Knowledge and Reading: What Happens to 4th Grade Readers Who Struggle & Positive Role of Robust Reading Aloud

I was reading Gina Cervetti and Freddy Hiebert's article, Knowledge, Literacy and the Common Core, (Language Arts, 92 (4), 256-269) and thought a lot about the fourth grade children I have been working with who are in the middle of a study of Greek mythology and how their increasing knowledge of myths helps them to learn more about mythology and to read increasingly challenging texts. As Luis and others in the class have told me, we're Greek mythology experts.

In the article, Cervetti and Hiebert argue well that knowledge and comprehension are synergistically related and do so by providing four claims that are all research-supported.  Specifically, they find:

1. "...knowledge of the topic has been found to influence comprehension" (p. 257).
2. "...general world knowledge, not simply topic- or domain-specific knowledge associated with a text has also been found to aid comprehension" (p.257).
3. "...knowledge supports inferring and higher-level comprehension processes, not simply remembering information from a text" (p. 258).
4. "...while knowledge aids comprehension for all students, having a knowledge base can be particularly beneficial for students with lower levels of reading skill...Knowledge about a topic can compensate for reading skills" (p. 259).

Whereas all of these statements are interesting, it is the last claim that most interests me as I think about some of the students and how reading aloud first followed by small group comprehension conversations has proved valuable. In the design of the unit, we privileged reading a variety of Greek myths aloud first, along with independent reading (managed choice of texts) before beginning small group comprehension conversations. As I was modeling for teachers the process for comprehension conversations, I worked with the highest performing readers in the class in one group and the most struggling readers in a separate group. The text I had selected for the children who most often struggle as readers was Joan Holub's The One-Eyed People Eaters: The Story of Cyclops. The text has a lexile level of 400 and also is coded as a guided reading text level K (beginning of second grade). The four students in the group (2 boys and 2 girls) have a history of reading difficulty and all receive special education services.

Comprehension Conversations

A comprehension conversation is a scaffolded method for guiding students' reading.  Students read a text or portion of a text and write answers to a few questions the teacher has prepared. This helps the teacher to ascertain the children's understanding of the text and to prepare for the conversation she or he will have with students. Specifically, the teacher prepares factual, inferential, and when appropriate critical questions for students to answers and then reads the students' responses prior to meeting with them. The student responses help the teacher to determine the content of the conversation, by seeing how well students understood the factual aspects of the text and more inferential understandings. Some questions that help are:

1. What did the children understand about what actually happened in the text? Did anything disrupt this understanding? What are my theories?
2. When asked to infer, to what end were children able to do this?  Did anything disrupt this understanding? What are my theories?
3. When asked to think critically across a text, were children able to do this?  Did anything disrupt this understanding? What are my theories?

Based on the interpretation of students' answers, the teacher then crafts an engagement with the students that will help to explicate the areas of comprehension strengths and challenges the students showed. Usually, I want to anchor a group's reading of a text before engaging in a such a conversation. In this case, I wanted to make sure the children could actually manage the reading before setting them out to read and respond to a few questions. 

The children's significant knowledge of different Greek myths and how they are related has impressed me as I've worked with this small group. Their knowledge of Odysseus allows them to understand the Holub book with greater ease.  Although they had not read about the Cyclops and how Odysseus outsmarts it, they did know about Odysseus, the Battle of Troy and the Trojan Horse.  So when Holub's book opens, we are met with a tired Odysseus who is making his way home after the Fall of Troy. The children's understanding of the text at a factual level allowed me to set a task for them that would help me to see how they inferred about Odysseus based on his actions and dialogue.

Tomorrow, I'll try out the charts with students and then use what they generate to inform the conversation we have on Friday.  In addition, I'll be sharing a collage by Romare Bearden, The Cyclops from his work, Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey, so we can discuss how Bearden portrays the Cyclops.

Romare Bearden's Cyclops.

4th Graders Wanting to Learn More = Productive Learning

I. And What Do You Mean By Learning?

I know the learning is going well when I top the staircase and enter into the hallway and from the distance of a city street I can hear the children's voices in Mr. Watson's class.  As I enter the classroom, this is what I see:

Purposeful Learning in Grade 4

Some students are illustrating myths, others are creating a comic series, Mr. Watson is engaged with a small group, while other students record a myth and on and on and on. The atmosphere in this 4th grade classroom in Newark, NJ is joyful, purposeful, and appropriate for children.

