Lisa, I had the same horrible results one year when I began to go over connections. Kids would pick pointless connections that did not help them in their comprehension of the text (eg I had a red shirt like the character did.) Or they would make up connections just to have somethng to say.
I ended up doing two things that helped. With the group that made thin connections, I used minilessons from Strategies that Work and other books that stress teaching kids the difference between thin and thick connections.We'd discuss surface stuff and deep stuff. If I have a shirt like you, I may not undertsnad you any better than I did yesterday. But if you felt alone when you moved to a new schoo, and I felt alone because my parents divorced, then we both experienced loneliness and loss. I may "get" you a bit better because of this connection. We may even become friends even though I never actually moved to a new school. That's how we talked about it: I made it about new friends trying to connect and get to know each other. We are all trying to connect and get to know a character. The connectors who were making stuff up seemed to think you had to have the exact same life as the character to make a good connection. So we began to brainstorm with things other than plot points that a reader can connect to regarding a character. What about looking at the emotions the character feels? What about seeing if you and the charavcter share personality traits? How does that affect the charcater? How does that affect you? Some wording that helped: I felt the way the character did when he/she...I'm a shy person just like this character is so I know... IMO, It's also okay for kids to say they have NO connection once in a while as long as they can defend that statement. Is this okay on standardized tests? Nope, but in real literary discussion it's definitely okay with me. Who among us hasn't read a book and found a character unrelatable to ourselves? Hope this long respnse helps!!! Good luck. Kelly W 6th Gr/CT _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
