Comprehension Focus Groups: Deeper Thinking

Heather Zimmerman contributed today's post. More of Heather's posts about comprehension focus groups can be found here.

Donalyn Miller and Chris Lehman.   These are the two people I saw at Wisconsin State Reading Association's (WSRA) annual convention that got my mind rolling in a million different directions thinking about their ideas and how I was going to implement them.  Are you ever listening to a speaker and hear things that are so obvious, but yet you question if you do them or wonder why you never thought of that?  I had some of those moments.  And, I also had those moments where I was thinking, “Wow, that is brilliant!”

I could go on and on about my learning from the two of them, but in this blog, I am going to focus on some key take-aways from Chris Lehman’s session titled, “Making Reading Visible: Writing about Reading that Promotes Deep Thinking and Student Growth”.  The take-aways I am going to share, I plan on using in my Comprehension Focus Groups (CFGs).

Lehman focused on deepening thinking and pushing learned.  He talked about deepening conversations and also ways to deepen students' thinking in writing.  One idea he shared to help with this process is to think about leveled books and the characteristics of books at a certain level.  He encouraged teachers to think about this and also to see how this lines up with standards.  To show his thinking on this process, he asked, “What do different bands have kids do?”  Here is an example that he shared:

• N, O, P, Q (P= Magic School Bus)
• Main character (lots of times one, sometimes a few)
• Characters don’t change (sometimes their feelings do, but not them)
• Lots of support with setting

• R, S, T (T= Diary of a Wimpy Kid)
• Complex important setting
• Secondary characters are important

• U, V, W (U= Wonder V= Harry Potter)
• Complex characters
• Changing setting

(I included the title examples, so if you are not familiar with Fountas and Pinnell’s leveling system, you could still get a general idea with the titles.  Most levels I looked up on Scholastic’s website.)

Lehman points out that this thinking can tie back to the feedback teachers give students.  He shared that teachers can read student writing and think what level are the students writing towards. Sometimes their thinking shown through their writing might be lower than their text reading.  If this occurs, Lehman suggests saying, “Can I teach you something?  I know something about this book that…”

This was one of those moments when I was thinking how obvious this is, but how brilliant.  I have a general idea of what happens at different levels of texts, but never thought about it in this specific way.  I feel if I think about texts in regards to the leveled bands and then focus (when needed) on character and setting that will really help me push my students writing and thinking about the texts they are reading and writing about.