Collaborating Out Loud!
Classroom-Library Partnerships for Teaching Reading Comprehension Strategies


Presentation for Libraries * Change * Keeping Up
Arizona Library Association Conference
16 November 2006
Mesa, Arizona


Presented by Diane Skorupski and Judi Moreillon

Book Cover - Collaborative Strategies for Teaching  Reading Comprehension


Background Knowledge for Educators


Reading Comprehension Strategies:

Activating or Building Background Knowledge
Using Sensory Images
Making Predictions and Inferences
Questioning
Determining Main Ideas
Using Fix-up Options
Synthesizing

 

Research-based Instructional Strategies:

Category Percentile Gain
Identifying similarities and differences

45

Summarizing and note taking

34

Nonlinguistic representations

27

Cooperative learning

27

Setting objectives and providing feedback

23

Questions, cues, and advance organizers

22

 

Selected from Marzano, Robert. J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. 2001. Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, VA: Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Coteaching Approaches:

  • One Teaching, One Supporting
  • One educator is responsible for teaching the lesson while the other observes the lesson, monitors particular students, and/or provides assistance as needed.
  • Station or Center Teaching
  • After determining curriculum content for multiple learning stations, each educator takes responsibility for facilitating one or more learning centers. In some centers, students may work independently of adult support.
  • Parallel Teaching
  • After collaborative planning, each educator works with half the class to teach the same or similar content. Groups may switch and/or reconvene as a whole class to share, debrief, and/or reflect.
  • Alternative Teaching
  • One educator pre-teaches or re-teaches concepts to a small group while the other educator teaches a different lesson to the larger group. (Pre-teaching vocabulary or other lesson components can be especially valuable for English language learners or special needs students.)
  • Team Teaching
  • Educators teach together by assuming different roles during instruction, such as reader or recorder or questioner and responder, modeling partner work, role playing or debating, and more.
Adapted from Friend, Marilyn, and Lynne Cook. 1996. Interactions: Collaboration skills for school professionals, 2d ed. White Plains, NY: Longman.

 

Hand Movements for Water Dance (Thomas Locker):

Rain
Fluttering fingers down
Mountain Stream
Small undulations with one hand (perpendicular to the floor)
Waterfall
Downward slide
Lake
Circle both arms in front of you
River
Large undulations with one hand and wrist (parallel to the floor)
Ocean (Sea)
Crest and trough motion to imitate waves
Mist
Rising fingertips to suggest tiny drops
Clouds
Two cupped hands to form one cloud
Storm Front
Move hands farther apart for storm front
Thunderhead
Even farther apart and shake them lightly for thunderhead
Storm
Flick open fingers and clap hands for lightning and thunder
Rainbow
Make an arch from right to left with one hand (left to right for students)

Diane Skorupski, M.L.S., Teacher-Librarian, Maldonado Elementary School, Tucson Unified School District, Tucson, AZ
Diane.Skorupski@tusd1.org or dskorupski@comcast.net

Judi Moreillon, Ph.D., Literacies and Libraries Consultant
info@storytrail.com or storypower@theriver.com

Updated: 25 November 2006