Level Up

All of our kids love to "level up" in video games.  How about leveling up in your classroom?  Take your students to the next level of literacy learning.  Perhaps your kids can answer any questions you ask them. Perhaps they are great on the district level tests and state tests.  That is awesome!! My guess is that at least some of you are trying to find a way to move your students forward.  I'll tell you a way to do that!

I have listened to many teachers ask their students things like, "what questions do you have over this story?"  Those types of general prompts are not going to generate good responses from students.  I've never seen a high level question that shows critical thinking generated through this method.  In defense of those teachers, they are generally following a prescribed/mandated type of reading program for small group instruction.  Students are not equipped to come up with a great question or a critical thought over a text without some training!  Students in primary grades generally have great difficulty composing/wording their own in-depth, critical-thinking questions.  The older kids I've observed could generate a fair question about their reading based on experience.  However, those questions may not be very strong questions, usually at a literal level requiring one correct answer.

Here's the thing.  Unless we teach our kids how to phrase their questions, compose great discussion topics, give them some stems and tools, they will not be able to generate the types of questions or discussion topics we hope they will.

Being able to answer questions is wonderful.  Being able to ask those questions or think of ideas for discussion topics is even better.  If they can create them, they can answer them.  I teach my students to create great, deep, thought-provoking topics that have multiple answers, and I explain to them that this gives them a "super power" over test questions.

Writing their own discussion topics is empowerment for our students.

Start your kids where you as a teacher start...or maybe should think of starting.  

BLOOM'S VERBS

Download a copy, keep it at your desk with your plans, and as I've suggested on several posts, pre-plan your discussions for your students.  No matter what subject, pre-plan your prompts for discussion.

Next step is not hard.  TEACH your kids some Bloom's verbs.  Tell them what they are and what they mean.  Explain to them that you use them and that Bloom's will help them figure out how to compose their own discussion topics!  I've done this with kids as young as second grade!  They ROCK at it.  I give each grade level an appropriate number of verbs for them to have in their own discussion topic "toolkit." For example, I use about 3-5 verbs for second grade.  I use 7-10 for third, and increase that for fourth.  The fifth and sixth graders get the whole list.  They pour over the whole list finding the best verbs for their questions. I use direct instruction for teaching how to use the verbs correctly.  I encourage them to stick with the last three levels of Bloom's for the best ideas.

What happens next. is. AMAZING.

Your kids, once they learn how to use the verbs through your direct instruction, practice, and examples, will begin to think more critically about their reading.  When they are privy to the meaning of critical thinking and how to analyze literature, they become "insiders" to higher level of questioning and thinking!  Let them experiment, then guide them to the right words for their discussion topics.  They will use them to ask and write better discussion ideas than you could imagine!

Here are my verb suggestions:
First grade:  Use analyze, compare/contrast, predict

Second grade: Use analyze, compare/contrast, predict, infer

Third and fourth grades: Use analyze, compare/contrast, predict, infer, evaluate, justify, compare/contrast, explain, adding more as the year goes on and they are successful with these.

Fifth and sixth grades:  The entire list (chunking the words as mini-lessons)

When we have some amazing topics for discussions written by students...we have a Socratic Seminar.  THAT'S an entire post in itself.  Please check it out!  There is a product in my TPT store that would help you get started!  I am passionate about Socratic Seminar, so you can find many posts here about my journey with this method.