MAX Teaching with Reading and Writing - Ects.org

MAX TeachingWith Reading and WritingMark A. Forget, Ph.D.Using Literacy SkillsTo Help Students Learn Subject MatterMAX Teaching Workshop MaterialsMark A. Forget, Ph.D.Director of Staff DevelopmentMAX Teaching, Inc.6857 T.R. 215Findlay, OH 45840404-441-7008mforget@maxteaching.comwww.maxteaching.com©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com1

BeforeLearning3 DAILY ELEMENTS OF READING/WRITING TO LEARNAfterLearning1. _____2. _____3. _____1. MAX Teaching Framework (MAX)2. 4 Components of Successful Cooperative Learning (CL)3. Skill Acquisition Model (SAM)CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES USING READING/WRITING1. _____2. _____3. _____1. _____2. _____3. _____4. _____5. _____6. _____7. _____8. _____9. _____10. _____11. _____12. _____13. _____14. _____15. _____16. _____17. _____18. _____19. _____20. _____21. _____1. Anticipation Guides2. Cubing3. Directed Reading/Thinking Activity in Fiction4. Directed Reading/Thinking Activity in Non-Fiction5. Focused Free Write6. G.I.S.T.7. Graphic Representations8. Hunt for Main Ideas9. I.N.S.E.R.T.10. Interactive Cloze Procedure11. Math Translation12. No-Research Papers13. Paired Reading Activity14. PQR 2 ST+15. Pre-Learning Concept Checks16. PreP17. Previewing18. Question Mark (Questions for Quality Thinking Bookmark)19. ReQuest20. Three-Level Study Guides21. Two-Column Notes1. _____2. _____3. _____4. _____5. _____6. _____7. _____8. _____9. _____10. _____11. _____12. _____13. _____14. _____15. _____16. _____17. _____18. _____19. _____20. _____21. _____©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com2

ANTICIPATION GUIDE: How Students Learn Most EffectivelyBefore Reading: In the space to the left of each statement, place a check mark( ƒ ) if you agree or think the statement is true.During or After Reading: Add new check marks or cross through those aboutwhich you have changed your mind. Keep in mind that this is not like thetraditional “worksheet.” You may have to put on your thinking caps and “readbetween the lines.” Use the space under each statement to note the page, column,and paragraph(s) where you have found information to support your thinking.___1. Students must participate actively in their learning in order for the materiallearned to become personal knowledge.___2. The best place for low-performing readers to improve their reading skills isin a remedial reading class.___3. Most students from kindergarten through twelfth grade can practice criticalthinking about virtually any subject matter.___4. In most school-related learning situations, students and teachers retain muchmore from what they discuss than from what they read.___5. Teachers should rely heavily on the textbook as a tool to help students learntheir subject matter.___6. Through daily repetition of practice in using communication skills to learnand process new information, students can become autonomous learners.___7. Reading is thinking – and students’ scores on most state-mandatedstandardized tests would improve if teachers were to provide students with guidedpractice in reading/thinking skills in their daily routine of course contentinstruction.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com3

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HOW STUDENTS LEARN MOST EFFECTIVELY 1Research suggests that we remember about 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30%of what we see, and 70% of what we, ourselves, say. How much do we remember of all thebooks we read in college? Is 10% a good estimate? We read the books and most likely didcomprehend what we read and held on to the knowledge for a test, paper, or discussion. Most ofthat retention was momentary understanding but was not processed as personal knowledge forourselves. Comprehending what you read and long-term retention are definitely two separateentities.Research also tells us that “85% of the knowledge and skills presented to students in schoolcomes to them in some form of language: teachers talking, materials to read, films to watch andlisten to, and so forth.” If students only retain 20% of what they hear, then is frequent lecture aneffective way to teach, and is it an effective use of learners’ time? If we remember 70% of whatwe say, is it any wonder that teachers who often lecture seem so knowledgeable?Percentages aside, teachers, especially, know how beneficial it is to talk to someone elseabout subject matter. As good learners, we know from experience that when we discussed withsomeone else, we clarified subject matter, made connections among points of the subject matterthat we might not have realized before, and mentally and verbally interacted with the ideas of ourpartner(s) in the discussion.These same concepts apply to our students. An interactive learning situation is superior to thepassive reception of information of the traditional classroom. When students work cooperativelyto construct the meaning from a piece of text, they learn more deeply, and they are helping oneanother learn how to learn. In order to motivate students to think about, learn, and discuss whatthey have read, we should use a framework of instruction that allows students to be active intheir own learning.Generally speaking, reading is not taught beyond the third grade in most school systems. If astudent has not mastered reading comprehension skills by the fourth grade, chances are that s/hewill struggle with learning in grades four through twelve. Many middle school and high schoolstudents lack the ability to use communication skills effectively for the purpose of learning.Teachers and parents often assume that these skills will develop by themselves over time. Thefact is that they rarely do.One solution is embedded curriculum, in which learning skills are taught in conjunction withcourse content. Students need to be provided with appropriate modeling of language and thoughtprocesses, and, since this is often not accomplished in the home, then it must be done in theschool. The problem is that most classrooms do not provide this modeling. Faced with theubiquitous pressure of standardized tests, teachers often resort to rapid “covering” of the materialthey are supposed to teach, with little regard for whether students are developing appropriatebrain programs for learning, thinking, and problem solving. In most schools, the preferredpedagogical techniques are teacher lecture, worksheet skill drills, and reading to answer end-ofchaptercomprehension questions. Teachers who use these methods can say that they “covered”what they were supposed to cover in the curriculum. The results are that students perceive schoolas a passive, often boring, learning experience in which they seldom see how different subjects1 Excerpted from Forget, Mark A. and Morgan, Raymond F. (1997) A brain compatible learning environment for improving studentmetacognition. Reading Improvement, v. 34, no. 4, Winter, 1997.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com5

elate to either reality or to one another, or even how what was learned last week in a givensubject area relates to what was learned this week.Textbooks are valuable tools. Though the textbook should not be the only information sourcein a class, the textbook is an often-neglected or misused tool for learning. The fact is that muchof the content being measured by standardized tests is to be found in textbooks. The basic themesof a course and the vocabulary of the discipline are to be found there.The problem is that, even though many of the questions on standardized tests requireinterpretive reading, most students are not being exposed to thoughtful interpretation of text.Worksheets and end-of-chapter comprehension questions require only the most basic decodingskills to answer. Students who process text through these methods rarely do the kind of readingyou are doing right now – thoughtfully processing the argument as it was logically presented bythe author. Instead, students often begin in the middle or end of the reading, flipping pages backand forth to skim for bold print words that might give them the clue as to where they might find“the right answer.”Any person, regardless of age, can perform higher order thinking about even the most abstractideas if s/he has a basic understanding of the concept. When teachers think that students cannotperform higher order thinking about subject matter, what they do not realize is that the problemreally lies not in the students, but in the students’ preparation for the thinking. Once studentshave conceptualized the basics, they can more readily perform higher order thinking skills aboutthe subject matter. Many teachers practice assumptive teaching – thinking that because theythemselves understand certain concepts, the students will also understand them in the same ways.One important source of course-specific vocabulary and basic conceptual information aboutcourse content is a textbook. However, it is important that the textbook be used properly, andthat other information sources are also used appropriately.A framework of instruction for acquisition of literacy skills along with content areaknowledge includes three-steps that facilitate active engagement of students, allowing the brainto function at its highest levels. Before reading, teachers can motivate students by helpingstudents to recall and add to their prior knowledge of the topic to be studied, and to set their ownpurposes for reading. During the reading, teachers can help students maintain their purposes andmonitor their own comprehension while acquiring new information and new learning skills.After the reading, teachers can facilitate higher-order thinking by students, allowing for thethinking to extend beyond the text.Interaction between student and self, student and teacher, and among students, in the contextof the subject area is critical in developing these abilities. Emphasis is on learning throughguided practice in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking. All these are practiced inthe classroom on a daily basis, while students participate in an active process of learning fromtextbooks, from each other, and from other materials. Students of all ability levels, in all contentareas, benefit from this form of deeper learning. In addition, the skills acquired in conjunctionwith the content instruction are transferable to other learning experiences because one importantthing being acquired is the process of learning itself. Students thus develop naturally positivebrain programs that they can apply in all future learning situations.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com6

ANTICIPATION GUIDES MOTIVATE STUDENTSThis strategy can be used to guide students through all three phases of the MAX teachingframework. It provides Motivation to readers by asking them to react to a series of statementsthat are related to the content of the reading materials and also to the students’ prior knowledge.Because students are able to react to these statements, they anticipate or predict what the materialwill be about. Once a student has committed to the statements, s/he will have created ameaningful purpose for Acquisition of new knowledge. Purposeful reading leads to improvedcomprehension and, thus, Acquisition of an important comprehension skill. Finally, teachermediatedstudent discussions allow for students to experience EXtension beyond the text. Asstudents work to iron out any differences in interpretation by attempting to come to consensus onconstruction of the author’s meaning, students manipulate ideas in such a way as to experiencehigher order thinking about the subject being learned. This is the point at which application,analysis, synthesis, and evaluation level thinking takes place. The result is better understandingand higher retention of subject matter.How to Make and Use Anticipation Guides1. Assess the reading material for important concepts.2. Write statements based on the concepts. (Depending on the material and the age ofstudents, the number of statements may vary from three to ten or more.) Statements thatare likely to engage students in reading and discussion reflect the followingcharacteristics:• All statements are plausible, include important concepts, and are phrased in languagedifferent from the way the text is worded.• Some statements include ideas that are intuitively appealing to students, but which willprove to be incorrect upon reading the text.• At least one statement should be written in such a way as to force students to interpretlarge segments of text such as a paragraph or two. This prevents the exercise from turninginto a simple “decoding exercise.”• Some statements are worded in such a way as to provoke critical thinking about the keyconcepts. Rather than true/false statements, they are somewhat vague or interpretational.Based on either the students’ prior knowledge or on the material being presented,students might disagree with one another and provide some valid evidence for either sideof the argument, both before and after the reading.• Some statements may not have a correct answer – it is a good idea to include somestatements to which even the teacher does not have an answer. These can stimulate greatdiscussion leading to deeper understanding of the subject matter.3. Follow the procedure described on the next three pages.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com7

Anticipation Guide ProcedureStage of MAX Lesson Framework: Motivation Acquisition EXtension Lifelong learning skill(s) to be practiced during acquisition:• Using prediction as a means of developing purposes for engaging in reading• Constructing meaning and reading critically to clarify interpretation of textMaterials:• Anticipation guides – one per student,• Textbook or other reading,• Transparency of anticipation guideQuick Overview of lesson:1. Predict2. Discuss – small groups3. Silent reading, seeking evidence for interpretations4. Discuss – small groups5. Discuss – whole classDetailed version of lesson:1. Introduce the content of the lesson by posing a hypothetical question, reading a quotation,previewing the text, or some other interest-capturing idea to which students can reactthrough discussion.2. Introduce the skill of prediction. Explain to students that strategic readers most oftenpredict what will be found in the text that they are preparing to read. Explain that it is notso important whether their predictions are right or wrong, but rather that, by predicting,they engage themselves in the reading, thus making the reading easier and moreinteresting. If they find out that their prediction was correct, they feel good about it. Ifthey find out that their prediction was not correct, they can react with surprise at whatthey actually did find in the text.3. Model use of the skill of predicting. You might wish to describe how strategic readerspredict what they are going to discover in a text by just scanning it first for clues. Youmight model the process by referring to a prediction you made before reading something(a newspaper article or something like that). Discuss how predicting what you were aboutto read helped you to focus on the reading. Explain to students that it does not matter©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com8

whether you are right or wrong in your predictions. By having made predictions, youmake the reading easier to do because while reading, you know what you are looking for.4. Explain to students that, for today’s reading, we are going to use an anticipation guide tohelp us make the predictions so we can practice what strategic readers do. Tell them thatthe prediction guide has many statements on it, and that some of the statements will haveevidence in the textbook that supports them, some will have evidence that negates them,and some may have evidence that is conflicting, and about which students will probablyargue.5. Tell students to place a check mark ( ƒ ) in the space next to each statement that theythink will probably be supported in the reading. Tell them to do this on their own, withoutlooking at their neighbor’s paper. Tell them not to worry about being right or wrong atthis point. Remind them that they are just making predictions, and that once they get intothe reading, they will be able to change their minds about any of the statements if theyfeel they should. Move around the room to see that students are committing to some ofthe statements.6. Tell students to discuss, in their cooperative groups, the predictions that they have made.Ask them to share their logic with one another at this point. One student’s priorknowledge may help the others in the group to understand the concepts that are to beencountered. The books remain closed at this point. Move around the room to monitortheir discussions and answer any questions they may have. (An alternative to this smallgroupdiscussion is a teacher-led class discussion, especially near the beginning of theyear or when students have very limited prior knowledge.)7. Students should break off the discussions and begin individual silent reading at thistime. Remind them that they should keep the prediction guide on the desk for referencewhile they read, and that they ought to use inferential thinking while they read. Tell themthat they must interpret what they are reading in order to determine whether a predictionguidestatement should be checked or not, and that they must be able to refer to specificparts of the text to verify their beliefs. It is good to have students list page-columnparagraphnotations under the statements they wish to verify or refute. (Their notationsmight look something like this: 251-2-4, meaning that information to support or negate aparticular statement can be found on page 251, column two, paragraph four.) Again,move around the room to monitor progress and support students in their work. It is alsogood at this point to read silently along with the students, with the goal in mind that youmay later need to model some of the thinking that goes into inferring.8. When most students have finished reading, tell them to get back onto their small groupsto discuss again the prediction guide, only now their job changes to attempting to come©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com9

to a consensus within their groups about whether a statement should be checked or not.Here, they compare their various interpretations of what they have read, referring toevidence in the text to support those interpretations. Again, move around the room toassist in this process, making sure that students are referring to the text to support theiropinions. Allow several minutes for the discussions to occur.9. When at least one group has come to a consensus on the prediction-guide statements, usetheir decisions to conduct a whole-class discussion to attempt to achieve a classroomconsensus. Make sure that students are able to support their beliefs either through directreference to the text or through their interpretation of specific text. It is very importantduring this phase of the lesson that the teacher act as a mediator or arbitrator, avoidingtelling students answers. Intellectual ownership must be in the minds of the students asthey collectively construct meaning from the text. Near the beginning of the year, someteacher modeling of inferential reading might be necessary, but students will quickly takeownership of the process, and they will surprise you with their thoroughness of analysis.10. Ask students to report on their use of the skill of predicting. Say – did the process ofpredicting what you were going to read before reading, and discussing it with your peershelp you in concentrating on the reading, and in comprehending the reading? Did it helpyou focus and stay focused while you were reading? (Students inevitably realize at thispoint that, by practicing predicting before reading, they were engaged in the reading,leading to heightened comprehension.)11. Take the opportunity to review and reinforce the use of the skill of predicting. Point outto students that they can use the skill in any reading that they do in any subject area toengage themselves, make the reading more interesting by setting a purpose for reading,and by keeping that purpose in mind during the reading.12. Continue reflection through a free-write, homework, a quiz, etc.Anticipation Guides: Herber, H. (1978). Teaching reading in the content areas (2 nd ed.).Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Readance, J. E., Bean, T.W., & Baldwin, R.S. (1981).Content area reading: An integrated approach. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com10

