I have 7th graders that have been "scripted textbook"and "worksheeted" to death in elementary. No one's ever trusted that they understood what they were reading or even reading it, so they have had to prove they read the book not enjoyed it. The summary is almost an ingrained instinct. Nor, they have ever learned that the author's job is to make the reader feel something. (Boredom is an emotion in my room) They read the words, period. When I ask them what they think of the book, I they shrug. To cure this I have to constantly model, model, model. It takes a long time to break the habit.
However, when the summaries just won't stop, I approach from three directions: 1. When I read aloud, picture book, novel, poem, I stop and discuss connections, clarifications, predictions...etc. I use this when I model the responding, "Remember when we talked about..." 2. I also scan responses into my computer, from students that fit what I am asking for, and present them . ( Ask permission from the student and remove any identifying marks.) I show them and just ask orally and discuss: summary or response? Why? They will begin to recognize the difference. 3. When I individually conference with them, I can have them reread their entry and decide if it was a summary or response. Remind them of our groups discussions. I love the peer to peer responding you talk about. I just haven't had the nerve to try it yet. Kim On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 6:05 AM, Beverlee Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Probably the next thing I'd try is to allow/encourage them to write to each > other for a while instead of you. You could choose random partners or > allow > choice. > > On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 6:57 PM, Yingling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > I am struggling to get my students to write quality letters within their > > reader's notebooks. It's December and they are still simply giving me > > summaries. I ask them questions and give comments in my letters back to > > them yet most of my kids aren't responding to my questions/comments. > I've > > gone to giving the kids grades and their grades don't even seem to > motivate > > some of them to do better. We've written sample letters together, I've > > shown them examples, I've written examples for them, I've given them > letter > > starters. What do I do next? The kids seem to just want me to give them > > worksheets to complete - they don't want to think. > > Help please, > > Jenni > > > > _______________________________________________ > > 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. > > -- Kim ------- Kimberlee Hannan 7th CORE-ELA & WH Sequoia Middle School Fresno, California 93702 The best teachers teach from the heart, not from the book. ~Author Unknown [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ 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.
