Small Steps...Big Victories

My last post was about high-stakes testing.  I believe in my ideas and convictions about testing.  I had no idea that our district's school board had the same convictions. They have listened to parents and teachers.  I remember a few weeks ago, another school district sent a resolution to our legislature.  I was so envious that their school board recognizes the damage that this testing is doing to our schools, teachers, and most importantly, our kids.  Here is the latest from our school district.  Will the Texas legislature do the right thing after entire districts are speaking out?  It's a continuing saga...and I'll update!

But this week...victory!  We are so excited as teachers, parents, and I know that our kids will be thrilled as well! THANK YOU AISD TRUSTEES!

Summary: a Great Strategy

 We always have summary questions for fiction (and nf) on our state test, as I'm sure all of you do. This technique helps our kids have a strategy for writing summaries and eventually choosing the correct answers in a fiction summary multiple choice question. As you probably know, the four answer choices for fiction summary questions are extremely long, a paragraph each usually.  The kids have to have a way to decipher all of those choices and find the best.  We have had great success with this method. 

I'm only showing step 1 of their training in this post: the symbols, three sentences, and illustrated summary.  My next post - coming soon - will include how to find the best summary answer choice after reading a fiction passage.

We start with just a simple summary foldable (steps below.)  We then move from the three "symbols" for summary (character, problem, solution,) to the three sentences, to illustrations, and possibly to a summary paragraph.  

Step 1: Make the flip book.

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

After reading Dog Breath by Dav Pilkey, we wrote our summaries using the three symbols on the cover of the flipbook, sentences and drawings on the inside.

 Here are some of the finished products:

The students draw the symbols on the front. 

Student write a sentence about who the characters are, a sentence about the problem(conflict), and finally, the solution.

The last step is to draw a picture to go with each step of the summary. 

Credits 

The next post about summary will include how to use this to answer summary questions over a reading passage.  Stay tuned!