Someone, and I can't remember who so if you are out there speak up, gave me the most wonderful notion for this. Using the two column chart, record connections on the left and under a column on the right titled "So What?", explain how this connection takes you into the text. Hey, I think that was Tovani's latest book.
A fifth grade teacher experiencing similar difficulties tried this with her class and I was lucky enough to be in attendance when it happened. The class was reading an article from National Geographic for Kids about the Mayans. The teacher was using a shared reading experience with the students and they were then connecting and sharing in 'turn and talk' pairings. One student had shared in the previous section read about their connections to the American Indians, saying based on what he knew about such and such tribe, he thought the Mayans may have disappeared because they were driven from their lands. He thought they might have gone to Mexico. That said, I was sitting in on a knee to knee with a little girl what had written this connection into her t-chart. "My mother makes tortillas." Well, the story did say that Mayans made tortillas but there I was thinking, surface level!! She had not recorded the so what, so I challenged her with a, "So what?" And she said to me, "My mom learned to make tortillas in Mexico." Perhaps you are seeing some connection here, but to be honest, I did not. "So What?" I asked again, desperately hoping for something as I had a teacher from another school who is struggling with strategy instruction hovering nearby. "Mayans made tortillas and my mom learned to make them in Mexico. S---- said he thought that they fled to Mexico and I think this is evidence that he might be right." Whoa!!! Wasn't that a bit of grand thinking and had she not been pushed, her teacher agreed that she would have come to same conclusion, "So what??????" I relearned a lesson. Never assume. What appears to be surface level or even the sort of connection that detours thinking rather than routes it into the text may in fact be the tip of an iceberg. Lori On 9/15/06 9:28 PM, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Maybe you should start off small with a T chart wihe What I read on one side > and What I think on the other. This goes beyond connections. > > I used to have the same problem with connections. Then we moved to having to > say this is my connection and this is how it helps me to better understand > the text. If it doesn't then it probably was a weak or thin connection. > > Sue > > > _______________________________________________ > Mosaic mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to > http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > -- Lori Jackson District Literacy Coach & Mentor Todd County School District Box 87 Mission SD 57555 http:www.tcsdk12.org ph. 605.856.2211 Literacies for All Summer Institute "Literate Lives: A Human Right" July 12-15, 2007 Louisville, Kentucky http://www.ncte.org/profdev/conv/wlu _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
