Day 3: Test Prep

Most of the time spent was with the seventh grade advanced class.

When the class began, they changed the room back into groups instead of rows. This leads me to believe that the rows are only a set up for testing or during RTI. They also changed their reading/writing groups, since many of the students were asking for a change. The teacher complied and new groups were formed. Once this was settled, each group was assigned a leader who would ask other students to do different tasks while they answered a question about the text they were reading, a Retrieved Reformation. Each group got a single question; those same questions will be questions they would solve on their tests. Each group was also assigned a scribe to take notes/responses to the question.

While the students where answering, Joey and I traveled around the room and discussed the questions with certain groups. One group in particular seemed stuck, as their question was about a character that had very little interaction in the story. They also seemed a little confused by the fact that another character, which was linked to their character, was unable to escape a bank safe. I tried to make an outside connection using the Twilight Zone. I mentioned a story where the main character locked himself in a safe so he could peacefully read and something occurs that wipes out civilization. It was to help them understand how secure and tough safes held through. The reference did not seem to help them. However, as we continued talking, I assisted them in finding a good quote in their text to work off of. This did seem to help and they were well off for most of the time.

Another group was answering the question very well, but I knew they needed to have a little more data to prove and “extend” their answer. Part of answering their questions involves a process known as ACE response, Answer/restate-Cite evidence-Extend your answer. When searching for a word to describe a certain character, one student used a word that was a synonym for one of their vocabulary words. I did not tell him which word, only that he used a similar word to his vocabulary. Sure enough, the group was able to find the word and used it in their response. Their teacher was impressed by their work.

I realized from this that even the most hardworking and bright students need scaffolding. This was a good experience to see how to provide this scaffolding and when. I cannot wait to help co-teach next week, especially since they are going further into historical texts.