Ahhhh…after reading strategies. I think this is the area we’re most familiar with when it comes to before, during, and after reading strategies. Of course for some folks (not any of us, of course!) the after reading is often limited to quizzes and tests. But what about the kids who can understand but struggles with the traditional tests???
Daniels and Beers give us a plethora of ideas to check for understanding as alternatives. We’ve seen some of these strategies before and some are new. And, as usual, Beers goes into much greater detail in describing the strategies. We’re all now familiar with exit slips in our study group, but has anyone tried using them in class to see how they’ll work with your students? Not only do exit slips give the students time to reflect, but it can help you become aware of problems the students are having with the work and what you may need to go back and reteach. Or, it may just confirm that you did a great job at executing a lesson!
So were y’all able to try to incorporate some of these after-reading strategies in your classrooms? Do tell!
Daniels and Beers give us a plethora of ideas to check for understanding as alternatives. We’ve seen some of these strategies before and some are new. And, as usual, Beers goes into much greater detail in describing the strategies. We’re all now familiar with exit slips in our study group, but has anyone tried using them in class to see how they’ll work with your students? Not only do exit slips give the students time to reflect, but it can help you become aware of problems the students are having with the work and what you may need to go back and reteach. Or, it may just confirm that you did a great job at executing a lesson!
So were y’all able to try to incorporate some of these after-reading strategies in your classrooms? Do tell!
9 comments:
When reading about mapping pg.127 (Subjects Matter), I felt that by teaching my students the concepts in smaller pieces so that the students can grasp one aspect at a time, but this is not necessary the best or only way. It is important that the students can identify the larger concepts, and then group lesser elements under them.
Written Conversation pg.130-131(Subjects Matter) is a technique I will definitely use in my classroom because it is true that about 1 or 2 students are usually doing all the talking while the others may be listening or not. This technique engages everyone to be actively involved.
Save the Last Word for me—I enjoyed this strategy when my SCRI class practiced it in class. This is a great way to involve and engage all students in different discussions.
Chapter 8 Extending Meaning—After Reading Strategies—I personally like the Likert Scales—this strategy can be more work on the teacher's part but it requires students to read statements and discern their thought processes, which I feel will lead to further discussions. I agree with the stated comment by the author, “Scales encourage students not only to think about but also to engage in discussions on what they have read. In addition, as students discuss the reasons for their choices, they draw conclusions, make inferences, use the text as support, and make connections to their own lives” pg.143.
It Says-I Say (pgs. 165-171)—a visual scaffold that help students organize their thoughts as they move from considering what is in the text to connecting that to their prior knowledge. I like the phrase, “Seeing how to think”—that’s what the strategy is demonstrating. Struggling readers have a difficult time seeing beyond the text-making inferences as they read so I can see how this technique can be beneficial to use with my students.
Lastly, I am always wondering what read-aloud book I can read to teach a particularly strategy and this chapter gave me some wonderful examples that I can incorporate in my classroom. This reading was extremely beneficial to me.
Good ideas! Great strategies!
I love how Kylene Beers goes into such great detail describing how to implement the use of these strategies in the classroom. However, I must admit that my favorite quote from this chapter reads, “Most of the time, when students start telling us about a text they’ve read, they presume we know everything that’s already in their heads. It’s part of their egocentric nature—if they know it, then of course we should know it. So they just begin—anywhere.” Amen! Amen! Amen! I feel like I am always reminding the students to act as though I know nothing about what they’re writing. Even if they’re responding to an essay prompt about a book our class has just completed together, I preach, preach, preach the importance of responding fully and giving all necessary details. Students write without completely explaining what it is they’ve read. But I love that Beers doesn’t just make this comment and leave it at that. She notes useful strategies that I can use to help teach my students ways to review what they’ve read. I especially enjoyed the ideas of “text reformulation.” And, of course, it popped out to me when she noted how some students who hate writing dread doing text reformulation. However, I can help these students by scaffolding various questions and answers or by allowing students to record instead of write.
I also am excited to use the Important Word Strategy. I’ve never really thought of using this type of activity to spark discussion in the class. I think this could be a great way to discuss major themes in the literature we’re studying…from informational texts to fictional texts (short stories, novels, and poetry).
As usual, I loved Daniels and Zemleman’s strategies. I have to be honest and say that I think one of the main reasons I love their book is because of how reader-friendly it is. It truly is a quick reference tool for me to use. It doesn’t go into laborious details. It gets to the point and it makes sense, too! Quite a few of these techniques I have used in my own classroom, such as the mapping, written conversation, and graphic organizers. While I’ve completed admit/exit slips in various classes I’ve taken, I’ve never used them in my class. I love the idea of using a “movie ticket” paper to make this more creative. I was also thinking that it would be cool to change up the form of the admit/exit slip so that kids don’t get tired of the same old thing.
