Reading response

It is very interesting to see these different theories in practice, and now that I have more knowledge about the theories it will be fun to put them into practice for myself. In my placement, my CT uses Response-Centered talks in the classroom a lot. Although, as with most things, it is not used exactly as described in the text, but the overall concept is the same. The children respond in similar ways discussing the text looking at different themes like being responsible. What does that mean? How do we show we are responsible? Etc. The children investigate these different ideas through a variety of selected texts. It appears my CT takes great care in selecting the stories he reads to the class, and in the types of probbing questions he will ask the students to get them more engaged in the discussion, or simple to spark deeper thinking about the messages presented in the text.

It appears that the students not only enjoy discussing different themes within the text. They get excited when they feel they have something important to say or want to offer up a new insight to the group. I believe this type of discussion and emersion in the text will be beneficial to the students. Delving into complex issues will help the students learn from what they are reading. McGee would suggest students are better able to construct new knowledge from both reading and discussing together.

In order for this type of discussion to go well, students need proper instruction, prompting and skills to effectively participate in such discussions. Students may have a difficult time jumping into this new type of communication. Many students are used to just reciting simple facts about the stories they have read, not really enaging in the story and different ideas from the stories they read. Many students will need explicit instruction into ways (and for some maybe given the permission too) disect the story. There are a few students within the classroom that need more scaffolding than others. They need the extra push to expand their thinking about the stories. And with a little prompting they begin to come further and further out of their shells.