Helping All Students Learn to Read and Write

A Guide for Teachers

Grade 3

Thank You

The New York State Education Department wants to say thank you to these people. They helped make this guide:

• Annmarie Urso, from a college in Geneseo, NY
• Dee Berlinghoff, from DB Consulting
• Dawn Hamlin, from a college in Oneonta, NY

This guide was made in September 2019.

What's Inside

Reading

• Using Pictures and Charts to Help Us Learn (page 1)
• Reading Together Out Loud (page 4)

Writing

• Sentence Starters for Paragraphs (page 5)
• Writing Frames (page 8)
• Practicing with Help (page 11)

Talking and Listening

• Sentence Starters (page 14)

Words

• Teaching New Words (page 16)
• The Frayer Model (page 18)

More Information (page 23)

Introduction

New learning goals help students learn skills they will need for school, jobs, and life. These goals show what students should know. Teachers use good teaching to help students get there — like using a map to reach a destination (the place you want to go).

Teachers need to make sure every student can learn — even students who learn in different ways. This includes:

• students with disabilities
• students who are learning English
• other students who find the work hard

Teachers should use many different ways of teaching. Every classroom should feel safe and caring. Teachers should think about each student's age, how they learn, what language they speak at home, their culture, and any disabilities they may have.

Teachers should also think about "Universal Design for Learning." This means teaching in ways that let all students:

• see and hear information in different ways
• show what they know in different ways
• stay interested and involved in different ways

These ideas help remove things that get in the way of learning. They help make sure all students get a fair chance to learn.

Why This Guide Was Made

This guide gives teachers ideas called scaffolds. A scaffold is like a helper tool. It's a support that teachers plan ahead of time. It gives students help right when they need it — not too much, not too little.

Scaffolds do NOT mean giving different students different books or different math problems. Instead, scaffolds help ALL students work with the same grade-level material. Scaffolds help students build the skills they need. Over time, as students get better, the teacher takes the scaffold away — just like builders take away scaffolding from a building once it's finished.

The scaffolds in this guide come from a teaching method called explicit instruction. This means teaching in clear, step-by-step ways. It includes:

• telling students why they are learning something
• showing and explaining the new skill
• letting students practice with helpful feedback

Teachers can use these scaffolds in any subject, not just English. The examples in this guide come from English and math lessons. But teachers can use these ideas in any lesson. Any teacher — including general education teachers, special education teachers, and teachers who teach English learners — can use these scaffolds. They help make lessons easier to access for everyone, without making the lesson easier or less important.

How to Use This Guide

When teachers give students extra help, they should do it carefully. No student should feel picked out or different. Here are some tips:

• Let ALL students use scaffolded worksheets or activities — not just some students.
• Mix different types of students together in groups when it makes sense.
• Let students learning English use their home language to help them learn.
• Give students individual help without making it obvious.
• Use technology often to help make lessons easier for everyone to understand.

In this guide, the Table of Contents is organized by topic: reading, writing, speaking and listening, and language. Each section lists scaffolds you can use.

Each scaffold in this guide explains:

• What it is
• Who it helps
• How to use it in a real lesson

The example scripts show what a scaffold might sound like. But teachers should feel free to change the words to fit their own students. The examples come from real lessons, but the goal is to show teachers how they can use these tools in any lesson.

What Each Scaffold Page Includes:

Name of the Scaffold
Which lesson it comes from

What the scaffold is:
This explains what the tool is and how to use it.

What the teacher does:
This gives step-by-step directions for the teacher.

What the students do:
This explains what students do during the activity.

What materials are needed:
This lists anything the teacher needs to make for students.

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Using Pictures and Charts to Help Us Learn

From: Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 2

What the scaffold is:

A graphic organizer is a chart or picture that helps students organize their ideas. It helps students explain what they read more clearly. Some students need extra help learning how to use one.

This example uses a chart called the "Close Read Recording Form." It helps students find important details in a story called Rain School. Teachers can use this same idea with any graphic organizer.

What the teacher does:

Step 1: You can add extra words to the chart to help students understand it better (see the example on page 3).

Step 2: You can add pictures to help students understand the words on the chart.

Step 3: Show students how to fill out the chart by thinking out loud as you do it.

Teacher says: "We are going to use this chart to find important parts of our story. We will read Rain School again and fill in the chart together. We will listen for certain things as we read."

Show a big copy of the chart on paper, or use a projector. Give each student their own copy. Have them fill it out with you.

Teacher explains each box:

• The first box says "Somebody..." This means the character — the person or animal the story is about.

• The next box says "in..." This means the setting — the place where the story happens. (For example, if we wrote a story about our class, the setting would be our classroom.)

• The next box says "wanted..." This means the motivation — what the character wants or needs.

• The next box says "but..." This means the problem — the reason the character can't get what they want.

• The next box says "so..." This means the resolution — how the problem gets solved, and how the story ends.

Teacher says: "As I read, listen for these parts. When I read about a character, a setting, what someone wants, a problem, or a solution, I will stop. I'll add it to my chart. Then you can add it to yours too."

Read the story again with the class. Stop at the right moments to fill in the chart, thinking out loud each time.

For students who need more help, break the story into smaller parts that match each box on the chart. As students get better at this, give less help each time. Let them try more on their own.