Stop and Jot

Today we taught our students something very important.  Our first thought is not our BEST thought.

Let me say it again.. your first thought is NOT your best thought.

In the past we told our kids to make connections.  They made shallow connections such as, I've used chopsticks before, I like to eat rice, I have a cat.  Now we know better.  We need deep connections.  Everyone uses their background knowledge to connect to a story/movie/game/etc.  But what else do you think?

Today we introduced a Jot Lot.  Our kids already know about stopping and jotting.  This gives them a place to show off their work.  No names are needed, you simply place your sticky note on your number.  Reading each others notes helps to grow their thinking.

We crafted our lesson from Falling In Love With Close Reading.

 We looked at the character in a narrative story using the point of view lens from chapter 5.

Then we read the book Everybody Cooks Rice.

Hmmm. What is the main character thinking? What text evidence do you have to support this? We wrote our first thought on an orange sticky note.  Then we read the book AGAIN talking with our partners about what was happening and used a new lens, what does the author want you to learn from this book. What is her point of view? What evidence do you have to support your thoughts?  This time when we stopped to jot on pink stickies, our thinking was better.  First thoughts - she was looking for her brother.  It was dinner time. 

Second time around -

 all her neighbors have different skin colors but cook the same foods in different ways.

Carrie learned about different cultures and what they eat.  She also learned that everybody eats rice. 

Our closing conversation was about people being basically the same, but also different.  We located each country on a map, of course, and talked about the variety of cultures in Carrie's neighborhood. 

I'm sure, the more we use the Jot Lot, the better our responses will be. But it's not just for reading, this can be used as a place for exit tickets in math, and for scientific thinking as well!

A Whole New... Point of View

I am participating in a book study conducted by our reading coach, Melanie Holtsman.  We are reading and discussing the book Falling in Love With Close Reading by Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts.  

 Every Thursday we gather in the media center.  We discuss one chapter at a time.  Melanie always has an interactive lesson for us to participate in.  We usually have homework.  :-)

 This past week we read chapter 5, A Study of Point of View and Argument.  As I read through the information I asked myself, how would this look in a second grade class?  It seemed as if all the examples and student work were from middle school.

 Luckily our coach anticipated my confusion.  First we practiced using this lens as an adult by viewing a news broadcast and then a commercial.  We identified ideas vs. techniques.  Then we brainstormed ways to use this point of view lens in the primary grades.  One of our other second grade teachers was way ahead of me and recognized that our next common second grade Text Talk book, The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, would be PERFECT!

 I read this book to the class for the first time last week so the kids were already familiar with the story and it's message. We specifically looked for examples of ideas and how the author conveyed them to the reader.  We also looked for techniques she used to get her point across.  By the end of the lesson, Lynne Cherry had convinced all 35 of our second graders that the rain forest must be saved! We could clearly see her purpose for writing this book and the effect it had on us as readers.