11/8/11: Part 2

Something I think I could collect is …

I am planning to give my 3 focal students notebooks to write in while I'm reading aloud (I do this daily for enjoyment purposes).  I want them to listen for and write down words that are interesting that they hear while I'm reading and perhaps write what they think the meaning is or write down why they thought the word was interesting.  Then I can plan to chat with them on a biweekly or triweekly basis to talk about the words they wrote down and have discussions about why they chose them and perhaps also include conversations between the 3 of them about words.

What I hope that would help me know about my students learning is …

I am hoping to develop their word awareness, which is one of the 2 key components to word consciousness.  I am also thinking that this collection of vocabulary can evolve into more specific types of words to listen for (or phrases) such as onomatopoeias, similes, or idioms.  But I'm sure this will evolve as the year moves forward and I see what develops from this first step.

Because I am very explicit about the books I read aloud and want to make sure they're challenging to all learners (I have a particularly interesting group of 5th graders who have reading comprehension skills at the 10th grade level), I think this might be really interesting.  I'm planning on reading books such as A Wrinkle in Time and The Phantom Tollbooth and hope that they elicit some good responses and ideas from the students.

What I’m thinking now about my inquiry is …

I'm more excited!!!!!  I'm considering removing the section about "content areas" in my question, but I'm not going to change that NOW....

I feel like I have concrete data to collect now after talking it through with Anne and that's a good thing because when I walked in this evening and listened to all the discussion about data that can be collected I was feeling really discouraged.