Bonita DeAmicis
Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:08:44 -0700
It has been rather quiet out there. I hope that is just a sign of summer and not a technical problem. We are now on to the second portion on "Strategies That Work" by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis. And I thought I would open it up by talking about Chapter 7 "Activating and Connecting to Background Knowledge."
"If readers have nothing to hook new information to, it's pretty hard to construct meaning." This reminded me of a number of teaching moments over the years. I remember loving a read-aloud novel "And Now Miguel" with one class, when I pulled it out with a different group (different class, age, socio-economics, etc.), it was not received as well and I was confused. In the second read-aloud instance, I had to fill in many blanks just for my students to enjoy the book. Similarly, my daughter (middle income family-caucasian) did not really "enjoy" a book that came highly recommended, "Money Hungry." I read the book and it was a great read, but very different from my daughter's experiences and background. Also, I've noticed interesting patterns of genre selection: boys in my elementary rooms often come with more fantasy genre background than girls, and girls often have thicker experience with realistic fiction. When it comes to nonfiction, again I find experiences and backgrounds vary vastly. I have had students that have read everything there is about lizards and others that have never read science materials without being forced to do so. I love the example lessons in this chapter of STW where the authors recommend selecting a text that stays "close to their own lives and experiences." I think once children are familiar and confident with the use of the strategy, they can attack more unfamiliar material--stuff that they have fewer connections to. I enjoyed the student samples for the lesson on making small connections to lives. I do wonder how much time students were given to draw the pictures to go with their connections and if they were drawing those pictures as they listened. I have seen teachers that ask students to draw while listening, but I have also noticed when I do this that some students can listen and draw and others lose track of the listening when drawing. Has anyone else dealt with this? Very valuable in this chapter is the talk of "distracting and also tangential connections" and how to deal with instructing students in this matter. It can be discouraging in the classroom when children begin just trying to please the teacher (or command class attention) by making many connections: "I had a dog once, I have a grandmother", etc. These do not add to the meaning of the reading. I like the lesson where teachers model how distracting connections can take you out of the reading. I also liked the idea of having students consider two steps--what I know that connects (topic) and then add what that connection reveals to me that adds meaning to what I am reading. Using a chart like that could be very helpful. Reading through this also reminded me how often students do not want to write all of that thinking on a post-it chart or paper. That is why I believe discussions are so important--they allow students an easier way to explain their reasoning than notes and sentences so that whenever we do strategy-based teaching they do not groan at the writing requirement. Especially useful in this chapter are the lessons on recognizing and making connections to new learning during nonfiction reading. It is a different type of connection that we make in nonfiction and the lessons to help them notice and then bridge backgrounds with new reading were fun to read. I have used KWL type charts before and one problem that was not fully addressed is what to do when students are coming in with very different backgrounds. In one chart recommended by the authors: "Questions, What we think we know, and New learning", I can see students filling in many gaps for other students prior to the beginning of the reading. At times, the desire for some to show others what they know leads to a strange class interchange --students ask questions or say what they think they know--other students answer the questions or correct their thinking-- Meanwhile I am filling in the chart and not quite sure what I want to do with this type of interchange prior to reading. Do other people have this happen and what do you do with it? Looking forward to the thoughts of others and maybe some ideas and answers for my questions. :)Bonita California, Gr. 5 _______________________________________________ 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.