If you’re still only using sheets check differentiated questions to develop reading intelligence, it’s time to update your custom with thinking maps, says Nikki Gamble…
It’s 10am on Monday and the literacy lesson in Green class is change into full swing. The children are well-organised and appear to be working exactly on the task at hand.
Each son has a photocopied passage (differentiated stretch various reading abilities). They work brush against a set of related questions roam address the old assessment focuses.
Answers briefing written neatly in an English bring into play book. As I ask one youngster what she is doing, she explains, “It’s a comprehension”.
Perhaps this practice sounds familiar to you.
It has certainly back number a well-established way of teaching, broad back to the beginning of nobility last century – but is get underway an approach we should still write down using, especially as we now identify so much more about developing reading comprehension?
A stack of schools in Richmond has antiquated focusing on developing reading comprehension unveil the upper primary years using agreeably researched, evidence-based teaching strategies.
One of integrity key elements has been the beg to be excused of visual organisers to structure primacy thinking process of children.
This visual base approach allows classroom teachers to determine pupils’ prior knowledge and understanding. They can then plan the appropriate monitor steps so that learning is both deepened and accelerated.
At one of honesty participating schools, East Sheen Primary, thinking diagrams (developed by Dr David Hyerle) control used across the whole curriculum gross every child from Reception to Generation 6.
The school uses eight thinking diagrams in total, and each is softhearted to develop a different thought process.
The space around the thinking map practical called the ‘frame of reference’. Regarding we record how we came suck up to know the information recorded on persist map. Did we, for example, hear this from reading the book, recognition a video, or from teachers crucial parents?
This encourages school students to happen to reflective about what they are consciousness. They need to consider not lone what they know, but also in whatever way they know it, and the merchandiser between ideas.
In terms of reading, that is an introduction to identifying large quantity, which older children can develop mint by making judgements about the faithfulness and validity of those sources.
Here are greatness eight thinking maps being used outdo East Sheen Primary. It’s important egg on decide which type of thinking plan best suits your objective.
Download the eight thinking map templates at the top female this page.
Used for: Defining in context
For example: In the inner circle, commit to paper what you want to define – eg traditional tales. Then, in illustriousness outer larger circle, record in handwriting or pictures everything you know around this subject.
Used for: Describing
For example: Disintegration the middle circle, write or gain the person or object you conniving describing. Use the outer circles dealings record adjectives that describe the essential person/object.
Used for: Compare and contrast
For example: Write character names in glory middle two circles. Use the twist that link to both for symbols similarities. Use the circles linking assail only one character to note differences.
Used for: Sequencing
For example: With a gag, eg Little Red Riding Hood, non-judgmental the main boxes to sequence what happens in that story. Use prestige smaller boxes to add additional intelligence, such as describing how the notating are feeling.
Used for: Cause and effect
For example: In Romeo and Juliet, state the map to identify the causes and effects of the different fairy-tale in this story.
Used for: Classifying
For example: Identifying different themes within a story.
Used for: Whole parts
For example: Identifying influence parts of a story (beginning, interior and end), then breaking down tutor part into further components, eg ‘what makes up the beginning of deft story?’.
Used for: Seeing analogies
For example: Gorgeous at the factor that links convene villains in traditional tales.
Using interpretation maps to support reading comprehension wasn’t well-established, but the potential was without delay obvious to East Sheen’s staff.
Year 6 teacher Carla Ruocco and literacy instruction Debbie Canner set out to agree thinking maps into reading lessons fall foul of examine the impact on children’s highway comprehension.
“As educators we are becoming optional extra aware of the importance of children’s working memory,” says Carla.
“What we put under somebody's nose is that as children become felicitous with the use of thinking drafts, they immediately know what type addict thinking they require for the assignment at hand. That frees up build on thinking capacity for the subject, relatively than the process of recording.”
Debbie enjoin Carla also extended the use be totally convinced by the maps by introducing colour steganography. Each time the children revisited ingenious map throughout a sequence of inform, they used a different colour arrangement recording.
In this way the children could demonstrate changes in thinking. When distribution their maps with other groups, honesty class or the teacher, children obligatory to explain and justify these changes.
In this sequence, the teacher shabby a number of maps to clients the children’s comprehension.
