According to the Strategies
That Work text, these are the components of an authentic question:
·
Prompt thinking
·
Don’t always have one right answer
·
May have many answers
·
Cause us to ponder and wonder
·
Dispel or clarify confusion
·
Challenge us to rethink our opinions
·
Lead us to seek out further information
·
Are subject to discussion, debate, and
conversation
·
May require further research
(p.124)
I think authentic questions are very valuable. They push students to think in new ways and
take the focus off of a right or wrong answer.
These questions and their answers allow us to have a more comprehensive understanding
of students’ thoughts and knowledge.
They also encourage discussion and engagement between peers, which may
also lead to more exciting discoveries.
Here are some authentic questions for you to consider:
After reading so many lesson plans this week on questioning,
visualizing, inferring, and in the Writing
Essentials book, what do you think makes a lesson successful?
What are some ways you can think of that could help students
keep track of what they are thinking when they read? The book talks a lot about sticky notes. Are there other ways to help students organize
their thoughts, questions, inferences, etc.?
Elizabeth, you pose some great questions that I believe are the backbone of a why we work so hard to plan these lessons. We want to make a lesson as meaningful as possible for students so they are motivated to want to read and extend their thinking. So far in my first grade class, I have taught 3 Making Meaning lessons which captures the idea of comprehension. Making Meaning is also what I am planning my two-week unit around. I have implemented 2 successful lessons, and 1 I believe could have gone better. In the two successful lessons, I made sure to change my tone of voice when asking questions and connected personal experiences to the questions I asked. I found the students were more engaged with the story as well to the lesson I was trying to teach.
ReplyDeleteWe are trying to make the first graders independent readers so I find that it might be difficult to have them write their own sticky notes. We just introduced the Listening Center in which the students listen to a story and fill out this worksheet which holds them accountable for what they read. On the worksheet it states "What are the words you know?" "Draw a picture of you favorite part". "Write one sentence about your picture". This allows the students to use the book as a tool to guide their thinking as well as let the teacher expand on student strengths.
How else could I hold these young learners accountable for their reading and gauge their comprehension?
Julie, another authentic way to hold students accountable for their reading might be a class recommendation system. Ask students why they would or wouldn't recommend the book to the rest of the class and then post their recommendations (or lack of) or give students the chance to speak about their recommendations.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea, especially for the younger grades because they really take it to heart! They love talking about how they can help their friends and sharing what they enjoy with their peers!
Delete