Beverlee Paul
Tue, 31 Jul 2007 10:43:08 -0700
I would definitely agree as to the definition of theme/topics. I depart from the idea that primary children may need to stop at topic. There's no need to instruct at that shallow an understanding, even for five year olds. Think, for instance, of a common author study for kindergarten: Eric Carle. Now think of the themes he develops in his books. What a pity to not bring that out in interactive read-aloud, an ideal venue to introduce some of the analysis and synthesis strategies. I haven't gotten that far in the book, so my comment is mainly from Bonita's post. My last comment for now on this chapter is one where I vary from the authors, although I am thinking they are addressing it on an elementary level in this book and so keeping it simple. I feel like the coverage of "theme" in the inference chapter is not how I see theme. To me, what they are talking about here is topic. So on page 144 when they talk of students finding themes like friendship, loneliness, courage--I think of these as topics that can lead to themes. The themes to me would be the messages the author sends about these topics. So I do have my students search for topics, but then we discuss the author's message about the topic and we look for text evidence that hints at or supports the message. It is a larger step in theme, but I find upper elementary students can do this. :)Bonita _______________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________ http://newlivehotmail.com _______________________________________________ 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.