Research continues into what other great teachers are doing in their classrooms to promote reading and book engagement. Today's update brings up to another lad's class where he is forcing his low socio-economic remedial reading students to work on logs with self-selected novels. As a students finishes a large chunk of text (50 or 100 pages, as far as I could determine) she or he completes a half-page book log that answers basic questions about plot or character development and reader expectations for the next chunk of novel.
From there, the teacher scans the book logs into an image-hosting website. Once every month, the classes go to a computer lab where they search through the log updates and comment on the "photographs" of their book logs. Students are given a specific task with each visit to the computer banks. For instance, the students could be asked to make plot predictions based on the book log. At the end of the period, students go back to their own book log and reply to the comments provided.
The teacher hopes to see that the students' descriptions improve the more they get honest feedback from their peers. In the reading realm, students are looking for clues about predictions. Nice!
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Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteIs this something that you might consider implementing into your classrooms? Did you see if the image hosting Web site cost money to use or was this free? Are these books choice novels or are they the same novel that each student is reading? If they are choice novels and each student is reading a different work, I wonder how well and meaningful student predictions are for each book log.
It does sound like a cool way to incorporate technology into the classroom. I wonder if the addition of technology increases student interest in reading each others' logs.
Rebecca,
ReplyDeleteWas this a teacher who only teaches 25 students a day or was it someone who teaches 5 different classes? I can't imagine having the time to scan 100 or more images onto a website every time the students complete an assignment. I do think this is a very worthwhile activity however. It sounds like a really cool way to link reading strategies and technology together. Based on Potter's question in his response regarding whether or not the assignment was for a choice or a unit novel, I definitely do not think the benefits would be as high if the students were all reading a different novel. I wonder if websites such as shelfari.com would be helpful when doing s choice book activity? i will have to check it out further...the tutorial did not indicate whether or not you could share more than just a book review with others.
Wow, this sound very labor intensive, I am with Megan, is there only one class or is this teacher doing this with multiple classes? It is a neat idea and I am sure that the students enjoy it. I also like how the students are able to chose their own reading, I am sure it must be approved, but the students probably appreciate the fact that they are trusted to pick their own reading.
ReplyDeleteChad