Inferences and the Sunday Funnies

Our reading comprehension strategy this week was making inferences.  This is a hard skill for students to master.  I decided to try a different strategy when teaching the skill.

First, we started talking about being in a fight with a friend - what do our friends do and or say to imply they are upset?  We listed characteristics of being in a fight with a friend.  After we brainstormed, we discussed the difference from a verbal cue and a nonverbal signal.  We examined our list and separated items into written/verbal and nonwritten/nonverbal (body language).

In class, we spent time discussing examples of text and nontext sources of signals or cues - we call it evidence - of what a person is implying.  We talked about pictures and videos and compared those sources with written text in stories and captions of photographs. 

After spending time building background through listing examples and making connections, we began our project of making inferences.  I selected a comic that was light on text.  I showed the comic strip under the document camera and we listed nonverbal cues for what the author could be implying.  After that, we read the text and connected the text to the picture.  We then listed inferences we could make based on nonverbal signals and evidence presented in the text.

In order to provide additional practice with support for students, I passed out a set of Sunday Funnies to partnerships of students.  I gave them a set time frame for selecting a comic and listed expectations for the assignment.  Partnerships were required to make an inference and support their ideas with evidence from the picture in the comic and the text in the comic.  Partnerships presented their inference, comic, and listing of evidence to support the inference to the class.

Bucket Seats

As a teacher, I am always looking for ways of making my classroom more efficient.  One area that I struggle with is my small group table.  I wanted to find chairs that would fit under the table but that also had some type of storage to hold items that are frequently used in groups and to help the area look organized and free of clutter. 

I searched Pinterest for ideas and was interested in the milk crate boxes.  I liked the idea of using a different material than a chair but didn't like that you could see inside the crate.  I brainstormed ideas and came up with "bucket seats." 

The seats are made from buckets that can be purchased from Home Depot or Lowe's with a modified top.  Students can easily get inside the buckets.  Items inside are hidden from view and do not need to be "perfect" for observations or appraisal visits.  All of the seats can be slid underneath the table so "chairs" are not in the way of students moving around the classroom and pulled out for use when needed.  I love these seats!

There is something about aprons....

I don't know what it is about aprons that draws me to them, but I love, love, love aprons!  Last year, a colleague and I talked about how frustrating it was to carry all the reward items we use in the classroom, keep track of timers for different tasks, and to make sure we always had some type of writing instrument.  Our solution was to make our own aprons.  Really what happened is my teaching partner suggested that I make the both of us an apron to keep everything in one place. 

I made our first aprons, and they were the perfect solution to our problem.  What's great is that all of the items can be left in the apron at the end of the day and found in the same place the next morning.  Too often I cleaned out my pockets at home, leaving items I needed in my classroom on my dresser the next morning.

After sewing my first set, I have become obsessed.  Every time I am at the craft store, I look at the new fabric designs available.  I have eyed some Dr. Seuss fabric that I could not help myself from buying.  Thinking that I had bought fabric for 2 aprons, I went home and started my project.  Six aprons later, I am laughing at my misjudgement for fabric measurements and pondering what to do with so many aprons...

Visualizing...Reading Comprehension Strategy

This week, we have been working on the strategy of visualizing what we are reading.  Visualizing is creating a "mind movie" using the details and descriptions of characters, settings, and events from the text.  For some students this strategy is simple to utilize, but others find that forming a visual representation from the reading is not easy to accomplish.  Because visualization allows students to comprehend various aspects of the text - sequence of events in a story, settings, character descriptions - I used the following activity to help students create a picture based on descriptions from the text.

The Emperor's New Clothes

I read the story aloud to the students, asking that they listened carefully and pictured the events from the story in the mind.  Because the story ends with the Emporer walking down the street in only a shirt and tights, I believed that each student could visualize at least one event from the story.

After reading the story aloud, I asked the students to close their eyes and visualize the story being "played" in their minds like a movie.  I asked them to think about what the setting looked like, how the characters were dressed and how they behaved, and the order that the events played out in the story.  I then allowed the students to finish watching their movies.  I then asked the students to select the most vivid scene from their movie - the portion of the story that had the most amount of details clearly played out in their minds.

Students were given a piece of paper.  I gave the students directions to begin with a pencil sketch of the scene making sure that the major details were drawn on the paper.  After the large details were sketched, students could then add to the illustration by adding additional details and/or color to the picture from their "mind movie."  Here are a few examples of the visualized scenes from the story.

We ended the lesson by sharing the illustrations in small groups.  After presenting, we joined as a whole class to discuss why visualization is a useful strategy for comprehending what is being read.  Students discussed in groups then verbally described their ideas.  The list included:  we could watch what happened in the story so we knew what happened in the beginning, middle, and the end of the story; we could visualize what the characters looked like; we could see where the story happened.                      

Overall, the lesson went well.  Students were engaged in the activity while also learning the value of using different reading comprehension strategies.  As you work with your student at home, ask him/her to visualize events, characters, and/or settings from what they are reading and orally describe them to you on occassion.