Discussion #2
October 2, 2013
Recently, I’ve been trying a new strategy with my students
to build background knowledge or at least allow students to activate their own
thoughts or make connections to reading content.
The strategy I’ve been using has been called “Tea Party”
according to Kylene Beers’ When Kids Can’t
Read, What Teachers Do (2002). Basically
the strategy’s purpose is to help students predict a passage, but it requires activating
prior knowledge and revealing predisposed ideas and thoughts towards certain
passages from the text.
Procedure of the strategy:
-Choose a reading selection for students to read (I’ve
chosen poems and nonfiction articles recently).
-Choose a certain number of phrases or words from the
selection depending on size of class (I usually like to have about two times as
many students for each phrase).
-Write these phrases or words on an index card: one phrase per card.
-Instruct students that when they get the card they need to:
-make a
connection to the phrase (What does it remind you of?)
-ask a question about it
-express empathy if there is a character in the phrase
-tell what you know about the phrase or what it might mean
-tell what the phrase makes them think of or describe a mental picture they have as they read
the phrase
-ask a question about it
-express empathy if there is a character in the phrase
-tell what you know about the phrase or what it might mean
-tell what the phrase makes them think of or describe a mental picture they have as they read
the phrase
-Pass out one card to each student.
-Have students “Stand-up-Hand-up-and-Pair-up” with a partner
and share about their card. Move to a
new partner when they are done sharing.
-Do not have students trade cards when they are through sharing.
I haven’t figured out yet if it would be beneficial to trade or not. I feel the ability to keep the same card
allows students to form a deeper connection with the phrase as they continue to
share their thoughts about it. They may gain
new thoughts the more they discuss it
-When students are done sharing with classmates, invite
students back into a group (or in my classroom, their original groups).
-With group, students should be comparing ideas about their
prediction of the reading selection.
Based on what they shared with partners, what do they think the reading
selection will be about.
-Students share prediction ideas.
-Teacher then reads selection out loud with students
following along and students confirm or change their initial predictions. Teacher also takes this time to help students
understand difficult phrases by asking questions like, “What do we learn from
the text that can help us understand this word/phrase better?”
My experience with this strategy: I love that the students get to talk about
their prior knowledge or what something makes them think of.
This past week, I chose a reading selection about the
Thirteen Colonies and certain events that led up to the Revolutionary War. There were some difficult concepts in the
passage. One of the phrases I wrote down
on a card was, “The British were meddling in Colonial affairs”. Note, I was using this strategy with
struggling readers who scored either a 1 or 2 on last year’s FCAT.
One of the students said, “This phrase reminds me of Scooby
Doo, when someone in Scooby Doo says—Those meddling kids!” I was able to use his connection of the word
meddling to help him draw out what the meaning of meddling was and how it
applied to the British and the Colonies.
It was a moment of fulfillment for me!
A short moment, but still I felt the strategy was serving its purpose as
students found more connections like these.
Since using this strategy, students have had a better memory
and recall of the articles and poems we have read. And overall, I feel this strategy at least
gets them used to activating their prior knowledge bank in their minds and
realize that that’s what good readers do:
connect reading texts (even when it’s difficult to understand) to their
own experiences.
Reference:
Beers, K. (2002). When
kids can't read what teachers do: A guide for 6-12 teachers.
Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Discussion #1: “Digging Deeper”
1.
How can
we help children understand more deeply?
2.
How can we know
when they comprehend deeply?
This past week I focused on reading Chapter One in Comprehension Going Forward (Keene, E.,
et. al., 2011).
So this is what my fifth grade classroom looks like in
regards to reading and reading instruction:
a major intersection of diverging streets and paths. I have 24 students with reading levels
ranging from second to twelfth grade.
This year we are implementing a new reading series, complete with lots
of bells and whistles. On top of that my
team is trying to use novels to teach reading (something I am a huge fan of and
quite enjoy). At the moment we are
reading My Brother Sam is Dead. In addition, I feel the overwhelming cloud of
Common Core looming overhead and don’t feel quite sure about how to instruct in
this method of “teaching”. To add to all
of this, I am desperately trying to find my groove amidst all this: how to structure my lessons, how to
effectively utilize centers, and how to improve comprehension.
So, this is what my classroom has looked like in the past: whole group reading of main passages and
teacher modeling of think alouds, whole group vocabulary instruction and daily
review, whole group grammar instruction and center practice, centers focused
around specific skill instruction (main idea, author’s purpose, cause and
effect, etc.), computer practice, worksheets, etc.
So, this is what I want my classroom to look like: students
participating in authentic reading experiences that improve their comprehension
skills. I don’t necessarily want to
teach students on a skill-by-skill basis (meaning teaching to find the author’s
purpose with this passage, and teaching how to compare and contrast with that
passage, etc). I’ve taught that way for
years and don’t feel like I’ve created successful students who can dig deeper
and really understand what they’re reading.
