Word Callers Book Study ~ Chapter 3

Do you have Word Callers in your classroom?  I am sure you do because we all do!  If you are not sure if you have word callers, check out Wendy's post from yesterday to find out more about them.

And if you have the book, grab it and follow along today as I discuss chapter three!  If you don't have it, you need it!

Today I am going to present Chapter Three of Word Callers by Kelly B. Cartwright, which shows how to assess students to see who our inflexible thinkers really are.  This assessment allows us to assess students' flexible thinking about more than just the way the words sound but also their meanings.  It also allows us to do the following:

~ Explain the inflexible thinking we see in our students.

~ Determine which students need extra help to improve flexible thinking.

~ Measure flexible thinking throughout the year to see if it has changed.

~ Improve flexible thinking through intervention.

How many of you use sorting methods in your own classrooms?  Many of us do to help us teach and understand concepts our children need to master.  With a simple 2x2 matrix and word cards, we can tell who our flexible and inflexible thinkers are.  I assessed my own son, who is going into the sixth grade.  Here is what he {unwillingly} did.

When you purchase the book, you get a set of picture cards and words cards for interventions and assessments.

I showed my son how to do the assessment by placing the words into four categories by beginning sound and meanings.  This showed him what I was looking for.

Then I had him sort a different set of cards with the same parameters while I time him.

This is his finished product.

This shows that he is probably an inflexible thinker, but I know differently.  This is just an 11 year old who didn't want to help me out after a long day at camp.  

I only did this once with him, but the real assessment gives them more opportunities to show their thinking.  With a scoring sheet, there is data to show the flexibility of thinking in students.  A chart is also available to lead you in the right direction.

This year I plan to use this with many of my students who experience problems that are like word callers.  This will help them become stronger readers and comprehenders, an important part of reading and learning.

How do you think this will help you as you help your students become stronger readers?

Tune in tomorrow for Chapter 4 of Word Callers!

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Word Callers Book Study Ch. 1 and 2

Welcome Literacy Land Readers! I'm so excited to kick off our Word Callers book study with you. Thanks for joining us as we learn how to identify the word callers in our classrooms and help them flex their thinking.

Word Callers: What to Watch For

Word callers. We've all had them in our classrooms. In fact, up to a third of our struggling readers are word callers. They are students who can identify and decode words but have difficulty processing their meaning. I bet you can picture one of these students in your head.

Characteristics of Word Callers

Word callers struggle with vocabulary knowledge, categorizing words, inferring meanings of unknown words from context, and monitoring their own understanding.

Additionally, they have difficulty connecting their prior knowledge with the text and reading between the lines.

While word callers have a difficult time with meaning, they have many strengths to draw upon such as cognitive ability, text memory, word reading speed, and an ability to decode text.

They seem to have "tunnel vision" when reading.  They focus on word-level features and miss the text's meaning.

My Thoughts

I think it is important to remember that word callers have many strengths that we can build upon. The key will be finding ways to help students "multi-task" as they read. The upcoming chapters will explore ways to help children break away from print and focus more on meaning.

Questions for Discussion

• Is there a practice you've tried that seemed to help students improve their comprehension?  
• Why do you think the practice was effective?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

The High-Low Paradox: Why These Children Struggle

Recent research on children's thinking has provided five important insights will help us understand the difficulties word callers have with comprehension.

Word Callers tend to focus their attention on the letter-sound information so intently that they are unable to think about the meaning of the text.

Word callers often think that the purpose of reading is fluency and accuracy. They focus the letters and sounds and not the meaning.

Word callers view the components of reading as separate from one another. Therefore they do not integrate letter-sound information with syntax and meaning.  

Word callers tend to have difficulty with executive functioning (goal-directed mental activities). Therefore, they focus on decoding rather than getting meaning from the text.

Word callers are less flexible with their thinking. They have difficulty integrating the many components of reading. 

My Thoughts

After reading each of the insights listed above, it's easy to see why word callers struggle to make meaning of text.  Reading is a cognitive task. Readers need to develop flexibility in their thinking in order to be successful.  In the chapters to come, Cartwright will share several strategies to help word callers flex their thinking.

Questions for Discussion

• Have you had observed students who were unable to consider more than one idea or perspective?  
• What practices might help students step outside their own views?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Stop back tomorrow as we continue our book study with Chapter 3 -Who Are Your Inflexible Thinkers?

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Summer Reading: A Book Study

I know for many of us our summers have been filled with fun, sun, busy days, lazy days, and....book studies!  Well your Literacy Land ladies have been no different.  One of the books that we dove into this summer was "Summer Reading: Closing the Rich/Poor Reading Achievement Gap" by Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Frazen.

Okay...your first thought may be, "Why would I read a book about summer reading when the new school year is about to begin?"  Good question.  I had the same one; however, I have the answer.

This book is filled with ideas to help our students through those summer months of (let's face it...for many) very little learning.  Allington and McGill-Frazen share research that (even though I know it to be true) was still stunning about the achievement gap and summer slide.  Different scenarios, research studies, and practical actions are explained.

But again...why read this now?  Because I now understand that it will take the year to get to know your students and what kinds of books will drive them to read over the summer.  It will take the year for you to plan how you can implement a learning program that will work for you and your students.  This book has already changed some school routines that my building will be implementing next year.

With that being said, we would LOVE for you to join us on this journey of closing the rich/poor achievement gap through summer reading.   We hope to hear your thoughts, ideas, practices, or frustrations as we work our way through the chapters.  Here is our schedule:

July 27--chapter 1

July 28--chapter 2

July 29--chapter 3 

July 30--chapter 4

 July 31--chapter 5 

August 1--chapter 6 

August 2--chapter7

We look forward to studying this book with you!

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Join Us for Book Study!

Do you ever wonder how to help the students in your classroom who are able to decode words but have difficulty comprehending their meaning?

Adventures in Literacy Land is hosting a book study to explore ways to help word callers grow their comprehension skills.  Learn how to identify the word callers in your classroom and help them flex their thinking.  

Plan to join us July 20-24 as we read and discuss our Ah-ha moments from Word Callers by Kelly Cartwright.  Borrow or buy your copy of the book today.  :)

Happy Reading!

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