Using SIRS Digital Content with INSERT

A Lesson for Reading Comprehension and Digital Research

Kellie Mullins and Tracey Zimmerman, Pine Grove Middle

Project Overview
In 7th grade Language Arts, students are exposed to the Holocaust through literature in their reading of Number the Stars and the play The Diary of Anne Frank. They were taken by the harsh treatment of the Jewish population during World War II and Hitler's reign and wanted more information.

Project Overview

Students will utilize SIRS Researcher for personal/curricular inquiries and connections. Students will learn to navigate SIRS Students will learn to create keyword and Boolean searches Students will select an article to print Students will read and implement the newly learned reading strategy, INSERT, in order to share their thoughts and feelings (as a personal reflection piece) with the rest of the class.

Extension

This mini-project will also have an art extension, where the students will paint wall tiles, reflective of the information gleaned from their source. A gallery walk, showcase, and short presentation will give each student an opportunity to share information about their inquiry into the past.

Instructional Partnership and Goals

The Librarian taught the Language Arts Teacher

To navigate SIRS Digital Content To create and use keyword and Boolean searches

Language Arts Teacher taught the Librarian:

The INSERT Strategy Tile Painting

Instructional Development and Implementation

Library Media Connection

MSDE Students will demonstrate the ability to review, evaluate and select media. Students will demonstrate the ability to retrieve and manage information. Learn and apply reading, research and critical thinking skills to organize, and synthesize information in order to communicate new understanding. BCPS Students will access and navigate a database to locate a variety of informational texts. Students will identify and use organizational patterns embedded within the database.

Reading/Language Arts/English VSC Connections

Apply comprehension skills through exposure to a variety of texts, including traditional print and electronic texts Use strategies to make meaning from text Use strategies to demonstrate understanding of text Apply comprehension skill by selecting, reading and interpreting a variety of print and electronic informational texts Connect the text to prior knowledge or experience

Social Studies VSC Connections

Students will understand the historical development and current status of the fundamental concepts and processes of authority, power and influence, with particular emphasis on the democratic skills and attitudes necessary to become responsible citizens. Students will describe the pros and cons of unlimited government, such as the authoritarian and dictatorship.

Fine Arts Content Standards: Visual Arts

Students will demonstrate an understanding of visual art as an essential aspect of history and human experience. Students will plan artworks that use symbolic images and forms to convey selected beliefs, customs or values.

Project Activities

INSERT
A Comprehension Strategy

What is INSERT? And Why teach it?

A majority of students in middle school are beyond decoding instruction and need more assistance with comprehension to help them become successful, independent readers. Strategic reading allows students to monitor their own thinking and make connections between texts and their own experiences. Based on the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this lesson introduced students to the comprehension strategy of monitoring.

What is INSERT? And Why teach it?

Students learned the INSERT technique, which teaches them to monitor their thinking and comprehension using a coding system. Students also learned about character traits and qualities of Anne Frank and conditions in a Nazi Concentration Camp during the reign of Adolf Hitler. This coincided with their reading of the play, The Diary of Anne Frank, the novel, Number the Stars, and for many of the children, a GT World Cultures unit on World War II.

More on

Background and facts

INSERT

INSERT is a form of Guided Comprehension. Guided Comprehension is a context in which students learn comprehension strategies in a variety of settings using multiple levels and types of text. It is a three-stage process focused on direct instruction, application, and reflection. The Guided Comprehension Model progresses from explicit teaching to independent practice and transfer.

Monitoring involves asking, "Does this make sense?" and clarifying by adapting strategic processes to accommodate the response.
INSERT (i.e.: Interactive Notation System to Effective Reading and Thinking) provides students with opportunities for reflection. Students make connections between prior knowledge and text content. Current studies demonstrate that when students experience explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, it improves their comprehension of new texts and topics (Hiebert et al., 1998).

Hiebert, E.H., Pearson, P.D., Taylor, B.M., Richardson, V., & Paris, S.G. (1998). Every child a reader. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA).

THE LESSON
Teacher Preparation

Familiarize yourself with the INSERT technique and symbols using the INSERT poster.
Access, read, and become familiar with the article, I Saw Anne Frank Die by Holocaust Survivor, Irma Menkel. Anticipate places in the passage where you can use the INSERT symbols.

