Scaring up Strong Reading Scores - Improving Secondary Literacy through Horror Literature

Applying the Carnegie sponsored

program to high interest content

Woods C.. Prael Crypt Keeper [email protected] READING NEXT A VISION FOR ACTION AND RESEARCH IN MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL LITERACY A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York

Direct, explicit comprehension instruction, which is instruction in Motivation and self-directed the strategies and processes that learning, which includes building proficient readers use to understand motivation to read and learn and what they read, including providing students with the summarizing, keeping track of one’s instruction and supports needed own understanding, and a host of for independent learning tasks other practices. they will face after graduation.

Text-based collaborative Strategic tutoring, which Effective learning, which involves provides students with instructional intense individualized students interacting with principles reading, writing, and one another around a embedded in content instruction as needed variety of texts. content, including language arts teachers using Diverse texts, which are content-area Intensive writing, including texts and instruction connected to the kinds texts at a variety of content-area of writing tasks students will have difficulty levels and on a teachers to perform well in high school and variety of topics providing beyond instruction and practice in reading and A technology component, writing skills Ongoing formative assessment of specific to their students, which is informal, often which includes technology daily assessment of how students subject area as a tool for and a topic of are progressing under current literacy instruction instructional practices A comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, Extended time for literacy, which Teacher teams, which are includes approximately two to four which is interdisciplinary teams that hours of literacy instruction and interdisciplinary meet regularly to discuss practice that takes place in and language arts and content-area interdepartment students and align instruction classes al and may even coordinate with out-of-school organizations Leadership, which can come from Professional principals and teachers who have a and the local solid understanding of how to teach community development that is both reading and writing to the full array long term and ongoing of students present in schools Direct, explicit comprehension instruction, which is instruction in the strategies and processes that proficient readers use to understand what they read, including summarizing, keeping track of one’s own understanding, and a host of other practices.

During the open read-alouds of texts, students were Comprehension strategies required to summarize the passage , select a perfect line , instruction, which is infer the author’s meaning, and reflect on own experience. instruction that explicitly gives students strategies that aid them in comprehending a Summarize the passage (30 words +) wide variety of texts.

Select the perfect summarization line

Comprehension monitoring Explain what the author is trying to say about society and meta-cognition (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the instruction, which is author’s choices. instruction that teaches students to become aware of how they understand while

Starting with ONE OF THE Student Responses CRITERIA DAILY POEMS MUST START WITH A GERUND reading aloud Teacher modeling, which AT LEAST 10 WORDS LONG involves the teacher reading of the daily NO REPEATS (ANTECEDENTS texts aloud, making her own horror poem, Obituary EXCLUDED) use of strategies and practices and modeling Paul Heise 50% OF THE WORDS MUST BE FIVE apparent to her students. LETTERS OR LONGER both how To Mr. William Thomas

present as well Heise, 29, wrote the Fumbling for reasons, as interpret the remainder of the the parents of the Scaffolded instruction, which piece, the reins massive stop Friday, deceased wonder why. involves teachers giving high are gradually September 22nd, support for students practicing 2000. It was diving new skills and then slowly handed over to suit only plunging decreasing that support to the students. its death at the Swimming to the top, increase student ownership present time. The and self-sufficiency. The poems finding the bottom, the setting with the diver swims no more. become tomb celebrated

passages, the with the mausoleum of Flowers by the Apprenticeship models, which passages ocean. Welcome Missing corpses means involve teachers engaging become friends. One expects empty graves and full students in a content-centered chapters, and learning relationship. his/her father will shark stomachs. the chapters, play the body. entire stories Summarize the passage (30 words +) The following example is from “I Am Legend”

Select the perfect summarization line

Explain what the author is trying to say about society (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the author’s choices.

Summarize the passage (30 words +) Summarize the passage (30 words +)

Select the perfect summarization line Select the perfect summarization line

Explain what the author is trying to say about society Explain what the author is trying to say about society (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the author’s choices. author’s choices.

