Wendy,

I agree. It's always helpful to hear what works well from other teachers. Usually it just takes little adjustments for the text talk lessons to work for you. I especially like the vocabulary lessons.

Greta

I really liked the text talk lessons, lots of ideas to make teaching something new helpful and I love getting new ideas for lessons from other teachers!! Share and share alike!! Wendy

Greta, I would like you to discuss the text-talk lesson you chose...tell us what you liked about it or would want to change. Share with us your experience and that of your class with doing Text-talks. I agree with you on the comprehension questions...with everything, we need to test it out and try it and then revise if need be. Try another one and see how it goes. Thanks for being so brave and going for it!! Have a good week-end. ~lynda

11-12-08

Everyone,

What are some of the Utah Text Talk lessons that you felt were excellent to be in used in the 3-6 classrooms as whole group activities?

I did the Pecos Bill lesson. I liked the vocabulary activities, but felt the comprehension questions needed some revising. Too many of them sounded the same and were fact finding ones.

11-13-08

Lynda, I'm not sure what the new topic is, but I just wanted to say I think the text talk lessons will be a help in the study of vocabulary. I might not use the whole lesson, but I feel the vocabulary activities will be helpful.

I have posted your discussion thread on the k-2 reading page. Please look there for your Quick Topic discussion thread. Thanks. ~lynda

Criss. I would spend at least 15 min. daily on vocab. activities.

paula,
The students enjoy snowball and applause applause.They include participation from all students.

Rene,
I try to use a variety of activities for vocab. like snowball, What if, look up definitions, and do vocab webs.

 Melissa, I think you could do either one of those activities with a chapter book. It will vary with the type of vocbaulary presented.

Greta,
I liked the Rivot activity because it can be a great introduction to vocab before the story and lead to some great predictions before reading the story.

Rene',
You might try some of the Robust vocab. activities. The kids really enjoy "What word goes with..." and "Applause, applause"!

Denise, I think reading the story twice might be much for the upper grades. I had a hard time listening myself the 2nd time.

Wendy, I think the standards and benchmarks are usefu as a guide and a way to evaluate if you are teaching the concepts that the school expects you to be teaching. I do think the standards and benchmarks should be re-evaluated frequently to make sure they are relevent.

What is one of the vocabulary activities you've used that we have learned in SEEDS that you thought was the most successful?

Denise,
With 4th graders, we always read our story at least twice and sometimes 3 times!