CSI Online FAQs These are our responses to questions asked by teachers involved in our school trials   I've been working on probes (assessment tests) with my highest Y3 group. If they read it as an "I think that means" exercise, they rock, but as soon as I ask pointed probe questions, they start making it all up!   (3/4/09)   This is is not uncommon for this age and stage of development - skills in one area do not always naturally transfer into another.  It is great that they are doing a good job with ITTM. Obviously they are not yet making a connection between all the thinking they are doing with ITTM and responding to questions. To give them practice with this remember to use one or two comprehension check questions at the end of each paragraph straight after ITTM.   Is it okay not to finish the story with the group and then just let them read the rest independently practicing “I think that means” in their head?  (27/3/09)   Yes that can be done, especially if you are tackling long stories. (This is the reason I have attempted to keep Handy Resources stories short). At the end of the day the most important thing is that they are spending time in the group practicing the strategies - a good 20-25 mins per session is pretty intense and provides a good workout – what you choose to do with the rest of the text after that is not so important. If you are using the Handy Resources follow-up activities you may find that their responses suffer because they have not dug into the text enough when given the chance to finish it independently, but in time, as the strategies become automatic, this will become less of a problem. I have suggested in one of the tutorials that you could do a story or report in two parts – after the first part retain the unread part and let them have a go at the activities using just what they have read. This can add to the motivation for finishing the story at the next sitting because of all the ‘filling in the gaps’ thinking that will have been occurring while they attempted the activities. Going beyond two sessions on one story could become counterproductive.   Both my low end and high end groups are enthusiastic and itching to give the "I think that means...." a go. The students all want to ellaborate on one another's ideas.  What are your thoughts on this?  (18/3/09)   With the initial routine I would suggest just one person per sentence to make sure everyone is having a go, the pace of the routine is established, and you get through a bit of text and don’t get bogged down. It can be very slow and painful to start off with. It sounds as though this has now happened and everyone is getting right into it. You can extend the routine by asking “Have we got it? Is there anything more to unpack?” and then letting someone else have a go. Apart from these two prompts, you should try to keep the Step 2 routine “clean”, no questions from you about the content, and no discussion – it is all about THEM unpacking the text and if you keep out of it they will listen to each other and pick up on when it’s not quite right. Once the Step 2 for that paragraph has been completed you can ask questions to check understanding of the content, and discuss further, but not during.    I am finding some students are struggling to stay focused when other students use "I think that means..."  Any tips?   (18/3/09)   Keep it really snappy while they are developing fluency with ITTM. Encourage them to follow the text when it is not their turn and check whether the sentence has been unpacked properly.    With a large group (6 plus) you can let them have a go at ITTM with a partner (alternating sentences) to increase the participation and hence the focus, but don’t neglect working as a group so you can hear all the contributions and provide the sharp model from time to time.     The tutorials are beginning to make more sense but are too frequent to have time in class to practise adequately. What do I do?  (18/3/09)   The frequency of the emails is important. If the time lapse is too long then the momentum is lost. If they are coming too thick and fast we suggest you stockpile them and access them as you need to.     The video clips...I am not sure what the expectations are in relation to when to watch, how often, what, and in what order?  (18/3/09)   Our initial expectation was that teachers would access the videos and work their way through them in their own time, at their own pace, in a manner that suited them, even though there is an obvious progression through the stages. (We thought the onscreen instructions used in conjunction with our stories and follow up activities would be adequate).  We have since found that teachers need more advice and support hence we have added the email tutorials.   I started my use of educational video based in the power of short ‘reality video’ = Seeing is believing’. These videos were made to get the message across quickly – if possible in one viewing. The power of good modelling .  The reality is some teachers will watch the Whole class Stage 3 video and one of the stage 3 group videos and after some reading, practising and processing, they will be pretty much set to teach Stage 3.  Others will watch a few videos at Stage 3 and come back a number of times, and of course everyone tends to come back from time to time to check and glean any missed details. The ‘when’ is up to the individual. Hopefully the programme will suit a wide range of teachers . Watch them when you need to. Be guided by the email tutorials, take your time, work to the needs of your students and gain confidence with this teaching approach in a way that best suits you and your students. We will continue to remind you about what is important and what to watch out for and encourage you to keep going.     What reading ages do you recomend CSI for? How low do we start?  (18/3/09)   I would start students on CSI once they are at the Fluent reading stage, which really means that they have fluent decoding strategies – ie they are using meaning, syntax, and visual cues to cross-check when they are reading. This typically happens at a reading age of 7-9 years in my experience. Your more able seven year olds will be ready to have a go at “I think that means..” as you will see on the video clips.     What is on the reading cards that the children use as they read the text in the videos?  (18/3/09)   More about them and some samples attached to Tutorial #3. The cards in the videos have reminders about the three steps on them. You can use anything – a ruler, a piece of paper. The purpose is to screen the next paragraph or chunk of text to discourage students from reading on, and to help them keep their place for the sentence by sentence ITTM (“I think that means..”)   I am concerned about the length of time it will take to get through each reading group and each book. (18/3/09)    More about this in the tutorials. Remember that initially this is about developing strategies not so much about getting through the content. Initially you will get through 3 paragraphs or chunks of text in a 20 minute session – that’s fine. Just get through what you can in the time you have allocated (20-30 minutes is what I would usually spend on a FLUENT reading group every second or third day) and concentrate on developing the Step 2 routine. Don’t get caught up with lots of questioning or discussion at this point. Just give them a chance to have a go. As I said, more about this in the tutorials.     When do I teach decoding and word building strategies and the other things I normally do?   If your students are still needing lots of decoding and word building strategies then they are probably not ready for CSI – still developmentally EARLY readers. However you can mix it up – include a page here or there of “I think that means..” with what you might normally do with your early readers. See how they respond to it.     I would like to see the final product - what happens when a group is using all the strategies well - what does this look/sound like?  (13/3/09)   The answer is we don’t know yet – this is what we are hoping to see with the trial schools. I have lots of data on short term trials (eg interns working in a classroom for 7 weeks) but nothing long term that we have been able to oversee. The end product should be students self managing the process and moving very quickly through text with a high degree of selective strategy use. At the start it seems very clunky but over time, if you keep to the structure of the Three Steps, you will see very interesting changes in the way they process the text. The key is to keep the structure there and not to push on too fast. Lots and lots of practice to habitualise the process. Teachers I have trained have been using it and have come up with some startling results but I don’t always get to see what it looks like myself. The research on this sort of highly interactive approach says that it can take up to 18 months for strategies to be profoundly habitualised so, while there will be lots of short term pay-offs, the real fruit is seen only after a considerable amount of time. I look forward to being able to video your wonderful children in full flight !! I am unsure of what to say/do when children are using "I think that means..." but don't get the correct meaning from text, or if they don't give enough and you think there is more they could say.  (6/3/09)   In the whole class setting you are “teaching”  the strategy so there is plenty of opportunity to talk about using ITTM to check “have we have got the message right”. Let several people have a go at the same sentence – encourage them to play around with it. Ask the class “have we got it?” “Is there anything more in there?” “Does anyone else want to have a go?” Because you are only spending 10 mins on this and just a few sentences, you have the luxury of going to town on any one sentence that is proving to be a bit tricky. The key thing here is that you want to encourage risk taking and get a good spontaneous flow of “thinking aloud” not careful, well thought out responses so give LOTS of encouragement to anyone who has a go no matter what they come out with. Remember to include some buddy practice as well so EVERYONE is getting the practice. Once you start with a group the emphasis changes. This becomes the guided practice. You want the routine to speed up and not grind to a halt. You will see in the group videos that I accept pretty much anything and move on for the sake of pace and establishing a routine. If you think a response is wrong or very weak, the action you take is to model a better response and move on. Don’t question the student or ask them to unpack it further – you lose everyone else. Look for improvement over time. Go back to the whole class setting and thrash it out again with the class rather than in the group. Later on you may develop a group routine where others can add on to someone else’s ITTM but be careful about maintaining the momentum of the session. Remember, in the group, the focus is on getting them to process more deeply – using the strategy – you don’t have to wring every ounce of meaning out of it. The modelling from you and listening to each other will develop the internal dialogue – this is not the place for discussion. Do we have to use “I think that means” every sentence, every time? (2/09) This is a good point.  Remember the purpose of these strategies is to alter the inner voice and in doing so create a new habit when processing text.  For this to occur we feel the need for students to use this phrase at least until they no longer realize they are saying it and possibly are intuitively processing with this strategy in mind.  This means every sentence, every time.    How many groups can be seen each day? (2/09)  This really depends on the teacher and their routines, school expectations and how much time you have, HOWEVER we would expect a good 20-30 minutes per group with this strategy which means you may be able to see 2 or 3 groups in an hour slot.  With 5 groups we would have our low group everyday and the other four on a two day rotation.  2 groups per day. Also remember that the story does not have to be finished in one sitting.  More information about this in upcoming tutorials.   The buffering of the video clips is very slow and interferes with ease of watching. (2/09)   There is not a lot we can do about this as it is dependent upon the modem / processing speed of individual / school systems.  You can click the video you want to watch and then go away to make a coffee and then come back when it is fully loaded and then play the clip. OR call telecom and tell them to upgrade their systems as we are one of the slowest in the developed world.  I could load the films on school computers but this would defeat the purpose of the trial.  We know this is an issue. What we really want to know is will you get around it, get over it, or give up? To us that is good data.