Again…so many great ideas. I love all of the options!
I agree with the comments by Deb and Amanda. I, too, love the practical ideas and suggestions in both of these books. My class had just finished reading a novel (and done the requisite ‘test’), when I read the first page of Kylene Beers’ chapter. My breath literally stopped as I read “Then I had you answer questions – not twenty five, but probably too many. ‘This will show me what they understand’, I convinced myself”. I felt really badly because I had wanted to plan some sort of fun, creative project so that the kids could process their thinking about the novel. But with the emphasis on HSAP reading and writing skills, I don’t feel that I have the time to do two separate projects. (Keep in mind that anything that my class considers ‘fun’ does not involve writing.) I had a very difficult time coming up with anything that would fit in both categories, and so ended up with the traditional ‘Choose four of these five essay questions and write your response’. I justified it to myself by saying that they truly need to work on their ability to answer BCR and ECR questions using sufficient text support. Although I had chosen fairly basic questions (all except one of which had been discussed thoroughly in class as they came up in the reading), their responses showed that many of them did not understand much beyond the literal level. With the help of these books, I now have more strategies to help with inferential comprehension. What I am learning through the course of this year is that showing students strategies isn’t enough. The kids that I work with need to practice these strategies again and again and again. And since I don’t know which strategies will ‘click’ for which students, I’ll need to plan for systematic, in-depth practice and application. And if need be, I will just have to ‘get over’ my aversion to killing trees!
I like many things about mapping. Many times my students have trouble transforming words and abstract concepts into ideas for discussion and writing. Mapping gives them a place to start and allows them to see the process from start to finish of where their idea began and ended up.
I've used the vocabulary tree several times and that has worked in some cases and not in others. If I have one word that can have multiple meanings, than it seems to work well for my students; if it's a combination of words and meanings, it gets very confusing for them.
To be honest, I haven't begun using an exit slip yet, but I'd like to.
I was exposed to admit and exit slips all through my graduate program in addition to our SCRI class. However, in reading Subjects Matter, I felt a renewed interest in trying out admit and exit slips.
I certainly hope that I am not making excuses, but with this being my first year of teaching, I feel that I've spent much of this year simply trying to "grasp the reigns" and I haven't had as much of an opportunity to steer as I would have liked. Every day I have new ideas about what I want to accomplish and use next year.
I'd like to use more admit and exit slips next year and plan on using what I have left of this year to get into the habit of doing just that. What a wonderful way to check on my progress and accomplishments as a teacher. Yay for admit and exit slips!
I'll admit: I'm a student who hates reading something for a class because there is so much pressure to interpret the writer's message and read between the lines. I'm a very literal thinker and I hate having to disect texts - because it's very hard for me to think that way. If the writer says "My son always liked to play with his rubber ducks," that's as much as I'm going to get out of this. I'm not naturally going to look for foreshadowing of his sons choice to go into politics because ducks traditionally serve as a symbol for ..., etc.
All that to say, had my teachers employed strategies like these, I might not have felt so frustrated because these start at very practical places. My favorite strategy was the spectrum, where students had to decide where a character fell between two opposites: (generous v. selfish). From there, I would have naturally been thinking about all the aspects of this characters personality, his motives, etc - all things I'm certain my teachers were trying to get at.
I don't know if that makes sense.
I am a big fan of the reading strategies in this chapter. I like to use mapping for a variety of reasons, including character development, plot changes, and for research organization.
I have been using exit slips as a student in many classes over the last 4-5 years. This is a strategy that I really need to begin implementing in my classes. I know that I could become a more effective teacher if I would gather feedback and input from my students on at least a weekly basis. Exit slips would also help me evaluate new lessons and strategies, based on the students' opinions of effectiveness. I like that I can use this strategy for reading strategies and for my own personal growth as a teacher!
I like this Chapter. Good ideas and strategies to use in the classroom. I agree with what Deb says about 1 0r 2 students monopolizing the conversation and the written conversation could involve everyone. However I do still like question answer and open discussions for my classroom. That is the only way I can readily see if they all have a grasp for the material.
I am trying to get more in the habit of being more creative with my assessments. I did give a writing assignment in place of a quiz, and I really think the students did a great job. They were able to explain their point of view and give supporting evidence. I really got to see exactly what my students knew about the content. I also found out who exactly was struggling with the material. The only drawback was that some of my students failed to complete the assignment, so I don't know where they stood with the content material. As with a test or quiz, the students are more likely to comlete that kind of assignment. I hope to implement more of the alternative assesments into my teaching. I really think science is a great content area to be able to do this.
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