In the past I have used scales to encourage student discussion on a variety of topics in social studies. My use of scales is similar to the Likert scales explained by Beers on page 140. After teaching a topic I would write statements that do not have clear-cut answers and project them on the overhead. I would then have students respond that they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed to the statements. Students then moved around the room and formed like-minded groups based on their answer to the statements. Students would form groups, discuss their position, and report back to the class. Although this “take a stand” activity fosters discussion with a number of students I have found many problems with the procedure. First, it is not always clear if students understand the position they take. Often I will randomly call on a student who is unable to give an answer to the question, even if they have moved into a group. Second, some students move into groups based on their peers. They do not think for themselves and base their decisions on their friends opinion. Often students look to a classmate they see as being “smart” and hide behind that student. Third, due to the loose structure of the activity some students not only follow friends around the room, but use the discussion time to socialize and fool around. Certain classes (especially last year) were unable to hold the discussion at all and we ended up discussing the questions from our seats. Beers has given me ideas on how I can modify the assignment and use it as a gauge of reading comprehension. In the future I plan to assign a reading passage and create a Likert scale. Students will independently answer questions on their paper before beginning the discussion. This ensures students will not simply follow the leads of their classmates and think for themselves. I will also monitor students answers and answer any questions before we begin the discussion. I will then have students participate in a group discussion as explained before. I feel that this added structure will ensure students not only interact with the reading, but that more students participate in the activity than before. This activity takes something I already do in class and modifies it into a reading comprehension lesson that benefits all levels of students. Often students who struggle in reading enjoy discussions, and this lesson is a great fusion of both reading and discussion. In the In the future I will use activities like this to help facilitate reading comprehension in my social studies classroom.
From Lisa: I used the anticipation guide that we did along with Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. There was some uneasiness at first with the anticipation guide because the students were striving for that correct answer even though there was none. Once that hurdle was overcome we discussed what each statement meant, some students despite hearing them did not know their meaning. When I explained that we were going to read a book that dealt with all of these statements my students eyes actually widened and they said it was impossible. I showed them the book we were going to read and many students were shocked. They had read it before and never thought about any of these things. We read the book then I had the students take on the view of a character, and join a group of students to discuss. I was impressed with the level of discussion that they were capable of. I have used this activity as the beginning to learning about theme. Finding a theme can be very hard for a fifth grader, so I have began by giving them themes and having them support them. They have transitioned into finding and supporting their own themes for pieces. I think beginning with giving it to them and then modeling how to find a theme has helped students grasp what a theme is and how to use text to support it. In the future I am going to try to utilize these guides more often because of the level of discussion and depth of understanding the students can achieve.
Thinking Aloud. I spent the past week focusing on Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning: During-Reading Strategies. We began studying WWII by previewing our text book and answering the 5W’s, who, what, when, where, and why. This was difficult for some and took longer than I expected, but once we reviewed together it did give students the foundation of understanding that I felt they needed in order for us to truly begin. Throughout the week, we read two non-fictional texts and also began our read-a-loud, Milkweed. In each text that we read, I focused on slowing down and thinking aloud. I shared my thoughts, clarified meaning in unfamiliar words and also had students share their thoughts. I only made it through about ¾ of my plans, but I felt like it was a successful week because I am confident that each student has a solid understanding of all that we covered. So often, I feel the pressure, mostly from myself, to get through material. I know that is not the most important thing.
I would like to respond in writing to the chapter, “Creating the Confidence to Respond”.
Current research in reading tells us that if students are not fluent readers by the end of the first grade they are likely never to catch up to their same grade peers. With this in mind let us think about the rate at which they will learn all the comprehension strategies and further decoding supports needed as they advance through the grades. They are always behind. They cannot decode fluently on grade level so it makes it difficult for them to learn and use the comprehension strategies that are taught at each year. These strategies include prediction, drawing conclusions, comparing and contrasting, using contest clues and using inference to name a few. Often dysfluent readers do not learn how to use these skills because they do not decode fluently enough to do so. It is the expectation of their teachers as they go through the grades that they have been taught these skills and therefore can use them efficiently. So slowly overtime they withdraw and do not participate in the class reading and discussion and even more destructively they do not do much if any of their own personal reading. They grow to believe they can’t read and will never learn. Within this time frame as students slowly become non-readers they do not learn that all readers make mistakes from time to time but they learn to repair their mistakes when they realize they have made them. Slow or non readers assume everyone else reads perfectly and easily and do not make the mistakes that students with reading difficulties make when they read.