MotivationAcquisitionEXtensionThe Goal?The teacher motivates students by• linking the day’s lesson tostudents’________ __________,• adding to their prior knowledgethrough sharing and discussion.• modeling a _____ to be used.The students cooperatively establishtheir own purposes for reading by• making ___________,• asking ___________, or• anticipating use of the ______.The teacher ____________ guidedpractice in the literacy skill(s).The students read silently to acquirenew knowledge & skills by• maintaining their own __________for reading,• practicing a literacy _____,• gathering written information.In the third phase, The teacher___________ students’ discussions to• _________ meaning from text bymanipulating ideas,• ______ knowledge beyond text bypracticing higher order thinkingskills, and• report on success resulting fromthe literacy _____.Activities for the third phase of thelesson: ________________________________________________________________________________________________Making reading/thinking _____ forstudents!©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com11

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MAX TEACHING WITH READING AND WRITING:A RATIONALE AND METHOD 2The only way to learn how to read is by reading, andThe only way to get students to read is by making reading easy.Frank Smith (1988), Joining the Literacy ClubLiteracy, in the most basic sense of the word, is the ability to read and write. But such anability entails so much more than simply deciphering combinations of letters on a page orplacing words on paper in a certain order. Literacy involves listening, thinking, and speaking insuch a way that information and ideas are processed and communicated to the benefit of self andsociety.Few would deny the importance of literacy skills in either the academic world or thebusiness world. Yet, schools beyond the early grades often do not see the role they could play indeveloping and expanding literacy skills in students, and so they relegate that duty to others.Standardized tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provideevidence of this failure to stimulate students to achieve higher levels of literacy skills. Accordingto NAEP tests, a significant portion of middle grades and high school students read at or belowthe basic reading levels.Disparity in Literacy SkillsThe poor performance in reading scores that many American middle and high schoolstudents consistently earn on state and national tests result not from inadequate test preparationbut from a lack of basic literacy skills that in other times and circumstances might have beenlearned at home. It is no surprise that schools situated in upper middle class neighborhoodsconsistently score higher than those in poorer areas, whether rural or urban. The fact of thematter is that children who come from homes in which literacy (the ability to read, write, speak,listen, and think well) is valued and practiced are the ones who consistently score higher onstandardized tests. These are children who come from homes in which books are commonplace,magazines are found on the coffee table, and a newspaper lies on the driveway in the morning.They see their parents using literacy to learn, communicate, and conduct business. To suchchildren, literacy skills tend to come easily, and thus they score highly on standardized tests. Onthe other hand, children from homes that have little print matter available and in which the TVand/or siblings are raising the children (often because financial circumstances require theparents, or a single parent, to be away much of the time working two jobs) tend to score lower onthe same tests. Schools can make up for this disparity, but to do so, they will have to rethink howthey teach children.What Do Reading Tests Measure?2 Forget, Mark A. (2003, in press.). MAX Teaching with reading & writing: How all teachers can maximizestudents’ understanding of their subject matter.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com13

We must not be too quick to criticize elementary schools for the job they are doing.Though schools vary in their performance, early grades educators are generally doing a good jobof teaching students to decode print through the use of phonics and other methods. At grade four,United States students lead the world in the ability to read (learn). It is by eighth and twelfthgrades that a negative disparity is found between the scores of American students and those ofother industrialized countries.Tests conducted by the Department of Education’s National Assessment of EducationalProgress show that more than 60 percent of high school seniors in the United States score at orbelow the basic level of reading (as compared to the proficient and advanced levels). A scan ofNAEP’s own literature points out that what is being measured in their tests is the ability ofstudents to perform higher order thinking while they read. The manual that NAEP publishes withtheir report every two years suggests that when grade level materials are used, students reading atthe “basic” reading level should be able to “demonstrate an overall understanding and makesome interpretations of the text.” Students reading at the “proficient” level should be able to“show an overall understanding of the text which includes inferential as well as literalinformation.” And students reading at the “advanced” level should be able to “describe moreabstract themes and ideas.” In addition, students reading at the advanced level should be able to“analyze [and] extend the information from the text by relating to their own experiences and tothe world.” (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1998).In other words, what the NAEP is measuring is the ability of students to perform higherorder thinking while learning. The question is, Are we teaching students how to think? Are wecreating the conditions in our classrooms in which students are routinely enabled to analyze,apply, synthesize, and evaluate what they read?How Schools Can Help Students Acquire Literacy SkillsWhat can schools do to help middle and high school students improve their achievementin learning? The systematic use of reading and writing to help students learn their subject matteris one answer. Students who are placed in an environment in which they are allowed to pursuelearning through the means of reading, writing, discussing in cooperative groups, and thusmanipulating ideas to construct meaning are finding that learning does not have to be difficult orboring. Rather, it can be fluid and engaging—even exciting. What students in such anenvironment learn is that, despite their background or home environment, they can succeed aslearners. A collateral benefit is that, while students in content area classes read, write, anddiscuss in order to learn content, they actually improve the thinking skills directly related tohigher performance in reading and writing.What About Students Who Are Reading Below Grade Level?Reading involves construction of meaning. Modern views of reading suggest that thereader, using the “set of tracks” left by the author and relating it to the reader’s prior knowledge,thereby constructs a message. The good news is that students who are reading below grade level,and who do not at a given time have the skills to read a piece of text independently, can read textconsiderably beyond their diagnosed reading grade level when they have the support ofcompetent peers and/or a facilitating teacher. Students practicing learning through reading in thisway can in fact read text that is as much as four years above their diagnosed reading levels©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com14

(Dixon-Krauss, 1996). The key is having well prepared teachers—teachers who know strategiesto help students (a) interpretively process text and (b) work cooperatively to manipulate the ideasand themes of the course.Students who have previously been frustrated by their lack of literacy skills find that theyare able to develop appropriate skills and strategies that can make all the difference. Themediated literacy instruction, which employs cooperative learning, helps such students gain theability to perform literacy skills autonomously. Stated another way – There is only one way tolearn literacy skills, and that is by practicing them…and there is only one way to get students topractice literacy skills, and that is to make it easy for them to do so. That is what MAXTeaching is all about.How MAX Teaching WorksMAX is an acronym that stands for the three steps of a teaching framework that anyteacher can use. The acronym stands for Motivation, Acquisition, and EXtension. It’s a way tohelp all students better learn their subject matter and improve their literacy skills. The essentialgoal of teachers who use the MAX teaching framework is to level the playing field by raising thebar for all students. This involves creating a classroom environment that provides instruction inbuilding skills to enable improved performance, while at the same time engaging all students inactive learning from textbooks and other forms of textual matter.Motivation:(the first step)Much of current research into motivation of students involves two simultaneous and oftencompeting drives within the learner – striving for success and avoidance of failure (Marzano,2003). What the teacher does in the pre-reading phase is based on the awareness of these twodrives.Each class begins with activities designed to motivate students to become engaged in thelearning of content, even if it is content that is difficult or might not otherwise interest them. Thisfirst step is accomplished through the systematic use of both individual and cooperative activitiesthat help the teacher…• find out what the students already know about the topic to be studied,• assist students in connecting to and seeing the relevance of subject matter,• provide for increased conceptual understanding for all students,• introduce and model a literacy-related skill that the students will use to probe text andgather information for development of new understandings, and• help students establish concrete purposes for actively probing the text.It is through carefully guided implementation of all of these components that students whootherwise might not have taken an interest in the learning experience are guided to becomecurious about subject matter and to form a plan for finding new information.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com15

Acquisition (the second step)Once students have clear purposes for learning, the teacher facilitates guided practice in thelearning skill introduced in the Motivation stage of the lesson. (The exact skill to be practicedvaries, depending on the needs of the students, the structure and/or difficulty of the text, or onother variables.) In the Acquisition phase of the lesson, each student…• silently reads to interpret and gather information in writing for later discussion,• actively probes text for acquisition of new content, and• works toward acquisition of expertise in the practiced literacy skill.Typically, this part of the class involves silent reading by students as they each gatherinformation to be brought to small-group and whole-class discussion after the reading. In somecases, where student reading abilities are uniformly well below the level of the text, the teachermight read all or a part of the text aloud to the class while students read along silently. However,as early in the school year as possible, students should be allowed to practice mature silentreading to gather information through their own interpretations.Frequent systematic guided practice in literacy related skills allows students to acquire theskills without even being aware that they are doing so. Just as a person acquires fluency in alanguage through the immersion process by living for some time in a place where the language isspoken, students acquire complex and content-specific literacy-related skills. Acquisition isdifferent than learning – most people who ever tried to “learn” a second language through yearsof course work cannot speak it. Yet people who were given the opportunity to spend lengthyperiods in foreign lands often acquire the language without formal training. It is this lessobservable yet profound form of development that is occurring in a content literacy classroomthrough immersion in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking about course content.EXtension:(the third step)The final phase of the lesson framework involves EXtension beyond the text. This takesplace through various activities that might include debate, discussion, writing, reorganizing, orotherwise manipulating the ideas that were confronted in the reading. Students meet in smallgroups and as a whole class to construct meaning from the text. The teacher, in this phase of thelesson, acts as a facilitator for the higher order thinking that will allow students to (a) synthesizeinformation, connecting new facts and ideas with what they already knew before the lesson; (b)analyze the knowledge newly gained; and (c) think about how to apply what they have learned inreal-world circumstances, or even to make an evaluation of the author’s argument or underlyingintent. It is through such higher order thinking that students develop more completeunderstandings about new content. It is also through such practice in higher order thinking thatstudents develop the skills and abilities to perform these tasks on their own as independent lifelonglearners. (Chapter 6 will expand on this phase of the lesson.)The principles underlying the MAX teaching framework have been well researched overmany years. The essential components of the use of cooperative learning throughout the first andlast phases of the lesson, along with the systematic introduction of skills in which students aregiven guided practice in the use of language as a tool for thinking, combine to help all studentslearn how to become effective learners and thinkers. In addition, the MAX teaching framework©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com16

provides a way for upper grade teachers to help compensate for the inadequate language skillsdevelopment that too many children exhibit.The combination of the three daily elements of MAX Teaching leads to a classroomenvironment in which support for difficult literacy-related activities is provided throughout thelesson. The likelihood of success in reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking isenhanced by each of the elements.FIGURE 1Daily Elements of MAX TeachingMAX SAM CLBefore ReadingMotivationGetting Ready to Read byRelating Subject Matter toStudent Prior Knowledgeand Setting PurposeIntroductionand Modelingof the SkillWrittenCommitmentDuring ReadingAcquisitionIndividual Silent Readingfor Personal InterpretationIndividualGuided Practicein the SkillGatheringInformation forDiscussionAfter ReadingEXtensionConstruction of Meaningand Reorganization ofInformation throughDiscussion & WritingReflection onHow the SkillWorkedAttempt toAchieveConsensusBy focusing on a skill – such as paraphrasing, note taking, or reorganizing writteninformation, the teacher is reducing the probability in any given student’s mind that the learningexperience will lead to failure. Instead of teaching just subject matter, the teacher is focused onhelping students learn how to learn the subject matter! Risk is also reduced by the use ofcooperative learning, if done properly.Any teacher can improve the probability of students actively participating in cooperativelearning by following a few important steps in the process. It is important that there is a realproblem to be solved. That is to say that the typical worksheet is not a task suitable for activecooperative learning. Appropriate tasks that truly engage students are characterized by posingtrue dilemmas for which multiple solutions exist and about which a certain level of ambiguityleads to more than one possible solution. But, even good cooperative learning tasks can fail if notfacilitated properly.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com17

Students should, before even entering the cooperative group, have something in writing towhich they have committed. This gives each student a stake in the process – an idea that can bediscussed or defended even before the learning experience.Once students have gathered information from the reading (or video, lecture, etc.), theirdiscussions will be enhanced by an attempt to come to a consensus on their interpretation of thelearning material. Consensus means each of the students in a cooperative learning group mustagree on an interpretation, and this should be attempted first in small groups and then as a class.The process of attempting to achieve consensus assures that all students are involved in the coreprocess of reading – construction of meaning. The result is that all participants acquire readingskills without even being aware that they are doing so.How Frequently Should Teachers Use MAX?All effective teachers use some form of the three steps that comprise MAX. At thebeginning of class, most teachers use some form of an “anticipatory set” to get students thinkingabout the subject matter. The new information is often then “presented” in some format such as alecture, video, teacher-led discussion, or some other way of communicating information. Thepresentation of new information is usually followed by some form of check, such as a worksheetor quiz.Thus, the paradigm shift in using MAX as a framework of instruction is easy for mostteachers since, with MAX, they now become facilitators of their students’ active learningthrough the use of reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking in the middle and finalphases of class. The teacher acts as a “master learner” among “apprentice learners” in aclassroom wherein the focus is on acquisition of knowledge and skills through guided practice inusing literacy skills to process new subject matter.Using literacy skills to process new understandings can easily become the central focusof a classroom and can be used as a way to learn any new information. The variety of testedstrategies available to teachers is enormous. Researched and proven strategies abound. Thus,practicing literacy skills to learn should not be a once-a-week or once-a-month activity. It canbecome the routine of a classroom in which students are engaged in making personal meaningfrom text and discussion every day.Which Teachers Should Teach This Way?Teachers who use the MAX teaching framework do not need to be reading specialists.Academic and vocational teachers from the elementary grades through high school only need torecognize that by using the concrete tools of text and student writing, along with teachermodeling and cooperative learning, they can help their students routinely achieve higher orderthinking about their subject matter. Staff development in using these strategies is accomplishedthrough hands-on demonstration and modeling. Any teacher can use these techniques. Afterparticipating in staff development in using reading and writing to learn, most teachers areimmediately able to employ a variety of reading/writing strategies in their classrooms. Recentresearch has demonstrated that students can improve their reading levels by two or more yearsover a six month time period when exposed to learning through these strategies (Greenleaf,Schoenbach, Cziko, & Mueller, 2001). Which teachers would not want to teach this way?©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com18

