Best Practices in Content Reading
TEACHING A THINKING
APPROACH FOR READING
COMPREHENSION
A Presentation by Dea Conrad-Curry
Your Partner in Education
www.partnerinedu.com
dconrad@ilstu.edu
NAME ______________________ TEXT ______________________ PAGES _______ DATE _______
Admit
Before the session begins,
circle the best answer.
Yes
No
Not Sure
Yes
No
Not Sure
Yes
No
Not Sure
Yes
No
Not Sure
Yes
No
Not Sure
Admit & Exit Slip
Exit
At the session’s end, circle
the best answer.
1. The reading process is the same whether reading a
newspaper, a novel, a biology book, or a historical analysis.
Notes__________________________________
Yes
2. The same reading strategies can be used in all types of print
text.
Notes___________________________________
Yes
3. Graphic organizers are tools to help students understand the
comprehension process and as such are means to an end and
not an end in themselves.
Notes___________________________________
Yes
4. Reading comprehension is based more on what the reader
bring to the text than what the author provides in the text.
Notes___________________________________
Yes
5. Group activities are not beneficial to improving reading
comprehension because reading is a solitary act of listening to
one’s inner voice and blocking out distraction.
Yes
No
Not Sure
No
Not Sure
No
Not Sure
No
Not Sure
No
Not Sure
Notes___________________________________
Yes
No
Not Sure
6. Teaching students appropriate highlighting skills is goal of
active reading.
Notes___________________________________
© 2009 Partner in Education
Yes
No
Not Sure
2
What is Reading?
 to understand the meaning and grasp the full
sense of (such mental formulations) either with
or without vocal reproduction
 to go over or become acquainted with or get
through the contents of (as a book, magazine,
newspaper, letter) by reading : PERUSE
 to have such knowledge of …as to be able to
read with full understanding
From Merriam Webster Unabridged Dictionary
http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/cgibin/unabridged-tb?book=Third&va=Reading
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Neuroscience informs
Reading instruction
THE BRAIN SEEKS
UNDERSTANDING BY
CONNECTING NOVEL OR NEW
INPUT TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE
Reading Strategies or Skills?
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Predicting
Self-monitoring
Confirming
Elaborating
Connecting
Reflecting
Summarizing
Inferring
Visualizing
Questioning


QAR
Self Questioning
 Surveying
 Activating Prior Knowledge
 Identifying Key Words
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Clarifying
Rereading
Finding & Using Context
Clues
Restating
Drawing Conclusions
Setting a Purpose
Evaluating
Skimming/Scanning
Think Aloud
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The Inner Conversation
Teaching students through
“think aloud” modeling to
 become aware of their thinking as they read
 monitor their understanding and keep track of meaning
 listen to the voice in their head
 notice when they stray away from thinking about the text
 notice when meaning making breaks down
 detect obstacles to understanding
 understand and be able to select a strategy that will help
repair meaning , maintain meaning, and further
understanding
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What process does your brain follow in order
to determine whether it can identify the
meaning of the word “rouge”?
Fast Mapping & Extended Mapping
(Carey 1978)
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What process is your brain
following in determining the
meaning of the word “amis”?
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Productive Thinking: 3-Part Activity
Step 1
Step 2
In my Head
 Generate a list of as
many ideas pertaining to
a prompt—no idea is a
bad idea
 Aim for 12- 15 ideas
as students become
more proficient with the
process
 Keep in mind some
topics may limit or
extend the possibilities

Set a time limit for
the thought process—1
minute to 1 ½ minutes
Step 3
With a Partner
Whole Class
Designate the
spokesperson of the
partner (or threesome)

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Since the goal is 1215, steal good ideas
from your partner’s list

Turn to a neighbor
& share ideas

Continue to
come up with more
ideas, even those that
were not on the original
lists

Set a time limit for
the sharing process: 2
minutes

Each group chooses
through consensus one
idea to share with the
entire class
Shared idea should
show the best thinking:
uniqueness counts

