I have used the technique of modeling my thinking as I read with my class quite a bit. My students are not the best readers and so to avoid problems, I often end up reading aloud and discussing as I go.
So I will read a section, explain difficult words, explain what they are trying to say and discuss what the students think about it. I know that when compared to when I just read without stopping compared to reading and discussing as I go, the students are much more engaged if I discuss as I go.
As I have mentioned in my previous post, I am a big proponent of journals, any type of journaling. With the versatility of Tovani’s Double Sided Journals, I decided to augment my journaling assignments as well. My freshmen read Night, by Elie Weisel, and journaled by recording all of the conflicts they encountered, with the page numbers where they could be found. With my Juniors, I decided to split the right and the left side of the journal into truths and lies about Jay Gatsby. If the students thought they read a lie about Gatsby, they would record it on the right. Inversely, they recorded the truths on the left.
Due to reviewing for tests, taking tests and my own absence for a conference I was unable to put into practice any of the what works in the past two weeks. However, I am excited about what I am planning to do next week. I'll post how it actually went after I do it on Tuesday.
We're starting a sociology unit next week in Intro to Social Science. In the past I have given them the notes of the main ideas of a new concept. This time, I've printed out squares for them and they are going to create the notes of the main idea.
We're going to go through the introductory section in our textbook, with me modeling the decision I make when I create the notes. They'll then record the notes as well. This class is kind of...well let's say energetic, so we'll see how it goes. I am definitely excited to try it though. To start reintroducing some reading into the my classes.
Beth---It's O.K. to do the strategy a little after the time frame...better late than not at all. Bryce and everyone----with the Think Aloud...have you ever done one when you verbalize every single thought you have out loud? This shows students how you use logic, inference, background knowledge, connections, etc. to read more effectively. Many kids don't automatically activate those processes and need to see it modeled and practice it many times.
Again, I am sorry that I'm responding back so late. I thought we started a new chapter every Monday, so I was going to write my entry today (now). So, without further ado...
I tried a combination of #3 and #4. Like Dima, I am also a huge advocate of journaling of any sort because I firmly believe it helps people sort through their thoughts, make critical analysis, etc. I actually just learned the Cornell Note-Taking Method this year because I was trying to teach my students good, effective note-taking strategies, and after I learned it, I modified it to help my students use it for reading/comprehension assignments. My sophomores are currently going through a short story unit right now, and they just finished the "character" component of short stories. For the Agatha Christie short story, we made a double-entry diary/chart to understand character development and also to interpret them. On one side, we wrote down various actions, physical descriptions, dialogues, etc. about specific characters from the text; on the right-hand side, we wrote down our inferences, conclusions, etc. about those characters based on textual evidence/details. This was extremely helpful because students were able to understand the flow of Christie's character development, catch certain inconsistencies (which was helpful since it was a murder mystery short story), etc.
So, I tried to model my thinking as we read together, and I allowed students to hear/see what I was thinking through my think alouds. I paused after some key passages, and during those times, I made inferences about the plot and characters. I even modeled what I thought about certain characters and used the text to model how I would fill out the double-entry journal. Although this didn't work for every class, a few of my classes caught on, and they actively participated and actually "cut in" with their own thoughts when they saw something significant. For the classes that didn't really "get it," I'm not sure what I can do because many of them read at a very low reading level (they cannot pronounce/decipher certain words, have very low vocabulary content, etc.); therefore, I'm not sure if we're dealing with more foundational issues... and if that is that case, I'm not sure what I can do. Oh, boy.
So...I finally got around to trying out one of these strategies. Word problems have been notoriously difficult so I decided to adapt a double-entry diary to help. When most students read a word problem they retain almost nothing. Comprehension in a math context seems especially difficult since they are so worried about the numbers they completely neglect what is actually being said. As such, on one side of the entry we listed everything we knew about the word problem. On the other side we listed every formula we knew that might be useful for the problem. I then had everybody read the problem twice, flip the page over, and begin writing. The first couple of tries most people were not able to list a single thing. Eventually most of the students started getting better at this and were able to tell me at least a few key elements of the problem.
Everyone has seemed to have some "success" with a strategy....KEEP TRYING....as Scott pointed out that students get better with continued practice. Set aside a time in your lesson plans to continue the practice on a regular basis (2+ times a week). Elizabeth.... Any students who cannot read the text you choose with decoding accuracy at 95% or higher cannot comprehend and are frustrated. This is a big problem throughout the high school level....but if at all possible, try to get some easier leveled texts some of the time.
So I tried the modeling of finding the main ideas of a section of text in my Intro class today. I definitely agree with Elizabeth, some of my students picked up where I was going very quickly. They were ahead of me the entire time writing down the main ideas before I even said them. The remainder of the class was lost even with me saying how I found the main ideas. There was confusion, even when I explained that the main idea for the section was the title of the section.
I think I've definitely handicapped the kids, by feeding them the main ideas so far. And the kids were definitely unhappy about having to do the work themselves. I think next time when I do an modeling activity it won't be their notes from the section, but an additional text.
On the positive side, I did find two books with readings in a variety of social science subject areas that are just the right length for my students.
MEET this Thursday from 3-4 at the ROE library (bring your items to turn in) Read chps. 1 & 2 then post comments from 3/2-3/6 Read Chp. 3 and try one item from the "What Works" section (p.33-34) ----put comments from3/12-14 Chp.4 and try "What Works"---put comments from 3/19-22 Chp.5 and "What Works"...put comments from 3/28-30 Chp. 6 and "What Works"--put comments from 4/4-7 Chapters 7, 8, and 9----comments from 4/21-25
Quick Video Available
Check out the video worth watching on Teacher tube with a teacher modeling a Think Aloud. Just go to http://www.teachertube.com/ and go to the second tab marked "Videos" and use the search function to type "Introduction to Think Aloud" and you'll find one!
