Going through my shelves I picked up Fun-Tastic Activities for Differentiating Comprehension Instruction Grades 2-6 by Sandra K. Athans and Denise Ashe Devine. I picked up the book in 2014 and blogged about it here where I pulled the ideas to secondary topics. Since then I have spent more time with elementary students and would like to comment on the application of their ideas there.
They present Literacy Bins as a component of a guided activities. Using the bins to reinforce content area information and strategy use, the students get to use choice to help develop their skills. They use a tic-tack-toe framework to present ideas. More modern approaches might call it a choice board and computerize it. Certainly adding additional technology based activities would be possible.
One idea they have is fact or fiction where they ask students to sort cards as presenting facts or fiction and using available resources to check their responses. Having students manipulate cards can be motivating. Self-check responses could be established. This concept would be useful to reinforce both the ELA goal and the social studies goal around identifying facts and providing evidence to support a claim. They present many drama, music and art ideas to inspire students. Using this sort of activity would require regular presentation time so that students could share what they learn.
The text presents many bin ideas, but then it also presents rubrics on how to assess success. These rubrics are both for teachers to assess student work and for students to assess their own progress. Since many personalized learning approaches stress both choice and self-reflection, this book can inform both areas.
An easy read that remains relevant. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment