2.1 Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area
Proficient: Apply knowledge of the content and teaching strategies of the teaching area to develop engaging teaching activities.
During a five week teaching block with a year four class I used a class novel to focus on reinforcing the reading comprehension strategies promoted by Sheena Cameron http://sheenacameron.co.nz.
Over the five week period I read 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl. I chose this particular novel because the story is engaging for this age group, is rich with opportunities for literacy learning activities and 2014 is its 50th year of publication!
I focussed specifically on 'inferring', 'visualising' and 'summarising' and explicitly taught these in the morning reading groups before doing related novel-based activities.
Depending on the character the students chose to work with, each had different tasks to complete centring on each of these strategies. For example, for 'visualising', the Oompa Loompas had to visualise Loompaland and draw it; the Mr.Willy Wonkas had to visualise and draw the factory - whether it be a map of the whole factory or one particular room. For 'inference', the Veruca Salts had to write about what happened to them when they went down the rubbish chute; the Mike Teavees had to write about what happened to them when they were only 2 inches high. The final task was to each summarise their character in only 25 words. This proved to be the most engaging task for the students. We started this activity with a class effort at summarising Grandpa Joe's character. This was followed up with small group brainstorming characteristics and then individual writing.
Putting their writing/drawings onto their characters was more exciting for the students than simply doing the work in their books. Their characters become more visually appealing and classroom visitors often commented on how fantastic they looked which was fantastic feedback for the students. Even those students (including a student with autism) who usually struggled with writing or literacy tasks, fully participated and engaged with each of these activities, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they had chosen the character that most interested them.
So proud of their efforts were the students (and I!) that they asked to show their characters in a whole school assembly.
I cannot wait to use this book in this way again with a future class. There are so many more activities I would like to do - I wonder, too, if we could summarise the whole book in less than 50 words?
Over the five week period I read 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' by Roald Dahl. I chose this particular novel because the story is engaging for this age group, is rich with opportunities for literacy learning activities and 2014 is its 50th year of publication!
I focussed specifically on 'inferring', 'visualising' and 'summarising' and explicitly taught these in the morning reading groups before doing related novel-based activities.
Depending on the character the students chose to work with, each had different tasks to complete centring on each of these strategies. For example, for 'visualising', the Oompa Loompas had to visualise Loompaland and draw it; the Mr.Willy Wonkas had to visualise and draw the factory - whether it be a map of the whole factory or one particular room. For 'inference', the Veruca Salts had to write about what happened to them when they went down the rubbish chute; the Mike Teavees had to write about what happened to them when they were only 2 inches high. The final task was to each summarise their character in only 25 words. This proved to be the most engaging task for the students. We started this activity with a class effort at summarising Grandpa Joe's character. This was followed up with small group brainstorming characteristics and then individual writing.
Putting their writing/drawings onto their characters was more exciting for the students than simply doing the work in their books. Their characters become more visually appealing and classroom visitors often commented on how fantastic they looked which was fantastic feedback for the students. Even those students (including a student with autism) who usually struggled with writing or literacy tasks, fully participated and engaged with each of these activities, undoubtedly helped by the fact that they had chosen the character that most interested them.
So proud of their efforts were the students (and I!) that they asked to show their characters in a whole school assembly.
I cannot wait to use this book in this way again with a future class. There are so many more activities I would like to do - I wonder, too, if we could summarise the whole book in less than 50 words?