Please try some of the Language Warmup activities that we shared with you in your class and let us know how it goes. Perhaps you will want to start with the ABCs and Numbers and see how that goes at first, then move on to other activities as you and your students become more comfortable with it.
We would also like to ask you to reflect on the Collaborative Story Retell process and compare it to what you currently do in your classroom.
- How are the two processes similar and how are they different? Student roles and Teacher roles?
- Does your current practice offer the same vocabulary and sentence support as the method we showed you?
- If not, do you believe that these extra supports will help your students to be more successful? Why?
Am I really the first one to comment? I am so impressed with my tech abilities. Either that or I'm on the wrong blog site.
ReplyDeleteI did try to do a retell in a small group using your model. I changed it and shortened it to fit into my time allotment. It was very supportive. The kids really enjoyed it because there is so much scaffolding that by the time they needed to perform independently, they know exactly what to do. I do have one student in that group who reads at a DRA 20 if you do not count comprehension. By taking the story apart and showing the pictures it really helped him to understand how to organize his little mind around a retell. I was pleased with that.
I did begin having the kids read the alphabet in unison. I did hear some errors in letter sounds like /p/ and /f/ and /y/. Interesting. I would not have guessed that could be an issue.
They are doing really well now with syntax surgery. It really gives them a chance to take the sentence apart. So far, I only have them copy the sentence as written. We have corrected lots of convention errors by doing that.
Yes, Renee, you are on the correct blog site!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that the retell worked well in your class. You should find that your students reading comprehension will improve as you continue to use this strategy, you should also begin to see changes when they are writing their own stories.
Continue to use the language warmup activities and help your students correct the errors that you are hearing. Many people are surprised to find that even non-ELD students will often mispronounce letters and sounds.
Good luck with your continued use of these strategies and the syntax surgery, use the 5 finger sentence chart to help your students check their conventions and sentence completeness, and please let us know if you need any additional information or assistance!
I am really excited to do a collaborative retell with my students! I think that the process is a lot more thorough then what I have been expecting from my students. I also think the pictures are a great idea to help some of my students who may have a hard time with the retell. My favorite part about the collaborative retell is when the students transfer the bullet points into complete sentences. I am planning on trying this within the next week. I also plan on using this at the beginning of the year next year when I teach retelling. :)
ReplyDeleteFrom Grace...
ReplyDeleteIn response the the question about comparing the retells we have done in the past to the retell that was modeled in our class:
I have done retells with my students but mostly verbally with me in a small group or with their reading buddy. The retells we have done in writing I believe are actually summaries. I recently found "retell cards" with pictures in my box of resources from Treasures. I wonder if anyone has ever used those. I want to try using the Treasure retell cards with the retell poster that was modeled in class.
Since I teach Spalding, we use phonogram cards daily for students to practice their sounds, very similar to what was modeled in class. I tried Jennifer's trick of smiling for the short e sound and scowling for the short i short. They were very amused and engaged!
I have started using the language warm-ups for letters and letter sounds and numbers to 20. This is such a simple way to assess students. I am excited to try the collaborative retell butwill probably wait until after the break when I have more time and will be less likely to rush it. :)
ReplyDeleteThe collaborative retell is different from the retells I currently do with my students in several ways. We read the story once or twice and then sequence pictures together using a string hanging in circle. Then we re-read to see if we were correct. Sometimes the students do the sequencing independently.(I use the retell cards from Treasures whenever a story has them-it is so nice they are already made). I also use the site kizclub (http://www.kizclub.com/stories.htm) for story pictures.
I have not added writing to the re-telling. I think this would be a great next step.
We are continuing to do a verb tense sudy each week (2 so far). The students are catching on nicely.