The reason? Because of love for a book. Notice and Note.
I can't say enough how much I love this book. For starters, I love the philosophy behind it. The authors believe that students should be kind, thinking citizens. They don't just think they should know reading strategies, even though this is a book all about reading strategies. The purpose behind education is to create a society that is functional and democratic. I agree! Until I read this book, I didn't realize how important it was for me to agree with the underlying philosophy of the authors of pedagogical manuals. I used to think about the philosophy when I was doing my masters, then I got in the classroom and was worried about day-in day-out teaching, whatever "works". Now in the middle of a major shift in instructional practices, I feel like I'm swimming and need a life preserver to grab, and as I'm looking around for something to grab, I read this and felt like I could finally take a deep breath, fill my lungs, and feel safe.
I read the beginning, answered their questions for myself, agreed with their basic philosophy, then read on to the practical how-to's. I was hooked!! I realized that the signposts, spots that readers naturally notice when they are reading, are the perfect place to show young, inexperienced, and struggling readers. Giving them generalizable questions to ask themselves will help them as they read other books on their own, and will show them the cues they never really grasped no matter how often they heard it in class about making a prediction or an inference.
The magic of this book is that when they taught the signposts, they saw the students naturally begin to use reading strategies as they read. That doesn't mean I don't want to teach strategies, but I wanted a more natural feeling. I read the book over winter break and when we got back in January, I knew I had to break out the signposts during my read aloud. It was just so.... natural! All of a sudden, the character did something so weird we all looked at each other surprised and I pulled up my presentation I had already created on the whiteboard, passed out reading logs, and had the kids fill out the unexpected plot sequence, why it was so strange, and what that made us think was about to happen. They got it!! I also have plans for teaching this in small groups, especially as follow-up and for struggling readers. So far, though, it has been whole group to introduce the basic function of the signposts.
Another thing I love about the book is their belief in the role of talk. Teacher talk has a very important place, but in order for us as humans to learn, we have to ask the questions. So no matter how good our questions are to our students, if we want them learning, we need to start giving them the power to ask their own questions. Today I created a PDF to plan close reading lessons that lead to students creating their own text-dependent questions. They read the passage over while the teacher reads it out loud and simply mark places they are confused by. Then they read again by themselves, this time noting why they were confused or what their questions are. In the whole group, students share their questions out loud and students decide which ones are the most important question and try to answer them in groups of 2 or 3, again reading through the text to find answers. After this, they come back in the whole group to share their thinking, after having read the text three separate times and discussed and asked questions. Wow! So if you'd like a copy of my planning sheet with student response log, please visit my TpT shop. (It's free!)
Preview of the Planning and Student Response Sheets
Please join my discussion and comment on my posts. I'm LOVING this book and I'd LOVE to hear from you!!! And if you haven't read the book yet, DO SO!!!!
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