Post by Sarah on May 1, 2016 16:52:10 GMT
These are some of my thoughts about the first two chapters of Choice Words. I am really enjoying it and hope you are as well! Of course this is just an entry of some of my thoughts, please do not feel restricted by this... The discussion can go wherever we decide!
I understand this section as focusing largely on the use of naming to teach content (patterns), to recognize strategies (realizing when surprised or conflicted) and to name self and others. One of the things I did after reading this was to try to practice naming of self in my classroom. We now have sheets of construction paper that we change throughout the day to name what kind of academics we currently are. For example, in the morning “We are Researchers. Researchers ask questions, read for information, and write to teach others.” Later we might be writers, scientists, mathematicians, readers… The students have really learned to own this language to describe themselves and the work they engage with during the day, so much so that I hear all about it if we forget to change the paper to reflect our current work! This new practice really addresses the use of naming to name self and others but I have not been as active in naming strategies. I am curious to hear any ideas or strategies you all have thought of in that regard!
A couple things that really stood out to me were…
On page 19 Johnston refers to something I do (did) all the time; “identifies someone as a good reader—it validates the use of a good-bad binary as a sensible descriptor for readers”. I found this really interesting because as I read it, it makes complete sense that a binary is established. I said it intending to praise strategies but now I am very aware of simply saying, “That’s what readers do!”
On page 5 Johnston talks about conferring with a student during a Reading Recovery lesson. At the end the adult says “I liked the way you figured that out”. Johnston explains that as, “This final step offers the student a retrospective narrative about the event in which she stars as the successful protagonist, a collaborative fantasy that makes it possible for the child to become more than herself.” I really like this idea of the retrospective narrative and of the student being the protagonist. I can see how to do this in one on one settings working with students, but I am wondering what ways there might be to encourage this same narrative with a class group. I suppose I am sort of thinking maybe there are a couple of phrases or lines I could brainstorm to use regularly as I work to encourage myself to use this language more frequently.
On page 6, there is a Table for the implications to teacher responses to student behavior. I would like to try to evaluate my own responses to students using this table. I am certain there will be instances where I feel quite disappointed in myself, but I think it would help me to really recognize what I am doing compared to what I would like to be doing. Maybe I can do that and share some of the things I struggle most with here so that you all can help me revise what I might first think to say!