Mr. Rennie's Class

  Last week was the last before the break and the students mostly finished up work and did reflections regarding their opinions and goals connected to their country website projects. The students were asked to tell how successful their site was and what they would do differently next time. The results were thoughtful and as expecteed in most cases, since most of them are quite honest about their own effort, input and collaboration.

  Over the last two days I've been reading a book by Faye Brownlie and Leyton Schnellert called, It's All About Thinking. I really like the ideas in it about criteria setting for reading responses( log entries and lit circles) and the focus on questioning. I think we'll work specifically with question generation in response to reading when school resumes. The students in the book's example wrote questions of four different types as a response to reading, answer their own questions thoughtfully then assess their answers using criteria they help develop. Their responses take the form of a response log which would be shared in a lit circle or could be used as a reflection on individual reading.  

  The four types of questions are:

1. Factual Questions (Right There)-  pointing to, info from the text.

2. Interpretive Questions (Think and Search)- locating and connecting story details to shape and answer.

3. Personal Input Questions (Author and Me)- students use own background and info from outside the book to increase their knowledge.

4. Evaluative or Appreciative Questions (On My Own)- questions that are ongoing and can apply to other texts.

  Students will need to be taught and practice these questioning skills with a shared text before they can begin to pose their own independently. The first two types I think will be quite comfortable for them to create since they are experienced in those areas. The last two really connect or tie in to the metacognition we've only begun to explore in our learning logs. Bring on the spring term.