One of the biggest obstacles I find in teaching students with reading disabilities is that they are so hard on themselves when they misread words. They often feel that they cannot achieve the reading act. They need to be directly taught that all readers have miscues when they read and that there are specific strategies to help repair these errors. When they hear others make mistakes in reading (I am accommodating by making errors on a regular basis) and then acknowledge the errors and repair the mistake it gives them confidence as a reader to take a chance. We have to remember that many of these readers have been behind the rest of their class since first grade and after a time they just grow weary of trying to read and feeling they just cannot do it.
So allowing errors gracefully and supporting what the students do correctly when they read will encourage students to continue to put themselves out there and risk trying some more. Continual direct instruction in repairing decoding and comprehension at their own skill level will help students keep reading and keep growing at their own rate over the course of their education! Do not assume that just because something was taught in the previous year means that dysfluent and slower readers were able to incorporate the skill into their reading because in all probability they did not!
Reading Response: Vocabulary! Students enter high school and for the most part it appears that vocabulary becomes the responsibility of the student. At the high school it appears the dictionary method prevails. I enjoyed reading about the Vocabulary Casserole (the dictionary method) vs the Vocabulary Treat (Interacting with the vocabulary in meaningful ways)! Beers suggested 8 ways to teach vocabulary and I found them to be applicable to the high school level. I found myself wondering if the suggestions were used by teachers throughout the district what an incredible impact it could have on students’ progress. On another note I would like to comment on Beers reflections regarding George. Each chapter ended with a reflection and the reflection acted as a constant reminder of how painful it is to be a struggling learner. The reflections were an important reminder to me how important it is to be vigilant in learning and teaching these strategies to our teachers and our students. The reality is if we don’t that child may feel the pain for the rest of his/her life.
Last week in my science classes, we spent a lot of time using my modified version of the KWL (which is really a KW). We are launching into our research projects on endangered species. The students look forward to this all year. They anticipate and think about what species they might choose and why. I had each student individually write what they already know about their chosen species. For some students this list was fairly short, for others it was more extensive. Then they wrote what they wanted to know. The next step was to share their questions, even though they each have a different species. I recorded their questions on large chart paper because the next step takes more than one class period. Next, we looked over the extensive list of questions and I asked the students to look for some patterns. I asked them if they could see any common threads in the large list of questions. They were able to find several (but not all) of them. They said things like, “Well, there are a lot of questions about babies and things like that” or “There are lots of questions about what they eat or what eats them”. From these categories, we developed our guiding questions for research. This is somewhat time consuming, but on the other end, I think it makes the research more meaningful and less difficult for the students.
I really enjoyed Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning During-Reading Strategies. Most of my students are struggling readers and it is obvious to me that they do not see reading as in active process. That they only see the outward signs of comprehension-peers answering questions correctly. One day during class I was asking questions and the class was taking turns answering…I have one student who is an avid reader and the others are struggling readers. The avid reader was quickly answering questions, and one of the other students looked up and said, “D@#$ you are so smart”. That comment led to a discussion of how he reads compared to how she reads. To sum up the conversation, he has an internal dialogue while reading while she is just reading the words, she does not “hear” or have an internal dialogue with the text. It was an “ah ha” moment for some of them. She has never been taught how to construct meaning. We will be starting a group book in the next week or so and I am going to try as many of the different activities that Beers has suggested in chapter 7. I am going to attempt to bring the invisible process of comprehension out to the visible level.
I think that the most valuable part of social studies is getting kids to think, analyze, and ask questions. My students always seem to want the right answer, the truth, and the official version of events. They need things to be linear and logical and unvarying, and it tortures them that the answer to their endless string of “what if” questions is almost always “it depends.” That’s why I really like anticipation guides. They allow me to put the kids in uncomfortable positions, where they have to deal with shades of gray and confront the fact that the world has no official rulebook. I also like that anticipation guides draw kids into the lesson. They seem to focus better on a reading or a discussion if they have an emotional connection to the material. So yeah, good strategy.
