Comprehension Connections
- Dear BASE CAMP participant, post your comments on your recent reading of Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor.
- You can post comments, reflections, questions, celebrations or any ideas that inspired you from your recent reading of Comprehension Connections.
- You can post results of using the strategies in your classroom to "amalgamate reading and thinking: Using Schema; Inferring, Questioning; Determining importance; Visualizing; and Synthesizing."
- You must post at least two comments a month.
10 comments:
Reflection of Launching Sequence: Metacognition
I love The Reading Salad idea. The kids get to pretend that they are the teacher and they get to tell "the student" how he/she read. I think that the students in my class would love to be able to judge how I read. It gives them a chance to think about how they are expected to read and it gives them a chance to hear the correct way to read fluently, with a difficult text. The "student" can listen while the "teachers" discuss how he/she read and what kind of feedback they are going to give. The "student" then admits to the "teachers" that she is fake reading and not including all of the important parts of reading like; thinking about what you are reading. I think that this activity would be very successful with some of my struggling readers. It would help them understand that when you think about your reading while you read; it makes the reading more interesting. I have some students who seem like they want to read but don't want the other kids to think or say something negative while they are reading. Sometimes they will read a page or two and then look around the room; like they are looking to see if the other kids in the class are reading. Sometimes they see other students doing the same thing. I don't think they are accustomed to having this kind of structured reading activity, where they are in control of how, or what they are reading. This activity would definitely help them to understand the "fun" of reading and see that it is possible to enjoy it while thinking about it at the same time.
Metacognition and Schema
I really agree with Ms. Vogel. I loved the "reading salad" activity. It really nudges the reader to stop and think about they have read instead of autopilot reading. I would love to do this activity in the art room also. Instead of reading words, students may begin by naming things they see in an image and make a hypothesis about what it means (a picture salad!). As the book mentions, wordless books also incite a variety of thoughts. Students might create a "comic strip" or a visual journal in order to communicate ideas, which further builds their schema of understanding what they see/read/create. In order for students to expand their schemas, they need to display everything they know, feel, and think, about a topic. This could be a great icebreaker in the art room. Everyone could pick an object and start drawing activities or the purpose of the item. Having students talk about their personalized images would be a really great activity to promote metacognition and artistic freedom.
The Reading Salad Activity is a wonderful concrete visual activity to help students see the value of thinking about the text as real reading. Good readers always pause to think about what the text is saying and how it applies to them.
Another good reflective activity mentioned is using color cards such as "painters cards". Students can then touch the color that corresponds with what they are thinking about the text. Is it too foggy or confusing? Does it create questions in my mind? Is it solid to me or understandable? Students can then mentally categorize their thinking about the text.
Launching Sequence: Metacognition
I agree with Ms. Vogel and Ms. Cherisha. The reading salad activity is a fantastic way to start a conversation with students about real reading. I cannot count the times I have observed students “fake reading” and pondered how I could motivate them to really read and comprehend what they are reading. Sure, we can have students write in journals while they read, but this activity is certain to stimulate students thinking about “fake reading” vs “real reading” each time they pick up a book (or watch someone else read a book). I definitely plan on utilizing this idea, modeling a great read aloud that will encourage predicting, inferring and questioning. Students can assist such as one student placing the “text” in a bowl and another placing the “thinking” in a bowl and perhaps even a third student “mixing” it all together. This was a great chapter with so many rich ideas. I also liked the idea of using the thought bubble and thinking stems. Although it was suggested to use these with wordless books, I think they would work just was well with any book. After introducing these to students, they will make great anchor charts.
These are great comments from some of our BASE CAMP members. Thank you Sheri, Pamela and Sylvia for posting! Waiting to hear from more members.
Quotes About…
The quotes throughout the book are amazing! Whether it is a catchy advertisement, a line from a movie, or a memorable quote from a famous person in history--someone, somewhere has caught our attention with their words. I agree with the author that we should reflect on quotes as we consider incorporating metacognition, schema, inferring, questioning, determining importance, visualizing, or synthesizing experiences for our students into our lessons. A few years ago, I taught reading and math to fifth graders during summer school. Each day began with an educational quote posted on the board. The students had to begin with self-reflection as they thought about what the quote might mean, expressing their feelings through journal writing. At the end of the day, students shared their interpretations with a partner. My students rushed into the classroom every morning, anxious to read the quote for the day. One day, a student brought in the quote, “There is no excuse for not trying” by President Barack Obama. I told her that would be our quote for the next day. The next day, another student brought in the quote “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you,” by Riley B. King (B.B. King). The next day, a student brought in the quote, “Learning never exhausts the mind,” by Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. Needless to say, I did not have to find any additional quotes. The students submitted enough to last the remaining days of summer school. Talk about Star Status! Oh, “You can be a STAR, no matter who you are. You can achieve, if you just believe!”
I will also jump on the reading salad band wagon. This activity sounds great! My kids love for me to read to them and model the reading of selection. By reading to them they gain confidence that they can read the text. When I read first they are eager to read and enjoy reading aloud. I also give them additional chances to read with partners. They mimic my expression because they are not afraid of mispronouncing words As their fluency improves so does their comprehension. They will enjoy reading and become life long learners!
Melinda
Schema + Inferring
In order to help my students to build a better schema regarding knowledge about the importance and relevance of art in their lives, I began to look towards inferring. In our readings I really enjoyed about how students are taught to infer ideas and come up with solutions to puzzles they might come across. I want to emphasize this ability to look at different details of any situation and be able to come up with solid conclusions along with evidence of their ideas. Whenever we have an art critique of everyone's artwork, or simply analyzing a new piece of artwork I show, the students pick out different and specific things they like and don't like about the pictures. Naturally, I ask the students higher thinking questions such as; "Why do you think the artist drew this image? How do the colors that the artist has used make you feel? What does this remind you of? etc. etc." In order to build a solid schema of information learned in the art room, the students need to self analyze and infer meanings along with my own guidance when it comes to new information.
Inferring
I agree with Ms. Cherisha. I also enjoyed reading about how students are taught to infer ideas. In the reading it was mentioned that inferring can become daunting when the text is difficult. The readings suggest an extraordinary way to motivate and teach students how to infer. Teaching students to infer in a concrete way is certain to help students recall how to infer once they begin making connections with the text. I notice the students have no problem guessing or making comments about what they read. But, in order to really comprehend, they must have the evidence (schema) that coincides with the inference. I cannot wait to use this strategy in the classroom!
Launching Sequence: Visualizing
This chapter took me back to my year in the fifth grade. I had a teacher who read a chapter each day from the Laura Ingalls-Wilder’s Little House book series. Before reading the book, she vividly described a little country girl who worn old clothes that her mother had made, lived and worked on a farm, and had a father who hunted for food. I remember discussing the book with my grandmother who could really relate to the stories because she too had grew up in the country on a farm. The book stimulated lots of conversations with my grandparents. Many years later, the book became a TV series – Little House on the Prairie. It did not matter that I was an adult; I was immediately drawn to the TV series because of my fifth grade teacher. I remember comparing the TV series when the book. Then, I began reading other books in the series and even introduced the book series to my own fifth grade classroom. Visualizing and schema not only promotes a hook, but reaches deep inside to develop concrete experiences for students. Can you imagine how comprehension can develop by having students make connections through visualizing?
Post a Comment