Make your thinking visible

The student used the genre (non fiction) to help him comprehend the article

I like to use annotation with my fourth and fifth graders for test prep. This is a fifth grade MCAS question on nature photography. I tell my students to read with a pencil in their hand...and make their thinking visible by writing notes, ideas, thoughts in the margin as they read. Later, when it is time to correct the multiple choice questions, I give each child a copy of my "teacher notes" so they can see how I made my thinking visible. Sometimes we have the same thoughts and ideas while reading. I love to read what they wrote. Christine



This child wrote which reading strategy she used: infer



This child used questioning in her notes

This is my copy ( I share my notes with the students)

How to annotate

I use annotation (a form of notetaking) in my classroom for MCAS prep. This slideshare presentation shows a good explanation about what it is. Christine

How to annotate

View more presentations from Michelle Alspaugh.

Visualizing assessment

Emily Kissner wrote this amazing book: The Forest And The Trees. She has a great visualizing lesson that I will share with you:

There was a spooky house on Erin's street. It was made out of brick and seemed to tower over everything else. The crumbling chimney looked as if it was about to fall on the sagging roof. Shutters hung by their hinges next to the second-floor windows, which had tattered curtains hanging in them. The porch looked like it would fall down at any moment. Erin stared at the weedy, overgrown walkway and the bushes that clustered around the front door. She couldn't imagine being brave enough to walk inside. But there was one thing that seemed out of place. The doorbell was bright and shiny, as if it were brand-new.

The directions are to draw a picture of the scene described. This is not a test of your artistic skills.

I have the children draw this scene without any further explanation. (colored pencils are best) After I have them "grade" each others picture according to a checklist which gives everything a point value. For example:

1. crumbling chimney 1 point
2. tattered curtains 1 point

and so on. At the end of the checklist I have written: critical detail: 10 points! This activity really helps you understand how well children visualize when they read. It also lends itself to talking about questioning and inferring. The critical detail is the bright shiny doorbell. Why would a house in such disrepair have a "new" doorbell? (questioning) Hmmm, maybe this house is not what it appears to be (inferring). Some children miss the critical detail entirely. It is important to have them reflect about why they missed it. Christine

Donors Choose

I started using Donors Choose few years ago. http://www.donorschoose.com/ I wanted class sets of books that would compliment my curriculum. Donors around the country have to pick your project through the website. You can choose whatever materials you would like and write up a proposal. I teach American History so I chose The Discovery of the Americas by Betsy Maestro. I also use a Social Studies textbook but it is pretty old.This book gives the students so much more detail and the pictures are great. The story of Phillis Wheatley's life fascinates me so I got a class set of the most beautiful book: A Voice of Her Own: The Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet. This is a great book to practice all of the reading strategies with. She lived in Boston at the time of the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party so it is a terrific choice for teaching the Revolutionary War. I also got three class sets of Eve Bunting books from Donors Choose. Every year I do an author study on Eve Bunting. I particularly like Gleam and Glow, Smoky Night, and Fly Away Home. Not all of my projects have been funded but I have to say I have done very well by Donors Choose. Christine

reciprocal teaching

I made a bunch of these posters for group work after reading Reciprocal Teaching At Work by Lori Oczkus. She uses the formula: predict, question, clarify and summarize in small group instruction. I like to use this idea with groups of 2-4 kids. Each child gets to pick a box or two to write in but all of the work has to be done as a group. The lesson on the poster was from a nonfiction article in National Geographic for Kids called Our Oceans. Before I had the children open the magazine I told them the topic (oceans) and had them do the top of the poster: What do you know about...After they have brainstormed I had them open up to the article and predict what it will be about by doing a 10, 9, 8....(I count backwards slowly while they do a sort of picture walk to look for clues in the text features as to what the article might be about.) Next they read the article as a group and fill in the section that asks what questions came to mind as they read, and the section marked clarify   which is the vocabulary piece ( they have to list the word they didn't know, the definition of the word, and how they figured it out). Lastly they summarize  the article. The part they love about this lesson comes after it is complete. I give every child in the group a sticky and ask them to privately write the name of the person in their group who worked the hardest. Everyone wants their name on that sticky. Its a great motivator for many kids. Sometimes I even give them a "grade" for how well I think they worked together. Lori Oczkus also wrote Interactive Think Aloud Lessons. I liked that book as well. Christine

revisiting a mentor text

I do an author study on Eve Bunting with my fifth graders. I like to introduce Eve Bunting in November of the fourth grade with this Thanksgiving story, How Many Days To America? I have a class set so this makes it easy. Many times I use the mats and the stickies to help the children make their thinking visible. Its a good book for using all of the reading strategies. It also makes that Thanksgiving connection and expands their thinking about immigration. Recently I got a new idea for this old mentor text from Emily Kissner's blog (its on my blog roll: In My Classroom: The Forest and the Trees). She uses this book for inferring characters feelings. I love the idea of revisiting or working with a book they have already read. This is a great book for inferring the different characters emotions, but I never thought of it that way before I read her post. She starts off the lesson by giving the children examples: How would you feel if you dropped your ice cream cone? How would a dad feel if his daughter crashed the car? ( this brings up the concept of mixed emotions). Then she has the kids work on a linear array for the word angry (upset, frustrated, livid and so on) This is a good vocabulary building exercise. Next, she reads the first page or two of How Many Days To America? and begins a divided page. On the left is the inferred feeling and on the right is the text based evidence. After modeling she has the children work in pairs to come up with some examples on their own. I did this lesson and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. I'd like to come up with some more ways to revisit/reread those really great stories and look at them through another lense.Christine

favorite picture books

Francis & Ginger Park (sisters) are the authors of My Freedom Trip. Its a suspenseful story about a little girl who escapes South Korea during the war. I read this book to my class after they have worked with all of the reading strategies for a few months. We use the mats and the stickies to make their thinking visible while I read aloud. Its a really good choice for questioning and predicting. As the suspense builds during her escape, I find myself visualizing a great deal as well.The sisters also wrote another great book to share with kids called The Royal Bee. Both stories are actually based on family members (their mother and grandfather) and could be considered historical fiction. Christine

make your thinking visible poster

Here is a picture of the poster I use with the lesson in the previous post. After the children have listened to the story and made their thinking visible on the mat, they come up to the poster with their favorite question or inference and add it to the correct column. Christine

Make your thinking visible

After I have taught the following reading strategies: background knowledge, visualizing, inferring, and questioning I start using these mats. I tell the children to "make their thinking visible" by writing down on stickies what is going on in their brains while I read a story aloud. Excellent readers use all of the strategies simultaneously, therefore I have them practice in a way that allows me to assess their ability to read critically. We are now fully into the apply stage. Next, I might ask them to tell me what they visualized or questioned and go up to place their stickies on a poster for the whole class. I use these posters/mats all year (probably once or twice a month)for whole group instruction. I have even given them a worksheet that looks like the mat for homework to use with their nightly reading (instead of summarizing the chapter). Christine