Earlier tonight during a Twitter chat, I had reason to mention Seymour Sarason's book, And What Do You Mean by Learning? Sarason defines learning as either being productive or not.  In the preface of the text, he writes:  

Learning is not a thing it is a process...And by productive, I mean that the learning process is one that engenders and reinforces wanting to learn more. Absent wanting to learn, the learning context is unproductive or counterproductive. Is it not noteworthy that the word or concept of learning probably has the highest of all word counts in the diverse literature in education and yet when people are asked what they mean by learning they are taken aback, stammer or stutter, and come up with a sentence or two which they admit is vague and unsatisfactory? (ix-x)

Mr. Watson reading aloud today in 4th Grade.

The children in this classroom want to learn more and do so.  Mr. Watson, his students, and I are exploring Greek myths by listening to texts being read aloud, reading myths in small (un)guided groups, independently reading written, audio, and visual texts, and doing lots and lots of talking, drawing, and writing. The children do this with and without their teachers. They use resources found in their classroom and at home to deepen their understanding of mythology and often to answer questions they pose as they learn.  I noticed today that squirreled away in their desks are books they are reading about myths, mythological creatures, plays, comics, cartoons, histories and more. Given that we usually work in a 2 to 3-hour block and the children do not seem to tire even a little--I know the work matters simply because they want to learn more. 

II. Reading Greek Myths

For the last week I have had the privilege to teach Dionni, Antoine, Luis and Kamila--all of whom are fourth graders in this public school classroom.  These children, like their classmates, are capable and motivated to read a Nathaniel Hawthorne text as all things Greek mythology are of interest. Their teacher has engendered a desire on the part of the children to want to learn more. There's not a child in the room who isn't turned on. Way turned on.

I like to think of the small group work I do with the children as being (un)guided. I call it (un)guided to suggest that the teaching is neither guided nor unguided, but rather both guided and unguided. I'm always looking for a space in the work we compose where I can bow out and the kids can take over. We shuffle control back and forth as needed. So it's not unusual that earlier today I found myself smiling as I realized I could sit back further in my seat and listen when Dionni said to the other 3 in her group, "There's one thing I've been thinking about that I just don't get. Why didn't Ceres just use her powers to find her daughter?" 

It's the command and tone that lets me know Dionni is on to something she values. We are at the midpoint of Hawthorne's story, The Pomegranate Seeds, which is his retelling of Demeter and Persephone that he published in 1853.  It's a challenging text.  Today it will be Antoine who will help us explore Dionni's question as he uses an example from his Minecraft play to help us contextualize why Ceres' powers cannot help her to find Proserpina.

Antoine tells us:

One time when I was playing Minecraft I used a portal and got transported to the Netherworld.  It's all lava there--like what I think Pluto's Underworld is like.  Anyway, the portal got damaged, it got shot, and I was stuck there for awhile. I had to make do with what was there. I couldn't use anything I had back in my chests. Finally, I  found a way out of the Netherworld by fixing the portal. You see what I mean? That's what it's like for Ceres. Her power works on Earth, but not in Pluto's Underworld. She can't use her powers to find Proserpina. That's why she's so upset. She's pretty powerless.

Dionni who is also a Minecrafter catches on immediately. "I get it.  She can speed up crops on Earth, get the animals to help, but she can't use those powers to help Proserpina because she's already in the Underworld with Pluto. It's like she doesn't have a Portal to get there or to get her power there."

"That's why Hawthorne says she's sad and anxious," says Luis reminding us of a section from the text we had just reread.

"Could you read that section to us?" asks Dionni.

He reads: "And when they saw only a sad and anxious woman, with a torch in her hand and a wreath of withered poppies on her head, they spoke rudely, and sometimes threatened to set the dogs upon her."

"And she's a goddess and she expects her power to work and it isn't," adds Kamila.

"She's so ungoddess-like. The people in the palace want to set the dogs on her. That's not what she's used to," adds Dionni.

"I also notice the poppies which were fresh at the start of the story are now wilted, kind of like her  spirit," I add.


III. Why This All Matters

"I think we should read on," Kamila tells the group and they chat briefly, deciding to read the next few pages and determining a stopping point. They're used to taking charge and do so. A few minutes later, a music teacher arrives and it seems that everyone has forgotten that today is music.  There's a bit of a clamor as the children put away their books, roll up drawings, and leave the classroom. Mr. Watson and I are seated at a table in the room when the one remaining child, Xavier, whom I don't know well, makes his way to the table.

