Read About It ... Think About It

We're a little more than half way through our inferring unit on Chris Van Allsburg, and we've been adding to our reading bulletin board as we progress.  There's a lot of student thinking on these two boards.

This is the "Read About It" side.  On it I have our O.Q.I charts (I wrote about them in an earlier post).  Students write a sticky note for observe (I know ...), question (I wonder ...), and infer (I think). We complete the O.Q.I chart after the first time we read each book in our inferring unit.  We've just started our fourth book - The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (my favourite!).  I've just been stapling the O.Q.I charts over the last ones, so we have four here.  I have just enough room for the last two books.

This is the "Think About It" side to our bulletin board.  We have our learning goal, success criteria for answering an inferring question (co-created with the students), and some visual reminders on how to write an inference.  I also put up a poster I made for my Inferring Package.

(The OCD side of my is growing increasingly bothered by the top inferring learning goal.  I'm pretty sure one of the first things I do tomorrow morning will be centering it over the chart paper.)

Running down the centre of the two boards, I've posted the students' independent reading reflections from the end of first term.  They have each taken on a 30 Book Challenge and on these cards they have reflected on their progress so far.  Students wrote about how many books they have read, how many they should have read so far, and what genres they still have to read to meet the challenge.  On the back of the cards they wrote all the books they have read this term.  We also did this activity half way through the first term.  When I take these current ones down off the bulletin board, they will get stapled to their first ones and filed in their portfolios.








Well, that's about it for tonight.  I managed to get this written while my husband was putting together my middle daughter's birthday present - a Barbie Dreamhouse.  Happy 6th Birthday, Katie!  And Happy Wednesday!

15

Accordion Books

Well, it was about as close to a snow day as we get today.  Our buses were cancelled today, and because I teach at a fairly rural school, that meant I only had 6 students in my class ... yep, 6.  Don't ask me why they don't cancel school when the buses are off the road - I have no answer for this.  Anyhow, it was a GREAT day with them.  I got them started on a new art project, got my DRA testing done with 6 that were there (and got prepped for the rest of the students), worked on their orals, and got in some more practice with metric conversions.  The grade 7/8 teacher and myself paired up the classes for two full blocks, so we each got some time to ourselves in the classroom, too.  YAY!

With the extra time I had today, I was able to get a lot of marking done in their reading notebooks.  We're still studying inferring with our Chris Van Allsburg unit.   Last week we read The Garden of Abdul Gasazi.  For our weekly summative task, I decided to do a foldable - the kids love them in math, so I figured they'd love them in language, as well.  I had them make an accordion book.  They had to recreate the cover, using the same style of illustrations Chris Van Allsburg used in the book.  For the inside panels they had to cover:

• a summary of the story
• character traits for two characters (with supporting evidence)
• setting (both place and time - inferred from the story)
• a reflection based on the question, "How did the main character's feelings change throughout the story?" (they also had to include supporting evidence from the text).

This was a nice switch from the usual written summary and reflection - and I was right, the kids loved making them (well, love might be a strong word, but they definitely liked them).  ;)

Happy Monday!!!

14

Making Inferences

Well, I survived my first days back.  Actually, Monday and Tuesday went extremely well.  Today felt a little ... long ... (to be diplomatic) ;).  Sticking to my motto - kill 'em with kindness and routine ... wow - sounds  little harsh, but you know what I mean.

I'm VERY excited to start our new reading unit for the month - it's one of my absolute favourites!!!  We're going to spend the next five weeks making inferences using Chris Van Allsburg books.  LOVE!  We've just started The Wretched Stone, and we will spend a full week on each book in this unit.  I made this unit in my pre-document camera days, so I had scanned all the pages from the book and made a slideshow of the book for our shared reading.  The kids really enjoyed the slideshow - just that little bit of extra technology hooked them.  And, boy are they hooked.  Today they were supposed to find out what "the rock" really is ... but I wasn't a fan of their behaviour by the end of the day (again, being diplomatic), so I left them hanging and we went on to another subject.  Their disappointment was palpable, and their behaviour improved drastically.  Can't wait for tomorrow!

When we are studying inferences, I use a chart very similar to the K-W-L chart.  This is our O-Q-I chart (I call it our "okee" chart).  When we are reading a text for the first time, I hand out three stickies to each student.  They must make an observation (I know that ...), a question (I wonder what/why ...), and an inference (I think ...).  We then post the stickies on the chart at the end of the lesson (kind of like their exit slip, only they don't get to 'exit'), and then we revisit the chart the next day before we start our new lesson.

If  you are interested in previewing this unit, click here.  I also have a little freebie for The Sweetest Fig, which I have used as a diagnostic, or summative assessment for this unit.  Click here to download a copy.

Be sure to check back on Friday - I've got a FANTASTIC Friday Art Feature to share with you - we're just about finished and I can't wait to show them off!

Happy Wednesday!!!

15

Riding the Tiger - A Great Book for Inferring

Today marked the end of our junior / intermediate focus on inferring(I also included a mini-focus on point of view). For our summative task we chose the mentor text, Riding the Tiger, by Eve Bunting. I read the book twice to the students, but because it was our summative task, there was no oral discussion after reading. I think this is a fabulous book for inferring, but I wished we could have discussed the book after reading. So many of my students were too literal, and thought the book was really about riding a tiger (for those who haven't read the book, the tiger is a symbol for a gang).

So, if you've got a copy of this book kicking around in your bookroom or library, here are the questions we used:
1) Why do you think Danny wanted to ride the tiger at first? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.
2) What do you think the policeman meant by, "Once you get up on the tiger's back, it's hard to get off...". Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.
3) What do you think the tiger is a symbol for? What were some of the clues that led you to this inference?
4) From whose point of view is the story written? Give an example from the story to support your answer?
5) What do you think the author is trying to say about our society? Use information from the text and your own ideas to support your answer.

I plan on discussing this text further tomorrow. I feel I HAVE to. Although I got many really great, thought-provoking answers, I have to reach those students who still think Danny wanted to ride the tiger because "it would be really cool to ride a talking tiger." Ummmmmm ... OK.


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