Summarize the passage (30 words +) Summarize the passage (30 words +)

Select the perfect summarization line Select the perfect summarization line

Explain what the author is trying to say about society Explain what the author is trying to say about society (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the (relationships, choices, etc.), and what you thought of the author’s choices. author’s choices. Effective instructional principles embedded in content, including language arts teachers using content-area texts and content-area teachers providing instruction and practice in reading and writing skills specific to their subject area

From The following were some of From the Natalie Richard Angier’s Mathson’s the instructional principals I am Legend New York Times embedded in content which article ...He put down the book. He'd been reading again about the lymphatic system. He vaguely remembered reading about it would later be applied to The Wonders of months before, during the time he now called his "frenzied period." But what he'd read had made no impression on him materials beyond the Blood then because he'd had nothing to apply it to.

There seemed to be something there now. assigned readings. ...Blood can also be thought of as a

The thin walls of the blood capillaries permitted blood private ocean, a recapitulation of what plasma to escape into the tissue spaces along with the red life was like for all the years we spent and colorless cells. These escaped materials eventually drifting as microscopic, single-celled returned to the blood system through the lymphatic vessels, organisms, “taking up nutrients from carried back by the thin fluid called lymph. sea water and then eliminating waste products back into sea water,” Dr. During this return flow, the lymph trickled through lymph Schafer said. Not only is blood mostly nodes, which interrupted the flow and filtered out the solid Compare, contrast, analyze and evaluate particles of body waste, thus preventing them from entering water, but the watery portion of the blood system. connections: blood, the plasma, has a a. text to text (information and concentration of salt and other ions Now. relationships in various fiction and non-that is remarkably similar to sea water. There were two things that activated the lymphatic system: fiction works) Of course, we can’t rely on wind and (1) breathing, which caused the diaphragm to compress the abdominal contents, thus forcing blood and lymph up weather to keep our hidden seas against gravity; (2) physical movement, which caused salubriously churned and aerated, so skeletal muscles to compress lymph vessels, thus moving the we have evolved an active respirator lymph. An intricate valve system prevented any backing upRead and listen critically to summarize and and pumping mechanism, the lungs of the flow. and heart. Our eight pints of blood evaluate communications that inform, circulate through the powerhouse But the vampires didn't breathe; not the dead ones, anyway. persuade and entertain duet maybe 60 times an hour, That meant, roughly, that half of their lymph flow was cut absorbing recently inhaled oxygen off. This meant, further, that a considerable amount of waste products would be left in the vampire's system. from the honeycombed fabric of the lungs and proceeding into the thickly Robert Neville was thinking particularly of the fetid odor of muscled heart, which then shoots the the vampire. Read grade-level instructional text enriched fluid outward. with fluency: accuracy, comprehension andOxygen allocation is the task of the He read on. red blood cells, which hematology appropriate expression adjusting reading researchers refer to with a mix of rate to difficulty and type of text "The bacteria passes into the blood stream, where... affection and awe. “Red cells have enormous capabilities,” said Stanley "...the white corpuscles playing a vital part in our defense Schrier of Stanford University’s School against bacteria! attack. of Medicine. They give up so much to make room for their hemoglobin, the "Strong sunlight kills many germs rapidly and" proteins that can latch onto oxygen

"Many bacterial diseases of man can be disseminated by the and that give blood its brilliant mechanical agency of flies, mosquitoes" grenadine sheen. Alone among body Develop vocabulary through text, using cells, red cells at maturity jettison "... where, under the stimulus of bacterial attack, the  roots and affixes their nucleus and DNA to phagocytic factories rush extra cells into the blood stream." accommodate their cargo.  context clues And oh how roughly they are treated. He let the book drop forward into his lap and it slipped off,  glossary, dictionary and thesaurus A red cell at rest looks like a plump his legs and thumped down on the rug. bialy and measures about 8 microns,

It was getting harder and harder to fight, because no matter or .0003 inches, across. Yet to reach what he read, there was always the relationship between every far-flung, oxygen-hungry bacteria and blood affliction. Yet, all this time, he'd been customer, the cells must squeeze letting contempt fall freely on all those in the past who had through capillaries less than half their died proclaiming the truth of the germ theory and scoffing at Flesch- width, which they accomplish by vampires. on the top of the bar while his eyes stared bleakly squashing down into threads that at the wall. then crawl in single file along the 6th Kincaide 12th Germs. capillary wall, pulling themselves grade level forward, Dr. Schrier said, like tank He grimaced. Well, for God's sake, he snapped jadedly at treads gripping the road. himself, the word hasn't got thorns, you know.

