Ch. 10 & 11

Determining Importance in Text:

Big Idea-
Student must practice reading to answer questions and reading for information. Reading is about purpose, and there is a time and place for every type of reading, reading for details as well as reading for the big picture (Ch.10)

In my classroom students do not understand why they are reading certain material nor what information they should look for. As prospective teachers, I think it is vital for us to teach our students reading for "details" is not the main focus; instead reading is about "purpose".

How can we teach students the important aspects of reading? (i.e. How to look for important information or reading to answer questions?)

Synthesizing Information:

Big Idea-
After a reader identifies what is important in the text, he or she must go through the process of organizing, recalling, and recreating the information and fitting it in with what is already known.
Students can synthesize information by:
Making margin notes
Comparing and contrasting properties
Taking notes (etc)

There is absolutely no practice of synthesizing information being used in my classroom. My students are mainly low-level readers and writers, however, I don't understand why synthesizing information isn't being used. In my opinion, my class should be able to start practicing writing notes while reading informational text.

When should students start practicing synthesizing information? Is third grade too early to start practicing synthesizing information?

Authentic Questions

After reading about authentic questions and the guidelines that go along with them it got me thinking about how I could use them in the classroom. It is important to ask open ended questions that get the students thinking about a concept on a deeper level. Authentic questions are helpful to use in the classroom when you want the students to gain different perspectives from their classmates responses as well as what they may have come up with.

Based on the Reading Street curriculum how could authentic questions be worked into the lessons? When planning for my guided lead teaching it is important to think of what the outcome has to be, what the students really need to learn. It is imperative to teach with the end in mind, therefore, there must be a pre-assessment, formative assessments, and a summative assessment. The summative assessment is where the authentic questions would be found. They have learned the material so the next step would be to connect it to something else, connecting it to something in their life, connecting it to other concepts, or just being able to think about why this concept might be taught.

There is a writing sample from a student on page 125 of Strategies That Work, the student is responding to the idea of authentic questions. The student explains that they like the use of open ended questions that require some research, time, and could trigger a debate or further discussion. This shows that students are aware of how helpful authentic questions can be, and they appreciate that they gain a deeper understanding of a concept.

Combining Basal & Book Club Plus

The open-ended questions listed on pg. 124 of Strategies that Work are really good questions to use in any class discussions. I have seen my MT use some of these questions during Reading Street discussions of the question of the week. I think these would also be good for math discussions.

I read chapter 11 in Book Club Plus which was all about using the Book Club Plus method of teaching literacy along with a basal program. I think this chapter was so helpful because I have been wondering about how to use a basal reading program along with other lesson ideas. I think this chapter will be really helpful in creating my unit plan for literacy. It gives week-by-week lesson plans that go with Book Club Plus and with a basal reading program. Another thing I liked about this chapter is that it gives lesson plan examples of how to introduce speedwriting and how to do mini-lessons on literacy centers and book club procedures. I would really like to use the book club idea in my classroom in place of our reading groups. These are kind of the same thing, but the ideas in Book Club Plus will make these reading groups more like a book club than a reading group. Some ideas I will use to make it more like a book club are: use writing as a part of it, have them get in small groups (2-3 students) to talk about the book, and have the books connect in some way so the different level reading groups can talk about the same topic and have a large group discussion or a fishbowl activity. I would like the reading groups to be more than just reading the book, talking about it briefly, and then being done with it. I want there to be activities that extend their thinking and their learning about the book and the theme.

Questions:
Do any of you do fun things as a part of your reading groups? Or at least anything more than just reading the book together and talking about it?

What are some good short activities that we could add to our reading groups to extend the student’s thinking and maybe make it more fun for the students?

Why do you think that basal reading programs are so popular? Popular enough for this book to write a section about how to incorporate other literacy activities into them?

Possible Assessment Sites By Sheree J.

The following possible assessment sites are currently being used in my classroom:

1). Reading 1: Students can retell a story in their own words.
2). Reading 2: Students can make meaning from a variety of texts.
3). Writing 1: Students can use writing to communicate ideas.

Advantages and Limitations of each possible assessment listed above:

1). Advantage- they develop fluency in composing stories, they're able to organize the story information, and develop a clear understanding of the story. When students read their stories aloud, they realize the importance of their work.
Limitation- retelling a story creates problems for students that can't comprehend the story. Some students may not feel as comfortable reading their story to the class.

2). Advantage- students are being exposed to variety of text (guiding reading books, standardized tests, and literacy center work) .
Limitation- students are constantly being pulled out of class for extra literacy instruction time. Not all students can perform well with standardized testing due to anxiety.

3). Advantage- students are able to improve their writing skills. Daily writing such as journal/diary entries are more than beneficial for every student. Teachers get to know their students by reviewing their writing.
Limitation- students that use incorrect language and grammar may continue to use it in their daily writing. Not all students enjoy nor perform well during writing instruction. Some students feel pressured during writing instruction in the morning (morning daily writing entry; 10 mins long).

Questions:

Are the above possible assessment sites appropriate to use in our third grade classes?

How do we continue to make literacy instruction interesting and beneficial, with the limited amount of time we're offered?

How can we include all of the possible assessment sites used in Book Club Plus in our literacy instruction? Did you find any that wouldn't be useful?