Collaborative Discussion Matters

The teachers are collaborating while involved with a book discussion about Deb Renner Smith and Pat Cunningham’s book, Beyond Retelling. This group met for one year. They read ten books this year and discussed all ten books.

• Jane Harriger writes, “The format in the book fosters active engagement and focused discussions with students. Kids can’t help but be focused on the text and the question at hand – the greatest interactions have happened. Also, the kids internalize the theme and bring me books that echo the theme. They have a greater depth of theme understanding through experiencing Thinking Theme instruction.”

Favorite Quotes:

• “A steady does of recall questions and retelling can dampen your students’ enthusiasm for books and reading higher-level purposes, by contrast, increase motivation for reading because students are reading for the real reasons people read and don’t dread the inevitability of the after-reading check (Beyond Retelling Toward Higher Level Thinking and Big Ideas, page 3).”

• “At the Middle School where the students have done recall forever, they need to develop more higher-level skills.” Rosemary Datema, Middle School Teacher.

• Megan Jones said this quote struck me: “Tradition is the most powerful force in everyone’s teaching (Beyond Retelling Toward Higher Level Thinking and Big Ideas, page 5)” because we only teach how we have learned in the past. We can’t teach what we don’t know.”

• Jody Seabert from the Middle School chose the quote, “Your students will soon learn that their opinions are valued, but must be backed up with evidence from the text (Beyond Retelling Toward Higher Level Thinking and Big Ideas, page 10). This quote is my favorite because Middle School students love to give their opinions, and now I always have them back up their opinions with their evidence.

• “If the theme is the big idea that a story is about, then the characters are what give life to that theme (Beyond Retelling Toward Higher Level Thinking Big Ideas, page 36).” Michelle Krynicki writes that she chose this quote as a favorite because getting to know the characters, really understanding them, helps to understand the theme.”

• Mary Kay Murphy chose the quote on page 37, “We teach students to link characters to theme by leading them to think about what the character does, why the character acts that way, what the character might get out of doing this, and whether this action is an example or nonexample of the theme.” She compared interacting with text to an interactive sport. If we are not interacting with the text, then we are not solidifying our thinking. When the students are interacting through the thinking theme chart, I know what they are thinking. She also added that she explained this quote so many times, she feels it is a core understanding to the book! She connected this quote to the quote from Mosaic of Thought, “Reading is an interactive activity.”

• Janna Schneider picked the quote, “Deep thinking is seldom neat and tidy (page 93).” She writes, “Whew! It was a relief to realize that sometimes no one is sure what information goes into a thinking theme column. It is okay to put question marks in that box and move on so the deep thinking can continue.”

Text Structure Wall Updated

Peer Response Text Structure Wall

Picture books that support the text structures are on the chalkboard. The definitions are posted at the top of the bulletin board. The graphic organizers are in the middle of the bulletin board. At the bottom of the board, there are examples of pieces of writing that teachers can use to teach the structures.

Text Structure Wall

Our students learn about different text structures connected to graphic organizers, stories, definitions, and a picture.

Cause and Effect

Just for You by Mercer Mayer and If You Give A Mouse a Cookie (series) are Cause and Effect books. The idea of a baseball being thrown through a window builds the concept of cause and effect.

Compare and Contrast
My favorite compare and contrast book is I am the dog. I am the cat. It is written by Donald Hall. Another awesome Compare Contrast book is Will You Be My Friend? How are the characters alike/same? How are the characters different? The first activity I use to teach compare and contrast is comparing an oreo cookie and a ritz cracker (chocolate/salt).

Problem and Solution
Ezra Jack Keats books have clear problem and solution examples. Goggles is shown here. Students understand the idea of a problem is having a broken pencil lead so the solution is a pencil sharpener.

Description
Tulip Sees America by Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite description books. When I Was Young in the Mountains is another book by Cynthia Rylant that I have found to have lots of descriptive words and wonderful word choice. I will write up “Mr. D” in another lesson.

Sequence (Time, In Order)
Rosie’s Walk is just one sequence book. Miss S is written about in another lesson on the website.

Collaborative Discussions: Studying Student Work

The members of the literacy practicum collected writing samples from the peers and the teachers they worked with. They read hundreds of writing samples and scored them using the state released rubrics.

• One coach wrote, “This may be the number one most beneficial thing we did. I now am FULLY confident in my ability to score and support my score of any MEAP (Michigan high stakes test) papers or grades K-1-2 papers using the MDE (Michigan Department of Education) rubrics. We collaborated over the course of several meetings.”
• Another coach wrote, “I finally understand the rubric language by having anchor papers from my own district’s students. Deb has a way of explaining the rubric in kid friendly and teacher friendly language that makes sense to my teachers and to me. If I understand, so do my teachers.”
• A reading teacher wrote, “I have found myself asking my teachers what I hear Deb asking me and the other coaches: “What do you notice? What do you think you will write next? OR What do you think that you will teach in writing next based on the writing samples you are reading?”

Compare and Contrast Text Structure

Compare and Contrast Text Structure Lesson with the selection I Am the Dog I Am the Cat by Donald Hall and Barry Moser. Another selection that works with Compare and Contrast is Rabbit & Squirrel by Kara Lareau.

Before Reading -
Have a chart listing clue words and phrases that signal compare and contrast. The five clue words that seem to be the most useful at first are: both, alike, also, but, and however. Eventually teachers also added these clue words: than, contrast, on the other hand, similar, and compare.

Key questions are:
-What two things is this text about?
-How are they the same?
-How are they different?

Use a graphic organizer to record thinking on (one option is a venn diagram, another is a two column chart).

Build understanding of compare and contrast by discussing the clue words and key questions and the graphic organizer.

During Reading - Read the book (the students read indendently, with a partner, or in triads). While reading the students, read to prove that this text is written in a compare and contrast format. How do they know?

After Reading - Discuss the book in terms of compare and contrast. How do you know that the book is compare and contrast? What clue words signal compare and contrast? In the following sentence, “The dog likes food, but the cat turns up its nose at the food” the clue word is but. The teacher shows several sentences representing the content and has the students identify the clue word. The teacher might list the words or list the information on the chart. The teacher might also help the students write a compare and contrast paragraph to show understanding of the text.

What facts are the same and different? What are you comparing and contrasting? This lesson works with narrative and expository text. This example is narrative structure.

The next day the students read another compare and contrast story and write their paragraphs with less scaffolding and support, unless of course, they need more scaffolding and support!