My experience in classrooms has led me to believe that triads or ‘triangle knees’ are the ideal size groups. A group of three students form a cooperative group that I refer to as triangle knees. Each member in the group sits criss-cross applesauce so that each persons knees touch the person on both the left and right. This small group forms the geometric shape of a triangle. This Triangle Knee Format allows all the members in the group to look at each other in the face. This group lends itself to a perfect quiet conversation in a classroom. Partners can also face each other for a conversation, but the conversation is not as diverse between two people. The Four Square Share Format allows for indepth conversation too. The teacher and students should know and establish their triangle knees /triads before the lesson begins. If the triangle knees partnerships are established for a few weeks, the members will become comfortable with each other instead of trying to get comfortable with each other each day.
As students get ready for the small group conversation, the students need to think about what page will I share? Do I want to leave a sticky note on it so I can find it easily? How do I indicate tracks of my thinking? Since this is school, I cannot write in my books. I can write on a sticky note (post-it) note though. I have to make sure that this is just a quick jot. I am not going to read it to my group. I might write a word or just leave it on the page. I will not read anything to my group.
In the beginning of the discussion time, I lead a triad or triangle knees group. I asked 2 students to join me (or3). We modeled how to have a discussion. Day after day, we went through my whole class list. ALL students participated in the Fish Bowl triangles knees modeling. This allowed for lots of opportunities for success. If I had 30 students in my classroom, it took approximately 10 days to model. One triangle group models per day in the fish bowl. After the fish bowl triad/triangle group model, then every triangle knees group has a chance to try-it. The teacher is coaching conversations as needed. The teacher tries to listen and only prompts the students as needed.
If the teacher hears a statement that is not supported with evidence, the teacher might ask the students to support their thinking with one of these evidence based terms:
-let me explain
-the author said
-earlier it said on page ___
-from our reading we know that…
If the triangle group of students is sharing very light weight thinking in the share groups, the teacher might help the groups dig deeper by prompting with questions:
- Can you explain why you think that?
-What make you think that?
-Why did you say that?
-Can you tell me more about that?
-How can you explain that?
-Would you please give us evidence for that idea?
-What facts do we know that support your thinking?
Remember the purpose of the teacher monitoring conversations is support and teaching. The teacher is not hearing all the conversations. The students are learning to have conversations without the teacher. The children are learning to value each other’s opinions and conversations. The interactions are student centered. The students are learning to look at each other, to honor each other’s responses, to connect to the text and to stay on the topic being discussed.
Reflecting on How Sharing Went
After Triads or Four Square Share, lets think about how it went. Some groups think questions such as these help:
-How did we sit?
-Were we ready for the discussion?
-Did we have a sticky note marking our page that we shared?
-Did we look at the person talking?
-Did we listen to each other and respond to what the other person said?
-Did we refer to the book?
-Did we talk to each other?
Sometimes in the beginning of these conversations I teach a procedure to get the children started. The children share their books after Self-Selected Reading using a simple procedure called Four Square Share. Child 1 says three ideas about book 1. Child 2 says, “I heard you say ____.” Child 2 is repeating something that Child 1 said showing that Child 2 listened to Child 1. Child 3 says, “I heard you say ___.” Child 4 says, “I heard you say ___.” If anyone gets stuck, Child 1 should help the child by repeating something in the book if needed. The goal is that this procedure becomes a conversation eventually as written about above. My experience in classrooms, is that it does with modeling and coaching.
Filed under: Debra Renner Smith, independent reading, Patricia Cunningham, Read Alouds, Reading Aloud, Self Selected Reading | Tagged: Debra Renner Smith, Deep Thinking, Four Square Share, independent reading, Read Alouds, Reading, Self Selected Reading, sharing, Triangle Knees | Leave a Comment »