Reading for Intermediate and Advanced Learners, Spring, 2011

Strategy- Read to someone: EEKK, voice level & check for understanding
During Read to Someone, students sit right next to each other; almost close enough to touch elbow to elbow and knee to knee (EEKK). This close proximity allows for children to read quietly and still be heard by their partners but not loud enough for the rest of the class to hear. This sitting arrangement allows partners to look on and read the same book if they choose.
After modeling EEKK, we talk about voice level. Listen how quiet our voices can be when we sit this close. We purposefully model a very soft voice when we show children how to read to someone. When we do correct model/incorrect model, we reinforce this expectation as well. We don’t want our voices to be the loudest in the room.
When children are reading to someone, one partner reads aloud while the other partner follows along with their eyes and ears and checks for understanding. When the partner comes to the end of a sentence, page or paragraph, depending on the length of the book, the partner assigned to check says, “I just heard you say….. If the partner confirms, they continue. If the information was incorrect, then the passage has to be reread.
Strategy: Using Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers can enhance a students' understanding of a task. Graphic organizers are a common way to help students generate nonlinguistic representations. Information can be organized into six patterns: descriptive, time-sequence, process/cause-effect, episode, generalization/principle, and concept patterns. Descriptive pattern organizers can be used to represent facts about specific persons, places, things, and events. The information organized into a descriptive pattern does not need to be in any particular order. In the lesson, we will be using a graphic organizer to describe character characteristics.