Continue to steal
ideas as groups share,
always aiming to
lengthen the list

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HOW COULD I USE THIS STRATEGY IN
MY CLASSROOM?
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SHIFTING FROM IMAGES TO PRINT TEXT
Think about and note what processes your brain
follows as we read this next text together?
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JABBERWOCKY
by Lewis Carroll
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
One, two! One, two! And through and
through
The vorpal blade went snickersnack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought -So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
from Lewis Carroll’s Through the LookingGlass and What Alice Found There, 1872.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
© 2010 Partner in Education
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Original Illustration by Sir
John Tenniel First published
in Carroll, Lewis. 1871.
Through the Looking-Glass,
and What Alice Found There.
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What were the reading challenges presented
by “JABBERWOCKY”
Challenges
Cognitive Processes
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What is Content Reading? Reading characterized by factual
information conveyed using multisyllabic technical words
developed through a combination of organizational structures,
for example, cause/effect, compare-contrast, or sequencing.
Questions to Ask Students About
Reading Strategy Use
 What is a reading strategy?
 Before you begin reading a content textbook, what
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strategies do you put in place?
Why do you preview a content textbook?
How is reading in language arts or English different
than reading in science or social studies?
How do you know if you’ve really understood a
reading passage in an informational text?
What strategies can you use when you encounter a
big word and you don’t know what it means?
When should you stop and think about what you are
reading? What are the clues that make you realize
that time has come to stop and think?
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Predict
Connect
Visualize
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Content Reading vs. Fiction Reading
(Rosenblatt, [1938], 1966)
Efferent
Aesthetic
 Reading purpose
 Reading purpose
 to take away pieces of
information
 Reading Process
 reading in “fits and starts”
 staring and stopping to take
notes and reflect
 annotations helpful
 Content
 overwhelming with new
information
 to be “taken away”
 Reading Process
 reading with speed and
anticipation
 stopping to take notes only
as a support mechanism
 Content
 engaging the reader to join
with the text; connection
building
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Efferent Reading: Purposes
Overview of material
Summarizing
 Uses skimming skills
 Identifies key words
 Reads titles & headings
 Finds topic sentences
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Delete redundancy
Delete trivia
Find / invent topic sentence
Create superordinates
Finding the Main Idea
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Synthesize & Evaluate
Identify text structure
Delineate supporting ideas
Show connections
Awareness of implicit &
explicit ideas
 Uses inferential skills
 Apply information
regarding fact & opinion
 Examine causal
relationships
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Why do middle & high school
content area teachers need
to teach reading skills?
 Most students do not have reading proficiency
levels adequate to be successful in workplace
training or institutions of higher education
 Even colleges and universities like Harvard are
discovering their students do not have the
prerequisite skills to be successful in an
enviornment of high learning.
 Interrogating Texts: Harvard University Student
Guide to Content Reading
 http://hcl.harvard.edu/research/guides/lamont_hando
uts/interrogatingtexts.html
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TEACHING A
THINKING
PROCESS
APPROACH TO
READING
COMPREHENSION
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The Thinking Process Approach
 Research Base
 Cathy Collins Block (2003)
 John Mangieri
 Comprehension Lessons must be
 cognitively rich
 socially structured
 pedagogically sound
 Comprehension as a thought process is
 ever-changing
 interactive
 Moves beyond strategy-based instruction
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The Thinking Process
Approach Empowers Students
 To making meaning for themselves
 To verbalize when and where they choose to
use one or more thinking processes to make
meaning
 To select the appropriate thinking process or
combine thinking processes to infer,
summarize, predict, etc.
 Differentiate instruction to provide a broad
set of tools for meaning making
Source: Block, Cathy Collins. (2006). “The Thinking
Approach to Comprehension Development.” Improving
Comprehension Instruction. p 56.
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4-Step Sequential Process
 Step One: Teacher Think Aloud (Davey, 1983) with
first strategy
 Students watch while teacher models how use the first
strategy, coding the text and talking aloud.
 Step Two: Teacher Think Aloud with second strategy
 Students watch while teacher models how to use the second
strategy, coding and talking aloud
 Step Three: Shared Thinking
 Teachers and students work together to identify and relate
their use of the first strategy
 Block suggests four practices
 Step Four: Flexible Group
 Students work together using comprehension process and
set goals for further learning
Research Base: Block, Cathy Collins. (2006). “The
Thinking Approach to Comprehension Development.”
Improving Comprehension Instruction.
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Questioning & Connecting
Natural Cognitive Strategies
Using cognitive strategies with content images
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Think – Pair – Share
Why does one ask questions?
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Step One:
Teacher Think Aloud
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Washington Crossing the Delaware
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Using Connections to Answer
Questions
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Connecting Concept & Image
Text to Self
