PROVIDING EQUAL ACCESS TO A RANGE OF READING LEVELS

Idea Circles & Inquiry Charts

Purpose & Agenda

Purposes Provide relevant information on the whats, whys, and

hows of Idea Circles and Inquiry Charts Provide time for application to individual classrooms

and collaboration with othersAgenda

Time Action Purpose

9:05 – 9:35 Presentation Share information

9:35 – 10:10 Application Share resources, plan, collaborate

10:10 – 10:15 Wrap-Up Share final thoughts/further questions

What are they?

Idea Circles are small groups of

students reading different texts about the same topic (Guthrie,

1994)

Inquiry Charts (I-Charts) are an instructional framework to organize and synthesize

students’ reading (Hoffman, 1992).

Together, they provide a context

for students to gain equal access to higher-order

thinking about the same content-

specific vocabulary and

ideas.

Why do it?

Literacy demands of middle/high schoolAdequate time for literacy instructionAlignment to best practices in adolescent

literacy instruction (Reading Next, 2004) Comprehension Instruction

Comprehension/metacognition instruction Scaffolded instruction Apprenticeship model

Motivation/Self-Directed Learning Text-Based Collaborative Learning Diverse Texts Writing Instruction

How do you do it?: Overall Considerations

Topic Key vocabulary Key understandings

Student Grouping Reading levels Background knowledge

Texts Authentic Engaging Relevant

Example: Teacher Planning Sheet

Example: Student Chart

The HOW: I-Charts Example

The HOW: Planning

QuestionsStudent AssumptionsReading/Responding

Informational Text www.newsela.com www.thinkcerca.com

Reading Lists www.reading.org/Resources/Booklists.apsx www.socialstudies.org/notable http://www.nsta.org/publications/ostb/ http://www3.cde.ca.gov/reclitlist/search.aspx (all grade levels/disciplines)

Summarizing Modeling Co-construct all summaries

Rapid Research/Reporting

The HOW: What next?

Text-Dependent Tasks (in other words…accessing complex text requires

students to DO something with their new knowledge)

Writing RAFT “I am” poem Multi-genre writing

Speaking Collaborative Reasoning Socratic Seminar Debate

The HOW: Gradual Release

As students become proficient with the framework, offer them greater autonomy throughstudent-selected topics,

student-generated questions, and

student-selected response tasks.

Final Thoughts/Questions

Take-Away: How would you summarize today’s work in one sentence?

Jamie.abercrombie@cabarrus.k12.nc.us Literacy Wiki: www.ccsliteracyresources.wikispaces.com