Multilevel Texts for Reading

Palomar College 

"An effective reader is one who not only grasps the ideas communicated in a text but is able to apply them in new contexts. To do this, the reader must be able to think clearly, creatively, and critically about the ideas and information encountered in texts in order to understand, analyse, and absorb them and to recognize their relevance in other contexts." 

-The Ontario Curriculum, Reading (p.10) 

My Own Experience
From my own experience I have seen how it can be a struggle to encourage and engage students to read. As a kid, I lacked motivation for reading and I remember struggling with it in the first couple of grades. However, as I got older I started finding out what types of books or texts I was interested in and that lead me to getting an English degree at Mcmaster University. 

For students that struggle with reading on their own it affects their perception of themselves, and completely disengages them from wanting to read. For intermediate students, some of them still struggle with reading at the appropriate level and that plays a larger social role in the classroom, which affects their desire to read. There is also the struggle is finding texts that they are interested in, and that are appropriate for school.

Overall Expectations for Reading From Ontario Curriculum

1. read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning;
   
2. recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning;
   
3. use knowledge of words and cueing systems to read fluently; reflect on and identify their strengths as readers, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful before, during, and after reading. 

Reading Resources 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mboezi/galleries/72157650765353571/ 

One resource that I found for the reading strand is an article about multilevel texts, and can be found on "Edugains". The article explains that multilevel texts are distinct from levelled texts in that they are written at higher levels of complexity and are suitable for two or more levels of reading, whereas levelled texts control the vocabulary based on reading level. 

Multilevel texts are different from levelled texts because of their various points of view, and use a variety of formatting to emphasize a voice. A couple examples of multilevel texts are texts that use multiple genres of texts and formats to communicate information, such as text boxes and cartoons. Another example is a novel that incorporates both fiction and non-fiction, or poetry and informational texts. 

These multilevel texts act as hybrids that combine various forms of literature, and can communicate information in a variety of forms. One of the most important benefits of multilevel texts is the evidence that the these texts encourage an inclusive classroom, because students of different abilities are able to engage in the same text. Multilevel texts can be a great resource for the classroom because it engages students who are at different reading levels, and depending on the form of the text, it can expand reading skills in a variety of media types. 

Multilevel texts can incorporate multiple genres of literacy, which could appeal to more students, and enhance student engagement.  In the Ontario curriculum, multilevel texts incorporate these expectations:  “Recognize a variety of text forms, text features, and stylistic elements and demonstrate understanding of how they help communicate meaning” and “Read and demonstrate an understanding of a variety of literary, graphic, and informational texts, using a range of strategies to construct meaning”. By reading multilevel texts students have a chance to analyze the text and communicate their knowledge in their writing. 

Here is a link to some multilevel texts 

Reading in Placement 

In my grade 6 class, there are a range of reading levels between 28 students, which can make it difficult to choose one book for the whole class to read. I think this is where multilevel texts would be a great idea to incorporate in the class.  Another idea to use in the classroom would be a "Daily 5", which is a rotation of reading and writing stations of students. 

Students could be group in their reading levels, and could be done every day for 30-40 minutes. This would let students read their choice of text for a station, and another station could be with the teacher where students discuss a previously read article. The last idea that I saw was an "Article board wall", which had daily articles for students to work on during class time or take home for homework. It encourages reading for a short period of time, and critical thinking through answering some questions or writing a paragraph about the article. 

From my previous post about media, it may also be beneficial to use technology to incorporate reading in the classroom. Whether it's having students read various blogs or ebooks. One website I found really interesting was 2titles, it's a website that has you do a brief personality quiz and then it produces a wide range of books you may be interested in. Students could do this at the beginning of the year and this could help teachers get a better idea of what their students are interested in reading. 

Media Studies In The Classroom: The multiple uses of Google

Ontario Curriculum Media Literacy Expectations

“Media literacy” is the result of study of the art and messaging of various forms of media texts. Media texts can be understood to include any work, object, or event that communicates meaning to an audience. Most media texts use words, graphics, sounds, and/or images, in print, oral, visual, or electronic form, to communicate information and ideas to their audience. 

- Ontario Curriculum, Media Studies

http://www.suegorman.com/2015/09/ 

The first strand of language and literacy that we looked at was Media studies. We were asked to look at a variety of blogs, articles, and resources. One of the resources I really enjoyed looking into was Google, and the many different platforms and programs that they offer and how they can be applied to the classroom. The article can be found on Edutopia (http://www.edutopia.org/google-for-educators) . The blog post is titled “Google for Educators: The Best Features for Busy Teachers”. I chose this article because it highlights the different ways you can use Google apps for teaching. These google programs are great for teachers who are less inclined towards media, or are just starting to introduce media in their classrooms.Google offers user-friendly applications to incorporate tech into teaching and only requires internet and a device, which makes it very accessible for teachers and students. The resources that the article discusses are: Google search, Google CS First, Google Keep, Google Drive, Google sites, Google Maps, Google Classroom, and Youtube. Using these Google apps is easy to access because a teacher just needs to create a Gmail account, and it is easy to locate through the Gmail account home page or Google home page.

Media Resources in the Classroom
In my placement classroom, there are only a limited amount of devices available in the school, but they do have a “bring your own device” policy, which encourages students to bring their own devices to use in the classroom. My associate teacher does use Google classroom and I have seen how the students do use it daily, and it allows parents to be involved in their students learning by seeing their work and what is going on inside the classroom. Google classroom lets students be able to work or view any documents or posts by their teachers from any device (so long as there is internet), so students can stay up to date on information. When I am teaching, I would love to incorporate Google apps as part of my lessons or assignments.

Here are the expectations from the Ontario Curriculum for Media Studies:

1      Demonstrate an understanding of a variety of media texts;

2      Identify some media forms and explain how the conventions and techniques associated with them are used to create meaning;

3      Create a variety of media texts for different purposes and audiences, using appropriate forms, conventions, and techniques;

4      Reflect on and identify their strengths, areas for improvement, and the strategies they found most helpful in understanding and creating media texts.

Projects to implement in the classroom
One idea that I’ve been working on is to develop of a type of research group project where students can use Google docs and Google slides to present their final project. Another great site to use for online presentations is Emaze. This is a great website because it is extremely user friendly, you can upload Microsoft power points and convert them into “amaze” presentations, and they are very visually appealing. Trying new sites and programs like this can help students identify the various ways they can present information, and the effects that these types of presentations can have.(ex. iMovie and create a trailer, PowerPoint presentation, Emaze an interactive presentation)

Another idea is to use Google maps, as part of math to calculate the distance between their home and school, and calculate the different times it would take to walk, run, drive to school. As well as to calculate the numerous routes they could possibly take to get to and from school, and which is the shortest.

Teaching Digital Citizenship
Before using these media sources, I would like to do a brief lesson with the students about: using appropriate sites for information, as well as digital citizenship. It it great to use devices in the class and incorporate them into lessons, but I believe it’s important for students to understand the importance of how to conduct themselves online as well as when looking for information that they use the right sources. Here is a great article that goes over digital citizenship: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-citizenship-need-to-know-vicki-davis.