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Thursday, October 25, 2012

The AoW: A Way to Work Nonfiction Into Your Instruction Search

Each school year, I like to implement a few new ideas into my practice.
After reading Kelly Gallagher's Readicide: How Schools are Killing
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Reading and What You Can Do About It, I was struck by his Article of the
Week (AoW) assignment. It reminded me of the Current Events articles
assigned by my history teachers in high school, which helped spark my
interest about the world beyond "my world". Subscribe

In Readicide, Gallagher discusses his "students lack of background Delivered by FeedBurner

knowledge of the world." He uses the Article of the Week assignment to
build their background knowledge, improve their reading skills, and
help students tackle the challenging texts they often face on
Carrie
standardized tests. Deahl
The idea to use current articles to teach students how to do a Close Follow
Reading was something I'd overlooked. With the Common Core's
heavy emphasis on nonfiction text, I realized this was one area of my
practice I needed to improve in. Equally important factors in my decision: C AT E G O R I E S

In previous years, I didn't expose my students to nonfiction as often as I woud have liked to. 6 Word Memoirs
Accuracy
My students have limited experiences in reading nonfiction.
Assessing
My students struggle when reading texts written above their reading level. Back to School
My students don't have the skills required to read such challenging texts. Beliefs and Values
Better Readers
Read. Question. Comment.
Better Researchers
As Gallagher notes, the idea behind the Article of the Week (AoW) is to give students an article on Monday Better Writers
and have them read it by Friday. They must show proof that they've done a Close Reading of this text and Book Reviews
answered the 2 focus questions at the end of the article. Following these steps will prepare them for the Classroom Management
small group and whole class discussions that take place on Friday. Classroom Procedures
Comprehension/Understanding
When I first introduced my students to the AoW, we read the article
Drafting
together as a class. Then, I modeled how to do a Close Reading for
Editing
them in a Think-Aloud by:
Expression
1. highlighting my confusion First Day
For Discussion
2. writing questions about the text
Grading
3. writing comments about the text
National Board Certification
Naturally, this required me to go back and re-read the article a few times. Paraphrasing
As I did, I highlighted words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs that Phrasing
confused me. In the margins of the article, I asked What, Why, and How Planning
questions so that my students would see how questioning the text allows Prewriting
me to have a deeper understanding of that text. My comments focused Publishing
on: Reading Journals
Revising
parts where I agreed/disagreed with something the author said. Selecting
places where I had strong feelings about certain parts of the article. Speed

parts of the articles where I made connections (text-to-self, text-to-world, text-to-text). Summer Reading
Thinking
After modeling these steps for my students, I asked them to do the same with their copy of the article. I Vocabulary Instruction
walked around the room clarifying the directions, looking closely at what they were highlighting, while also
reading their questions and comments. I noticed that many students asked questions about word Subscribe to this blog's feed
meanings and there were very few, if any, comments.
Discuss. Reflect.
 Discuss. Reflect.
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I then asked several students to share their questions, which I wrote in the margins of the article displayed
on my smart board. Without dictionaries or thesauri, we worked together to clarify our confusion. We did My National Board Journey and
this by: Why I Would Do It All Over
Again
using context clues to help us make guesses about confusing words/phrases Sometimes a Quick, Short
Writing Piece is Exactly What
substituting these guesses into the original sentences We Need
re-reading these sentences with our substitutions Analyzing Characters and
Improving Comprehension with
checking our understanding to see if our guesses sounded correct within the context of the "Iceberg" Metaphors
sentence (going back through these steps when they didn't) Incorporating Book Clubs to
Promote Collaboration and
Following these steps allowed us to answer all of our questions. We then Comprehension
shared our comments and and answered the 2 focus questions at the The AoW: A Way to Work
end of the article. For first term, those focus questions included: Nonfiction Into Your Instruction
Creating Well-Defined,
1. What is the author's purpose? Measurable Goals for the
School Year
2. Who is the intended audience?
In the Classroom: When
For second term, we're using these questions: Problems Arise
Grade Conferences: A Shared
1. What is the author's main idea (The one most important thing the Responsibility
author wants me to know is...) A Good Ending Should Satisfy,
Not Disappoint
2. What types of details does the author use to support this main idea?

