Monday, January 28, 2008
choral reading
For this post, I chose to use my own group's expierence during the choral reading activity. We decided to use cumulative reading with our chosen book "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". The first person in the group started reading the first page, and after each page the next person began reading too, until the group as a whole was reading, and then went back down the line until only the first person was reading again. In terms of using Michigan's Grade Level Content Expectations, our group used enunciation and stress to convey main ideas, and also incorporated tone of voice and pace to influence intrepretation and meaning. For example, "chicka chicka boom boom" was stressed at certain points of the book to convey the meaning and emotion at the time (the climax, when all the letters fell from the tree). Also, pace was important, since the book is read in a rhyming, song-like manner, which works best when all members read like this in unison. I do feel that there was a lot of support while doing this lesson. Our group discussed all the types of choral reading available, and worked it out together to decide which approach would be the most effective. As stated in Almasi, meaning resides in the event, and all those participating in the event should work together to discuss meaning and exchange thoughts. Our group did this very well, and the student centered discussion we had was engaging and led us to an effective way of choral reading. By sharing our thoughts and expiermenting with different approaches, our group was using the event/text to learn about a new reading strategy. Reflecting on the activity, I feel that student centered discussions in a social environment really contributes to my own learning by listening to others ideas and gaining meaning through the sharing of others knowledge and opinions. This is something I would really enjoy using as a teacher, and need to be mindful of creating a classroom community capable of these types of discussions, and also making it a point to conduct student centered discussions often.
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4 comments:
Great specificity in your link to Almasi!
You are right that we did use Almasi's idea in which we all worked together and listened to each other's ideas in performing the task at hand. It is important to listen to others and their ideas because you do learn from them. I am glad that you want to incorporate this into your own classroom because I feel it will be beneficial!
I think it would be really interesting to do this activity with my second graders in my placement. Even if the fluency in reading wasn't the best, the activity could certainly be used to teach the importance of teamwork and working together to create a finished project.
I really liked how you described the activity. Student centered discussions in a social environment really contributes to your own learning by listening to others ideas and gaining meaning through the sharing of others knowledge and opinions. This is very key, and I also agree I would think that this would work well in my classroom.
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