Getting kids excited about their learning is one of the greatest joys we teachers get to experience. Often, with all our other requirements, days can pass between moments of this palpable excitement. A lesson this week sharing two of Steph and Anne’s lessons from their Comprehension Toolkit rekindled that passion for learning. Here’s a brief summary.
Strategy Lesson
- We combined two: merging thinking with new learning and connecting the new to the known
Text
- Her Right Foot, the fantastic new picture book by Dave Eggers and illustrator Shawn Harris about the Statue of Liberty (as usual, the text choice here is essential to guide students towards meaningful, engaged thinking)
Response
- A simple two column chart where students note “What I Think I Know” and “What I Learned”
Start with a brief turn-and-talk to stoke kids’ interest. What do you know about the Statue of Liberty?
Then begin by modeling your own ideas. This can be as simple or complex as you like. We went with the straightforward: it’s green, tall, and in NYC. Kids who know about it as a gift from France will be hooked and bursting to share.
Note these thoughts in the “What I Think I Know” section and then delight in reading the pages that follow. The book heads to France for the first few pages, but the pages are filled with interesting details for you to model your “new learning.” The authors reveal that the statue was originally designed to be copper, and you have a nice opportunity to show kids about how reading can change our knowledge. We have to be open to learn new information or alter our previous understanding.
This is a great point for kids to take over and read on their own, or if you’re working on a limited book budget and have just one copy, continue the interactive read aloud and let kids begin to note their own ideas. Remind students that the column is “what I think I know” so we need to be open to adjusting our prior misconceptions! (This flexibility of mindset is as important in language arts as other areas of the curriculum and can offer an example of how we “learn from our mistakes” in reading.)
After some practice, the book switches gears. The title, after all, is quite intriguing. Why talk about Lady Liberty’s FOOT?! Why not all the other interesting parts of the statue (like the crown with seven spikes representing the seven seas and seven continents of the world)?
And after all that practicing noting new learning, the central theme of the book is deftly revealed. Kids can talk and respond about the symbolism behind the statue. In the next lessons, ask kids to explore other books about the statue or immigration. Draw connections between the message we send to many immigrants today and the message we would like to send as a country and community.
This lesson, and this book, is a great entry point into a deeply researched and focused inquiry project on the history of immigration. The writing is moving and the illustrations filled with tiny details to keep kids’ thinking bursting to the fore. And in the end the message is about inclusion and opportunity, freedom and progress.
Reading Is Thinking 