He took a deep breath. All right, he ordered himself, is there Motivation and self-directed learning, which includes building motivation to read and learn and providing students with the instruction and supports needed for independent learning tasks they will face after graduation.

Lightly Challenging Selection A. Hitchcock, R.L. Stephenson, Avi, S. Meyer, S. King. M. Cabot, R. Serling, S. Jackson

Grade Level Selection R. Matheson, R.L. Stephenson, E.A. Poe, S. Jackson, H.G. Wells, F.P. Wilson, R. McCammon, R.E. Howard, W.W. Jacobs, M.R James

More Challenging Selection B. Stoker, M. Shelley, H.P. Lovecraft, A. Blackwood, A. Bierce, C. Dickens, A.C. Doyle, H. Walpole Text-based collaborative learning, which involves students interacting with one another around a variety of texts.

Using the self chosen short horror stories already read, the students are teamed together to create a group mind map/ concept map focusing on a handful of selected themes. Each student is responsible for certain aspects of their books, while the connection portion is split between the participants.

CHECKLIST FOR HORROR MIND MAP/CONCEPT MAP

 AT LEAST FIVE THEMES REPRESENTED  2 DIFFERENT EXAMPLES FOR EACH (MINIMUM)  6 QUOTES WITH PAGE NUMBERS (ONE FOR EACH) +BOOK/STORY TITLE AFTER EACH LISTING  10 CONNECTIONS (HORROR THEME RELEVANT) TO OTHERS STORIES (MIN)  6 HORROR RELATED INFERENCES  6 HORROR RELATED GRAPHICS  BOOK SPECIFIC TEXT COLOR  EASY TO READ (Legible)  SPECIFIC HEADINGS

“Virge?” He said again, weakly, shakily,. “Virge?” (pg 147) Robert thinking his wife has risen from the grave

again The Persistence of the Past in the Much like everything else in his day to day Present Neville’s carpool existence, this is yet another throwback to buddy , Cortman something he once did to escape. But, now it’s stalking him extremely loud and filtered through Whiskey. (INFERENCE) Listening to relaxing music to drive one’s This example uses Richard worries away Matheson’s “I Am Legend” and only one theme. Strategic tutoring, which provides students with intense individualized reading, writing, and content instruction as needed

Our school policy, emulated by my classroom policy, follows a set course to guarantee every student is given as many opportunities to succeed as possible. When it comes to raising the reading bar, this goes double for me.

Q & A STUDENT READ ALOUD DISCUSSION READING TIME PATTERN MANAGEMENT DISCUSSIONS ISSUES READING If a student performs VOCABULARY In addition to, or in lieu of, HABITS AND If additional assistance is poorly on an assessment, ASSISTANCE SSR time assistance, the VOCABULARY required, I schedule before ASSISTANCE or shows other signs they student attends daily 25 and after school sessions are struggling with a given minute academy sessions ranging from 20 to 60 reading, they are identified with me. Much like study minutes for as many days and given direct instruction hall, but only freshmen and as is needed. during class SSR. strugglers must attend.

FREE READING MIXED WITH ASSIGNED READING

SCAFFOLDED READING ASSESSMENTS

READING If problems persist, 90 HABITS AND Although normally used VOCABULARY minute mandatory ASSISTANCE with students who skip an departmental tutoring is assigned detention, the scheduled for every Thursday school program Tuesday. Even if I’m not runs from 4pm to 6:30 pm manning the helm, every week. A retired high another qualified English school instructor keeps the teacher is present. peace and provides assistance. Diverse texts—which are texts at a variety of difficulty levels and on a variety of topics

FICTION COLLECTIONS NON-FICTION Horror Poetry

Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the The Cryptopedia: A Dictionary Being Full of Light, Insubstantial Macabre of the Weird, Strange & Linda Addison H.P. Lovecraft Downright Bizarre VECTORS: A Week in the Death of Jonathan Maberry & David F. a Planet Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Kramer Charlee Jacob & Marge Simon & Allan Poe Encyclopedia Horrifica: The Marge Simon Terrifying Truth About Shades Fantastic The Complete Short Stories of Ambrose Vampires, Ghosts, Monsters, Bruce Boston Bierce and More Complete Poetry of E.A. Poe Joshua Gee Edgar Allen Poe Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood Gothic Horror: A Reader's Sineater Guide from Poe to King and Charlee Jacob Best Ghost Stories of J. S. LeFanu Beyond Horror vacui : poems edited by Clive Bloom Thomas Heise. Adrift on The Haunted Seas: The Best Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, Short Stories of William Hope Hodgson and Haunted Places Brad Steiger Novels The October Country Danse Macabre Ray Bradbury Stephen King I Am Legend Hollywood Horror: From Richard Matheson Nightmare At 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories Gothic To Cosmic By Richard Matheson Mark A. Vieira The Haunting of Hill House

