Face to Face with the SEM-R: Social and

Emotional Connections

Joe HelblingJennaJ. Bachinski

www.gifted.uconn.edu/semrUniversity of Connecticut

Three Goals of SEM-RThree Goals of SEM-RTo increase enjoyment in readingTo increase enjoyment in reading

To encourage students to pursue challenging independent readingTo encourage students to pursue challenging independent reading

To improve reading fluency, comprehension, and increase reading achievement

To improve reading fluency, comprehension, and increase reading achievement

What is Reading?

• …a complex, purposeful, social and cognitive process in which readers simultaneously use their knowledge of spoken and written language, their knowledge of the topic of the text, and their knowledge of their culture to construct meaning.

• NCTE Commission on Reading“On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading

Instruction”

What is Unique about Adolescent Literacy?

• Students encounter increasingly complex interdisciplinary discourses and concepts.

• Period of significant physiological changes in students.

• Students are navigating new and complex social relationships.

• Independence and a sense of identity become foci in students’ lives.

Oberle, Schonert-Reichl, & Thomson, 2010

What Current Research Is Showing Teachers

Students need:

• Time• Variety (genre, format, etc.)• Multiple perspectives on real life

experiences. • Autonomy (self-selection)• High interest texts

Students need:

• Conversations/discussions regarding texts that are authentic, student initiated, and teacher facilitated.

• Such discussion should lead to diverse interpretations of a text that deepen the conversation.

SEM-R Conferences

• Should first and foremost be a conversation about the student’s selected book.

• Incorporate higher-order thinking questions to elicit deeper student responses.

• Encourage students to share their own thoughts and feelings about their book.

Students Need

• Experience in thinking critically about how they engage with texts: – When do I comprehend? – What do I do to understand a text? – When do I not understand a text? – What can I do when meaning breaks down?

SEM-R Connection: Metacognition and Self-regulation

• A culture of student empowerment is established on the first day in a SEM-R classroom.– Post-Its– Status cards– Student logs

Students Need

• Experience in critical examination of texts that helps them to: – Recognize how texts are organized in various disciplines

and genre – Question and investigate various social, political, and

historical content and purposes within texts

– Make connections among texts, and between texts and personal experiences to act on and react to the world.

– Understand multiple meanings and richness of texts and layers of complexity

“…it is a scandal that so many millions of children and teenagers spend their days in boredom in classes that systematically avoid questions of genuine interest and importance.”

-Katherine G. Simon, author of Moral Questions in the Classroom

“…it is a scandal that so many millions of children and teenagers spend their days in boredom in classes that systematically avoid questions of genuine interest and importance.”

-Katherine G. Simon, author of Moral Questions in the Classroom

What Teachers of Adolescents Need

“Adequate and appropriate reading materials that tap students’ diverse interests and represent a range of difficulty.”

Texts

“If children are to read a lot throughout the school day, they will need a rich supply of books they can actually read.”

-Allington

SEM-R Classroom Libraries

• Span several reading ability levels.• Represent a wide range of genres

and formats.• Based on student interests and local

norms.• Are always growing!

Teachers Need• Continued support and professional development that

assist them to: – Bridge between adolescents’ rich literate backgrounds and

school literacy – Recognize when students are not making meaning with

text and provide appropriate, strategic assistance to read course content effectively

– Facilitate student-initiated conversations regarding texts that are authentic and relevant to real life experiences.

– Create environments that allow students to engage in critical examinations of texts as they dissect, deconstruct, and re-construct in an effort to engage in meaning making and comprehension processes.

SEM-R:Instructional Model vs. Curriculum

• Flexibility of SEM-R allows teachers to incorporate current events, life experiences, etc. into a lesson on the spur of the moment.

• SEM-R allows teachers to utilize their skills and instincts on a daily basis.

• At the heart of the SEM-R is a trust and belief in effective teachers.

The Six T’s of effective elementary

literacy instruction

Richard Allington:

“What I’ve Learned About Effective Reading Instruction from a Decade of Studying Exemplary Elementary ClassroomTeachers”

Time

“Extensive reading is critical to the development of reading proficiency. Extensive practice provides the opportunity for students to consolidate the skills and strategies teachers often work so hard to develop.”

-Allington

S.I.R. (Supported Independent Reading)

• Phase 2 of the SEM-R.• Goal: 35-40 minutes of silent

reading.• Teacher is available for “emergency

conferences” during this time.

- You must have a book to read.

- If you aren’t enjoying a book and have

given it a fair chance (10 pages!) ask

someone to help you choose a new one.

- Remain in your reading area during SIR.

- Only reading is happening.

- Books must be appropriately

challenging.

- Do your best reading the whole time.

SIR RulesSIR Rules

Teaching

“The exemplary teachers in our study routinely gave direct, explicit demonstrations of the cognitive strategies that good readers use when they read.”

-Allington

Phase 1Exposure - Book Hooks:

High interest read alouds and higher

order questions

Phase 1 - Exposure

• High-interest book hooks for read aloud

• Higher-order thinking probing questions

• Bookmarks for teachers with questions focusing on advanced thinking skills and reading skill instruction that is relevant to a broad range of literature

Type I Activities

Teacher Read AloudGuidelines in Phase

One

• Use a book you enjoy. • Illustrate reading strategies• Change intonation, speed, and

volume.• Leave them wanting to hear

more. • Scaffold higher level thinking

skills. • Choose multiple books by the

same author. • Change genres and styles

often. • Utilize great books on tape.• Invite special guest readers.

