I noted in last week’s blog that the required readings reminded me of flow charts.\u00a0 This week’s articles give me the same feeling.\u00a0 Although,\u00a0I have yet to teach my own class, I attempt to apply what I’m reading\/learning to my book club girls (7 sixth graders).\u00a0\u00a0It’s a tight time\u00a0squeeze and really I’m\u00a0only introducing these concepts.\u00a0 But I agree that student reading habits can change via instruction and student effort.\u00a0 The process paper that Prof. Linkon described would be beneficial in strving for this change.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this isn’t possible in this casual setting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What I believe is possible though is modifying Prof. O’Connor’s stratedgy.\u00a0(She has the students design web pages).\u00a0 Using poster board, the girls can\u00a0 draw a “web” to link the issues. Hopefully then, they can (literally) see how the\u00a0layers in the context\u00a0and how the issues intersect.The book we’re reading is The Dollhouse Murders.<\/em>\u00a0 It is multilayered-sister with a disability, family secret regarding the murders of the grandparents, guilt over present and past tense relationships and adolescence.\u00a0 Not all the girls are “getting it.” It doesn’t help that the most vocal of the group is saying this the most.<\/p>\n Another girl claims to have finish the book, yet couldn’t recall details from the first four chapters.\u00a0 In general, it seems they are reading, but for what purpose, besides solving\u00a0who dunnit, I’m not sure except to say they finshed the book.\u00a0 So I reread aloud the parts that I wanted to explore in order\u00a0to set the\u00a0\u00a0foundation of the story.\u00a0 I also\u00a0suggested that they either\u00a0just read what’s assigned weekly or reread the book. So\u00a0I do support recursivity.\u00a0 I also use it in my own reading.<\/p>\n (I need to digress here because of the guy next to me.\u00a0I’m in the computer lab on campus and am amazed by how many students freely use their cellphones even with postings banning cellphone use\u00a0decorating the room.\u00a0 Not only can I hear him, but also the other person’s voice on the line! I suppose\u00a0I’m showing my age here).<\/p>\n Okay. Another stratedgy I really like, in part because I’m an avid photographer, is Prof. Jaffe’s project.\u00a0 It reminds me of I Wanna Take Me a <\/em>Picture, where teaching photography to underpriviledged\u00a0children worldwide provides them an opportunity to more richly\u00a0explore their family\/\u00a0world\/culture. Then they write\u00a0stories that contain details and\u00a0feelings that do reflect a level of self-awareness.\u00a0 And since the skills of writing and reading intertwine, this stratedgy can laterally\u00a0tranfer into their reading skills.<\/p>\n I look forward to using these strategies more fully once I’m teaching.\u00a0 In the meantime, I’ve begun to examine myself as a reader. I need to\u00a0expand from being a literal reader to making more\u00a0connections between\u00a0ideas within the context and with other texts.\u00a0 I also\u00a0need to take the time to make those nuances and annotations.\u00a0 It’s fascinating to read about these projects and methods.\u00a0I only wish that I had learned them sooner.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Susan\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I noted in last week’s blog that the required readings reminded me of flow charts.\u00a0 This week’s articles give me the same feeling.\u00a0 Although,\u00a0I have yet to teach my own class, I attempt to apply what I’m reading\/learning to my book club girls (7 sixth graders).\u00a0\u00a0It’s a tight time\u00a0squeeze and really I’m\u00a0only introducing these concepts.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/spring2008\/610\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}