Post-Discussion Reflection

What I'm thinking now:

I'm really interested in students being able to notice what strategies (or what thinking) they are using while they read. Bloom's Taxonomy is an existing structure, which, if tailored, might lend itself to building student metacognition. If I build it into our Read Aloud routine, I would then be able to connect to it during our Guided Reading (small group) discussions of texts, which is another area in which I was hoping to have students thinking more deeply about themselves as readers.

Next Steps:

• Have students sit at their desks so that they can readily write while we read (and can refer to their book at the same time). Writing and listening and holding a book is a lot to manage at the carpet. 

• Continue to have students take free notes, but give them a quota (4?) of times to "stop and jot" while reading. Students will create quadrants in their Reading Log to be able to quickly see if they have stopped enough times to write down their thinking.

• Find/Create a Bloom's hierarchy for students to use in identifying what kind of thinking they are doing as they read. Ask Tessa, Morgan and Amy for resources.

• Have students take home their "stop and jots" (keep in Reading Log to help with management of materials?) to identify what level of thinking they were using each time. Then, have them take the highest level thought and use it to help write the Analysis section of their Reading Log entry that night.

Tracking Focal Student Progress, Round 2

Mills Teacher Scholars

Tracking Focal Student Progress

March 2013

My area of Inquiry/Inquiry Question is: Students reporting their inferences in writing

My routine data source is: Student “stop and jot” during read aloud.

Demonstrating Success: Reflect on what evidence you see in the routine data source that tells you how your student is or is not progressing on the indicators.

Indicators	Student Name ____ ______	Student Name ____Jenny_____	Student Name ____Nathalie______
1. Student asks an inferential question (a question that requires inferential thinking in order to respond)	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	£Met ☐Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “Why does her class room name the Junkyard?” and “Why did the teacher brought bottles to the class?”	☐Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference
2. Inference was made based on the text	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She wrote mainly summary and asked questions (above).	£Met ☐Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? “His heart sang while he went to school maybe because he is really happy.”
3. Student was able to explain reasoning, give evidence	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference	☐ Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She did not explain why it made sense that “his heart sang” would mean that he is happy—what’s going on in the story that made her think this was a possibility? That is the evidence that she should have listed.
4.  Inference is connected to a deeper understanding of the text	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell?	☐Met £Not met  ☐ Part Evidence/How can you tell? N/A - Student did not make an inference	☐ Met ☐Not met £ Part Evidence/How can you tell? She is keeping track of text and how it shows how the character is feeling. BUT, in her notes she was also summarizing and made two basic inferences based on illustrations (“the teacher was fat,” “the teacher is telling a story”).

£

Notes:

It is hard to tell if students are being meta-cognitive about their ability to make inferences, or if it’s just throwing things at the page and hoping one of them is an inference. I don’t want to discourage them from recording their thinking in writing, so I’m wondering if, for the next round of data, I can ask the students to “star” or “circle” the inference(s) on their paper to show whether or not they understand what they are doing.

Assignment for 3/5/13

For Jennifer, when I look at how she did this time on the routine data source, one I notice is that she is starting to ask thoughtful questions about what she's reading, such as "Why does her class room name the Junkyard?" and "Why did the teacher brought bottles to the class?" While she is not yet making inferences, the skill of inferring is very linked to the asking of good questions and this progress is encouraging.

When I look at how Natalia did this time, she was able to pick up on the figurative language of "his heart sang," writing, "maybe because he's really happy." This is exciting because her other comments are mostly summative and do not show as much thinking, but this is a new development for Natalia, picking up on figurative language and writing about what she thinks it means.

I think one reason I'm seeing these changes is that we have been doing Read Aloud more consistently, and students are able to see me model, practice talking to a partner, and are better able to get used to the routine. I think this might make it easier for students to really show what they're thinking, and also better able to learn when they are comfortable and open with the routine. 

It has also been some time that we have been working on this! It's possible that they are developing mentally and have a greater capacity for abstract thought, or that they are finally understanding what I have been trying to teach them, or that I am teaching it better since I've been focusing on it so much. I don't feel like there's one really obvious link to their successes.