This trimester, we will investigate how various groups throughout history have struggled to gain equality in America. We read various articles from A Place at the Table, a publication from Teaching Tolerance. The teaching kit also comes with a video to introduces eight stories of families who pursued "the dream of liberty and justice for all."Before watching the video, A Place at the Table, I asked students the following prompt.
I have shared with you the analogy of our nation building a "House of Democracy:" the Declaration of Independence as the foundation; the Constitution as the roof, and the Bill of Rights as the frame supporting the whole structure to protect individual rights and freedoms.
In that house rests a table of freedom and opportunity. Who, in our nation's past, has been denied a place at this table? Who has not been allowed to enter this house of democracy? Why?
My 7th grade Gifted & Talented students are reading the novel "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt. Just prior to starting the novel I asked the students to do two things - A. Write about a time that you became separated from your parents in a public place, how did you react, what happened... please blog your response to me. B. Research the Foster Care program/system in the United States. Based on your research findings and the underlying tone and theme of the story write a brief essay on your thoughts and findings and post it to your blog.
As part of the book circle process, I teach students the difference between a "FAT" question and a "Skinny" question. After they read their assignment, they are required to create three "FAT" questions and answers about what they read. I also provide a FAT "teacher question" about what they read which forces them to "read between the lines" and use context clues from the story to support their answer. These FAT questions are tied into the topic of "inferencing" and being able to pull clues from the story to support their answers. During their meeting each week, students share their questions and get input from the group. This concept requires lots and lots of modeling and practice. At this level, 7th grade, I find that students have a hard time with inference type questions but with practice and group discussion, by the end of the year, they definitely get better!
Before teaching students about nonfiction features; specifically captions, I asked students to write their own captions for a picture I gave them. The pictures were random items or were not what they appeared to be. The students read aloud their captions and then I read the real caption and we discussed how important captions were. Then, we did a book pass where students focused on different styles of captions. Students will be creating captions for their culture fair backboards.
Another strategy I employ during reading is a bookmark/die game. After reading part of a section a student rolls a die. There are corresponding numbers on a bookmark they all have. If they roll a 1 or a 5 they need to make a connection to the reading. A 2 is asking a question, a 3 is to paraphrase, etc. Once students start sharing, others usually start making a lot of connections.
In the Astrobiology 9th grade pilot class, students were faced with a reading on cell size. Before reading (in class), I divided the class in half and assigned a character. Half the students would be members of a group of large organisms with the belief that their size rendered them superior in all ways. The other half would be members of a group of small organisms with no notions of superiority, but whose diminutive selves vastly outnumbered the larger beings. They would read the piece, journal "how you felt and why." Volunteers would share their writing.
In Integrated Chemistry class I have several seniors who are LD and continue to struggle with reading and limited vocabulary. We focus on chemistry terms that also have meaning in everyday life. For example when we do a lab that involves a catalyst I expect them to describe the role of the catalyst in the reaction, but then we go on and discuss things that may have been a "catalyst" for actions in their own lives.
I have been using pictures from the Maine Memory Network and have been using them to get kids warmed up to different time periods we are studying. We are in the 20th century in history now and there are excellent pictures from the students home towns and it has given them a reference point of how many years ago and the technology and styles of those periods. It brings the issues of the time period home to the students and has piqued their interest.
As part of a unit on Black Literature, we are reading Frederick Douglass's narrative and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Today we read from another piece by Hansberry, "To be Young, Gifted, and Black." This was in our textbook, so I began with a candid discussion about how textbooks tend to turn students off to whatever they may encounter in the text. To avoid this, we first took an historical view: Hansberry 75 years after Douglass...what's the same, what's different? We also took a personal approach. We reflected on the implied promise in being "young" and "gifted," and the implied (at least in that time) difficulty in also being "black."
This worked well insofar as students didn't approach the reading cold and with a negative attitude. I'm pretty sure that by the time we started reading from the textbook students had forgotten we were reading "from the textbook."
At the beginning of the year we have a book "scavenger hunt" to discover the different parts of the text. When we begin a new unit, we Noteshare the headings, subheading, and bold sentence (the key ideas). We have a picture walk and read the captions. The unit goals are read, and we refer back to them after reading. Often I will have them look up a subject in the index or tell them the unit name, but not the page number.
The STUDENTS provided the context because they have been writing project reports. I asked them questions that were "Author and Me" and asked them to find meaning to them.
We started a new unit on the Revolutionary War. After doing a KWL with students, I found many of my students did not have much knowledge of this time period. I provided the context explaining what life was like duing this time period with King George as their ruler, Taxes, and colonists wanting some kind of representation in their government. We did some role playing. This was extremely helpful for students to understand was life was like during this time period.