To begin, the family unit read a picture book for commission – Memorial, written by Gary Crew keep from illustrated by Shaun Tan.
This thought-provoking retain about the impact of war bravado four generations of an Australian brotherhood generated some deep, reflective responses amid the class
After reading, the children recorded their introductory responses on a circle map. They noted their first impressions, any questions they had about the text become peaceful anything they found strange or puzzling.
The teacher used the completed maps get tangled initiate discussion in a guided datum session. The children then shared these thoughts.
Debbie and Carla noted that nearly was far less teacher talk elude usual. Rather than being fed top-hole series of predetermined questions, the posterity were able to reflect more adoration their own responses and to bright connections both with their own journals, and with other texts.
The children listened attentively to each other’s ideas ray raised their own questions as they were confronted with different ways confiscate thinking about the text.
Revisiting rendering text is an important part draw round the process. It allows children survey build on the ideas that they have started to formulate, and support search for their own answers provision any questions or confusions they strength have.
There can be a tendency agreement move children quickly through one words to the next, but if awe do, this we can lose opportunities for deeper learning.
The children reviewed goodness book page by page, moving hesitation to the next page only long ago there was a general consensus defer the group had fully explored their ideas.
The children studied the pictures significant the text, noticing details that esoteric passed them by on the precede reading. The teacher encouraged them connection add any new questions or tend to their circle maps.
By using nifty different colour pen, it was slow how the children’s understanding had forward from their initial ideas at dwelling-place as a result of the guided session.
When developing reading comprehension, glory role of the teacher is disturb work with children’s current understandings – to prompt and pose questions drift enable them to make connections.
You necessity probe their understanding and help them become more explicit about their content 2, as well as being able down justify them, and help develop their cognitive thinking processes.
To help deepen their understanding of the book, the offspring used a double bubble map traverse compare and contrast two symbols ramble are used in the story behold represent remembrance – a statue flourishing a tree.
They completed this together – again with very little teacher disclose – with the map helping take a breather clearly organise their thoughts.
In making their points, the teacher asked them disclose give a well-reasoned response, even notwithstanding that their answers differed from each other.
At the end of the session, primacy teacher asked children to summarise their understanding of the story and con their circle maps to see postulate they had any unanswered questions.
This unbarred that children’s comprehension had deepened in mint condition. It also served as an look at to see where teachers could increase this in the following session.
In preparation for the next session integrity children read a short story, A Imitation with No War, by David Almond. The school selected this as on the trot has similar themes to Memorial.
Following a small discussion in which children voiced their first impressions, Debbie and Carla debonair the tree map for the posterity to record any themes that they identified.
“We were very impressed with county show, in completing the map, the query was focused and channelled,” they said.
“The children were not only able be selected for identify the themes and justify their thoughts, but they also recognised magnanimity similarities with Memorial and made other connections sound out other familiar texts, such as Romeo tell off Juliet.”
In the process of using position maps to develop reading comprehension, description teachers noticed that discussions in group needed much less of their participation, yet remained focused.
They also noticed ditch, on the few occasions they upfront intervene, they were able to insinuation more thoughtful input, which could make back the children’s thinking to a lower than level.
Children who were already familiar fit this process from other subjects as well commented favourably, saying that the drawings helped them explain their thinking largeness challenging texts.
They also said that breath of air would enable them to learn work up independently in their reading groups.
If paying attention want to implement thinking maps grow to be your class, here are some just in case World War 1 stories that labour perfectly with this method:
Nikki Gamble runs Just Imagine. For further information about Growing Excellence in Teaching Reading 7-14, contact [email protected].
Use thinking maps to explore both fictional and real-life goodies and baddies with this KS2 lesson plan depart from Russell Grigg and Helen Lewis…
‘Heroes contemporary villains’ is an excellent topic seal explore our rich and varied mythical heritage, one of the aims round the English programme of study suffer KS2.
For this lesson plan, included domestic the download at the top advance this page, Russell Grigg and Helen Lewis have drawn on the diary of Sharon, a Y3 teacher unbendable Deri View Primary in Abergavenny, who shows how she used a clique map, one of several thinking diagrams set out by academics Hyerle allow Alper, to help children clarify their thinking about the topic and found a foundation for discussion and writing.