Interactive Cloze Reading ProcedureStage of MAX Lesson Framework Motivation ƒ Acquisition ƒ EXtension ƒLifelong learning skill(s) to be practiced during learning:• Predicting to create purpose for reading• Contextual definition of vocabulary termsQuick Overview of Lesson:1. Give to students a copy of the Interactive Cloze passage that you have created to summarize the readingand focus on key vocabulary terms.2. Students individually guess by writing (preferably in pencil) the terms they think will best complete thepassage.3. Small group discussion to compare guesses – students may change some.4. Silent reading to determine better responses from the text.5. Small group discussion to attempt a consensus on correct terms.6. Large group discussion to achieve class consensus.Detailed version of lesson:1. Introduce the content of the reading by posing a hypothetical question, reading a quotation, previewing thetext, or some other interest-capturing idea to which students can react through discussion.2. Give each student a copy of the interactive cloze sheet. Tell them that all strategic readers who have someprior knowledge about a topic make predictions about what they are about to read before reading. Tell themthat you have provided a worksheet that will allow them to predict certain key vocabulary terms that theywill find in the reading they are about to do. Tell them to attempt to guess what words go in the spacesprovided on the worksheet – based on their own prior knowledge of the topic. Let them know that manyclues may be found in the passage itself and that they should use as many clues as they can find. Thisactivity should be done individually – not as a cooperative group.3. Model the thinking required, by reading the first few lines and allowing for conjecture by the class as towhat terms might be used in one or two of the spaces. Discuss the relative merit of words offered bystudents. Use this opportunity to discuss connotations. Let students know that there will only be one wordper space, and that they should pay special attention to punctuation, verb endings, modifying words, etc. asclues to help them predict the correct words.4. Move around the room to see that all students are attempting to predict the words that go in the spaces. Youmay need to help some of the students link prior knowledge to what they are attempting to do. Allowsufficient time for many of the students to finish their predictions, but do not wait for all students to finishbefore the next step.5. Now put students into their cooperative learning groups. Groups of three or four are appropriate. Remindthem not to look at the reading at this point, but tell them that they should compare their predictions withone another. Let them know that they may change any prediction if they feel that another person in thegroup has a better one for a specific space on the worksheet. Tell students that it is important that they©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com19

explain to the others in their group why they chose the response they did for any given word. This way theyare helping each other to expand the prior knowledge base they have. (At the same time, they are increasingthe purposeful nature of the reading to come since they are anticipating more as a result of theirdiscussions.)6. Again separate students from their groups and tell them that it is time to do the reading. Let them know thatthey should read silently, from the beginning to the end, seeking terms that the author used or terms that aremore appropriate that the ones they have predicted. Again, move around the room to facilitate this processand keep students on task.7. When most students have finished reading, put students again into groups to compare their findings and toattempt to come to consensus on the best vocabulary terms that fit into the spaces on the interactive clozesheet. Facilitate this by moving about the room to help in discussions, but try not to give answers. Helpstudents to weigh the merits of various terms as they work out a consensus.8. Ask students to report on their use of the skill. Ask them to raise their hand if they agree that, by makingpredictions on the cloze form and discussing their predictions with other students before the reading, thatthey found that their comprehension was improved over the normal way they might have read if they werejust assigned a regular worksheet..9. When at least one group has finished, you might take that group’s terms and fill them in on a transparencyof the cloze passage. Then conduct a class discussion to bring the whole class to consensus. Be sure to usethis opportunity to focus on connotations of words, praising and otherwise discussing the alternatives thatstudents present as opportunities to reinforce thinking about words.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com20

NAME_________________________________________ DATE_____________________THREE LEVEL STUDY GUIDE: MAX Teaching: Rationale & MethodINSTRUCTIONS: Scan the statements on this study guide before reading pages 7-13. Then,during or after reading, place a check mark ( ƒ ) in the space next to each statement with whichyou agree. Be sure to be able to refer to the text to support your choices whether you agree witha statement or not.LEVEL I: RIGHT THERE ON THE PAGE___1. Learning subject matter through reading, writing, and discussion is engaging and helpsstudents to improve their own thinking skills.___2. MAX is an acronym that stands for motivation, acquisition, and extension.___3. Teachers who use reading and writing in their classrooms to help students learn theirsubject matter should be reading specialists or language arts teachers.___4. Silent reading allows students to interpret new information in their own personal ways.LEVEL II: READING BETWEEN THE LINES___5. Reading and writing is not so much about the ability to manipulate print as it is about theability to think in a sophisticated way.___6. Critical thinking is thinking that questions its own validity.___7. Heterogeneous grouping is an important characteristic of a literacy oriented classroom.___8. Some students who are able to read aloud with tremendous fluency are not really goodreaders.___9. Literacy skills – like a person’s first language – are acquired through meaningful use.LEVEL III: READING BEYOND THE LINES___10. “Teach a child what to think and you make him a slave to your knowledge. Teach a childhow to think and you make all knowledge his slave.”___11. Most students would perceive MAX teaching to be a less threatening learningenvironment than a more traditional classroom.___12. If a significant number of teachers used literacy skill practice in their classrooms most ofthe time, more students would better learn their subject matter.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com21

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Three-Level Study GuidesThree-Level Study Guides (Herber, 1970) are very similar, in some ways, to anticipationguides. They are composed of a list of statements to which students react during and after thereading of some piece of text. Therein lies the chief difference: though it is sometimes useful tohave students predict about the reading through an anticipatory scan of 3-level guides, just as ifthey were anticipation guides, in most cases, they are better used during and after the reading.Thus, they are Acquisition and EXtension level activities, and require some pre-readingMotivation activity to start the lesson. (I usually use a preview of the reading.)Three-Level Study Guides are made up of statements that relate to the reading. Students, asthey do with anticipation guides, read to find evidence that proves or disproves the statements.The three different levels are composed of statements that the teacher has arranged into the threecategories of “literal interpretation,” “inferential interpretation,” and “synthesis or applicationlevel interpretation” of what is being read. Appendix 3 has several 3-level study guides asexamples.By using these guides, students are explicitly empowered to perform higher order thinking.Once explained to students, they know that it is OK to think outside of the lines in the text. Theyknowingly stretch their interpretation, with the knowledge that the teacher is encouraging thisbehavior. Unfortunately, this is the opposite of what is normally expected in many classrooms.All too much effort is placed on listening to how the teacher interprets what is important, orlooking for answers to place in spaces on worksheets, all at the literal level of interpretation.To make a three-level study guide, Richardson & Morgan (2003) recommend creating leveltwostatements first, then looking back through the text to find level-one statements that canpoint students in the direction of discovery of the ideas in level two, and finally adding levelthreestatements to help students to think beyond the text. In creating level-two statements, I findthat the methods mentioned in chapter 10 of this book for making anticipation guides are helpful.Each statement is a plausible rephrasing of a key idea in the text, and the statement is designed toprovoke thoughtful discussion and/or argument.I recommend creating three-level study guides by using three different pieces of paper, eachlabeled 1, 2, or 3. Have them on the desk while reading the piece of text you are planning to usewith the students. As you read, focus on level two, but jot down statements on any of the threesheets of paper that represent each of the three levels of thinking. It is easier to do it this waybecause the concepts do not always appear in the sequence you wish. I do focus on level-twostatements, but as often as not, I recognize level one or three statements while seeking level two.Literal statements are the easiest to make because you are taking the statements pretty muchfrom the text.Level two statements involve “reading between the lines.” They are inferential statements –those things that you would like students to infer from the reading if they were reallyaccomplished readers, but you know they would not probably spot those things on their own. Ifind that, by referring to the five bullets (on page 7 of this packet) on how to make anticipationguide statements, I am able to make good level-two statements for a three-level guide.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com23

Level three statements are your opportunity to apply what you know about Bloom’sTaxonomy. These involve “reading beyond the lines.” Level three statements get students tohave to extend beyond the text by performing thinking that has them synthesize, apply, analyze,or argue. At this level, you might make statements that relate the reading to what was learned inthe previous chapter or something in the news. It is also good to use famous adages at level three.Using three-level study guides is one more way to get students to perceive themselves aspersons who can and do perform higher order thinking over what they read. Again, the keys toaccomplishing this are the concrete props of the text and the 3-level study guide that the teacherhas constructed to facilitate the process.Classroom Procedures for Three-Level Study GuidesLifelong learning skill(s) to be discussed with students and practiced during the process:• Reading critically to clarify interpretation of text• Thinking at the literal, inferential, and application/synthesis levelMaterials:• 3-level guides – one per student,• Textbook or other reading,• Transparency of 3-level guideQuick Overview of lesson:1. Motivation activity to start discussion – PreP, fact storm, Previewing, etc.2. Introduction of thinking at three levels3. Silent reading, seeking evidence for interpretations4. Discuss – small groups5. Discuss – whole classDetailed version of lesson:1. Capture the students’ interest. Introduce the content of the reading by posing ahypothetical question, reading a quotation, previewing the text, or some other interestcapturingidea to which students can briefly react through discussion.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com24

2. Introduce the skill of thinking at three levels. It is a good idea at this point to modelthinking at three levels by doing so on a topic that was recently covered in class. This canalso bring students up to pace with a brief review. Show students how, after reading aparagraph or two, you literally interpret what it says. Then show how you might infer ameaning into it. Then think out loud about how it might apply in the real world. Let themknow that this is the way they will be thinking concerning today’s reading, but that youhave helped them do so by separating the statements on the three-level study guide ontothe three levels of thinking.3. Ask students to scan the statements on the study guide to see what they are about. Tellthem that, unlike an anticipation guide, they do not have to check the statements theythink to be true ahead of time. Instead, they will do so during or after the reading. Allowa few moments to scan the 3-level guide.4. Explain to students that, for today’s reading, we are going to use a different type of studyguide to help us comprehend the reading, so we can practice what strategic readersroutinely do to make reading more understandable. Tell them that the three-level studyguide has many statements on it, and that some of the statements will have evidence inthe textbook that supports them, some will have evidence that negates them, and somemay have evidence that is conflicting, and about which students will probably argue.5. Students should begin individual silent reading at this time. Remind them that theyshould keep the three-level guide on the desk for reference while they read, and that theyought to use all levels of thinking while they read. Tell them that they must interpret whatthey are reading in order to determine whether a statement should be checked or not, andthat they must be able to refer to specific parts of the text to verify their beliefs. It is goodto have students list page-column-paragraph notations under the statements they wish toverify or refute. (Their notations might look something like this: 251-2-4, meaning thatinformation to support or negate a particular statement can be found on page 251, columntwo, paragraph four.) Move around the room to monitor progress and support students intheir work. It is also good at this point to read silently along with the students, with thegoal in mind that you may later need to model some of the thinking that goes intothinking at the different levels.6. When most students have finished reading, tell them to get into their small groups todiscuss the three-level guide, attempting to come to a consensus within their groups aboutwhether a statement should be checked or not. Here, they compare their variousinterpretations of what they have read, referring to evidence in the text to support those©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com25

interpretations. Move around the room to assist in this process, making sure that studentsare referring to the text to support their opinions. Allow several minutes for thediscussions to occur.7. When at least one group has come to a consensus on the three-level study guidestatements, use their decisions to conduct a whole-class discussion to attempt to achieve aclassroom consensus. Make sure that students are able to support their beliefs eitherthrough direct reference to the text or through their interpretation of specific text. It isvery important during this phase of the lesson that the teacher act as a mediator orarbitrator, avoiding telling students answers. Intellectual ownership must be in the mindsof the students as they collectively construct meaning from the text. Near the beginningof the year, some teacher modeling of higher order thinking and reading might benecessary, but students will quickly take ownership of the process, and they will surpriseyou with their thoroughness of analysis.8. Ask students to report on their use of the skill of thinking at three levels. Say – did theprocess of thinking at literal, inferential, and application/synthesis levels help you tocomprehend what you read more than when you are doing a worksheet? Did it help youfocus and stay focused while you were reading? (Students inevitably realize at this pointthat, by practicing higher order thinking while reading, they were engaged in the reading,leading to heightened comprehension.)9. Take the opportunity to review and reinforce the use of the skill of thinking whilereading. Point out to students that they can use the skill of thinking at the literal,inferential, and application levels in any reading that they do in any subject area toengage themselves, make the reading more interesting by setting a purpose for reading,and by keeping that purpose in mind during the reading.10. Continue reflection through a free-write, homework, a quiz, etc.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com26

Cornell (Two-Column) Note TakingThe Cornell method of note taking (Morgan, Forget, and Antinarella 1996; Pauk, 2001) is astudy skills strategy that can be taught and utilized in all content areas. It is a strategy that can beused with reading text or listening to a lecture. It is also a note-taking method that is required ofstudents in many, if not most, law schools and medical schools – a fact that speaks well for itseffectiveness as a tool for retention of great quantities of information.Good notes are the product of strategic reading or listening. The Cornell method helpsstudents organize information in a useful format, rank the importance of various elementscontained in the reading and systematically study the information that has been evaluated andorganized. The student recognizes a main idea and contributing points from which this theme isgenerated. The student then can judge how much detail to record in light of the assigned orexpected outcome of the reading. In this way, the student gains control and becomes moreefficient in the learning process.By necessity, this note-taking system moves the student from a passive reader/listener to oneactively involved with comprehension. It is this linkage to thinking and comprehension thatresults in long-term learning. The strategy helps the student become a better learner by acquiringmetacognition skills. The student understands that the notes are a skeletal representation thatmust be dealt with correctly to keep the whole picture in correct context.Good note taking forces interaction with the learning experience, leading to acquisition of theability to be metacognitive in learning situations. Studies show that students consider note takingto be an essential learning skill for success in secondary school and college. Other research withstudents indicates that a good set of notes is very significant in academic success. Mostimportantly for middle and high school teachers is that Cornell notes can be a very productivenightly homework assignment. This will be discussed below.Understanding the SystemCornell (or 2-column) note taking is a system that divides a page of loose leaf paperdifferently than the way it comes from the store. Most loose leaf paper has a red margin aboutone to one and a half inches from the left edge of the paper. In 2-column note taking, the notetaker ignores that margin and draws a new margin about 1¼ inches to the right of the originalmargin, dividing the paper into 1/3 and 2/3 sized sections. Then, the note taker ignores the redmargin, writing all the way to the left edge of the paper. The only thing that goes on the left sideof the paper is a main idea. So there is a good deal of space on the left side of the paper betweenmain ideas (all the easier to spot the key points). On the right (2/3) side go all the details relatingto the main idea. These are the details that are to be recalled. This note taking system is©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com27

especially appropriate for reading notes, and it can become a nightly homework assignment tomake these notes about what was read in class that day.Objectives 9/5Format of Cornell Notes:1. Describe the format of twocolumnnotes2. Explain how to use them tostudyFormatStudyingMain idea goes on the left side of thenotes. Details that relate to the mainidea go on this side of the page.Typically there are anywhere fromtwo to six or seven main ideas oneach page of looseleaf paper. Theprocess is repeated for each of themain ideas about which the student istaking notes.This is useful as a study tool sincethe student can cover the right side ofthe page or Fold th page over to tryto recall the details relating to themain idea.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com28

The Way ItShouldn’t Be• Students have noconnection to whatthey are to learnbecause they did notread the homeworkassignment and theydo not connect to theirprior knowledge.• Teacher has studentscopy down 15-20vocabulary words andlook up definitions forthem.• Round-robinreading.• Students are told tocopy down notes theteacher has provided.• Students fill inspaces on worksheetscreated by textbookpublisher.• Students are told thatthis material will be onthe test on Friday.• Little or no verbalinteraction occurs, andno one learns verymuch.The Way ItSometimes Is• 10-20% of studentshave completed theassigned reading.• Most students haveno clue about theassignment or theconcepts they shouldhave learned fromthe text.• Teacher attemptsto teach concepts bylecture, questions,probes forunderstanding,video, notes, etc.• All students havesome level ofconceptualunderstanding.• None haveimproved theirlearning skills. Theteacher did all thework!• The hiddenmessage is thatstudents don’t haveto read – the teacherwill tell them all theyneed to know.The Way ItIs with MAX• Teacher helpsstudents link priorknowledge to theday’s lesson.• Students establishtheir purposes forlearning.• Students activelyprobe text in attemptto satisfy their needfor understanding.• Students help oneanother constructunderstanding ofsubject matter.• Intelligentdiscussion occurswith all studentshaving completeknowledge base withwhich to work.• All students usethe vocabulary of thediscipline.• Students performmeaningfulreflection forhomework.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com29

