Aligned to California’s Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy

I like the idea of turning reading into almost a science experiment. Making predictions and seeing which student’s prediction came true. And asking those other questions “What surprised you? If any of your predictions were inaccurate, what in the text misled you? Can you answer the question you created from the title? What, if anything, is confusing to you?” I do like taking the approach of seeing how an author’s background or bibliography can play into what they produce in their writing. However, I do think that it’s important to make it clear to the students that this isn’t always the case. I’ve been in classroom discussions where some students go into the bibliography too much with a story. But I’ve also seen how the bibliography helps others understand the story overall.

An activity that I haven’t done before was “Mapping the Organizational Structure.” This is something that I would like to do with my classroom, because I don’t only think that this will help them identify a thesis or conclusion but with their writing as well. Another is “Drawing Conclusions from Structure” this is something I didn’t really think about before. It would be a cool way for the students and the teacher to see how an author organizes their thoughts and arguments. “Annotating and Questioning the Text” is something that I strongly agree with. Until I was taught this technique reading and comprehending was difficult at points. And it helps the discussion and identifying important quotes process go quicker, because you will have them marked up or written down.

Unless I’m teaching how to identify the content and reason and understand, I don’t know if I totally agree with breaking the text into sections and going through each section thoroughly. I do see how this could be beneficial for some things, and how this can succeed in the classroom. It’s definitely something I’m on the fence about.

Closing Question: What is something you would or wouldn't use in your classroom?