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#CyberPD Dynamic Teaching For Deeper Reading

7/5/2017

 
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This summer, the #CyberPD online discussion is focusing on Vicki Vinton's "Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading”. This first post focuses on Chapters 1-4.

Rambling Thoughts:

Transfer or Lack Thereof
One of the many ideas that resonated with me was Vinton’s section on the importance of “deep and penetrating” learning that will enable a student to transfer and apply it to different situations and texts. I was struck by the quote from Grant Wiggins that says teachers “need to make sure students understand that transfer is the goal by explicitly saying so.” (p.45) I know that I have heard and participated in many teacher conversations bemoaning the elusiveness of transfer. “It’s like I never taught it!”

And yet, to be honest, I think I could do a better job with being more explicit about this with my students. I know that when we teach strategies, we have used the language of saying things like “Readers ask questions, readers make connections….this is a strategy you will use for the rest of your life.” But do these words hold any real meaning for students? Or do they fall into the “Doing School” category?

I wonder if the transfer element gets lost amidst the piece-meal focus on skills and practice that Vinton describes in Chapter 1? I have worked with many students who struggled  with seeing the “big picture” that a text represented. Instead, they got hold of slivers of meaning and completely missed any patterns and/or connections.

Chapter Three: Critical and Creative Thinking
In this section, Vinton talked about approaching reading critically ("reasoning, making judgements, and problem solving" p.31) and creatively ("generative... possibility...subjective: p. 33). The skills required from both types of thinking enable a reader to problem solve a text and come to a more complete and enriched understanding.

I remember several years back having a conversation about reading and talking about a pattern of reading detachment in several classrooms: students could talk about their books but there was little personal investment. The students had chosen their own books for Independent Reading. I referred to it as “bystander” reading. I remember pondering this disconnect. The students could talk the talk but were not IN the book.

When reading Vinton’s description of creative thinking, it made me think that what I observed was this missing piece. One of the wonders of reading is the mind’s ability to imagine, to “generate” people, places and worlds. It also allows the reader to connect, feel and empathise. I want my students to figure out how to enter the world of the text they are reading. Or as Vinton writes: “To bring their whole selves to a text - their feelings, experiences, observations and thoughts.” (p. 17)
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First Draft Reading
I am interested in reading Section Two about strategies that can be used. I am curious about how to effectively help students who find it challenging to produce a first draft reading that includes more than one or two details. I am thinking that these students need lots of time, practice and repetition.
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Jody link
7/6/2017 06:31:00 am

Reading what you said about "bystander" reading really struck me. As a librarian, I find that many kids read without a whole lot of investment; sometimes they can't even remember the title of the book they just finished, or recall any detail other than they "liked it". On the one hand, I'm glad they are reading, on the other it seems so disposable to them. I am constantly trying to think of ways to help them slow down and invest themselves a little bit more. Thanks for sharing. Jody

Cheryl Jaret
7/7/2017 11:43:06 am

Hi Nora and Jody. I also wonder about how to get students to invest themselves more in their reading rather than just doing "bystander reading". After reading chapters 5-7 in Dynamic Teaching for Deeper Reading and thinking about the book Disrupting Thinking as well, I think maybe I am starting to see a path. If we can help students see that reading provides an opportunity to change our understanding of the world and reshape ourselves they might be more willing to invest in it. I have been trying out some of Vicki Vinton's practices like the What we know/What we wonder chart in my own reading and it is making what I really do as a reader more visible as well as showing what hooks me to keep reading. As I move into the middle of the fiction book I am reading, I am excited to experiment next with her chart that explores how noticing patterns and when they break can help me see what ever the author is trying to show me!

Troy F
7/10/2017 04:35:32 am

This makes me think about Rosenbatts transactional theory of reading. She talks about how a book is only pages with words on them until a reader comes along and breathes life into it with all of their own personal experiences, and thoughts about what the author is saying.


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    An Elementary Literacy Specialist, Reader, Quiet Follower of Teacher/ Education Blogs.

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