In the past I have used scales to encourage student discussion on a variety of topics in social studies. My use of scales is similar to the Likert scales explained by Beers on page 140. After teaching a topic I would write statements that do not have clear-cut answers and project them on the overhead. I would then have students respond that they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed, or strongly disagreed to the statements. Students then moved around the room and formed like-minded groups based on their answer to the statements. Students would form groups, discuss their position, and report back to the class.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this “take a stand” activity fosters discussion with a number of students I have found many problems with the procedure. First, it is not always clear if students understand the position they take. Often I will randomly call on a student who is unable to give an answer to the question, even if they have moved into a group. Second, some students move into groups based on their peers. They do not think for themselves and base their decisions on their friends opinion. Often students look to a classmate they see as being “smart” and hide behind that student. Third, due to the loose structure of the activity some students not only follow friends around the room, but use the discussion time to socialize and fool around. Certain classes (especially last year) were unable to hold the discussion at all and we ended up discussing the questions from our seats.
Beers has given me ideas on how I can modify the assignment and use it as a gauge of reading comprehension. In the future I plan to assign a reading passage and create a Likert scale. Students will independently answer questions on their paper before beginning the discussion. This ensures students will not simply follow the leads of their classmates and think for themselves. I will also monitor students answers and answer any questions before we begin the discussion. I will then have students participate in a group discussion as explained before. I feel that this added structure will ensure students not only interact with the reading, but that more students participate in the activity than before.
This activity takes something I already do in class and modifies it into a reading comprehension lesson that benefits all levels of students. Often students who struggle in reading enjoy discussions, and this lesson is a great fusion of both reading and discussion. In the In the future I will use activities like this to help facilitate reading comprehension in my social studies classroom.
From Lisa:
ReplyDeleteI used the anticipation guide that we did along with Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. There was some uneasiness at first with the anticipation guide because the students were striving for that correct answer even though there was none. Once that hurdle was overcome we discussed what each statement meant, some students despite hearing them did not know their meaning. When I explained that we were going to read a book that dealt with all of these statements my students eyes actually widened and they said it was impossible. I showed them the book we were going to read and many students were shocked. They had read it before and never thought about any of these things. We read the book then I had the students take on the view of a character, and join a group of students to discuss. I was impressed with the level of discussion that they were capable of. I have used this activity as the beginning to learning about theme. Finding a theme can be very hard for a fifth grader, so I have began by giving them themes and having them support them. They have transitioned into finding and supporting their own themes for pieces. I think beginning with giving it to them and then modeling how to find a theme has helped students grasp what a theme is and how to use text to support it. In the future I am going to try to utilize these guides more often because of the level of discussion and depth of understanding the students can achieve.
Thinking Aloud.
ReplyDeleteI spent the past week focusing on Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning: During-Reading Strategies. We began studying WWII by previewing our text book and answering the 5W’s, who, what, when, where, and why. This was difficult for some and took longer than I expected, but once we reviewed together it did give students the foundation of understanding that I felt they needed in order for us to truly begin. Throughout the week, we read two non-fictional texts and also began our read-a-loud, Milkweed. In each text that we read, I focused on slowing down and thinking aloud. I shared my thoughts, clarified meaning in unfamiliar words and also had students share their thoughts. I only made it through about ¾ of my plans, but I felt like it was a successful week because I am confident that each student has a solid understanding of all that we covered. So often, I feel the pressure, mostly from myself, to get through material. I know that is not the most important thing.
Linda Scribner Said...
ReplyDeleteI would like to respond in writing to the chapter, “Creating the Confidence to Respond”.
Current research in reading tells us that if students are not fluent readers by the end of the first grade they are likely never to catch up to their same grade peers. With this in mind let us think about the rate at which they will learn all the comprehension strategies and further decoding supports needed as they advance through the grades. They are always behind. They cannot decode fluently on grade level so it makes it difficult for them to learn and use the comprehension strategies that are taught at each year. These strategies include prediction, drawing conclusions, comparing and contrasting, using contest clues and using inference to name a few. Often dysfluent readers do not learn how to use these skills because they do not decode fluently enough to do so. It is the expectation of their teachers as they go through the grades that they have been taught these skills and therefore can use them efficiently. So slowly overtime they withdraw and do not participate in the class reading and discussion and even more destructively they do not do much if any of their own personal reading. They grow to believe they can’t read and will never learn. Within this time frame as students slowly become non-readers they do not learn that all readers make mistakes from time to time but they learn to repair their mistakes when they realize they have made them. Slow or non readers assume everyone else reads perfectly and easily and do not make the mistakes that students with reading difficulties make when they read.