DAILY LESSON PLAN: TOPIC ___________________ DATE __________OBJECTIVES:MATERIALS:KEY VOCABULARY TERMS:Motivation:Acquisition:EXtension:©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com30

Three Daily Elements of MAX TeachingFour Components of Successful Cooperative Learning:1. Individual Written WorkCommitment2. Small Group Work*Consensus3. Large Group DiscussionMediation/Arbitration4. A Real Problem to be Solved*heterogeneous groups_____________________________________________________________________________Skill Acquisition Model:1. Introduce and model a skill.2. Provide guided practice in use of the skill.3. Have students report on their use of the skill and how it helped them to learn the content._____________________________________________________________________________MAX Teaching FrameworkHelpingstudents strivefor successMotivation Acquisition EXtensionReducing Threat-freeanxiety over opportunity to Individual Higher orderpossible interact with practice in a thinkingfailure textlearning skillRepetition ofimportantconcepts andvocabulary• Writing to think andcommit to ideas• Cooperative discussiontoo Determiningpriorknowledgeo Building priorknowledge• Focus on a learningskill• Setting concretepurpose for reading• Silent purposefulreading• Writing to gatherinformation for furtherdiscussion• Individual practice inthe learning skill• Individualmanipulation ofconcepts andvocabulary• Cooperative discussionand/or debate tocollectively constructmeaning• Low-threat immediatefeedback• Individual and groupmanipulation ofvocabulary & concepts• Writing to reorganizeinformation• Analysis, synthesis,application, evaluationof reading material• Reflection on the useof the learning skill©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com31

PRINCIPLES OF READING/WRITING TO LEARN:APPLYING THE MAX TEACHING FRAMEWORKMOTIVATION1. Motivation comes from two competing forces – striving for success and avoidance offailure. Before the reading, teachers must explain & model how to process textsuccessfully.2. In order to understand new knowledge, students must be aware of what they alreadyknow through their own study and experiences.3. In order to focus their attention on important concepts, students must have clear purposesfor reading and must predict and anticipate what will be learned.4. In order to grasp concepts which are difficult or beyond present knowledge andexperiences, students must have a conceptual base before encountering new vocabulary.5. In order to become active seekers of knowledge, students must be motivated andpersonally interested in the subject to be studied.ACQUISITION: In order to comprehend what is read, students should:1. Become active participants in seeking information from text.2. Consciously apply and adjust their reading strategies to the demands of text.3. Understand text structure and organization.4. Monitor their own comprehension.5. Use visual techniques to assist them in grasping overall structure of ideas.6. Be involved during reading in developing, refining, correcting, and supporting their ownpredictions and hypotheses.7. Be able to rephrase ideas read in their own language.EXTENSION: In order to extend their understanding of concepts and retain what islearned, students should be able to:1. Restructure the information from text into a framework that includes linking it withexisting knowledge and experiences and thereby expanding their schema for the ideas inthe text.2. Look for ways to apply new knowledge in terms of what is reasonable and valid.3. Evaluate and think critically about new knowledge in terms of what is reasonable andvalid.4. Raise questions to clarify misunderstandings or extend their understanding beyondinformation in the text.5. Recognize when information given is insufficient and new questions need to be raised.6. Relate information to other subject area courses, their own experiences, and current worldevents and issues.7. Use information to creatively solve problems.8. React to information through discussions with other students and through their ownwriting.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com32

INSERTINTERACTIVE NOTATION SYSTEM FOR EFFECTIVE READING AND THINKINGDESCRIPTIONINSERT is a strategy that students can use during the Acquisition and EXtension phasesof the lesson. It is a study aid employing a set of symbols which helps the student monitorcomprehension of text. During reading, the student is constantly making decisions abouthis/her reactions to the text—“I knew that”, “I don’t understand that”, “I don’t agree withthat”, “I must remember that”, etc. These reactions are noted (lightly in pencil) in the marginof the text using a set of symbols. Marks can easily be erased periodically after completingstudy and evaluation of the chapter, unit, or semester’s work. If this marking cannot bepermitted, a strip of paper can be folded over at the top of the page so that each end lies downthe inside margin of the two pages. Marks can be placed on this strip which can be left in thebook until that unit of study is completed.When first introducing this strategy to students, the number of symbols used should belimited to only a few. I usually first use a check ( ) and a question mark ( ? ) representing,“I understand.” and, “I don’t understand.”A pre-reading activity would precede the use of this strategy. If you have had the classbrainstorm what they know about the topic, the comments represented by the symbols wouldbe in many cases refer to this information as well as to what the individual student knows.Note how the information identified by the INSERT symbols forms an excellent basis forclass discussion following reading.PROCEDUREGuided Reading1. Tell students that as they read, you want them to think about what they already know aboutthe topic and the new information they are learning. As they read, you want them to makesome decisions about the text and their understanding of what they are reading.2. Provide students with a copy of the INSERT symbols and their meanings. These also couldbe placed on a wall poster for easy reference. Once students are familiar with the symbols,a bookmark with abbreviated definitions can help them as they study at home. Key wordsfor the bookmark are placed in the right column after the symbols.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com33

If an idea1. Confirms what you thought (makesyou say “I knew that”)2. Contradicts what you thought (makesyou say “I disagree” or “I thoughtdifferently”)3. Is new to you and is interesting (makesyou say, “Hey, I didn’t know that”)4. Intrigues you (makes you say, “WOW!that’s really neat!”5. Puzzles you (makes you say, “Iwonder about that”)6. Confuses you or leaves somethingunclear (makes you say, “I just don’tunderstand”)7. Strikes you as very important. (Makesyou say, “That is worthremembering”)Put this notation = I agreeX = I disagree+ = That’s new! – WOW!? = I wonder?? = I don’t understand* = That’s important3. If you wish to have students look for certain types of information in a text you can useother symbols to vary the use of the strategy. For example: C = cause; E = effect; W =important vocabulary word; F = fact; O = opinion; S = setting; C = character; R = risingaction; I = internal response; E = external response; X = climax; N = resolution.Reinforcement of LearningWhen students complete the reading, you can begin discussion by having students lookfor a certain symbol in their text. You may wish to begin with the “??” so that you can firstclarify any areas students did not understand. You may wish to begin with “!” to start on a moreupbeat note with ideas that intrigued them. As you get them to discuss the “ * ”, very importantideas with your own. Puzzling areas marked with “?” are often opportunities to go beyond thetext into other material, while “X”, contradictions, can provide some lively discussion with manyopportunities for students to support their opinions. If the pre-reading activity was brainstormingor mapping, you will want to return to those ideas to incorporate the “+”, new ideas, and tocorrect any misconceptions represented by “X”.ReferenceReading and Reasoning Beyond the Primary Grades by Joseph L. Vaughan and Thomas H.Estes. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. (1986), pp. 136-141.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com34

Motivating Low Performing Adolescent ReadersNorma Decker CollinsThe focus of this Digest will be on motivating the low performing adolescent in a remedialreading or subject area classroom. The premise is that students who are disengaged from theirown learning processes are not likely to perform well in school.REMEDIAL READERS AT THE SECONDARY LEVELRemedial readers at the secondary level are often caught in a cycle of failure. They havefrequently been involved in a heavy skills instruction program, and when "it" did not work, theywere given more of the same. Thus, many disabled readers never saw reading as a languageoperation. They never saw reading as something they could do--it was something to be avoided.Readers who have negative experiences with reading generally view reading as a process ofgetting the word right rather than an act of making sense of the material. They do not hear avoice on the page; they do not know they can skip words; they do not know that they must dodifferent things with different kinds of materials.Secondary teachers must help the low achieving or low performing student break the cycle offailure. Low performing students need the opportunity to revalue themselves. They needexperiences with texts that are relevant. They need to acquire strategies that will result incomprehension. Building confidence is essential to improving the performance of secondaryreaders. Assisting and motivating low performing students is a requisite to improvedperformance.Ammann and Mittelsteadt (1987) recount how the failure cycle was broken for one group of highschool students. By using newspapers instead of traditional reading skills material for classroomreading and writing activities, students who had failed for years as language users experiencedsuccess as readers. Through an intervention on the part of the teacher/researcher, students wereprovided strategies for reading. And for the rest of us, it shows how a teacher can make adifference in the secondary classroom.LIFELONG LEARNINGIn order for any student to become a lifelong learner, he or she must be able to handle print--environmental print, recreational print, and vocational print.Unfortunately, the disabled reader has often been so removed from reading as a tool for livingand learning, that he or she has given up. By helping students find personal reasons to engage inprint, you help them realize the ultimate goal of reading--that of constructing personal meaning.Fuchs (1987) suggests, as a first step, that teachers select books for young people that reflect theactual interests of adolescents. It is also important for teachers to have suggestions available forparents who want to help their children become active readers. By understanding why some©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com35

teenagers dislike reading, parents and teachers can embark on the difficult task of encouragingstudents to read in developmentally appropriate ways.ARE READING PROBLEMS NECESSARILY READING-SPECIFIC?Reading Comprehension or Comprehension? Language scholars Moffett and Wagner, in thebook Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading K-13 (1983), contend that problems inreading are not necessarily reading-specific and that reading comprehension is not distinct fromgeneral comprehension. The skills required for comprehending texts, like identifying the mainidea, recalling details, relating facts, drawing conclusions, and predicting outcomes, areoperations that apply to activities in life. It is understandable that these skills have wound up asreading skills because they are demonstrated when a student reads. However, Moffett andWagner feel that reading comprehension is merely comprehension.Three Causes of Incomprehension: Based on this definition of comprehension, we must lookoutside of reading as well as toward reading for instructional strategies. We must look at all lowperforming students--not just those who have been identified as reading disabled. We will beginby looking at 3 major causes of incomprehension: poor motivation, lack of experience, andegocentricity. Any one of these or any combination is likely to be manifested in the reading oflow achieving or low performing students. Frequently, students who are not successful in theclassroom have not had experiences with language in meaningful, social situations. By listeningto oral and recorded reading, asking questions, dictating stories, and working in small groups,students experience the communicative nature of language (Carr, 1995; Wallace, 1995).According to Moffett and Wagner, only widespread involvement in language can solve theproblem of poor motivation.Poor Motivation: Because students at the secondary level are required to use textbooks, it isimportant for them to see what reading informational books has to offer. By browsing a varietyof books and scanning them for something they want to know about, readers see the usefulnessof reading. It is the job of teachers to construct situations where students can find personalreasons to make the effort to comprehend books. By doing this, reading is reinforced as a usefullanguage operation--not seen by the student as a testing ground for self worth.Lack of Experience: Another "reading problem" for the low performing student is lack ofexperiential background. When a text refers to things or concepts with which the reader has nofamiliarity, he or she will not comprehend the material. Films and television can help enlargeexperience and supply vocabulary (Greenwood, 1989; Aiex, 1988). If these options can be usedto strengthen the basic competencies which students are expected to develop through reading,they will play a valuable instructional role.Egocentricity: Students also struggle with texts because of subjectivity. Certain words orphrases may trigger irrelevant associations for readers which interfere with an accurate reading.Irrelevant associations cause readers to ignore portions of a text or pay an inordinate amount ofattention to others, so that relationships among statements are distorted and meaning ismisconstrued. The learner needs to hear other viewpoints about a text and compare these to hisor her own thinking. Small group discussions are important in this regard. When a reader finds©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com36

out that others read a text differently, the reader may be helped to realize that his or herinterpretation was limited by a subjective or egocentric view. Decreasing egocentricity isnecessary for improving student performance in reading.WHAT TEACHERS CAN DONecessity of a Wide Variety of Teaching Materials: There are many reasons for studentslacking motivation in reading. However, a wide variety of teaching materials and teachingtechniques help provide for differences in students' ability to learn. Supplementary materials likenewspapers, magazines, games, films, and audio and video tapes offer additional ways forstudents to acquire information. Any medium which stimulates students' interests andinvolvement is worthy of consideration.Presentations and Projects: By asking students to complete projects at the end of their readingassignments, students may see a reason for reading. For example, developing a mural, making adiorama, or constructing a model encourages students to read a text for practical purposes. Thisis particularly successful when students are exploring subjects that are of interest to them.Projects or oral presentations also provide a chance for students to collaborate with others. Groupwork may reduce the apprehension poor readers frequently experience and motivate them to uselanguage socially and purposefully.Overcoming Frustration by Promoting Success: Students who are not performing at gradelevel may not be doing their part in the learning process. This is frustrating for teachers whowonder if motivation lies entirely within their domain. It is a "Catch-22" situation. Some studentshave developed an indifferent attitude towards learning. By the time they get to the secondaryschool, that negativism or indifference is pretty well embedded (Kos, 1991). Yet, to help the lowperforming student succeed in school, you must dismantle the behaviors (defense mechanisms?)that surround the act of reading.Because teachers want students to achieve in the classroom, they must continue to createcontexts which promote success. It takes patience and forbearance to establish an atmosphere oftrust that will encourage risk-taking on the part of the low performing student. Allowing studentsto choose some of the instructional materials they use, some of the topics to explore, and some ofthe assignments to complete enhances the likelihood that students will respond to the subjectmatter.Making Difficult Readings Easier for Students: Another step that you may take involvesmaking reading assignments more accessible. By writing a brief introduction to explain how theassigned reading fits into the rest of the chapter, the unit, or the short story, you may improve theefficiency of students' reading. The following suggestions may do the same: providing anabstract to highlight important ideas; providing an outline or list of headings to identify majorconcepts; supplying a list of definitions for vocabulary development; and applying a directedreading activity.Acquiring Reading Skills: The only way to improve reading skills is to read. As educators, wemust continue our efforts to motivate low performing students. Whether we make available©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com37

appropriate reading material at the appropriate time, supplement students' reading processes withvaried print and nonprint experiences, and/or individualize instruction in whatever way isrealistic, the goal is to whet the low performing or low achieving student's appetite and foster aninterest in reading that will contribute to the student's ability to lead a full, productive life.REFERENCESAiex, Nola Kortner (1988). "Using Film, Video, and TV in the Classroom." ERIC Digest.Bloomington, IN: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills. [ED 300 848]Ammann, Richard, and Suzanne Mittelsteadt (1987). "Turning on Turned off Students." Journalof Reading, 30(8), 708-15. [EJ 350 581]Carr, Dorothy (1995). "Improving Student Reading Motivation through the Use of Oral ReadingStrategies." [ED 386 687]Fuchs, Lucy (1987). Teaching Reading in the Secondary School. Fastback 251. Bloomington,IN: Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation. [ED 281 165]Greenwood, Scott C. (1989). "Summarize, Compare, Contrast, and Critique: Encouraging ActiveReading through the Use of Cinema." Exercise Exchange, 35(1), 22-24. [EJ 394 965]Kos, Raylene (1991). "Persistence of Reading Disabilities: The Voices of Four Middle SchoolStudents." American Educational Research Journal, 28(4), 875-95. [EJ 438 615]Moffett, James, and Betty Jane Wagner (1983). Student-Centered Language Arts and Reading K-13: A Handbook for Teachers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Wallace, James (1995). "Improving the Reading Skills of Poor Achieving Students." ReadingImprovement, 32(2), 102-04. [EJ 506 434]Norma Decker Collins is an Assistant Professor of Language Arts at the University of Wyomingat Laramie.ERIC Identifier: ED396265Publication Date: 1996-00-00Author: Collins, Norma DeckerSource: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading English and Communication Bloomington IN.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com38

