Reading in the Content Area
Debra Pagona
PAGONAD.robinson@pitt.k12.nc.us
Reading Pizza: Cooking With Comprehension Strategies Before, During
and After Reading
Goal for Demonstration: To participate in reading and writing activites that incorporate multiple
strategies for comprehending multiple types of text. I am constantly searching for ways to teach children
to become responsible for their thinking and I ask myself in what ways can I model and provide practice
for thinking in my classroom. The workshop model follows the gradual release of responsibility model
(Pearson and Gallagher 1983) seen in Chapter 1 of Miller’s book p. 10-11 with some modifications for
group work and the use of thinking partners. The workshop is run similarly to a Readers Workshop in
which we model comprehension strategies that can be modeled and practiced throughout the year in any
content area.
Workshop Schedule
1.
Teacher Modeling: Reading Pizza
2.
Guided Practice
Small groups record their thinking on a T-chart with text
on one side and real reading on the other
Share your thinking with the whole group
3.
Independent/Cooperative Practice
Thinking partners should record their real reading on
post it notes as they “share” an independently read text.
4.
Application in real reading and writing
Student participants should choose a post it note which
they discussed with their partner to draw an example of
their visual imagery and write about their real thinking/reading.
5.
Sharing what we have learned
Use jobs chart
15 minutes
10 minutes
15 minutes
10 minutes
10 minutes
Bibliograpahy
Miller, Debbie. Reading With Meaning. Stenhouse Publishers, 2002.
Miller shares techniques for teaching comprehension in the Primary Grades. Her focus on the use
of schema for making connections, mental imagery, asking questions, inferring and synthesis are
the concepts used in this demonstration.
Website: thelearningpad.net
This fabulous teacher integrates Debbie Miller’s ideas with the Fabulous Four Model of Readers
Workshop to give you what can be a year-long curriculum for reading and is easily applicable to
any content area text. She gives some of the same examples I give in the demonstration. She
uses the Reading Pizza we did today in a slightly different format. Even though this could take
you through the whole year, I’m sure your class will inspire you to move in your own directions
as yours and their schema and connections take over!
Facilitator: Debra Pagona, Tar River Writing Project
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1.
Teacher Modeling: Reading Pizza
15 minutes
Begin with a very difficult theology, physics, engineering, etc. book. Excitedly tell the
children that you have a fantastic book to read to them today. Begin reading the book with
excitement in your voice and with fluency. Ask the kids what they think of you as a reader. Do
they think you should get an A for reading?
 In a quiet whisper tell the kids you have a little secret. Explain to them that you were just
faking reading. You were reading the words, but you didn't really understand anything you read.
Sometimes I can read the words, but the words don't make sense in my head.
 Draw a book on chart paper and a head sticking out over top of it. Intersect the book and
brain much like a Venn Diagram. Label the book as text and the head as thinking. What is the
part in the middle? Once you come up with a good answer (fall back on real reading if you
don’t get a better answer), tell them that is what we will learn about today. This is how we
become better readers and writers each time we read or write.
Ask the kids how many of them like pizza. Most will say yes. How would you feel if you went
to lunch at pizza hut and the waiter brought out your pizza, but it was nothing but crust? Just
crust. No sauce, no cheese, no toppings? Readers need to have busy brains. Reading without
thinking isn't really reading.
Real reading is kind of like a pizza. The words are like the crust. But a crust by itself isn't
much of a pizza is it? What else does a pizza need? (sauce, cheese, toppings) Well those things
that make the pizza delicious are like the toppings that go on the pizza crust.
Today I am going to show you how reading is kind of like making a pizza. We are going to
make reading pizza. I have a pizza pan here that has a pizza crust on it. The crust says text
because the crust is like the text of the story. I also have these pieces of paper that are like the
toppings. They are like our thinking.
Set out the containers with the following toppings and labels for each:
Cheese = schema,
Sauce = Visual Imagery
Pepperoni =Ask questions
Olives = Infer new words
Garlic (confetti) =Determine the theme or main idea
Extra Cheese = Synthesizing our thinking or building on our schema
 I'm going to read a story. Each time we stop to think and talk about the story we will add some
toppings to our crust. Read Pete’s a Pizza by William Steig
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 Read the story, pausing to think and talk along the way. Each time you stop have a child add
a little bit of topping (teacher selected according to the strategy used and naming it) to the
reading pizza.
