Shona's Shennanigans

Malaria was a global killer before COVID. And you'll find some surprising similarities and contrasts. In this podcast, I model how we chunk texts as we read by noticing what the writer is doing with the organization of paragraphs and passages. By doing so, we understand and follow the writer's logical reasoning. Apparent in this text also are Startling Statistics, one of the strategies of Notice and Note. We notice these statistics, question them, and use them to help us follow the author's perspectives, tone, and purposes. 

Y'all. I was reading Orwell today for a lesson plan. I was astounded at how the end of his essay on "Politics and the English Language" mirrored what we have been considering in the writing institute. Astounded. 

In this episode, I read aloud from an essay Orwell wrote between Animal Farm  and 1984. As I read, I model reading strategies and how I am tracking my purpose for reading: to find out how this essay led to the concept of Newspeak. 

Some things to think about. 

In this episode, I read from Natalie Goldberg's chapter "Writing is not a McDonald's Hamburger" from Writing Down the Bones. I consider the implications for fake writing day and prompt driven, standardized assessment for on demand writing. 

In this episode, I focus on setting a purpose for reading, pausing to summarize, question, and research. 

As I read aloud, I am modeling how we pause to connect, ask questions, and use text evidence to support our metacognition and initial comprehension. 

In this episode, I walk through the Comprehension TEKS to share ideas about what the metacognitive skills are that we will be using in the IBD unit, Dealing with Difficulty. 

Use this to continue the discussion of what we should learn about interpreting research. 

Use this to help students plan for the synthesis of two texts in this unit. I've also paused to give insights about what Gladwell is doing and how that should inform students as readers and thinkers of research and interpreters of bias and findings.