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Pathways Literacy Unit Picture Resource Guide Power Point Presentation by Sharlene Curet, MS Ed. The Story of George Washington Carver By Eva Moore. What is Pathways?. It is a whole-part-whole approach to teaching language and literacy.
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PathwaysLiteracy UnitPicture Resource GuidePower Point Presentationby Sharlene Curet, MS Ed. The Story of George Washington Carver By Eva Moore
What is Pathways? • It is a whole-part-whole approach to teaching language and literacy. • Newly adopted by the NAD and will soon replace the traditional Life Series Basal Readers.
The 5 Components of Pathways • Whole Group Literacy to teach comprehension strategies • Guided Reading • Reader’s Workshop • Writer’s Workshop • Phonics
Whole Group Literacy • This is the part where you teach the entire class reading comprehension strategies regardless of reading level. • The teacher reads the theme book aloud to the class. The students have their own copies of the book, and they read along silently. • You can teach a particular strategy to a multigrade class and then differentiate the assignment based upon their grade levels. • For example, to assess understanding, you may choose to use a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast elements of the story. Lower grade students’ Venn Diagram will be very simple while the upper grade students will give more details.
Guided Reading • This is where the actual process of reading is taught. • You group your students according to reading ability/skill and work with small groups. • This is what is traditionally thought of as “reading groups.” • While you are working with a small reading group, the other students are engaged in reading rotation activities, or “centers.”
Reader’s Workshop • What is Reader’s Workshop? • One way to conduct the Reader’s Workshop is to add a twist to the what has often been referred to as DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). Others call it SSR (Sustained Silent Reading). • Whatever your name preference, it is basically a time (15-20 minutes) when students can read books of their choice for pleasure. • The difference between DEAR time and Reader’s Workshop is that the teacher circulates through the room while everyone is silently reading and “conferences” with individual students. She, or he, will ask the student about the book. For example: What are you reading? What is it about? Can you read me your favorite part? What do you think will happen next? • The purpose is to see if the student is truly reading with understanding or just flipping pages. • The teacher will try to conference with 3-4 students each time.
Writer’s Workshop • This is the time of the day in which students become writers. • They learn the writing process (brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing and publishing). • The teacher begins with a short mini-lesson (e.g., how to use descriptive words when writing). This should take about 10 minutes. • She/he will model the writing process and then allow students to use the remaining time (about 20 minutes) to put it into practice. • The lessons build upon each other over time. • Each child will be at a different stage of the writing process at a given time. • The teacher will conference with individual students daily to assess their progress.
Phonics • During this time, you will teach students the basics of phonics and phonemic awareness. • You will use the phonics program suggested by your local conference. • Depending on your teaching situation (single grade or multigrade), you may teach these concepts to the whole class or small groups. • You can also use this time for remediation in the upper grades as needed.
Pathways Whole Group Instruction • A portion of your day will be spent in whole group instruction (about 20-30 minutes). • It is during this time that you will teach the comprehension strategies included in the Pathways Teacher Manual. • I will now spend some time describing some of these strategies. • Next to each heading, you will see page numbers. You may refer to these pages in the Pathways Teacher Manual for Grades 3+ for further details.
K-W-L (pages 43-45) • This stands for “What I Know/What I Want to Know/What I Learned.” • A good tool for assessing prior knowledge beginning the unit. • It also helps direct your teaching by finding out what the students are actually interested in learning. • The last part, What I Learned, should be filled in at the end of the unit to assess how much they learned. • It also helps you, as the teacher, assess your teaching. I often find myself making notes to improve upon the unit for next time (what worked, what didn’t).
Concept Maps (pages 29-32) • This was used to determine students’ understanding of the concept of slavery before the unit began. • It was also used at the end of the unit to summarize some of the by-products of peanuts invented by George Carver.
Sticky Notes (pages 90-93) • Although this strategy is often used to generate discussion of the story, I used it with my third graders to identify challenging words within the text. • I gave each child a few “Post-It” strips and asked them to mark any “unknown,” or “challenging” words they came across while I was reading aloud. • At the end of each chapter, I stopped and asked them to share their words. • I then wrote their words on the Vocabulary Theme Board and discussed each one.
Vocabulary (pages 118-127) • This follows on the heels of the last slide about Sticky Notes… • Throughout the unit, the students contributed words for the Theme Board. • After teaching Dictionary Skills, I would allow students to work in cooperative groups to find the definitions of some of the words. • It was their responsibility to then teach others the new words they had discovered. • In this manner, students took ownership of their vocabulary acquisition.
Vocabulary Theme Board • Here is a sample of our Vocabulary Theme Board…
Story Plan Map (pages 54-58) • Literary story elements were introduced in this unit using a Story Plan Map. • This format is just one of many you will find in the Pathways Teacher Manual for Grades 3+.
Question-Answer-Relationships(pages 94-99) • One of my favorites! • Promotes higher-level thinking • This should be introduced early in the year because it takes a while to master. • Another good resource text is QAR Now by Scholastic Publishers
Although probably one of the most difficult concepts to master, it is well worth the effort to teach it. • For the younger students, you may want to only introduce the “In the Book” QARs until they are mastered before going on to the “In My Head” QARs. • This is what I did with my third graders.
Number Notes (pages 25-28) • I consider this to be the “backbone” of my Writer’s Workshop. • This outline strategy helps students identify main idea and details. • It also gives them a framework and tool to organize their thoughts before beginning the writing process. • I have given specific ideas and details on how to teach this within my Writer’s Workshop lesson plans.
Opinion-Proof Notes (pages 47-50) • This tool prepares students for persuasive writing. • Very similar to Number Notes except that you are now trying to persuade your audience. • Can be used even in the lower grades.
Contact Information • To learn more about Pathways, go online to http://www.nadeducation.org/category.html?wscID=204 • If you have questions, you may email me at Sharlene.Curet@floridaconference.com.
