Some weeks ago, when the school year was brand new, I wrote about setting up our Reading Journals for a year of writing about our reading. Now we are approaching the end of the first marking period, and the truth is that we are just beginning to be ready to write about our reading.
I was thinking about this on Sunday night as I participated in Kylene Beers and Bob Probst’s Notice and Note webinar. The six signposts of Notice and Note have anchored our read aloud work as we’ve made our way through Priscilla Cummings’ Red Kayak; they have helped us identify places where we can notice, pause, reflect and deepen our understanding of the text. The purpose of the signposts, as Kylene and Bob write, is:
to teach our students to be alert for certain features as they read, to take responsibility themselves for pausing and reflecting when they spot them, to own and ask a few potentially powerful questions at those moments, and to be willing to share and revise their thoughts in responsible conversation with others…We need to keep reminding the students, explicitly, what we are asking them to do – notice, pause, reflect. And we need to make sure that the language we use doesn’t just help them learn more about any one particular text but is generalizable to others.
The class chart, and students’ individual charts gave us plenty to pause and note; best of all, my kids began to make connections between signposts (“words of the wiser moments” often lead to “ah-ha moments”, for instance) which led to many rich conversations. During the webinar, Kylene talked about the importance of encouraging and generating “first draft thinking” in our classrooms, and I immediately thought of these discussions – these really are the first drafts of any writing work that we would be engaged in once we had completed our readaloud!
Our reading work also involved keeping “Know and Wonder Charts” – important work which I learned about in What Readers Really Do by Dorothy Barnhouse and Vicki Vinton, which are designed to “build a bridge between what is visible in texts and what is invisible”. Here, we thought about what we know from the text and what that made us wonder about the story, or the characters. For my prediction happy, often skipping- over- parts- of -the- text – to -get- to- the -“juicy” parts sixth graders, this was crucial work.
We also kept track of our “book/brain” thinking which is based on my reading of Dorothy Barnhouse’s Readers Front and Center. The intent of this type of charting was to get my kids to think about the craft moves authors make, and how these moves impact their reading. Our Book/Brain chart allowed us to generalize what we learned from these craft moves from Red Kayak to other books we will encounter.
Finally, we learned about and discussed literary elements: character traits, symbolism, themes, and the story map. These are, of course, essential parts of any conversations that we have about literature, and any of the forms of writing that we will do, as well – from reading responses to literary essays. Now we have the tools of the trade, the language used to write about literature.
In the four weeks that it has taken us to wend our way through Red Kayak, we’ve:
- built a reading community
- practiced “first draft thinking” through many lively turn and talks
- learned how to pause and think about what we are reading, and what the author is doing
- figured out that reading is not just about flipping the pages to find out the ending, but deliberate work of piecing together how a characters and stories are shaped and grown
Our “Reading is Thinking” wall is now full; we have used our first read aloud to do what Vinton and Barnhouse suggest: “to introduce the foundational thinking work of reading.” Now, finally, we can begin to write about reading because we have things to write about! At the end of the school day, some of my students helped gather together our charts so that they will all be in one place as we begin book clubs (our “one stop shopping area for ideas” as one student put it). Then, we stood back and surveyed our ‘work’.
Our writing about reading could finally begin.
TWO WRITING TEACHERS 
When I was completing my internship we used “Wondering” worksheets all the time. The children loved the activity and really connected with the text. I think it is a great way for students to begin thinking about what they are reading. I can see how the activities can teach the reader to stop and think about what they are reading and truly make good connections.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on The Joy of Writing.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on booksandbassets and commented:
Some really good “stuff” here.
LikeLike
That’s a great thought Aynsley…I wasn’t that interested in reading when I was young and I think it was because I didn’t get to read what interested me. It wasn’t until high school that I read a story I couldn’t put down and then really fell in love with reading.
LikeLike
These are awesome skills that you are developing. I hope that students also have time for their own reading.
LikeLike
Your kids have so much knowledge at their fingertips because of the foundation you have laid for them. Too often writing about reading doesn’t involve thinking. You’ve given your kids the tools to think.
LikeLike
I love this post, Tara! When writing about reading is about the deep ideas readers have, kids will see the purpose and feel compelled to keep track of their great thinking. When it’s about “I must fill a page each night because my teacher told me to” then it becomes a distraction from reading and the quality is low. I think what you’re writing about here is about QUALITY and PURPOSE — two crucial things to keep in mind as we ask our kids to write about their reading (and thinking!) Thank you for this post.
LikeLike
Once again you’ve knocked it out of the park! I love seeing the way you take ideas from so many sources and pull them together in your classroom. The class charts are so helpful for me to see — and I’m sure they are helpful for kids too!
LikeLike
Wow! Perfect timing in my thought process of planning a PD about Writing About Reading for my intermediate group of teachers. I love this blog!
LikeLike
Tara, thanks for sharing how you used what you learned in a few professional texts in your Writing About Reading practices. I work in a district where most of our students are English Learners, and it is so important for us to spend time teaching students how to generate thinking and language about reading to help them write about reading.
Thanks also for linking back to your post at the beginning of the year on setting up reading journals. What you said about student choice for what to write about really resonated with me. Have you seen Dan Feigelson’s new book, Reading Projects Reimagined: Student-Driven Conferences to Deepen Critical Thinking? Dan shows how we can teach students to grow their own ideas for what to write about in their reading notebooks. Based on what you’ve written here, I think you might love it!
LikeLike
This is awesome, Tara! We have been doing similar work, and I love reading about how this is going for you and your students. I really like the maps the kids did in their journals to keep track of the signposts they found. Thanks for sharing!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on The Tender Heart of Teaching and commented:
This teacher is MY teacher! I learn from every blob post I read! Wow!
LikeLike
What a post, Tara, so filled with the beginnings of your class learning about reading. You certainly dug deeply into that book together. It’s great to have a shared text for all the class to reference. Nice to read, will keep, will share!
LikeLike
Reblogged this on A Teaching Life and commented:
Posting on Two Writing Teachers:
LikeLike