I also want to be a teacher who truly knows how to build successful
readers, lifelong readers who can utilize strategies to help them in life, not
just to pass a test. To be honest, I don’t
feel like I honestly know how to do and I certainly don’t want to be reliant on
a reading series to build readers. I
want to know what works! How can I get
students to dig deeper?
This chapter, “Comprehension Instruction Grows Up” was a
good place to start. It documented the
experience of a middle school teacher conversing with fellow peers about how to
help students dig deeper beyond the “making connections” strategy. The teacher desired for her students to come
into the world of people who read because what they read actually changes them
(2011). She wanted them to “read with a
different outlook—not trying to make a connection, but exploring how your
connections really help you understand more effectively” (2011, p. 15).
Her plan:
1.
Read a
short piece to her students
2.
Ask them to reread the piece and take notes on
how they understand the text:
-Think about what they think about as they read
-Think about what they think about as they read
-Think about what they DO to help themselves
understand
3. Share/Discuss what they wrote down with a
partner
4. Share with group what partner wrote
**Key question she asked students as they were sharing: “How did these connections/actions help you
understand more deeply?” (2011, 19).
So, I took this idea and really tried to implement and make
it my own this week and this is what happened:
Day 1, I told the students that my job was to help them
understand texts more deeply, not just to pass a test, but to equip them with
strategies to make them lifelong, successful readers. I told them to think about what they were
thinking about (metacognition) as I read a chapter from My Brother Sam is Dead. When
I was done, I asked them to write on a sticky note one thing they thought about
as I read. I asked them to place their
sticky notes on the board under the title “In My Mind”. As I read through their responses, I noticed
some patterns among their notes and I started to put them into categories. Some made:
Predictions about what might eventually
happen in the book
Connections to something in their own life, another book they read, or a movie they had seen
Empathy for the characters as to how they were feeling
Visions of what it would have looked like. I called this “Movie in my Mind”
Wonder or questions about certain events or ideas
Connections to something in their own life, another book they read, or a movie they had seen
Empathy for the characters as to how they were feeling
Visions of what it would have looked like. I called this “Movie in my Mind”
Wonder or questions about certain events or ideas
I continued this exercise in small groups through the week
and added some elements. For example, in
my center I chose to read a difficult text with my students, “The Midnight Ride
of Paul Revere” by Henry Woodsworth Longfellow.
I prefaced it with an exercise I learned previously. I wrote down small phrases from the text on
index cards and gave each member of the small group a card and asked them to
think about what the phrase meant to them.
Then we traded cards until each person had read all 5-6 cards. We then shared our thoughts about what the
phrases might mean, or what we thought about as we read them. I then read part of the poem about Paul
Revere to the students and asked them to write down what happened in their
minds. Some students wrote feverishly (I
was transfixed by this!). Others didn’t
know what to write and I had to coax and encourage them. I heard some students exclaim, “Oh!” like a
lightbulb had gone off (this was music to my ears). After talking about what we wrote (I shared
first), I had some students make more connections as I was sharing (I excitedly
told them this is something they could write down!). We eventually wrote down on our notes “What I
do” meaning, what did the students actually do to help them understand as they
were reading. We came up with: took notes, reread, discussed. All of these things helped them develop a
deeper understanding of what they read.
So, I continue this exercise with my students, but am not
sure about the outcomes yet. By this I
mean, will this enable them and equip them with strategies to help them to gain
more meaningful reading experiences?
Will this help them eventually cross over to help them perform better on
a test?
I honestly want to get to the bottom of what actually works
to help develop successful readers. I
have a lot to work with and tall order to fill.
Currently, I am spending 30 minutes solely with a group of students who
scored 1s and 2s on last year’s FCAT.
For the most part, they are low readers.
But what motivates me at this time is thinking that this is my chance to
truly make a difference. Will it mean
higher test scores? Maybe, maybe
not. But what I do hope to accomplish
with this group, is equipping them with strategies and an increased brain
ability to more fully comprehend what they read. I do plan to extensively try out these
newfound strategies with them.
What I definitely don’t want to be doing this year is the
same things I’ve done before. I want to
find strategies that work and I only feel like I have scratched the surface,
but I’m going to keep on digging!
Resources:
Keene, E. O., Zimmerman,
S., Miller, D., Bennett, S., Blauman, L., Hutchins, C., .… McGregor, T.,(2011). Comprehension going forward: Where we are and what's next. Portsmouth, NH:
Heinemann.
Telling isn't Showing. Instruction must be Explicit and Direct.
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