Sage Rebuehr
Reading Reflection #2
Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry by Jeffrey Wilhelm
Chapter 3
This chapter about questions answered lots of my questions. This chapter focused on developing guiding questions for units. It was full of information and lots helpful ideas. Wilhelm suggests by starting with the standard and turning the standards into a guiding question. This seems so obvious to me now! For example, a common language arts standard is “Students will be able to identify the elements of a short story?” This can become the guiding question “What makes a good short story?” or “How can we write a good short story?” I also like how he talks about different types of guiding questions. All guiding questions don’t have to be application (like writing a short story); they can be conceptual (like discussing the qualities of a good short story). For some reason that makes it seem more manageable for me. He also stresses the importance of front-loading information at the beginning of a unit. This was a great chapter and explicitly outlined how to developed these inquiry units.
As a group we decided to do the text rendering strategies as we read this chapter. I was glad because I was hoping this would help me focus and pick out important information. As I was reading, I found myself highlighting all the example guiding questions he included that I thought I may be able to use in my curriculum. What worked really well for me was I just highlighted as I read. When time was just about up, then I went back through my highlights and chose my passage, sentence, and word to share in the discussion.
In our discussion, we really didn’t have any trouble talking about what we read as we were all excited to share what we learned. I did notice that we just kind of skipped around. We didn’t go around the circle and start by sharing our passage or sentence. We just jumped in and started sharing our ideas. When the conversations lagged, someone jumped in with one of their passages or sentences. This got me thinking about my students. I feel like they need a structure and an understanding of how to participate in a discussion. I could easily see my students complete their “discussion” in 5 minutes. “We all shared our stuff, miss!” My big question is how to I get them to respond to others and add on to their ideas. To get them to understand that what they bring to the discussion is just the beginning of it, not the end.
One of the biggest things a teacher needs to be aware of is essential questions and enduring understandings. This gives students purpose for the unit and activities within the unit. I also agree at front-loading and building/activating prior knowledge for our students. Too often we'll start a unit and students have no idea what they're learning or where we're going but enduring understandings and essential questions solidifies our intent to teach.
ReplyDeleteI think the question of discussions in the classroom is a valid one. Rather than having a free-flowing discussion, teachers can put perimeters in place. For example, each student has to say one thing and you can't repeat what another student says. I also enjoy philosophical chairs (an AVID strategy also known as socratic seminar). The students who love to talk can be in the middle, engaging in dialogue; the students around them are taking notes and monitoring what their peers say. In the end, there can be a short writing reflection that all students have to do.
LOVE the idea of turning a standard into a question. I agree with you that it feels more managable to incorporate some guiding questions that don't end with something formal like writing or a fancy product.
ReplyDeletePerhaps because I am surrounded by lower level students all day and do not get to experience AP/CP kids I feel the way you stated the standards into questions just made them more accessible to kids. Kids are more likely to answer "what makes a good short story" than they are to answer "the student will be able to identify the elements of a short story."
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