Pink & Say LDG: Final Session

Yesterday I one-on-one conferenced with each member of my Pink & Say literature discussion group. One-on-one conferences help me assess individual comprehension and clarify misunderstandings prior to small group discussion. They also help me give confidence to students who may not know what to say in a group by encouraging them to share specific bits of great thinking when we meet as small group.

Today I taped our session together. Prior to this session, students flagged their texts for challenges Pink and Say faced individually and as a duo, and students wrote a response in their Thoughtful Logs to pull all their thinking together in writing. My role in a literature discussion group is that of a facilitator. I start the discussion by inviting students to begin their discussion about our common focus (in this text it was challenges the characters faced) and the students own the discussion from there. I get to listen and take notes on student's contributions and also pose deep questions to keep the conversation rich, if needed. Click to watch our Pink & Say LDG from today!

After our session, students returned to their desks to answer one last higher-level thinking question about the text. As the facilitator, I made sure to pose the question during our LDG session today so students could discuss and think around it prior to writing a response to it.

 

Here, one of my students has begun her final response and the other is carefully pulling his 'thinking flags' from his text to store in his Thoughtful Log prior to writing his final response.

Here are a few final responses of my students that help me assess their higher-level thinking skills of the text. Through peer discussion, students' thinking is lifted, enabling them to think at deeper levels.

Tone/Mood & Technology Timelines

Today during Writer's Workshop, we added a bullet to our poetry anchor chart: tone & mood are established through the author's word choice.

To help students discover different tones and moods, I pulled a few pictures from the beginning of the year that showcased a variety of feelings. In the picture below, we brainstormed that Tyson looks like he has happiness inside him while Summer looks a little more disappointed. We listed these two feelings on our tone/mood anchor chart.


Then I showed this picture of Teagan and me doing a reading assessment at the beginning of the year. The class decided that we looked serious, so we added it to our anchor chart as another possible feeling a writer may express or reader may feel.


I also had students analyze a few poems to become aware of the tones and moods felt while reading actual text. After reading this poem about a girl whose mother has died, the class decided that sadness and loneliness were two feelings to add to our anchor chart of tones and moods.

 In this poem written by a child whose mom left her evoked feelings of anger and bitterness.

I also brought up the PhotoStory software students used to create their Native American PhotoStories. I said, "Remember when you got to select the music for your PhotoStory projects? Did you notice the word 'mood' above one of the drop-down boxes? You had to decide what mood you wanted your audience to feel so that the music would match it!" We looked at all the words listed and added a few to our chart.

Here is a list of all the feelings we brainstormed as a class from looking at a variety of picture and text samples.

Later in the day, I introduced a mentor text called The Great Migration by Jacob Lawrence. The content overlapped with our social studies curriculum on slaves moving north. As students listened to the text, they were to record powerful phrases and words that truly communicated the tone/mood of hopelessness. This helped students make the connection that it's the specific language we use as writer's that helps to establish the mood for a reader.

Before reading, I explained the difference between the words 'immigrant' and 'migrant' using the following slide.

After reading, I also assessed students' comprehension by asking two questions. The first question is what we call a 'in the text' question, meaning the answer to the question is written and explained in the text. The second question is a 'beyond the text' question, meaning students need to think deeply beyond the literal text to provide their answer.

Here you can see this student recorded all the powerful words and phrases that gave her a feeling of hopelessness while she listened to the Great Migration. Underneath her list of powerful words and phrases, she responded to the two comprehension questions. This activity allowed me to assess students' abilities to identify words that evoke specific feelings, in addition to their comprehension at both a literal and deep level.

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In social studies yesterday, we discussed timelines - how they're organized, how to read them, and how they can help you as a reader of historical or biographical texts. Today students had an assignment to come to class with 5-6 major life events from their own life and the years those events took place. We went to the computer lab, and I modeled how to create a timeline of events using Kidspiration software. After my modeling, students started to construct their own timelines

Once their information was typed into their timelines, I showed students how to navigate the Kidspiration image toolbar to insert a picture to match each event on their timeline. Graphic organizers + technology + social studies curriculum = a happy 4B! The kids love using this program, and I love teaching with it!

