October 29, 2024 – Knowledge Matters Podcast
Theory is not terribly helpful without knowing how to put it into practice. That’s the animating principle of the fourth episode of Know Better, Do Better, now available on all streaming platforms. (You can check out all of the episodes and subscribe here.)
How do actual teachers and students “center the text” in reading classrooms? David and Meredith Liben get specific with teachers and experts about how read alouds and close reading can connect students of all ages and literacy levels to a text—and to one another. The payoff for students goes beyond stronger comprehension. When reading is social and texts are shared, the emotional experience of reading is deeper, and more joyful.
First, three guests share real-life examples of how read alouds work in a variety of classes:
- Inclusive classrooms: Patty Collins, who teaches third and fourth graders reading from the 1st to the 99th percentile, discusses how she uses several models of read alouds to give all of her students access to grade-level text, including whole-class, mixed and leveled small groups, and audiobook technology.
- Early learners: Reading and vocabulary expert Margaret McKeown explains how to focus young students on words—not pictures—during read alouds. She also avoids leading questions. Teachers can read short passages without showing pictures and ask students “What’s going on there?” or “What was that all about?”
- Multilingual students: Desiree Garcia teaches in a bilingual kindergarten classroom where read alouds have fueled an explosion in her students’ vocabulary in both languages. She shares how her students are excited to share their own ideas and figure out answers by themselves.
Then, the Libens talk through close reading, where students read a passage multiple times and carefully find the connections and structure that move a text forward. This starts with teachers reading the text themselves, finding what Meredith calls the “sticky parts,” leading a focused discussion on why these passages are particularly important.
Two guests share their experience with close reading:
Kyair Butts, a former Baltimore City teacher of the year, uses close reading to give his middle-school students multiple “at bats” that build knowledge and improve vocabulary. He has students annotate the text to leave tracks of their thinking and see how their thinking evolves.
Also in Baltimore, upper elementary teacher Katie Scotti says close reading is “leveling the playing field” between her higher- and lower-achieving students. Reading a text multiple times, and ensuring all students are familiar with the relevant vocabulary and background knowledge, gives every student the chance to understand and talk about a text, including higher-order ideas.
While Katie was worried her students would be bored by close reading, she’s found just the opposite. “What I find is that reading is a social experience. When students are reading a text together—you know, in fourth grade we read Love that Dog, and when the dog passes away, you’re having this experience with your students. I mean, my students are crying during that part of the book, and we’re talking about loss that they’ve faced in their own lives. And every student deserves access to this high-quality text.”
Subscribe to the podcast here – episodes 1, 2 and 3 are also available, with the rest dropping each Tuesday through mid-November. All research and artifacts mentioned in this episode are posted on the Knowledge Matters Podcast website. And the conversation about comprehension is ongoing–search #knowledgematters or visit us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.