ReQuest(Stump the Teacher/Stump the Students)This reading procedure assists students in reading by encouraging them to scan andrescan the same material repeatedly while practicing communication skills. It also encouragesthem to ask informed questions. It is a strategy that works well with all students, and isunusually effective with restricted learners or very poor readers.The procedure is as follows. After a preparation activity such as a preview of the text tobe read, both the teacher and the students read a small portion of the text. (The amount readshould vary depending on the ability of the readers. Perhaps it should even be read aloud by theteacher.) The teacher then closes her book, and the students are given a set amount of time inwhich they, with their books open, may ask questions of the teacher. The teacher attempts toanswer as many questions as possible, the students correcting the teacher if necessary. When thestudents have exhausted their questions (or the set time runs out), the teacher begins askingquestions about the same piece of text while the students have their books closed. The activitycan be repeated for the next segment of text, alternating having the students close their booksfirst on one part, and the teacher close her book first on the next.What occurs with this process is that students who are otherwise reluctant readers findthemselves reading and rereading material to try to “stump the teacher.” The result is thatstudents develop a good sense of the content about which they are reading while they actuallypractice motivated and purposeful reading.It is likely that students’ questions will be mostly literal at first. The teacher, when takingher turn, can model the use of higher level questions, encouraging the students to do so whentheir turn occurs again. After ReQuest is used several times, students will readily adapt to askingmore sophisticated questions.ReQuest is a skill building activity that focuses students on content while allowing themto be active in the learning process by practicing the skills of reading, speaking, listening, andthinking. After several uses of the strategy, teachers can follow the same steps using writtenrather than oral questions. Written questions tend to be more intricate than oral questions andwill thus enhance students’ levels of sophistication with writing as well.Manzo, A.V. (1969). The ReQuest procedure. Journal of Reading, 11, 123-126©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com39

Steps of the Paired Reading Activity1. Partners decide who will be the teller and who the listener.2. They also decide how much material they will read. They may select a paragraph, or theymay select several paragraphs. It will depend on the skill level of the students as well ason the difficulty of the text or content of the material.3. Both partners read the selected text silently, cueing each other when finished.*4. After both partners have closed the book, the teller orally recalls as much of the readingas possible.** The listener may not speak or interrupt except to clarify unclear points.5. When the teller has exhausted his/her knowledge, the listener may then share anyadditional information s/he remembers or correct any misconceptions of the teller. Thebooks remain closed at this point.6. When the listener has exhausted his/her knowledge, both partners open the textbooks andskim the reading for ideas or facts that they may have missed or not clearly understood.7. The process is then repeated for another segment of text, with the roles swapped; theteller becomes the listener, and vice versa. Roles are alternated until the reading iscompleted.8. When the reading is completed, students may work together to reflect more on thereading by writing a summary or taking notes or some other activity.***Special directions for mathematics (or science) text with example problems:*The teller, at this step, not only reads the text, but upon confronting an example problem,copies down onto paper the problem, but not the solution.**At this point, the teller attempts to duplicate the solution to the example problem if oneexists.***The paired students might work on the guided practice section of the reading at this point,or they might attempt some of the exercises at the end of the reading.Larson, C., & Dansereau, D. (1986). Cooperative learning in dyads. Journal of Reading, 29,516-520.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com40

can remember the details on the right side. You will see that because of the way you took thesenotes, you are able to recall important details that you used to forget with your old system. Goover the notes again before the test and see if your grades don’t improve.The reasons that this system is so powerful is that by forcing yourself to take the notes with thebook closed, you are really making yourself do a better quality job of reading in the first place.(Whenever you make yourself comprehend well enough to be able to summarize a passage inyour own words, you are really using the best process of reading.) And by going back in for thequick scan for missed detail, you train yourself to read faster, while you are making certain thatyour notes are of top quality. The result is that you can study from a few pages of qualitynotes rather than having to go back over pages and pages of textbook material. One word ofwarning: Do not use this system unless you want your understanding of the material, and yourgrades to improve. That has been the result in tests conducted by the authors with their ownstudents as well as through their own use.Note to TeachersThree main benefits to the teacher of this procedure:• It is a no-planning-time lesson.• It is a great make-up assignment.• It is excellent for substitutes when you cannot be in class.Teaching this procedure is a lesson in itself, even though it takes little or no planning time to doit while covering a new reading. Simply introduce the skill of paraphrasing as a memory and acomprehension tool, then walk students through the process, previewing the text, and then usingan overhead projector to “think aloud” in front of the students as you close the book to recallwhat it said.PQRST is an ideal “make-up” assignment if students miss class. If you have introduced theconcept of taking reading notes this way, and you have modeled it in class several times, thenyou can use it to have students make up the reading they missed when they were absent fromclass. Regardless of exactly what classroom activity you did the day the student was absent, youcan ask the student to do the reading and submit to you the notes s/he made so that you can givecredit for making up the class. What you will get is a few pages of quality notes in the studentsown words.It is also a great activity to leave with a substitute when you are not there. (Keep in mind that thestudents should know the procedure well before you leave this with a sub.) It requires littleinteraction between the sub and the students, and it requires no interaction between students.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com42

PQR 2 ST+PREVIEWTitle, introduction, subtitles, pictures, charts, maps,graphs, bold print & italics, summary, end questionsQUESTIONWrite questions on left side of 2-column notes.READRead silently from the beginning, thinking about howyou will summarize the passage in your own words.REMEMBERSummarize in your own words with book closed.SCANRapidly go over the same section of text, looking formissed details or errors in your first summarization.TOUCH UPAdd any important details to your notes.✚Go back and study your notes within the same day,the next day, and again the day before the test or quiz.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com43

The following is reprinted with permission from Richardson & Morgan, Reading to Learning the Content Areas, fourthedition, (2000). Belmont, CA: ITP Wadsworth Publishing.Neuropsychology and AffectThe relatively new science of neuropsychology is the study of the relationship betweenbrain function and behavior (Kolb & Whishaw, 1985). Researchers are beginning to understandthe importance of feelings and emotions in language development and brain development(Grady, 1990). Sinatra (1986) has theorized that feelings, like language, are linked to brainactivity. Debunking the simplistic “left brain/right brain” literature, Sinatra cites a wealth of newresearch to show that most learning tasks require both left-hemisphere and right-hemisphereprocessing. He cites Restak’s (1982, 1984) research indicating that cooperation rather thancompetition between the two brain hemispheres is the prevailing mode in most learning.Moreover, Sinatra proposes the importance of the two subcortical brains in the emotional andmotivational aspects of learning. He states that “since the neural pathways between the cortexand the reticular and limbic systems function all the time without our conscious awareness,educators must realize that curriculum content cannot be approached solely by intellectualreasoning. The systems regulating feeling, emotions, and attentiveness are tied to the verylearning of information” (p.143). He further states that the teacher’s attitude toward the reasonfor learning information, and toward the learners themselves, may be a more important factor inhow well something is learned than the specific content. In making learning interesting andchallenging, teachers are, in reality, activating brain subsystems responsible for alertness andemotional tone (p.143). Sinatra criticizes dull worksheet drills as decoding exercises that negatestudents’ eagerness to learn. Berry (1969) agrees that motivation, attention, and memory alloperate in an interlocking fashion to enhance learning.Sinatra’s work is compatible with the triune brain theory described by MacLean (1978).This model clarifies how the brain works in general and precisely why affect is so important inreading. The middle section of the brain—which MacLean calls the old mammalian brain—isthe seat of the limbic system. Sometimes called the “emotional mind” (Clark, 1983), itcontributes significantly to the learning process. Students who feel positive and happy about alearning experience will be better able to process and retain information. Students who areuncertain and unhappy in a learning situation, either at school or at home, will become, in a realsense, emotionally unable to attend to a task for any length of time. Medical researchers knowthat, through the release of limbic system neurotransmitters, cells of the neocortex are eitherhelped or hindered in their functioning. The limbic system actually secretes different chemicalswhen one is experiencing a negative emotional event, thereby impeding learning and retention.Research has also shown that brain functioning increases significantly when novelty is present(Restak, 1979) and when subjects experience feelings of pleasure and joy (Sangin, 1977).Conversely, researchers have found that removing touch and movement has resulted in increasesin violent behavior (Penfield, 1975). All of this gives credence to the importance of attitudes,feelings, emotions, and motivation in thinking, reading, and learning.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com44

To take an analogous example, a small boy fell into Lake Michigan’s 32 degree water inthe dead of winter. When he was rescued after 20 minutes, no heartbeat or pulse was detectable.And yet, a year later, he had recovered almost fully. How could this be? The explanationscientists think most likely is that a biological phenomenon called “mammalian diving reflex”enables humans to live without breathing for long periods of time (Richmond Times-Dispatch,13 January 1985).If a human is in a life-threatening situation, with no time for reflection, an instinctiveaction is called for. The reptilian brain “kicks in” at the message of panic from the oldmammalian brain and overrides reason. This scenario probably applies to the case of JimmyTontlewitz, the boy in the lake. When his body was first recovered, the prognosis was very grim.However, Jimmy is now functioning at much the same level as other children his age. Doctorsspeculate that his brain “shut his body down” to minimal performance in order to save his life.Jimmy did not will his brain to do this; the brain reacted automatically. Hart (1983) describesthis process, in which messages are sent from the old mammalian to the reptilian brain, asdownshifting.How does this theory of the triune brain apply to reading and thinking about contentmaterial? Suppose that Jon—the boy who dreads tenth-grade history—has not read theassignment and is confronted with a pop quiz. The old mammalian brain may be activated; asense of frustration, even panic, may occur. Since the new mammalian brain (neocortex) haslittle information to contribute, and since hormones associated with anxiety are being generatedby the old mammalian brain, the message gets routed or rerouted from the new mammalian brainto the reptilian brain: Shut down and save me! When students say “My mind when blank,” theyhave provided an apt description of what literally happened. Similarly, consider the teacher whois struggling to find a way to present content material but cannot seem to get it across to herstudents. She is using the chapter information, but it just isn’t working. She becomes more andmore frustrated and less and less effective. Again, a sort of downshifting may be occurring.Focusing on the brain and how students learn, Hart (1975) proposes that the following areimportant in teaching:1. making learning immediately important to students in order for them to make sense of thesituation2. giving students opportunities to talk about what they are learning to allow heightening ofbrain activity3. providing a free environment in which students can move around and talk about theprojects they are doing4. allowing students time to build elaborate “programs” of thinking for storage and memoryretrieval by the brain5. limiting threats and pressures, which cause the neocortex (newest and highest level of thebrain) to function poorly6. stressing intuitive learning as much as step-by-step logic to allow creative thinking toemerge©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com45

Summarization: The GIST ProcedureThe ability to distill a lengthy paragraph, passage, or article into its essential ideas is themark of a proficient reader in any content area. Moreover, writing a summary enhances students’reading comprehension. Yet, writing a coherent summary is more difficult than one mightassume. It is far more complex than simply copying a text passage verbatim into a notebook,although this copy-delete strategy is one students often use. Rather a coherent summary requiresa student to select key information by deciding what to leave out, what to include, and how bestto organize this information in a memorable fashion. Learning to write summaries in a contentclassroom can best be accomplished through a carefully guided sequence of instruction like theone that follows.A number of strategies for teaching students to summarize text effectively have beendeveloped and explored. A strategy called GIST (Cunningham 1982), which denotes “generatinginteractions between schemata and text,” can effectively improve students’ readingcomprehension and summary writing.GIST entails careful teacher modeling and guidance at the reading state of a lesson. Thereader is interrupted and directed to record selectively a gist summary of the material just read.GIST involves the following steps:Step OneSelect a short passage in a chapter that has an important main idea. A passage of three tofive paragraphs is ideal. The paragraphs should be copied or typed on an overhead transparency.Step TwoPlace the transparency on the overhead and display only the first paragraph (cover theother paragraphs). Put 20 blanks on the chalk board. Have students read the paragraph andinstruct them to write a 20 word (or less) summary in their own words on their own paper.Step ThreeAs a class, have students generate a composite summary on the board in 20 or fewerwords. Their individual summaries will function as guides for this process.Step FourReveal the next paragraph of text and have students generate a summary statement of 20or fewer words that encompasses both of the first two paragraphs.Step FiveContinue this procedure by paragraph, until the students have produced a GIST statementfor the entire passage under consideration. In time, they will be able to generate GIST statementsacross paragraphs without the intermediate steps.The following example from industrial education demonstrates the use of GIST in acontent area. The passage contains two paragraphs from Metalwork Technology and Practice on“Why the Lathe is Important” (Ludwig, McCarthy, & Repp, 1975, pp. 499-500).©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com46

We are living in the age of the mechanic. The airplane, steamship, locomotive, electricmotor, computer, transfer machine, and automobile are among the outstanding inventions. Allthese wonders were made possible through the development of the lathe. It is the oldest andmost important tool in the industry.The lathe helped the development of all our other machines____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____The modern lathe can perform many different operations. In studying the history ofother machines, we find that the idea of their operation comes from the lathe. There are morelathes in this country than any other kind of metal working machine tool.The lathe is the father of other machines and continuesto be the most often used metal working tool ____.The second series of 20 blanks contains a summary statement encapsulating the twoparagraphs. In addition, students should have a good grasp of this section. They might expectthat the reminder of the chapter will expand on functions of the lathe.By restricting the length of students’ GIST summaries, the teacher compels the studentsto use the three major strategies necessary for comprehension and retention of key ideas in anytext. They must delete trivial information, select key ideas, and generalize in their own words.Thus, GIST produces duel benefits by advancing students reading comprehension and writingfluency.This procedure can be modified by using different sized portions of text. Sometimes,dividing the text into two or three larger sections rather than doing it paragraph by paragraph isjust as appropriate, depending on your students and their abilities. I find that most heterogeneousgroups do well with a 3-7 page section of text divided onto two parts for the process. You be thejudge.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com47

