Elizabeth Meyer-Chapman
Subjects Matter Every Teacher’s Guide to Content-Area Reading
Pages 1-48
Our group used the Text Rendering Experience protocol to discuss chapters one through three. We were able to jump around all three chapters while still having relevant in-depth discussions. The first round of text rendering requires each person to pick a word that they found to be particularly significant and share out why it was significant. Round two, three and four followed with picking a significant phrase, sentence and then passage respectively. The directions for text rendering had indicated to start round one with a passage and then work backwards or down to the word. Before doing the activity, we thought that it made more sense the other way around and so that’s what we did; build up from a word to a passage. After completing the exercise someone in our group brought up an excellent point: “Starting with a passage may be best for students because it helps them build background knowledge. Not all kids have an in depth background knowledge as compared to adults. As a group we agreed that using this would be an effective reading strategy in our classroom because it would quickly become obvious which students had read a chapter and which had not.
One phrase which rang true for me was that, “Textbooks are not enough and should be used more often as a reference tool or supplement.” So often there are errors or opinions are stated as fact in textbooks. Many times when I am helping students comprehend the big ideas in a textbook chapter, I find the student feels overwhelmed with all of the information packed into one page. In an effort to make the text visually stimulating the page becomes an overwhelming barrage of color, text boxes, vocabulary and important facts for students. Building background knowledge is essential before students face this barrage.
The reading strategies I used today were re-reading, annotating, big ideas on post-its and highlighting text. I also have short discussions in my head about what I have just read and from this I write questions or “ahh-has” that strike me. The most useful reading strategy for me is to discuss what I have just read with someone who has read the same thing. I find it deepens my understanding and I enjoy finding out what it meant to someone else. Which makes me think... my students need to engage in more pair and shares about reading or shared journaling then maybe even this thing called blogging.
I have used this strategy with my students too. It really forces them to look for important meaningful information. Although sometimes they don't recognize what is important and meaningful information. That is a skill I want to get better at teaching. I do agree that textbooks can often be overused in the classroom. I think the key is to teach students to be critical thinker as they reader, but often that falls to the wayside when students just need to get through a text and learn the material.
ReplyDeleteI am quite familiar with this text, as I read it before in one of undergraduate classes. I truly believe all content teachers should have this title in their professional library. Literacy does not stop in elementary school and all teachers should be responsible for developing literacy, even in high school! The statement "textbooks are not enough" relates directly to the book I'm studying on multimodal learning. Textbooks no longer drive the curriculum (although in some places they do). Think about our own work...we don't have a "textbook" that tells us what to do. We use a variety of avenues to shape our teaching; colleagues, books, the internet etc. Many of the strategies Daniels and Zemelmen introduce can be applied to all types of texts! As you continue reading, I would see how the strategies relate to 21st century learning. Are their ways the strategies can be modified to include more technology?
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ReplyDeleteI think the text rendering protocol is important for students. It helps them to narrow down main ideas and determine what is important in the reading.
ReplyDeleteMy goal last year was to provide more time for my students to talk to partners about their reading and thinking. I did provide some time, but not enough. Next year, I need to be more conscientious in making sure that I give them opportunities for turn and talk discussions. I also need to model what that should look like more for them.