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“I don’t know what it means, Miss. I just read it.”, he answered. What??? Yes, I’ve had students tell me this when I’ve asked them a straight forward comprehension question about something they’ve read. They didn’t get it. I knew I had to do something to help these kids make sense of what they were reading. So I created this graphic organizer to help them.I have found that my students’ reading improves when they use the meta-cognitive sentence starters in the chart. ( I call it talking to the book. That tickles the funny bone of some kids.) I’ve been using meta-cognitive sentence starters with my weak readers for about four or five years and the results are amazing. I also use these sentence starters when we watch movies ( I call it talking to the movie.) I stop at appropriate moments and have them reflect upon what they have seen or written, and I tell them that thinking about what they have read improves their understanding of what they have read. Then, I ask the students to share one or two of their sentence starters in a pair-share situation while I walk around the class listening or I might ask them to share with a larger group. It just depends on how things are going at that time. Try it. It’s fun and it works. Just click on the link below to acess the organizer.
Graphic Organizer-It says I say So
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2 Responses to “I Don’t Know What It Means, Miss. I Just Read It.”
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Edublog Awards
Toronto Reading Council
Great idea.
My school adopted several levels of the McDougal Littell textbook. Because of that, we get their InterActive reader every year. I think I’m just about the only teacher who uses them. It asks students questions at appropriate “Pause & Reflect” moments, like those you suggest here. The students own the book so they can actually write on the text (it’s a consumable). I love having that book as an addition to the course. It’s really important for students to slow down and consider what they’ve just ran their eyes past. Students often think that if all their gaze meets all the words on the page, they are done with that assignment.
I’m not familiar with the McDougal Littell text book. I think that the Interactive reader is a good idea. Thanks very much for bringing it to my attention. I’m going to look into it. I have my students write their thoughts into a note book which I’ve cut in half so it looks like there’s not much writing to do. It’s all perception! A full sized empty page freaks them out. They have to fill one of those 1/2 pages each day. I collect them and make short comments ( a few words) about what they have written,. I don’t correct errors. I just want them to think about their reading and not have to worry about spelling grammar etc. I tell them if they want , they can draw a picture to illustrate their thinking. Some kids do, but most will just write their thought.
I really like doing the same thing with movies. Kids watch so much more than they read and I want them to think about what they are watching too. We have lots of fun when we do that. First I explain that we are watching this video or movie in school for educational purposes so I will be stopping the movie at certain times. I tell them I know it can be annoying to watch a video or movie this way and I would be happy to lend them the movie after so they can see without stopping. When I explain it this way, the kids seem cool with it and don’t really explain. They have to complete three sentence stems and can share them if they wish. I get them to write about the movie in their little notebook. As the semester progresses, the kids can”t believe how much writing they have done about their reading and viewing.