Reading: Strategies vs. Skills• Reading skills = instruction in the following

– Word identification– Fluency– Vocabulary– Comprehension– Study skills

• Reading strategies = process with which readers interact with the text to create meaning

Reading Strategies

Making Connections

Making Connections

Making Connections

Determining Importance

Determining Importance

Determining Importance

Questioning Questioning Questioning

Visualizing Visualizing/Sensory Images

Visualizing & Inferring

Making Inferences

Making Inferences

Summarizing Synthesizing Synthesizing

Metacognition

Paris, 2004 Keene & Zimmerman, 1997 Harvey & Goudvis, 2000

Talk

“The classroom talk we observed was highly personalized, providing targeted replies to student responses. Teacher expertise was the key, not a scripted, teacher-proof instructional product.”

-Allington

SEM-R Questioning Techniques

Bookmarks -• Integrate higher order, open-ended questions• Model appropriately challenging answers • Model reading strategies through think-alouds

or questions• Enable students to consider different ideas

and responses

The individual conferences were so helpful. My average to above average readers really surprised me. They went beyond what I ever thought they could do with

advanced thinking skills and questioning skills.

~ Treatment Teacher

Tasks

• The work the children in these classrooms completed was more substantive and challenging and required more self-regulation

• We described the instructional environment as one of “managed choice.”

-Allington

Conferencing QuestionsWhat book

are you

reading?

What made

you interested

in this book?“What gift would

you like to give the

main character?”

What do you do when you encounter a word

you do not know?

How can you try to

interpret the

meaning of this

section of text?

How would the

book be different if

the main character

was a girl instead of

a boy?

Testing

• Evaluate student work and award grades based more on effort and improvement than simply on achievement.

• The complexity, though, of effort-and-improvement grading lies in the fact that teachers must truly know each of their students well in order to assign grades.

-Allington

The one on one five minute conferences are the best way for me to monitor each child’s unique learning needs, and be able to use strategies individually for each student that benefits them the most.

Conferences Provide:Support for each student’s needs -

• Enthusiasm about books

• Reading skill development

• Interest-based reading opportunities

• Self-regulation/monitoring

• Increasing ability to focus

Support for each student’s needs -

• Enthusiasm about books

• Reading skill development

• Interest-based reading opportunities

• Self-regulation/monitoring

• Increasing ability to focus

Opportunity to assess reading level and book matchOpportunity to assess reading level and book match

Thoughtful conversations about literature Thoughtful conversations about literature

Opportunities to use higher order thinking skill questions from bookmarks

Opportunities to use higher order thinking skill questions from bookmarks

Differentiation for students in skills, questions, and book selection for OPTIMAL CHALLENGE!

Differentiation for students in skills, questions, and book selection for OPTIMAL CHALLENGE!

“Our study of these exemplary teachers suggests that such teaching cannot be packaged. Exemplary teaching is not regurgitation of a common script but is responsive to children’s needs.”

-Allington

Components of the SEM-R Framework

Phase 1 - ExposurePhase 2 - Training &

Self-Selected Reading

Phase 3 - Interest & Choice

Components

• High-interest book hooks for read aloud

• Higher-order thinking probing questions

• Bookmarks for teachers with questions focusing on advanced thinking skills and reading skill instruction that is relevant to a broad range of literature

Training and discussions on Supported Independent Reading

One-on-one teacher conferences on higher level reading strategy and instruction

Bookmarks for students posing higher-order questions regarding character, plot, setting, considering the story, and other useful topics.

Introducing creative thinking

Exploring the Internet Genre studies Literary exploration Responding to books Investigation centers Focus on biographies Buddy reading Books on tape Literature circles Creative or expository

writing Type III investigations

Type I Activities Type II Activities Type II & Type III Investigations

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Coles: Moral Intelligence

• Character development as the basis of intelligence

• Children learn from:• The example of others• Explicit dialogue about moral issues• Acknowledgement of thoughts and feelings

surrounding these moral issues

Adapted from Coles, 1997

Resources for

Finding Books

High-interest social justice literature

• Boxes for Katje - World War II, poor girl in Holland gets a box from a girl in Indiana that ends up affecting townspeople from Holland and Indiana alike (inspired by true story).

• Ana Dodson Advocate for Peruvian Orphans - from the Young Heroes biography series - true story about an adopted girl in Colorado raising money to buy vitamins for an orphanage in Peru.

• Ryan and Jimmy And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together - true story about a Canadian first grader who collected money to build a well in Africa....a boy from Africa (Jimmy) ends up moving in with Ryan's family.

• The Yellow Star: The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark - the legend of the Danes in WWII who wore yellow stars so that the Jewish people wouldn't stand out when the Nazi soldiers occupied the country.

Kids Can Give Back website

• Links to latest research on social awareness and social justice

• Open line of communication among educators

• Database of the best-of-the-best social justice resources for teachers, parents, and students

http://sites.google.com/site/socialactiondatabase/Created by J. Bachinski & J. Helbling