Stop asking questions! “When reading the professional literature, [12-year teaching veteran Ronelle] Robinson stumbled upon a surprising fact: Asking students questions was one of the least effective ways to help them understand their reading,” writes Elizabeth Duffrin in Catalyst Chicago (May). “Now she has a new routine that gets all students talking. On a morning in early April, Robinson sits cross-legged in a chair, holding up an illustrated story. Students sit before her, each beside a partner. The story, ‘Moses Goes to a Concert,’ is about a deaf boy who learns to play the drum. Every page or so, Robinson pauses [and prompts discussion with a comment such as] ‘We read another story earlier in the year about someone who became ill and lost their hearing. Talk about that,’ she directs. Around the rug, students turn to their partners and quietly discuss what they recall….’Turn and Talk’ is just one of several strategies she now uses. The day before, for instance, she read her class the same story, pausing to wonder aloud about story events, such as why deaf students hold balloons while they watched the concert–‘Was it to feel the vibrations?’ That activity models the thinking students must do to comprehend the story.”
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Next month: “Best & Worst Celebrity Cosmetic Surgeries.” On the cover of June’s Consumer Reports: “Best & Worst Theme Parks.”
