RRS #9 | teachingblog

Differentiating Reading Instruction: Chapter 7 - By Laura Robb

Page 206: "I also posed questions during my read alouds and during small-group lessons that relate the text to the issue that I was intergrating into the unit of study." I think that this is a very simple idea, but very beneficial to the students. It's showing them that reading can be important to whatever you have planned out next. You need to read in order to succeed in life and the students need to pay attention to the read aloud in order to do well on their next assignement.

Page 206: "I met with small grouos in each grade, debriefed about their jounraling experiences, and noted what students said..." I felt that this was a very important quote in the text because it shows how important it is to get feedback from the students. It's also a creative way to get the students to do another journal entry, having them write about what they do and do not like about journal entries. This means that the teachers have to actually read the work afterwards but I still think that it is important. I would have never thought of something so creative and sly like that, using a journal entry to get the students to give honest feedback. This really stuck out to me and it makes me want to get feedback from my students in all of the lessons that I do.

- What if the students don't give honest feedback though? What if they just write what they think I want them to write or they're trying to suck up to me?

Page 207-208: these pages talk a lot about responding to what the students have to say about their journal entries. I read in the book that students helped the teacher recognize the importance of rereading some of their old entries, whether they are a couple of days, weeks, or even just hours old, and adding onto their entries. It gives them the time and chance to think of new things, other ways to expand more clearly what they wanted to originally say, etc. I also read how one student told this teacher that their mind couldn't keep up with their hand and I came up with an idea. I think that if students spend the first amount of time that the book suggests giving on writing jounral entry, the the students should write down bullet points or short phrases about what they're thinking about. Then after the read aloud or they read by themselves, they can go back and add to their list and pick 2 or 3 points to expand on. Then the students could present this to the class at one point, they could create a graphic organizer with all of their thoughts... There are a lot of different ideas students can do with this. It also helps students to know that they aren't being graded on the actual content of their journal entry. Maybe that they completed it and the teacher writes some notes in, but they won't grade them on not elaborating enough or having incorrect information. The pages also talked about differentiating the journal expectations. This meaning have the students write a journal that practices specifically what they are struggling on or could use more practice. I think that this is a really good idea because then you have a consistent timeline of the students' work. The teacher and the student can see the improvement that they are making.

- What if the students start to resent writing journals then because they have to practice what they struggle the most with? Is there a way to prevent this to keep students interested in sharing the opinions and beliefs?

Page 214: I've listed some journaling Do's and Dont's that really stuck out to me and want to incorporate in my own classroom when I've graduated:

1. Keep questions open ended and don't give students yes or no questions

2. Ask students to keep their responses in one place or one journal to prevent them from getting lost and misplaced

3. Model for students what a proper journal looks like

4. Encourage students to use lists or phrases of what they're thinking

5. Don't assign a specific number or sentences or paragraphs that the students have to write

6. Don't force students to write full sentences or complete partially written sentences they've already written

Page 215-216: "Every 4-6 weeks, I read a few pages from the journals of students who don't volunteer to share. For students who share frequently, I dip into their work every 6-8 weeks."..."Both keeping a daily record of who has shared an entry and jotting down any observations enable you to remember what you noticed." These quotes really stuck out to me because it shows teachers that you don't have to do extra work to see how students are doing. You can check their work periodicially as it is all opinion based and there is no right or wrong answer.

Page 222: "I don't tell them how to organize a series of answers because I'm curious to see what students do." - Would you suggest giving a baseline of how to answer the questions at the beginning and then allowing the students to take the information and do what they want with it?

Page 232: I really liked the idea of having students create a bookmark to put in their books and have something handy to write down their thoughts as they read a book. This is a cute way that students can use their creativity to express themselves by decorating the front of the bookmark and then keeping the other 3 sides (because the paper is folded like an accordian) to write down their thoughts and questions as they go along. It's an easy way to assess if the students are actually reading when they are supposed to or not and if they are analyzing the text to the best of their ability. They could even write down words that they feel should be put on the word wall or words that they got stuck on and need help pronouncing and understanding. This is something that the teacher can collect at the end of the week or the end of a lesson if the class is reading the same book. The teacher could also have the students turn in the bookmark once it is full with their thoughts. I really want to use this in my own classroom.