Title of Video Segment: Into the Book: Behind the Lesson, Strategies Together
Running time: 9 minutes, 23 seconds
Synopsis of Segment: Strategies Together…a class that is comfortable with the reading strategies combines them to create a fluid discussion that shows off their success as strong readers.

DR. MICHAEL P. FORD: How do students use strategies together to get into the book? Let's go Behind the Lesson and see how teachers make this happen.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: I found this article that I've been so excited to share with you. I'll give you a hint. It's about Barbaro. We've been using this strategy a lot, right?
     
STUDENT: Yes.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: But there's a word that I haven't used with you, that is kind of a big word. And I want you to really wow your parents and your third grade teachers with it. That word is "schema."

STUDENTS: Schema?
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Schema, yep. Schema is a way of organizing information in your brain. For example, I have a file cabinet here. In it, I have information about all the things that we do in second grade. I've got all that information organized in there, in alphabetical order. You can do that with information in your brain. That's called schema.
     
So, the way that we're going to get started this morning is we're going to activate our schema. We're going to think about things we know about Barbaro and the horse racing.
     
DR. FORD: What was your purpose for today's lesson?

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: I've chosen to make the focus of our reading group comprehension strategy since they're already pretty good at decoding and some of those kinds of things. So, the next challenge for them would be to work on the comprehension strategies.
     
Let's just spend a minute getting into some of the files in your mind about what you know about the Kentucky Derby and all the horses that we talked about.
     
STUDENT: When the horse wins, I think they take these ring of roses and put it around the horse’s neck.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Right.
     
STUDENT: The trainer of the horse that won the Kentucky Derby, Barbaro- -the trainer was in a plane crash and the plane was on fire. He ran through a fire and came out of the fire with three children in his hands.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Right. Do you remember the feeling that we had when we were watching the tapes that Donovan brought in. Who can describe, or who had strong feelings?
     
STUDENT: I felt like birds were flying around in my stomach and dolphins were jumping, and butterflies were flapping their wings.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Wow, does that make you think of any other book that we've read?
     
STUDENT: Yeah, "Gwenda."

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: "Gwenda and the Animals." She talked a lot about having those kinds of feelings when she was getting ready to do what?
     
STUDENT: Save the animals.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Save the animals, make big changes. That's right.

DR. FORD: Do you want to talk a little bit about how you keep all your materials organized, especially newspaper articles that you think might be fun to revisit in the future.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: I've chosen to put things into a binder. Some of my categories are reading for information, reader response, making connections. I've organized some of the materials by the comprehension strategies. Also, things like biographies, story mapping, sequencing, synthesizing, cause and effect, visualizing. And I'll just keep adding to this. I also keep copies of kid's samples, because it helps me know for next time what I can expect, or sort of as a point to gauge.

Barrett, what else do we know about newspaper articles, magazines?

STUDENT: You don't read the whole thing. You just peruse the whole thing.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Sometimes, you don't read the whole thing, you peruse. What does peruse mean?

STUDENT: You, like, look through it. You read the captions. You read the titles. You look at the pictures.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Bingo. You're going to come to some words you don't know.
     
STUDENT: We can use the comprehension strategies to figure them out.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Oh, my goodness! What comprehension strategies would you use to figure them out?

STUDENT: Inferring.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: I see that you guys realize that you can use a lot of these strategies mixed together.
     
DR. FORD: It was quite obvious that your students had a great awareness of the strategies. How did you build that awareness so that they're now at a point where they can use multiple strategies on a single piece of text, like that newspaper article today?

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Just by jumping in and using the district resources. They introduced me to these comprehension strategies with a booklist of books that support each strategy. I felt it was important. I just started pulling those picture books, and modeling, and using them back in October or November. Always pointing up to the posters. It can be kind of messy at the beginning. We've just kept building, building, building.
     
How about if you use the highlighter to highlight any words that you don't know, that you can't figure out. Then, you put down any questions you have, anything that you don't understand, or anything that you wonder about at the bottom and we'll come back together and discuss it.

Great strategy. Great thinking. Take little chunks.

What did you guys think? Was this too easy, just right, or too challenging?

STUDENT: Just right.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Really, just right?

STUDENT: Between too challenging and just right.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: All right, so a bit beyond your comfort level.

DR. FORD: I didn't see any signs of a basal reader. So where are you pulling your books from?

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: At Lapham, we're really fortunate to have a book room where a lot of trade books and level books are stored. Some teachers here have worked really hard to create that resource area for the entire school. Children don't go in and choose their own books, but teachers can go in and choose multiple titles at a certain level and give the kids choices that way. So it's organized by level and by content. It's really, really helpful.

I'm going to read. How about, when I get done with the first paragraph, you raise your hand if you have a question, or a comment, or a reader response to it, or a vocabulary word you didn't know, or something like that. Actually, I'm going to start with the caption, because Alise had an incredible visualization.

"An X-Ray illustrates the repair work of life-threatening injuries to the right leg of Barbaro."

Tell the visualization strategy that you used when you read that.
     
STUDENT: I could imagine it beeping. Beep, beep.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: What beeping?
     
STUDENT: The "RH" and the X-Ray going, "Beep, beep, beep" and blinking.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Have you been in a hospital before, or have you had X-Rays taken before?

STUDENT: I've seen my dad's foot being X-Ray'd.

MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Right, and so that's what helped you know about the "Beep, beep, beep."

DR. FORD: What do you do for your own professional development?
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: I'm very lucky in this district, because we get a lot of professional development support. Support from the administration, in terms of time to attend these things and to try different things, and to take some risks.
     
I also learned from lots of good resources, like "mosaic of thought" and from talking with colleagues and other teachers. Two heads, three heads, five heads are better than one, and we all make each other stronger and better by sharing.
     
"Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, underwent surgery Sunday to repair three broken bones in his right rear leg and afterward, practically jogged back to the stall, the colt surgeon said."

Any questions about that? Henry?

STUDENT: What does rear and colt mean?
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: What does rear?
     
STUDENT: Rear means like, if I went like this, these are my rear legs if I was a horse. And colt's a baby horse.
     
STUDENT: I think what he thought--I think when it happened, it was a life-threatening injury. And I think he felt bad that it happened, even though that it meant he felt like he had let down his family. So, pretty much, I bet he's thinking now my life is over.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: It's amazing to me how you go so deep into his thinking. I think that turns around and helps you become a better reader and it helps you create more mental files.

DR. FORD: We heard that one of the reasons you wanted to be involved in the project was that you were as interested in learning from others as you were sharing what it is that you can do.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Absolutely. I'm excited for the rest of the program to be finished, and to be using it, and then to be talking with other teachers and learning from other teachers, because you're never done learning as a teacher. I'm really looking forward to when the program is completed, and using the computer option with my students.

First, I want to compliment you on sticking with this. It's hot. It's hard. And you're really showing what good readers you are and how you use strategies. I'm really impressed.
     
DR. FORD: Thank you for sharing with us your class today. I know it will be a catalyst for a lot of conversations about comprehension instruction.
     
MARIA-CHRISTINA JACKSON: Thank you for coming and giving me the opportunity.