Participants’ ideas include…

• They could actually draw a picture using details from the story. We have a drawing program on our computers; we can have them use it to draw a picture for visualization. 
• Visualization is closely tied to inference.  I find that students who can merge their background knowledge with text clues have an easier time making inferences about unfamiliar words and ideas.  Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis present some very good lessons about this topic in their books Strategies that Work and The Comprehension Toolkit.  It's so important for students to pause frequently in order to reflect on the text - digging deeper into meaning.
• Usually, I tell students to create a movie in their mind.  Have students close their eyes and listen to the words.  Then have them draw a picture and restate what happened.
• I took some excerpts from the text and asked why this event would be important to visualize.  Why is it significant and memorable?  Then I ask the students to stop and create a picture of the scene in their mind and describe it in writing. 
• I reviewed with the students their "Five senses" and told them to put themselves in the scene. Then they were to explain what they saw, heard, smelled, touched, tasted. One day before we started TR I had them close their eyes as I described a scene. I told them to pretend they were at a BBQ of family picnic - either by a lake, pool or ocean. Think about what everybody's doing. People are swimming; some are playing or laughing. Some people are putting food on the table or grilling etc.  I kept explaining this scene and then I had them open their eyes and write their visualization.
• I would say focus on the main idea of the chapter/text and create a picture in your mind.  Next, list some of the main details on a sheet of paper to refer to as you make your drawing.
• My favorite thing to do in the classroom to enhance visualization is to have the students draw a picture of the scene in question.  Around the edges of the paper, I have them write adjectives connecting with each of the five senses.  This gets them thinking a little bit more.  To adapt this to answer the computer prompts, have the students make sure that they describe how the scene in question relates to each of these five senses.

Participants’ ideas include…

• I haven't always had time to conference but after my observation and meeting with Peggy I'll be trying more small group conferencing. I liked how she modeled that.  Also, I've been looking through their most recent log entries the day before, and then during class I circulate and quietly talk to individuals who need to revise different strategies.  I might talk to them about their last visualization for example and have them elaborate their last entry.
• The only time that I have had time to conference with my students about the Thinking Reader program and texts are during the time we are in the computer lab and they are on the computers. I have been working with groups of two or three.  I have found that they are very interested to hear other students’ ideas and thoughts on the story.  It's working well.
• I am also having difficulty doing individual conferencing.  After meeting with the group from Haverhill I am going to try a couple of strategies for my new story:
• I will conference with them through teacher comments.  ( I used this the first book and found it helpful)
• Once a week I am going to have them print out their responses and take them home for homework and edit them.  For example:  fixing any spelling or capitals along with elaborating more on their answers.  Then in class I can quickly check to see what they are working on.
• I made a copy of the strategies for each passage that Kristen sent to us but I added on two columns at the end.  One for Justin and one for Destiny.  Each student will keep their own copy and after each response check off whether or not they used Justin or Destiny for help.  This way I can see if there is one particular strategy that they are continuing to have trouble with or are they always clicking on them for a model.
• When I conference, I include 3-4 students in a group.  I ask each student about a different strategy and they end up having an open discussion about each other's strategies as well as the story.  I actually look forward to the conferencing.  The students get so involved.  I conference once or twice per week during an LA or Reading class.

We don't want you to lose any of your important, 'moment to moment' teaching as students work with Thinking Reader!  Do what you would do normally--walk around the room and look over kids' shoulders, ask them to comment or elaborate on their thoughts, guide them just as you would do normally. For example, "Janelle, I see you’re working on one of the strategies.  Tell me what you have so far…That’s an excellent prediction. Can you add your explanation, the 'because…'  what evidence from the text and from your own experience makes you predict that?"  

Or, ask a few students each session to come over to you the next time they are ready to respond to a strategy.  That way you can work with them as they construct their responses and get a better picture of what they're thinking about the text.  For a few other students, check in with them during the session and ask them to show you their last worklog response.  Ask them questions about how that strategy is going.  For example, if the last response was a visualization, "Tell me, how is visualization for you?  You do a good job of telling where this is happening, but I don’t really 'get' the excitement.  This is an intense part of the story.  Let’s click revise and add some detail to make it come alive."  Then, work with the student on elaborating the response.

You can also think about using the responses in the worklog as a separate class or individual activity, not just as response. For example, as you respond to the student's work, ask them (in a group, one-on-one, face to face or through the TR 'comments' feature) to pause, reflect on your feedback and incorporate your suggestions into their responses – this would take the student back to the response with a purpose rather than just reading it and moving on-- and make the student-teacher role much more interactive.  

All of this is just to say, the program is just a tool there to help you and your students--both of you still want and need that great discussion and interaction!

First, do some investigating.  Is there a consistency with what the kids are finding most challenging?  Are the fact questions difficult for them? the inference questions? Is vocabulary the biggest challenge? 

If fact and inference questions are the problem, perhaps small group and whole group discussion using real or made-up work log entries, modeling the process of resolving confusions and misunderstandings with the group might help.  Also, ask a few students each session to call you over the next time they're ready to 'Stop and Think' so that you can build the response together.  That way you can guide them and help them tease out the details-- and get a better picture of how your students are thinking.  You can also circulate around to kids during the session and ask them to show you their most recent worklog entry.  Comment on their work and coach them to elaborate and bring their response to life--that helps kids remember the text, and it's details.  For example, if the last response was a feeling, " Tell me, how is the 'feeling' strategy working for you?  How do you think the Esperanza feels when she has to leave all her things behind when she leaves her home?  Have you ever had to leave something important to you?  How did you feel?  When you make a connection with the text make it come alive. " 

If vocabulary seems to be a problem, off-line activities around challenging words--especially having the students create their own connections with the words and 'making the words their own' could be beneficial.

And finally, remember that the quiz scores are just one way that Thinking Reader captures how well students understand the text.  Their work log responses, conferences and conversations, along with the quiz scores, will give you a full sense of how students are comprehending the material.

Students work at different paces, and this can be challenging when working with Thinking Reader.  How can you manage this, especially since you don’t want to hold up the rest of the class too long?  Here are a couple of ideas that have helped teachers in the past and may work for your students-- 

If the kids are behind because of absences and can read the book on their own, have them take a print version of the novel home and ask them to read and write their strategy responses down on paper to share with you.  

If the kids are behind because they are processing the book very slowly or are confused about how to respond, then this would take some additional help.  Are they using the listening tool--TTS?  Using TTS will help speed things up for slower readers.  Are the strategy responses slowing them down? Try working with the student on one response together to see how much support they need.  If the student is misunderstanding the strategies, have a whole-group or small group discussion to clairfy how to construct a good response.  If the student has difficulty processing information or is slow typing, and if they have time with a Title 1 teacher or a special education teacher, you could ask that teacher to work with them on Thinking Reader to help them catch up.  If you have a student who is way ahead, perhaps ask that student to work with the student who is behind to help catch them up.

While you may have limited time for make-up sessions, perhaps there there is some free time (even 10-15 minutes at a classroom computer) to fit in some time for these students. That would help, but students would need to be able to progress on their own.

Feel free to contact your CAST coach if you would like to discuss this or any other concern more.

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