Thoughtful Literacy
"What was the plot of the book you read for today?' 'What is the name of the main character?' 'What is the setting of the story?' Often teachers are so happy that students have completed a reading assignment in a timely fashion, and can recollect the basic details of what they read, they do not encourage the student to go 'one step further' and to critically think about the reading material assigned. But students must also learn to thoughtfully engage with the written materials at hand. If teachers ignore the importance of thoughtful as well as technical literacy, teachers are not setting high enough goals for student achievement. They also inadvertently create the effect of making reading seem like a chore to be mastered for a test in the immediate future, rather than a source of personal enrichment and pleasure over the course of one's life.
The goals of thoughtful literacy are to encourage students to engage with the material they read in a critical manner, as well as to develop better overall technical reading skills and proficiency from this engaged form of reading. Richard Allington stresses that research corroborates his belief that a...
A student who enjoys reading is usually a student who feels that he or she has an emotional 'stake' in what is evolving over the course of the text, not simply a student who feels that he or she must pass a test or a quiz.
Over the course of Chapter 5, Richard Allington defines "thoughtful literacy," as the ability to think about the ideas, events, and characters in a text one is reading, beyond just recalling details about the text. Teachers can ask students open-ended questions, rather than simply asking students closed questions with a single answer, such as recollecting the plot. Instead, a teacher can ask did the student find the plot convincing? Did the main character act in an ethical way? Was the setting an important part of the story, or could the story happen anywhere? If not, how would the story be different if it happened near the student's place of residence? Creative writing is another spur to thoughtful literacy, as students can write different endings to stories or different stories featuring minor characters in the tale.
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Literacy Short Assgts READING. Fadi Awwad My Reading Engagement Journal for Chapter 3 I already knew about the need for sensitivity to cultural differences in the classroom because I was raised in a devout Muslim home (that was also an American home), and the years corresponding to my own secondary education were years in American life where a kind of noxious Islamophobia very frequently poisoned public discourse. I am grateful to the
Then students use AlphaSmart software to paste the picture and explain in a paragraph why, how and where in the plot they feel that picture relates to the story. This tests three things: (a) student concentration; (b) student level of understanding of the general plot; and - student imagination. This is an important implementation because it opens the students' horizons and allows them to see the general links and
visual cues come from students developing knowledge of letter/sound relationships and of how letters are formed what letters and words look like often identified as sounding out words Example 2- Phoneme Awareness -- Recognizing Rhyme Assessment (Klein, 2003). Instructor: Says two-three words that rhyme: fat, cat, bat Model: These words have the same sound at the end so they rhyme; cat and mop do not rhyme because their sound is different. Share: Listen to
One exercise that has helped both myself and my students to explore these skills has been to write critically about literature in essay format. Interpreting literature in written form is an excellent way to stay in touch with the deeper meaning of the language and to help the reader to focus on the author's choice of specific words and writing techniques. As a whole, the study groups I have
Horton Foote and "To Kill a Mockingbird" Horton Foote Some aspects of a literary work are often revealed through the author's biography. Horton Foote is no exception, as his biography reveals a thoughtful Southern writer who could brilliantly capture life's conflicts, triumphs and defeats. Both honored and criticized, Foote remained a considerate chronicler of humanity whose work is still admired decades after publication and whose life is an inspiration. Horton Foote (March 14,
" May (2003) emphasizes the need exists for greater technological sense and knowledge for all current and future students. Consequently, this need has led to incorporation of technology in classrooms settings, as technologies aim to increase students' intensity of wisdom, cooperation and text assessment. Today, literacy reading skills prove to be vital for both normal and special-needs students, as exposure to literacy encompasses more than books. In fact, the range