Don't Bore Me! Engaging Literacy Instruction for All - Mary Kim Schreck
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Don’t Bore Me! Engaging Literacy
Instruction for All
Mary Kim SchreckMary Kim Schreck
(Busteed, 2013)
“The drop in student engagement for each
year students are in school is our monumental,
collective national failure. There are several
things that might help to explain why this is
happening—ranging from our overzealous focus
on standardized testing and curricula to our
lack of experiential and project-based learning
pathways for students—not to mention the lack
of pathways for students who will not and do
not want to go on to college.”
—Busteed, 2013
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 1Students who put English (as most boring
subject) report that they dislike it much more
because they are uninterested in the work,
not because it is too hard or because they dislike
their teacher.
(Wiggins, 2011)
file://localhost/Users/marykimschreck/Desktop/GRANT%20WIGGINS/The%20student%20voice%20%E2%80%93%20o
ur%20survey,%20part%201%20%C2%AB%20Granted,%20but%E2%80%A6.html
The Secret Weapon!
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
2 Do not duplicate.Always many choices …
We are curious creatures by nature. Want to get their
attention? Stimulate that innate curiosity in them.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 3What do you notice that is different between your
solar system and the picture?
How can such activities give the wrong idea about
the solar system if they are not discussed?
You and your students should keep on the lookout
for other things in print and in our media that give
the wrong impression about actual realities ….
Collect them!
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
4 Do not duplicate.Find the
mistakes in
this chapter!
Start on p. 122.
The Situation Room:
CNN: Virginia textbooks
full of errors
youtube.com/watch?v=0A4j1qUl1zw
youtube.com/watch?v=0A4j1qUl1zw
How many states in the Confederacy?
The book says 12 …
youtube.com/watch?v=0A4j1qUl1zw
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 5A reader’s purpose affects everything about reading. It
determines what’s important in the text, what is remembered,
and what comprehension strategy a reader uses to enhance
meaning. When students read difficult text without a purpose,
they express the following complaints:
I don’t care about the topic.
I can’t relate to the topic.
I daydream and my mind wanders.
I can’t stay focused.
I just say the words so I can be done. (Tovani, 2000)
I get bored.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
6 Do not duplicate.In research on exemplary teachers, Richard
Allington discovered the best teachers
encouraged a lot more purposeful student talk
than that which occurred in less-successful
classrooms. The teachers listened carefully and
responded authentically, often probing the
students for more information.
(Rog, 2012, p. 14)
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Do not duplicate. 7In an elementary
class with direct
instruction, the
time allowed for
student questions
or dialogue was
50 seconds …
(Rog, 2012, p. 14)
All students MUST answer ALL questions asked of
them … not just Mr. Blue Boy!
Cut up colorful fact books such as Kids Weird but True!
300 Outrageous Facts.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
8 Do not duplicate. Take your “license plate” and colored paper.
Write the name of your state and its motto.
List three interesting facts about your state.
Make a tiny sketch of one or more of its facts.
Share your poster with your table.
This is an example of a non-judgmental activity
… win-win for everyone.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 9“The amount of pre-reading time
should be proportionately small
when compared to the actual
amount of reading.”
—Shanahan, 2012
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
10 Do not duplicate.Choose those least likely to follow you in class …
Before reading Wild About Books,
use an alternate entry point …
So all students have prior knowledge
such as:
Ms. Stork is famous for delivering
babies.
Mr. Hyena is famous for his great
laugh.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 11What is “out” is poor practice in
pre-reading. What is “in” is
effective practice in pre-reading.
Novelty, packaging, presentation,
tasks, choice of materials … all
need your creativity.
The Common Core:
Recognizes creative
thinking, writing, products
Is about weaving together
multiple genres rather then
segregating them
Is about using technology
to communicate
Is about assessing through
real-world roleplay rather
than merely for the purpose
of test taking
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
12 Do not duplicate.The Packaging Matters
Let‘s Try Contrast and Compare
Another secret weapon!
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Do not duplicate. 13Selection of texts:
Transcript of 60 Minutes segment on three
generations of punishment for use in a Socratic
seminar
News articles on the School- to-Prison pipeline
(specifically in Mississippi)
Photos of jailed juveniles and short bios from
interviews by Richard Ross
Charts of numbers imprisoned globally and over
the last decade nationally
One-act play: Dead Man Walking
Film clips of Dead Man Walking
Possible SKYPE interview of Sister Helen Pergrean,
author of Dead Man Walking, or Richard Ross,
photographer/author of Juvenile in Justice
Novel: Mentor: The Kid and the CEO by Tom Pace
Resource list of follow-up sites to visit
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
14 Do not duplicate.1. Do your current projects depend on facts and academic
mastery or do they exist outside of these?
