Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Juli also
posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject
matter into her reading and writing workshop approach. In her
first journal of the year, she explains
the rationale behind this move and some of her thinking about
how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here. Links to many of the tools created
by Juli and her colleagues are embedded in these journals. Most
often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin to download.
You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
Ever been to the Laguna Beach Arts Festival? It's world famous
for its "Pageant
of the Masters," featuring tableaux of famous works of
art depicted by real people posing on the stage "to look
exactly like their counterparts in the original pieces."
It's amazing!
During our unit of study about comprehension strategies, we're
using the strategy of "tableaux" to understand facts
about dolphins. Visualizing, also known as creating mental images,
is something good readers do to enhance their understanding of
text. Tableaux are one way we're visualizing informational text.
According to Debbie Miller in Reading With Meaning, readers
benefit greatly from visualizing or creating mental images of
their reading.
Images are created from readers' schema and words in the text.
--Readers create images to form unique interpretations, clarify thinking, draw conclusions, and enhance understanding.
--Reader's images are influenced by the shared images of others.
--Images are fluid; readers adapt them to incorporate new information as they read.
--Evoking vivid mental images helps readers create vivid images in their writing.
For the kids I work with, visualizing often doesn't come easily.
Seeing in their mind's eye what they are reading about is a skill
they need to be taught. Once they've learned how to do it, they
need to practice in a wide variety of settings.
I found the idea for using "tableaux" as a way to visualize
in Jeffrey Wilhelm's book, Action Strategies for Deepening
Comprehension. It's on page 115 in Chapter 6, "Visualizing
Meaning Through Image and Gesture."
For this activity, tableaux are a visual representation of what you are reading.
It generally takes the form of a frozen scene or pose that captures a physical, psychological, or emotional relationship. They can represent vocabulary, create mental models of complex concepts and procedures, or visually translate a host of themes and ideas.
I use the reading we have done about dolphins as a springboard
to use tableaux for creating mental images. I design this sequence
of steps:
Collect dolphin facts from informational reading in poetry,
books, and on the Internet.
Our reading about dolphins has lasted over several weeks. We read
a variety of texts to have prior knowledge about dolphins and
make text-to-text connections. (See Journal
#9, "Our Adventures in Making Text to Text Connections")
Now we each take a piece of paper and, using our reading as a
reference, make a list of facts about dolphins.
Discuss the idea of tableaux, decide on criteria, and develop
a rating scale for the criteria.
Although I think kids will have difficulty understanding the idea
of tableaux, they catch on very quickly. We decide that the criteria
we use to evaluate tableaux should include the setting, the action,
some information, and creativity. We decide on a scale of 1 to
4, with 4 being "Outstanding!"
Work with a partner to choose several facts to perform in tableaux.
Students work in groups of 2 or 3 to choose facts they feel are
suitable for the tableaux format. They disregard those they think
won't work. One fact they choose not to use is: Dolphin babies
are usually born in the spring. They just can't figure out a way
to do it. But everyone comes up with at least one fact to act
out in a tableau. Their conversations are full of the new vocabulary
they have learned!
Perform the tableau.
This is probably the best part, and certainly the most entertaining.
I found it so enlightening to watch how they "visualize"
these facts. They really do a good job of communicating the information
they learned. One group even chose to use chairs as props. They
lay on their stomachs on the chair seats mimicking the fluke (tail)
action of dolphins.
Here are some of the kids' choices for their tableaux "facts":
-- The only natural predators of dolphins are sharks.
-- The calf (baby dolphin) stays close to its mother for at least
a year.
-- Dolphins don't have a sense of smell. They have a sense of
taste.
-- Dolphins will help other members of the pod if they are sick.
-- Pods of dolphins are sometimes seen swimming alongside ships.
-- Dolphins use their strong tails to help them stand up in the
water.
-- Dolphins are playful and often spyhop or breach out of the
water.
Rate the tableaux.
Almost everyone give themselves a rating of "3". Everyone
except for Viviana, that is. "I give myself a one for being
a dolphin," she says. "I need water."
Why are student evaluations of the tableaux activity important?
"It can help us understand the story better."
"If we don't understand it in the book, when we act it out
then we understand it."
"It helps us learn more about dolphins by acting out the
facts."
"It helps to show how much you know about the dolphins."
"When you act it out, you know how a dolphin feels."
It seems that the kids agree with Jeffrey Wilhelm about the benefits
of using tableaux to visualize text, even informational text.
Here's what he says:
Benefits of Tableaux (p. 117)
(Edited to include only the references to what might work with informational text)
Tableaux help students visualize, perceive, and consider key details and features of a text or textual experience.
Tableaux also help students represent understanding in a unique way.
Tableaux require students to be active, speak with each other, and experiment with various depictions.
Tableaux develop kinesthetic intelligence and an ability to work our understandings and responses into the physical fabrics of our being, our "body memory."
Tableaux also give students the opportunity to create a concrete experience to see and reflect upon, voice their own opinions, be active and interactive, work together, and share with others.
And guess what! Not one of the kids ever said, "Why are we
doing this crazy thing? What does it have to do with reading?"
They clearly saw the connection between doing tableaux and understanding
informational text.
Our biggest discovery? Some of us are better at holding still
during tableaux than others.
P.S. If you're interested in a high-level example of how to use
this strategy for creating mental images with scientific concepts,
check out page 134 in Jeffrey Wilhelm's book, Action
Strategies for Deepening Comprehension. A teacher, Paul, describes
how he used tableaux to help kids study the life cycle of stars.
Paul writes, "I put the kids into groups and instructed each
group to take on the role of a star. Each had to dramatize a personal
lifeline of the star from birth to death."
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Content Literacy - Unit Two
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Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
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