Strategies
Close Reading of Text
Many of my students, when given a text, read the entire text at once and then do not comprehend the text in any meaningful way. By using the Talking to the Text (T4) close reading strategy, students slow down and annotate as they read, asking questions and making connections. The T4 strategy follows seven steps: (1) Make connections, (2) Summarize what you have read, (3) Write down questions you have, (4) Look for the answers, (5) Make predictions, (6) Relate to the text, (7) Comments, Agreements/Disagreements. Students deeply understand the text when following this method. At the beginning of the school year, students receive reinforcement of the T4 method until they are able to follow the steps on their own.
Shared Inquiry Discussion
To conduct a shared inquiry discussion, the teacher prepares open-ended questions based on what the class has been learning. The teacher asks a question and students begin to provide their view on the matter. The key to a shared inquiry discussion is to provide students with question stems (I agree with you because…, The text states that…., etc.) that they can reference during the discussion. I also preface each discussion with the following ground rules: be aware of your air time, never attack someone personally, and expect and accept non-closure. Once these ground rules are in place and reinforced by the teacher, students feel more confident in sharing their views in class.
Kahoot
To review a chapter or unit, I often use Kahoot.. The teacher prepares the Kahoot quiz using the free website getkahoot.com and inputs questions with four possible answers, then selects the correct answer. Students can play using a smart phone, tablet, or laptop. Students have the option of playing in teams or individually as well. This type of review is a fun way to check for student understanding of the past unit and prepare them for an upcoming summative assessment.
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