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Text to World
Text to Text
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Step Two:
Shared Reading
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Shared Thinking (Reading) with Images
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Connecting Concept & Image
Text to Self
Photosynthesis & the
Food Chain
Text to World
Text to Text
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4-Stages of Instruction
Comprehension
vs.
Decoding
If students are reading at
instructional level 75-85% of
the day, reading
comprehension goes up. If
students are reading at a
frustrating level most of the
day, they are only decoding.
In order to learn and retain
content material, they must
be comprehending the text,
not merely reading the words.
• Teacher
• Model
• Teacher & Student
• Guided
• Student & Student
• Facilitated
• Student
• Independent
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Step Three:
Flexible Grouping
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Text Word/s / Picture/s
Directions:
First, list questions
that your brain asks
when looking at this
cartoon.
Next, choose one
question and see if
you can figure out
the answer on your
own.
Makes me ask…
Causes me to remember
Generate five questions related to the political cartoon.
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
Because of this
connection, I answer
3. ________________________________________
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________
© 2010 Partner in Education
p.37
Directions:First, list questions that your brain asks when looking at this cartoon.
Next, choose one question and see if you can figure out the answer on your own.
Text Word/s / Picture/s
Makes me ask…
Causes me to remember
Generate five questions related to the figure above.
1. ________________________________________
2. ________________________________________
3. ________________________________________
Because of this
connection, I answer
4. ________________________________________
5. ________________________________________
© 2010 Partner in Education
p.38
Active Reading: Marking the Text
Connecting Codes
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NAME ____________________________ TEXT ______________________ PAGE _____ DATE ________
Question / Connection Relationship
Self-question
Your Answer
Explain Your Connection
Background Knowledge + New Information
Who_________________
____________________?
What ________________
____________________?
When ________________
____________________?
Why _________________
____________________?
How _________________
____________________?
Where _______________
____________________?
© 2010 Partner in Education
Name: ________________________________________
Date: ________________________
Using Connections to Ask and Answer Questions
Text Word/s / Picture/s
Text Word/s / Picture/s
Text Word/s / Picture/s
Makes me ask…
Makes me ask…
Makes me ask…
Causes me to remember
Causes me to remember
Causes me to remember
Because of this
connection, I answer
Because of this
connection, I answer…
Because of this
connection, I answer…
© 2010 Partner in Education
Connect to Question & Answer
Intermediate Organizer
Connecting: Group Interdependence
Group Members ____________________
____________________
____________________
Directions: You will be given 5 minutes to read the selection alone. Use active reading strategies and be prepared to make two text connections
with your group. Groups will meet for 10 minutes to share their understanding of the text and their connections. Record one another’s connections
here and discuss which connection/s help you understand the text better. Code your responses and be ready to discuss them with the class.
Text to ________
Text to ________
Text to ________
Text to ________
Text to ________
Text to ________
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42
Step Four:
Independent
Accountability
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Effective
Comprehension
Instruction
is
Socially
Structured
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Lesson Materials Presented Sequentially
Graphics: photos, artwork, picture books
• Connect to self, world, and other texts
• Develop questions from those connections
• Use connections to answer questions: right there, author and
me, on my own
Engaging Text: magazine, internet, newspaper
• Connect to self, world, and other texts
• Develop questions from those connections
• Use connections to answer questions: right there, author and
me, on my own
Content Text: trade books, textbooks, reference
• Connect to self, world, and other texts
• Develop questions from those connections
• Use connections to answer questions: right there, author and
me, on my own
© 2010 Partner in Education
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5-Step Sequential Process
 Step One: Teacher Think Aloud with first strategy
 Students watch while teacher models how use the fist strategy,
coding the text and talking aloud.
 Step Two: Shared Thinking
 Teachers and students work through the first strategy together
 Step Three: Teacher Think Aloud with second strategy
and incorporates the first strategy as necessary
 Students watch while teacher codes and talks aloud, modeling
how the strategies work together
 Block suggests teacher provide 3 think alouds of strategies in
tandem
 Step Four: Shared Thinking
 Students work together using comprehension process and set
goals for further learning
 Step Five: Flexible Groups
Research Base: Block, Cathy Collins. (2006). “The
Thinking Approach to Comprehension Development.”
Improving Comprehension Instruction.
© 2010 Partner in Education
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Monitoring Questions
Raising the bar on student thinking by teaching selfmonitoring strategies
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Question Answer Relationship,
Raphael (1986)
In the text
In my head
Right
There
Author
and Me
Think and
Search
On my
Own
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Source of Half Earth's Oxygen Gets Little Credit
by John Roach for National Geographic News June 7, 2004
Fish, whales, dolphins, crabs, seabirds, and just about everything else that makes a living
in or off of the oceans owe their existence to phytoplankton, one celled plants that live at
the ocean surface. Phytoplankton are at the base of what scientists refer to as oceanic
