Kathleen/Moderator - Our guest is Linda Hoyt, author of "Snapshots, Literacy Mini-Lessons" and "Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension" published by Heinemann.
Kathleen/Moderator - Linda Hoyt, Teachers.Net is very happy to have you here for this Heinemann chat!
Linda Hoyt - Thank you very much. It is my pleasure.
Kathleen/Moderator - Linda, you Snapshots-Literacy Minilessons Up Close is being discussed in our mailrings, very popular. What grade levels does it address?
Linda Hoyt - Snapshots is especially designed for elementary grades K-6 but I am hearing from some middle school teachers that the emphasis on doing more teaching and less assigning is supporting them as well.Kathleen/Moderator - Linda, why mini-lessons?
Linda Hoyt - I believe that minilessons give us an opportunity to explicitly demonstrate the strategies which good readers and writers inherently use without risking boredom and lack of attention. Minilessons are quick, to the point, and move students quickly into guided practice.Kathleen/Moderator - Are mini-lessons time fillers, or planned in advance?
Linda Hoyt - Minilessons are planned in advance with a careful eye to the understandings that students need to apply immediately. Snapshots is designed to assist teachers by providing ready to use masters for transparencies which can be easily presented to students across the curriculum.Bookwoman - I have read Revisit but am not familiar with Snapshots. What type of book is it?
Kathleen/Moderator - Snapshots: A guide to conducting minilessons across the literacy spectrum. Oral reading, guided reading, independent reading, writing. More than 170 of her best minilessons for understanding individual words and whole texts, fiction and nonfiction.mira - So these minilessons assist teachers in all these areas and not just writing?
Linda Hoyt - Yes. The minilessons in Snapshots are unique from those we are used to seeing in writing as they cover everything from phonemic awareness to phonics to literature circles and so on.Kathleen/Moderator - Are the mini-lessons whole group lessons?
Linda Hoyt - Minilessons fit into both whole class and small group formats. I use whole class minilessons with read alouds, just before independent reading, during science and social studies.... I use small group minilessons during guided reading, literature circles and so on.Kathleen/Moderator - Linda, it appears the book is full of reproducibles, pick up and go. Is that the case, quick and easy for the teacher to put into action?
Linda Hoyt - That is exactly the idea. The reproducibles make it possible to teach a high quality lesson with a minimum of preparation. Just make an overhead and you are done! Once teachers try out a few of the lessons, they are telling me how easy it is to create their own lessons very quickly and easily.Kathleen/Moderator - Tonight's session is sponsored by Heinemann http://www.heinemann.com the publisher of Linda's books, Snapshots and Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension.
mira - I am specifically having difficulty with retellings. Any help for that in your book?
Linda Hoyt - My first book, Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension has tons of support for retellings.Bookwoman - Can the minilessons be used in any sequence?
Linda Hoyt - It depends on your teaching points and the area of the curriculum you are supporting. As an example, strategy mini lessons of which there is an entire chapter might be used in random order and selected to match the needs of your students.ML - What grade level are your books aimed at?
Linda Hoyt - Revisit, Reflect, Retell is designed for K-8 but high school teachers are telling me they like it for the content area support it provides. Snapshots was designed for K-6 but middle school teachers are reporting similar responses.mira - What about writing? There is a need in our school for mini-lessons. How is that addressed in your book?
Yell - What kind of mini-lessons are presented in your book?
Linda Hoyt - The minilessons cover reading strategies, oral reading strategies, phonemic awareness, phonics, guided reading, literature circles, independent reading, informational texts and writingBookwoman - Can you give us an example from your book designed to address questioning as a reading strategy?
Linda Hoyt - Yes! Question It is a strategy where you demonstrate through a Think Aloud the process for generating questions while you read. After showing the students how to do it showing various ways I ask questions as I read, students then move into guided practice using sticky notes and making a conscious effort to think of their personal questions.Kathleen/Moderator - Linda, so the lesson is mini, but the activity is not necessarily so?
