Friday, November 22, 2013

Reciprocal Teaching Continued!

I have had many people ask about videos of reciprocal teaching. I found these on YouTube and thought they may be helpful:

Reciprocal Teaching Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgMJVyCdeY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbnwBVrJVdY&list=PLC5C31E95966A9BC0

I have seen great benefits with students that use reciprocal teaching as common habit in Math. For example, I saw a group clarifying a word in a story problem and questioning about what information was important or not. Students that use these comprehension strategies will see many benefits in every subject area.

Here are some guided questions that go with those good comprehension/Figure 19 spiraling standards that we need to be asking every week with every genre.
I thought it may save some planning time and be helpful to have a "starting list" of questions so you don't have to start from scratch every week.


Basic Reading

What strategies do readers use to remember a story?

Why do we use strategies when we read?

What strategies help me understand what I read?



Fab 4

Questioning:

Why do you ask questions before, during, and after reading?

What types of questions can you ask while reading?

How does asking questions about a text make you a better reader?

How can asking questions while reading help you as a reader?

Why do readers ask questions about what they are reading?

What questions do you have about this book?

 

Predicting:

How does a detective solve a mystery?

Discuss responses including looking for clues, making guesses about what happened and finding evidence that proves or disproves the guess.

Introduce the term, prediction. Discuss how a prediction is a smart guess based on clues or information from the text rather than just a random guess.

 

Why is predicting an important strategy when reading?

Why is it important to make predictions when you read?

What do you think this book is going to be about?

What clues help you know what the story might be about?

Using the clues, what do you predict will happen in the story?

What do you think this text is going to be about?

How did making and confirming predictions help you understand the story?

Which predictions can still be possible? Why?

Which predictions are no longer possible? Why?

What did you learn about making and confirming predictions?

How were you like a detective?

Are we finding out what we expected to find out?
 

Clarifying:

Did what I just read make sense? Did that word match the letters that I said?

Why is it important to make sure the words you are reading are correct?

  

Retell/Summary:

What should be included when retelling/summarizing the story?

Why do good readers retell/summarize stories?

Why is it important to know the author’s purpose?

Why is it important to know how to retell important events of stories in a logical order?

 


Connections:

How did thinking about what we know help us understand what we are reading?

How does making connections help readers understand what they are reading?

What does this remind me of?

How did making personal connections help us understand the story better?

 

 

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Tanny McGregor

It's never a waste of time to teach a child to think!
-Tanny McGregor

What a great opportunity R-H had to visit with the amazingly brilliant author of Comprehension Connections, Tanny McGregor!

Here is a link to the book that Tanny recommended to our staff to help have more than one idea for each concept so students aren't "too familiar" with the same launch every time:
http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/interactive-think-aloud-lessons-9780545102797

Here is a link to a blog about Tanny and the book:

http://theteachingthief.blogspot.com/2012/08/meeting-tanny-mcgregor.html

Here is a link to free downloads of the thinking stems already created to print!:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Comprehension-Connection-Thinking-Stems-Anchor-Charts-291262

schema roller template:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_aKHTGyIZB6MGNhOGI1YjItNGIwZC00ZGNkLTkzZWItMWEwNTBhNGRjNmU3/preview?pli=1

blog about metacognition with cartoons and book ideas:
http://miteachingblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/metacognition-thinking-about-thinking.html

here is a sheet to support inferring with a "backpack" instead of a shoe:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B1sDW2Uv7dzKNzBmMzE0N2MtZWQ2MS00MDhhLTk1ZTAtOWFiMWExYzJjNmYz&hl=en_US

Another idea for inferring is one that Tanny shared this summer:
Bring in a "leash without a dog" (it's that kind that is stiff so it holds up just as if a dog was on it... apparently, these used to be popular!)  Walk the lease around, pretending the dog is there. You can pretend that he drools on some papers, poops by your desk, jumps up on a chair, barks at the window, etc. Don't tell the kids these things but let them notice from evidence such as "holding your nose, your reactions, comments, etc.) Then, you can simply have a quick discussion about what they noticed and what their evidence was on a simple t-chart whole group.