biological productivity, the ability of a water body to support life such as plants, fish, and
wildlife.
"A measure of productivity is the net amount of carbon dioxide taken up by phytoplankton,"
said Jorge Sarmiento, a professor of atmospheric and ocean sciences at Princeton
University in New Jersey. The one-celled plants use energy from the sun to convert carbon
dioxide and nutrients into complex organic compounds, which form new plant material. This
process, known as photosynthesis, is how phytoplankton grow.
Herbivorous marine creatures eat the phytoplankton. Carnivores, in turn, eat the
herbivores, and so on up the food chain to the top predators like killer whales and sharks.
But how does the ocean supply the nutrients that phytoplankton need to survive and to
support everything else that makes a living in or off the ocean? Details surrounding that
answer are precisely what Sarmiento hopes to learn.
Retrieved from:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2004/06/0607_040607_phytoplankton.html
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Robert Frouin, a research meteorologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in
La Jolla, California, said understanding the process by which phytoplankton obtains
ocean nutrients is important to understanding the link between the ocean and global
climate.
"Marine biogeochemical processes both respond to and influence climate," Frouin said.
"A change in phytoplankton abundance and species may result from changes in the
physical processes controlling the supply of nutrients and sunlight availability."
Oxygen Supply
Phytoplankton need two things for photosynthesis and thus their survival: energy from the
sun and nutrients from the water. Phytoplankton absorb both across their cell walls. In the
process of photosynthesis, phytoplankton release oxygen into the water. Half of the
world's oxygen is produced via phytoplankton photosynthesis. The other half is produced
via photosynthesis on land by trees, shrubs, grasses, and other plants. As green plants
die and fall to the ground or sink to the ocean floor, a small fraction of their organic
carbon is buried. It remains there for millions of years after taking the form of substances
like oil, coal, and shale.
"The oxygen released to the atmosphere when this buried carbon was photosynthesized
hundreds of millions of years ago is why we have so much oxygen in the atmosphere
today," Sarmiento said.
Today phytoplankton and terrestrial green plants maintain a steady balance in the amount
of the Earth's atmospheric oxygen, which comprises about 20 percent of the mix of
gasses, according to Frouin. A mature forest, for example, takes in carbon dioxide from
the atmosphere during photosynthesis and converts it to oxygen to support new growth.
But that same forest gives off comparable levels of carbon dioxide when old trees die.
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"On average, then, this mature forest has no net flux of carbon dioxide or oxygen to or
from the atmosphere, unless we cut it all down for logging," Sarmiento said. "The ocean
works the same way. Most of the photosynthesis is counterbalanced by an equal and
opposite amount of respiration."
Carbon Sink
The forests and oceans are not taking in more carbon dioxide or letting off more oxygen.
But human activities such as burning oil and coal to drive our cars and heat our homes
are increasing the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Most of the
world's scientists agree that these increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere are causing the Earth to warm. Many researchers believe that this
phenomenon could lead to potentially catastrophic consequences.
Some researchers argue that enriching the oceans with iron would stimulate
phytoplankton growth, which in turn would capture excess carbon from the Earth's
atmosphere. But many ocean and atmospheric scientists debate whether this would
indeed provide a quick fix to the problem of global warming. Research by the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography suggests an increase in phytoplankton may actually cause the
Earth to grow warmer, due to increased solar absorption.
"Our simulations show that by increasing the phytoplankton abundance in the upper
oceanic layer, sea surface temperature is increased, as well as air temperature," Frouin
said. As Sarmiento notes, phytoplankton obtains most of its carbon dioxide from the
oceans, not the atmosphere.
"Pretty much all of the carbon dioxide taken up by phytoplankton comes from deep down
in the ocean, just like nutrients, where bacteria and other organisms have produced it by
respiring the organic matter that sank from the surface," Sarmiento said.
© 2010 Partner in Education
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Name ___________________ Text _________________________ Pages _____
QAR: Question Answer Relationships
Right
There
Adapted from: Raphael, Taffy & Highfield, Kathy &
Au, Kathryn H.(2006). QAR Now. NY: Scholastic.
In the
book
Think &
Search
© 2010 Partner in Education
Author
& Me
In my
head
On My
Own
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Many, Different Question Types
Essential Questions
Planning Questions
Elaborating Questions
Inventive Questions
Clarification Questions
Probing Questions
Irrelevant Questions
Divergent Questions
Irreverent Questions
Telling Questions
Hypothetical Questions
Provocative Questions
Unanswerable Questions
Strategic Questions
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Classification: Question Types
Convergent Inference
Questions
Divergent Inference
Questions
Visualizing
Wondering
Explorative, but responses fall
within a finite range of accuracy
Seeks facts/data either within
or beyond the text.
Explorative with varied and
alternative answers
Questions
Require cognitive & emotional
skills to make judgment
Clarifying
Evaluative
Questions
Questions
Adapted from: Erickson, H.L. (2007).
Concept-basead curriculum and instruction
for the thinking classroom.
© 2009 Partner in Education
Active Reading & Coding
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Finding the Main Idea
Using Questioning and Connecting Strategies to Find
the Main Idea
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Finding the Main Idea
 Uncover indications of what an author considers
crucial; what is expected of you to glean from

