Showing posts with label Inner Voice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inner Voice. Show all posts

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Students Are Connected

Here are some examples of connections students had as they were reading:

A connection I had today was from the book "The Dog Who Danced" by Susan Wilson. The connection I got from reading this book was that it reminded me of another book I have read in the past. The other book is called "Umbrella Summer". The reason "The Dog Who Danced" reminds me of "Umbrella Summer" is because Ed and Alice's (The Dog Who Danced) daughter died and in "Umbrella Summer" the main characters brother died. The reason that made me think of this was that the characters in "The Dog Who Danced" and "Umbrella Summer" are both sad from the recent death of family members.  

In my book All Fall Down by Ally Carter it is about this girl named Grace. Everybody thinks Grace is going crazy ever since her mom died three years ago. People think this because Grace watched her mom die so she is the only one who knows what really happened. Nobody believes her though. I can make a connection with this because on Thursday night's I help out with some little girls in dance class. There is one little girl named Adele, she is three and her mom died last year. Ever since then in class she'll get mad and go crazy over small things. That might be normal for most three year olds, but that is not the way Adele used to act.

I just started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Mr. and Mrs. Dursley have a baby named Dudley. One gray Tuesday Dudley's mom had to wrestle little screaming Dudley in to his high chair. My connection was when my little sister Delaney was a baby she would always scream and cry when I tried to put her in her high chair. Her screaming would always drive me crazy.

Erin
A connection I made while reading City of Bones is that the main character, Clary Fray is mad at her mom because her mom told Clary that they were going on vacation for the rest of the summer, and that meant that Clary to put an end to her summer actives. Clary left the house and her mom kept on calling her . Clary felt guilty because she kept ignoring her moms calls. I can connect with this because I remember a time when I was about four or five and I was mad at my mom because she was making me clean my room up and I wasn't allowed to go out until it was clean. I jumped out of the bedroom window and claimed that I was running away, but my mom caught me and made me go back inside. 

The connection that I had made to the book "You Have Seven Messages," is that the main character Luna, loves to take photos. Luna likes to take photos like of her family and friends, just like I enjoy taking. She also likes to take photos of strange things in nature, which I love to take pictures of really unique and different flowers. So in the book, "You Have Seven Messages" by Stewart Lewis, I have only made one connection, but I am sure that I will find many more!
 
Today as I read the book "The Body in the Woods" by April Henry- I felt a real connection with one of the main characters. There are three main characters in this book, and they all have different personality's. The main character I am most like is Alexis. I think I have a real connection with her because she is scared and paranoid of the scary things in life. In this book Alexis is the one who found the body in the woods. When she found this body she froze and stared at this dead girl. She tried to bring herself to go toured the body but it was to hard. She started walking slowly, but so slowly it was like she was walking in place. She got close enough to the body she decided to blow her whistle as loud as she could to get her friends to where she was at. She wasn't fearless. She was just so scared she almost couldn't blow her whistle. When her friends came back she just stood there staring at the dead girl's half open eyes. Even after the cops came, she wanted to believe it wasn't real, that it was just a bad dream. She honestly didn't know how to react, and I don't blame her. 

Alexis is just like me because I am sacred, I am paranoid, and I can't handle situations like that. If I was her I would do almost the exact same thing. I wouldn't know how to react so I would just panic and freak out. I would freeze like Alexis did, I wouldn't be able to talk, and I definitely wouldn't be able to breath. I would pretty much have an anxiety attack. Unlike her though I would scream, as loud as I could. Then I would blow my whistle. I might act fearless (which I am), but when it comes to spiders and situations like this... I honestly don't know how to react. The only thing I'm good at is scream. Which only makes the situation scarier.

I had a lot of connections while reading the book I Am Number Four, but the biggest connection was when the main character (Johnny) was going to a Halloween Festival with his dog dressed as a superhero and his Dad. They bought raffle tickets and Johnny went to a Haunted hayride with his friends. I connected to this scene because I remember on halloween we took our dog and dressed her as a superhero too. Also because right after halloween I went to this haunted house with most of my friends. I have so many connections in this book and that's just some of them.  

I am reading Code Of Honor. Kamran Smith's brother is accused of being a terrorist. Kamran just got captured and is being held prisoner of the United States Government. Kamran is being held in a cell for weeks and has talking to people about his brother, Darius. Though one night he decided to escape. He had hit a guy with a lunch tray to get out. Kamran had to run hide and sneak around until he was almost outside. Then he had to shoot a fire extinguisher to cover him while he ran past some guards. Kamran kept running and ran into the guy he hit earlier. It ended up him and someone else were coming to get him out anyway. He did all that for nothing. 

