Today I had the opportunity to sit and observe my teaching partner Robyn Anderson. Even though I teach with her every day I wanted to observe her reading lesson with extended conversation to explicitly notice what techniques she uses so I could incorporate them into my reading program to enhance the extended learning conversations within my groups.
Initially the groups decide a leader who starts the first discussion which is about prediction. After the reading group has looked at the text the leader then asks "What do you predict this text will be about?". One by one they have a learning conversation which is recorded saying what their predictions are and they reason they have predicted that. This ensues a rich learning conversation which at times can produce differing opinions.
We then look at inference. The group looks at the pictures in the text and then discuss what they can see by verbalising it in a concise way - I can see ... so I can infer that ... this could also be making connections with their predictions.
Understanding new words is a crucial in reading a text to give a clear understanding of the meaning of what they are reading. This is where the definitions come into play, making sure that the definition of the word they are looking up aligns with the text with
Reading the text. As a group they discuss how they want to read the text. Do they read this text alone, with a buddy or reciprocal reading? While reading the text, if there are any words that are interesting, important or unusual, write those words on your Vocabulary/Questions sheet. The whole group has access to this sheet.
After reading the text the group then answer the question that are on the working sheet. The leader reads the first question to the group then they record their responses in the comments tool. Leader then starts the learning conversation by asking group members "What was your answer?" then asks another member of the group if they agree with the previous person. They need to respond with yes/no because ...
From walking around different reading groups and watching their interactions, I observed students that wouldn't usually engage with reading being totally immersed in the text and actively participating in the learning conversations. The depth of the conversation was evident in the discussions.
Even though I have been using this process in reading, observing Robyn practicing extended conversations has really shown me how I can increase the connections my reading groups when reading a text.
To view Robyn Anderson's blog Powerful Peers
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