25 Days of Classrooms: Classroom Conversations

This month I am sharing stories from
classrooms in Berwyn South District 100.

Day 6: Classroom Conversations with Allysse Ivetic (4th Grade, Piper)

     We all hope that our students love to read when they enter our classrooms, and that they love it even more as they leave.  We want to create students who become adults who are READERS.  How can we help that happen?  Pick great books to read aloud!

     Allysse Ivetic was reading Becoming Naomi León, a great novel by Pam Muñoz Ryan.  The book celebrates the culture of many of our students, while at the same time explores a girl as she discovers who she really is as a person, and explores the impact of family on our identity.   I was able to join them as they were about halfway through the book, and we used it to have our first classroom conversation.

     I love classroom conversations.  They start with accountable talk stems, some conversation about how to have a conversation, and an idea.  We pulled the ideas from the text, but also from some images that illustrated some text references as well.  They one below is one we discussed about el Noche de Los Rábanos (Night of the Radishes) that was in the book, but occurs annually in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Having conversations where students make observations about an image, and agree/ disagree/ expand upon those observations are a great way to have students practice communicating with others, while also giving them some needed background information.

 

     On the second day I was there, we had the kids talk about Naomi as a character and all the layers to her that we can see across the book.  She is a character that changes quite dramatically, so we had a classroom conversation about words we would use to describe her, and then they continued that conversation in table groups around the room.

 

 

     After I left, they finished the book.  Sadly, I was not there to hear the end.  I was even more disappointed that I missed their soap carving experience!  The character in the book carves soap, so Allysse brought that new experience to them.  What a wonderful way to make a book ending come to life!

     Thanks, Allysse, for having me in to read and talk with your class!