“Guide children to connect problem solving to literature and to share this experience. Certain books provide an excellent context for enhancingthinking strategies because students are able to identifywith the way the main character solves problems”(Sanacore, 2005). Many times, especially through adolescence, students find trouble connecting to literature because they cannot seem to get into the character’s situation. Picking material that is in relation to the students age group is one way a student can connect to the issue within the book. A great way to get students actively involved in discussion is to put them in the situation of the character and see how they would solve it. According to Sanacore (2005), “Students are asked to pretend they are the character, but to consider different ways of solving the same problems. They also are encouraged to share how their thinking is influenced by their feelings and to record these experiences in their diaries or journals. When students are comfortable identifying vicariously with the characters plight, they are invited to write about an important problem that occurred in their own lives and how they solved it. Because these activities nurture a wide variety of personal responses (with no right or wrong answers), they increase the chances that all children will be active participants as they think about thinking”.
The power a question can have is outstanding. Students can be actively involved in learning by a teacher presenting carefully planned questions. “Demonstrating well-planned, inclusive questions is therefore an important instructional responsibility that can encourage active student participation and simultaneously help students become independent learners” (Sanacore, 2005). Asking inclusive questions can help a teacher become a facilitator in discussion, not a lecturer. It is amazing how much we learn from just observation, and what is important for a teacher to consider are those questions that spark the conversation to make those learning observations verbal.
Sources
Sanacore, J. (2005). Increasing Student Participation in the Language Arts. Intervention in School & Clinic, 41(2), 99. Retrieved from MasterFILE Premier database.