|
Workshop Numbers
#102-13 - No Credit
#401-13 - with (3) Viterbo Credits
Session 1: Developing Readers in Academic Subjects (August 13, 2012)
Students are challenged by increasingly more sophisticated reading demands as they progress through their years of education. In particular, they are expected to become accomplished readers of a variety of academic disciplines. This workshop will focus instructional practices that can be embedded into the teaching of an academic discipline to support and develop students' capacities as readers of a variety of classroom texts. In particular, strategies that address gaps in academic background knowledge will be explored. Many students capable of understanding fall short because an author assumes academic knowledge they lack. Teachers can have significant impact on their students' comprehension of classroom materials by frontloading instruction - providing students with those missing pieces of assumed knowledge through a variety of interactive classroom practices.
Session 2: Questioning Practices that Build Inquiring Minds Around Classroom Texts (August 14, 2012)
"The book says..." Actually, it doesn't. Books don't talk, authors do. Asking questions is the art of carring on an inner conversation with an author, as well as an internal dialogue with one's self. Comprehension is, to a significant degree, a process of inquiry. Questions provide the scripts of our daily dialogues with ourselves. We ask questions to speculate and guide us. We ask questions to kindle our curiosity and to clarify our confusions. Proficient readers carry this questioning attitude into their reading. Self-questioning assumes an inquisitiveness about a text, an expectation that something in a passage will connect to a reader's experiences and background knowledge, and an optimism that the act of reading will result in meaningful ends. This workshop will outline a rich vein of instructional strategies that can help students to rely upon their own questions to mold their comprehension and guide their learning.
Session 3: Cueing Inferential Thinking (August 15, 2012)
Much of what is to be understood in a text must be inferred. Authors rely on readers to contribute to a text's meaning by linking their background knowledge to information provided in the text. Although students may be competent in their abilities to handle literal understandings of text information, many struggle with the challenges of inferential comprehension of the texts they read in school. In contrast, proficient readers not only acknowledge explicitly stated messages, they also "read between the lines" to discern implicit meanings, make predictions, and read with a critical eye. This workshop will present instructional strategies that cue students to be sensitive to "hidden knowledge" - implicit information - and author intent and beliefs to access a deeper understanding of a text as well as draw conclusions about a writer and a writer's message.
Session 4: Guiding Readers in Academic Disciplines: Strategies for Determining Importance (October 17, 2012)
As they encounter increasingly more sophisticated and diverse texts across the curriculum, adolescent readers need to be "mentored" on how to effectively read texts in history, science, literature, mathematics, and other subjects. Getting the point of a reading assignment is an especially difficult undertaking for many readers. Students are often confounded by the amount of information they encounter in a textbook, and they are unable to differentiate key ideas from supporting detail. As a result, they could benefit from classroom strategies that guide their excursion through content texts. In particular, the study guide will be reconceptualized as a vehicle for sparking and supporting comprehension processes such as determining importance. Carefully constructed study guides, such as the Interactive Reading Guide, are powerful vehicles for incorporating comprehension strategies into the instruction of course content.
Session 5: Strategies for Summarizing and Synthesizing Understanding (December 5, 2012)
Memory researchers have revealed that much of what students read and encounter during learning is lost almost immediately. Our memories overload quickly, making it necessary for us to reduce what to remember to its key components. Students typically have a very difficult time with summarizing. This workshop will model strategies that involve students in summing up their understandings. In particular, writing activities help students realize what they have learned and allows them the opportunity continue to refine their thinking as they revisit their thoughts on paper to clarify and expand their understandings. Synthesizing occures when a reader can step back from a text, make a generalization, create an interpretation, draw a conclusion, and develop an explanation. The last session could include, in addition, a focus on vocabulary. Mr. Buehl will work with participants to identify needs and priorities.
Audience: General and Special Education Teachers Grades 4-12, Title I Teachers School-wide, General Education Teachers with Title I students in their classroom
Instructor: Doug Buehl is a recently retired high school Social Studies teacher with a Masters in Reading and the course work completed for special education certification. As a high school teacher, he recognized the problems of struggling readers in dealing with content in his classroom. He will share ideas from his years of experience teaching students what they need to know to become more successful readers and to be more successful readers in the general education classroom.
Standards: WI PI 34 standards addressed: WTS 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Dates: August 13, 14 & 15, October 17 and December 5, 2012
Time: 8:30 am -3:30 p.m. each session
Location: CESA 9 office, Tomahawk
Cost: No Credit - #102-13
$650 per participant for School Improvement members (series of 5)
$1300 per participant for Non-members
With Credit - #401-13 ($330 - 3 credit fee to Viterbo in addition to charges below)
$810 per participant for School Improvement members (series of 5)
$1,460 per participant for Non-members
Register by May 25, 2012
Workshop Questions: Judy Conlin
Registration Questions: Jean Hill
Download a flyer in PDF format
| 
