Overall, I found the chapter in the Gibbon's book really helpful and insightful. I feel that for the most part I am in my classroom during times of literacy. My CT tends to do a variety of the before-reading activities, during-reading activities, and after-reading activities.
The before-reading activity that I have noticed her using is predicting from words. For example, the other day she was going to read a book about penguins to the class and before the story she drew a picture of a penguin on the easel and asked the students to think of things that they already know about the animal. I like that my CT does this a lot because it gives all of the students an opportunity to say what they think as well as activate their prior knowledge that Gibbons discusses. The students seem to get really excited when we do the webs so I think this is another reason why my CT continues to use this method.
The During-reading activity that my CT seems to use the most is "pause and predict." She will frequently stop reading a particular story and ask the class what they think will happen. The students always have a variety of ideas and suggestions which helps them to become better readers. Another during reading activity that my CT appears to use is summarizing the text, although she doesn't really use the strategies shown in the Gibbons text. She usually just has a couple students retell what has happened in the story.
One of the after-reading activities that I have recently seem my CT use is the innovating of the ending. After reading a story called "The Gingerbread Baby" she asked the students what else might have happened if the little boy in the story hadn't taken the gingerbread baby. Some of the students responded with a variety of ideas which I believe also improves their prediction skills.
Before reading this chapter I hadn't thought about the the different types of activities that can be used before, during, and after reading. In the future I hope to use a variety of these activities to better my student's reading comprehension and strategies.
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I think that it is awesome that you are observing so many different reading activities in the classroom. The fact that your corresponding teacher incorporates activities in regards to before, during, and after engaging in a piece of literature is excellent. I too have noticed my CT using similar activities in her classroom and think that the students really benefit from them.
ReplyDeleteThere really are so many possibilities for activities which effectively expand and build on students' overall knowledge and understanding of different texts. I think that it is unfortunate that many teachers fail to get students actively involved in what they are reading because this typically results in students reading without making meaning of the text and in turn stunting the development of their ability to comprehensibly analyze what they are reading.
I think that before, during and after reading activities are a wonderful way to get students excited about literature as well as to get them thinking critically about the different texts that they experience. I love some of the different example of possible activities highlighted in the chapter and definitely am looking forward to utilizing some of them in the near future.