For the past few years, reading has taken center stage in PD—specifically because this is an area that has been deemed as being one that most of our students struggle with as evidenced by ISAT performance. For the past couple of years, teachers have been exposed to the concept of Reading Across the Curriculum. At first, Haugan received PD from an outside consultant and then last year, most of our PD was delivered on-site by our Master Teachers. This year, we are going full force with Reading Across the Curriculum and marrying it to the Differentiation concept—Haugan personnel will be the driving force behind the initiative; in terms of providing all PD ourselves. So far, we have delivered 4 PowerPoint presentations that have some type of literacy/differentiation element embedded into it: Ex: 1. Formative Assessment; 2. Word Maps to Build Comprehension; 3. Summarizing; and 4. Differentiation. Summarizing ppt: Summarizing is one of the 6 power comprehension strategies (summarizing, predicting, activating prior knowledge, making connections, questioning, and inferencing) that proficient readers utilize while reading. Knowing this, and seeing that this is also one of the strategies that many of our students have difficulty grasping, as it is reflected on ISAT, we have decided to continue presenting teachers with summarizing techniques/methods. We know that summarizing is one that will give students particular leverage, especially as they tackle complicated text in each of the different content-areas.

1. Showing Evolving Thinking by Summarizing the Content and Adding Personal Response Lisa Lazansky-Roach & Beth Spitelli 9/22/2011

2. Bell-Ringer Why do you think summarizing is a difficult concept to teach?

5. they write down next to nothing.

6. they give complete sentences.

7. they write way too much.

8. they don't write enough.

10. focus on key details.

11. use key words and phrases.

12. break down the larger ideas.

13. write only enough to convey the gist.

15. Summarizing Strategy: Summarizing/Personal Response This strategy is used to help students summarize what they have read and respond personally. Use the graphic organizer to summarize your selection and respond personally to the question raised. Harvey & Goudvis – Strategies That Work

16. Closure How do you see yourself using the summary/personal response strategy to assist in the development of your students’ comprehension skills?