By using a standard set of meaningful questions to write interpretations and reflections about the main character of a story - book after book - we exercise our ability to make meaning and think deeply as a habit of mind.
It is very important to learn to write a summary; that is, to make explicit, in our own words, what happened in a story. But, without a strategy to do so, developing readers struggle to summarize a story. When students learn to use strategies to do so, their ability to make meaning and comprehend shoots way up.
When we engaged students in active learning - the authentic act of thinking and doing - they learn to learn. When we guide and coach to them to learn to learn, students find purpose and take ownership of learning.
As we grow our fundamentals of literacy, we gain confidence as lifelong learners. When we do this in engaging, fun, and entertaining ways, we grow our passion for reading and lifelong learning. Learn about growing the fundamentals of literacy through poetry.
Those real deal spelling bee competitors are amazing. I use to wonder how they do it. I mean, many of the words they spell I have never heard, let alone know how to spell! My question is, “How do they memorize all those words?”
Developing readers struggle to carry forward meaning across chapters. However, when they learn to use strategies to do so they develop their reading intelligence. Not only do they grow the ability to recall what they have read as a habit of mind, they also learn to interpret meaning by making inferences supported by text-to-text evidence across the story. As a result, their ability to make meaning and comprehend shoots way up.
What if students from classroom to classroom, one grade level to the next, and from school to school across the United States had a "core" set of questions for meaningful conversation that would apply from early elementary story books to first chapter books to classic novels (i.e., think The Old Man and the Sea). Through such recursive application, might it be that they would grow from 'playing the chords' to making the questions their own and applying them with 'a bit of improvisation?' Might it be that such deep thinking, open-ended questions would become a habit of mind?
As K12 teachers, we are committed to addressing our literacy crisis. We engage in conversation as learners, as professionals, and in social settings. We build, shape, and grow our knowledge, understandings, and experiences through conversation. As lifelong learners, conversation provides us the opportunity to exercise thinking, creativity, and problem solving. The ability to effectively engage in conversation is developed through a knowledge and skill set. The Eight Traits of Conversation represents that knowledge and skill set.
Learning and applying critical thinking skills as a habit of mind grows our ability to make meaning as readers and to solve problems. There are ten types of "cognitive processes" that we refer to as the ABCs of critical thinking. With a common language and shared understandings, we share standards for critical thinking.
The key to addressing our literacy crisis is to inform and educate the public of the five phases of learning to read so that all children arrive to school ready to read.