Beginning includes the setting and characters
b. Middle includes the problem, the plan, and the events
leading to a resolution
c. End resolution and reaction
Expository texts have a variety of organizations
b. Tell student that you are going to teach him a strategy to use before
he asks/gives up.
c. Write three steps for student to go through before he can give
up/ask. Be sure there are strategies you have actually taught and
the student can actually use.
d. Tell student to check off the strategies s/he has tried. Give the
answer when student can demonstrate s/he has tried the strategy.
e. Over time, add another and then another step student must try before
giving up/asking for help.
f. Do read alouds where you demonstrate your unfolding understanding
of the text by talking through your thought processes. This will
demonstrate to the student that everyone must work to understand a
written passage.
g. Work on figurative language routinely. Choose a word and discuss it
in depth (book), showing multiple meanings, compound words
(bookcase), noun adjuncts (match book), figurative phrases (make
book, book a prisoner, book it), and expressions (throw the book at
someone). Students need to see that even simple words can have
difficult to understand meanings.
15. Using advance organizers
Appropriate for students ages 9 and above. Usable with narratives and
expository text. (Source: McAnally, Rose, & Quigley)
a. Teacher explains the difference between fact and opinion and gives
examples from the physical world of the students.
b. Starting with an example, teacher asks students what clues are in the
text that can alert the reader to whether it is a fact or an opinion.
c. After listing the clues from the examples, teacher and students can
elaborate on other clues from their own experiences.
d. Teacher and students discuss why it is important to distinguish fact
from opinion.
e. On overhead transparency, teacher shows students a list of statements to
evaluate as fact or opinion. If the statement is fact, student must
indicate the possible source for verification next to that statement (e.g.,
encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, newspapers). They may also be
asked to write their proof by the statement.
f. Students do several examples as a group.
g. Teacher asks students to circle the clues in each statement.
h. Students complete the rest of the statements independently, in small
groups, or in pairs.
i. Photocopy sections of students textbooks and of age-appropriate
narrative texts. Have them highlight facts in one color highlighter and
opinions in another.
17. Monitoring Fluency Envelope when Reading Out Loud
After reading