Read with a Pencil!!!

It is always a challenge getting students to read and comprehend what they are reading, especially second language learners. Our students now 'read with a pencil'! While reading, students are given little sticky notes to label their thoughts. We started off by having students recognize facts that were unusual or had the "WOW" factor. While reading students would place a sticky note with an exclamation mark (!) on the page where they read something that was unusual or 'wowed' them. The next step was to add the (+) when the learned something new. We then added the (?) when students were confused or had a question about what they were reading. Finally we added the (check mark) for students to label what they already knew. At the beginning the students were 'flagging' everything in the text, so we asked them to limit their findings to only the 'most' important or unusual. We noticed that students really started paying attention to what they were reading!!!! Yahoo!

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Students were given a variety of books that were both fiction and nonfiction. They were asked to look them over and compare and contrast them. Students excitedly poured over them. After table discussions, the class generated a list comparing fiction to nonfiction. This poster was generated and is a good tool to refer to when determining if a book is fiction or nonfiction.

Activator/Summarizer

I love using this Alphabox activator/summarizer that was given to me by an amazing colleague, Jen D. During a unit of study or after the reading of a nonfiction text, students are asked to fill in an alphabox. At first students are asked to fill in as many boxes as they can independently. Then students are allowed to 'give one, take one' with other students until they have filled in each box. As we continue our unit of study, students add to it. They may have several words in each box related to that topic of study. In the end, students may be given a clean copy to assess what students have learned.