Start with guided reading and move toward literature circles (have kids come up with own questions and observations eventually)
Give students thematic focuses and background info, and specific questions, graphic organizers, but also do open talking to the text.
I think there should be a part of teacher training called Empathy and Understanding Students. All teaching comes from seeing lessons from the students' perspective so you can develop material in their Zone of Proximal Development (what up, Vygotsky), where material is Just Right above the students' current abilities. At times, I'm using educated guesses to figure out what students are and aren't ready for. I just watched a pretty phenomenal and by far most realistic depiction of teaching - Detachment starring Adrian Brody. Of course, it didn't show him enacting any lesson plans, but the students seemed very realistic, and he had connections to them because he himself had undergone a terrible upbringing. He was automatically empathetic. Not all teachers share the same experiences as their students so they literally need a crash course on What Do My Students Feel? Since MAC didn't provide this but tools for finding such perspectival information out, what I plan to do is learn about their interests at every turn, starting with the first day of school: What are your hobbies? What are your favorite websites?
I think there should be a part of teacher training called Empathy and Understanding Students. All teaching comes from seeing lessons from the students' perspective so you can develop material in their Zone of Proximal Development (what up, Vygotsky), where material is Just Right above the students' current abilities. At times, I'm using educated guesses to figure out what students are and aren't ready for. I just watched a pretty phenomenal and by far most realistic depiction of teaching - Detachment starring Adrian Brody. Of course, it didn't show him enacting any lesson plans, but the students seemed very realistic, and he had connections to them because he himself had undergone a terrible upbringing. He was automatically empathetic. Not all teachers share the same experiences as their students so they literally need a crash course on What Do My Students Feel? Since MAC didn't provide this but tools for finding such perspectival information out, what I plan to do is learn about their interests at every turn, starting with the first day of school: What are your hobbies? What are your favorite websites?
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