After our discussion, I modeled the final step for the Article of the Week RECENT COMMENTS
assignment, which requires students to write a one-page Reflection
Carrie Deahl on The 3Ps: A
about what they've read. With each article, I give 3 Possible Reflection Practical Grading System that
Topics (2 of these questions are closely connected to the article in some Holds Students Accountable
way and the final question is generic). Here are examples from this Camille Napier bernstein on The
week's AoW: 3Ps: A Practical Grading System
that Holds Students Accountable
1. What do you think of American companies who profit by employing immigrants because they're Master Moon on The Reading
"cheap labor"? Journal: A Powerful Learning
Tool
2. Would the American economy thrive without immigrant workers? Explain. sharon elin on The AoW: A Way
to Work Nonfiction Into Your
3. Choose one word, phrase, sentence or paragraph and reflect. (Generic question that is included
Instruction
on each AoW).
Italia Aranda on Analyzing a
Character with The Five Facts of
On Fridays, students are given 10-15 minutes to discuss the AoW the week in their groups. They work Fiction
together, to clarify their confusion. As they do, I walk around the room and check-in with each group. I ask Rosilescampos on The C-P-A:
them questions and give them feedback like: My Go-To Research Strategy
Maggie Leivas on In the
Is there something your group hasn't clarified that I can help you with? Classroom: When Problems
What do you think of ____________? Arise
Carrie Deahl on Grade
How do you know you're right? Conferences: A Shared
Let's take a closer look at that. ________ will you read that sentence/paragraph? Responsibility
Maggie Leivas on Grade
Why do you think the author chose that word/phrase? Conferences: A Shared
Responsibility
What do you think that means now?
Sokker8oii13 on Grade
After small group discussion, we discuss the Article of the Week as a class. During this time, I ask: Conferences: A Shared
Responsibility
What parts of the article are you still confused by?
Based on my "check-ins", I have some idea about which groups were able to clarify the parts of the article SEARCH
that maybe other groups haven't clarified. So, I ask these groups to share first. Anything that isn't clarified,
we discuss and work through together. Students are also given the opportunity to share their comments as
well.
Search
The last 10-15 minutes of class, students are given time to write/share their one-page reflections. Students
are then assessed on whether or not they've completed the Close Reading steps, written their one-page
reflections, and participate in small group and whole class discussions.
Stronger Thinking = More Skilled Readers (and Writers)
Since implementing the Article of the Week assignment this year, students have improved in the types of
questions they're asking. Initially, I noticed that a lot of students asked questions like:
What does ____ mean?
Meaning?
They're now asking questions like:
How do expectations affect students?
 How do expectations affect students?
Why do teachers give them special treatment?
How did he become a psychologist?
Why did they "shift"?
Why would he be unlikely to see that behavior as threatening?
How could they change their beliefs?
In the beginning, there were also very few comments and of those
comments, many sounded like:
I don't understand this part.
I'm confused by this.
I agree/I disagree.
Now, I'm seeing comments like:
I wouldn't be convinced either.
I'm disappointed they're not getting to the issues or doing anything about it because it seems like
they don't care.
I think this is unfair. The wealthy should have their taxes raised, not the middle class.
The experiment that Rosenthal conducted was genius!
I've had that happen to me before, it got me mad because I wanted to participate.
These questions and comments show me students are reading their articles more closely, which is
evidenced by the increased amount (and depth) of the questions and comments written on their articles.
We've also added in Phrase Breaking to help break up longer sentences, making these sentences more
manageable.
Student discussions have become more thoughtful. We're spending less time clarifying word meanings and
more time discussing the issues brought forth by each author and are moving into debates.
In listening to/reading student Reflections, I've noticed that students are beginning to add in details from
the article as support for their ideas. This is not something I've modeled for them or requested from them, it
is the natural consequence that results from becoming a skilled reader.
And, of course, the majority of my students Reading/Language test scores improved between the Pre-
Assessment and Mid-Term. Some gains were as high as 40%.
A Pitch to My Colleagues
As the Freshmen PLC Leader for my department, I pitched the Article of the Week idea to my team who
agreed to adopt this assignment into their practice as well. This allows us to share the responsibility for
finding articles, evaluate the impact the AoW is having on student learning, and troubleshoot problem
areas.
Each person is assigned a week and the article must be emailed to the team by Thursday. This gives us
just enough time to share our thoughts about the next week's article, check the readability level (we try to
use articles 2-3 years above the average reading level of our students), make adjustments, if necessary,
and have our copies made for Monday.
In our weekly meetings, the Article of the Week is always an agenda item and has led to discussions that
include:
readability levels of the articles
a list of resources for finding articles
what topics students are interested in/not interested in
analyzing the types of questions/comments students are writing
troubleshooting problem areas (students who aren't prepared, don't participate in discussions,
etc.)
improvements we've seen in reading/writing skills
ideas for improving student-to-student interaction (Socratic Seminar, Jigsaw Method, Kate
Kinsella's Sentence Starters)
comparing student work
analyzing how the Article of the Week has impacted our Reading/Language test scores
The Article of the Week is a shared practice that my colleagues and I hold each other accountable for. It
has allowed us to add non-fiction texts into our teaching without compromising who we are or what we
know is good for kids. And, our students are becoming skilled thinkers, stronger readers and better writers
because of it!
because of it!

Posted at 04:44 PM in Better Readers | Permalink

Technorati Tags: A Pitch to My Colleagues, Close Reading, Discuss. Reflect., Kelly Gallagher, Read. Question. Comment., Stronger Thinking =
More Skilled Readers (and Writers)
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Comments
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Thank you! This description of the lesson idea and the examples via the illustrations are helpful -- we keep
urging teachers to focus on nonfiction, but then don't offer enough strategies to help them engage the students.
This does exactly that! I especially like the progressive steps of the lesson throughout the week and the
collaborative element that allows students to talk about the articles.
It would be wonderful if you also could offer a list of resources where we can find nonfiction articles -- my focus
is on high school students and many are low-level readers, so it would be great to find high-interest topics to
start the process.
Posted by: sharon elin | Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 09:16 AM

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