Knowledge and Skills Statement
As students meet in a book-club setting, have each member of the group share personal connections to the text. Require students to cite specific text that supports their connections.
Further Explanation
This assessment provides students the opportunity to demonstrate how they have interpreted the explicit and implied ideas expressed as they describe personal connections made while reading. Ideas can be shared orally or in writing.
Research
1. Liang, L. A., & Galda, L. (2009). Responding and comprehending: reading with delight and understanding. The Reading Teacher, 63(4), 330+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A219309596/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=5634eb30
Summary: Using the book Because of Winn-Dixie as their focal text, the authors describe the use of predicting and visualization exercises in the classroom. Students are asked to reflect on a personal situation in which they were new and consider how that felt and what happened. This reflection serves as a springboard for students to make predictions about what will happen in the story's narrative structure. The visualization exercise focuses on getting children to visualize images from poetry, and then illustrate those images. Although the article is targeted for primary grades, it can be scaffolded for older students. For example, students could illustrate a poem through digital art or photography.
2. Zuckerbrod, N. (2019, Spring). The power of stories: Develop social-emotional skills and empathy using fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Scholastic Teacher, 128(3), 45+. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A580773753/PROF?u=tea&sid=PROF&xid=b300f1ba
Summary: The author shows the impact that fiction, non-fiction, and poetry have on students in grades 3 through 6, especially when teachers choose texts that resonate with students. Teacher recommendations are provided, along with stories of how teachers help students make the connection from texts to personal experience and to the experiences of others.
3. Maine, F. (2013). How children talk together to make meaning from texts: A dialogic perspective on reading comprehension strategies. Literacy, 47(3), 150–156. doi: 10.1111/lit.12010
Summary: Multiple studies have revealed that reading comprehension increases when reading includes text and images, such as with visuals or in a multimodal format. This study expands the literature related to reading comprehension by examining student talk and the ways in which students engage inter-mental and intra-mental reading processes. The findings reveal that student talk allows students to question the reading and draw multiple interpretations of the meaning. Students are both creative and open to hypothetical scenarios. The article includes a discussion on the benefits of using this strategy, such as student engagement, creative dialogue and innovation.