Classroom Activity 1
Objective: Students will take turns in a cooperative interactive Read-Aloud to their peers and use Comprehension Strategies (in appendices) to procure a student-directed, intimate understanding of the work. Students will be placed in cooperative groups comprised of four students each. Each student will take turns reading aloud at least two pages of one or the other book, engaging in a think-aloud employing one of the ten comprehension strategies (perhaps picked out of a hat). The students will then, after each interactive read-aloud initiated by their peer, write their think-aloud on a piece of paper, and then share out. If there is difficulty, one of their peers will help them.
The teacher will go around coaching, conferring with each cooperative group, and suggesting prompts (see the last section of each template in appendix). This is an assessment for learning activity, where the teacher leans in, or establishes close proximity to students, listening in to slightly redirect their course of thinking if necessary, or to see if this is a lesson that needs to be re-taught because an overwhelming number of students are not getting it.
Formative assessment can come in the form of students reading aloud and sharing their thinking. They could be assigned to employ any or all comprehension strategies during the think-aloud.
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