A good reader is continually responding to, and interacting with, what they are reading. In order to encourage this practice, I expect you to post responses to your independent reading book throughout your reading. See "How to Respond" below for directions. You will also be required to post comments or questions on at least three other classmates' posts.
How to Respond
Pick a quote from your reading. 1. This doesn’t mean it has to be dialogue! 2. Shorter ≠ Better: it’s actually harder to respond to and interact with shorter quotes. 3. Cite the page number correctly: “Blah, blah, blah” (34). 4. There are no set requirements for what types of quotes you pick; they just have to be meaningful in some way to you. Maybe a passage actually makes you stop and think about something. Maybe it includes ideas related to a theme you’ve noticed or can relate to. Maybe you just like it.
Respond to it. 1. After you’ve picked a quote from the text, you need to think about it. 2. Some examples of stuff to include: inferences, predictions, reflections (what the passage stirs in your thinking), associations/ connections to other reads or the real world, your feelings towards the author’s words (mood), questions about the reading with attempts to answer how the author would, literary devices/figurative language you discover, remarks about author’s style, tone, etc. 3. Some examples of ways to respond: just write (informal reflection), write a poem expressing your thoughts, write an opening/closing argument for a trial that you’d put a character on, write a letter to the author, write a top-ten list, or another format of your choice. 4. The main goal is for these responses to be thoughtful and reflect your engagement with your reading. Translation: I should be able to tell you’re reading and understanding and thinking about what you’re reading. 5. Responses will typically be approximately 200 words. 6. You might want to write your responses on Word or another word processing program before you post (it catches your silly mistakes). Also, be sure to include the name of your book in the subject line!
Comment on Classmates’ posts 1. Skim through your classmates’ posts. 2. Choose a post that you find interesting. Maybe you’ve read the same book and you want to discuss something you liked or didn’t like about the book. Maybe you thought his/her post was thoughtful and/or creative and you want to give him/her mad props. Maybe you have a question about something he/she said. Maybe you’re thinking about reading that book and want to know a little more about it. 3. Comments will typically be approximately 50-100 words. 4. Oh, and be nice to each other! Absolutely no jerkface-like comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment