Angela Maiers Educational Services

Reading WITHOUT Meaning - The Box Set

With the response to the 4-part series, "Reading WITHOUT Meaning", I thought I'd put it together in a single printable document. Think of it as the "box set."

Reading WITHOUT Meaning

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Essays & Theses School Work learning reading

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Putting Images in Your Wordle

Many have asked about putting photos and images into a Wordle cloud. It's really quite easy and can increase the value of your Wordle, whether your use the tool for analytical or communicative purposes.

Of course, the first thing you need to do is construct your word cloud on Wordle. Once your cloud is generated, you'll need to take a screen capture of the image. You can do this using a screenshot tool like Snagit (which I use) or Jing, or a simple way can be found at Take-a-Screenshot.

For the purposes of this exercise, we'll use a recent post, Strategy Talk: Comprehension First and create our wordle cloud. Once I've chosen the layout, colors, font - I then capture the screenshot and crop it so just the word cloud appears.

 

After I've chosen a few images and photos, I then start placing them around the wordle. The latest version of Snagit will allow you to re-size a photo on the fly. If you don't have the latest version, you can also use PowerPoint to re-size an image into your word cloud.

You may have to play around with the images. There may be some struggle at first, but remember -- mistakes are tuition. Here's our finished Wordle with images (click to enlarge)

I hope this helps. Both Jing and Snagit are wonderful tools. I've been using Snagit for over a decade and always recommend it.

Photos on Flickr
 - Top center by ali edwards
 - Bottom left by John Flinchbaugh
 - Bottom right by smellyknee
 - Other images are stock

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Mini Lesson- Plot Structure Explored

If I asked you to travel to a grocery store that you had never been in before, would you be confident to navigate the aisles and find what you need? Could you locate the bread, a pound of roast beef. a single Snickers candy bar (my favorite!)? 

Absolutely!  Regardless of the the grocery store chain or the location of the city, you can get around in a grocery store because you have background or schema for the way grocery stores are organized.

The same thing holds true for reading. Our schema for the way a text is organized greatly impacts and influences the way we "get around" in that text. Helping students understand that there are things they can count on in every genre to guide them towards meaning is a key element of effective comprehension instruction.

Listen in, while we use our schema of Fiction Text Structure and the Elements of Plot to find our way to meaning in this exciting historical fiction story!

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Character Counts But Habitudes Multiply!

I am so proud to make this announcement and finally say these four words: MY BOOK IS DONE!!!! (Do you see me jumping up and down????)  The Classroom Habitudes is officially available today!

I have talked on and off about The Habitudes over the past few months, but here's a reminder of what the books is all about. 21st Century success is more than skills, its more than strategies, its more than literacy...it is about the combination of the habits and attitudes that you possess - it is about your HABITUDES?

Successful individuals across every field, within every discipline, in every walk of life have very distinct and identifiable characteristics. They are imaginative, curious, courageously willing to risk, tenacious and can persevere through the most unbearable odds, and are adaptable; seeing change as a facilitator not a deterrent to success. Successful learners embody these same qualities.

The challenge for me as as a teacher and a trainer, was the lack of places to turn for these important lessons and conversations. I struggled to find lessons plans, books, materials, and resources to help me explicitly and deliberately teach what I believed in my heart to be most important. So, I did what many of you do so often...I made it up myself. And, I am so excited to share this work with you.

The Classroom Habitudes contains over 40 Habitude-lesson plans. I have also included transcripts of the conversations I have with grade K-12 students, books and resources that illustrate the Six Habitudes, and support materials that help carry the conversations into students independent work.

I have started the dialogue for you, but remember that we are smarter together. I know that you can add important value to the work and to the book. I have chosen print-on-demand for the purpose of adding to the resources. As you try out the lessons and explore these million dollar conversations with students, please share. I so look forward to hearing about your Habitude stories!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Classroom Habitudes: Teaching 21st Century Learning  and Attitudes
• Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christensen
• Crucial Conversations: Looking Back, Looking Forward!
• Teachers that are Difference Makers

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Reflection and Gratitude: November 2008

I like to use the first day of the month as a way to look back at the previous month's best posts (and the year before that) - but also to share thanks for those who take part in the conversations.

November 2008

• 6 Ts of Effective Lesson Planning
• Minding the Engagement Gap
• Teachers are Readers First
• Do You Color Outside the Lines?
• Making a Case for Nonfiction Text

November 2008 Elsewhere
Joyful Jubilant Learning: The "Gifting Writer" - Learning How to Give to Our Readers
LeaderTalk: Heretics: New Leadership for the 21st Century

November 2007

• Writer?  Who, Me?
• 8 Minutes More, Pleeease
• Let's Dissect a Blog Pt 3 - RSS Feeds

Thanks for Engaging in the Conversation (Commenters Here)
Arica (3), Mathew Needleman (2), Laura Hecht (2), Shaun Wood (2), Melanie Holtsman, Angela Stockman, Kim Cofino, Tania Sheko. Jason H, MrW00dy, Chris Webb,  Mobbsey, Karen Janowski, Steve, Missi B, MrsTG, Beth Holmes, Simon Mills, Ellen Weber      