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

the argument
Examine the language chosen or used to be alert
you to ideological positions, hidden agendas or
biases.
Watching for recurring images
Be aware of repeated words, phrases
Synthesize in your understanding the types of
examples or illustrations used
Be sensitive to consistent ways of characterizing
people, events, or issues
Adapted from Interrogating Texts: 6
Reading Habits to Develop in Your First
Year at Harvard .
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Rule Strategy: Keep, Delete, Combine
 Keep
 Topic sentence—if there is one
 Transition words: however, but, consequently, resultant
 Delete unnecessary words or sentences
 conjunctions, prepositions, personal references,
interruptions by the author w/opinion or examples,
superfluous descriptors
 Combine repeated and/or similar words as one reference
 Substitute words
 For unfamiliar concepts: vast stretches—large area
 To categorize: axes, mauls, and hammers are tools
 Combine kept, substituted, and topic sentence
Adapted from: Day, Jeanne D.(1986). Teaching summarization
skills: influences of student ability and strategy difficulty. Cognition
and Instruction 3(3). 193-210.
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Questioning to Find the Main
Idea
 Before reading
 Elicit prior knowledge related to the core ideas of the text
 Make connections between background knowledge and
text subject
 Set a purpose for reading
 During reading






Identify text structure
Clarify and review what has happened so far
Confirm or create new predictions
Evaluate the text critically
Compare with other experiences or readings
Monitor reading for meaning and accuracy
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Teaching “Cue” or Transition Words
Sequence
 Chronology
 at first, first of all, to begin
with, in the first place, at
the same time, for now,
the next step, in time, in
turn, later on, meanwhile,
next, then, soon,, later,
while, earlier, afterward,
simultaneously
 Direction
 here, there, over there,
beyond, nearly, opposite,
under, above,
to the left, to the right, in
the distance
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Contrast & Comparison
 Contrast
 instead, likewise, on one hand, on
the other hand, on the contrary,
rather, yet, but, still, similarly,
however, nevertheless, in contrast,
contrast, by the same token,
conversely, instead
 Similarly
 likewise, on one hand, on the
other hand, on the contrary,
rather, similarly, yet, but, however,
still, nevertheless
 Exception
 besides, except, excepting,
excluding, other than, outside of,
60
save
Text Structure

Narrative


Definition


lists one or more causes and the resulting effect/s
Problem / Solution


explains how two or more things are alike and/or how they are different
Cause & Effect


indentifies category that a concept may belong to and explains why
Comparison


lists items or events in numerical or chronological order
Classification


describes a topic by listing characteristics, features, and examples
Sequence


presents a term, classifies the term, and then explains how that term is like and unlike
other concepts within the classification
Descriptive


a narrative w/i an expository text to clarify, elaborate or link the subject matter to a
personal experience
states a problem and lists one or more solutions for the problem
Question / Answer