"Hey, you think I could be an expert tomorrow?" he asks his teacher. "I'm gettin' this Greek mythology." 

"Yeah, show us your stuff," Mr. Watson tells him.

"Yeah, I got stuff to show," he says with a certain pride before turning and leaving the room.

The child is fairly new to the city, the school and the classroom and he's got stuff to show. Thankfully he's landed in a place where that matters, where we're not confused about what we mean when we talk about learning.

BTW, I've blogged about this experience in these other two posts: 

• The Power of Reading Aloud & Comprehension Conversations in Grade 4
• Noticing: 4th Graders & Literary Language & Techniques

Noticing: 4th Graders & Literary Language & Techniques

4th graders participating in comprehension conversation

I've been thinking about the logic that aligns content taught through whole class read aloud with small group comprehension conversations. Most of the times, this logic feels solid--but as is true for most situations there are, of course, exceptions.  I was thinking about this the other day when I met again with the four fourth graders who are in the middle of reading Nathaniel Hawthorne's retelling of the Persephone myth, The Pomegranate Seeds. The students were at the point in the story when Pluto had stolen Proserpina and carried her off in his chariot and they had arrived in his kingdom, the Underworld.

The students are keen to retell the text and do so with great integrity.  But their noticings are largely about plot. I want to introduce them to other literary elements and techniques, such as symbolism, personification, and diction and how these (in)form meaning. For example, when the narrator describes the River Lethe, I want the students to notice Hawthorne's diction and speculate about possible meanings the river might have. I want them to be stopped by the language and to allow themselves to not know and to wonder.

Sometimes, I tell them, I'm unsure why a passage might be significant, but the language stops me nonetheless. At these times, I'm not trying to understand the plot, but rather I'm noticing the author's language, diction, choice of words. I trust stopping and rereading even if I'm not sure why I'm doing so. Often I'll talk with my husband about the section of the text I think is important and that I just don't understand. Talking it out helps. That's one reason why you are working together in a group so you can talk to each other.  Let me show you what I mean. Let's take a closer look at the scene when Pluto and Proserpina come to the River Lethe. 

I read the text aloud as the children follow along. I want them to hear the words, not merely see them.

Screenshot of Page.  

The students notice what most advances the plot. They comment that Proserpina has been taken from her mother and is not of a mind to ever forget her, while Pluto would like nothing more. What gets lost in this reading is the River Lethe, Hawthorne's description of it, and what the river might symbolize. I get this. I know how familiar it is to ignore what doesn't seem to fit in to our understanding of the text,

Take a look again at just the first paragraph where Hawthorne describes the River Lethe. What strikes you here? I ask.
Well the stream's really dark cause Proserpina says she's never seen anything like it, begins Kamila.
It's torpid. That means it's inactive, says Antoine as he reads the definition on the page and I comment that using the information, like word explanations, is smart.
Yeah, it seems stuck, adds Dionni.
Stuck? What makes you say that? I ask.
Here in this section, Dionni says pointing to a line in the text.
Go ahead and read that, please. Let's lean in and listen, I say to Antoine, Luis and Kamila.
Dionni begins to read, "...it moved as sluggishly as if it had quite forgotten which way it ought to flow, and had rather stagnate than flow either one way or the other." See the stream doesn't know which way to flow.
Does that strike you as unusual?
It's as if the stream has a mind, says Dionni.
The river is also blank, offers Kamila.
What do you mean? asks Luis.
It's empty. It's zero. It's a river of nothing.
Yeah I see that. A river of nothing. Pluto says he'll give her water from the river so she can forget. The river takes away, adds Luis. It makes you forget.
If Proserpina loses all of her memories of her life before being taken to the Underworld, what does she have left? I ask.
Nothing. Like the river, says Kamila.
Dionni, before you said the river had a mind. What were you thinking about that?
It didn't know which way to go. Like a person, Dionni explains.
Wow, that's good noticing. Hawthorne personifies the river. In literature, the River Lethe is also known as the river of forgetfulness. In order for shades, people who have died, to enter into the Underworld they had to first drink from the river so that they forget their earthly life.
Wait, that's what Pluto wants, says Luis with some urgency. It's not just her mother she'll forget. It's everything.
She'll be dead. She has to die, adds Antoine.
I take a moment to let those last thoughts linger before I say to the children, As you continue to read see if there are other descriptions by Hawthorne that make you take notice--that stop you. Don't worry about understanding those sections right away. Try reading the section aloud so you can hear it. That helps me a lot. 

