Helping Parents Help Us-

Promoting Comprehension Through Parent Involvement

by V. Susan Bennett-Armistead

Your assignment is to read chapter 11 on parent support. Please reflect on the following key questions:

1. How might parent involvement efforts improve achievements in reading comprehension?

2. What are the barriers to parent involvement in your community?

3. What are your ideas that would involve parents who traditionally do not get involved at school?

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To Understand

Chapter 3 by Ellin Oliver Keene

In your syllabus packet on yellow please read chapter two and reflect on the following key questions:

1. What is your operating definition of comprehension?

2. What strategies/activities do you use in your classroom to help students think more deeply about what they read?

Learning From Comprehension Research-
Critical Understandings to Guide our Practices
Chapter 2 by Nell K. Duke and Julia Moorhead Reynolds

In your syllabus packet on yellow please read chapter two and reflect on the following key questions:

1. Of the seven cricital understandings, which do you see reflected in things you are already doing/have done in your classroom? Which need more attention?

2. What do you do/have done in your classroom with vocabulary instruction? What could you do to enhance word consciousness in your classroom?

Strategies that Work
Chapter 2

This chapter focuses on strategies that effective readers utilize. The text states that strategic readers are connecting, inferring, questioning, visualizing, and synthesizing as they read. Please review the strategies presented in this chapter and choose one to share with your class.

Please share the following information:
1. What strategy did you choose? Did you use a specific book to teach this strategy? If so, what is the title/author?
2. Your thoughts and reflections on this chapter.

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Strategies that Work

Chapter 1 Strategic Thinking


• Read Chapter 1 Strategic Thinking from Strategies That Work that was included in your syllabus packet.
• What areas discussed in Strategic Thinking do you feel you do a good/have done a good job modeling and teaching in your classroom? Share any areas of improvements that you would like to focus on.

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Teaching Tips

By: Jill Caton Johnson

Hello All--
Your next assignment is to read the teaching tips article, What Makes A "Good" Reader? Asking Students To Define "Good" Readers found in your packet.

Please do the following:

• Read the article and share any Ah Ha's
• Administer the questionnaire provided in your packet (modify to your grade level if needed)
• Reflect on what you learned and/or observed through this activity

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Sharing Your Love For Reading

As Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis states in Strategies That Work, "one of the best reasons to read a picture book to a group of students is simply because you love it. Sharing our thoughts about why we love a book allows students to get to know us better and shows them how discerning we are about what we read."

Please list your top five books(and author)that you enjoy sharing with your students. Briefly explain why you would recommend them to others in this course.

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Favorite Author Sketch

Please share with classmates a short biographical sketch of one of your favorite authors and list their books that you enjoy.

Here is an example of one of my favorite author:

Biography of Beverly Cleary
Beverly Cleary was born in McMinnville, Oregon. She lived on a farm in Yamhill until she was old enough to attend school. The town she lived in was very small and had no library. Her mother arranged with the State Library to have books sent to Yamhill and acted as librarian in a lodge room upstairs over a bank for Beverly. There Mrs. Cleary learned to love books. Her family moved to Portland, where Mrs. Cleary attended grammar school and high school, she soon found herself in the low reading circle, an experience that has given her sympathy for the problems of struggling readers. By the third grade she had conquered reading and spent much of her childhood either with books or on her way to and from the public library. Before long her school librarian was suggesting that she should write for boys and girls when she grew up. The idea appealed to her, and she decided that someday she would write the books she longed to read but was unable to find on the library shelves, funny stories about her neighborhood and the sort of children she knew. After graduation from junior college in Ontario, California and the University of California at Berkeley, Mrs. Cleary entered the School of Librarianship at the University of Washington, Seattle. There she specialized in library work with children. She was Children's Librarian in Yakima, Washington, until she married Clarence Cleary and moved to California. The Clearys are the parents of twins now grown. Mrs. Cleary's hobbies are travel and needlework.

Some of my favorite Beverly Cleary books include:

All Ramona books
Socks
Ribsy
Dear Mr. Henshaw
Strider (the sequel to Dear Mr. Henshaw)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
Run Away Ralph
Ralph S. Mouse

School Reading Philosophy

Please tell me about your school/district's reading philosophy. In your response, include what you feel are the strengths and areas that need improvement.

This information will be beneficial to me so I can tailor this class to your individual needs.

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Welcome and Introductions

Please introduce yourself to the rest of the class by answering the following questions:

1) Your Name
2) School/City
3) Grade level and subject that you teach
4) Hobbies

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