Great 8: Questioning

For this month's thinking strategy...

4th grade Anchor chart made in class with students, their questions, and the ideas "inspired by" Harvey and Goudvis (Strategies That Work), and Debbie Miller (Reading with Meaning).

Love That Dog by Sharon Creech used for my think alouds, and student stop and jots.

digital reading

This is the last week of the myON reading contest! If you are encouraging your students to use myON during reading workshop, here are some things to think about.

We want students to be actively reading. That means keeping tracks of their thinking: sharing reactions, visualizations (mental movies), predictions, confusing parts, and "new" words.

We train our students to use sticky notes to track their thoughts while reading. This should continue when students are reading digital texts.


SET UP

In our classroom, my co-teacher and I had the students set up their reading notebooks (in their "Stop and Jot" section) as shown in the picture below. We walked around making sure students understood how to organize their notebooks, and conferred with them about their thinking, prompting them to write down their thoughts.
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We told students:

• they are reading for 30 minutes they should have 3 thoughts written down.
• if they finish one book, start the same routine with another book

CONTENT

Since our class has been practicing retelling, visualizing, predicting, reacting, etc., students have a choice of their 3 thoughts most days. However, some days I do specify the type of thinking I want them to focus on recording. For example, I might say: you need to stop at one part and write a prediction, and sketch a visualization at 2 other parts.

If students have a difficult time stopping and jotting down their thoughts, you may want them to choose a page number to stop at before they start reading

Anchor Charts: reminders

"Writing helps us remember the NOW later." - Mary Howard

Lucy Calkins gives us examples in almost every lesson of possible anchor charts to create.
Remember these charts should be created WITH students through discussion, modeling, and their input should be added to the chart in some way.
Some things to remember...

Anchor Charts

Making Student Thinking Visible

In Debbie Miller’s new book Teaching with Intention, she provides a good overview of why the above statement is important.

Page 61:  In our anchor classroom, evidence of student thinking was everywhere; anchor charts, student responses, and quotes adorned the walls and boards making thinking public and permanent.  The questions, quotes, ideas, and big understandings displayed throughout the room reflected the real voices of real kids.

 

Why is making thinking visible and accessible in our classrooms an effective strategy for student learning? 

It lets students know that their thinking matters and it provides a visual reference of their thinking to support further learning.

 

So what makes an anchor chart distinctive from other visuals found on bulletin boards and walls?

Look first at the definition of anchor: any device that keeps an object in place.

How this relates to anchor charts:   they are devices that anchor student thinking.

Then look at the features of a ‘true’ anchor chart:

·    An anchor chart is co-constructed with students (should feature student thinking) – it has meaning for the students because they participated in the construction

·    The anchor chart matches the learners’ developmental level

·    The anchor chart supports on-going learning (recent, relevant, referred to)

Lastly, when looking at an anchor chart ask these questions:

·    Was it developed with students?

·    Was it posted for student access and use?

·    Is it a record of student thinking? 

Taken from here

[screen shot from an Expeditionary Learning article]
Written by Lily Newman currently serves as an Expeditionary Learning School Designer based in New England.  She taught grades 4-12 in a variety of urban settings, and was also a coach and trainer. Lily founded and opened secondary schools in Mexico as well as several Expeditionary Learning schools in Massachusetts. Her work is focused on turn-around schools: aiding schools struggling to meet state and national standards and focusing on differentiated instruction.  Lily also supports and mentors school leaders in strategic planning to maximize student achievement, and mentors other Expeditionary Learning staff.  She currently designs, develops, and facilitates standards-based training for schools and teachers, as well as serving as Expeditionary Learning’s key staff member overseeing a Masters of Arts in Teaching program to license teachers in Expeditionary Learning schools.  Lily is also a former board member and active leader for professional development in the Massachusetts Writing Project.