WOW, Suzie, is all I can say! This is going out to all teachers in my district
this afternoon!> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 07:53:01 -0800> From: [EMAIL
PROTECTED]> To: Understand@literacyworkshop.org> Subject: [Understand]
developing comprehension skills> > I am following the discussion on 'to
understand' and must admit there seems to be a bit of discrepancy between what
we believe in reading and then what the expectation is in other areas and the
'department' approach to subjects at the primary level. I think the joy of
being with children for all their subjects, is not that you are focussed on
'content' but that across the curriculum you can help kids build the skills and
strategies that help them 'UNDERSTAND" what it is they are reading and to think
through questions and encourage them to question. I have this very strong
fundamental belief that if you teach your students the strategies in reading
and writing, in a way that they are then authentically applied to other subject
areas....well, you have done a great job. My big thing is using technology as a
tool in the literacy area and I have asked across here and Mosaic, about how
you as teachers apply new technology to your teaching. It's not been> answered
but the beauty in technology is being able to really simplify what you do by
just expecting your students to think. Every morning I take a photo taken by an
'ordinary person' from a website and show it to my kids. If you don't have a
smartboard or white board it's probably more difficult to orchestrate but the
whole idea is to have kids brainstorming and thinking about the obvious, then
in discussion piggy backing off each other and the building their comprehension
in a way that no amount of teaching or 'text book' reading could ever gather.
During a five minute session the kids brainstorm, either alone or with each
other, it doesn't matter about what the picture is telling them, they compose
questions about what they would like to know and then they 'infer'..given
clues. What is amazing as has been discussed is that no child sees the picture
in the same way. What happens in an indirect way is that the children are
encouraged to think> beyond the box.to think beyond a text and the most
incredible understandings become apparent. The whole link to self and the world
is exposed. The 'what i don't know and want to know' is questioned. Today the
photo was of two little boy, running a tyre tube down a road. The boys were
scantily dressed. But, the responses that came from the kids were amazing and
what they saw in the picture was amazing. I think in that few minutes as a
class there was evidence of real inquiry, real problem solving and thinking and
reporting on the deepest level. And, what does it mean when later in the day,
the kids are going back to the picture and debating their understanding of it.
Later in the day when we were doing our independent reading I just asked before
we started for the children to reflect on their 'photo' experience this morning
and to see if that could connect in any way to what they were going to do in
their reading. I didn't really expect> anything but at the end of the reading
time, we talked about going beyond the obvious. How, a scene or a character can
be painted, but how your view can differ from someone else depending on life
experience. I think what kids bring to the 'discussion' is far greater, far
broader than we expect. I couldn't carry and connect the experience with my
kids if they left me for Science or Social Studies, because my jog is to 'join
the dots'. And, the knowledge of what they can build on. ......to understand is
to build the steps, blocks, or whatever it take so connections are made.> > >
Start your day with Yahoo!7 and win a Sony Bravia TV. Enter now
http://au.docs.yahoo.com/homepageset/?p1=other&p2=au&p3=tagline> >
_______________________________________________> Understand mailing list>
Understand@literacyworkshop.org>
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
_________________________________________________________________
Proud to be a PC? Show the world. Download the “I’m a PC” Messenger themepack
now.
hthttp://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119642558/direct/01/
_______________________________________________
Understand mailing list
Understand@literacyworkshop.org
http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/listinfo/understand_literacyworkshop.org
