October 20, 2010

Sheila Kraus

Kristy Poplau

IntroductionsStruggling Reader ActivityTips for working with a struggling reader

Pre Reading ActivityInference ActivitySummarization ActivityReview Packet

Do not set a struggling reader up for failure• Activate prior knowledge and predict• Shared reading/partner reading • Work in cooperative groups for inferential comprehension• Provide graphic organizer whenever possible• Assess learning in multiple ways

Choose Appropriate Reading Materials• Five finger method; choose a portion of the text for the child to

read aloud. Each time a word is skipped or mispronounced, count it out with your fingers. If you get to five, the book is too hard.

• Sentence method; if students have one or two errors in several sentences then they will more than likely become frustrated.

DiscussWhat does the

title imply? What does the

book cover tell you about the main character?

What do the subtitles tell you?

Have student’s read the book summary. What might this book be about? What predictions do you have?

About the BookThe New York Times bestseller, and one of the most talked about books of the year, Nickel and Dimed has already become a classic of undercover reportage. Millions of Americans work for poverty-level wages, and one day Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that any job equals a better life. But how can anyone survive, let alone prosper, on $6 to $7 an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, taking the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing-home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon discovered that even the "lowliest" occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts. And one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Mostly out of laziness, I decide to start my low-wage life in the town nearest to where I actually live, Key West, Florida, which with a population of about 25,000 is elbowing its way up to the status of a genuine city.

Activate Prior Knowledge- Where is Key West Florida? Is it a larger city? How do you know? How does Key West’s population compare with

Kansas City? Why does the character imply that she is lazy?

Mostly out of laziness, I decide to start my low-wage life in the town nearest to where I actually live, Key West, Florida, which with a population of about 25,000 is elbowing its way up to the status of a genuine city. The downside of familiarity, I soon realize, is that it’s not easy to go from being a consumer, thoughtlessly throwing money around in exchange for groceries and movies and gas, to being a worker in the very same place. I am terrified, especially at the beginning, of being recognized by some friendly business owner or erstwhile neighbor and having to stammer out some explanation of my project. Happily, though, my fears turn out to be entirely unwarranted: during a month of poverty and toil, no one recognizes my face or my name which goes unnoticed and for the most part unuttered. In this parallel universe where my father never got out of the mines and I never got through college. I am "baby,” “honey,” “blondie,” and, most commonly, “girl.”

Term Know Term

Not Sure

Don’t Know

Definition Memory Clue

Sentence

Schema + Evidence = InferenceSchema + Evidence = Inference

Building the students’ background knowledge and connecting their thinking Building the students’ background knowledge and connecting their thinking to evidence in the story allow students to make inferences.to evidence in the story allow students to make inferences.

Inference Question Stems

• My guess is……

• It could be that …….

• This could mean that……

• I predict that…..

• I infer……

Inference Activity….. Concrete Example

from the story “The Stray” 6th grade Holt book

What’s In My Bag?• In groups, give students a bag with several items from the story.

Sun, dog, door, house, dog food, icicle, cage, air freshener

• Students brainstorm how the items are related to the story.

• Students read through the story (partner read).

• Students then find evidence in the story to support their guesses and complete the table.

BK + TC = I

Inference Organizer

Inference EvidenceIt is cold and snowy. The icicles on the house.

Link the inference and the evidence with arrows to emphasize their relationship

Being Poor in the Land of Plenty By John W. Fountain Article taken from: http://discoverer.sirs.com

 Almost 33 million Americans are poor – a third of them children under 18. In a world dominated by mall culture, what’s it like for teens who must struggle to make ends meet?

Paraphrase: ___________________________________________________

 In the last fringes of daylight, 13-year-old Marcus Anthony turns somersaults with his brothers on a mattress in their front yard. Marcus lives in Pembroke Township, a small Illinois farming community about an hour’s drive south of Chicago. Some residents live in crumbling shacks with floors of dirt, windows of plastic, and no running water; the lines at a local food pantry quickly exhaust their supplies each month, and poverty is everywhere.

Paraphrase: __________________________________________ 

Thank you for your Thank you for your participation today!!participation today!!