LikeToRead.com

Welcome!

Scheduling Karen

If you are here because you enjoyed my staff development... thank you! This site is designed to support you. Or, hopefully, you are interested in setting up or sustaining a proficient reader classroom. I have you in mind as I post this site as well.

Why LikeToRead?

Well, you will find a compilation of lesson plans and tips I want to share with you. I created the ideas from playing around with the proficient reader research outlined in Mosaic of Thought: Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop, now ten years old and in its 2nd edition.

When the first edition came out in 1997, the book changed my mind about teaching reading comprehension. Up until that point, I assigned reading. I admit it. I did. I thought reading was about quizzing children about the book. I took one reading course in college and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what it was about.

When I arrived at my first teaching job, my principal handed me a basal series and told me to team-teach reading with the man next door. We had to divide the children into 4 groups: high, mid high, middle and low. He would teach the high and middle. I would teach the mid high and low...to be sure we differentiated, they said. I knew nothing about metacognition...or differentiation, for that matter.

Now, years later, after reading Mosaic of Thought, I clearly got it! Authors Keene and Zimmermann helped me figure out what strategies I used to unlock meaning by putting me in the role of a reader of challenging text. The passage at the opening of each chapter forced me to analyze how I was reading (even though, if you're like me, you skipped some passages because we're just not used to reading such hard texts). Still, I learned. I started going down a very different path, one that made my students and me happier, less stressed and with less lesson planning and busy work.

Ready for Change

I came to the reading of Mosaic of Thought late in my career. Every year I had children who could read every word but not understand what they read. When they read, they looked to me for approval. Children jumped into help, but incorrectly. Children made wild predictions, not based in evidence (and sometimes, not in reality). Some of my more gifted students read only for plot and could have cared less about themes and other literary elements. Many had been left unchallenged, having only read grade-level materials.

Instead, I wanted to:

1. model how I read,
2. think along with students as they read,
3. gradually release responsibility to them so they could read independently,
4. put the work of figuring out understanding on my students,
5. get rid of activities that kept children busy but not learning to read,
6. discuss more and question less, and
7. assess each child so I could truly differentiate.

As a result, I was ready for change. I read everything I could get my hands on to help me design lessons: Strategies That Work (Harvey & Goudvis), Reading With Meaning (Debbie Miller), I Read It But I Don't Get It (Cris Tovani) and Nonfiction Matters (Harvey). I traveled to conferences and took sessions with Stephanie Harvey, Ellin Keene, Debbie Miller, Janet Allen and Harvey Daniels. Lets' face it. Before these people started writing and so willingly sharing, there was very little help out there. Thank you to these pioneers!

Luckily, now there's a proliferation of books and articles to guide us. I love to read those books and hopefully, that is how I can help you. I will take the theory and translate it into lessons so that you can envision the possibilities! I will start by modeling and then gradually release the responsibility to you.

It's 10 years later and yet in Education Leadership in 2007, college professors reported that they asked students to solve problems with no answers or complex answers. Unfortunately, the kids didn't know how. Some felt that alternative ideas were an insult to theirs. Some didn't know how to have conversations.

Basically, our students are not prepared by the programs we've had in place. Clearly, we still have more work to do. At the very least, when children leave our care, they should LikeToRead and they will if they understand what they're reading. I believe my site will help.

About Karen Haag

After earning her Masters degree from Ohio State, Karen Haag became a consultant with the National Writing Project at UNC-Charlotte in 1985. Karen taught grades 2 through college for 20 years in N.Y., Ohio and N.C. She then became a Literacy Coach for 14 years in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools and most recently, Cabarrus County Schools, N.C.

At the University of NC Charlotte, Karen found her calling as a teacher researcher. To that end, Karen interviews students and teachers, videotapes classes in action, writes about what works and needs work in her much loved daybook, and maintains this Website. In workshops and as co-chair of the Teacher Research Institute each summer, Karen encourages teachers to reflect on their classroom practices. She says, "Teacher-researcher is not a fancy title only few of us have. Every teacher who considers how to improve her classroom is a teacher researcher."

For the past 10 years, Karen has shared that research with schools in several states. Karen coaches participants to improve their teaching of writing and reading comprehension. In addition, her workshops are popular because she combines theory and practice and shares her work with participants through videotapes. She posts lessons and strategies on her websites: www.liketoread.com and www.liketowrite.com.

She is a newly published author. Karen co-wrote a Heinemann Books January 2008 release, Thinking Out Loud on Paper, Student Daybooks as a Tool for Learning.

Laying the Groundwork for Change

1. Students read for significant amounts of time and talk about what they're reading.
2. Teachers keep notebooks and show students we live literate lives. Teachers reflect on their learning and share it with each other and with students where applicable. Students see that they will use these strategies for life.
3. Set up classroom space for talking and working. Setting up a gathering space is essential for teaching reading... no matter the grade.
4. Students create their own literacy textbook for taking notes, recording their thinking in the moment, and assessing their progress (daybooks). They learn to respond to reading in ways that help them read better and prepare for life. Ask students to share their best thinking with us.
5. Teachers think aloud, modeling how to use each strategy, preferably one strategy at a time. First, teachers analyze our own reading process so that we understand what we do. Then, we think aloud our reading and writing strategies so as to model the complexity of comprehension for children.
6. Teachers share mentor texts so that children see what's possible. Choosing meaty texts is critical so that we have something to discuss and wonder about.
7. Create an environment that encourages risk-taking, questioning, and problem-solving. Teach children to recognize their questions. Provide time for asking and discussing their questions about texts.
8. As we demonstrate the proficient reader strategies, empower students to pick the right one to match the reading task at hand. Give students choice whenever possible: of text to read, how to respond, how to talk, how to use a daybook, etc.
9. Gradually release responsibility for reading to the students. First, show students how, then work together, and then ask them to use their strategies independently. Create lessons that structure that release of responsibility. It takes time.
10. Get to know each child through conferring and assessing. Grade what we value: meaningful discussion, setting goals, assessing goals, reflection, problem solving, and using reading strategies.

Going Schoolwide

1. Provide on-site inservice for teachers and assistants.
2. Encourage teachers and assistants to set personal goals.
3. Drive instruction with data from assessment. Ask students to set personal goals.
4. To get started, study a reading strategy per month to focus conversation with all staff. Use announcements, bulletin boards, meetings, and conversations in the halls to get a schoolwide conversation started.
5. Use lead teachers, reading specialists, or consultants to demonstrate lessons for your teachers and students on site.
6. Provide suggestions for lessons, collaboration ideas, and resources through a weekly newsletter.
7. Conduct book studies with staff.
8. Use closed-circuit television to show videotapes of students in action. (Optional, but helpful!)

How To Use This Site Efficiently

• Lesson Ideas: Go to the index sidebar for lesson plans and excerpts from my daybook. The daybook reflections show my breakthroughs in using the strategy.
• Little Bits: Under Newsletters, I post a weekly, 1-2 page Literacy Lead I started 15 years ago, even before Mosaic of Thought came out! Some issues are still archived there for you as well. In the year 2008, I am updating archived issues with my new learning. Look for an issue each week. Each month changes to reflect ideas for teaching a new strategy.
• Participant Downloads: If you teach at one of the schools I work with or you have attended a workshop, then I posted handouts pertinent to your situations. Please go there and use the password I shared with you. Please email me if you need something you can't find!
• Parents: Refer parents to the parent page for tips for reading with their children.