Embedded Reading

Simplify, Scaffold, Succeed!!

Archive for the day “January 12, 2013”

12 Jan 2013
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Goal #2 Working Backwards from a Text

The second way to use Embedded Reading is to deliberately scaffold new structures and vocabulary. This works very well when we are creating a Top-Down reading (ie a longer finished piece that we break down into the scaffolded versions) like the example below.

Step 1: Locate or create a text that students will be able to comprehend at the end of the chapter/unit.

Step 2: Identify the new structures that students will need to know.

Step 3: Create an Embedded Reading from the chosen text. There is a “method” to this. You can find explanations on the website, but keep in mind as you create the reading is that each new level should only incorporate a few new structures at a time. People who have done it before will help if you ask!!

Step 4: Identify the 1-3 structures (depending on the level of that students) to introduce to students that will appear in the base reading.

Step 5: Establish meaning, use PQA, practice with gestures, ask a story, etc.

Step 6: Read the base reading with students. Incorporate a reading activity if desired.

Step 7: Identify the structures needed in the next version of the story.

Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 as needed!!!

I believe that this is what many of our Latin colleagues do when they have a particular piece of literature to work with. I hope that James chimes in with how he and other Latin teachers are using Embedded Reading in their classrooms!!!

 

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

Posted in Creating from the Top Down, Definitions and Explanations, Differentiation, Frequently Asked Questions, Ideas, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students
12 Jan 2013

Ideas for Goal #1

The students are primarily reading vocabulary and structures that they have seen and heard before. That doesn’t mean that they have mastered them, but they aren’t completely unknown or perplexing. We can use a variety of types of text:
1. Reading based on PQA:
It could be a reading about a class or an individual. It doesn’t have to be exactly what was talked about in class, but it could be a spin-off from a conversation. Michele’s example was based on PQA. Once I was PQA’ing “woke up” and a student told us about a time at camp that he woke up in his cot, on a raft, floating in the lake. I used that to create an embedded reading. “woke up” was a fairly new phrase, but everything else was very familiar.
2. Reading based on familiar story:
It could be a story asked in class, the plot of a familiar novel, television show or movie, or a video used in Movie Talk (see Michele’s blog!)
3. Reading created from students’ writing:
There are a number of ways to make this work…I think it might take a post of it’s own….
4. Reading adapted/created by the teacher:
We find a text that we know that our students could read, with a little encouragement. So we use that text and create an Embedded Reading. Or, we write one!!! These are a great way for teachers to collaborate and divide up the work. We have done this several times in our department. One teacher will get an idea and write it up, then share it with others.

There are other options…but that is a good start.

 

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

 

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

Posted in Definitions and Explanations, Differentiation, Frequently Asked Questions, Ideas, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2013

Goal #1 Closing the “perception” gap

The neat thing about Embedded Reading is that although the concept is simple, there are a myriad of ways to use it. The way a reading is created and used should depend upon the goal. I’ll post a few goals, one at a time in separate posts. Here’s the first: RAISING PERCEIVED READING LEVELS (ie building confidence!!)

As second language teachers we are always dealing with two reading levels for each student: the ability level and the perceived ability level. As with most things, perception is often reality and the functional level is the perceived ability level of the students. (I don’t know if there is research about the affective filter in readers, but that would be fascinating to know….we’ve all seen it anecdotally!!) So when we pull out a novel, their reaction is “I can’t read that!!”, even though we know that they can.

Embedded Reading was originally developed in order to narrow the gap between what students CAN comprehend and what they THINK that they comprehend.

The first version is written to be a clear, comprehensible summary or outline of the text. Each additional version adds information or details by injecting additional words or structures into the reading. A combination of easily recognizable text and slightly more challenging text is added. There should not be an enormous leap between successive versions of the text.

Ideally, with this type of reading, the third or fourth version of the text should be at a level that is the true ability level of the majority of the class. The teacher may want to create a version or two that are at the ability level of the more advanced readers in the class.

This type of embedded reading doesn’t need a lot of “activity” to go with it, if the students are engaged in the reading!! If they are reading and comprehending and engaged…life is good!!! Ideally, students could read independently through the levels and become better readers. It is a gradual, gentle way to get students reading longer, more detailed, more complex text that uses language that they are already familiar with. The more challenging versions may include unfamiliar cognates or a few new vocabulary words that will be recognizable in context.

The reality is that we are reading in a classroom, with a number of distractions and a need to monitor who is engaged and who is not. THAT is the reason for activities that go along with the reading. So the teacher can choose from a variety of activities:
• Translate out loud.
• “Circle” information.
• Act out the reading.
• Illustrate the reading.
• T/F questions
• Modified multiple choice questions ( two or three choices rather than four)
• Multiple choice questions
• Predicting the information/action in the next version.
Or WHATEVER reading activities you choose that will allow you to monitor comprehension AND maintain student interest.
By spiraling through the versions of the story, we can keep the students’ interest, get them to read far greater amounts of text and build confidence! Reading longer texts, with more complex language, will help them to become better at visualizing, connecting, interacting and predicting….along with a number of other reading skills. Utilizing a variety of activities with the reading can help students to develop higher-level thinking skills and keep students engaged.

Summary:
One goal Embedded Reading is to increase students’ perception of their own reading abilities.
When this is the goal, the versions should contain mostly words and structures which are familiar to the students.
Each version of the text is slightly longer and more complex than the previous version.
A motivated reader could progress through the versions of the reading independently.
Activities used are designed so that the teacher check for comprehension and keep students’ engaged.