THE LESSON
Teacher Preparation

Make individual copies of the articles for the student, as well as an overhead transparency. Copy the INSERT poster for each student and recreate it on chart paper or as an overhead transparency.

The Lesson

(continued)

Student Instruction and Activities

Objective: Today we will utilize the comprehension strategy, INSERT, in order to recognize its importance in helping us better understand what we read.

1. Explain the strategy. Ask students if they have ever been reading something and realize they have no understanding of what they just read. Explain that you are going to teach them a strategy to help them monitor their reading and better understand texts.

Display the INSERT poster and distribute individual copies to students as well. Show students each of the symbols and discuss what each symbol represents. Explain how students can write the symbols in the margins of a text or next to a word to symbolize their thinking during the reading. Also emphasize that before reading, students should think about what they already know about the topic. That way, they will be able to mark the sections that confirm or refute what they thought. (Note: You may want to have students practice writing each of the symbols and discuss why each one was chosen to represent the particular thought process. For example: Explain why a + would represent something that they did not previously know.)

2. Demonstrate the strategy. Display the article (either on an overhead or on chart paper). Ask them to watch and listen as you read the first paragraph and mark it with the INSERT symbols. Model the process for students. Make sure that you "think aloud" so that students can witness the entire thought process. You may also want to refer back to the INSERT poster to reinforce the meanings of the symbols.

Continue reading the article. Stop after a few sentences in the next paragraph and have students aid in marking the appropriate INSERT symbols in the margin or next to the words in the article, and discuss their reasoning for adding those symbols.

3. Guide students to apply the strategy. Ask students to begin by taking a minute to think about the things they already know about Anne Frank, World War II, Concentration Camps, etc You may want to write their thoughts down on chart paper or just discuss them aloud. Review the INSERT symbols again with students. Hand out the article for the students and read the first paragraph or two of the passage together again. Have the students mark the margins or text with the INSERT symbols using their own connections.

4. Practice in small groups. Divide students into groups of two or three. Ask them to work together to read the next few paragraphs of the article. Ask students to, individually, mark the INSERT symbols after the conclusion of each paragraph (encourage a second reading of the paragraph silently as they INSERT). Small groups should then discuss their symbol inserts.

5. Practice individually. Stop students after reading a few paragraphs together, and have them complete the article reading and INSERT for the remainder of the article on their own. Bring the class back together and discuss the article through the use of the symbols.

Reflect. Gather students as a whole class to discuss how using the INSERT technique helped them monitor their thinking. Was it easier to understand the passage using the INSERT symbols than if they had just read the passage silently?
(NOTE: This lesson is intended as an introduction to the monitoring strategy. With continued practice, students should be able to apply the monitoring and INSERT strategy independently to other texts.)

Teaching Key Word and Boolean Searches

Students develop Research Questions: What happened to people in Concentration Camps? How many Jews were in hiding? What was it like in Auschwitz? Did America help the Jewish people? What happened to Otto Frank?

Teaching Key Word and Boolean Searches

Students Brainstorm a list of keywords from their research questions Students learn linking strategies for AND, OR and NOT (but for this exercise, focus stayed with AND) Students create Boolean search Students search using both keywords and Boolean phrases to find article ..\Research Skills\Boolean Searching.doc

Navigating SIRS

Subject Searches and Keyword/Natural Language Searches Advanced Search Function Article Sources Selecting an Article

Evaluation

Student Assessment/Reflections

Assessment can be done informally through anecdotal notes and observations.

Students' understanding of the INSERT technique can be assessed using I Saw Anne Frank Die article coded with the INSERT symbols
Did students accurately use the INSERT coding symbols? Did they make valid reactions and connections to texts? You can also ask students to reflect in their comprehension journals/exit tickets about monitoring and their experience using the INSERT technique. How does using the INSERT technique help you monitor your thinking as you read? How do you think you will use the INSERT technique in the future?

Student Assessment/Reflections

Which was more effective: Keyword searching or Boolean searching? How do you think you can apply keywords and Boolean searches Did students select an article that would increase their understanding of their topic?

Final Thoughts.

Students enjoyed using symbols to aid in comprehension

- ? +

Students enjoyed using the computers to find articles of their own interests. Students felt empowered by their understanding of search strategies.

Students loved designing their tiles based on their newly gained and/or confirmed knowledge from their selected articles.

Tile Picture

Tile Footage