Right when I read that I could relate to it. One night I was staying up pretty late on a school night to get finished with my homework. I was rushing through everything and finally got finished with all of it. It ended up we had a snow-day the next day and I kind of did all of it for nothing, just like what Kamran did. I felt good when I got finished, but when I found out I could have done it the next day I was a little mad. I bet Kamran was too.

My connection I had today was from the book Starters by Lissa Price. There was a part in this book were Callie went to Prime, a hospital and she saw Michael and he had a different face because he looked bad before, at least that is my inference. But in my old book Wonder the main character was Aggie. He had 27 surgeries since he was born and he looked bad. 

My book is the last book of the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson and it is called Never More. I made a connection in a part in the middle of a book and it was when the main character Max got mad and kicked over a candle. When she did that it set the whole tree house on fire so she had to get out and fly away. She continued to say sorry to Dylan (the guy that made the tree house) and he continued to say it was okay. I related to that because one time I broke something glass of my grandma's and felt really bad. She said it was fine and it wasn't my fault. I still felt really bad and kept blaming my self.  
 
I am reading a book called Zane And The Hurricane and I am on page 15 . When I was reading page 14 they were talking about that a storm was not going to keep going. They thought it was going to stop but it did not stop all. That was like when hurricane Sandy hit Greater Antilles, Eastern United States, Bermuda, Bahamas, and Eastern Canada. They thought it was going to stop and it did not stop. It was a storm that died down two days after.

My book is Belly Up and one connection I had with it was when Teddy ran into the prehistoric period exhibit with all of the animatronic dinosaurs. They were scaring him when he walked by. This reminded me of the time I went to Universal Studios in Florida to ride a ride called Jurassic Park: The Ride. We got in this boat thing and at first it was slow but then the story plot changed. One of the dinosaurs escaped! Then the boat was flying, it was so fast and when we rode by, the dinosaurs jumped and scared everyone. And then we finally reached the dinosaur that escaped, we just kept on going, right between his legs and then slid down a waterslide! That was one connection that I had with my book.

 

Connections

Today's topic is Reading Connections. Effective readers constantly connect to the text as they read.  Their inner voice  relates the text to their life, other books they have read, and prior knowledge.  Readers with higher levels of comprehension consistently and constantly make connections between the meaning of the words, and background knowledge.

For information you can see Reading Workshop Connections and More on Connections.



Friday, September 24, 2010

Why This Inner Voice Thing is So Important

We just discussed the Queen of Fake Reading, and no one wants to be her.  In fact, everyone knows that I am talking about someone else.  Surely no one can be like that, can they?  Does anyone really do that?  YES, a lot of students (and teachers) fake read.

Fake reading usually takes place when the inner voice volume button is on mute.  In other words, the reader is not listening to his inner voice.  Usually the reader just skims the page, not focusing on the ideas, or trying to relate to them.  There are no connections to prior knowledge, people, problems, or places.

The inner voice is what gives words their meaning.  Knowing the definition of words doesn't mean the reader understands the text.   Meaning comes from the relationship between the words on the page and the reader.  The inner voice controls and drives that relationship.

To better use your inner voice, and understand what you read you can:
1.  Stop reading and think
2.  Pause at the end of the page
3.  Question what might happen next
4.  Compare what the character does, to what you would do
5.  Slow down
6.  Compare the setting to some place you know
7.  Reread if you suddenly realize you don't know what you just read
8.  Make a prediction
9.  Read slower 
10.If some of this list sounds like it is repeated, thank your inner voice for paying attention.

Students, what advise do you have to help readers hear their inner voice?

Monday, September 20, 2010

Hey Readers, Catch Your Brain in the Act

Your brain is a sneaky thing.  The whole time you are reading it is thinking things without you telling it to.  It sneaks around making connections to your past.  It compares the problems in the book to situations from your life.  It takes the characters and  examines them and matches them with people you know.  And it does it without your permission.  In fact, you can't even stop your brain if you try.  This inner voice has a mind of its own. 

The process of reading is when a person reads text and their inner voice makes connections between the meaning of the words, and relates it to their life and prior knowledge. The more closely the reader connects to the text, the higher the level of comprehension.  So, the key to being a good reader is learning to hear and control that inner voice.  What is it telling you?  How does it relate to the book?

At times connecting is simple. At others, especially when the text is not in an area that the reader has background knowledge, comprehension is difficult. As students build their ability to connect with text, monitor their understanding of a passage, and compare it to things they already know, their ability to understand what they read increases.

Do you want to be a better reader?  Get control of your brain.  Listen to your inner voice.  You are the boss of your brain.  Take charge of it when you read.