This is the first year that I feel like my students really "get it," and I owe at least part of their success to my black, plastic bangs."Just as rigor does not reside in the barbell but in the act of lifting it, rigor in reading is not an attribute of a text but rather of a reader's behavior-engaged, observant, responsive, questioning, analytical. They are noticing them in the read-alouds we experience together in class, and they are successfully finding examples in their independent-reading books, as well. My students have found many Contrasts & Contradictions in the weeks since my short-lived punk phase. I found a cheap disco light on Amazon that set the mood nicely, and my students took turns picking awkward dance moves for the class to imitate while we chanted our Contrasts & Contradictions question to the drumbeat. When a character acts in a way we don't expect, we ask, "Why would the character act this way?".Īfter our discussion, we stood on our chairs and chanted "Why would the character act this way?" as we danced to a beat from the drumset in the middle of my classroom. Blonde-haired teachers rarely show up at school wearing black wigs, so we ask, "Why?". People don't randomly ditch their professional teacher clothes for combat boots and striped, fingerless gloves, so we ask, "Why?". When someone acts in a way we don't expect, we naturally ask, "Why?". ![]() I asked them why they were so curious about my clothes today when they hadn't said a thing about my outfit the day before, and the class practically shouted, "BECAUSE YOU DON'T USUALLY DRESS THIS WAY!" Bingo. They began to form wild guesses as to what had gone wrong in my life. My students demanded to know why I had come to school in these clothes. When I walked into my classroom in my alternative/punk attire (I know that it was alternative/punk because one of my students set the record straight when an unwitting student had the audacity to describe my outfit as gothic), questions fired from all sides of the room. When this happens, readers are supposed to ask themselves, "Why would the character act this way?" This question leads readers to make valuable inferences and even to foreshadow where they might not otherwise. (I talk about this book in more detail here.) One of these signposts is called "Contrasts & Contradictions" and occurs whenever a character behaves unexpectedly. Probst describe different "signposts" readers should look for as they read. If you haven't read Notice and Note yet, I highly recommend it! In this book, authors Kylene Beers and Robert E. It was Contrasts & Contradictions day-the day I introduced my favorite reading strategy to the class. ![]() No, a certain party-supply establishment had not experienced gastro-instestinal distress of any kind. This transformed my teaching over several years until one day I stood in front of my students with combat boots, fingerless gloves, a leather vest, a studded belt, dark lipstick, winged eyeliner, and a black wig. Probst, I stopped teaching books and started using books to teach reading strategies instead. My plan had worked.Īs a Literature teacher, I used to teach books to my students, but after reading The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller, and Notice and Note, by Kylene Beers and Robert E. I peeked through my fake black bangs and smiled behind my mask. "You look like Party City threw up on you." ![]() How I Introduce the Contrasts and Contradictions Signpost in Reading Class
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