Reading Practice Intensive - Days 7 & 8

 Day 7: Thinking in Reading

Today we covered the area of thinking in reading, using higher order thinking to access the deeper meaning in texts so that learners are going beyond the literal meaning of texts.

Learners need to be engaged in extended discussions to dive into texts and use critical literacies to explore texts collaboratively with other learners. Extended discussion protocols need to be set up to provide a framework for learners to engage with each other and discuss texts. 

Whilst extended discussion would be part of group work when with the teacher in the instruction part of the lesson, responding to texts is a place where learners are able to display their understanding of texts in many ways.  

We covered Bloom's Taxonomy (2001) as a framework for higher order thinking and the types of tasks and questions that would stretch readers into these higher orders.

Day 8: Create

This day was to explore the Create part of The Manaiakalani Pedagogy and how it can be used to inspire learners and give them ways to express their understanding of texts creatively. And of course with digital technologies we can wither create with devices, or create in other physical ways then capture the Create digitally so it can be shared and amplified.

The possibilities here are endless and in the context of Reading learners can use devices in many ways to capture their learning so they can share it. 

Screencasting is a tool that can be utilised. Chromebooks now have a Screen Cast App. The great thing about this app is that it is native to the Chromebook. the files are saved directly into Drive, and a transcript is generated. With 3rd party apps like Screencastify now having a paywall native apps on the Chromebook are going to be increasingly important to enable all learners to have access to tools to express themselves, capture their learning, explain their learning and present it in video format. 

We delved into the world of "One Shot Movies" with Fiona Grant. We created a book trailer of a favourite book. I chose "The Twits". 

Here is my raw footage....

Static Images are another way of creating to show understanding. We had to create a static Image about one of the days of the RPI that impacted on us. I chose the analogy of "windows, mirrors and sliding doors" when choosing texts to reflect a learner's world and to open up other worlds to them.

These are only 2 ways of creating responses to show understanding. We covered screencasting as well which is a great way for learners to orally explain their learning and not have to laboriously type every word.