 When finished,explain that when you just read the words in a book and you don't think about
them or understand them then they become just words and not reading. Real readers make
reading pizza in their brains when they read by reading the words AND thinking about the
words.
When done, review the thinking strategies placed above each pizza topping and on the pizza.
2. Guided Practice: 10 minutes
Now, it’s your turn to try it out. You will break up into groups with a teacher (2-4 per group
by counting 1-3 or 1-4 depending on the number of participants). Your teacher will read aloud
from the book that your group selects.
Samples of texts provided for Guided Practice groups:
Why Do Leaves Change Colors by Betsy Maestro
Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Elhert
Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Night Sounds Morning Colors by Rosemary Wells
The Legend of the Poinsettia by Tomie dePaola
Spinning Spiders by Melvin Berger
How do Apples Grow by Betsy Maestro
From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons
The Reason for a Flower by Ruth Heller
From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer
As you read, you have permission to break the Read Aloud rule and raise your hand every
time the story makes you think of something. As a group you will fill in the T-charts (Sample on
Page 5). On the left side under text you should write the word or words from the text (may
paraphrase) that made your brain busy or made your brain think of something. Your teacher or
you (depending on ability) should write your thinking on a sticky note and place it on the right
hand side. Let me show you. Teacher will demonstrate from Pete’s a Pizza how we used a
phrase to comprehend the text and place the sticky note appropriately. Allow 10 minutes.
When time is up, go back to the Pizza Toppings/Reading Strategies. Each group should share
1-2 examples of real reading and as a whole group place the thinking onto the selected
Comprehension Strategy/Pizza Topping. If one of the strategies is not discussed, the whole
group can come up with an example together.
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3. Independent/Cooperative Practice
15 minutes
Now, you get to apply your real thinking to your own real reading. Grade level or reading
level appropriate texts will be provided by the trainer or selected by teacher participants and
student participants where appropriate. If DRA or Reading Levels are available these can be
used. Each student participant should have a partner reading using the red arrows and read from
the same text if possible. Teachers should circulate the room in order to notice student thinking.
Each reader will be provided with sticky notes. As you notice your busy brain doing some
Real Reading, you should jot down short phrases on your sticky note and place it in the text
where you did your thinking. But before you begin, you and your partner need to Activate your
Schema. In order to do that, I have written a book introduction for each set of books. Read over
the introduction (or have a teacher read it to you) and share what you already know based on
that and a quick look at the pictures you see before you begin reading. Then, go for it just like
you did with your group. You may read to yourself or with your partner. Teachers should
decide what reading style is best for each learner depending on their ability and learning style.
When you finish, discuss 1-3 of your thinking strategies by taking turns. First Partner #1,
then Partner #2, then back to Partner #1, then #2 and so on. Think about picking your favorite
examples of real thinking.
4. Application in Real Reading and Writing
10 minutes
Choose one of the favorite examples of real thinking on your post it notes and we will write
about it for the next 10 minutes. Think about what Visual Imagery came to mind before you get
started and draw that first. Think about your discussion with your partner. Did you learn
something new about yourself? Did you learn something new about the world? Did you learn a
lesson that the author wanted you to learn? Or, did you just have fun?
5. Sharing What We Learned
10 minutes
Students should share their writing (Job chart). These could be connections or schema, visual
images, questions they were asking themselves, examples of inferences, determining the main
idea or author’s purpose or of synthesizing or building on their schema. The listener’s job is to
try to name the thinking that may have inspired the writing. There are no wrong or right
answers. This may be their first time naming these thinking strategies. This is about real
thinking.
Think about it…we haven’t even learned these strategies yet and we are already using them!
All we have to do now is make ourselves think and give a name to our thinking (for now) and
model, model, model and practice, practice, practice. We can look at each strategy in isolation
and create charts and models to demonstrate the different ways our thinking can create many
different kinds of pizza…or a volcano, a new character, or even open up doors to a whole new
world!
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Real Reading Thinking Chart
Title: _____________________________________________________________
By:_______________________________________________________________
Group names:_______________________________________________________
Text
Real Reading
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