2. Is the class time spent on them too extensive compared to the
time working with the text they should depend on?
3. Are any of your favorite activities too time consuming and do
they trivialize the content?
4. How many projects do you assign? Is there an overabundance
instead of a well-chosen handful carried out with precision
and depth?
5. In order to succeed, projects and activities take more planning,
care, and work for teachers than standard lessons. How do you
personally rate the success of the projects you assign?
To schedule professional
development at your site, contact
Solution Tree
at (800) 733-6786.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 15Activity Sheets:
Don’t Bore Me! Engaging Literacy Instruction for All
What Money Can’t Buy Activity—Examples and Sources from Michael J. Sandel: What
Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, Kindle locations 34–79
Introduction: Markets and Morals
There are some things money can’t buy, but these days, not many. Today, almost everything is
up for sale.
Here are a few examples:
A prison cell upgrade: $82 per night. In Santa Ana, California, and some other cities,
nonviolent offenders can pay for better accommodations—a clean, quiet jail cell, away
from the cells for nonpaying prisoners.1
Access to the carpool lane while driving solo: $8 during rush hour. Minneapolis and
other cities are trying to ease traffic congestion by letting solo drivers pay to drive in
carpool lanes, at rates that vary according to traffic.2
The services of an Indian surrogate mother to carry a pregnancy: $6,250. Western
couples seeking surrogates increasingly outsource the job to India, where the practice is
legal and the price is less than one-third the going rate in the United States.3
The right to immigrate to the United States: $500,000. Foreigners who invest $500,000
and create at least 10 jobs in an area of high unemployment are eligible for a green card
that entitles them to permanent residency.4
The right to shoot an endangered black rhino: $150,000. South Africa has begun letting
ranchers sell hunters the right to kill a limited number of rhinos, to give the ranchers an
incentive to raise and protect the endangered species.5
The cell phone number of your doctor: $1,500 and up per year. A growing number of
“concierge” doctors offer cell phone access and same-day appointments for patients
willing to pay annual fees ranging from $1,500 to $25,000.6
The right to emit a metric ton of carbon into the atmosphere: €13 (about $18). The
European Union runs a carbon emissions market that enables companies to buy and sell
the right to pollute.7
Admission of your child to a prestigious university: Although the price is not posted,
officials from some top universities told The Wall Street Journal that they accept some
less than stellar students whose parents are wealthy and likely to make substantial
financial contributions.8
1 Jennifer Steinhauer, “For $82 a Day, Booking a Cell in a 5-Star Jail,” New York Times, April 29, 2007
2 Daniel Machalaba, “Paying for VIP Treatment in a Traffic Jam: More Cities Give Drivers Access to Express Lanes—
for a Fee,” Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2007.
3 Sam Dolnick, “World Outsources Pregnancies to India,” USA Today, December 31, 2007; Amelia Gentleman, “India
Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood,” New York Times, March 10, 2008.
4 Eliot Brown, “Help Fund a Project, and Get a Green Card,” Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2011; Sumathi Reddy,
“Program Gives Investors Chance at Visa,” Wall Street Journal, June 7, 2011.
5 Brendan Borrell, “Saving the Rhino Through Sacrifice,” Bloomberg Businessweek, December 9, 2010
6 Tom Murphy, “Patients Paying for Extra Time with Doctor: ‘Concierge’ Practices, Growing in Popularity, Raise
Access Concerns,” Washington Post, January 24, 2010; Paul Sullivan, “Putting Your Doctor, or a Whole Team of
Them, on Retainer,” New York Times, April 30, 2011.
7 The current price in euros can be found at www.pointcarbon.com.
8 Daniel Golden, “At Many Colleges, the Rich Kids Get Affirmative Action: Seeking Donors, Duke Courts
‘Development Admits,’” Wall Street Journal, February 20, 2003.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
16 Do not duplicate.Not everyone can afford to buy these things. But today there are lots of new ways to make
money. If you need to earn some extra cash, here are some novel possibilities:
Rent out space on your forehead (or elsewhere on your body) to display commercial
advertising: $777. Air New Zealand hired thirty people to shave their heads and wear
temporary tattoos with the slogan “Need a change? Head down to New Zealand.”9
Serve as a human guinea pig in a drug safety trial for a pharmaceutical company:
$7,500. The pay can be higher or lower, depending on the invasiveness of the procedure
used to test the drug’s effect, and the discomfort involved.10
Fight in Somalia or Afghanistan for a private military company: $250 per month
to $1,000 per day. The pay varies according to qualifications, experience, and
nationality.11
Stand in line overnight on Capitol Hill to hold a place for a lobbyist who wants to attend
a congressional hearing: $15–20 per hour. The lobbyists pay line-standing companies,
who hire homeless people and others to queue up.12
If you are a second grader in an underachieving Dallas school, read a book: $2. To
encourage reading, the schools pay kids for each book they read.13
If you are obese, lose fourteen pounds in four months: $378. Companies and health
insurers offer financial incentives for weight loss and other kinds of healthy behavior.14
Buy the life insurance policy of an ailing or elderly person, pay the annual premiums
while the person is alive, and then collect the death benefit when he or she dies:
potentially, millions (depending on the policy). This form of betting on the lives of
strangers has become a $30 billion industry. The sooner the stranger dies, the more the
investor makes.15
We live at a time when almost everything can be bought and sold. Over the past three decades,
markets—and market values—have come to govern our lives as never before. We did not arrive
at this condition through any deliberate choice. It is almost as if it came upon us.