Shirley Jackson Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural Phyllis Cerf Wagner (ed) The Shining Stephen King Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror The Exorcist Douglas E. Winter (ed.) William Peter Blatty

The 13 Best Horror Stories of All Time Rosemary's Baby Leslie Pockell (ed.) Ira Levin

Great Weird Tales: 14 Stories by The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen and Others and Mr. Hyde S. T. Joshi Robert Louis Stevenson

Masterpieces of Terror and the Dracula Supernatural: A Treasury of Spellbinding Bram Stoker Tales Old and New Saralee Kaye Hell House Visions of Fear Richard Matheson (Foundations of Fear, No 3) David G. Hartwell Frankenstein Mary Shelley Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone At the Mountains of Madness Tales of Terror: 58 Short Stories Chosen H.P. Lovecraft by the Master of Suspense—Alfred Hitchcock Something Wicked This Way

The Lottery and Other Stories Comes Shirley Jackson Ray Bradbury

Mammoth Book of New Horror Stephen Jones (ed.) Intensive writing, including instruction connected to the kinds of writing tasks students will have to perform well in high school and beyond

http://writinghood.com/writing-business/opportunities/10-web-sites-for-horror-writers/ horror.fictionfactor.com/articles.html www.horror.org/writetips-waggoner.htm

Compose text using Follow a writing process -precise and Compose text to vivid -showing awareness of audience -use appropriate language -choosing a form and point of view -appropriate to purpose writing prewriting strategies and audience as needed techniques, -generate a draft such as -revise in response to -imagery -humor feedback (peer and/ -voice, or teacher) -figurative -edit for conventions language http://www.tcnj.edu/~beres/horite.htm

ruyasonic.com/wrt_horror.htm Compose a variety of texts, using narrative, descriptive, expository, and/or persuasive features Compose text with in various formats, including -effective beginning, middle, workplace and end communication -a logical order including summary -effective paragraphing including literary analysis -cohesive devices including reflective writing -varied sentence structure clarity of expression

-active voice

A technology component, which includes technology as a tool for and a topic of literacy instruction

Beyond the daily videos shorts, film http://animoto.com/ trailers, movie clips, and instructional http://animoto.com/education snippets shown in class, students were

required to take one of their selected

short stories and create an Animoto

PowerPoint, telling the crux of the story

without giving away the ending. The

Animoto program, a cross between a

slide show and a music video, incorporates text, selected images, and

music into a highly original

presentational form. The students are

given two chances with this project, with only the late semester presentation

graded.

Another technological aspect of the GERMANY SPAIN JAPAN class, and even more reading oriented,

is the inclusion of foreign horror films

into the mixture. With text rapidly appearing and disappearing, the viewer

must stay focused throughout the

presentation. Fritz Lang’s M, Juan

Antonio’s The Orphanage, and Hideo

Nakata’s Dark Water round out the

year’s foreign film festival. NON-FICTION MYSTERY MYTHOLOGY Ongoing formative assessment of students, which is informal, often daily assessment of how students are progressing under current instructional practices