poses a question and answers it
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Read and Think Aloud
 Lift the text
 Make a transparency of the selected text to share
with the class
 Read the text aloud, coding as you go
 For questioning, just place a ? each time you
pause to reflect—teach students how to mark text
or use Post-its
 Reason through the text
 Pause, physically remove yourself from the text
and orally express your thinking
 Reread a brief but significant text section
 Model the need to revisit text as you reason
Adapted from Harvey, Stephanie & Goudvis,
Anne. (2000). Strategy instruction & practice.
Strategies that Work. (pp. 27 – 41). Portland:
Stenhouse.
© 2010 Partner in Education
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The Chinese and the Transcontinental Railroad
By Robert Chugg
The Chinese, or Celestials (from the Celestial Empire), as they were often
called in the 1800s, have a long history in Western America. Chinese records
indicate that Buddhist priests traveled down the west coast from present day
British Columbia to Baja California in 450 A.D. Spanish records show that
there were Chinese ship builders in lower California between 1541 and 1746.
When the first Anglo-Americans arrived in Los Angeles, they found Chinese
shopkeepers.
However, only a few Chinese were in the America's until gold was
discovered in California in 1848. When news of the discovery reached China,
many saw this as an opportunity to escape the extreme poverty of the time.
Many peasant families were forced to sell one of their children, usually a girl,
in order to survive. Paying $40 cash or signing a contract to repay $160 for
passage, thousands were packed into ships for the voyage to the Golden
Mountain as they called California. Lying on their sides in 18 inches of space,
mortality ran as high as 25 percent on some ships.
SOURCE: The Brown Quarterly. Vol. 1 (Spring
1997). http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/01-3/013f.htm#cap3
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Unlike most immigrants, the Chinese didn't come to stay. All they wanted
was to save $300-400 and then return to China to live a life of wealth and
luxury. Three hundred dollars would allow them to marry, have children, a big
house, fine clothes, the best foods, servants, and tutors for their children.
Opinions were mixed about these newcomers. The rich valued them as
workers because they were willing to work for lower wages, were clean,
dependable, did as they were told and didn't get drunk and fight at work. The
working class feared them as competition for their jobs. Discrimination was
rampant. The Chinese could not become citizens, vote, own property, or even
testify in court and had to live in certain areas of town and could only work at
certain jobs. Life was hard, but by 1865, about 50,000 had come to the
Golden Mountain.
After the Central Pacific (CP) started building the Transcontinental Railroad
eastward from Sacramento, demand for Chinese workers increased greatly.
The CP figured they needed 5,000 workers to build the railroad, but the most
they ever had just using white workers was about 800. Most of these stayed
only long enough for a free trip to the end of the track and then headed for
the gold fields. The CP hired all the available Chinese workers and then sent
agents to Canton province, Hong Kong, and Macao.
SOURCE: The Brown Quarterly. Vol. 1 (Spring
1997). http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/013/01-3f.htm#cap3
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With an average height of 4'10" and weight of 120 lbs., many doubted
these men could handle 80 lb. ties and 560 lb. rail sections. But handle them
they did, as well as most other construction jobs. So well in fact that by the time
they joined the rails at Promontory Summit, Utah on May 10, 1869, more than
nine out of ten CP workers, over 11,000 in all where Chinese.
Much of the work they did has become legend. Driving through California's
Sierra Nevada Mountains, they were faced with solid granite outcroppings.
After the CP's imported Cornish miners gave up, the Chinese with pick, shovel
and black powder progressed at the rate of 8 inches a day. And this was working
24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from both ends and both ways from a shaft in the
