Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Team Reading

In an attempt to break up the monotony that can come from group reading, I have tried an activity I dub "Team Reading". This could work because we were all reading the same article for one of our units of [inquiry] study.

I first allowed the students to choose their own groups. This worried me as I thought about the potential outcomes.

I then had the students read the article in their groups with each student reading one sentence at a time. I told them to read the article again if they finished before I told them to finish. That way the students who finished early would have something to do, and I could go around and monitor/coach those who needed the help.  I also told them that they should have a different person start the article when they got that far.

After I was done helping those who needed it, I told them to stop reading.

Then I had the students come up with a question for their group. I told them it could be anything related to the article, and they would compete with the other groups. (This always gets my kids fired up.) I gave them a question grid to help them think of questions. I then had each student write their question down in their journal. (This could also have been done in their reading journal.)

I then had the students number themselves 1, 2, or 3, then I told all the ones to go to one part of the room, and did the same with the other numbers.

Finally I had the students ask each other their questions in their numbered groups. For the competition part I told them that each question they answered would get them one point and they would also get a point if no one could answer their question.

This activity still needs a reflection exercise, so I am thinking of connecting a short writing activity to the end of this.

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