Vocabulary and 3 Step Comprehension

In an attempt to make up for the fact that I missed class on Monday and because it happened, I would like to share a little bit about the vocabulary that I taught over Spring Break. Just recently, my family has become engrossed in reading. I have always had a large vocabulary, and so I am often the person consulted when strange words are encountered.

The list of words I taught for this trip are:

Expeditiously (by repeating it at my siblings while trying to get them to move quickly across the airport and anywhere else they were moving slowly)

Persnickety (while describing my dad and his habits when we prepare to leave for a trip)

Loathing (by bursting into the song from Wicked after my baby brother encountered it in his Rick Riordan Book (he had been in NY earlier in the week and had seen Wicked so it applied)and then defining it)

Parabola (when we went to the Arch, describing its shape and telling my baby brother he'd be learning about it in Algebra I next year)

Tourniquet (which my baby brother and I both defined for our other brother because he didn't understand the reference in Evanescence's song--leading to a rousing discussion about poisonous snakes and amputated limbs)

OD (Overdose) (explained to my baby brother who was using it incorrectly while talking about various celebrities and their hamartias)

Needless to say, though the words themselves may not have a common theme, I do think everyone learned something on the trip about vocabulary.

As for class on Wednesday, we briefly reviewed the definition of comprehension and the three levels of comprehension (literal, interpretive, and applied). I think, for students who might need help visualizing the levels of comprehension, a theatre analogy works pretty well in outlining the three concepts. If we think of a text as a play, literal comprehension are the lines. Interpretive comprehension would be the "sub-text" or what the character (author) is thinking as they speak those lines, and application comprehension would be actually getting up and acting out the scenes of the play (costumes optional).

We also discussed 3-level, pattern, concept, and selective reading guides. I spent a great deal of time a little confused here just because I had missed class on Monday and was having trouble processing all of the information and knowing which document I was supposed to be opening at what time, but essentially the reading guides are all ways to deepen the three levels of comprehension. 3 level, and selective RGs focus on all three levels, while pattern and concept can focus on all three or just interpretive and applied.

While I understand the need for reading guides as a way of reinforcing or building comprehension for struggling readers, I cannot help but feel as though they are fairly tedious over all. Perhaps this is because I viewed them as tedious as a student (if easy) or because there is not much that you can do with a reading guide to break it out of that worksheet form. For struggling readers and students looking to improve their test scores, RGs can be a great way to improve comprehension and to key in to the important information within a text, but how do we keep our at-level and advanced readers from boredom?

I do think I will use reading guides in the future--but not the selective reading guide because while modeling was necessary I had difficulty comprehending it and did not like the layout of the RG. I do see myself using concept guides and pattern guides more often with my students, and perhaps even a basic 3 level guide at the start of texts when everyone is still getting familiar with characters and things.

Today's vocabulary word is Hamartia, by the way.

Scandals and Porn (Before Reading Strategies)

This week I had the opportunity to teach a before reading strategy for John Green's Looking for Alaska to two different groups of students. On Monday we worked with Upton Sinclair's The Jungle to apply and practice what we had learned last week about before reading strategies and which ones would best fit which texts.

This lead to a discussion about talking drawings, list-group-label, opinionnaire/questionnaire, book bags, anticipation guides, story impressions, and problem situations. We must engage our students' minds and hearts if we want them to read and if we want them to learn. These strategies are designed to appeal to a number of students' interests--those of art, opinion, and puzzle especially.

Due to the content within Looking for Alaska (which, I should note, has nothing to do with Alaska the State and everything to do with Alaska Young the Person) and how that content can be perceived as controversial, an opinionnaire was the best way to go for my engagement strategy, and it was also the best way to tie in a second resource (a video by the author about the book and its controversy) to really sell this book to my classes. The video in question was shown to me before I began reading Looking for Alaska in my adolescent literature class and since then I have known that if I ever had the chance to teach Looking For Alaska I would want to use that video to introduce it.

So not only was teaching this mini-lesson enjoyable, but it is also a lesson that I have been planning on teaching in the classroom (if I end up teaching English and somehow convince a school board to let me teach Looking for Alaska). It was great to hear from my fellow students as well about their interest and motivation in the book and in the way I introduced it.

I think the most valuable information I got out of this and what I hope to carry over with me into teaching was Chelsea's response to my lesson/Looking for Alaska. She mentioned how much she had hated English in high school and how if she'd had the opportunity to read a book like LfA she would have been far more interested because LfA is about controversies, teenagers, and things that teens can relate to as opposed to the standard canon taught in English classes.

Chelsea's response is spot on. Not all adolescents need to read the classics/canon (which, by the way, is predominately made up of books written for adults). Some adolescents (and I would argue most adolescents) need to read books they can understand and relate to. Books that discuss underage drinking, smoking, breaking rules and the consequences for it and yes, even books that discuss sexuality, sex, and emotional connections (read as: love).

If we want our students to make good choices and be smart about the decisions they make with regards to drugs, drinking, sex, and even rule breaking then we need a place for them to discuss, analyze, and understand the consequences and/or benefits behind making their decisions. What better way to do that than through the guise of analyzing a book?

John Green's video on the matter does a great job of explaining the rationale behind including some of the controversial subject matter in Looking for Alaska and you can find his video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMPtYvZ8tM

Overall, I am looking forward to employing this strategy and the others that my colleagues have used in order to engage my students and hopefully motivate them to read or learn as needed.

Dead Cows, Tasty Burgers

Overall, this week went much better. There was not stress due to lack of time this week which made class infinitely more enjoyable. Furthermore, we got to color and use crayons on Wednesday, which was clearly a highlight of the week. As for actual content this week, we discussed the importance of before reading strategies and engagement strategies. We also learned some vocabulary (muscular endurance, anyone?) and wrote on the board a bit.

Essentially, we talked about how engaging students' schema and their hearts is important to a good (and educational) reading experience. If we want our students to be truly interested in the activities for the day or their reading assignments, we have to play towards what interests them. Evidently, two boxes of 64 count crayons with pencil sharpeners is enough to motivate a room full of college students into discussing meat processing (and after lunch, too!). So, in addition to having fun supplies to work with, one could also use toys, props, visuals, and games to engage their students. Furthermore, to truly motivate a student, playing to their passions, finding the things they care about as related to a text, or incorporating food are viable ways to engage students as well.

As the eldest of three and a person who has worked with youth (babysitting, youth groups, etc.), it has never been a secret to me that the key to working with kids (and anyone, really) is finding ways to make sure both parties get what they want. For example, while babysitting near bedtime, negotiating is key. Inevitably a child wants to stay up and push the boundary. But you have to get them to go to bed. So, strike a deal. Get ready for bed now, and then a bedtime story or final tv program as a reward, and then bed.

I believe motivating students works in much the same way. A student wants to have fun or play with things that maybe they don't usually get to work with. A teacher wants her students to learn. Combine them, and the students get what they want and the teacher gets what she wants and everyone goes home happy.

I've been slowly motivating my brothers, cousins, and younger peers to do what needs to be done like this for years. Undoubtedly handling the desires of ~30 kids and making sure that they still learn what they need to will be a very different challenge, but I hope that my resilience and success on the smaller/individual scale will translate to the classroom.

But I could go without further discussion of how cows are turned into burgers/steaks/food. Just leave the crayons, please.