Questioning and Discussion Strategies of Week 4

As the saying goes from Ray LeBlond, "You learn something new everyday if you pay attention."  This week I had to select four strategies that would assist students in a higher order of thinking--thinking differently than a yes or no type response and not simply rote memorization of facts and details to answer questions.  Today's students are being asked to think more deeply and critically of how and why about someone or something when it comes to literature and association with the components of a story.  My choices to learn more about were THUNKS, LITERARY LOG, GOLDEN LINES, and GRAFFITI BOARD.  

THUNK

Who would’a thunk a thought that makes us think?  Say that ten times!  As simple and silly a question that is, thunks provide students with cleverly, created open-ended questions in starting a conversation and allows for thinking at a higher level.  Best part is, answering a thunk question will more than likely have more than one interpretation, it will be neither right or wrong as it’s based on the comprehension as thunk by students.  Thunks can basically be questions about anything in everyday life.  If you will, think about these examples for a moment as I came up with a few thunks based on passages from Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days by Jeff Kinney (pages 21, 126, 157 and 213):

• Can you know the best dirt on a person or is it gossip when at the beauty salon? 
• Is a dog licking or kissing you when he/she is happy to see you?
• When you close your eyes tight, can you see a person to save them?
• Why is it that you have hiccups or are you trying to hic-down?

Students need to have the confidence and ability to think independently on solving or answering different types of questions that do not have a simple yes or no response. Critical thinking helps to build that initial stage where a student can jot down their ideas through reasoning before they provide their answer.  As I tried to search details about thunks, it was hard to uncover much about it. It made me wonder if thunks are not a successful tool being used in classrooms.  

Personally speaking, I rather thought it a very creative way to engage in conversation with students.  I even tried a few silly questions with my own two daughters who looked at me as if I had five eye balls. The thunk question really made them stop in their tracks and reflect on how they would answer giving us a starting conversation where we each shared our thoughts on how we would answer, I asked, “If a man has no hair, is he bald or hairless?”  We were kindly referencing my boyfriend who loved that we included him on the thunk.  Pinterest and the internet offered suggestions  as well as the website http://www.thunks.co.uk/ for this strategy.

Thunks could be also be used as an onomatopeia beside skunk, bunk, stunk, punk, and dunk.  Although I undesrstand through my inquiry that a thunk is a coding function, I came across a fun link for kids to code words or messages between friends.  What I also found interesting is the site provided a few books as suggestions to read for kids.  Give it a try… http://www.thunk.com/index.cgi.  This by no means is how a thunk is to be used literally speaking, but  it would be a fun way to discuss how the information was coded. 

LESSON IDEA #1:  THUNK

I came across a fantastic idea of how to incorporate this strategy in the classroom.  Have a freestanding whiteboard at the front of the classroom for students to view the thunk question of the day.  This would be a great way to get the class started through a warm up exercise to train the students brain and prepare them to have thought provoking ideas a it relates to an upcoming discussion. A thunk could engage the student of what they think about the thunk question before starting a lesson. 

 LITERARY LOG

My first thought of a literary log was to keep a notebook about words that I did not understand.  However, what I uncovered was that a literary log is not strictly about keeping a notebook about details of words I wanted to know the meaning of better, but going beyond, literary logs could be used to place any specific  details from a given page of a book that stick out and need further clarification by a reader.  Additionally, a literary log captures catch phrases; predictions to what will happen in the story as it unfolds; relating text-to-self experiences that relate with the character(s) in the book; or the descriptive feelings and mood felt from reading the book—anything and everything that would give a reader better insight to learn more about the book and writing those thoughts down.  This strategy is almost journal-like where discussions could be formulated around particular parts of a chapter where obtaining clarification is needed, which entails the student to ask questions or listen to others comments being shared or discussed within the class. 

Literary logs also extend the student’s ability to synthesize their ideas by reflecting on what a student has read and writing down how they comprehend or interpret what a story means.  What’s best, ideas are entered onto a sheet of paper as a reader moves along in the book, by a quick notation that makes a reader think about details that stuck out to them. Aother tool that could be used if needed would be post-it-notes.  While it can be time consuming, the literary log (or even post-it-notes) can help students readily organize their thinking process in the moment, versus having to go back and find the information later in the text.  Essentially, literary logs are book marking key criteria in a book with a purpose.

I connected with this strategy so very well.  With any class I have taken, I always buy a new notebook to put my research, notes, comments or any details that I found of importance into it.  I use the log by  recalling information to scaffold my learning knowledge, weaving prior weeks information together  from a lesson, as it interconnects as working parts of what will be the whole learning unit.  Similar with reading, post-it-notes have enabled me to keep track of my own thoughts on specific pages or serves a a reminder to evaluate my progress in completing tasks of an assignment.  

 GOLDEN LINES   

Golden lines are another wonderful way to get students to engage, participate and share discussions or questions about a thought provoking piece of text read in a book that has meaning, may have surprised them, was helpful or thought provoking on a situation.  As a student locates a collection of specific quotes, they can then write in their own words what it was they liked, thought, wondered or felt from a piece of text.  This would open discussion with other students who could provide their own interpretations and connections to the text.     

If anything, golden lines are beautifully crafted words that have left an impression to the reader be it from a quote, words of wisdom, or anything of literary value that makes for an interesting conversation and that speaks to a person to think and reflect on its meaning. 

GRAFFITI BOARD

By far, this was my favorite discussion strategy which I have never seen in use but could only imagine the endless possibilities.  Students can write or draw out their own thoughts and images in a creative graffiti-like fashion, unorganized yet organized format.  The graffiti board provides students a way to present their connection to a story in a visually based upon words, quotes, comments and sketches as they discuss why they wrote or drew what they chose and the personal connection behind it.  Students would also need to understand that while this form of graffiti is not embedded permanently on a wall in the classroom, but there will remain a footprint image in their minds as they learn a new way to see, think and speak in a more effective manner that gives them an opportunity to share in discussions and express themselves as individuals certain pieces of a story.   

 

LESSON IDEA # 2:  GRAFFITI BOARD

As a lesson, after the class book has been read, a few students at a time would create a drawing or written text on designated section of whiteboard with colored dry erase markers to express a piece of the story that made a connection to them so the entire class can view. The details could be a simple drawing, quote, passage, a word or a combination of words however the student designs it. After everyone has had a chance to place their graffiti on the board, open discussions about what is observed to have the students share their thoughts of what they see and think that may similar or different.  What was it that made them choose what they wrote or draw? How do others see it?  Could there be more than one meaning?  These are questions that come to my mind and would be worded to the class to have them give insight for all to hear.

As a final thought to myself, I hadn't heard of these strategies in their specific literary term before, yet without any realization, I have been using them.  Looking at the grand scope of things, each strategy can bring something new to the learning atmosphere for students through the different ways of processing thoughts, sharing ideas and having meaningful conversations as the text-to-student connections relate to them from literature.