The article that I focused on for this week's readings was Book Talk: Continuing to Rouse Minds and Hearts to Life by Triplett and Buchanan. I really enjoyed this article and I think that it made a lot of good points. I have always felt that knowing how the book makes you feel and how you relate to the story is more important than knowing exactly what character said what and did what. I understand that knowing the specific details of a book is an important factor of having the comprehension of the book, but you need to know how you personally feel about the book before you try to answer specific questions about the text. This is where the scaffolding comes into play. Students have to have ideas and feelings about what they are reading in order to grasp more advance ideas like comprehension and answering questions at the end of the book.
When I was in school I remember having a lot of ideas about books and loving to talk to my mom about the stories we read in school or at home, but I also remember being in class and not feeling like it was ok to talk about the ideas I personally had about the book. I knew that I was expected to know the characters names and some information about the plot of the story, but not about how the story made me feel, etc. In the kindergarten classroom that I am in right now, the teacher tries as much as she can to allow for my discussions about the books they read, but she also has to try and fit in the standards and rules that are set by the district. I know that my CT would enjoy book talks if she had the time to do them.
According to the Triplett and Buchanan article, “...discovered that book discussions can promote critical thinking when topics are related to children's developing identities, including race, gender, and class” (p. 65). I think that this is saying that when a child can relate a story they read to something that really happened to them, they are going to be more likely to remember that text and have stronger feelings for that text. Also according to the article, having book talks and allowing the students to express their ideas and feelings helped to get all students involved and participate in a situation where they normally would not have.
It is possible that because I did not read the other articles that were assigned to other groups that I have a biased look on this subject, but I think that the Triplett and Buchanan article did a really great job. Individual student accounts were used to prove that all students can benefit from book talks. By allowing each student to express their own ideas, teachers are helping students to build up their knowledge and help them to enjoy reading.
2 comments:
Kelly, I really liked your post on the importance of students constructing their own unique meaning from texts. I completely agree! If a student cannot express his/her ideas or feelings about the book, it can be assumed that they will be less engaged. The book, and maybe the act of reading will not be as meaningful to them. Discussion is a great outlet that will allow children to express their ideas. Towards the end of your post, you commented on the need for teachers to meet specific standards and benchmarks to make sure that students are passing standardized tests. I also brought up this concern in my post (I know you commented on that too!)
The more I thought about it, the more I realized there needs to be a balance concerning the coverage of “standardized test content”. When a child begins reading, they need to express how they feel about the book and why they feel that way. It’s important that children can relate experiences or situations in the book to their own lives. Like you mentioned, this will make the book more meaningful to students. If this can be consistently done, I feel that reading in general will be more meaningful to students. This should be a major goal of primary grade reading. When reading is “internalized” by students they will hopefully be able to find “meaning” in reading in general. The focus could shift in later grades to summarizing literary elements of the text such as characters, plot, and setting. This shift will focus more on students passing the necessary standardized tests. And hopefully, because reading will be meaningful to students, focusing on the text in other ways can in turn be meaningful as well.
I completely agree with you that it is more important to focus on how a book makes you feel and think rather than memorizing characters names or specific moments in the book. This is why I think that book talks are so helpful, because they take away the one dimensional form of teaching literature. Students are able to talk less about the characters and the plot, and more on their feelings, thoughts, and predictions. I also agree with you that students need to connect emotionally with what they are reading for any real comprehension or development of more advanced ideas.
Also like you, I remember focusing more on the characters names and the plot of the stories I was reading in school rather than the actual message that I should have been taken from it. I knew I was just expected to know the character, the plot, and the theme of the book. Focusing on these aspects rather than connecting to the book emotionally really affected what I learned and got out of the book. Still to this day I remember books that were read to me as a little kid more than I remember books I read in middle school and high school because when I was little I connected to the books by imagining myself in them. I remember that when I went to sleep I would even have dreams where I was inside the story.
It is good to hear that your CT does book talks every once in awhile, but I think that she should try to do them more. Like our Triplett reading says, not being able to do book talks because of having to focus on standards and benchmarks is no excuse. As you can tell from our class with choral readings, we were able to have a book discussion and still meet the grade content expectations at the same time. I don’t think you have a biased view at all. It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding of the importance of book talks in the classroom.
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