Lovin' Me Some LDGs

My biggest area for growth this year within the Comprehensive Literacy Model is my effectiveness as a facilitator of literature discussion groups (LDGs). I continue to learn more and more with my literacy coach, Candice Johnson, and over time, LDGs have become one of my favorite groups to plan for when it comes to small-group instruction. You want me to help kids to become deeper thinkers and discussers of text? Um, yes, please! I'm in!

Last week, I did a book introduction and orientation to launch Pink and Say by Patricia Polocco with six of my students. Not only does the Civil War content of the book overlap with our study of people in social studies, but it is also a text that has deep meaning on a variety of levels. These kinds of rich, culturally responsive texts are exactly what we want in the hands our our kids as often as possible. Then give them the chance to flag their thoughts and discuss the text with one another and the experience becomes even more powerful. I have goosebumps just typing about it.

Today I met with students to facilitate their discussion of the first half of the book. I gave students a purpose for reading prior to our first meeting and that was for them to flag examples of loyalty and to write a response (using their flagged thoughts as their guide) in their Thoughtful Logs. What's great is that other than calling the group together at our side table with their materials (Pink and Say text and Thoughtful Logs) and saying, "Let's start our LDG by focusing on our theme of loyalty. Who would like to start the discussion?" - I really had to do nothing more. The group ran itself, and I could sit back and take anecdotal notes on the kinds of contributions my students made with one another about the text. Although the discussion started on the topic of loyalty, it opened doors for the kids to talk about a variety of inferences, wonderings, and connections on a variety of topics and levels. What's great is that students were problem-solving together, and I just got to take notes and smile.

After about 10 minutes of discussion, I finally had to stop the group because I was convinced they would have talked for another half hour had I let them. I had never been so happy to hear moans of disappointment from my students in my whole life! :) It was my turn to briefly introduce the second half of the book, locate a few potential problem areas, and establish their purpose for reading. This time, I wanted students to flag some of the challenges Pink and Say went through both individually and as a pair. You'll see in the picture below, I put a post-it on the inside back cover of each student's book. Our district calls this a 'common focus flag'. It reminds students what to flag for (that will lead our discussion later on). Because it's on the inside back cover, the focus flag never gets lost on a page. It just stares kids in the face the whole time to ensure students have a common focus for reading (in addition to their other thoughts). This post-it below reminds kids to 1.) flag challenges they find in the text (goal = find at least 3), 2. Write a two paragraph response in their Thoughtful Log after they've finished reading that includes a one-paragraph summary and one-paragraph about the challenges Pink and Say faced.

Students then went back to their desks to read the rest of Pink and Say independently. Both these readers are flagging challenges they've found while reading. In this picture, you see the light yellow 'common focus flag' sticking out of the back of the boy's Pink and Say text below.

Here are two of the flags he put in his book. In addition to flagging areas in the text that serve as evidence of our LDG's common focus, students are also encouraged to flag anything else they believe would spark deep conversation with the group. I love how he flagged and wrote Pink called slavery 'the sickness' and can already hear the deep discussion that could step from such a metaphor. What's even better is that the thought came from HIM, not me as his teacher. If we want students to be deep, independent thinkers of text, we have to provide kids with opportunities like LDGs to let them practice...and shine!

Here is another student's flagged text. On the left is her own flag for a challenge she discovered while reading. On the right, you can see the 'common focus flag' I stuck in the inside back cover of each student's book to remind them of their task/s.

Tomorrow students will continue to work on this assignment during independent reading time. While they work, I will do one-on-one conferences with each student in the LDG to establish their levels of independent comprehension and clarify any misunderstandings. This is also a good time to have a student read short sections of a page to check for fluency or word-solving strategies. By meeting with each student prior to our next group LDG session, all students can feel more confident about their verbal contributions. For my shiest readers, it is during our one-on-one time that I can say to them, "THAT was some really good thinking. Can you share that tomorrow when we discuss this text?" When they nod with a smile, you've just made a mini-pact to ensure their voice gets heard!