In considering the point below...from Peter...this is where many of the teachers I know are now. They have "done" the strategy teaching on the surface level, and are looking for ways to go deeper. The connections illustration is a perfect example of where we begin with strategies - making connections, but not very meaningful ones. But this is where we have to start if we are just starting students in strategy instruction.
Before I read MOT, I can think back to doing modeling by reading and thinking aloud with my middle school students. I believe that I focused on getting kids to tell me what ithe reading?meant to them by making a connection or an inference, usually by putting themselves in the place of a?character, and then?asking for some type of reader response. My other common strategy was to ask them to predict what may happen next, and to ask them to support their answer with clues from the text. It was hit or miss strategy instruction, with a few graphic organizers thrown in to help. Which brings me to another point...the overuse of complex graphic organizers seems to have gotten in the way of understanding for some of my students...and for me. I find I can use a two column chart to show?just about any strategy ,?from kinder on up. It keeps the questions on the strategy and meaning rather than on what to put where. Cathy DE k-5 >From Peter's post My point...strategy only takes students to a point and so often we stop there.? How many times have we just done a KWL and then never went back to well...what made you learn that idea?; or, let's think about what we knew from the text...did it really connect to what the text actually said...and exploring how our prior knowledge should connect in some way or we should reconceptualize our misconceptions.? We need to take students beyond that point of just using the strategy to helping the students make meaning. _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org _______________________________________________ Understand mailing list [email protected] http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
