September 13, 2013

Hi everyone. We're writing the blog on Friday because we have so many commitments this weekend, so we're going to make it short and sweet.

We did a follow-up activity to our Orb experiment this week. Students had to come up with their new question to test with the orbs. Some students chose to put the orbs in ice water, salt water, Dr. Pepper, tea, or oil. Amazing results occurred and fascinated our students. It led them to even more questions they wanted to test. They were thrilled when we gave them orbs to take home, and many came back the next day discussing their new experiments and results. This has been such a motivating way to introduce the scientific method.

Orbs in Oil.  Nothing happened, but we had a great discussion on why.

We've had an independent reading program, called Buzzing, for years. We even did an action research project using our Buzzing program, and the results proved what we already knew. Kids who consistently read outside of the classroom for thirty minutes or longer, and discuss their reading in small peer groups, or buzz groups, make significant gains in their reading abilities. Our buzzing is getting underway nicely. We made a Buzzing I-Chart, and a Reading Is Thinking Chart to help the process. The Buzzing I-Chart helps the students become aware of what their responsibilities are during these discussion times. The Reading Is Thinking Chart has helped students discuss more than just the focus question of the day. That chart was generated after students participated in a shared reading activity where we introduced being metacognitive while reading. We introduced five reading strategies and their codes so we could mark our thinking spots as we read. These two charts, along with our joining in a buzzing group each day to help model and facilitate good discussions have helped lead to our successful start. We think students are offering more thoughts and insights in their discussions.

Close reading has been given a lot of attention recently. Here is an article explaining more about close reading, and some of the misconceptions about it. After reading the article, we think buzzing really can be considered a form of close reading because students are going back to their texts to talk about specific parts of it. The focus questions allow them to hone in on different ideas.

We're off now for a busy weekend. We hope you enjoy yours!

Kim and Anne