I just came away from Frank Serafini's workshop today and realized how closely aligned his thoughts were to the posts on the listserv as of late.... he is a very funny man who makes you think about why you do what you do in your practice..... his big talk today was about comprehension strategies and his feelings that perhaps we are taking the strategy instruction a bit too far and teaching as if they are the big units in a reading workshop. ...rather than a way to access those big units of study. He did a marvelous job of showing how graphic organizers and reader responses should be used as discussion starters rather than an end "product" which teachers tend to use as assessment. He asked us to consider a graphic organizer like a t-chart in which the child or a group of children determine the parameters. He said if teachers are filling in the top of the t-chart and kids are responding to our descriptors then we've reduced their thinking and asked them to align their thoughts to ours. I am sure I am not saying it well.... but it drove so many points home that I must say I am guilty of..... He told a funny story of how a teacher was trying to compliment him on his new non-fiction series he has written for primary kids... how she uses them to teach inferences... boy did he go off on it... humorously... making the point that the books are about nature and his purpose was never to write books to go with a unit on inferencing.... he kept showing how inferencing happens... that it is determined by the genre of the text: where it happens, when it happens, why it happens, and with what other strategies kids use while they are inferencing are all text bound... not a study in and of itself... that it will take various shapes... or forms... if I had to give a "visualization" for it. He also gave many ideas of how inferencing works( and I use that example because the last few posts were about inferencing) outside the book (where he says all inferences happen) but yet, still bound by what you have learned in the text. To drive that point home he did an activity with us in which he read excerpts from the book and then asked volunteers to become the book character. The audience could ask any question they wanted of the characters (not necessarily related to the plot) ... but the volunteers had to answer the questions by inferencing what they thought the character would say about a particular question.... think dinner party talk! Then use the responses to determine if they were logical and in line with what you thought about the character.... and it is the later part... the discussion.... that is most important not the response of the volunteer.... His focus was geared for third grade and up but it really was a "mindset" he was talking about... He showed how in primary we tell the kids to use illustrations to support text... but he pulled plenty of picture books out that not only showed symmetrical support (images parallel the the information) but "enhancement" interplay where illustrations enhance the text (think The Boy Who Looked like Lincoln) where the ah ha is in the picture and adds so much more to the text then the words can say... and then counterpoint interplay where the image provides information that is contradicted by the text (think The Sweetest Fig) Anyway... this might be old hat for some but it blew away some of cornerstones of pedagogy and forced me to rethink .... and maybe looking out from a lens is as productive or perhaps more productive than focusing on the stuff under the lens. Pam In a message dated 12/11/2008 5:44:22 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes: I like Bev's idea of Comprehension Connections (mcGregor). It is easy to implement right away. I also think that Daily Five would be a good start. You mentioned class size and it combines management and reading. It sounds like your teacher's have a lot to handle, and Comprehension Connections and the Daily Five use activities to get going right away.
Once the group is established, MOT would be great to study. Linda _______________________________________________ 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. **************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in one place. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010) _______________________________________________ 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.