In working with the students I realized that the difficulty of the text, especially Hawthorne's diction and his use of figurative language, allusion, and symbolism make many of the lessons learned during read aloud not easy to apply.  The students have read and identified symbolism and personification before. Yet, because these students are reading such a challenging text, the instruction during the small group work requires more support as application of lessons learned doesn't translate directly. Further, the quality of the literary text they are reading opens opportunities to learn content not prescribe at their grade level.  So far we have discussed reliable and unreliable narrators, omniscient narration, allusion, symbolism, and diction.  As I work with these students I am understanding how important the small group comprehension conversation is.

Writing Well Begins With Critical Reading: Talking Back to Scripted Programs

Pandora Story Map Based on Kimmell Version of the Myth

I. Greek Mythology Unit Designed by Teachers

For the last few weeks I have been working with a group of fourth grade teachers.  We co-designed a unit of study focusing on Greek Mythology that embedded reading, writing, speaking-listening, and language standards throughout the unit. Students had the opportunity and responsibility to listen to, read and view Greek myths--and to respond to those texts through discussion and writing. 

Through interactive read aloud with an emphasis on critically retelling and vocabulary development, and through guided reading that privileged comprehension conversations students read deeply.  They also engaged in shared, guided, and independent writing. Students were able to demonstrate a keen understanding of what they heard, read, and viewed through their whole class, small group and partner discussions and their writings.  Students heard, read and viewed multiple versions of each myth (print, visual arts, and video). This allowed them to compare versions and to complicate their understanding. This critical reading work represented the foundation that students' writings rested upon.


II. Anchoring What Is Heard/Viewed/Read

In order to anchor what was heard, viewed, and read--students created different types of story maps in response to the read aloud texts, such as the two Pandora story maps pictured here.  To analyze the myths, students first needed to be able to retell the story accurately.  It is impossible to analyze a text well if literal understanding is absent or faulty. Therefore, students with the help of their teachers, created a story map for each text. Teachers began this process by having students retell the myth. A deep retelling included:

Pandora Story Map Based on Burleigh/Colon Version of the Myth

1. Retell what happened.
2. Why it happened
3. The effect on the characters’ mental state
4. Be able to emphasize connections between earlier and later parts in the story.
5. Retell with emphasis on character insight, touching on genre-specific elements and attempting to use the vocabulary or figurative language used in the text.

They also created character analysis anchor charts focusing on explicating indirect methods of characterization by naming and then analyzing what a character does, thinks, and says and then asking what might be inferred.  For example, when studying the Pandora myth, the class created an anchor chart. They named Pandora's actions, thoughts and speech and then analyzed what might be inferred. What did Pandora's actions, thoughts, and speech reveal about her character? This work allowed them to later step into the character in response to a writing task (see below).

III. Writing Rests on Reading

After studying two or more versions of the Pandora story (read aloud and guided reading), students responded to the prompt pictured below by writing a narrative that continues the story.

First major writing task in the mythology unit.

Attempting to enter into the myth at the point depicted in the visual art required students to read the painting, to consider the two or more versions of the story they had read, and to think about the inferences they had made in order to craft a believable text. I want to emphasize that no graphic organizers were used or needed during the writing because students deeply understood the myth.  Instead of some formula to guide their writing, students rested their work on what they had read and analyzed. By critically reading, discussing and writing they had already walked in Pandora's shoes. Because students had so closely studied different versions of the myth and had analyzed the characters--their responses were well grounded.

Standard W.4.9a asks students "to draw evidence from literary texts to support analysis, reflection, and research." Specifically, students are asked to "[a]pply grade 4 Reading standards to literature (e.g., “Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text [e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions].”).  To do this well, students needed to use their knowledge of Pandora through the analyses they had done, drawing on specific details from one or more versions of the myth in order to extend the story.  Let's look closely at how one student did this.

