I spent some time reading Anne Davies blog. I chose hers because she's been to Yarmouth before and we've used many of her strategies in the past. She wrote about "Stop and Say Something". Partners begin reading reading some sort of text, be it informational or not. They stop at an agreed upon place, maybe at each new heading or every other paragraph, and say something to each other about what was read. It could be a text to self connection, a new learning, an observation, etc. It makes both readers interact with the text. I know we've used this in faculty meetings before, but I've never used it in the classroom. I will now. It's a strategy that can work in any content area.
Anne also writes about being asked over and over by teachers at what point do you accept a piece of work as finished, after how many revisions should we consider it done. Her short answer is, there's no magic number. But she does offer some advice; the student must be able to articulate how the work was changed based on our feedback. The student should be able to prove how their work is better or better aligned with the feedback/rubrics we've given them. Now that my students will have their own laptop, I can see this being done electronically. Using stickies on Google Docs they can highlight the text they improved and write a sentence or two about why it's better.
Two simple strategies that can be very powerful to student learning.
Your description of "stop and say something" reminds me of "turn-and-talk," except turn-and-talk is teacher initiated during read alouds. I love turn-and-talk because it pushes all students to think about the text and share their thinking with a buddy. Instead of calling on one student to share an idea during a read aloud, all student voices are heard through turn-and-talk. I like how "stop and say something" is student initiated during buddy reading. It would be challenging for my kindergartners to be independent with this at this point in the year, but thinking back to last year's class, the students would be capable of this toward the middle/end of the year. I hope this works out well for your students!
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ReplyDeleteLiz, I like the idea of "stop and say something." I could see how to use this in my classes. I think it might take some practice, and modeling for the students to get the idea. I wonder if they could record what they say? I also question when to consider a work "finished." At what point is the student just doing what the teacher wants, versus figuring out on their own how to improve their product. Having the students consider where their work falls on a rubric, and then brainstorming ways for them to improve in a rubric category sounds like an interesting idea.
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