I have used the technique of modeling my thinking as I read with my class quite a bit. My students are not the best readers and so to avoid problems, I often end up reading aloud and discussing as I go.
ReplyDeleteSo I will read a section, explain difficult words, explain what they are trying to say and discuss what the students think about it. I know that when compared to when I just read without stopping compared to reading and discussing as I go, the students are much more engaged if I discuss as I go.
As I have mentioned in my previous post, I am a big proponent of journals, any type of journaling. With the versatility of Tovani’s Double Sided Journals, I decided to augment my journaling assignments as well. My freshmen read Night, by Elie Weisel, and journaled by recording all of the conflicts they encountered, with the page numbers where they could be found. With my Juniors, I decided to split the right and the left side of the journal into truths and lies about Jay Gatsby. If the students thought they read a lie about Gatsby, they would record it on the right. Inversely, they recorded the truths on the left.
ReplyDeleteDue to reviewing for tests, taking tests and my own absence for a conference I was unable to put into practice any of the what works in the past two weeks. However, I am excited about what I am planning to do next week. I'll post how it actually went after I do it on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWe're starting a sociology unit next week in Intro to Social Science. In the past I have given them the notes of the main ideas of a new concept. This time, I've printed out squares for them and they are going to create the notes of the main idea.
We're going to go through the introductory section in our textbook, with me modeling the decision I make when I create the notes. They'll then record the notes as well. This class is kind of...well let's say energetic, so we'll see how it goes. I am definitely excited to try it though. To start reintroducing some reading into the my classes.
Beth---It's O.K. to do the strategy a little after the time frame...better late than not at all.
ReplyDeleteBryce and everyone----with the Think Aloud...have you ever done one when you verbalize every single thought you have out loud? This shows students how you use logic, inference, background knowledge, connections, etc. to read more effectively. Many kids don't automatically activate those processes and need to see it modeled and practice it many times.
Again, I am sorry that I'm responding back so late. I thought we started a new chapter every Monday, so I was going to write my entry today (now). So, without further ado...
ReplyDeleteI tried a combination of #3 and #4. Like Dima, I am also a huge advocate of journaling of any sort because I firmly believe it helps people sort through their thoughts, make critical analysis, etc. I actually just learned the Cornell Note-Taking Method this year because I was trying to teach my students good, effective note-taking strategies, and after I learned it, I modified it to help my students use it for reading/comprehension assignments. My sophomores are currently going through a short story unit right now, and they just finished the "character" component of short stories. For the Agatha Christie short story, we made a double-entry diary/chart to understand character development and also to interpret them. On one side, we wrote down various actions, physical descriptions, dialogues, etc. about specific characters from the text; on the right-hand side, we wrote down our inferences, conclusions, etc. about those characters based on textual evidence/details. This was extremely helpful because students were able to understand the flow of Christie's character development, catch certain inconsistencies (which was helpful since it was a murder mystery short story), etc.
So, I tried to model my thinking as we read together, and I allowed students to hear/see what I was thinking through my think alouds. I paused after some key passages, and during those times, I made inferences about the plot and characters. I even modeled what I thought about certain characters and used the text to model how I would fill out the double-entry journal. Although this didn't work for every class, a few of my classes caught on, and they actively participated and actually "cut in" with their own thoughts when they saw something significant. For the classes that didn't really "get it," I'm not sure what I can do because many of them read at a very low reading level (they cannot pronounce/decipher certain words, have very low vocabulary content, etc.); therefore, I'm not sure if we're dealing with more foundational issues... and if that is that case, I'm not sure what I can do. Oh, boy.
So...I finally got around to trying out one of these strategies. Word problems have been notoriously difficult so I decided to adapt a double-entry diary to help. When most students read a word problem they retain almost nothing. Comprehension in a math context seems especially difficult since they are so worried about the numbers they completely neglect what is actually being said. As such, on one side of the entry we listed everything we knew about the word problem. On the other side we listed every formula we knew that might be useful for the problem. I then had everybody read the problem twice, flip the page over, and begin writing. The first couple of tries most people were not able to list a single thing. Eventually most of the students started getting better at this and were able to tell me at least a few key elements of the problem.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has seemed to have some "success" with a strategy....KEEP TRYING....as Scott pointed out that students get better with continued practice. Set aside a time in your lesson plans to continue the practice on a regular basis (2+ times a week).
ReplyDeleteElizabeth....
Any students who cannot read the text you choose with decoding accuracy at 95% or higher cannot comprehend and are frustrated. This is a big problem throughout the high school level....but if at all possible, try to get some easier leveled texts some of the time.
So I tried the modeling of finding the main ideas of a section of text in my Intro class today. I definitely agree with Elizabeth, some of my students picked up where I was going very quickly. They were ahead of me the entire time writing down the main ideas before I even said them. The remainder of the class was lost even with me saying how I found the main ideas. There was confusion, even when I explained that the main idea for the section was the title of the section.
ReplyDeleteI think I've definitely handicapped the kids, by feeding them the main ideas so far. And the kids were definitely unhappy about having to do the work themselves. I think next time when I do an modeling activity it won't be their notes from the section, but an additional text.
On the positive side, I did find two books with readings in a variety of social science subject areas that are just the right length for my students.