I had great success using sticky note questioning within literature
circles in a fourth grade class last year. I had done role based literature
circles with this group (so kids knew how and what to do when reading), but
I felt like the roles were limiting their responses. As a class, we
established a coding system for our sticky notes (?=question, !=aha moment,
WW--noticed a word, *=prediction, TW=text to world, TT=text to text with a
brief note, and a lightning bolt--I can't remember that one). As they read
and reacted, they coded and placed sticky notes directly in their books.
Each circle meeting began with, "OK, so what tracks did you leave in the
text?" We modeled heavily, but it was amazing how focused they stayed and
how the notes guided good discussion. Obviously, with such dissection,
comprehension soared. We did two reads on most chapters as this book was
hard. We did responses after each chapter in a reading response journal,
and to begin the responses, the students removed a sticky note from their
text. We also used this book as an author study for narrative writing.
Since you are also in NC, your fourth graders could pick out the features of
the effective writing in this book.
The real success here was in letting the students guide the
discussion. With the notes and journals, they dug deeper than I expected
they would (and ever had in previous years when I had taught the same
novel). The vocabulary, however, is difficult, and I had to provide some
additional whole group support for it. I also want to note that one
literature circle wasn't ready for this book, so they ready another text.
They still followed the same process. Good luck!
-----Original Message-----
From: Joy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, December 17, 2006 12:25 PM
To: Mosaic
Subject: [MOSAIC] Tuck Everlasting
We are going to begin reading Tuck Everlasting in our fourth grade classes
in January. Does anyone have any reccomendations for resources for this
book? I've gone to the Carol Hurst website, but thought maybe someone on
this listserve may have some additional resources that fit well with Mosaic
strategies.
I'm going to run this as a class-wide Lit Circle, any ideas or suggestions
would be appreciated. (After doing this book as a class we are going to run
individualized Lit Circles with student chosen literature.)
Thanks!
Joy/NC/4
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
How children learn is as important as what they learn: process and content
go hand in hand. http://www.responsiveclassroom.org
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