There were several big learning moments that pushed me to continue my thinking around collaboration in reading workshop. The biggest take away was a duh moment, but I am glad I had it. Sticky note thinking is limited to one individual student and when doing a whole class sharing only one person shares and 23 hopefully listen. My take away is how will I create a collaborative platform in my class? I liked the organization that Katie suggested: three groups of eight for a class of 24. Opening the conversation but not too big to overwhelm them. Right now I am considering Google but more blogs to come on that idea....still percolating.
The idea of back channeling is where I want to begin with our first read aloud. I am still thinking about how I want my students to have time to share questions, new thinking but also time to reflect on their own ideas. I am thrilled with the instructional shift knowing that I will not always be calling on one student to share but small groups will be connected. I am considering a reflection piece at the end of workshop where the students will write about their big learning, new vocabulary, or questions that they have about the story in their own reader's notebook. Bringing post it notes to life is going to totally change the sharing in our workshop -- I'm super excited.
Hi Maria! I remember when I was teaching fourth grade and a student had done some annotating on post-its...the book was done and he said "What do you want me to do with these?" My response? "If it was important enough to stop your reading and to write about we shouldn't throw them away. Let's tape all of them in your notebook in case we need to refer to them later. " He looked at me with his hand over the trash can...took them to his seat and taped them in. I made a point to have him use them again in a conversation with another student later that week. When you said, "Bringing post it notes to life is going to totally change the sharing in our workshop -- I'm super excited." I am excited for you! Students need to see them as a springboard for their thinking...not the end of a task. Great post! (get it?!?!?!)
ReplyDeleteTracy, I totally get it and had similar experiences with gluing in sticky notes and unfortunately not circling back to them often enough. It will be new learning for me as well as the students. Thanks for your comment.
ReplyDeleteI can't take credit for this one...someone told me to have a student leave a post-it in a book...kinda a surprise for the next reader. Forced kids to be specific since someone else would be reading it...purpose :)
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