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

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.

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.

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

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

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

Well, I did my lesson, went pretty well, the kids loved the vocab activities where they had to provide examples of experiences they had had in relationship with the target words I used in the lesson. I think they really enjoyed the book I read, eventhough they might have thought is was a little young for them, but they got along great. I adjusted the lesson to fit my personality and actually did it whole class verbally, which I was a littel apprehensive about earlier when we were talkin at the last SEEDS meeting, I would like to do another one small group, like with my reading groups and pick target words that would be at each groups level.

I also completed my lesson. I found a book dealing with the Revolutionary war told from the point of a Loyalist. The kids seemed to enjoy it. The Tier Two words were good to use but I certainly did not follow the scripting that was on the page. Hope to find another book to use second semester. Have a great weekend. Only five more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Denise

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From: QuickTopic daily digest [1] Sent: Thu 12/11/2008 11:21 PM
To: Denise Jardon
Subject: Discuss 3-6 Reading



< replied-to message removed by QT >

After looking through some of the text talk lessons, I feel I like the vocabulary activities better than the comprehension questions. I see a lot of value in the vocabulary activities. The students enjoy doing the these activities. I think picture books can be used with any age of students.

Greta Iles

P.S. Has anyone found a text talk lesson that they would recommend to others?

Like Greta, I also did the Pecos Bill lesson. The third graders have a Pecos Bill story in their reading books, and present a play for the elementary students every year, so they are very familiar with THAT version of the story. In addition to vocabulary, they looked for similarities and differences to their familiar story as they listened to the Steven Kellogg version. In addition to the three selected words, there were several words that I did a quick explanation for as I read. I didn't use all of the comprehension questions, but branched out and added my own. Students really loved this story/lesson.

Peggy

I agree with Greta about liking the vocabulary activities better than the comprehension activities with the text-talk lessons. My group was very small and I felt they had fun with the vocabulary text-talk lesson. It is very difficult and not much fun when you have such a small group. The next time I do it, I think it will be much more fun and a little more organized. I put sticky notes on my pages and that just didn't work for me. I didn't feel like I presented a good lesson doing it that way. Overall, I do like the text-talk lesson plans.

I liked the text talk lesson I did. I thought the book I selected was good for 3rd grade. I did change the lesson a little after I got started. At first I was reading page by page and asking 3-4 comprehension questions after each page. The students got tired of this fast. So instead I read 4-5 pages at a time and then asked the questions. The students liked the activity that went along with the lesson. I decided to do a writing activity the next day as a follow up using the T-two words. It went very well.

My text-talk lesson was on The Patchwork Quilt. This is also a story in our reading basal so I had numerous activities that I could choose from. I would recommend this book to the upper elementary grades.(I sound like Reading Rainbow)
The lesson went very well and all the students participated in answering questions.
 I found the same problem that Melissa had in that the students got restless and did better when we discussed 3-4 pages at a time instead of page by page. This also helped keep the flow of the book better and not so chopped up. The format was very easy to follow except I limited the number of scripted questions for each Tier 2 word and added some of my own questions, rather than the scripted ones that accompanied the lesson.
 I will continue to choose more trade books and use the Text-talk lessons provided.

Rene,
I have also enjoyed using the book Th Patchwork Quilt during my unit on the Civil War. I will look up the text talk material and do a lesson with that when I get to that time period. I chose a book called Katie's Trunk by Ann Turner from the AEA Library. It dealt with a Loyalist family during the Revolutionary War and took their viewpoint which the students found interesting. It had few Tier two words which was okay considering the short time frame that day. Denise Jardon

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From: QuickTopic daily digest [1] Sent: Tue 1/13/2009 11:20 PM
To: Denise Jardon
Subject: Discuss 3-6 Reading



< replied-to message removed by QT >

Here are the Quick Topic prompts for Day 3:

Think and Reflect:

1)What form of vocabulary assessment are you using with your students to demonstrate understanding?
2) Share what you are doing with the assessment piece of your vocabulary instruction.
3)Post at least 2 entries sharing your example and experience of using the assessment piece. What worked and what would you change.

I shared this on SEEDS day, but I did the picture activity for one week's vocab words with my 5/6 Title I kids. Needless to say, they are not always very motivated. As an assessment, I chose different pictures that could go with the words and put them in a document. Some of the pictures could go with more than one vocab word. Students had to write which word they thought went with each picture and why. They had to write about a minimum of four words but could choose to do more for extra credit. All of the students chose to do more than the minimum because they said it was easy and they knew what words they would put with the pictures.

Even the kids who hate to write were enthusiastic about this activity. It really got at whether they could use the words in different situations. I will do this when we do our unit review and see how it works.