Previews for Curiosity

I love movie previews. I have seen the previews for EVERYTHING and then they make me WANT to watch the movie!

A good preview can catch you in and make you want to see a movie you thought you had no interest in. It can make you say “Wait a minute! I DO know something about that movie! It’s the one that has so-and-so in it. It’s the one about such-and-such! That’ actually looks cool!”

While a lesson is not ALWAYS as fun as a movie (Although,  I have seen some of your lessons. They are pretty dang fun), but sometimes, we have to get the kids interested with a preview. Sometimes, they’re not automatically interested on their own. Sometimes, we have to drum up a little interest.  

I have seen three quick and easy ways to preview a lesson that take little to no preparation. You can do them at the beginning of a lesson or you can do them at the end of the day before to get the kids curious about the next day. 

Curiosity is a powerful tool. It gets kids engaged. And we all know that kids who are engaged are learning while kids who aren’t really engaged are just going through the motions, which means they aren’t really learning. They’re just doing busy work

1. Have them skim a text or reading to find the one or two most used words that are going to come up. But give them a super-short time limit so they’re not actually reading. Give them 30 seconds and make it a game. They’re just skimming. Then, based on their skim, ask them what they’re about to read about. Now they’re curious. Why are we going to read so much about the word “states”? Or about the word “nobles”? Or what’s a “silk road” going to be all about?

2. Give the kids 3-5 words from the upcoming lesson and have them work with a partner to put the words in a sentence. They should not be entirely unfamiliar terms, because the kids can’t do much with a pile of unfamiliar words, but mostly familiar words. For Post-classical china, I’d use “silk, trade, great wall, paper, ideas”. For the lead-up to the Civil War, I’d use “North, South, Slave, free, election”. See how well their sentences explain what they’re going to learn. Then, if you want to get FANCY, have them return to that sentence after the lesson or unit and fix up that sentence. They can even do a “I used to think ___ but now I think__” to reflect on how much they’ve learned”

3. A third way is to just ask a big question and have kids turn and talk. “How can you get silk from here to there? What if it’s something heavier and breakable like porcelain?” What should we do if Texas wants to leave the USA? Should we let them -- or make them stay? How does the government try to guarantee our rights? How can it do a better job?

Let’s continue to be intentional to build curiosity and engagement in our students so they WANT to learn!

How can you use previews to build curiosity and engagement in your lessons? How do you already do this? I’m SO curious!!

Email me! Newmantr@pcsb.org 

Think Alouds and Big Brains

Dang it’s cold for us Floridians today!  Stay warm today, colleagues! 

I know you know this but sometimes it helps to be reminded. 

You have a college degree. Some of you have more than one college degree. In order to have a college degree you have to either be a good reader or you have to have a LOT of strategies to get you around your reading deficits. 

Your STUDENTS do NOT have college degrees. They are middle or high school students. Many are not strong readers ... YET. 

Even your strong teen readers aren’t as strong as your experienced, college-educated teacher-reader selves. 

That’s why I need you to do something to help them out.

Think. Aloud.

Just like a kid who lives in a family of junk-food-eaters needs someone to model good eating habits, a kid who doesn’t know what good reading looks and sounds like INSIDE HIS HEAD needs someone to show him.

And guess what, Teacher? You are the perfect person! 

A good reader does several things all at once that they are probably unaware of. Doing some thinking aloud will help your readers -- from 6th grade strugglers to 12th graders ready for college -- be more aware of what’s going on in their OWN heads and be more intentional, stronger readers. 

So, how do I think aloud, Tracy? I can’t really just let my thoughts escape my lips. That won’t bode well for the students. 

Well, a think-aloud is series of specific ways you actually do react to text. You do these things, but often, as a college-educated reader, you do them so quickly, you don’t even notice that you’re doing them! 

So, the next time you’re reading some text with your students, try to slow down, notice what you’re doing, and point it out to the kids. Tell them what you’re doing and WHY you’re doing it. Just modelling can go a looong way

Here are a few ideas. 

Predict

• “I bet this is going to be about …”
• “I bet that the Spartans are going to lose at some point …”

Ask questions

• “Why did Empress Wu do that?”
• “What is the author talking about?”
• “What does that word mean?”

React

• “Wow! That’s amazing!”
• “Well that guy just did a stupid thing”
• “No, Harry Potter! Don’t do that!”

Make connections

• “That’s like what we read about with Buddhism”
• “That’s like the movie I saw last summer”
• “That reminds me of a poem we read in Language Arts class”

Make mental pictures

• “So the Olmecs are in Mexico, in the map I’m picturing”
• “I bet people in the Alps mountains freaked out when they saw Hannibal’s elephants!  
• “I’m picturing that guy as tall and mean”

Read out loud to your kids once in a while and model these Think-Aloud strategies. It helps them be better readers. Be explicit in your explaining what you’re doing and why. And don’t worry about being the best audiobook worthy reader. You-the-college-educated-adult are still better than they are! And if you can do it semi-regularly with you stopping to explain your thinking aloud, can seriously impact their reading. 

It’s something you do without even noticing. So slow your big brain down and show these kids how it’s done. 

Have a great week -- and stay warm, Floridians!