STUDENT SURVEY: MATHEMATICS CLASSName ___________________ What do you prefer to be called?_____________________Home address_____________________________________ Phone__________________Name of parent/guardian ___________________________________________________Parent’s place of employment _____________________ Parent’s workphone__________Your usual math grade ______ What grade do you plan to earn in this course? ________What percent of your grade should come from tests? ______ What other ways do you wantto earn grades? ____________________________________________________________Complete the following:To me math is _____________________________________________________________My favorite subjects in school are _____________________________________________My least favorite subjects are _________________________________________________Check which of the following statements describes your school work:___ lazy—don’t put forth much work___frequently do not complete work, undependable___get required work done—no more___steady worker—sometimes do more than required___ambitious—usually do more than requiredCircle all of the words that describe you:healthyquietdependablelikeablehonestnervousworthlessquick-temperedsense of humor cheerfulforgetfuleasy-goinggood sporthard workercooperativeshyeasily upsetgood leaderfriendlylazylonelyartisticclean, neat appearanceeasily discouragedIf I could change anything about myself it would be ______________________________________________________________________________________________________If I could change anything about school, it would be ______________________________________________________________________________________________________My favorite hobby is _______________________________________________________My favorite sport is ________________________________________________________At home it is fun to ________________________________________________________I like to read about _________________________________________________________When I am an adult I would like to be __________________________________________Things I do well are ________________________________________________________My pet peeves about classes are _______________________________________________Sports I play at school are ____________________________________________________Clubs I belong to at school are ________________________________________________Use the space below to write anything else you would like me to know about you, the ways youlearn best, etc.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com48

Student Generated Graphic Representations of TextWhen students construct their own graphic representations of difficult and complex text,they create visual images that show relationships that are often too difficult to visualize mentally.Students thus create concrete images of complex and often abstract ideas. They are able to seethe relationships of ideas and focus on the vocabulary that is so important to understanding anysubject area concept.What are Graphic Representations?Graphic representations are visual summaries of prose text. There are many differentforms that they make take—network trees, fishbone diagrams, compare and contrast matrices,spider maps, two-column organizers, three-column organizers, human interaction diagrams, andmany others, including hybrid combinations (Jones, Pierce, & Hunter, 1988). Many variationsmay be found on the internet at http://ww.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6287.html or athttp://www.union-cityK12.nj.us/curr/lang_arts/strat_tech/stagror.html or by using a searchengine and naming any of the individual graphic representations below in the search box.Why Use Graphic Representations?Graphic representations can help students to comprehend, summarize, and synthesizecomplex and difficult text passages (Jones, Pierce, & Hunter, 1988). Many teachers are notaware of the fact that graphic representations can become the primary purpose-setting tool forstudent reading of difficult and complex text. By helping students to see that text written byothers can be deconstructed into a visual graphic that not only shows complex interrelationshipsof concepts from the text, but is also easy to study, teachers are helping to make difficult readingeasier for students to handle. The systematic use of graphic representations for the purposes ofmotivating readers to tackle difficult text, acquiring new understandings, and extending beyondthe text can be taught to students through actual use in processing textbook or other readings inthe classroom. Students who practice reading this way will better learn the subject matter at thesame time they are developing lifelong learning skills.Teaching Students to Construct Graphic RepresentationsTeachers should follow a two-step process in teaching this to students. They should firstmodel the process to familiarize students with the thinking that goes on in creating a graphicrepresentation from text. In doing so, they should be willing to allow students to see the thinkingthat goes on in their own minds. They should, in other words, be prepared to think out loud asthey model the process. It is OK to make mistakes, going back to change some of theunderstandings they originally make on the graphic they construct onto a chalkboard or on anoverhead transparency. In fact, this modeling of thinking and hypothesizing about relationshipsis important for students to see. It is important that the teacher discuss procedural processes atthis time, explaining to students why they organize things the way they do, and allowing studentinput as to how portions of the graphic relate to one another.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com49

Second, teachers need to provide opportunities for students to work cooperatively toconstruct graphic representations with coaching by the teacher. It may be appropriate, whenfirst introducing the concept, to lead a class discussion about selecting a particular graphic modelfor reading. Then students, working in small teams of three or four, can work to construct agraphic representation from the reading they do. It is important that the format follow thecooperative learning format of individual written commitment on the part of each student,followed by small-group discussion to construct meaning, and then large-group discussion toclarify and extend the conversation beyond the text.Using Graphic Representations to Read New Subject MatterOnce students are familiar with the process, the five steps of the lesson plan forconstructing student-generated graphic representations are as follows:1. Preview the text.2. Each group of students cooperatively hypothesizes as to which graphic representationmight best portray the content of text. (At first, students should have a set of genericgraphic representations from which to choose. You may wish to use the ones that followthis article.)3. Each student reads individually, gathering information on his/her own draft of the graphicrepresentation the group has selected.4. Small-groups meet again to discuss and construct meaning, and to agree on the format forassembly of a large poster-sized version of their graphic representation.5. Student groups present to the class. (An alternative is for each student to write asummary.)When student groups are presenting to the class, the teacher may ask any of the students whoare part of the group to take over the presentation at any time. This encourages all members of agroup to develop strong understandings in the earlier states of the project and prevents one ortwo students in a group from doing all the work. Thus, the graphic representation processprovides for each student to bring prior knowledge into consciousness before reading, readpurposefully to acquire and organize new information, and then construct meaning cooperativelywithin the parameters of a small-group discussion. Each student has the opportunity to useprediction to set purposes for reading, and then to construct, individually at first, and thenthrough cooperative sharing, the meaning of complex text. The group construction afterward isan opportunity for students to perform higher order thinking with the assistance of competentpeers. When using this process, students tend to end up with superior understandings ofrelationships that no teacher could ever have given them through lecture or any other method.They have learned it on their own, in their own unique ways of perceiving.Evolution of the Process throughout the School YearAt the beginning of the year, the teacher may want to be more involved in the process ofcreating graphic representation as a class. Depending on the level of students in the class, theymay need more or less help in first becoming acquainted with the process, but quickly, they willbe able to do this in small groups.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com50

Once students have been coached, as a full class, in selecting appropriate graphicrepresentation models to represent prose text, they should be given more autonomy inselecting how to represent text. After the teacher has led a class discussion once or twice toselect the graphic to be used by the whole class, it is time to let small groups determine how theywish to represent text.Often, different groups within the same class will choose different ways of graphing thesame information—and each of the methods they choose may be appropriate. I once had a worldhistory class of 32 students work in small groups after the preview process to select graphicrepresentations from several graphic models to which they had been exposed beforehand. Theywere preparing to read about four Middle Eastern civilizations over a 1500 year period from2500 BC to 1000 BC. Different cooperative learning teams, working in groups of four, selectedthe graphic representation models they thought to be most appropriate. They ended up choosingfive different models—and each was appropriate in its own way! After the reading, small-groupdiscussions, and constructions of presentable models, they all learned from the other groups’presentations of how they had chosen to represent the same material differently.Independent LearnersIf students are not familiar with the process, you may wish to take charge of step two andlead the discussion of which graphic would be most appropriate for the reading that will takeplace. Advanced students, who show aptitude for the process will require much less coachingthan other students. As with all of these reading/writing activities, you must be the judge of howmuch autonomy to give them in class. Don’t be afraid to put responsibility on students. Theywill rise to the occasion. It is worse to err on the side of not trusting that they can perform. Inmy experience, it has always been easier to back up and say—I may have given you guys morethan you can handle. Let me show you how you might have approached this.—Leading tomodeling of the thought processes that would have aided them in thinking through the problem.Babying students and assuming that they cannot perform at a certain level is a real turnoff tomany students. You will be surprised at how well most students do with graphic representation.Use the generic graphic representations on the next page to introduce your students to theconcepts. Have them place a copy of page 49 in their notebooks. Other forms of graphicrepresentations are available through various sources such as the above-mentioned web pages.Encourage students to be creative and design their own graphic representations once they arecomfortable with the process.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com51

1. The Network Tree: Shows a hierarchy of related ideas.The main idea goes at the top, and subsidiary ideas gointo the areas below. It can have many levels ofsubtopics stemming from the lower levels.2. Spider Map: Shows main idea in the center andsubsidiary ideas branching out from there.Items to becompared/contrastedAttribute A Attribute B Attribute CItem 1Item 2Item 33. The Compare & Contrast Matrix: Can be used tocompare or to contrast the various attributes of severalthings, such as human cultures, plant types, rock types,bacteria types, etc.4. The Cycle Graph: This can be used to show anycyclical pattern of events such as the life cycle of plants,the biological process of mitosis in cells, historical cyclesof events, etc.5. Series of Events Diagram: Can be used to show thesequence of events in history, in a chemical reaction, orany sequential pattern that might occur in a process ofany kind.6. The Continuum Scale: This graphic representation canbe used to portray a time line, political orientation on apolitical spectrum from left wing to right wing, a numberline, or anything that can be represented as a continuum.Result7. Fishbone Diagram: Ribs identify factors that contributeto the result. The result could be an election outcome, theresolution of a story, a mathematical concept such as theproduct of two binomial expressions, or any other resultof contributing factors.8. Venn Diagram: This can be used to comparesimilarities and differences in two different things such ascomparing schools today with schools 100 years ago.The similarities would go in the overlapping parts of thetwo circles. The characteristics of 100 years ago wouldgo in the non-overlapping portion of one circle, and thecharacteristics unique to present schools would go in thenon-overlapping part of the other circle.Essential CharacteristicsNon-essential CharacteristicsExamplesConceptNon-examples9. Frayer Model: The Frayer Model is a tool used to helpstudents develop vocabulary and conceptualunderstandings. Students write a particular word in themiddle of a box and proceed to list essential and nonessentialattributes, examples, and non-examples.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com52

My PredictionWhat Really Happened©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com53

A Shot in the DarkBy SakiPhilip Sletherby settled himself down in an almost empty railway carriage, with the pleasantconsciousness of being embarked on an agreeable and profitable pilgrimage. He was bound forBrill Manor, the country residence of his newly achieved acquaintance, Mrs. Saltpen-Jago.Honoria Saltpen-Jago was a person of some social importance in London, of considerableimportance and influence in the county of Chalkshire. The county of Chalkshire, or, at any rate,the eastern division of it, was of immediate personal interest to Philip Sletherby; it was held forthe Government in the present Parliament by a gentleman who did not intend to seek re-election,and Sletherby was under serious consideration by the party managers as his possible successor.The majority was not a large one, and the seat could not be considered safe for a Ministerialcandidate, but there was an efficient local organization, and with luck the seat might be held. TheSaltpen-Jago influence was not an item which could be left out of consideration, and the politicalaspirant had been delighted at meeting Honoria at a small and friendly luncheon-party, still moregratified when she had asked him down to her country house for the following Friday-to-Tuesday. He was obviously "on approval", and if he could secure the goodwill of his hostess hemight count on the nomination as an assured thing. If he failed to find favour in her eyes -- well,the local leaders would probably cool off in their embryo enthusiasm for him.Among the passengers dotted about on the platform, awaiting their respective trains,Sletherby espied a club acquaintance, and beckoned him up to the carriage-window for a chat."Oh, you're staying with Mrs. Saltpen-Jago for the week-end, are you? I expect you'll have agood time; she has the reputation of being an excellent hostess. She'll be useful to you, too, ifthat Parliamentary project -- hullo, you're off. Good-bye."Sletherby waved good-bye to his friend, pulled up the window, and turned his attention to themagazine lying on his lap. He had scarcely glanced at a couple of pages, however, when asmothered curse caused him to glance hastily at the only other occupant of the carriage. Histraveling companion was a young man of about two-and-twenty, with dark hair, freshcomplexion, and the blend of smartness and disarray that marks the costume of a "nut" who isbound on a rustic holiday. He was engaged in searching furiously and ineffectually for someelusive or non-existent object; from time to time he dug a sixpenny bit out of a waistcoat pocketand stared at it ruefully, then recommenced the futile searching operations. A cigarette-case,matchbox, latchkey, silver pencil case, and railway ticket were turned out on to the seat besidehim, but none of these articles seemed to afford him satisfaction; he cursed again, rather louderthan before.The vigorous pantomime did not draw forth any remark from Sletherby, who resumed hisscrutiny of the magazine."I say!" exclaimed a young voice presently, "didn't I hear you say you were going down tostay with Mrs. Saltpen-Jago at Brill Manor? What a coincidence! My mater, you know. I'mcoming on there on Monday evening, so we shall meet. I'm quite a stranger; haven't seen themater for six months at least. I was away yachting last time she was in Town. I'm Bertie, thesecond son, you know. I say, it's an awfully lucky coincidence that I should run across someonewho knows the mater just at this particular moment. I've done a damned awkward thing.""You've lost something, haven't you?" said Sletherby©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com54

"Not exactly, but left behind, which is almost as bad; just as inconvenient, anyway. I've comeaway without my sovereign-purse, with four quid in it, all my worldly wealth for the moment. Itwas in my pocket all right, just before I was starting, and then I wanted to seal a letter, and thesovereign-purse happens to have my crest on it, so I whipped it out to stamp the seal with, and,like a double-distilled idiot, I must have left it on the table. I had some silver loose in my pocket,but after I'd paid for a taxi and my ticket I'd only got this forlorn little sixpence left. I'm stoppingat a little country inn near Brondquay for three days' fishing; not a soul knows me there, and myweek-end bill, and tips, and cab to and from the station, and my ticket on to Brill, that will mountup to two or three quid, won't it? If you wouldn't mind lending me two pound ten, or three forpreference, I shall be awfully obliged. It will pull me out of no end of a hole.""I think I can manage that," said Sletherby, after a moment's hesitation."Thanks awfully. It's jolly good of you. What a lucky thing for me that I should have chancedacross one of the mater's friends. It will be a lesson to me not to leave my exchequer lying aboutanywhere, when it ought to be in my pocket. I suppose the moral of the whole thing is don't tryand convert things to purposes for which they weren't intended. Still, when a sovereign-purse hasyour crest on it--""What is your crest, by the way?" Sletherby asked, carelessly."Not a very common one," said the youth; "a demi-lion holding a cross-crosslet in its paw.""When your mother wrote to me, giving me a list of trains, she had, if I remember rightly, agreyhound courant on her notepaper," observed Sletherby. There was a tinge of coldness in hisvoice."That is the Jago crest," responded the youth promptly; "the demi-lion is the Saltpen crest. Wehave the right to use both, but I always use the demi-lion, because, after all, we are reallySaltpens."There was silence for a moment or two, and the young man began to collect his fishing tackleand other belongings from the rack."My station is the next one," he announced."I've never met your mother," said Sletherby suddenly, "though we've corresponded severaltimes. My introduction to her was through political friends. Does she resemble you at all infeature? I should rather like to be able to pick her out if she happened to be on the platform tomeet me.""She's supposed to be like me. She has the same dark brown hair and high colour; it runs inher family. I say, this is where I get out.""Good-bye," said Sletherby."You've forgotten the three quid," said the young man, opening the carriage-door and pitchinghis suit-case on to the platform."I've no intention of lending you three pounds, or three shillings," said Sletherby severely."But you said--""I know I did. My suspicions hadn't been roused then, though I hadn't necessarily swallowedyour story. The discrepancy about the crests put me on my guard, notwithstanding the reallybrilliant way in which you accounted for it. Then I laid a trap for you; I told you that I had nevermet Mrs. Saltpen-Jago. As a matter of fact I met her at lunch on Monday last. She is apronounced blonde."The train moved on, leaving the soi-disant cadet of the Saltpen-Jago family cursing furiouslyon the platform.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com55

