03.+It+Says,+I+Say

= **It Says -- I Say** = = **(for use: During Reading or After Reading)** =

A.

Goal of the strategy is to transition students into looking carefully at text to find pieces that are clues to subtextual meaning. This strategy is to show students that insight and inference are not just pulled out of a hat, but are strategic.

Synopsis of strategy:

Students fold a piece of paper in 1/2 hot dog style. As students read the text, they jot down important points or ideas or quotes, and then on the right side they jot down their ideas of "what it means to them" (Beers 69).
 * It says || I Say ||

Goal of strategy is to "see connections between what the text says and what that means"(Beers 69) to students. In the long run, the ultimate goal is for students to recognize that pieces of text can be considered carefully, and can act as clues to the author's message/meaning etc. In the end, we would hope that students can easily implement this strategy in their minds, without the use of paper and pencil.

Audience is students.

Materials a piece of fiction or non-fiction, plus a piece of paper to jot down notes and a writing utensil.

Prior knowledge or teaching: I suggest that teachers model this strategy for the first use, and then after a few attempts, students should be able to use this without teacher mediation. It can be as detailed as students choose to make it and will last as long as the piece of text.

Source: Beers, G. Kylene. //When Kids Can't Read, What Teachers Can Do: a Guide for Teachers, 6-12//. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2003. Print.

B. Step-by-step description of how to implement the strategy.

I have used this strategy with my grade 10 students to introduce them to "hidden meanings" in songs. The lyrics of [|Unwriten] are clearly open to interpretation and insight. I create a chart for the students and on the It Says side, I give them key lines and phrases from the song. We discuss a few together, and then students work with a parnter to complete the I Say side of the chart. This week, I then assigned student pairs one phrase each and they led a short discussion on their phrase. First they said the phrase and what they though the hidden meaning could be; then they invited the class to add their insights. By the time we were through discussing all the important phrases, students had a clear understanding of literal and inferential discussion.

C. Extension

In grade 10, this It Says/I Say activity dovetailed well into teaching students to integrate quotes into their writing to support their discussion. Students were able to use all the ideas they had read/written/head and summarized them in paragraphs explaining Natasha Bedinfield's message to teens.

Beers (166) discusses and extension of this strategy to add Question-It Says-I Say-And So. In this example, the teacher gives the question, the student looks for the text support, thinks about the information, and then combines both to "come up with an answer." I think this extension would work for both fiction and non-fiction, but is less likely to be used when students are reading for enjoyment.

D. Controversy/Warnings in using this strategy?

I have two MID students in my class, and they work with an EA. for this chart I had the EA feed them answers to say. At first this worked well, but by the end of the discussion they were actually starting to take part and add their own examples. These students' strengths lay in their ability to make connections to their own lives if I gave them specific ideas to connect to. For example, when have you felt afraid to try something new.

How this strategy builds a love for reading:

As students learn to focus on parts of the text that they can discuss, their skill level with this strategy will increase. According to the research, being able to recognize important points and their possible inferences will lead to increased enjoyment.