All of the collaborative learning activities allow for Exit Cards Daily Journal

direct and indirect assessment, and through these Students have an assignment Example Prompt they must complete and hand skill measurements I can quickly determine whether in at the end of the hour. This How does the isolation in assignment should be Robert Neville life compare to wide or pinpointed assistance is necessary. Even accomplishable in no more the isolation so often felt in the than five minutes. high school environment? when the students aren’t talking, each class

session’s reading of assigned works, and the Example:

student’s required daily writing, gives opportunities In one sentence, summarize QUIZ EXAMPLE FROM I AM your current individual reading LEGEND for formative assessment after the student has on the back of your quiz sheet. 1. Who does Robert Neville already left the classroom. CRITERIA believe is his responsibility MUST START WITH A GERUND to destroy? One more self-regulatory method is through the daily OR PREPOSITION (factual—one answer) 2. What drove Robert to feel three point quizzes. Having discovered a three point BE AT LEAST 12 WORDS LONG this way? scoring range has almost no effect on a student’s NO REPEATED WORDS ( convergent -limited (ANTECEDENTS answers) overall grade, these daily mini-quizzes are given to EXCLUDED) 3. How did the return of Robert’s wife have an check for comprehension, application ability, and the 50% OF THE WORDS MUST BE effect on this drive? FIVE LETTERS OR LONGER (divergent– analyze, general attention level given to a day’s lesson. These synthesize, evaluate)

“assessments”, while graded, have such a

infinitesimal outcome, they serve more as a

bellwether for both myself and concerned parents.

THINK-PAIR-SHARE

Think: Students think independently about the question that has been posed, forming ideas of their own.

Pair: Students are grouped in pairs to discuss their thoughts. This step allows students to articulate their ideas and to consider those of others.

Share: Student pairs share their ideas with a larger group, such as the whole class. Often, students are more comfortable presenting ideas to a group with the support of a partner. In addition, students' ideas have become more refined through this three -step process.

Extended time for literacy, which includes approximately two to four hours of literacy instruction and practice that takes place in language arts and content-area classes

Strangely enough, guided reading without a constructed response comprehension assessment component is almost completely absent at the secondary level. “Reading to gain knowledge” has been replaced with “reading to complete a worksheet”. Since this “hunt and peck” form of reading completely negates the literacy process, the students might as well not read at all. During the Horror Literature class block of 90 minutes, an unheard of 40 to 45 minutes is set aside solely for classroom reading. Of that period, half is spent with oral reading, while the other half is spent with SSR. The

rest of the period is spent functionally and appropriately applying what has been read during the two other sections.

"If amount of practice is not connected to reading proficiency, reading is the first domain of human endeavor where additional practice does not improve behavior.” – S. Jay Samuels 2006 Teacher teams, which are interdisciplinary teams that meet regularly to discuss students and align instruction

WOOD SHOP MATHEMATICS

MAKING STAKES EXPLORING EXPONENTIAL GROWTH WHICH WOOD WOULD BE MOST AVAILABLE HELPING THE PROTAGONIST ON IN THE LOS ANGLES AREA DETERMINE THE MOST LIKELY CAUSE OF THE DISEASE HOW TO USE A LATHE

COMPARING AIDS STATISTICS STATE BY WHICH WOODS WOULD BE MOST DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH STATE AND YEAR BY YEAR

HOW TO USE NON-ELECTRIC MANUAL TOOLS PROVING THE IMPROBABALITY OF REAL VAMPIRES SAFETY, BECAUSE A MISSING EYE CAN SLOW YOUR RESPONSE TIME WHEN THE VAMPIRES ATTACK

FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES

HEALTH PROPERTIES OF PARTICULAR “SUPER FOODS “

HEALTH RULES FOR SURVIVALISTS

PYSCHOLOGICAL NEED OF COMPANIONSHIP

GARLIC VS. ONIONS

LONG TERM MENTAL EFFECTS OF Richard Matheson REPEATED VIEWINGS OF REAL AND SIMULATED VIOLENT ACTS

SCIENCE HISTORY

BLOOD BORNE DISEASES CHANGING ATTITUDE TOWARD DEATH

AIR BORNE DISEASES CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON THE

SUNLIGHT’S EFFECT ON THE HUMAN BODY HISTORY OF VAMPIRE LORE

TEETH THE CIVIL WAR AND THE EMBRACE OF THE CEMETARY PHYSICAL CAUSES OF MENTAL INSTABILITY THE COLD WAR AND ITS EFFECT ON ETHNOBOTANY HORROR LITERATURE

ECOLOGY

A comprehensive and coordinated literacy program, which is interdisciplinary and interdepartmental and may even coordinate with out-of-school organizations and the local community And two to grow on…

Professional development that is both long term and ongoing

Leadership, which can come from principals and teachers

who have a solid understanding of how to teach reading and

writing to the full array of students present in schools.