IV. Studying One Student's Writing

Below is an example of one student's response (Catherine Esteves) from Jacqueline Peguero's fourth grade classroom in Newark, NJ.   Notice how the details Catherine crafts fits with the tone of the myth and re-establishes a credible setting ("Darkness circled around me..."). Notice how Catherine uses story language ("Then I sank into a deep sleep.") to forward the narrative. Notice her diction ("bat-like creatures hurrying," "ropes loosened") and the blend of narration and dialogue to forward the plot.  In Catherine's guided reading work she read Nathaniel Hawthorne's story, The Paradise of Children, and we can see how she borrows from Hawthorne's retelling of Pandora by having Epimetheus assume some of the blame for releasing evil into the world, as well. She also draws from the painting by Gerhartz by referencing the flowers. Yet she doesn't merely mimic what she has read or viewed for in Catherine's version she couples together the goodness of the world by having Love, Kindness, Grace and Caring (to name but a few) join Hope--thereby resettling the world. As Catherine has learned through reading, she closes her version of the myth with a statement to her reader: Remember, good will always be stronger and have more power than bad. We sense the author behind the work.

Page 1 from Catherine's writing.

Page 2 from Catherine's writing.

Through diction and character action, Catherine crafts a believable and controlled piece of writing that helps us to understand the painting and the written myths more fully. 

V. When Teachers Author

I have had the pleasure of working as an external consultant with Jackie and her colleagues (Waleska Burgos and John Feinstein) for the last few years.  In a conversation with Jackie a week ago she mentioned that her students' parents were commenting on how much their children were enjoying the mythology unit.  Jackie said that what surprised her the most was that parents had nothing to say during the Expeditionary Learning module they had done earlier in the year and that made her wonder how well that work had been received. 

When teachers author academic studies they can better respond to what emerges as well as build from one portion of the year to the next and from year to year. We had decided to write our own unit in order to replace an Expeditionary Learning (EL) module as the teachers and I thought that the EL work was not sturdy enough academically (especially with regard to writing and deep analysis), nor could a unit made by another in an earlier time and place be responsive to emerging academic and social needs and strengths we saw occurring with the children. We also wanted to ensure that students continued to explore mythology. 

Kindergarten children at these schools are listening to folk tales through read alouds and beginning in first grade students begin reading traditional literature in guided reading. These reading efforts are supported through read aloud units in grades 1, 2, and 3. In first grade, children are introduced to cautionary tales (Red Riding Hood versions), fables and tall tales in grade 2, and in grade 3 they study mythology generated by indigenous people. These earlier works set the stage for the work being conducted in grade 4. Alongside this work, teachers in earlier grades are able to help students respond to text through whole class shared writing and through guided practice during guided reading.  For example, in Suzanne Capuano's second grade I taught a small group of struggling reader last week. I taught the group in response to a concern Suzanne raised about the children's reading. She said that she noticed that the children were having difficulty remembering what they were reading during retelling. By identifying a learning challenge, Suzanne set the stage for us to problem solve.

During guided reading, I asked the students to respond to a Red Riding Hood story by charting the actions of the wolf or Red Riding Hood. The children read the text first and then during a rereading of the text, they partnered and completed the chart with guidance (see below). 

One of the teachers (grades 1, 2 an 3 teachers viewed) observing the lesson said that what was most notable was that the children's confidence increased  as did the lateral discussion that happened as the children worked through the text. The children knew they were successful, no gold star was necessary. 

Children in this class learned to think about what a character does and says during earlier read aloud units when their teacher created anchor charts that helped students to think about what a character says and does and what we infer based on those actions and speech. I built on that knowledge. Students also have daily opportunities to interpret what characters say as is evidence below in a second grader's response to a read aloud about Sonia Sotomayor.

Christopher's response to a quote from Jonah Winter's book about Sonia Sotomayor.

Christopher interprets through writing and drawing the quote: "Success comes to those who make the most of the chances they are offered in life."   He wisely tells us: "When you get chances that can change your life take risks. If you can't take (a) chance you might not succeed."

VI. Risk Taking

The weave among read aloud, guided and independent reading, and writing is critical and needs to be designed and organized by teachers who are working with children in the here and now--not by corporations who mass produce units of study and distributed them like cheap pens. We all ought to worry when we see teachers being confined to enacting scripted programs, not simply because the programs may or may not be lacking, but more importantly authoring is a critical and necessary practice for teaching and learning. At the schools where Jackie, Waleska, John and Suzanne work they are provided with the professional respect by their leadership to think, design, and redesign. Excellence does not come by handing teachers already completed units of study and limiting them to merely enacting them. This is a grave error.  We need to follow Christopher's advice and take risks.  'Fool' proofing curriculum is an epic failure.