As the Cold War ended, markets and market thinking enjoyed unrivaled prestige,
understandably so. No other mechanism for organizing the production and distribution of goods
had proved as successful at generating affluence and prosperity. And yet, even as growing
numbers of countries around the world embraced market mechanisms in the operation of their
economies, something else was happening. Market values were coming to play a greater and
greater role in social life. Economics was becoming an imperial domain. Today, the logic of
buying and selling no longer applies to material goods alone but increasingly governs the whole
of life. It is time to ask whether we want to live this way.
9 Andrew Adam Newman, “The Body as Billboard: Your Ad Here,” New York Times, February 18, 2009.
10 Carl Elliott, “Guinea-Pigging,” New Yorker, January 7, 2008.
11 Matthew Quirk, “Private Military Contractors: A Buyer’s Guide,” The Atlantic, September 2004, p. 39, quoting P. W.
Singer; Mark Hemingway, “Warriors for Hire,” Weekly Standard, December 18, 2006; Jeffrey Gettleman, Mark
Massetti, and Eric Schmitt, “U.S. Relies on Contractors in Somalia Conflict,” New York Times, August 10, 2011.
12
Sarah O’Connor, “Packed Agenda Proves Boon for Army Standing in Line,” Financial Times, October 13, 2009; Lisa
Lerer, “Waiting for Good Dough,” Politico, July 26, 2007; Tara Palmeri, “Homeless Stand in for Lobbyists on Capitol
Hill,” CNN, http:// edition.cnn.com/ 2009/ POLITICS/ 07/ 13/ line.standers/.
13
Amanda Ripley, “Is Cash the Answer?” Time, April 19, 2010, pp. 44–45.
14
In one weight-loss study, participants earned an average of $378.49 for losing fourteen pounds over sixteen weeks.
See Kevin G. Volpp, “Paying People to Lose Weight and Stop Smoking,” Issue Brief, Leonard Davis Institute of Health
Economics, University of Pennsylvania, vol. 14, February 2009; K. G. Volpp et al., “Financial Incentive-Based
Approaches for Weight Loss,” JAMA 300 (December 10, 2008): 2631–37.
15
Sophia Grene, “Securitising Life Policies Has Dangers,” Financial Times, August 2, 2010; Mark Maremont and
Leslie Scism, “Odds Skew Against Investors in Bets on Strangers’ Lives,” Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21, 2012.
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 17(Schreck, 2012, p. 163)
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
18 Do not duplicate.References
Beatrice, P. (2007). Nifty plates from the fifty states: Take a ride across our great nation; learn
about the states from their license plates. Kennebunkport, ME: Applesauce Press.
Busteed, B. (2013, January). The school cliff: Student engagement drops with each school year.
The Gallup Blog. Retrieved from: http://thegallupblog.gallup.com/2013/01/the-school-
cliff-student-engagement.html
CNN. (2010). Virginia textbooks full of errors. The Situation Room. Retrieved from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A4j1qUl1zw
Masoff, J. (2010). Our Virginia—past and present. West Palm Beach, FL: Five Ponds Press.
National Geographic Kids. (2011). Weird but true! 3: 300 outrageous facts. Washington, DC:
National Geographic Society.
Rog, L. (2012). Guiding readers: Making the most of the 18-minute guided reading lesson.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Sandel, M. J. (2012). What money can’t buy: The moral limits of markets. New York, NY: Farrar,
Straus, & Giroux.
Schreck, M. K. (2012). From tired to inspired: Fresh strategies to engage students in literacy.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
Shanahan, T. (2012, March). Part 2: Practice guidance on pre-reading lessons. Shanahan on
Literacy [blog]. Retrieved from http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/2012/03/part-2-
practical-guidance-on-pre.html
Tovani, C. (2000). I read it, but I don’t get it: Comprehension strategies for adolescent readers.
Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Wiggins, G. (2011). Student survey. Hopewell, NJ: Authentic Education. Retrieved from:
http://grantwiggins.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/ae-student-survey-20111.pdf
© Schreck 2013. solution-tree.com
Do not duplicate. 19You can also read