This trimester, we will investigate how various groups throughout history have struggled to gain equality in America. We read various articles from A Place at the Table, a publication from Teaching Tolerance. The teaching kit also comes with a video to introduces eight stories of families who pursued "the dream of liberty and justice for all."Before watching the video, A Place at the Table, I asked students the following prompt.
ReplyDeleteI have shared with you the analogy of our nation building a "House of Democracy:" the Declaration of Independence as the foundation; the Constitution as the roof, and the Bill of Rights as the frame supporting the whole structure to protect individual rights and freedoms.
In that house rests a table of freedom and opportunity. Who, in our nation's past, has been denied a place at this table? Who has not been allowed to enter this house of democracy? Why?
My 7th grade Gifted & Talented students are reading the novel "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt. Just prior to starting the novel I asked the students to do two things - A. Write about a time that you became separated from your parents in a public place, how did you react, what happened... please blog your response to me. B. Research the Foster Care program/system in the United States. Based on your research findings and the underlying tone and theme of the story write a brief essay on your thoughts and findings and post it to your blog.
ReplyDeleteAs part of the book circle process, I teach students the difference between a "FAT" question and a "Skinny" question. After they read their assignment, they are required to create three "FAT" questions and answers about what they read. I also provide a FAT "teacher question" about what they read which forces them to "read between the lines" and use context clues from the story to support their answer. These FAT questions are tied into the topic of "inferencing" and being able to pull clues from the story to support their answers. During their meeting each week, students share their questions and get input from the group. This concept requires lots and lots of modeling and practice. At this level, 7th grade, I find that students have a hard time with inference type questions but with practice and group discussion, by the end of the year, they definitely get better!
ReplyDeleteBefore teaching students about nonfiction features; specifically captions, I asked students to write their own captions for a picture I gave them. The pictures were random items or were not what they appeared to be. The students read aloud their captions and then I read the real caption and we discussed how important captions were. Then, we did a book pass where students focused on different styles of captions. Students will be creating captions for their culture fair backboards.
ReplyDeleteAnother strategy I employ during reading is a bookmark/die game. After reading part of a section a student rolls a die. There are corresponding numbers on a bookmark they all have. If they roll a 1 or a 5 they need to make a connection to the reading. A 2 is asking a question, a 3 is to paraphrase, etc. Once students start sharing, others usually start making a lot of connections.
In the Astrobiology 9th grade pilot class, students were faced with a reading on cell size. Before reading (in class), I divided the class in half and assigned a character. Half the students would be members of a group of large organisms with the belief that their size rendered them superior in all ways. The other half would be members of a group of small organisms with no notions of superiority, but whose diminutive selves vastly outnumbered the larger beings. They would read the piece, journal "how you felt and why." Volunteers would share their writing.
ReplyDeleteIn Integrated Chemistry class I have several seniors who are LD and continue to struggle with reading and limited vocabulary. We focus on chemistry terms that also have meaning in everyday life. For example when we do a lab that involves a catalyst I expect them to describe the role of the catalyst in the reaction, but then we go on and discuss things that may have been a "catalyst" for actions in their own lives.
ReplyDeleteI have been using pictures from the Maine Memory Network and have been using them to get kids warmed up to different time periods we are studying. We are in the 20th century in history now and there are excellent pictures from the students home towns and it has given them a reference point of how many years ago and the technology and styles of those periods. It brings the issues of the time period home to the students and has piqued their interest.
ReplyDeleteAs part of a unit on Black Literature, we are reading Frederick Douglass's narrative and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. Today we read from another piece by Hansberry, "To be Young, Gifted, and Black." This was in our textbook, so I began with a candid discussion about how textbooks tend to turn students off to whatever they may encounter in the text. To avoid this, we first took an historical view: Hansberry 75 years after Douglass...what's the same, what's different? We also took a personal approach. We reflected on the implied promise in being "young" and "gifted," and the implied (at least in that time) difficulty in also being "black."
ReplyDeleteThis worked well insofar as students didn't approach the reading cold and with a negative attitude. I'm pretty sure that by the time we started reading from the textbook students had forgotten we were reading "from the textbook."
At the beginning of the year we have a book "scavenger hunt" to discover the different parts of the text. When we begin a new unit, we Noteshare the headings, subheading, and bold sentence (the key ideas). We have a picture walk and read the captions. The unit goals are read, and we refer back to them after reading. Often I will have them look up a subject in the index or tell them the unit name, but not the page number.
ReplyDeleteThe STUDENTS provided the context because they have been writing project reports. I asked them questions that were "Author and Me" and asked them to find meaning to them.
ReplyDeleteWe started a new unit on the Revolutionary War. After doing a KWL with students, I found many of my students did not have much knowledge of this time period. I provided the context explaining what life was like duing this time period with King George as their ruler, Taxes, and colonists wanting some kind of representation in their government. We did some role playing. This was extremely helpful for students to understand was life was like during this time period.
ReplyDelete