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I'm linking up with Beth at Thinking of Teaching to talk about Reading Responses.
Here's a quick low-down on the chapter...
Reading Responses can add an element of accountability, especially after guided reading. The students can respond to the guided reading text.
The biggest challenge is assessing during independent reading. We are able to observe students' reading behaviors, but accessing and assessing student thinking is not easily seen. There are many reading response tasks that students can use to show us their thinking.
Lisa has found that using different tools, prompts, and response modes are the most effective in showing student thinking. By varying these modes of responses, the students stay engaged and by allowing student choice, the students are given a variety of ways to share their thinking.
The goal is to have students practice a new strategy that was taught, consolidate their learning, and apply the skills on their own. This is the gradual release of responsibility. (During my second year of teaching, my literacy coach was teaching the staff about the gradual release of responsibility during reader's workshop, which was also the around the time when I first learned about balanced literacy. The whole staff was learning about balanced literacy--we were slowly getting rid of the basals and adding authentic literature into our classrooms. My coach described the gradual release of responsibility as teaching the children to ride a bike--at first while you are teaching, you are holding onto the bike as they get used to pedaling. As you move into the active engagement, you are coaching them as they become more confident on the bike, but you are still holding the seat. During independent work, the students are trying their new skills on their own--they are actually riding the bike themselves!)
Before students can independently work on these tasks, Lisa recommends modeling the reading response task using a few simple steps--share the task with the students and read aloud the text. Think aloud as you're reading keeping the task in mind. On chart paper or under the document camera, fill out the task template (in the book, on pages 61-68, there are task cards for word skills, visualizing, determining importance, questioning, connecting, inferences, synthesizing, and HOT. There are four per page!)
Lisa suggests having a pocket where each pocket is labeled with a skill. Students are able to select the tasks that they need additional practice with or skills to help them meet their goals. (Hello Highly Effective according to the Danielson Rubric! Sorry...I couldn't resist :)
**the idea that students don't have to respond to everything they read--the key is flexibility
**allowing students choice within the tasks, as well as with the selection of the tasks
**I want to try a variety of mediums for responding. I love the idea of a reading response notebook--there is just something about words on a page that I can't get over. Lisa mentioned incorporating a response journal in a digital format, which made me think about how I can incorporate Google Docs or a classroom blog.
**I love the idea of students selecting the tasks and incorporating the response after guided reading. It's a great way to continue their learning and an easy way for me to keep track of their responses since I already know the text they read in guided reading.
**Once the students create their responses, I'm going to grade them using my state's testing rubric. Using the results of the rubric and my observations, I can analyze the trends in the class and pull strategy groups to help further their response writing. This can be one of my two groups.
You can check out Chapter 3 Reading Around the Literacy Block with Kelly from An Apple for the Teacher
Check out Chapter 5 Writing Around the Literacy Block with Melissa from Dilly Dabbles on June 9th.