Linda Hoyt - Absolutely! The teaching time is brief but very targeted to what you want the students to do... the majority of time is spent in students engaging in the strategy you modeled during the minilesson.Bookwoman - This book Snapshots, then is a newly or recently published book?
Linda Hoyt - New. It was released in SeptemberSueLarson - The teachers at my school use minilessons before guided reading, but they are asking for a "structure," perhaps in the form of a reading series. How do I best answer that question?
Linda Hoyt - I would encourage them to consider the structure of the lesson instead of a series. I advocate for two minilessons in a guided reading lesson. The first minilesson on a good reader strategy such as visualize, self-question, use picture clues and so on... The second minilesson is a look at word study/or letter/sound knowledge.mira - Can you give us an example of a minilesson on phonemic awareness?
Linda Hoyt - A fun phonemic awareness minilesson is one I call IN THE BAG.. I take two brown paper bags and place items into each which begin with the same sound... Example bag one has a Band-Aid and bag two has a book.. and so on. Students come to the bags pick up an item while holding it inside and out of view then state... my item begins with "b" or whatever sound. The students with the second bag is challenged to find an item with the same beginning sound. After they catch on, I send them in teams around the room to search for items which start with the same soundYell - If you have a student that is in grade three and reads at a grade nine level, how do you incorporate their interest into your reading program?
Linda Hoyt - A grade three student reading at grade nine! How fortunate. I believe that I spend much of my best and most productive time reading things that I am interested in but are still not at my instructional level. I wonder if your third grader might enjoy reading to expand world knowledge without consistently worrying if the reading is at grade levelmira - What about ideas for teaching grammar in a minilesson.
Linda Hoyt - I use cloze activities for grammar instruction and put several in the book. With a cloze (blank) in the sentence, students have to think about the part of speech, the tense and many other vital grammatical issues to complete the blank in the text.low - What activities do you suggest for literature circles?
Linda Hoyt - An example is to create a chart called Discussion Starters and Discussion Stoppers... as students generate questions about a read aloud selection, they have to decide which category their question should fit into.... They then move into their circles and record their questions on a similar chart as they meet in small groups.Bookwoman - What particular activities do you suggest for struggling readers?
Linda Hoyt - Oh, my... I do entire seminars on that topic. I am a title I coordinator in my school district and have spent 30 years working with struggling students....
Linda Hoyt - I believe that strategy instruction is the key. What age group of struggling students are you thinking of?mira - So then after doing the cloze activities as a minilesson how do the students use this in their writing?
Linda Hoyt - I follow the minilesson with cloze with having them cover key words in a text of their own using sticky notes. They then trade books and try to determine which words are hiding. When they figure out the word, I ask them to justify with part of speech and tense. Lastly they go to their own writing and examine their word choices, try to read to listen for tense, etc.Ree - I use your book daily for all of my mini lessons
Linda Hoyt - Thank you. I am so glad you found it useful.
Ree - I also love the Revisit Reflect Retell book
Ree - I am giving it out as a resource at a workshop I am giving to colleaguesSueLarson - How do you feel spelling should be taught K-5?
Linda Hoyt - As you are aware, there are many schools of thought on spelling. My biggest concerns with spelling instruction focus on (1) that the words be developmentally appropriate to the reading development of the child and (2) that the words be from commonly used words in writing rather than words from science and social studies. Check out First Steps Spelling, Heinemann. It is terrific.Bookwoman - Activities for Struggling readers at about 6 grade?
Linda Hoyt - The Key Word Strategy... I teach students to read one paragraph at a time in an expository text, reflect and then jot a word which summarizes the main idea in the margin. At the bottom of the page, they can use their key words to summarize the key concepts in the page. The key words also support a high quality written or oral retell.Bookwoman - You mentioned that you give workshops. How do I find out about where and when these are?
Linda Hoyt - I do Heinemann Workshops.. You can log on to http://www.heinemann.com to check on locations, date. I also teach seminars for Bureau of Education and Research. You can check out those seminars at ber.org ... my favorite is custom designing seminars to meet the needs of a district or school. I leave tomorrow am for the Illinois Reading Association Conference to present on Thursday...SueLarson - Do you have any special minilessons for writing workshop?
