Using Colouring Pages for APK/Synthesis

A few weeks ago, my school laptop wouldn't connect to the network in our school. I was planning on sending my work to the photocopier before class (sometimes I'm not always prepared) so I quickly photocopied a colouring page and had my grade 10s do an activating prior knowledge/synthesis activity.

I instructed my students to do representations (in the form of patterns) in the "waves" below the ground under the train station. The representations had to be of their favourite books, their favourite genres, or in the case of one student, their favourite teams. I didn't want any text (some did anyway), but I wanted to be able to guess the genre/book they were representing. I had them activate their prior knowledge (what was it that they remembered from their favourite books/genres?), and synthesize what they knew about the books/genres. The second part of the synthesis was to represent what they knew in a visual way, and of course the patterns threw in another twist.

Below are a few different pages I received.

This student used skulls, crossbones, and blood to represent violence in both a genre and her favourite book. However, she also likes to read about love, mystery, and fantasy. She's a Harry Potter fan too.

This student likes books about angels, fairytales, and likes the Hunger Games novels. The colours represent the intensity of emotions she feels, usually one mood which fluctuates (pink love - a "fluffy" kind, which changes to passion, the red love).

This student also likes to read about love, music, mystery, and fantasy. Another Harry Potter fan. This student included a "rainbow" of colours because she likes to read books where characters experience a variety of emotions.

This student is one of my hockey players, he chose to complete the page in the colours of his favourite teams. For book club, he read a book about hockey and how to improve his game.

8 Reading Comprehension Strategies - Plain Language

Approximately 2 weeks ago, I ran a meeting based on my October 2012 SAGE presentation with part of our school's core senior high teaching team. As a group, we discussed the 8 different strategies and determined what we are already doing in our classrooms, as well as what language we are using (if any).

Basically, it was an informal vote, and we isolated two of our priorities: asking questions, and monitoring comprehension. These were the two areas where we have not specifically worked on in any of our classrooms.

As a refresher, here are the 8 Reading Comprehension Strategies as identified by Lakeshore School Division, with plain language.

Making Connections - text to self, text to text, text to world
Visualizing - creating mental pictures
Determining important ideas - what is important? what does the author want me to know?
Inferring - “based on what I know – previous knowledge – I think that” - making educated guesses
Activating prior knowledge - determining what I already know
Synthesizing and expressing opinions - taking what I already know, integrating what I’ve learned and being able to put it altogether
Asking questions - asking good open-ended questions (questions can be critical or non-critical)
Monitoring comprehension - determining when and where to use a “fix up strategy” – often (but not always) during reading

A few weeks ago, I did something interesting with colouring pages in my grade 10 classroom and genres of books and movies. I'll be posting those findings later this week.

Before, During and After Reading

Today in grade 10 ELA we started our book club unit. I will be posting more often during this unit!

As an "activating prior knowledge" strategy after we picked out our books, we made charts in our notebooks - before, during, and after reading.

I've uploaded it for FREE on my TPT site! Click here for a direct link.

I plan on having my students fill in the during section when we're approximately half way through the unit.

The book club unit works like this: I give them 3 weeks to read at least one book. The record to break is 7 books in 3 weeks, held by one of the students from last year. The minimum of one book appeals to many of my students, and a majority of students like reading two books to say "I did more than the bare minimum". I do not have strict guidelines on what they can and cannot read. However, I do often recommend various books, and I encourage them to take a look at my bookshelf.

Stay tuned for my upcoming posts. I will be working late on halloween to do some uploading to this blog as well as my TPT site! I have to get ready for an in-school meeting I'm running on Thursday, so uploading and posting will be my "procrastination" tasks.

Before, During, and After Reading Projects

First off, I do not wish to take any credit for this post. I've been sitting on this particular website for a really long time, and I need to make sure everyone knows about it. I'll be the first to admit that sometimes, I cannot come up with my own ideas for projects! I also do not believe in giving assignments and projects "for the sake of it", and am quickly learning about the power of letting go and not taking everything in for marks. Sometimes, I do take items in, but hand them back after looking at them, without assigning a grade. If I were to grade every item that a student completed, I would be working on marking every night of the week! Over 100 items a night, one from each of my kids? Yikes!

Below is a link to a site which gives some great suggestions for assignments and/or projects on those especially uncreative days. But remember, it does NOT have to be marked.
103 Things to do Before/During/After Reading by Jim Burke

A few of my favourites:
- Silent Conversation: a student writes about a story on paper; then passes it to another who responds to what they said; each subsequent respondent "talks" to/about all those before.
- Adjective-itis: pick five adjectives for the book or character(s), and explain how they apply.
- Draw!: translate chapters into storyboards and cartoons; draw the most important scene in the chapter and explain its importance and action.
- Storyboard: individually or in groups, create a storyboard for the chapter or story.

Artist in the School

This year, we are fortunate enough to have an artist visit our school for the week and work with our kids. The grade 9 students have worked twice this week on cartooning.

Our first day, we learned how to draw cartoon characters (humans and inanimate objects) as well as actions, hands, and facial expressions. I must say, we have a significant number of artists in our grade 9 class!

The second day, we learned how to draw animals and started putting together some panels for comic strips!

Clip Art

I'm currently checking out various avenues to create reading comprehension clip art, clip art that as soon as my students see a symbol, they can connect to the meaning of the question/symbol and what we've been doing in class.

I'm not a very good drawer, so overcoming that obstacle is going to be a learning curve, for sure. This weekend, however, I'm going to invest some time in working on my drawing.

Keep your eyes peeled in the future for my upcoming clip art!

SAGE 2012

Hello!

Friday was an exciting day at SAGE, the annual teacher's professional development day. The English teacher's session was at Oak Park High School this year, and there was an amazing turn out! This year was also exciting because I threw my hat into the ring and presented on Lakeshore School Division's 8 Core Reading Comprehension Strategies (Categories).

As a refresher (in no particular order):
- What do I know? - Activating Prior Knowledge
- Visualizing
- Inferring
- Determining Important Ideas
- Synthesizing and Expressing Opinions
- Making Connections
- Monitoring Comprehension
- Asking Questions

I will be uploading new lessons, handouts, and activities shortly to my teachers pay teachers site.

Currently, you can find an April Raintree unit, a grade 12 film unit, a debate speech rubric, a mini-lesson on memes and viral videos, a textbook feature analysis, and some interactive notes (asking questions, activating prior knowledge, and determining important ideas).

Hopefully you can find something useful!

- Ms. B

My teachers pay teachers site!