Bonita DeAmicis
Wed, 18 Jul 2007 19:17:34 -0700
Hi All, LeeAnn and I would like to beef up our book talk so we are going to start throwing things around that interest us. You may listen in on our banter or join in if you feel inclined:) I am certainly no expert though I have been participating in this list for a while so it makes me feel like one sometimes:) I am a fifth grade teacher in a California suburban school. I have written a few books, but none on reading comprehension.
So, LeeAnn proposed some questions in her very first post that I will try to answer as best I can from my perspective. Question: How do your students use written as well as other kinds of responses to show their evolving thinking? Answer: Hmmm. This is still evolving for me as a teacher. Initially, I used only post-its and got slim results. Although last year with the use of the Comprehension Toolkit I got much better post-it results due, in part, to more specifically explaining what I wanted on them. We, in my district, also use Susan Kaplan's differentiation for gifted students. So, in addition to the strategies, we use icons that can provoke deeper thinking in our reading (and in other subjects). As a result of this combination we (the teachers I work with) have developed a number of response-type charts/logs/andprojects to provoke both the use of strategies and the use of icons. Example: students might illustrate a scene from the reading and then they will place a "frame" around the scene that they use to write comments and thoughts...using both icons and strategies. Or we might write a general provoking question on the board and students will respond in logs in some open-ended way that uses strategies and icons. I cringed at the part in the book where the authors talk about dioramas, not that I do any. But with my fellow teachers we have sometimes done projects of sorts, trying always to get the projects closer to the reading. I have grown frustrated with such activities as they feel more closely related to the need to get a grade--to have a product, than they do to the actual learning from reading. I, in the last two years, have moved more toward the use of discussion and conferences as the key components of reading assessment. I do like the ideas from STW about graphic organizers. I do not believe I have taken best advantage of their use yet. Mind mapping would be an awesome way to have students track their thinking. Can't believe I never thought of it before. I really like using oral discussion and have improved at it over the years--especially since reading Eye to Eye (or is it Knee to Knee) and also Daily Five (not the same as the NCLB stuff). I also have taught students to tape conversations that I am not privy to, so that I can listen later--that has made me feel like book discussions are not just wasted time. I have not gotten these all the way to where I'd like them to be. Every class it is a new adventure trying to make discussion productive and heartfelt. Funny story. The first time I started using tape recorders for group book talks was a few years back. I introduced the idea to my students and explained why I was doing it and what I hoped to gain by listening to their tapes. Anyway, we began in five groups of six students and they taped, but it was SO LOUD. I gave them maybe five minutes to talk before I announced it wasn't really working and we should try again when I can figure out a better room arrangement (understand--I am pretty sensitive to sound because I work in open pod architecture so my students can be heard easily by three other classrooms). I took the tapes home, laughing about my feeble attempt and bemoaning that it did not work. I turned the first tape on so my husband and I could laugh at my idiocy and then we listened to five minutes of the best book conversation you could imagine! he said to me, "Those are fifth graders?" Apparently, the noise in the room did not disturb my students. That was when I became committed to using tapes. I cannot always listen to all of them, but I use them nonetheless. So, how about you, LeeAnn--how do you use written or other responses to show thinking? :)Bonita _______________________________________________ Stw2chat mailing list Stw2chat@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/stw2chat_literacyworkshop.org. Search the STW2 Chat Archives at http://snipurl.com/stw2archives.