I think that this chapter is dealing with something that a lot of basal and skills-driven classroom are neglecting to do. This chapter deals with making meaning from the text, texts that interest the students, texts that encourage and develop a student's love for reading.
Connection:
As a personal connection, I remember doing a lot of the example activities back when I was in high school. These activities encouraged me to read more and sparked curiosity in terms of other books that I have not read yet. I just wish I can do this more often with my students.
Question:
I can actually see doing this during my small groups. I am just wondering what are the suggested classroom management strategies can one use when introducing these sort of activities? What should the classroom atmosphere be like? The classroom text sets needs time to build, if you are introducing this for the very first time, what websites can you recommend to help you organize your classroom sets?
Surprise:
What surprised me is the thought that this strategy is doable even when you are using the Open Court Reading Program. It is one method that a teacher can utilize to encourage better comprehension of themes that Open Court uses.
2 comments:
Response to Observation: I completely agree with you when you say that basal readers lack that connection that students should have when they read. Some of the stories are very superficial and don’t delve into trying to find a deeper meaning to a text. The activities that accompany these texts only ask readers to regurgitate information they have read in a very basic level. This kind of text doesn’t allow for students to make any connections and that makes it very uninteresting for kids. It is when children can make connections with the text in a less than obvious manner when learning and enthusiasm for learning begins.
Response to Connections: I’m a little confused when you talk about doing a lot of the example activities in high school. Do you mean the activities that were used in the book?
Hi Paulette,
Re:Observation
This is an accurate observation of the difference in objectives between basal readers and text that students can connect to. Basal readers are used mostly as tools for learning language and recognizing words, blending and fluency speed. One of the teachers I work with tries to offer a little something extra to her students in a read aloud of an outside text, related to the theme. The students are engaged in the basal stories to the extent they have to, how they’ve been drilled to experience text, with the end goal of taking a test and writing the correct answers. Offering students the change to connect and share their opinions and ideas of a story is far more meaningful than the 4 they got on their chapter test. The teacher I had mentioned read the story Charlotte’s Web to her class, some students read along in extra copies. At supervision during recess, I would hear some of them talking casually about their favorite part so far and what they anticipate will happen, an informal student discussion. After they finished the book they were allowed to watch the movie. Their teacher asked them which they enjoyed more and they all said the book! It has been several weeks since and most of the students have chosen books of movies they have seen to read the parts that were cut out. They have a desire to read to fill in the gaps and for enjoyment.
Re:Connection
In high school I enjoyed reading far more than as a child. It was a long time before I began to read outside of my favored genre. I still enjoy informational text very much, but I also enjoy fiction and biographies. My first “real book” was Little Women, I loved it so much because it was about sisters and family, and I have no sisters. Reading this story was a way for me to experience what it could be like, the ups and downs of sisters. I have a vivid imagination so discussion activities were always fun. My reading comprehension is not the best, but on a personal level I enjoy text. These tools will greatly benefit our students in their reading events, the tough part is finding the time students will need for these events to be meaningful.
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