Baby Literary Essay

After attending a great summer institute breakout session at the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College this summer, I came back with a slightly deeper understanding of how I might move my students into writing stronger literary response essays, in less time. The most important thing that I took away was that I realized that I needed to lift the level of the way my students were closely reading and interpreting text, in order to lift the level of the baby literary essay. Here's the gist:

• First, students read the text. (start off with short texts such as short stories, picture books, or excerpts from longer texts)
• Reread to interpret the text 
• Rehearsing
• Fast Drafting

As students are working through the Reading to Interpret the Text phase, they can ask themselves questions such as:

• Whose story is being told?

• What kind of a person is the character? What traits could I use to describe the character?

• What does the character want at this point?

• What are some of the emotions and feelings the character has during this part?

As students continue reading through the middle of the text, they can ask themselves questions such as:

• What gets in the way of the character getting what he wants?

• Have the character's feelings and emotions changed? How and why are they changing?

• Are there any problems or issues starting to arise?

As students continue to read and interpret the text through the end, they can ask questions such as:

• What is the message the author wants us to notice?

• Is there a life lesson being taught?

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Literary Essay Framework:

Book title: 

Author's name:

Brief summary of the text:

Sentence about the theme, or big idea, from the text:

Evidence and examples from the text that illustrate or show the theme, or big idea:


Below are the anchor charts I used throughout the unit.

Below is an example of how the unit might go: 

 

PEACE!

Tug of War...A Collaborative Inquiry

Making my students' thinking visible has been a primary goal for me this school year. I am always searching for ways to keep them motivated and involved in collaborative inquiry. Below is a brief written and visual description of the "Tug of War" routine that I have used weekly since we began our Opinion Writing Unit of Study. 

This routine is very similar to the game of tug of war. Most students are familiar with the game so they can see the connectedness.  This routine helps students to understand the complex forces that occur when taking a stand or a side on an issue. 

Each week my students decide on the debate issue they are most interested in. (From a list that we created during the opinion writing unit of study.)

I started by using the routine as a whole class activity in late October. As shown in the photos below, I presented the issue of whether or not students should have to wear a uniform to school. I then asked students to think about what side of the debate they would stand on and why. Next, I engaged students in a close reading of two different articles I found on the internet that focused on school uniform policies. One for and the other taking the opposing side. After reading the articles, I asked students once again to take a side. Students wrote their justifications on post-it notes. I encouraged them to think of other evidence that might make someone take their side on the issue up for debate. Students added their Post-it notes to the rope. We discussed the reasoning and evidence for each piece of evidence.  The students decided on whether it was worth a "tug" on the rope...and the flag was pulled to the side that had the strongest and most convincing evidence. Additionally, I asked students to generate questions and ideas that might need to be explored further to resolve the issue. Do they still feel the same way about it? Have they made up minds or changed their minds?

Through the use of this routine, I am able to engage my students in inquiry-rich collaborative learning experiences.  They are able to document thinking, share that thinking with their peers, and have fun! It is also a great way for me to assess their thinking and use it to guide further instruction.

PEACE!

Below are a few of the charts I created and used while engaging students in a variety of debates over the years in the classroom.

My 2020 version of the interactive board for our class debates. 

Strategies for Close Reading...Stop, Notice and Note

 

Over the summer of 2013, I attended a conference in which I was introduced to the  reading  "signposts" from the Kyleen Beers/Robert Probst book Notice and Note. I found it to be very similar to the Stop Think and Jot work that I generally have my students engaged in. However, my teaching of reading comprehension and the strategies thereof, was so much more powerful after reading this book.

The goal in using these signposts is not to have the students search for and collect signposts, but to be alert for significant moments in the text that will trigger deeper thinking. We want to foster readers who pay close attention, reflect, and who are willing to consider other responses to a text. 

To develop as independent readers, the students must have a repertoire of a few useful questions which they apply while reading any text. Students must take ownership of these questions. We want students to develop reading habits and behaviors. The authors have developed one anchor question for each signpost.

•                Contrasts and Contradictions: Why would the character act (feel) this way?

•                Aha Moment: How might this change things?

•                Tough Questions: What does this question make me wonder about?

•                Words of the Wiser: What’s the life lesson and how might it affect the character?

•                Again and Again: Why might the author bring this up again and again?

•                Memory Moment: Why might this memory be important?

The sign posts helped some of my most struggling readers, the ones who read on a surface level, to become much more aware of character development, conflict, the relationships between characters, and so on.  It was amazing for me to watch the students "get it" as they read and noticed the events and other particulars in the story using the signposts to help them figure out where to stop... and the questions to help guide their thinking.   My students were able to eventually move this wonderfully engaging thinking work from our class read alouds to their independent work. Their talk and reading responses also improved, as they were able to write long off of the signpost question thinking  
that they were doing across the text. 

Peace!

Close Reading through the Text Structure Lens