Thanks for Extending the Conversation (Links to Posts Here)
Active Learning Blog Carnival, Opening Doors to Digital Learning, Ms Teacher, Brain Leaders and Learners, Once Upon a Teacher, Successful Teaching, Ask Dr. Kirk, ThoughtSpurs, IMC Guy, Free Technology for Teachers (2), Durff's Blog, Creating Lifelong Learners, A Source of Inspiration, Making Connections, Pratham Books, Christa Allan, Age of Conversation, DonkaSprzak, Edu-Nerd, Room5ians Rule, Education & Tech, CFIAP, ConverStations (2) (3)          

Thank You for being part of my thinking, my learning, and my living.

Past Reflections and Gratitudes
 - October 2008
 - September 2008
 - August 2008

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Mini Lesson- The Learning Brain

As educators we want to help move students from being passive recipients of learning to active, critical consumers of knowledge. After all, it's about time that students leave school more tired than their teachers-right?

But, in order for that to happen, we have to make sure that our students understand what's involved in the work of active learning. This video mini lesson shares with students how their brains learns best, where attention is controlled, and how motivation affects engagement and overall understanding.

 

Related Posts:
-Teaching is the Art that Changes the Brain
-Keys to Critical Learning

-Five Checkpoints for Brain Based Learning

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Reading as an Act of Engagement

Fill in the blank:
Reading is...

It's important how you finish that sentence. The way in which we define the "act of reading" affects how we deliver instruction, how we design homework, and ultimately how we teach our kids to act and behave as readers.

Think about it, if we fill in the blank this way:

Reading is the ability to decode words, read those words at a certain speed with accuracy.

Or how about this:

Reading is an meaning making, problem solving process that gets better the more it is practiced across increasingly more complex text. 

What would instruction and assessment look like if we defined reading as an act of engagement-engagement in the text, with the author, illustrator, photographer, engagement in the content, the context, the domain...?

What exactly does a reader need to know and do to fully engage in the act?

• Strategies: the words themselves do not produce meaning. And meaning, as it is delivered in most mediums does not come to us on a silver platter. We must be equipped to "dig it out". And in order to excavate deep meaning, readers need a repertoire of strategies; different than those we use just to pronounce and decode the words. Sounding it out just does not cut it when I am trying to figure out the authors big idea?
• Text that is Accessible- Like Goldilocks, we like things just right for our reading brain.  When text is too hard, we disengage losing focus and motivation...it is just too much work! Likewise, when text is too easy, we get bored. We scurry along, but do not fully engage because not enough challenge is present. Engaged learning and engaged reading requires a text that is just right-not so difficult and demanding we shut down, but not so easy that our minds wander.
• Relevancy and Purpose: One of the first questions engaged readers ask themselves is: Why am I reading this? What is my purpose? How you read depends on your purpose. When readers are mindful of their purpose, they are able to make relevant connections and engagement follows.

If we define reading as not only a meaning-making, problem-solving process, but as an act of engagement, how does that change things for you? your students?

Related articles by Zemanta

• How to Read
• Comprehension is NOT a Commodity!
• More Lessons in Critical Reading
• In Appreciation of Silent Readers

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

More Lessons in Critical Reading

Finding the Big Idea in text is no easy task-even for older students. All too often, we assume when students master the basics of decoding, critical thinking will automatically follow and there will be need for explicit instruction. Nothing could be farther from the truth-students still need us to show them how readers engage in difficult and challenging text.

This lesson is designed to help readers move beyond literal low level recall of facts and definitions and engage in a deeper, more mindful ways with their content area text.

Join me today inside this 8th Grade classroom for a lesson in Critical Reading.

Want More Lessons?
-Finding Big Ideas-It's as Easy as 1,2,3
-Finding Big Ideas in Fiction
-Monitoring Comprehension
-Using Schema to Make Connections

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

Inference-What is it and How do We Teach It?!

Meaning is not delivered to us on a silver platter. We must be equipped as readers, writers, viewer, listeners, investigators, and communicators to excavate it...dig it out. The cornerstone tool in our metacognitive arsenal is the ability to make inferences.

But, what exactly does that mean? How is inferring different than making a prediction? And how do you do this across different texts, genres, and multimodal contexts? These are the questions I have been exploring with teachers and students this week in the following presentation.

Making Inferences

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: comprehension strategies)

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.

The Learning Brain-Using Schema to Make Connection

There has been great feedback and discussion from my strategy lessons videos. Check out this conversation with HS students on the anatomy of the learning brain with focus on the comprehension strategy of Schema-Connecting Known to New.

As you watch the lesson, think about ways to adapt the conversation to your students and grade level as well as what can be done to continue this dialougue in students independent work.

Related Posts-
Follow the Rules- The Brain Rules
Seven Power Thinking Strategies
The Learning Brain

Together We Are Smarter. What's Your Take? Comment Here.