"Well, he hasn't opened his fishing expedition by catching a flat," chuckled Sletherby. Hewould have an entertaining story to recount at dinner that evening, and his clever little trapwould earn him applause as a man of resource and astuteness. He was still telling his adventurein imagination to an attentive audience of dinner guests when the train drew up at his destination.On the platform he was greeted sedately by a tall footman, and noisily by Claude People, K.C.,who had apparently travelled down by the same train."Hullo, Sletherby! You spending the week-end at Brill? Good. Excellent. We'll have a roundof golf together to-morrow; I'll give you your revenge for Hoylake. Not a bad course here, asinland courses go. Ah, here we are; here's the car waiting for us, and very nice, too!"The car which won the K.C.'s approval was a sumptuous-looking vehicle, which seemed toembody the last word in elegance, comfort, and locomotive power. Its graceful lines andsymmetrical design masked the fact that it was an enormous wheeled structure, combining thefeatures of a hotel lounge and an engine-room."Different sort of vehicle to the post-chaise in which our grandfathers used to travel, eh?"exclaimed the lawyer appreciatively. And for Sletherby's benefit he began running over the chiefpoints of perfection in the fitting and mechanism of the car.Sletherby heard not a single word, noted not one of the details that were being expounded tohim. His eyes were fixed on the door panel, on which were displayed two crests: a greyhoundcourant and a demi-lion holding in its paw a cross-crosslet.The K.C. was not the sort of man to notice an absorbed silence on the part of a companion.He had been silent himself for nearly an hour in the train, and his tongue was making up for losttime. Political gossip, personal anecdote, and general observation flowed from him in anuninterrupted stream as the car sped along the country roads; from the inner history of the Dublinlabour troubles and the private life of the Prince Designate of Albania he progressed with an easyvolubility to an account of an alleged happening at the ninth hole at Sandwich, and a verbatimreport of a remark made by the Duchess of Pathshire at a Tango tea. Just as the car turned in atthe Brill entrance gates the K.C. captured Sletherby's attention by switching his remarks to thepersonality of their hostess."Brilliant woman, level-headed, a clear thinker, knows exactly when to take up an individualor a cause, exactly when to let him or it drop. Influential woman, but spoils herself and herchances by being too restless. No repose. Good appearance, too, till she made that idioticchange.""Change?" queried Sletherby, "what change?""What change? You don't mean to say-- Oh, of course, you've only known her just lately. Sheused to have beautiful dark brown hair, which went very well with her fresh complexion; thenone day, about five weeks ago, she electrified everybody by appearing as a brilliant blonde.Quite ruined her looks. Here we are. I say, what's the matter with you? You look rather ill."©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com56

Twenty (Better) Questions to Help Students Appreciate Literature1. What character(s) was your favorite? Why?2. What character(s) did you dislike? Why?3. Does anyone in this work remind you of anyone you know?4. Are you like anyone in this work? Explain.5. If you could be any character in this work, who would you be? Explain.6. What quality(-ies) of which character strikes you as a good characteristic to developwithin yourself over the years? Why? How does the character demonstrate this quality?7. Overall, what kind of feeling did you have after reading a few paragraphs of this work?Midway? After finishing the work?8. Do any incidents, ideas, or actions in this work remind you of your own life or somethingthat happened to you? Explain.9. Do you like this piece of work? Why or why not?10. Are there any parts of this work that were confusing to you? Which parts? Why do youthink you got confused?11. Do you feel there is an opinion expressed by the author through this work? What is it?How do you know this? Do you agree? Why or why not?12. Do you think the title of this work is appropriate? Is it significant? Explain. What doyou think the title means?13. Would you change the ending of this story in any way? Tell your ending. Why wouldyou change it?14. What kind of person do you think the author is? What makes you feel this way?15. How did this work make you feel? Explain.16. Do you share any of the feelings of the characters in this work? Explain.17. Sometimes works leave you with the feeling there is more to tell. Did this work do this?What do you think might happen next?18. Would you like to read something else by this author? Why or why not?19. What do you feel is the most important word, phrase, passage, or paragraph in this work?Explain why it is important.20. If you were an English teacher, would you want to share this work with your students?Why or why not?-Kris L. Myers©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com57

21 THINGS TEACHERS DEMONSTRATEABOUT READING1. Reading is difficult, serious business.2. Literature is even more difficult and serious.3. Reading is a performance for an audience of one: the teacher.4. There is one interpretation of a text: the teacher’s.5. “Errors” in comprehension or interpretation will not be tolerated.6. Student readers aren’t smart or trustworthy enough to choose their own texts.7. Reading requires memorization and mastery of information, terms, conventions, andtheories.8. Reading is always followed by a test and writing serves to test reading—book reports,critical papers, essays, and multiple choice / fill in the blank / short answer variations.9. Reading somehow involves drawing lines, filling in blanks, and circling.10. Readers break whole texts into separate pieces to be read and dissected one fragment at atime.11. It is wrong to become so interested in a text that you read more than the fragment theteacher assigned.12. Reading is a solitary activity you perform as a member of a group.13. Readers in a group may not collaborate; this is cheating.14. Re-reading a book is also cheating; so are skimming, skipping, and looking ahead.15. It’s immoral to abandon a book you are not enjoying.16. You learn about literature by listening to teachers talk about it.17. Teachers talk a great deal about literature, but teachers don’t read.18. Teachers are often bored by the literature they want you to read.19. Reading is a waste of English Class time.20. There is another kind of reading, a fun, satisfying kind you can do on your free time oroutside school.21. You can fail English yet still succeed at and love this other kind of reading.from In The Middle, by Nancy Atwell©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com58

Steps of the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA)Fiction:1. Preview – title, pictures, subtitles, introduction, then close book and make hypothesisWhat do you think will happen?Why do you think that? (What gives you the clue?)2. Verify – Read to find whether predictions are correct.3. Reflect on the reading – developing comprehension by checking on hypothesis andstaying with or redeveloping hypothesis. (Repeat process occasionally throughout story.)Non-Fiction:1. Preview• title• introduction• subtitles• bold-print & italicized words• pictures (includes reading captions)• charts• maps• graphs• summary• review questions2. Make decisions (Textbook is closed.)• What is known after previewing (Use What I know Sheet.)• What do we need to learn?3. Write out specific student questions to be answered.4. Read to find answers to questions.5. Reflect on the reading by• determining answers to students’ questions,• having students defend their inferences by referring to the text,• finding out what we still need to know.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com59

©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com60

Make copies of this for your students to improve the quality of questions they ask on awhat-I know sheet. They will see that the reading becomes more interesting if thequestions force them to use inference to find answers to higher order thinkingquestions.PreP (Pre-Reading Plan)Morgan, Forget, and Antinarella (1996)©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com61

PreP (Pre-reading Plan)The PreP strategy is one that allows teachers to demonstrate the background knowledge of the students, and alsoto build background knowledge at the same time. This can be used in any subject area classroom to get studentsto become active in the learning process. By using this procedure, the teacher assures that the learning of newsubject matter is connected to the prior knowledge of students in the class. There are essentially five steps tothe pre-reading part of the activity. A post-reading step may also be added.*Steps of the PrePSample Classroom Scene: Algebra1. Initial associations with the concept – Studentsare asked to jot down what comes to mind whenthey think of ______ (a word or phrase written onthe chalkboard.)2. Sharing – Students are then asked to share whatthey wrote. The teacher goes up and down eachrow to be sure each student has a chance to gethis/her idea listed on the chalkboard or overheadtransparency.Teacher: Everyone get out a piece of paper and jotdown whatever comes into your mind when you thinkof the term “slope.” Teacher moves around theclassroom to view what students are writing, and toassure student involvement.Teacher: Lets make a list of what we have. Jennifer,what did you write?Jennifer: I said snowboard.3. Reflecting on initial associations – If students donot offer a rationale, the teacher asks each studentto tell why s/he made that particular association.This added discussion helps to build backgroundknowledge for the other students in the class.4. Organizing conceptually – Once each student hashad an opportunity to get his/her association onthe chalkboard, students are put into groups toconsider how they might organize the terms theyhave generated**5. Teacher leads a full-class discussion to narrowdown the thinking of the various groups. Whathas really occurred here is a cooperative effort todetermine and to build the prior understandingsof all students about the topic to be learned in thereading. Even students who at first thought theyknew little or nothing about he topic now havelearned through peer discussion that they didreally know something. A typical sentimentexpressed by students when they hear thecomments of their peers is, “Yeah I knew that! Isaw that same movie!”Students are now prepared to read – By the timestudents have finished a PreP activity, they arereally in a frame of mind to learn form the readingto come.**A quicker alternative is for the teacher to name thecategories and have students rewrite the list.Teacher: Why did you say that?Jennifer: Because when we went skiing, it was hardto learn how to snowboard on the steep parts.Teacher: Thomas, what did you have?Thomas: I had rise over run, because of what weread yesterday about the y-axis and the x-axis.Teacher: Takeesha, what did you have?...(The teacher continues to probe each student’s idea toadd to the list the class is generating.)Teacher: From the list you have collectivelygenerated, it looks like we already know a great dealabout the concept of “slope!” What I would like foryou to do now is to get in your cooperative groups andsee if your group can come up with the names of threecategories under which all these neat facts might beorganized.The teacher leads a discussion to help students seehow the common threads of their ideas connect untilthey have isolated 2 or 3 categories. Students are thenasked to use these to help them comprehend thereading. Typical categories are meaning of slope,how to calculate slope, and how to use slope.*Optional – Students use the categories theygenerated to reflect by taking notes for homework.Langer, J. (1981). From theory to practice: A prereading plan. Journal of Reading, 25, 152-156.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com62

Writing for LearningIt is inappropriate to separate the processes of writing and reading since they are quiteinterrelated in a classroom in which students are active in constructing meaning about subject matter.Such a distinction is almost as unseemly as separating speaking from listening. Almost all of thewidely-known content literacy classroom activities involve some form of writing either before or afterreading, or both. Certainly, the process of cooperative learning is enhanced when, before comingtogether in groups, each member of a cooperative learning team has a written contribution with whichto begin a discussion. Using writing to gather information during reading lends purpose to the readingprocess. Writing is always a tool for extending beyond the text, since writing helps students slow theirthinking long enough to reflect on details that might support their understandings of what they havelearned.Writing can be used in all stages of the lesson framework – before, during, and after reading.Some purposes for using writing to learn are:• Focusing students’ attention on subject matter• Engaging students actively with subject matter• Arousing students’ curiosity about subject matter• Helping students discover disparate elements in subject matter• Helping students connect subject matter with their own lives• Helping students to construct meaning from text• Helping students to practice higher order thinking through association, analysis, and synthesis• Diagnosing students’ learning successes and problems• Preparing students for subject matter discussionsWriting to:1. Discover what one does or does not knowSuggested teacher instructions:Write down what you already know about...(PreP, Free-Write)2. Assemble information by taking notes ormaking notes about subject matter3. Predict what will happen next in the text4. Paraphrase, translate, or rephrase text5. Associate images, events, ideas, or personalexperiences with subject matter6. Define concepts or ideas about subject matter7. Create problems to be solved with subjectmatterWrite two-column notes about the followingobjectives...Take notes on your draft of a graphic representation...Summarize text in the left column of a page divided intoequal-size columns, and then write your reaction in theright columnWrite what you think will happen next in the story...(fiction)Write what you think the next section of text will tellus...(non-fiction)Summarize in your own words...(GIST, No-ResearchPapers, Formula Writing, 2-Column Notes, PQRST,Free Write, Etc.)What do you think of when you see the word...?In your own words, define...Make up a word problem that reflects a real-lifesituation in which the solver would have to use theformula for finding...©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com63

Focused Free Write – A Pre-learning or Post-learning ActivityFree Writing is one way to get students to determine what they already know about a topic. It isuseful as a pre-reading activity when students are asked to focus on the subject they will be studying. Itcan also be used at any point in the lesson when the teacher recognizes that an idea has been introducedupon which the students may have varying opinions or with which they have had experience – or relatedknowledge. At that point, the teacher can stop and ask students to focus on a question, idea, or statementand respond in writing for several minutes. This writing can be followed by further discussion or readingto clarify students’ conceptions. This can be valuable if a class discussion is lagging and students need toget their thinking back on track. Free Writing can also be used as a culminating activity to help studentsreflect on what they have learned. When used in this way, students have the opportunity to synthesize theconcepts they have learned in the class. At the same time, it provides an informal, but useful assessmentdevice for the teacher. After collecting them, the teacher can scan them for understandings andmisunderstandings. Normally, these should not be graded. (Regular use of non-graded reflective writingteaches the student the value of reflecting in writing, slowing down the thinking to be able to synthesizeall the various components of the lesson. Eliminating the threat of a grade for this allows the student tofocus on the thinking involved rather than mechanics, grammar, etc.)The procedure is simple. State the topic, question, or statement on which you wish students tofocus. Students write for a specified length of time, without stopping. The idea is for them to keep writingand thinking about the topic. If they come to a point where they can’t think of anything more to say, theyshould still keep writing, even if they just repeat the last phrase or sentence until another thought comes.Most often, it will come.This procedure is very effective at motivating students to write. Instead of calling it a“paragraph,” which often has negative connotations to students reluctant to engage in the writing process,a “free write” sounds like something easy to do, especially when the teacher limits the time to four or fiveminutes. By thus minimizing the nature of the task, the teacher is making writing more palatable to manystudents.No-Research PapersThis is a technique that demands of students many of the skills of writing a major term paper, but iteliminates many of the problems associated with research papers. It is imperative that all students havethe opportunity to write research papers. The ability to select a topic of interest, examine many variousresources for information, synthesize information, plan a well thought out paper, and develop the skillsassociated with citing sources are all important abilities that ought to be practiced by all students. Fewwould dispute that the act of synthesizing various materials in a cohesive, well-prepared essay isimportant in developing complex programs of thought that help students improve the way they thinkabout all new learning. What if we were to offer the opportunity to do this while, at the same time,eliminating one or two of the obstacles in the process?No-Research Papers are essays or term papers that demand careful analysis and synthesis of largeamounts of information, without the hassles of deciding upon a topic, making trips to libraries, or citingsources. That’s because the major source of information is the textbook!Textbooks are valuable tools. Though the textbook should not be the only information source in aclass, the textbook is an often-neglected or misused tool for learning. The fact is that most of the contentbeing measured by standardized tests is to be found in textbooks. The basic themes of a course and thevocabulary of the discipline are to be found there. The problem is that, even though many of the questionson standardized tests require interpretive reading, most students are not being exposed to thoughtfulinterpretation of text. No-Research Papers are a way to get students to reflect on “the big picture” of the©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com64

course they are taking. Regardless of the course you teach, certain fundamental ideas are usually veryimportant to understanding the important themes of geography. In mathematics, the big themes mightrelate to solving problems and writing equations. In a science course, the big ideas might relate toscientific method, the dynamics of life, etc. What are the big themes of your course? Where are theydescribed in your textbook?I first discovered the concept of the No-Research Paper when I was teaching United States andVirginia Government several years ago. I realized after helping students learn the content of the first fourchapters of the textbook that few students had a complete grasp of what the U.S. government was allabout. To many students, a chapter on the British roots of the U.S. government was just that. Few sawthat it also related to the constitution that we eventually created in 1787. The same could be said for thechapter about the approximately 200 years of the American colonial experience, and the chapter on theperiod of 1776 until 1787, when Americans lived under a government that was too weak to defend itself,and had little power to deal with other problems that arose.In order to get my students to truly understand the constitution that our forefathers created, it seemedto me that students ought to synthesize what they had learned in the first three chapters of the text withwhat they were finding out about the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution in chapter four. My solutionwas to assign a “seven-to-ten page, typed, double-spaced paper” on the topic, “Why We Have theConstitution We Have.” By assigning such a paper over a month’s time, I immediately accomplished twoimportant goals. First, I put my students into a manageable but complex task that I knew would help themto synthesize the basic ideas fundamental to understanding the rest of my course. Secondly, I allowedthem to practice the process of writing a lengthy work (the first for many of them) with the use of a rubricto emulate.The process took slightly more than a month to do. We had already read the first three chapterswhen the assignment was given. A great deal of support was provided in the form of modeling of the useof graphic representations to analyze and synthesize. a rubric was provided for students. A peer-reviewprocess was established, and timetables were set to monitor progress. Some of the work was done in theclassroom, however the majority of the project was on the students’ own time (homework).The benefits of a No-Research Paper are enormous. First, by eliminating the need to hunt forinformation in the library, etc., two great obstacles are automatically overcome; the need for a topicaldecision, and finding the time to do research. On the other hand, a similarly complex level of thinking isrequired in the process of deciding what to include in the paper, what not to include, and how to restatethe essential understandings of the course in one’s own words. Instead of gathering 100 pages of notes ona topic, each student is already in possession of 100 pages of subject matter, all of which s/he has read anddiscussed in class. The focus in a No-Research Paper, then, is developing deeper understanding throughanalysis and synthesis.Since my first experiences with this form of student writing, I have been greatly reinforced in myoriginal beliefs that students would benefit from this process. A paper on the five themes of geography,scientific method and how it applies in earth science, the sell as microcosm for all living things, tools forproblem solving in algebra, the merits of various genre in literature, or any other topic, can lead studentsto practice of higher order thinking skills at the same time that they are learning the most importantconcepts of your course. At the same time, students are experiencing success in articulating a wellthought-outargument, presented in writing. No-Research Papers can be of various lengths. They need notcover several chapters. One chapter, or even a section of a chapter can be used in this manner. The teachermay also provide other materials that augment the text. Clearly, any time we help our students reflectthrough writing on the major themes of our disciplines, we are helping them in more ways than one.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com65

