I loved your idea of finding 3 things in a book on which to focus. what grade level do you teach? This is my 2nd post in this discussion forum. Please advise me. These e-mails just started to show up after I signed up. Previously, I had been reading from the Reading Lady web page and just systematically going through the discussions for each chapter. Have I landed in the wrong place? Sincerely, Leslie Wright 4th grade Riverside Elementary
On 6/24/08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > On p. 147 I underlined "rereading is the hallmark of effective genre > > study". > > I admit I get going in a genre study and I want to expose the class to a > > wide variety of texts. > > I do not take time to slow down, reread in depth an excellent example of > > that genre. > > I realize this is a strong message from the book-teach a few important > > concepts in depth over a long period of time. > > Did I share about our genre studies? I had a big aha moment last year when > I started an adventure-survival genre study with a group of committed > fantasy enthusiasts. Their reading levels dropped instantly upon starting > the new genre. They had never been exposed to adventure books before and > they did not like reading them in the beginning. They had little schema, > and where, with fantasy, I could just release them, with adventure survival > I had to start with a teacher read aloud and work from there. I spent time > showing them wilderness photos and videos and talking about survival. Once > they had some schema they began to enjoy the genre more, a few even took > off, continuing many books in the survival genre thereafter. I realized by > teaching a number of genres in depth we accomplish many things: students > grow a larger vocabulary because many words seem to be genre driven, they > grow a larger schema for future reading because they are developing a > broader base, and they become more varied in their reading choices. IT was > such an aha moment when one of my students thanked me for "making" her read > something she did not think would be interesting (her mom thanked me too). I > suddenly remembered my own daughter telling me the best thing her sixth > grade teacher ever did was make her read a biography. She became a John > Muir affectionado and now talks of becoming an earth scientist as a result. > I love that Ellin is so supportive of genre studies and I plan to keep > developing those units of study. > > > > > I do not consider myself a writer so it is hard for me to "mine" the work > > for understanding and insight. > > You wrote here and communicated perfectly--you must be a writer:) > > > Lester Laminack has a book that shows his author craft. It gave me > insight > > but how do I get this without the author spelling it out for me? > > I do not want to keep flipping from one resource to another (Mentor > Texts, > > MOT) in order to get the most out of a text. > > How do others go about dwelling in the ideas in a text? > > How do you get students involved in the noticings? > > Three things have helped me in terms of book studies and getting students > to dwell deeper into the text--(and I am sure there are many more ideas than > mine out there): > 1. I pick the right text to work with. A book that has challenging ideas, > themes about struggle, friendship, family, power, love, etc...these books > help dwelling to occur by their very nature. I often pick an excellent read > aloud and use it for our full class discussions on themes and such--when > possible I try to have a full class set of the read aloud so they can follow > my reading if they like (or steal peeks ahead if they cannot stand the > suspense). > > 2. I make a wall ready for our observations. I use GATE icons which are > little symbols that help to cue student thinking (developed by Sandra Kaplan > at USC). I will usually start a genre with a great read aloud and we all > start thinking right away with standard strategies: connections, imagery, > questions, summarizing...and then we use icons to take our thinking deeper: > multiple perspectives, ethical issues, patterns, big ideas, messages from > the author, etc. All these thoughts are written on charts, usually by me, > but sometimes in groups by the students and then posted on that wall so we > keep thinking and see our thoughts as we read. Then as students move into > literature groups and independent reading within the same genre--we try to > find time to share and continue our wall chart recording. > > 3. I really like Gallagher's ideas for novel studies. He generally writes > for the secondary level, but his ideas have helped me. He advises picking > three main things about a book study: one reading thing, one writing thing, > and one grammar thing. So, I read the novel first and look for something > strong about reading, like if I were reading Because of Winn Dixie I might > want us to really think about character development and the tracking of a > multiple of characters. Then I look for something strong about the writing, > In BEcause of Winn Dixie the descriptions are priceless, so I decided to use > the text to study how to write good descriptions. Finally, in Winn Dixie > many sentences are dependent clause-types so I decided that would be a good > grammar focus. By staying with one main focus in each area, I find my > instruction tends to be better because I know what I am hoping students will > MOST get from the book and I can direct my instruction and my assessment > toward those things that I am focusing upon. > > Hope that offers some helpful ideas. > :)Bonita > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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
