Guided Writing and Mediational Talk: Scaffolding Struggling Readers in a Multi-age Small Group Setting Lora W. Darden Fairhope, Alabama The University.

Guided Writing and Mediational Talk:

Scaffolding Struggling Readers in a Multi-age Small Group

Setting

Lora W. DardenFairhope, Alabama

The University of Texas at [email protected]

The Story Behind the Story

11 Siblings

The Story Behind the Story

6 - Public School A, B StudentsSome College

The Story Behind the Story

5 – “Home Schooled”

Functionally Illiterate

Literacy StatusPop Culture: Tobi Keith, Jessica Simpson

Literacy StatusPop Culture: Tobi Keith, Jessica SimpsonTori

Sibling Names – letters out of orderAnimal Names – letters out of order

Literacy StatusPop Culture: Tobi Keith, Jessica SimpsonTori

Sibling Names – letters out of orderAnimal Names – letters out of order

Kyle letter sound issues, reversals“m” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/“f” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/“c” - /ssssssssssss/“s” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/

Literacy StatusPop Culture: Tobi Keith, Jessica SimpsonTori

Sibling Names – letters out of orderAnimal Names – letters out of order

Kyle letter sound issues, reversals“m” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/“f” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/“c” - /ssssssssssss/“s” - /ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ ĕ/

Harry – did not know letters or sounds

The Strong (Weak) First Teach

Hangman

Truth Discovered

Oldest Sister - Oklahoma

“Tensions occur in many families at the time a child enters school. For parents and the child it is a relatively sudden change. Many parents have an inner concern about some of the difficulties they think their children could encounter. For example they may fear physical attack, or criticism of the child. Some anticipate that the home will be criticized” (Clay, 1991, p. 55).

August of 2004

Parents divorced – joint custody

August of 2004

Parents divorced – joint custody

Sacrifices in the name of schooling

August of 2004Parents divorced – joint custody

Sacrifices in the name of schooling

Children enrolled in 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 7th grades

Silent Illiteracy

•Took children shopping

•Saw interactions with environmental print (Cheerios, Tide, Oreos)

•Railroad – 4:30 am to 4:30 pm

Outdated Literacy Definitions

• Signing one’s name

• Completing 5 years of schooling

• Scoring at a certain grade level on a test of reading achievement

Literacy

“Using printed and written information to function in society, to achieve one’s goals, and to develop one’s knowledge and potential.”

- National Center for Educational Statistics

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/design/about02.asp

Prose Literacy: Understand and use information from

• Editorials (contrasting views)• News stories (locating information)• Poems (inferring a theme)• Fiction• Instructions (interpreting warranty

information)

- National Center for Educational Statisticshttp://nces.ed.gov/naal/design/about02.asp

Document Literacy: Locate and use information contained in

• Job applications & payroll forms (entering appropriate information)

• Transportation schedules, tables & graphs (choosing an appropriate bus)

• Maps (locating a particular intersection)

- National Center for Educational Statistics

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/design/about02.asp

Quantitative Literacy: Apply arithmetic operations either alone or

sequentially, using numbers embedded in print materials

• Balancing a checkbook• Figuring a tip• Completing an order form• Determining amount of interest from a

loan ad

- National Center for Educational Statisticshttp://nces.ed.gov/naal/design/about02.asp

Socio-constructivist Paradigm• Learning is a social activity

– Engaging with others– Engaging with words on a page

• Knowledge is co-constructed through talk with others engaged in common activities

• We engage in more complex thought when working with others than we are capable of alone

The Purpose in Mind…

One of the critical aims of educating children “should be the induction of children into ways of using language for seeking, sharing and constructing knowledge…” (Mercer, Wegerif, & Dawes, 1999, p. 95).

