Consultants for Literacy Education

test

Roger — Mon, 14 May 2007 22:44:15 +0000


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Testing Splash

Roger — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 16:25:58 +0000

[splashcast XIZM9220UC]

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K-W-L: A Strategy for Content Reading (Ogle, 1986)

Roger — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:10:32 +0000

K-W-L is a strategy for reading content area text that provides students with a way to categorize knowledge. K-W-L is an acronym that represents:

What do I KNOW about the subject being studied?
What do I WANT to learn as I read about this subject?
What have I LEARNED as a result of my reading that is either new to me or helped me to refine what I already knew about the subject?

These questions provide a background for reading any text that presents information to the reader.

It is useful to begin thinking about K-W-L using a chart or some other form of graphic organizer that will make visual both the knowledge students already possess (whether that knowledge is correct or not) and the questions they have about the subject of the reading. In the end, making what was learned visible is a way of building community knowledge as well.

K-W-L is a powerful strategy that has many adaptations some of which I will post in the future.

Tell Me (Chambers, 1996)

Roger — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:03:25 +0000

Following in a pattern of developing student questioning techniques, Tell Me is a strategy that develops discussion in a classroom based on connections made by students to a text after reading. The technique is quite simple actually. Divide the chalk board into 4 quadrants (chart paper or butcher paper is also appropriate) and label the quadrants as follows:

What did I LIKE about the text?
What did I DISLIKE about the text?
What did I find CONFUSING about the text?
What PERSONAL CONNECTIONS did I make with the text?

Ask students for input in each of the four quadrants. Finish one quadrant before going on to the next. When all four are completed begin to make connections between points in the quadrants. I like to model 2 or 3 connections and then ask students to make some. When I hear an interesting connection I ask students to TELL ME MORE about that connection. When they stop talking I ask them to TELL ME MORE again. The process can be repeated several times before moving on to a new connection.

In the end, an entire discussion of the text has been driven by connections to the text made by students and facilitated by the teacher. This is a powerful whole class activity engages students to the point that they beg for more.

Tell Me Overhead

ReQuest (Manzo, 1969)

Roger — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:41:16 +0000

Described by Manzo (1969) ReQuest, an acronym for Reciprocal Questioning, is one strategy that help students develop the skills for asking higher order questions of content area text. The procedure is quite simple:

Hand students a well controlled piece of text you want them to read. Make sure it has a number of paragraphs. Ask students to read the first paragraph silently as you do the same. When you finish reading turn your copy of the text over so you cannot see it and ask students to ask you questions from the text you just read.

If the questions fall into the first two categories of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Knowledge or Understanding, then answer them with as brief a response as possible. Don’t be afraid to tell students that the question they just asked contains a detail that you didn’t pay much attention to while you were reading. Even get a few of these wrong.

If the students’ questions fall into the middle two categories of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Application or Analysis, then provide an elaborated response drawing from the text, intertextual connections and personal experience.

Finally, if the students’ questions fall into the top two categories of Bloom’s Taxonomy, Synthesis or Evaluation, then preface your response with the following statement: “That’s a good question, the kind of question I might have asked myself!” Go on to give an extended elaboration on the question, even more so than in the second instance. Finally, end your response with the same phrase with which you introduced your answer.

Not only will students beg for you to do this activity over and over, but within 2 or 3 sessions the quality of questions will improve so that most of the questions being asked fall in the category of higher order thinking.