By: Brooke Hult
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(students from the Bowles Elementary School
in the Rockwood <Missouri> School District)
Hand-Me-Down Tales from Around the World: A Second Grade Literature Unit
Haleigh Brown
Teachers can also begin to guide students towards reading experiences that allow them to make personal connections similar to those noted in Kylene Beers’ and Bob Probst’s text Disruptive Thinking: Why How We Read Matters (2017). In this gem of a resource we find a strategy where students can reflect on three “Big Questions.” Readers are encouraged to stop and consider three main questions: (1) What surprised me?, (2) What does the author think I already know? , and (3) What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already know?” These questions allow students to consider their own experiences while also analyzing the author’s bias and intent. Also, this creates a platform that allows for more of an open-ended discussion of the text that allows participants a deeper and varied perspective on the text.
As we further develop materials that reflect our student populations, many districts across the United
States are experiencing an influx of students arriving from different countries. Similar to the earlier
vignette, a significant challenge exists in that schools are deciphering how to best teach literacy in
students’ native languages while having students bring their own lives and perspectives to texts:
This modified anchor chart was replicated for English learners based on the “Big Questions” emphasized in Disruptive Thinking :
1)What surprised me?
2) What does the author think I already know?
3)What changed, challenged, or confirmed what I already know?
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