Mediational Talk

• Based on Neil Mercer’s work on guidance strategies of learners through talk (Mercer, 2000)

Mediational Talk

• Mercer identified three types of talk found in learning interactions– Cumulative – building positively, but

uncritically

– Exploratory – reasoning is visible, knowledge is made public, partners engage critically but constructively with one another’s ideas

– Disputational – disagreements, individual decision making

The Power of Mediational Talk

• Based on Neil Mercer’s work on guidance strategies of learners through talk (Mercer, 2000)

• Students used humor and gentle teasing to encourage one another and build a sense of community

Guided Writing

Gradual Release of Responsibility

Low Support Construction of Ideas

High SupportConventions of Written Language

Obligation to Family & Authentic Literacy

Time to be together

Commitment to engage in real life literate activities

Opportunities to connect home lives with school

Mediational Strategies

• Supporting one another at home (“doing school”) & choosing to engage in literacy

• Adding to their natural teaching abilities developed in “ranch life”

• Providing each other with scaffolding strategies

Grade Level Concepts1st Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade

•Letter/sound knowledge

•Vowel patterns

•Sentence boundaries

•Flexibility in writing

•Conventions of writing (capitalization and punctuation

•Peer editing and revision

•Heavier emphasis on conventional spelling and proofreading

•Writer’s craft

•Word choices

•Sophisticated sentence construction

•Stylistic devices

Guided Writing• Large chart paper or Smart Board

(visible to all)

Guided Writing• Large chart paper or Smart Board (visible

to all)

• Different color marker for each person (facilitates record keeping – which person contributes what – teacher uses separate color)

Guided Writing• Large chart paper or Smart Board (visible

to all)

• Different color marker for each person (facilitates record keeping which person contributes what – teacher uses separate color)

• Practice paper so each person can try it out

Early Practice Page

Advanced Practice Page

Guided Writing

• Large chart paper or Smart Board (visible to all)

• Different color marker for each person (facilitates record keeping which person contributes what – teacher uses separate color)

• Practice paper so each person can try it out

• Message constructed by children – common experience or research project

Opportunities for Mediational Language Use

• Practice pages

1st Grader – End of Year

Opportunities for Mediational Language Use

• Practice pages

• Comparing alternatives with one another

3rd & 4th Grader – End of Year

Opportunities for Mediational Language Use

• Practice pages

• Comparing alternatives with one another

• Scaffolding through magnetic letters

Magnetic Letter Scaffolding

w h e r e

eerwh

•Checked in text

•Scrambled and unscrambled

•Covered and written

Opportunities for Mediational Language Use

• Practice pages

• Comparing alternatives with one another

• Scaffolding through magnetic letters

• Letter, transition, and sound boxes

Elkonin BoxesD.B. Elkonin – Russian Psychologist

sheepsound boxes

transition boxes

letter boxes

sh ee p

s h e e p

s h e e p

Opportunities for Mediational Language Use

• Practice pages

• Comparing alternatives with one another

• Scaffolding through magnetic letters

• Letter, transition, and sound boxes

• Students always write from own lives – shared storytelling experiences

The Power of Mediational Talk

• Students made available to one another strategies they brought from their respective classrooms

• Students began to take on and use the same meta-language that had been modeled for them during the lessons

The Power of Mediational Talk

• All three siblings held different “power positions” throughout the sessions, sharing strengths and areas of expertise with one another

• Humor was used to challenge one another to complete tasks that would have been impossible several months earlier

Tori: What are we going to write for this story? Kyle: I don’t know. Come on, let’s go.Harry: [snickering at his brother and sister for not being able to make a decision] Kyle: I don’t know. Come on, tell us. [This comment is NOT being directed toward me.]

Exploratory Talk

Tori: I think mine is good because we started out with, “Three weeks after that…” L: Well, I mean, tell us, tell us why that adds to the story.

Tori: It’s like we just got home. We just wrote about when we just got home, and then we need to tell about three weeks after we got home, Harry found a name.

Kyle: Three weeks after…

L: What do you think though, about… what she’s bringing up is when you first read this, this, Harry, this tells that you were at Gina’s house and she brought you back, so this tells what happens right when you got home, but the information she wrote about reminds the reader now that well this isn’t happening right when we got home, it’s happening three weeks later. Does she have a good point?