Math TranslationMath Translation is a tool that helps students to actively construct meaning from mathematicalformulas and mathematical problems performed in numerals and symbols. One difficulty that manystudents have in mathematics classes is that they tend to minimize the nature of the mathematical“language” that is used to convey ideas. They often do not take the time to realize all the meaning that isconveyed through symbols. One way to combat this, while also getting some insight into how wellstudents are understanding what is being performed mathematically, is to get students to practice MathTranslation, the rewriting in prose of what they are perceiving in symbolic form. Two column notes arean appropriate medium. The formula goes on the left side of the notes. A translation goes on the rightside. After each mathematical term is underlined, each of the terms is then described in the student’s ownlanguage. A student example follows:A = πr²The area of a circle is equal to pi times the radius squared.Area is the amount of space inside the circle and is measured in squareddimensions. A circle is round, and is equal from all sides to the center. Equalsshow two things that are the same. Pi is a Greek letter that stands forapproximately three point one four (3.14). Times means multiply. The radiusis drawn from the center of the circle to the edge of the circle. Squared meansto multiply a number by itself: radius times radius. The formula for all of thisinformation is onlyA = πr².Teaching Students How to WriteAny time teachers can get students to articulate ideas in writing, they are helping students tounderstand their subject matter. Teachers can use the writing process to help students construct meaningin learning. By stressing the process of writing a quality paragraph that has a central idea and thensupports that idea by elaborating through supporting details, the teacher is helping students to learnsubject matter. The same is true of multi-paragraph essays, and ultimately longer works. One strategy thatcan help students learn the process while providing purposeful reading is the strategy known as “Hunt forMain Ideas.”Hunt for Main IdeasThis strategy is a reverse way to teach the writing process. Instead of writing, students areencouraged to take apart the writing of others. Again, the textbook may provide the vehicle for thisactivity, but it can be any text the teacher selects. Students can make light-pencil marks in the margin ofthe text while they are reading—these are placed next to what the student perceives to be the main idea ofeach paragraph. By placing students into this task, the teacher is helping students read strategically,monitoring their own comprehension of the text. At the same time, the subsequent discussion allowsstudents to compare their perceptions of what thee main idea of each paragraph was. The result of thisdiscussion is most often a deeper understand of content.One caveat—many textbooks leave something to be desired. In some paragraphs, for instance,there may not be a main idea. At times, a paragraph may just include two or three sentences supporting anidea already stated elsewhere. It does not hurt to have students discover these tings. Often, students cansee why it is so important to write well as a result of discussions about such text.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com66

Writing to Show Off What You KnowIt has been my experience that many students write to the teacher when they write a paragraph oressay. In other words, they assume that the teacher already knows the subject matter, and that they justhave to skirt the topic to let the teacher know that they know the answer. Writing in this way is theopposite of quality writing. A solution that helps students to overcome this assumption is to tell studentsto “...Always write as if you are explaining this idea to a friend of yours who really needs to understandthe concept, but has no prior knowledge about it...Explain each idea fully, and be sure to provide manyclear examples that elaborate on your ideas.” By writing this way, students are asked to analyze what theyhave studied and to synthesize the various components. Thus, writing becomes a tool to enable higherorder thinking skills and to “show off what they know.”©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com67

THE THINKING CUBEFold under and glue.DESCRIBELook closely.Describe what you see.(Colors, shapes, sizes, etc.)COMPARETo what is it similar?or different?foldglueARGUETell why it is positive orwhy it is negative.(Or tell why it is importantto know about it.)Give specific reasons.ASSOCIATEWhat does it makeyou think of?APPLYTell how it works.What can you do with it?foldglueANALYZEWhat is it made of?What are thecomponent parts?©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com68

CUBINGDESCRIPTIONCubing is a writing strategy that permits students to look at a subject from six differentperspectives. One of the following labels is printed on each side of a square box (the cube)covered with plain paper—describe it, compare it, associate it, analyze it, apply it, argue foror against it. As each side is presented to the students, they write about their topic from thatperspective until the teacher calls time and moves on to the next side of the cube.You should not spend too much time on a side. Cubing allows a student to rapidlyconsider a subject from six points of view; therefore, 3-5 minutes per side is sufficient and allsix sides should be used. NOTE: the different sides represent the six levels of thinking—recall, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.Cubing can be used in a number of ways and you will find it more interesting for studentsif you can very the use of this strategy. It can be used as:1. a pre-reading activity to help students think about what they already know about atopic—after writing, students can share information in a whole class group2. a post-reading activity to help students think about what they have learned about atopic—again information can be shared with the whole group as review3. both a pre-reading and post-reading activity over a longer period of study, enablingstudents to compare the two products to analyze how much they have learned4. a pre-writing strategy to enable students to consider a topic for a written assignment andto begin to narrow the focus of their writing to one aspect of the topic5. a vehicle for discussion if used in small groups in which students turn their own cube anduse it to stimulate sharing and oral discussion of ideas—either as a pre-reading activity, apost-reading discussion, or a review for a test.PROCEDURE1. Identify the topic of the day’s lesson. Using the cube you have prepared, have studentswrite on each aspect of the topic as you rotate the cube every 3-5 minutes. If you areusing this to stimulate writing, students may be working on their own individualtopics, rather than one general one.2. Be sure that students understand the meaning of each of the labels. Especially duringthe first few times, fully define the labels and answer any questions students may haveabout the point of view they are asked to represent. You should write with yourstudents and share your own thoughts during the discussion to model some of thekinds of ideas that are possible.A. Describe it. Consider/visualize the subject in detail and describe what you see—colors, shapes, sizes, memorize, etc.B. Compare it. To what is it similar? From what is it different?©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com69

C. Associate it. What does it make you think of? You might associate it with similarthings, or you can think of different things, times, places, people, etc. Just let yourmind go and see what associations you have for this subject.D. Analyze it. Tell how it is made or how it functions. If you don’t know, make it up!E. Apply it. Tell what you can do with it. How can it be used?F. Argue for or against it. Go ahead and take a stand. Be sure that you substantiateyour stand with reasons—any kind: rational, silly, or anywhere in between.3. What you do after the writing is completed will be determined by your purpose inusing cubing. See the suggestions given above under the description of the activity.ADAPTATION FOR ELEMENTARY GRADESFor younger or less sophisticated students the following directions/labels might be usedon the various sides of the cube:1. Tell how big it is2. Tell what colors it is3. Tell what it can do4. Tell what’s good and bad about it5. Tell where it comes from and where you can find it6. Tell what it’s like7. Tell where it is kept8. Tell what it’s made of9. Tell what we’d do without one10. Tell why it’s importantREFERENCESReading and Reasoning Beyond the Primary Grades by Joseph L. Vaughan and Thomas H.Estes. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. (1986) pp. 124-126.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com70

Student Group Example of CubingCUBING THE SLOPE-INTERCEPT FORM OF LINEAR EQUATIONS:DESCRIBE: It is the equation of a line, and it has two variables. It is written with the y-variable all by itselfon one side.COMPARE: Compared to the standard form, Ax + By = C, it is easier to use to find the line.ASSOCIATE: It makes me think of the coordinate plane with the X and Y axis.ANALYZE: It is y = mx + b. The y is a variable, and so is the x. The m tells the slope of the line (howsteep it is). The slope, m, is the rise over run, the change in y over the change in x. The b tells where theline crosses the y-axis. It is called the y-intercept.APPLY: For the line written y = mx + b, which has a slope of m and a y-intercept at b, there are an infinitenumber of solutions for x and y. For each x, there is a y, and vice-versa. An example is y = 2x + 3. Theslope is 2 which means the rise in the y-value is two for every increase in the run of the x-value. The linecrosses the y-axis at 3. So it looks like this:Every point on the line is a solution to the equation.ARGUE: The slope intercept form of writing linear equations is the easiest one to be able to see the linequickly. It is better than the standard form because you don’t need to change the signs or anything tocalculate the slope or intercept. I can just look at the equation and picture the line in my head.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com71

Typical First Four Weeks of SchoolClassroom ActivitiesHomeworkDay 1Student Survey + Cloze TestDay 2 Results of survey + classroom exceptions(predictions)Day 3 Textbook overview + two-column notes 2 column notesDay 4 Anticipation guide 2 column notesDay 5 ReQuest + note taking + studying 2 column notesDay 6 DRTA (What-I-Know Sheet) + studying 2 column notesDay 7 Preview + INSERT + studying 2 column notesDay 8 Anticipation Guide + quiz on day 4 & 5 material 2 column notesDay 9 Paired reading (reinforces PQRST thinking) 2 column notesDay 10 PQRST (reading/notetaking strategy) 2 column notesDay 11 3-level study guide 2 column notesDay 12 GIST 2 column notesDay 13 Writing paragraphs & essays 2 column notesDay 14 Review + study of 2-column notes 2 column notesDay 15 Test & collect 2-column notes noneDay 16 Return tests & compare grades with quality of 2 column notesnotesDay 17 Anticipation guide 2 column notesDay 18 Preview & Think aloud to model metacognition 2 column notesDay 19 PreP and ReQuest & Cubing 2 column notesDay 20 DRTA with modified INSERT & Free Write 2 column notes©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com72

INDEX of CLASSROOM ACTIVITIESStrategyPage(s)3 DAILY ELEMENTS OF USING READING/WRITING TO LEARN1. MAX Teaching Framework……………………………………………2. 4 Components of Cooperative Learning………………………………3. Skill Acquisition Model…….…………………………………………13-18, 313131CLASSROOM STRATEGIES USING READING/WRITING1. Anticipation Guides…………………………………………………...2. Cubing…………………………………………………………………3. Directed Reading/Thinking Activity for Fiction………………………4. Directed Reading/Thinking Activity for Non-Fiction……………..….5. Focused Free Write……………………………………………………6. G.I.S.T…………………………………………………………………7. Graphic Representations………………………………………………8. Hunt for Main Ideas…………………………………………………...9. I.N.S.E.R.T. …………………………………………………………..11. Interactive Cloze Procedure…………………………………………..10. Math Translation……………………………………………………...12. No-Research Papers…………………………………………………..13. Paired Reading Activity………………………………………………14. Pre-Learning Concept Checks………………………………………..15. PQR 2 ST+ …………………………………………………………….16. PreP……………………………………………………………………17. Previewing…………………………………………………………….18. Question Mark (Questions for Quality Thinking Bookmark)…………19. ReQuest………………………………………………………………..20. Three-Level Study Guides …………………………………………….21. Two-Column Notes……………………………………………………22. Writing for Learning…………………………………………………...5, 7-1068-7153 & 5959-60644649-52663311, 19-206664402416241, 43, 5961392311, 2763©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com73

Selected Bibliography for Reading/Writing to Learn:Caine, Renate Nummela, and Caine, Geoffrey (1991). Teaching and the Human Brain, Alexandria,VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.Dixon-Krauss, L., (1996). Vygotsky in the Classroom. New York: Longman.Forget, M. (2004, in press). MAX teaching with reading and writing: Classroom activities for helpingstudents learn new subject matter while acquiring literacy skills. Victoria, BC: Trafford.Forget, M., and Morgan, R (1997). A Brain Compatible Learning Environment for ImprovingStudent Metacognition, Reading Improvement, v 34, no. 4, Winter, 1997.Forget, M., Morgan, R., and Antinarella, J. (1996). Reading For Success: A School To WorkApproach, Instructors Manual. Cincinnati, OH: ITP South-Western Publishing.Gardner, Howard, (1991) The Unschooled Mind: The Way Children Learn and the Way SchoolsShould Teach. New York: Basic Books.Hart, Leslie (1983). Human Brain and Human Learning. New York: Longman.Healey, Jane M. (1990). Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don’t Think. New York: Simonand Schuster.Kiewra, Kenneth A., “An Embedded Curriculum Approach for Teaching Students How To Learn,” inHome School Collaboration, Enhancing Children’s Academic and Social Competence, (1993) SandraL. Christenson and Jane Close, Eds. Silver Spring, MD: National Association of SchoolPsychologists.MacLean, P. (1978). A mind of three minds: Educating the triune brain. In J. Chall & A. Mirsley(Eds.), Education and the Brain (pp. 308-342). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.National Center for Educational Statistics. (2001). Reading Report Card for the Nation and theStates. Washington, DC: Educational Testing Service.Richardson, Judy S. and Morgan, Raymond F. (2003). Reading to Learn in the Content Areas.Belmont, CA: ITP Wadsworth.Schoenbach, Ruth, Cziko, Christine, and Meuller, Faye L. (2001). Apprenticing Adolescent Readersto Academic Literacy. In Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 71, Number 1, Spring 2001.Schoenbach, Ruth, Greenleaf, Cynthia L. Cziko, Christine, and Hurwitz, Lori. (1999). Reading forUnderstanding. Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Fransisco.Smith, Frank (1986). Insult To Intelligence: The Bureaucratic Invasion of Our Classrooms. NewYork: Arbor House.Smith, Frank (1988). Joining the Literacy Club. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com74