Saturday, July 4, 2015

Teaching with Intention Chapter 5 - Book Study

I'm a little behind the game, but I was so glad to find this book study on one of my favorite books by Debbie Miller today.  Debbie totally got me fired up about intentionally teaching comprehension strategies to my students several years ago.  So, when I found out Mr. Greg and From Kindergarten With Love were hosting this little book study I decided to join.
 
http://www.thekindergartensmorgasboard.com/2015/07/a-kindergarten-smorgasboard-teaching.html
 
Chapter 5 focuses in on the reason it is so important to use schema/maps and charts with your students.  It helps the little ones make a connections between something they know and something they're going to be learning about.  They provide a great opportunity for classroom discussion, not only between teacher/students, but between students/students.  What a perfect way to introduce nonfiction to children and to get them excited about learning!! My students are always excited to share what they think they knew about something prior to diving into our research.  They are often amazed by the new information gained through our reading,  photographs and using online resources.  Sometimes, it is difficult for them to give up on an idea and move it to the misconceptions part of our chart.  I think it's because they've believed it so long, they just thought it had to be true, lol. 


I loved trying to make our schema charts look like the creature we were learning about. When introducing spiders to my little kindergarteners I hung up a giant spider web.  Prior to our discussion each child had created a spider.  During our classroom discussion each child shared something they "thought" they knew about spiders.  I wrote these tidbits onto their spiders' body.  We attached all of their spiders to our giant web titled "What I Know About Spiders" with "Sticky Tack" for easy removal.   As we began our study on spiders, we found out through the evidence in our books and information gained online, that some of our information was a misconception.  We moved these tidbits to a different web for misconceptions.  As we learned new information about spiders (during "Art" Center they were able to create additional spiders for our "New Information" web) we wrote the new information down on the spiders and added them on to a web titled "New Information".  Just a fun way to excited your little ones about learning!!  So what we want!!  Love it!


 Thanks for letting me tag along!!  Love Debbie Miller!

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