First I want to say the video with the show and tell was great. Since I plan to be doing lower elementary, I will look forward to using this activity in my classroom to get my students excited about history!
I’m enjoying being part of the literature circle but there are a few question I have about it. At what age would this activity be effective for students? Is this something you could only do with chapter books (older kids) or could I break it down and simplify it to do a picture book for younger elementary students? I wonder what other types of layouts (worksheets/guides) can be used to complete this activity. This is the second time (second class at UR) that we have used the same guide. Maybe different classes could use a different guide to give us a glimpse into other options.
The SOL sheet we did in class shows the progression scale for grades K-12. While grades 3-12 take the SOL, what kind of test/how are teachers in K-2 held accountable testing wise like all other grades?
I noticed that the “It says, I say, and so” activity this class was more successful than the previous two classes. I’m not really sure why that is. I’m not sure if it was the way it was presented, that fact that we have done it a few times now, or maybe it was the fact that I didn’t realize we were following the same routine with it since it wasn’t brought up until toward the end of the activity. Either way, I feel like it was a success this time.
Mike, once again I have noticed you take something done in class and “wonder” about it (make it your own). I really like that about you. Typically, literature circles don’t go below grade 3 (in most cases) but that does not mean it cannot be done! I encourage you to think about how it could work in the primary grades. You can scaffold most things out there and make it work!
I decided to try a new way to present: It says, I say and So. I was determined not to give up. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! Teaching the inference skill is very important and just because the first time I put it out there and it flopped did not mean I should not try again. Also, the more you practice this skill the better people will get. So, I think the fact that I changed it up and we practiced again made it more successful. :0)
Hi Mike,
I’m glad you are asking so many questions about the work we are doing. As to literature circles, the forms you have are one set out of many possibilities. I have several versions and decided on this particular set for class. I’ll try to share some other options. Perhaps I’ll try to add a literature circles page to the class web site so that you can think about other roles and see some different guidance documents.
Glad you enjoyed the video. It’s one of my favorite example lessons.