Kyle & Harry: Yes [sounding almost remorseful]

Kyle: You like 3 and Harry likes 3

Kyle: Three week [he’s drawing attention to the fact she left the –s off weeks]Tori: It doesn’t matter [said very matter-of-factly] because I was going to just write a and then I remembered in the story.Tori: Do you know how to spell weeks Harry?

Milestones

• The children and I talked, and their goal is to be upstairs and reading by 7:40. They have agreed to get off the bus and go their separate ways in the hallway and then meet upstairs together. If you happen to see them traveling together in the hallway, it would be wonderful if you would “gently” encourage them to do so.

Milestones

Celebration for Kyle 11-30-04Celebration! During author's chair for anyone who

wishes to share what they wrote in their journal Kyle read!

This is a first. It was only one sentence but he was eager to read it and did a great job.

Marie12-03-04Trayce called and put Harry on the phone… first

100 on a spelling test!

Milestones

• 1-04-05 We went to the library to check out “chapter books” for Tobi and Tyler and Hart checked out 4 Margaret Hillert books to read with me in the mornings.

The Eloquence of a Father

• Heightened sense of responsibility

• Work ethic on ranch– There is always time to do the job right. We will

help you if you need it, but it will be done well.– Strategic modeling and opportunities to make

mistakes under supportive environment

• Honoring work ethic– You have made me so proud of you! What you

have done is the true definition of a gentleman. You have worked day in and out to accomplish a very difficult task. Although you are not where you hoped to be, you gave it your all.

My joy rests in sitting back and watching the magic unfold. Before me, squirming excitedly, more out of their seats than in, are three readers and writers who are very different people than the ones I met over a year ago. To quote their father, who knows them better than almost anyone…

“They entered your school in a bewildered state of mind, with nothing to their advantage other than the hunger for the wisdom you had to share with them… Within their first few months under your guidance and care, I witnessed a significant change in each of them. Their doubts and uncertainties slowly dissipated before my eyes. Replaced with Confidence, Self-esteem and Enthusiasm. Not only did I witness the change in their school work, but in their overall activities as well. The negatives of the subconscious mind being replaced with Positive thoughts is an action no parent should ever take for granted.”

Resources

Cashdan, A. (1976) ‘Who teaches the child to read.’ In J. Merrit, New Horizons in Reading (pp. 80-85).Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Clay, M. (1991). Becoming literate: The construction of inner control. Hong Kong: Heinemann.Clay, M. (1993). Reading recovery: A guidebook for teachers in training. Hong Kong: Heinemann. Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G.S. (1996). Guided reading: Good first teaching for all children. Portsmouth, NH:Heinemann.Fountas, I. & Pinnell, G.S. (2001). Guiding readers and writers grades 3-6: Teaching comprehension, genre,and content literacy. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Gibbs, J. (2001). Tribes (TLC): A new way of learning and being together. Windsor, CA: Center Source

Systems.Gregory, E. (2002). Sibling support. Literacy Today, (7)31, 22. Gregory, E. (2004). ‘Invisible’ teachers of literacy: collusion between siblings and teachers in creating

classroom cultures. Literacy, 38(2), 97-105. Mercer, N. (2000). Words and minds: How we use language to think together. New York: Routledge.Mercer, N., Wegerif, R., & Dawes, L. (1999). Children’s talk and the development of reasoning in the classroom. British Educational Research Journal, 25, 95-111. National Center for Educational Statistics (1992). National Assessment of Adult Literacy. December 6, 2005,

http://nces.ed.gov/naal/design/about02.asp Pahl, K. & Kelly, S. (2005). Family literacy as a third space between home and school: Some case studies of

practice, Literacy, July 2005, 91-96Pavri, S., Bentz, J., Bradley, J., & Corso, L. (2005) ‘Me amo leer’ reading experiences in a central illinois

summer migrant education programme. Language, Literture, and Curriculum, 18(2), pp. 154-165Williams, A. & Gregory, E. (2001). Siblings bridging literacies in multilingual contexts. Journal of research in

reading, (24) 3, pp. 248-265.