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The Power of the Cross-Check: No Penalties in the Reading Process

2023-02-08T18:10:10-05:00March 26th, 2019|Classroom Teaching, Reading Recovery Teaching, Teaching|

by Jamie Lipp

My oldest nephew is a Division One college lacrosse player (proud aunt). Recently, we traveled to a game to watch him play. In the middle of an intense play, one of his teammates used his lacrosse stick with both hands to push another player from behind. Apparently, this is frowned upon, as whistles blew, flags flew, and an announcement was made that an illegal cross-check had occurred. One minute in the penalty box he went!

Witnessing this, it occurred to me the that the phrase ‘cross-check’ has multiple meanings. A homonym of sorts. The English language is funny like that. In sports such as lacrosse and hockey, a cross-check will send you straight to the penalty box. As for the reading process, the cross-check has a more positive connotation. And there are certainly no penalties for cross-checking while reading.

The dictionary defines the act of cross-checking as verifying one source of information against another. Cross-checking when reading is just that. Clay (2016) defines cross-checking as a strategic activity in reading where a child notices a discrepancy in his own responses and checks one kind of information with a different kind of information. It is an awareness, a closer look, a second glance, another attempt. A “something’s not quite right” observation resulting from self-monitoring.

So, why is cross-checking important? Cross- checking signals the child is becoming more active while reading. He is no longer inventing text, but rather, attempting to integrate multiple sources of information (meaning, structure, visual). He has self-monitored and is now ‘weighing up’ the possibilities. This increased awareness allows for attempts that become better, then more accurate, and ultimately, correct responses. Cross-checking requires the child to monitor the ‘bad fit’, search for alternative sources of information, and integrate these sources by checking the initial information he attended to against some other source of information (Clay, 2016). Essentially, the ability to cross-check is a golden ticket to reading independence.

Cross-checking must be taught for, observed, praised, and expected as our students progress as readers. We can teach for the development of the strategic action of cross-checking in a variety of ways. When reading, we must encourage students to use multiple sources of information at difficulty. Doing so requires careful modeling, prompting, and thinking aloud. Teachers can specifically point out when students have initiated cross-checking behaviors, and even when they have not. In the classroom, we can observe for cross-checking behaviors during guided reading lessons, shared reading, and especially through analyzing running records.

An observant teacher will identify the hesitations or multiple attempts that signal the child has self-monitored and is attempting to cross-check. This teacher will carefully analyze running records to notice where this occurs, how frequently, and what information sources were being integrated. When patterns emerge, the teacher can support the student to attend to the sources of information he is frequently neglecting. The cross-check challenges us to move our thinking beyond, simply, “he just doesn’t know that word” to teach for all that is happening within their processing systems. Further, attention to cross-checking behavior forces our awareness beyond an accuracy and self-correction rate, as it should be!

We expect our students to do more than simply decode the text at hand, as reading and decoding cannot be used synonymously. There is more than visual information to attend to while reading. Clay (2016, p. 135) tells us, “cross-checking on information is an early behavior.” Good news, this means we don’t have to wait until a student is reading high levels of text to expect it. And when we see it, we praise it, because we want it to continue.

Most importantly, we must acknowledge the power of the cross-check as a powerful strategic action that occurs throughout reading. In the classroom and beyond, understanding that hesitation a student makes, or a second (or third) attempt at difficulty to be a signal of higher-level processing is critical. Supporting this strategic action to become more frequent and sophisticated can “level the playing field” for our readers. The ball is in their court, or in the case of lacrosse, the stick is in their hands.

To our growing readers, cross-check away! To my nephew, stay out of the penalty box.

Go Knights!

Reference
Clay, M. M. (2016). Literacy lessons designed for individuals. (2nd ed.). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

 

Jamie Lipp is a Reading Recovery trainer at The Ohio State University. Follow her on Twitter @Jamie_Lipp.

Get to the Root of It

2023-02-08T18:10:10-05:00March 8th, 2019|Classroom Teaching, General Education|

by Kristi McCullough

While receiving Literacy Collaborative training, the professors always told the class that word-study instruction needed to be “powerful” and “generative.”

I remember thinking to myself, I know “powerful” word study means doing hands-on activities and attaching the words to authentic text. But what does “generative” mean?  And what does that have to do with learning words?

Upon reading Greek & Latin Roots: Keys to Building Vocabulary (Shell Education) by Timothy Rasinski, Nancy Padak, Rick M. Newton, and Evangeline Newton, I learned that we cannot possibly teach students every word in the English language.  However, by teaching a few word-study principles, we can help students unlock the meanings of countless new words they come across in their reading.

As elementary teachers, we present numerous lessons and activities for phonics principles and decoding strategies in word study. However, a great deal of power lies in also teaching Greek and Latin roots (i.e., prefix, suffix, base).

Previously, such instruction was saved for advanced courses or high school, but knowing the relevant research and its striking statistics has caused a change in our thinking.

  • Over 90% of the words in the English language with more than one syllable are Latin-based. The other 10% are Greek-based. Meaning, that every two-syllable word (or bigger) is comprised of word parts that carry meaning.
  • Each word part taught (i.e., prefix, suffix, base) has the potential to unlock 5-30 new words for students. By explicitly teaching the meaning of one root word to students, teachers potentially expand students’ vocabulary by upwards of 30 new words.
  • If a single teacher provided instruction on 30 roots, that would unlock the meanings of 150-1,000 new words for students per school year.
  • If every teacher in grades K-12 taught 30 roots per year, students’ accessible vocabulary would grow between 2000 and 13,000 words by graduation!

This is the power of the generative principle. Possessing knowledge of one word part generates knowledge to unlock many more words.

Convincing teachers to target root instruction is not difficult, but it does result in a common question. Which roots should I teach?  Is there a list for my grade level?

The Word Parts To Teach resource consists of beginning or advanced prefixes, suffixes, and bases. They are listed alphabetically and include the meanings and examples of each.

The key is to determine which 30 roots your students need this year. Don’t spend time working with roots they already know.  However, don’t skip over the most common roots because you assume students have mastered them. That said, consider the following when selecting this year’s word parts.

  • Check the Standards. Look through the Vocabulary Acquisition and Use Standard to see specifics on a grade-level focus for the types of roots students need to notice when reading and writing.
  • Gauge the background knowledge of students in the class. With the Word Parts to Teach resource in hand, check the last page for the most common roots in the English language. Use this page to note priority roots for instruction with primary students, as well as English language learners. Continue to check the list for Beginning prefixes, suffixes, and bases to determine which roots students need to know. If students are older or more advanced, check the list of Advanced roots that correspond with their content-area vocabulary.
  • Consider topics taught in content areas beyond language arts. Look for concepts covered that might include word parts. Certain social studies and science concepts lend themselves to specific roots (e.g., liber/free, alt/high, ). Look through this year’s math vocabulary, too. There are often word parts that signify the meaning of numbers (e.g., milli, centi), shapes (e.g., gon, hedra, etc.), and functions (e.g., sub, multi, div, add, etc.).

Taking the time to select an exclusive list for your students ensures their knowledge of words will increase. Limiting the number to just 30 new roots for the school year allows students to have adequate classroom time to engage in powerful, hands-on activities that quicken the retrieval of roots when reading and writing.

Generative instruction is not about just giving students a list of terms to memorize for the weekly test. Instead, generative instruction is about showing students how to use their acquisition of known roots to solve new words on the run.


With over 20 years in education, Kristi McCullough has been a classroom teacher, Reading Recovery teacher, and Literacy Coordinator.  She is currently a literacy consultant with Smekens Education, helping teachers across the Midwest implement a balanced literacy approach.