How to facilitate changing a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, and learning how to do a running record and other non-standardized reading assessments

1. Teaching Reading
Session 1
September 27th, 2013
8:30-11:30
:

2. Ice breaker
Coloured strips to introduce yourself
Yellow - your dream job
Green - favourite hobby
Blue - favourite vacation
Orange - favourite movie/book
Purple - wildcat – tell us whatever you like

3. Anecdote from Peter Johnston
Choice Words: How Our Language Affects Children’s
Learning

4. Learning Intentions
1. You will learn how to focus your students away from the
fixed mindset and towards the growth mindset and
incorporate the emotionality of reading.

5. Assessment
2. You will understand the value of a running record for
ongoing assessment of a student’s reading ability and be
introduced to other non-standardized assessments

6. Changing Mindset
1. Learn to listen to your fixed
mindset voice

7. 2. Recognize that you have a choice

8. Emotional Memory
Emotional memory exerts a powerful influence on
thought processes. Emotional memory registers
and retains positive and negative occurrences if
they are repeated. If a child has difficulty learning
something, she will oftentimes experience a
negative emotion. Lack of confidence is often
associated with feelings of being incapable of
learning. Those feelings are common in
students who have not learned how to read.
(Coles, 1998)

9. These students’ emotions and
self-perception must be
changed for literacy to
improve.

10. 3. Talk back to it with a growth mindset voice
No matter the ability--whether it's
intelligence, creativity, self-control, charm, or
athleticism—studies show them to be
profoundly malleable. When it comes to
mastering any skill, your experience, effort,
and persistence matter a lot. (The Trouble with Bright
Girls in Psychology Today, Jan 2011)

11. 4. Take the growth mindset action

12. Books leave lasting
impressions…
Consider the books you loved as a child,
an older student, an adult and as a
teacher.
With an elbow partner:
Discuss some of your favorite books and
WHY are they your favorite?

13. What are these discussions
arousing in you?

14. Assessment
2. You will understand the value of a running record for
ongoing assessment of a student’s reading ability and be
introduced to other non-standardized assessments

15. Three main sources of
information
 Meaning (how we understand the story; context,
background knowledge)
 Structure (how we say things; the rhythm of the
language)
 Visual (the way we see letters and words; how they
look and sound)

16. Scoring a running record
A student gets credit for all correct or corrected words
 E = Errors (insertions; omissions; substitutions; wrong tense;
endings left off; asks for help (you respond ―you try it‖); told
the word (wait only 3 seconds); prompted to ―try that again‖
 SC = Self Correct (says the word incorrectly, then corrects
himself; repeated correctly any number of times, either word
or phrase)
 Proper nouns should be taught first, then counted as errors.

17. Scoring
# of words correct X 100 = _____%
# of words in text
Independent: 98-100% accuracy with excellent or satisfactory
comprehension
Instructional: 95-97% accuracy with excellent or satisfactory
comprehension or 98-100% accuracy with limited
comprehension
Frustration: below 95% accuracy with any comprehension
score
Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System, 2009

18. It is more than just
decoding…
 If students don’t understand what they are reading then
they are not really reading
 Good readers use the same strategies no matter what
they are reading

19. 7 Keys to unlocking
meaning…
1. Create mental images
2. Use background knowledge
3. Ask questions
4. Make inferences
5. Determine the most important ideas or themes
6. Synthesize information
7. Use ―fix-up‖ strategies

20. Create Mental Images
 Good readers create a wide range of visual, auditory,
and other sensory images as they read
 They become emotionally involved with what they read

21. Without sensory images…
 Reading is just a blank slate
 Reading is just another ―chore‖ that must be done or
avoided

22. Intensified involvement…
 If your students
 Beg you to keep reading
 Give you details that reflect a good grasp of the story
 Laugh or cry at the appropriate places
 Are able to make predictions
 Read aloud with expression
 Extend the story beyond what is actually on the page
 Chances are they are creating sensory images

23. Fostering Involvement:
 Students need to know that creating mental images is a
vital part of reading
 Your students need to watch you demonstrate how to
create mental images

24. 3. Ask questions
 Good readers generate questions before, during and
after reading
 They clarify meaning, make predictions, and focus their
attention on what’s important

25. If text is too difficult,
students can’t do this.

26. Assessments
 Jamieson, Lori. (2007) HIP Reading Assessment:
Graded oral reading assessments for students in
grades 3 to 8
 Fountas and Pinnell Benchmark Reading Assessment
System, 2009

27. A personal response…
Readers who are not able to foster a personal
connection to what they are reading will be
 unable to make predictions
 the real meaning will escape them
 the words are just sounds strung together

28. Fix-up Options:
 Rereading
 Raising new questions
 Drawing inferences
 Making predictions
 Seeking help from an outside source
 Stop and think
 Try to get a mental image
 Inspect the pictures or other text features

29. Students must read in order to write…
 If you want students to write in a particular genre then
you must give them multiple opportunities to hear, read,
experiment with and analyze the genres themselves
before writing.

30. What makes a difference?
Teacher:
 Develops a relationship with students
 Is flexible and resourceful
 Considers the child’s interests, strengths and passions
 Enables the student to make choices
 Focuses on meaning (not skills)
 Ensures the student gets 1:1 support
 Collaborates with other teachers

31. Richard Allington says . . .
Every Day, Every Child
 Will read something they have selected.
 Will read something accurately.
 Will read something they understand.
 Will write something that is meaningful
 Will talk to peers about their reading and writing.
 Will listen to a fluent adult read aloud.

32. Pro-D
 October 1: Start Where They Are book club
 October 8: Tuned Out book club
 October 23: Faye Brownlie
 October 25: BCTELA and Cris Tovani
 November 12: Faye Brownlie