middle. The winters spent in the Sierras were some of the worst on record with
over 40 feet of snow. Camps and men were swept away by avalanches and
those that weren't were buried in drifts. The Chinese had to dig tunnels from
their huts to the work tunnels. Many didn't see daylight for months.
At Cape Horn in the Sierras, they hung suspended in baskets 2,000 ft. above
the American River below them and drilled and blasted a road bed for the
railroad without losing a single life (lots of fingers and hands though). After
hitting the Nevada desert they averaged more than a mile a day. But working in
120 heat and breathing alkali dust took its toll. Most were bleeding constantly
from the lungs.
SOURCE: The Brown Quarterly. Vol. 1 (Spring
1997). http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/013/01-3f.htm#cap3
© 2010 Partner in Education
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Even though the CP --realizing how valuable they were-- treated them better than most, they
were still not on a par with the whites. A white laborer was paid $35.00 a month plus room and
board and supplies. The Chinese were paid $25.00 a month and paid for their own food,
supplies, cook and headman. After a strike in the Sierras, where they won the right not to be
whipped and beat and another strike in the Nevada desert, they got up to $35.00 a month but
still paid for their own supplies.
The whites thought the Chinese were strange because of the strange clothes and hats they
wore, because they ate strange foods and drank boiled tea all day, spoke in their sing-song
language, and most of all, because they washed and put on clean clothes every day. The
whites on the other had, drank from the puddles, seldom bathed or put on clean clothes, got
drunk and fought and spent their hard-earned money on soiled doves and gambling.
In return for the dedication and hard work of the diligent Chinese laborers, an eight man
Chinese crew was given the honor of bringing up and placing the last section of rail on May
10th, 1869. A few of the speakers mentioned the invaluable contributions of the Chinese but
for the most part, the people of the day ignored them and history has neglected them. Only in
the last ten to fifteen years has their story really started to become known. For the thousands
who died aboard ship, the hundreds who died in accidents and the thousands who died of
small pox it is long past due.
Golden Spike National Historic Site in Brigham City, Utah which was established in 1965,
commemorates this history. On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads
met at Promontory Summit Utah and united the continent with the completion of the nation's
first transcontinental railroad. Hence Chinese participation is prominent in what is perhaps the
most important event in the history of the western expansion of the country. It linked East to
West, opened up vast areas to settlement and provided easy access to new markets.
SOURCE: The Brown Quarterly. Vol. 1 (Spring 1997).
http://brownvboard.org/brwnqurt/01-3/01-3f.htm#cap3
66
Questioning after reading
 Reinforce the concept that reading is for
understanding the meaning of the text and
making connections
 Model ways of thinking through and
organizing the information taken in from
reading a text
 Think critically about the text
 Respond on a personal level
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Common Content Text Structures
Science
 Compare / Contrast
 Concept Definition
 Description
 Generalization / Principle
 Process
 Cause / Effect
Thinking Maps
Resource:
http://www.somers.k12.ny.us/intranet/skil
ls/thinkmaps.html
Social Science
 Chronological sequence
 Comparison & Contrast
 Concept Definition
 Description
 Episode
 Generalization / Principle
 Process
 Cause / Effect
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Provide models for student thinking
Using Direct instruction &
Facilitated Learning to Teach
Strategic Thinking
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The Thinking Process Approach
Builds Habits of Mind
 Applying past knowledge







to new situations
Precision of language
and thought
Questioning and posing
problems
Remaining open to
continuous learning
Persistence
Striving for accuracy
Thinking flexibly
Thinking
interdependently
From The Art Costa Center for Thinking.
http://www.artcostacentre.com/
 Creating, imagining and







