The only talk about text that I see/hear from my students is during Reading time. I see mostly Science and Math, therefore I don’t get to experience students talk about text during Language Arts and Social Studies. Every day we have Reading for an hour and a half. During this time, we do two scripted programs. First, is Reading Street, and the other is PALS. The program PALS we just started, therefore I have not actually seen it being practiced in my classroom yet. We have just taken our end of the first week test for Reading Street and the students moved on to Day 1 of Week 2 on Thursday. Although Reading Street is scripted and does not leave much room for freedom, we do still get to hear some student talk regarding the text that they are reading. At the beginning of the week, there is a main question. The first week's topic was on what makes people act courageously. We took the opportunity to relate the students to the text that we would be reading. We discussed different things that they do that are courageous, such as riding a bike, learning how to ride roller blades, sticking up for someone, etc. We then talked about why they do these things. Students responded with answers such as: they wanted to be brave, they wanted to learn, their friends could do it, etc. The Book Club Plus! book refers to this as contributing surface knowledge. Before starting the text, we opened up the class to a community share and learned about their background knowledge of the topic. While reading the text, we asked questions to check the student’s understanding of the text. The week’s comprehension skill was “monitoring,” so we wanted to make sure to practice this skill and had the students practice this skill so that they understood how to use it. By asking students questions such as: “Why did he do that?” We are asking the students to dig deeper and really think, or inquire about the text. After reading the text, we usually have students reflect on what they just learned. We do this by asking the class questions or asking them to talk in their groups. In their groups they often refer back to the original question: “What makes people act courageously?” Although the three kinds of thinking are touched upon in Reading Street and we try to have the students use them, I still don’t believe we do enough for the students to actually develop those kinds of thinking when reading text. This is something that I hope to work on doing during my guided lead teaching because we can get a little away from the Reading Street Program and have a little more freedom. (From my understanding?)
Something that I really liked reading about in the Book Club Plus! reading was the examples of MariAnne’s students using the fishbowl to talk about text. A quote that I really liked in the text stated: “Book Club Plus is based on the theory that language and literacy skills are learned through socially interactive settings that allow children to play with language and take risks. (pg. 68)” I think that having a fishbowl in the classroom is a perfect example of this. Students are able to socially interact and talk with their classmates and just say what they are thinking and really whatever they want to about the text. Fishbowls were something that I used in TE 448 a couple of times, but I have never seen it used in any other type of classroom. I think that it would be really interesting to personally see. I am not sure how exactly it would go in my classroom and if it would work, but I think it would be a cool thing to try out with the students. I also liked the questions about that MariAnne came up with at the end of the fish bowl for them to use talk to surface understanding and also reflect on their peer’s discussions. Using questions like these would be something I would consider doing, with whatever approach I use, to get more insight on what the students learned and what their thoughts were on the approach used.
Like Breanne, I see Reading Street with ELA. It is a Basal program, so there is not too much freedom with it. However, it does emphasize skills that do have students think and talk about the text. For example, every day I do the “Amazing Words” component with them. The Amazing Words are words slightly above their reading level, but are used in the story. This daily activity introduces these words to the students, has the students sort them into a concept map that centers around a question of the week, and then has the students reflect how these words may apply to their own lives. Students are usually really enthusiastic about this, and they get into awesome discussions and share great things about their own lives. I believe that after the lesson, the students are really grasping the meanings of the Amazing Words, and they have done this through talking. In this way, they are reflecting upon text (66).
ReplyDeleteStudents also have reading journals, in which they write it often. They almost always right about Reading Street topics; however, they are asked how these topics and themes are related to their own lives. This is generally a writing activity; however, they are encouraged to share what they have written, and many do. Lately, we have been discussing nature, and the kids LOVE to share their camping stories. They talk about things they need to “survive in the wild” (this week’s focus question), and how nature has challenged them (last week’s focus question). Students have been doing a good job relating these themes to their own lives.
Although Reading Street is fairly scripted, it does allow a lot of opportunity for students to talk about their lives in relation to the text they are encountering. It also has them use their skills to make predictions or inferences about the text. For example, this week our skill is theme/setting. Students were able to make inferences about the setting – for example, one student noted that in one of our stories, the story must have taken place a long time ago, since they were using bazookas, an old weapon (surface knowledge, 66)
Students also talked about the setting of a story about the beach. Students were able to talk about the elements that make up a setting, like sights, sounds, feelings, etc. They were able to write their own elements of a beach setting, and share these elements. I was really impressed with the quality of their elements!! They are also working on Tall Tales, and are in the middle of sharing their characters they have created.