16.+Instructor+Assessment

Hi Aaron and Alice,

Another superb collaborative effort between English teachers/Teacher-Librarians!

Three Stars and A Wish

A ❋ for appropriate and extensive reference to field research (Applegate, Asselin, Beer, Bennett, Csikszentmihalyi, Dymock, Kiddey, Lee, Shelnut, and Williams); this level of pedagogical support shows reflective inquiry and depth of knowledge. Impressive.

A ❋ for the well written, logical and informative presentation of each strategy.

I liked the comprehensiveness of each discussion. The synopses and goals of strategies, along with pedagogical support, were extremely solid and convincing. Including source & creator, audience & specific materials, prior knowledge & time frame added clarity and reassurance. Most importantly, the step-by-step guides to implementing each strategy were clearly laid out. The easy to follow instructions, along with helpful extension ideas and words of caution demonstrates a strong understanding of not only how kids think and learn, but also how these inference and analysis reading strategies will help students connect with their reading, increase their appreciation of literature and yes, ultimately experience reading and learning “FLOW”.

Thank you for including examples of charts, and real classroom activities featuring “Unwritten”, Tom Wayman poetry, All Quiet.., LOF, TKAM, and “Stopping by Woods…”☺

I loved the choice of strategies for developing students’ inferential thinking. I just participated in a great Fishbowl exercise in SS9; and often use a version of Cartooneracy in SS11 where the students analyze a historical photograph. However, my technique for this photo analysis is much less organized that the in-depth approach presented by Aaron. Thank you.

Alice, I would have loved to have seen the Team Analysis activity in your classroom. I’m a fan of strategies from the Beyond Monet book. Have you used the Morals Line aka Human Bar Graph activity? I think it came from Beyond Monet. (Very effective when deciding who is responsible for Simon’s death in LOF, or determining if Anne is unfaithful for thinking of another man—“The Painted Door”.)

I’m looking forward to trying Paraphrase x3.

A ❋ for engaging in and modeling reflective teaching practice.

I WISH you both continued “flow” and heaps of success in future collaborations☺

Outstanding work. 20/20 100% Congratulations.