Higher Order Thinking Skills and Blogging

Blogging is an easy way to begin preparing elementary students for the new literacies of the Internet. (2009, Zawilinski)

In a recent article titled HOT Blogging: A Framework for Blogging to Promote Higher Order Thinking in the Reading Teacher, Lisa Zawilinski identifies four common types of blogs currently found in elementary classrooms: classroom news blogs, mirror blogs, showcase blogs and literature response blogs.

The internet is this generation's defining technology for literacy (Coiro & Dobler, 2007; Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; Leu et. al., 2007). It is home to a continuously emerging set of new technologies for literacy such as search engines, e-mail, blogs, wikis, instant messenger, social networking tools, and many others yet to emerge. Each requires new skills and strategies. Schools need to prepare students for these new literacies by integrating them into the curriculum, and blogs are an easy way to begin. (Zawilinski, 2009)

I recently started a literature response blog with one of my reading groups called We Blog Books. We use the blog to focus our discussions on the Higher Order Thinking strategies we've learned this year: monitoring for meaning, using 'fix-up strategies', visualizing, determining importance and questioning.

Students log on daily to respond to a prompt or discussion question and read what their classmates have written. Engagement is high and, like an anchor chart, the blog makes our thinking visible so that we can refer to it throughout our book discussions.

As a result of this experience, I've discovered that to be successful, teaching students how to write blog comments requires the same modeling and guided practice that other reading responses require. I've also learned that effective blog prompts need specific criteria to scaffold student responses. Finally, I've learned that giving students permission to share their own thinking, questions and observations is a powerful motivator and an effective way to 'gradually release responsibility' for thinking to students.

CORE READING COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES

David Pearson and other researchers studied proficient readers to identify how they process text. They identified seven core strategies that help readers comprehend.

A strategy is a plan of action a reader can use to increase their understanding of a text. With continued practice, the strategies become skills that the reader will apply automatically and flexibly when reading.

Activating background knowledge to make connections between new and known information. Proficient readers make many connections: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world.

Questioning the text. Proficient readers are always asking questions while they read.

Drawing inferences. Proficient readers use prior knowledge about a topic and information in the text to make predictions.

Determining importance. Proficient readers prioritize information as they read.

Creating mental images. Proficient readers create mind pictures and visualize as they read.

Monitoring and repairing understanding when meaning breaks down. Proficient readers stop and use "fix-up" strategies when they don't understand.

Synthesizing information. Proficient readers make connections, ask questions, and infer to integrate new understandings.

To learn more about teaching comprehension strategies:

Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller

Into the Book: Strategies for Learning

Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Tools

Merging Comprehension with Content Learning
PODCAST with Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis

Summarizing: Getting the Gist

Summarizing is an important skill and one effective readers use all the time. When we summarize, we 'get the gist' of the what we are reading. But summarizing can be a very hard skill to learn and to teach.

Summaries differ from retellings. Unlike retellings that include everything that happens in a story, a summary requires the reader to be selective, to include only the most important information.

When summarizing fiction, ask students to tell just the names of the characters, the setting where the story takes place, the problem facing the characters, the important events that happen to the characters and how the problem is eventually resolved.

Summarizing nonfiction is different. We read nonfiction to learn new things. So when summarizing nonfiction, ask students to tell what new things they learned! Who, what, when, where, why and how? What surprised them? What do they still wonder about?

Whether reading for pleasure or to learn new things, summarizing is a key strategy for students to use to comprehend text.

READING STRATEGIES AND TEXT SETS

In some of my literacy groups this month we have been using text sets to learn more about interesting topics like mummies, the state of New Hampshire and elephants.

A Text Set is a multi-genre collection that can include nonfiction books, poetry, realistic fiction, internet sites, and videos all related by a common element, topic, theme, or type of text (Opitz, 1998). Text sets are a great way to engage students. Using a variety of resources about one topic is an exciting and authentic way to teach students how to make text to text connections when they read, as well as to build background knowledge.

We are using graphic organizers to keep track of our thinking as we read. The organizers help us create a record of our connections, summarize important information, and share what we have learned with each other.

NOVEMBER

This month 4th graders in my literacy groups are learning how to use Collaborative Strategic Reading to understand nonfiction text.

CSR begins with a guided Preview of the text. We use the title, subtitles, pictures, captions, and glossary to make predictions about what we think the text will be about. We also make connections to the genre and our background knowledge to support our predictions.

Next we 'Click and Clunk' as we begin to read. 'Clicks' mean we are understanding what we read. When we come to a 'clunk' we stop, think and use a 'fix-up' strategy to figure out the hard parts.

Then we 'Get the Gist' of what we have read. We summarize the important parts in our own words by telling 'who or what' is the most important person or idea and why.

Finally, we Wrap Up our reading by asking and answering questions about what we have read.

We can use these strategies whenever we read to help us understand and remember information. They not only help us read better in social studies and science but will help us do better on reading tests, too!

OCTOBER

We have spent time in our literacy groups this month creating community. We have practiced listening to each other and taking turns sharing our thinking because we learn so much from each other.

We have been focusing on monitoring our comprehension and learning a variety of strategies to 'fix-up' our understanding when we have trouble with an unknown word or get confused.

We have practiced rereading to learn how to increase our fluency and read out loud with phrasing and expression.

We have reviewed the difference between fiction and nonfiction and how to choose a 'just right' book for independent reading.

We have learned how to use an organizer to summarize the important elements in the books we are reading.

Next month we will learn some new strategies for reading nonfiction text.