Learning is a social activity; we learn from others.

Cooperative Learning :

Listen actively.

Encourage and help others.

Participate actively.

* Ask thoughtful questions.

* Ask clarifying questions.

* Explain ideas with evidence.

* Agree/Disagree to discover the best meaning.

Team Roles : Using evidence from the text, each person chooses a role:

1. Question decoder, understanding checker, and final summarizer.

2. Question restater, answerer, and reason explainer.

3. Question verifier, including agreement, disagreement, and addendums.

4. Question summarizer with agree/disagreement with evidence from the text or experience.

1. Final summarizer and understanding checker.

Reading Roles :

__Clarifier__ :

* Why is this a reading role? Readers constantly clarify: Does this make sense? Is it reasonable? Is it believable? Do I understand? What do I understand for sure? Where do I get confused? Is it the words or the ideas I need to understand better?

* What do I do?

* * Look for main ideas of the text. What part could be or is confusing? Put a sticky note on that spot. Ask your teammates, "How important do you think this idea is? How does it understand the big picture? How does it explain this section?"

* * Look for interesting or unfamiliar words. Mark with a sticky note. Ask your teammates, "How else could we use this word? What is a synonym? Is it important to understand the topic?"

* * Use a dictionary or word parts and read ahead or re-read for clues to understanding the word or idea.

__Questioner__ :

* Why is this a reading role? Readers ask questions in their mind while reading to verify and clarify their understanding. What does this mean? Why is this important? Could this really happen? Is this believable in this story or situation? Is it reasonable in the real world? Why did the character act this way? Would I act this way? Are there other choices available to the character? What words ring true, like something to live by? Do I agree with this? Why? Do I disagree with this? Why? What are the most important parts? What if...? What else?

* What do I do? Ask the big questions to your teammates.

__Predictor__ :

* Why is this a reading role? Readers naturally think ahead using what they know about stories and articles and what they have already read in the text. They think ahead because our brains want to prepare for what's next. Reader's predict and verify to connect ideas to understand the whole text. Note: This is not a guess -- it's based on knowledge of text, ideas, and experience.

* What do I do? Hypothesize what will happen or be stated next by: using what you know from other texts or from experience, using what you have already read, using pictures and captions, titles and subtitles. Use that information to predict what will come next and tell what makes you predict that.

__Summarizer__ :

* Why is this a reading role? As readers read, they constantly summarize in their mind what has already been read. They summarize to put all the important ideas together in their own words so that they understand the "big idea" of the text. All the parts of the text, the details and the main idea, lead to main concepts and themes. Summarizing synthesizes (puts together) all the pieces into the big ideas.

* What do I do? Identify the most important ideas in your own words.

Partner Reading

Choose Team Roles: 1,2,3,4. Rotate with each question/vocabulary statement.

Choose Reading Roles: Clarifier, Predictor, Summarizer, Questioner. Rotate daily.

Read text as directed (partner or silent).

Practice the skill for the day.

Follow team and reading roles.

Retell main events and record on graphic organizer.

Be prepared to explain team's ideas/responses/answers and to add/agree/disagree to other teams' responses.