 

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

Posted in Definitions and Explanations, Differentiation, Frequently Asked Questions, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2013
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Michele Outlines ER examples

I change how I do ER, depending on the situation. Right now, my beginning students are reporting on what they did (or would have liked to have done) over the holiday. Each person gets one sentence to start with, and we add a few stories each day. They all drew pictures so that everyone can understand the visual.

Day 1: Atticus was sleeping. Grant was skiing. Wilton was not skiing. Michelle went to The Hobbit.

The next day, we read what we’ve written, and I ask some questions. I add the answers to the next day’s reading, and continue finding out what happened to other kids.

Day 2: Atticus was sleeping on the beach in Spain. Grant was skiing with his family at Alyeska. Wilton was not skiing; he was in a hot tub with girls. Arianna went to The Hobbit with her brother. Michelle flew to Hawaii. James was playing hockey. Iara was shopping. Jack was helicopter skiing in the Alps.

Day 3: Atticus was sleeping on the beach in Spain and reading “Origin of the Species.” Grant was skiing with his family at Alyeska. It was raining. Wilton was not skiing; he was in a hot tub with girls. Arianna went to The Hobbit with her brother. She really liked the movie, but her brother didn’t. Michelle flew to Hawaii with friends for five days. James was playing hockey. His team was training at Ben Boeke Stadium. They weren’t playing any games. Iara was shopping. She searched for a t-shirt for her brother for three hours downtown. Jack was helicopter skiing in the Alps.

(I don’t know how many days it will take us to get through the entire class…at least three more. We do this activity for about 20 minutes, while they still want to continue.)

With another class, we are reading a complex fairy tale. I took the original and cut it down into two successively simpler pieces. We read the first and the second piece in one day, because the first one was short enough that they could get the gist of the story: The goose-swans took Masha’s brother away. She searched for him. She found him in Baba Yaga’s house. She carried him away and took him home.

They drew pictures of that, and we went on to the next version the same day, after acting out some verbs of motion that they were going to need.

The next day, we played a game with a set of verbs, some familiar, some not, practiced with some diminutive forms, and then predicted how the story would proceed. Finally we read the last version with all the details. I still have to decide what we’re going to do tomorrow. They might get to retell it with back story. They might get to retell it with twists. They might get to tell a parallel story. I’ll probably start with a barrage of questions to help them remember the story. We might end up talking about fairy tale structure, or compare Russian fairy tales to American ones. Who knows!

As you can see, it can be quite different, and whatever way you choose to do it is is probably right! There are only a few key pieces:

1. Make sure that the kids can visualize the first piece confidently.
2. Change the activities for each successive version.
3. Add new (sometimes surprising) information in the middle of the continued versions, so that all the new information is not at the end of the piece.
4. Make sure that all the new information is not necessarily “harder.”
5. Consider making a first version in sentences that are separated by empty space, and pulling those sentences together into a paragraph for the next version.

Students can contribute to the extended versions. Upper level kids can contribute. Lower level kids can add to the versions after learning some new vocabulary. Students can write simple stories in English for the teacher to use in a three-level embedded story. The teacher, or an advanced student can “reduce” and simplify a complex text. (It’s a great job for a native speaker.)

That’s all for now! Hope it helps.

Michele

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

Posted in Definitions and Explanations, Frequently Asked Questions, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students
12 Jan 2013

Question #2: What happens in between the versions? 

Here is a fantastic Q and A about this topic.  M has a good understanding of how to create an embedded reading, but isn't really sure about what happens when using the readings with students.:

M:  What I don't understand is what happens between the scaffolding versions, or levels -- if the words are new in the second scaffolding, do you use those in stories, for CI ... or do you try the next scaffold level? 

J:  When doing a story or whatever we normally add in 3-4 new structures. I have been treating embedded readings like this. When we are ready for the next 
    "level" of the reading, I build that level using the day's 3-4 new structures.

M:  It sounds as if some of you use them the same day, one right after another?   Others use them with a space of time between the scaffolding? And -- since in my French class, we have finished the first chapter, would they be "supposed" to be familiar with all of the terms in the stories just posted?  
    So interesting. 
J: When doing embedded readings I normally do only one level per day. This way new vocabulary for each level can be built in as that day's 3-4 new structures, like I said previously.

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

Posted in Definitions and Explanations, Frequently Asked Questions, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students | Leave a comment
12 Jan 2013
1 Comment

Do You Use Embedded Readings?

On the moretprs listserv the following question appeared:

” Does anyone use embedded readings? If so, I would love to hear how you implement it in the classrooms. What steps do you take? Do you use different activities? It sounds like a great idea and something very useful for writing.

Would love to hear what you do with this in the classroom.”

Here is the first response!

“We read the first (short and basic) reading together as a class to make sure that everyone understands. Then I let kids continue by reading alone, in pairs, or in groups of 3. They can choose to read the second version (about 1/2 page) or the 3rd (a page). The second version is at a level that most of the students can handle fairly easily; in the 3rd I may add some new words or change things to something a little more advanced (like using entiende instead of comprende, for example).”

 

I hope to post more questions and answers for you!

 

All content of this website © Embedded Reading 2012-2014 or original authors.  Unauthorized use or distribution of materials without express and written consent of the owners/authors is strictly prohibited.   Examples and  links may be used as long as clear and direct reference to the site and original authors is clearly established.

 

Posted in Definitions and Explanations, Frequently Asked Questions, Ideas, Teachers Talk About Embedded Reading, Using Readings With Students

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