Kathleen/Moderator - Check the Archive for other Heinemann author chats, including Laura Robb on redesigning staff development, Alfie Kohn, and Bobbi Fisher - Archives http://teachers.net/archive
Linda Hoyt - One of my favorites is Antonym Antics. I have students cut classified ads from the newspaper and write all of the antonyms for the ad they can think of... They then rewrite the ad. This really brings word choice into focus and is good for some laughs. They then to back to their own writing folders and look carefully for synonym and antonym expansions they can use in their work.
Kathleen/Moderator - Linda while there is a break in questions, is there anything you'd like to add to what you've said so far? Any elaboration? Something you wish we'd ask?
Linda Hoyt - One of the biggest changes in my teaching has been that I realized that I did a lot of "assigning" and expected the students to leap in. Now.. I do much more demonstrating... thinking aloud... and showing them how my "internal" reflections help me to operate. As a result, I start lessons with students watching, listening... not joining in. When I think they have caught on, then I invite them in for guided practice.SueLarson - Many teachers face standardized testing for writing expository, persuasive, & narrative. What do you suggest for meeting this challenge?
Linda Hoyt - Now there is a topic!
Linda Hoyt - If the question is scoring better on multiple choice assessments... I put examples of test questions on the overhead as a mini lesson and show the students how I can think out loud and eliminate possible answers to reduce the options.. just like on Millionaire.. apply the 50/50 rule to improve your chances... I also show them how to think and search.. All as minilessons. Now there is a topic!
Linda Hoyt - If the question is scoring better on multiple choice assessments... I put examples of test questions on the overhead as a mini lesson and show the students how I can think out loud and eliminate possible answers to reduce the options.. just like on Millionaire.. apply the 50/50 rule to improve your chances... I also show them how to think and search.. All as minilessons. Now there is a topic!
Linda Hoyt - If your question is related to applying rubrics to the modes you listed... then use lots and lots of picture books which are high quality examples of the mode and do a scoring guide on the picture book.. The kids love it and the really learn the modes.Debra - My question is about Student Led Conferences in the Kindergarten, do you have any forms?
Linda Hoyt - In Revisit there are Parent Pages at the end of each chapter which include reflection pages and many forms which would be great in student led conferences. In Snapshots, there is an interactive writing reflection for the child, the teacher, and the parent to use to celebrate the child's writing sample.cbernie - Do you have any seminars planned for Texas?
Linda Hoyt - I was in Midland for a week in October of this school year and in Dallas and Houston last year... nothing new on the horizon right now.
cbernie - I grew UP in MIdland wish i had known.. I am in San Antonio and we NEED you here..
Linda Hoyt - Thank you! I love San Antonio.Debra - Snapshots, is this a book that I can purchase or what type of resource is it?
Kathleen/Moderator - Snapshots is a book available at http://www.heinemann.com
Debra - My students are reading, and their writing is pretty good for K, I am unsure of where the best resources are for this student led conf
Debra - So it applies to Kindergarten, the Snapshots book?
Kathleen/Moderator - Debra, yes for K and aboveSueLarson - Thank you for a great chat! I'm a big fan of your work, Linda! Please keep making your wonderful ideas available to us.
Kathleen/Moderator - Thank you, Linda Hoyt, author of "Snapshots, Literacy Mini-Lessons" and "Revisit, Reflect, Retell: Strategies for Improving Reading Comprehension" published by Heinemann. Will you return for another chat sometime soon?
Linda Hoyt - It would be a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me and thank you... dedicated teachers... for the chat!
susan sil - Thank you Linda for a wonderful conference!
Kathleen/Moderator - Thank you to all who participated. The transcript of this chat will be available in about a week in the Archives http://teachers.net/archive.
Kathleen/Moderator - Thank you susan sil for backing me up tonight!!! Thank you to the cyber-gremlins for allowing me to remain online for this session.
Kathleen/Moderator - Debra, you can catch Linda at her next chat. Watch for announcements.
Debra - Hope you all have a good evening, I shall return another time.
Kathleen/Moderator - Goodnight, everyone