One of the biggest obstacles I find in teaching students with reading disabilities is that they are so hard on themselves when they misread words. They often feel that they cannot achieve the reading act. They need to be directly taught that all readers have miscues when they read and that there are specific strategies to help repair these errors. When they hear others make mistakes in reading (I am accommodating by making errors on a regular basis) and then acknowledge the errors and repair the mistake it gives them confidence as a reader to take a chance. We have to remember that many of these readers have been behind the rest of their class since first grade and after a time they just grow weary of trying to read and feeling they just cannot do it.
So allowing errors gracefully and supporting what the students do correctly when they read will encourage students to continue to put themselves out there and risk trying some more. Continual direct instruction in repairing decoding and comprehension at their own skill level will help students keep reading and keep growing at their own rate over the course of their education! Do not assume that just because something was taught in the previous year means that dysfluent and slower readers were able to incorporate the skill into their reading because in all probability they did not!
Linda Madden Says...
ReplyDeleteReading Response:
Vocabulary! Students enter high school and for the most part it appears that vocabulary becomes the responsibility of the student. At the high school it appears the dictionary method prevails. I enjoyed reading about the Vocabulary Casserole (the dictionary method) vs the Vocabulary Treat (Interacting with the vocabulary in meaningful ways)! Beers suggested 8 ways to teach vocabulary and I found them to be applicable to the high school level. I found myself wondering if the suggestions were used by teachers throughout the district what an incredible impact it could have on students’ progress.
On another note I would like to comment on Beers reflections regarding George. Each chapter ended with a reflection and the reflection acted as a constant reminder of how painful it is to be a struggling learner. The reflections were an important reminder to me how important it is to be vigilant in learning and teaching these strategies to our teachers and our students. The reality is if we don’t that child may feel the pain for the rest of his/her life.
Last week in my science classes, we spent a lot of time using my modified version of the KWL (which is really a KW). We are launching into our research projects on endangered species. The students look forward to this all year. They anticipate and think about what species they might choose and why. I had each student individually write what they already know about their chosen species. For some students this list was fairly short, for others it was more extensive. Then they wrote what they wanted to know. The next step was to share their questions, even though they each have a different species. I recorded their questions on large chart paper because the next step takes more than one class period.
ReplyDeleteNext, we looked over the extensive list of questions and I asked the students to look for some patterns. I asked them if they could see any common threads in the large list of questions. They were able to find several (but not all) of them. They said things like, “Well, there are a lot of questions about babies and things like that” or “There are lots of questions about what they eat or what eats them”. From these categories, we developed our guiding questions for research. This is somewhat time consuming, but on the other end, I think it makes the research more meaningful and less difficult for the students.
I really enjoyed Chapter 7: Constructing Meaning During-Reading Strategies. Most of my students are struggling readers and it is obvious to me that they do not see reading as in active process. That they only see the outward signs of comprehension-peers answering questions correctly. One day during class I was asking questions and the class was taking turns answering…I have one student who is an avid reader and the others are struggling readers. The avid reader was quickly answering questions, and one of the other students looked up and said, “D@#$ you are so smart”. That comment led to a discussion of how he reads compared to how she reads. To sum up the conversation, he has an internal dialogue while reading while she is just reading the words, she does not “hear” or have an internal dialogue with the text. It was an “ah ha” moment for some of them. She has never been taught how to construct meaning. We will be starting a group book in the next week or so and I am going to try as many of the different activities that Beers has suggested in chapter 7. I am going to attempt to bring the invisible process of comprehension out to the visible level.
ReplyDeleteAnticipation guides:
ReplyDeleteI think that the most valuable part of social studies is getting kids to think, analyze, and ask questions. My students always seem to want the right answer, the truth, and the official version of events. They need things to be linear and logical and unvarying, and it tortures them that the answer to their endless string of “what if” questions is almost always “it depends.” That’s why I really like anticipation guides. They allow me to put the kids in uncomfortable positions, where they have to deal with shades of gray and confront the fact that the world has no official rulebook. I also like that anticipation guides draw kids into the lesson. They seem to focus better on a reading or a discussion if they have an emotional connection to the material. So yeah, good strategy.