Overall Program

P R R E E Explication

Download a PDF version of the Explication.

Prepare

Word Wall
The teacher can hang a large sheet of butcher paper on a classroom wall and divide it alphabetically.
There are three kinds of word walls.

1. High frequency words to assist struggling readers.
2. Content-area word walls: important words related to a unit of study.
3. Literature word wall: interesting, confusing, and important words from a story the class is reading.

Quick Write
A strategy that students use as they write in journals and for other types of impromptu writing. Students reflect on what they know about a topic, ramble on paper, generate words and ideas, and make connections among the topics. Students write for 5 to 10 minutes and let their thoughts flow without focusing on mechanics or revisions.
Students can do quick writes for a variety of purposes in several steps of the reading process.

• To activate background knowledge before reading.
• As an entry for reading logs.
• To define or explain a word on the word wall.
• About the theme of a story.
• About a favorite character.

Metacognate (metacognitive processes)
Metacognition is the students' awareness of their thinking.
Readers monitor and evaluate their comprehension and use problem-solving strategies to read and write and effectively problem solve.
Involves predicting, visualizing, organizing, tapping prior knowledge, self-questioning.
Example: The teacher models reading strategies by "thinking aloud" as he reads aloud. The teacher provides information about literacy strategies in mini-lessons. Students apply the strategies as they read and write. The teacher can also ask students to reflect on their use of strategies during a reading or writing conference.

Read

Read Aloud
The teacher reads aloud, modeling how good readers read fluently and with expression. Often books too difficult for students to read themselves are used.
Read Alouds provide an opportunity for the teacher to think aloud about their use of reading strategies (metacognate).
Read Alouds are an important activity because students listen to a story read aloud and respond to the story together as a community of learners, not as individuals.

Choral Reading
An example of interactive reading.
Students take turns reading lines of a poem or sections of a passage.

Shared Reading "Popcorn Reading"
Can be used to read chapter books when the books are too difficult for students to read independently.
The teacher distributes copies of books to all students.
Students who want to read and are fluent enough to keep the reading meaningful volunteer to read as others follow along.

Round Robin
No longer recommended for several reasons:

• If students are going to read aloud, they should be able to read fluently.
• When less capable students read, their reading is difficult to listen to and embarrassing to them.
• During round-robin reading, students often only follow along just before it is their turn to read.
• Often tedious and boring and students lose interest.

Respond

Reading Logs
Students write their initial responses to the books they are reading.
Students write reactions to the story, making personal and literary connections.

Double Entry Journals
A kind of reading log.
Students divide their journal pages into 2 columns.
In the left column, students write quotes from the story (or informational book) they are reading.
In the right column, they reflect on each quote.
They may relate a quote to their own lives, react to it, write a question, or make some other comment.

K W L Charts
Teachers use K W L charts during content-area units.
K - What we Know
W - What we Want to know
L - What we Learned
The teacher introduces the K W L chart at the beginning of a content-area unit and uses the chart to activate the students' background knowledge and identify interesting questions.
The teacher posts a large sheet of butcher paper, dividing it in 3 columns, labeling the columns K-W-L.
The teacher asks the students to brainstorm what they know about the topic.
The teacher writes the questions that students suggest.
At the end of the unit, students brainstorm a list of information they have learned. Students do not have to try to answer each question in the W column.

Explore

Open-Mind Portrait
Open-Mind portraits are used to help students think more deeply about a character and reflect on story events from the character's viewpoint.
Portraits have 2 parts: the face of the character is on 1 page and the mind of the character is on the 2nd page.

1. Make a portrait of the character.
2. Cut out the portrait and open-mind pages.
3. Design the mind pages.
4. Share the completed open-mind portraits.

Graphic Organizers
Teachers and students make a variety of diagrams and charts to examine the structure of stories they are reading.
Example:

Beginning-Middle-End charts

Character cluster chart to examine the traits of a main character.

Venn diagrams to compare book and film versions of a story or for other comparisons.

Plot profiles to chart the tension in each chapter of a chapter book.

Sociograms to explore the relationships among characters.

Clusters to probe the theme, setting, genre, author's style, or other dimensions of the story.

Extend

Reader's Theatre
A dramatic reading of a script by a group of students.
Students assume roles and rehearse reading the script.
During rehearsals, students practice reading a particular character's lines in the script and interpret the story without using much action.
They communicate the mood and theme by using their voices, gestures, and facial expressions.
Then students give a performance of a script for a group of classmates or another audience.

Discussion Questions for a P R R E E Lesson