Adolescent Literacy - Talk in LA Classroom

Adolescent Literacy - Turning Promise into Practice by MANY AUTHORS (each author wrote a chapter)

Chapter ##:  "Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking"
by Robert Probst

Activity - "Find a Poem"

1. Copy poems and split poems into stanzas, 
2. Each student gets a stanza from one of X number of poems,  
3. Have kids put together and a poem and tell why.
4. Show actual poem

Annotating Text - (C: math homework structure) - discuss coding and share questions and challenges with class.

A Protocol for talk:

1. read the text
2. articulated a question
3. presented it to the group
4. solicited responses from the group
5. exchanged and examined several perspectives on the question and therefore
6. come to some agreement about the answer
7. decided that they had differing, perhaps irreconcilable, opinions or 
8. concluced that they needed to pursue the issue further

"Forced Freewrite" - your questions or solicit questions from class and choose one to answer.

Help students understand what Quality questions are....

•  questions that require inferences, 
• questions that call for comparisons, 
• questions that invite evaluation and judgement, 
• questions that bring the text and the students' lives to bear upon one another...

"Dialogue Booklet" - great questions (56) and evaluation rubric (57)

Activity:  "Written conversation"

*Goal: "Students need to be taught to have conversations that build better ideas collaboratively than any of us will come to on our own."

Other Ideas:  WAYS to TALK ABOUT BOOKS/Reading:

*Write an Object Monologue - cool new idea.

1.  Question the Author:  What we'd like to ask our authors about the books we are reading.

• Annoyances about the book
• Road blocks
• How did you think of....
• Why did you...
• What made you think of... write about...

2.  What is helping me get into this book and what is getting in the way...

3.  What makes this book "Just Right" - 

• Reading level
• Content
• My interest
• My prior knowledge

4.  What is worth talking about in this book....

• Lessons learned by the character
• Themes and connections to me, JHMS, the world
• Writing ideas

5.  Movie comparisons - 1 page = 70 seconds....how long would the movie be?  What would have to be left out?

6.  What do I like about this book - even if I don't like the book!

7.  What is this book making me think about when I'm not reading...

8.  What are my reading habits?

9.  How are the characters in this book like my friends?  How are they different?

10.  How is the plot of this book like your life?  How is it different?  (surface level ideas AND thematic ideas)

11.  How does this book reflect my mood or what is going on in my life right now?

12.  What is next?  Sequel, another book by this author, branching out....