Chapter 6 Monitoring Comprehension

We used Read, Write, and Talk during our Estimation unit. I asked the students to read an article where the teacher told her students to take out a piece of paper and a pencil for a pop quiz. The article asked the students questions like, how many stars are in the sky? how many grains of sand are on a beach? It talks about how the kids get frustrated because the numbers were too hard to work with and that there was no way to find those answers. Then the article tells them there is a way to get around these problems, and introduces estimation. After reading the article I asked my students to write down what they remember about estimation and had them brainstorm with their partner ways they could solve problems like the ones in the article. I had the students write down their reactions to the "pretend" pop quiz in the article and had them talk with their partner about what they were thinking as they read the article. I asked my students to answer three questions on the back of their estimation paper. I asked them to write down something they learned, if it helped to talk it through with a partner and if they had anymore questions. I think this way of monitoring comprehension helped the student become more involved in their reading and understand the concept of estimation better.

making personal connections

During our fairy tale unit on Little Red Riding Hood, one of our lessons focused on making connections. The fairy tale unit was specifically on fractured fairy tales. I introduced making connections when I read a fractured version of the original Little Red Riding Hood, and talked about ways that it differed. I read another fractured version aloud and stopped periodically to make a personal connection to something in my own life. I modeled this several times throughout the story. Next, we did a class activity practicing modeling connections. I said a statement, and someone made a personal connection to what I said and then stood next to me. Another student would have to make a personal connection to what the previous student had said, and then came up and stood next to them. We continued until every student had a chance to make a personal connection to something someone else had said. Later in the lesson, I read aloud another fractured fairy tale, and students had to make two personal connections to something they heard in the story.

monitoring comprehension

During one of our Blood on the River lessons, students completed a character map about Samuel that included four sections: how the character acts and feels, how others feel about the character, what the character looks like, and where the character lives. Students wrote their answers based on what we had read and discussed in previous chapters. It was important to have students understand that they were supposed to think about both how Samuel feels and acts. In order to understand how Samuel feels and to understand how others feel about him, students have to interpret his actions and the reactions from other characters. I helped facilitate this understanding through discussions during previous chapters. On the section about how the character looks, I gave my students a fair amount of creative freedom. The book does not describe in detail how Samuel looks, but it does say about how old he is. So, students must make inferences about how someone about their age might look.

Text-to-Self Connections

During our reading of City of Ember I used the connector worksheet. I had students make a connection with the death of Lina's grandmother with a personal experience. We made a text to text connection with characters and theme from Fortunes Magic Farm. After making these connections students recorded their connections on the worksheet.

Making connections with City of Ember

When we get to the chapter that Lina's grandmother dies, I have a sheet that says: Text to Self, Text to Text, Text to World. I talk about my feelings of reading that her grandma died and how that reminds me of how I felt when both my grandmothers died. I tell them I can relate to what she is feeling with the emptiness because that's how I felt, never to see them again. We discuss some others students feelings or knowledge of death...maybe a family member or even something as simple as a pet...and how it made them feel. Then they write a text to self sentence.

Next, I ask them if this part reminds them of anything we have read as a class or something they have read. This year, it reminded them of Isabelle from Fortune's Magic Farm. She also lost her "grandmother". She was an orphan and felt all alone in the world. We discuss how Isabelle and Lina both felt, and then we write it under text to text.

Last, we discuss the part about the Dr. and how they are running out of medicine, or they don't have the equipment/tools needed to save Lina's grandmother. I talk about my personal experiences of growing up overseas in poorer countries and how they did not have the medicine there to heal them or the money. I ask the class if they have seen something on television this past year from around the world that reminds them of this. This year, the students talked about the tornadoes that hit the U.S. and the destruction it brought, with no medicine and equipment near by. They also talked about Japan and Haiti, connecting how medicine or supplies were lacking. Then they wrote their own connection under text to world.