innovating
Metacognition
Finding humour
Listening with
understanding and
empathy
Responding with
wonderment and awe
Gathering data through
all senses
Managing impulsivity
Taking responsible risks
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Three Sequential Lesson Types
 Lesson Type One: Teacher Think Aloud
 Students watch while teacher models how to
use two comprehension strategies
simultaneously
 Lesson Type Two: Shared Reading
 Teachers and students read together to
identify and relate their use of the reading
strategies
 Lesson Type Three: Flexible Group
 Students work together using comprehension
process and set goals for further learning
Research Base: Block, Cathy Collins. (2006). “The
Thinking Approach to Comprehension Development.”
Improving Comprehension Instruction.
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30% Guideline
 First 30%
 Teacher reads and thinks aloud
 Students watch & learn
 Second 30%
 Teacher begins the process
 Students join in to share & practice skills
 Next 30%
 Think, Pair, Share
 Other flexible grouping
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LESSON TYPES & ASPECTS
LESSON
TYPE
LESSON PURPOSE
LESSON ASPECTS
READ / THINK
ALOUD
•Introduce new process
•Models executive thinking
•Makes the invisible thought
processes apparent
•Teacher has physical text copy
•Students have visual text
access—but not physical copy
•Select students may have
physical text copy
•Students thoughtfully engaged
SHARED
READING
•Fosters confidence
•Fosters collaboration
•Acts as informal assessment
•Provides guided practice
•Teacher displays class copy of
text
•Students may or may not have
physical text coy
•Students actively engaged
FLEXIBLE
GROUPING
•Provides scaffolding to
independent
•Allows for differentiating text
•Allows for differentiating lessons
•Each student has text copy
OR
•Group shares text copy
•Group task is clearly defined
and has been modeled prior to
grouping
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Allow for Practice
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M
Day 1
T
W
Day 2
TH
Day 3
Introduce first
strategy set w/
think aloud
Reinforce
w/Think aloud
followed
w/shared
Day 6
Introduce
second strategy
set w/think
aloud
Day 7
Day 8
Reinforce
50% /50%
Reinforce
w/shared
Practice
Day 11
Independent
Practice
Day 12
Reinforce
w/shared
Practice
Day 13
Independent
Practice
Independent
Practice
© 2010 Partner in Education
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Day 4
Flexible
Grouping
Practice
Day 9
Flexible
Group Practice
Day 5
Flexible
Group Practice
Day 10
Flexible
Group Practice
Day 14
Assessment of
strategy use &
content
retention
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References
ACT. (2005). Reading Between the Lines: What ACT Reveals About College Readiness in
Reading. http://www.act.org/path/policy/pdf/reading_report.pdf
Block, Cathy Collins. (2006). “The thinking approach to comprehension development.”
Improving Comprehension Instruction. (pp. 54 – 79). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Costa, Art. The Art Costa Center for Thinking. Retrieved 15 Sept. 2007.
http://www.artcostacentre.com/
: Day, Jeanne D.(1986). Teaching summarization skills: influences of student ability and
strategy difficulty. Cognition and Instruction 3(3). 193-210.
Erickson, H.L. (2007). Concept-basead curriculum and instruction for the thinking
classroom. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press.
Harvey, Stephanie & Goudvis, Anne. (2000). Strategy instruction & practice. Strategies that
Work. (pp. 27 – 41) . Portland: Stenhouse.
Harvey, Stephanie & Goudvis, Anne. (2007). Strategies that Work, Second edition. Portland:
Stenhouse.
Raphael, Taffy & Highfield, Kathy & Au, Kathryn H. (2006). QAR Now. NY: Scholastic.
Wright, Jim. The Saavy Teacher’s Guide: Reading Interventions that Work. Retrieved 15
Sept 2007 from http://www.jimwrightonline.com/pdfdocs/brouge/rdngManual.PDF
Wiggins, Grant & McTighe, Jay. (2005). Understanding by Design, 2nd Edition. (pp. 84 -45).
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
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