Pulling It All Together: Text-Based Discussions EDC 423

Agenda PARTNERS for Cheetah Text Discussion Assignment Pulling It All Together: Learning Goals to Exit Activities Levels of Questions Literature Circle Roles and Book Activity 3

Objectives Apply your understanding of discussion as a teaching tool for building comprehension Identify and apply a scheme for planning and conducting a text-based discussion TEXT ANALYSIS (identify resources, challenges, main idea(s); possible big idea) Consider your READERS and set LEARNING GOALS LAUNCH your text (activate PK and set a purpose) Identify STOPPING POINTS and create QUESTIONING SEQUENCE (QAFA) designed to engage students in using language to construct meaning Design EXIT activity to assess whether students actually learned what you set out in your learning goals

Goal of comprehension? The goal of comprehension is to build a robust mental representation of a text Network of ideas connected in meaningful way Your teaching goal: Design questions and follow-up responses that support students in actively building this robust mental representation of the text in ways that help them accomplish the learning goals you set Purpose of EXIT activity? To Determine: Can students CREATE this robust mental representation of the text and use it to ACCOMPLISH the learning goals?

“Five Factors That Influence Comprehension” and “Before-During-After” (Could these be two frameworks to help YOU organize the ideas in EDC423 and apply them to teach a reading comprehension lesson?)

Five Factors That Influence Comprehension Reader Task/Acti vity Sociocultural Context Text Teacher/Teac hing Challenges Resources Readability Level Main Idea Big Idea 1. Text-Based Discussion 2. Literature Circles B-D-A Planning Launching Questioning Responding Exit Activities

Before Reading…students need to The mantra: “Activate prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading” (BOOK LAUNCH) A ctivate prior knowledge (schema theory): Call up relevant schema about The topic (what I already know?) The text (how is this text organized?) Use PK to make predictions S et a purpose: Motivation, questions, why am I reading?

During Reading…students need to M onitor M ake connections D etermine important concepts A sk questions A nalyze/critique V isualize the text I nfer S ummarize – retell main ideas S ynthesize—pull ideas together and add your original insights S immer/Incubate —take time out to consider/reconsider M&MDAAVISSS You model and give students practice through your quality questions and supportive follow-up responses – not telling them the answers

After Reading … students need to Organize and shape: Transform big ideas (how can I show what I know?) Reflect and revise Publish—not always necessary, but very authentic and motivating with a real audience

Activities that Span BDA K-W-L Charts Anticipation Guides Graphic organizers Teacher Task Context You can plan these in the beginning, engage in during, and USE to support students in applying their understanding AFTER reading Design an “Exit Activity” for students to use the information

K-W-L Chart What I KNOWWhat I WANT to knowWhat I LEARNED AFTER… EXIT Activity?

Anticipation Guide AFTER… Exit Activity?

Cause/Effect (Before..During) AFTER… Exit Activity?

Compare/Contrast (During/After…) Hollis at BeginningHollis At End DURING… AFTER… Exit Activity?

Pompeii Text…Remember Challenges and Resources Main Ideas: The marble that the farmer found was actually remnants of things in Pompeii and Herculaneum What happens when a volcano erupts? How did the eruption effect the two cities? (the cities got buried) Big Ideas: (If we wanted to keep going) Archeologists can help us understand the past. What we find in the ground can give us signs from life a long time ago Volcanoes and other natural disasters can have a huge impact on humans Learning Goals: ???

Pompeii Text Learning Goals: After reading, students will be able to Explain the connection between the farmer’s discovery and the two cities being destroyed Notice the “out of order” chronology of the event; recognize author’s craft but also put back in order Identify what happens when a volcano erupts and how it affected people’s lives in these two prosperous cities. Launch – Set a purpose Give heads up about the story embedded into the facts Activate knowledge about volcanoes Read to find out…. (look back at learning goals!) Exit: Did students accomplish your learning goals? (What could you design before/during and after to determine this?) …Infer logical/causal connections to construct mental representation of the text

Your Exit Activity Ideas

A Little More About Levels of Questions Right There: LITERAL Think and Search: INFERENTIAL (read between the lines and think how info fit together) Author and You: INFERENTIAL (think about author clues and formulate own opinion) On My Own: EVALUATIVE (what do you think?) See your handout

LITERAL INFERENTIAL EVALUATIVE

Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) Albert was afraid that Susan would beat him in the tennis match. The night before the match, Albert broke both of Susan’s racquets. RIGHT THERE: When did Albert break both of Susan’s racquets? THINK & SEARCH: Why did Albert break both of Susan’s racquets? ON YOUR OWN: Why was Albert afraid that Susan would beat him? AUTHOR & YOU: What does the author seem to imply about Albert in this passage?

Question-Answer Relationships (QAR) The Time With Josie (Ch. 2, Pictures of Hollis Woods) RIGHT THERE: THINK & SEARCH: ON YOUR OWN: AUTHOR & YOU:

What’s going on with these questions? What can you tell me about some of the characters? Who’s one of the main characters? Can someone describe the setting of the train? What’s the train like? Would you want to be on that train? So how about her as a person? Is she more successful or does she feel better about herself? What kind of things are they doing to send off the ship? Is it just leaving and nobody cares? That’s the memo written by Dr. Seymour. What about that one? Is this the longest or the shortest? What is important about being near the waterways? What is it helpful for? What kind of ship was it? Was it sailing with freight on it? Carrying goods somewhere?

What’s going on here? Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is about a boy named…? Prizes in their cereal, and Alexander got…? Right, his paper was…? Every once in a while we have a what…?

Homework: Book Activity 3 (Due Tomorrow) Read Clarke & Holwadel (about challenges of literature circles), take two column notes, and hand in with rest of assignment Look on the wikispace under Book Activity 3: Note your assigned literature circle role and your group and complete your role sheet for homework Bring your 2 column notes and completed role sheet to share/discuss during your literature circle Come prepared to discuss lit circles and other response activities during class