Ms. Corning’s 5the graders engaged in an instructional activity in which students become the teacher in small group reading sessions. Students learned to guide group discussions using four strategies: summarizing, question generating, clarifying, and predicting. The students gathered in groups of four and took turns taking different roles:
- the person who identifies the key ideas and summarizes it
- the person who creates questions that help identify important information
- the person who identifies words or concepts that are difficult to understand
- the person who makes a prediction about what might happen next.
This structure for reading in a group encourages students to think about their own thought process during reading. It helps them to be actively involved and monitor their comprehension as they read and it teaches them to ask questions that helps to make the text more comprehensible and enjoyable.
In addition, they learned presentations skills before their group and leadership skills as they moved from role to role. This was a very fun way to approach reading with depth!