I think your friend is right on. I think with second language learners providing sentence starters (I call them connection stems) can help kids to respond verbally and in writing. It takes away the stress of finding the right vocabulary.
I don't know the age group of the students in question, but I like to do minilessons that define thick and thin connections. I ask what connections are "thick enough" to link people as friends? Would it be enough that two people both have a brown shirt? Would that forge a bond? Not necessarily. Then I ask kids (sixth graders) what could help make a deep connection between them and a new friend. They almost always respond: similar experiences. We name some: loss --whether it be a loss of a loved one or loss of their old neighborhood due to a move--being left out of a special event. You know, big "sixth grade experiences", LOL. They later conclude that emotions also make good connectors between people, too. I ask what links would help two people understand each other better. That seems to help adolescents find thick connections. I have them jot all this down in their reading/writing handbooks where they record all minilessons and for the next few sessions we look for "deep experiences" or "emotional links" that we feel towards the characters we are reading about (text to self). We also look for characters in separate books that could share deep emotional links with each other (for example: a picture book character who was teased and an adolescent in a novel who was bullied and ostracized...text to text). Hope this makes sense. Kelly W ----- Original Message ---- From: Felicia Barra <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 11:09:12 PM Subject: [MOSAIC] help with making connections Hi everyone, I'm hoping you can help me help a friend. She is piloting a new balanced literacy program that includes reading workshop. She is finding her lowest students have trouble making connections. Any connection that they make is very literal. Instead of using text, she thought she might start with pictures. She thought she would show a picture of her son playing soccer. I suggested that she tell her students "this is a picture of my son doing something that he likes to do. What do you like to do?". She also thought she would show a picture of a celebration such as a birthday and ask them to make connections. Is she on the right track with these students? 3 out of the 5 are second language learners. I think one of the reasons they make literal connections is because they lack the background knowledge. How do you build that? Is there something she should read? TIA for your help and consideration. Felicia _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
