Mentoring the Thinker

Mentoring the thinker

Learning Targets

I can reflect on my reader’s profile to determine what my students’ needs are to build a reader’s identity.
I can use gradual release of responsibility as a way to plan instruction that builds a reader’s use of thinking strategies to comprehend challenging text.
I can plan a mini-lesson with a think aloud that shows students how to construct meaning of a text.

If teachers want students to meet the demands of the Common Core, it's critical that they build the skills of all learners to comprehend complex text well. By mentoring the thinker, teachers can do just that. Thinking through the lens of apprenticeship, teachers can model the thinking proficient readers use and guide students to success. Along with using the thinking strategies as a means to navigate text, teachers can also provide instruction in the habits of mind specific to a discipline, so that they are teaching at several levels of the triangle of literacy (Shanahan & Shanahan).

Elizabeth Moje has been working on adolescent literacy with a focus on disciplinary literacy for quite a few years. In this hour long video, she explains the differences between disciplines and subjects, the role of generic literacy strategies and disciplinary strategies, and the ways those concept might play out in the classroom: Moje's keynote to NWP

Attached you'll find most of the handouts for the workshop on Mentoring the Thinker: tips for supporting students as thinkers, thinking strategies used by proficient readers use that lead to understanding, and an articl by Doug Buehl on mentoring students in disciplinary literacy.