WEBVTT

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[Music] Welcome to Mark It Up!

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Scaffolding Text Discussion.

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My name is Kelly O'Brien, and I
teach eighth grade Language Arts

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at Pocomoke Middle School
in Pocomoke City, Maryland.

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It's so important to discuss

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with students what
they're reading.

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It's easy to hand a group
of kids some questions

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and give them something to read,
and they know instinctively how

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to pick out those answers.

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When you sort of put it
on them to pick out topics

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for discussion, you know right
away what it is that they bring

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from their reading,
what they understand,

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what they don't understand, what
they're treating as important.

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One of the things I do
explicitly teach them on how

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to comprehend what they're
doing is the Mark It

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Up strategy that I use.

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I'll sit down with a piece
of text, and I'll put it

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on the image projector.

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And we'll read a part of it,
and I'll stop and just say,

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"You know, I'm wondering
about this.

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This doesn't make
any sense to me."

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And I'll put my question mark,
and I'll write a little note

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so they see that I, as a
college-educated teacher,

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still have to make
meaning from what I read.

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You hand kids a small
stack of post-it notes

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and have them stick
it next to something

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that is particularly
interesting to them

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and have them write a
question about that.

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And they like it; it seems

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to just create an
organizational system for them.

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It forces them to
stop and think.

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Eventually it gets less of
me making them do it and more

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of it starts to become
natural for them.

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Today we read Harrison
Bergeron, which parallels

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with a novel we're
reading called "The Giver".

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It has extremely similar themes
of equality and sameness.

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So, I'll go with that
first, what can I tie

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in to what we are already doing?

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And then I choose something
that leads you to go, "What?!"

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The first opening line is
how I start with that one.

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"The year was 2081, and
everybody was finally equal."

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Before we start reading
the text I put that line

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in isolation on the overhead.

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I'm like, "Okay, how
is this possible?"

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And they start brainstorming
a list of different ways

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that that could exist to
kind of get them ready

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for what they're about to read.

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What I might do is start
the text with them,

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give them the provocative
opening,

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have them ask the
questions, and get them going.

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Maybe the first few
paragraphs we'll do together,

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and they'll markup their text.

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And then I'll give them the last
ten minutes in class to read,

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and so I can come around
I will be like, "Oh,

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I see that you put
an exclamation point.

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Do you have a question?

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Do you have something
you can say?

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Put that on your post-it."

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So, that by the time they go
home at night to finish it,

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they've got the ground
work laid.

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So, I do try to scaffold them
into that independent work.

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O'Brien to class: Questions.

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You read this yesterday.

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You thought about it.

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You marked up your
text, all the things

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that you have questions about,
that you're surprised about,

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you agree, you disagree.

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Who wants to start it out today?

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Student: How could you make
everybody, like, look equal,

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like not better than
anybody else?

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Student: They don't want anybody
that's smarter than each other

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because they might think
that they might try to take

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over their government or something,
and they don't want anyone to feel bad

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because someone looks better
than them or someone is smarter

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or faster than they are.

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Student: I think that
everyone should be different

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and have their own opinions
and have their own way

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of life and doing things.

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So I don't think it's fair

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that they should make
everyone the same.

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I had a list of theme topics; I
said choose five off this list

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that you think relate
to this text.

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From there, they would
choose their favorite, and--

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maybe it's equality--

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they'd have to make a list of
specific events in the text

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that relate directly
to that theme topic.

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And then the hard part comes
where they have to look at all

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of those together
and make a judgment

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"What is the author trying
to say about equality here? "

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and then form a statement
to go with that.

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And then it gets harder
because we would bring

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in the other novel, "The
Giver," and do a comparison,

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and they'd have to see what
events can go with that,

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and do they think the
authors agree on equality?

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I want them to start seeing
that there are these big ideas

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that are relevant not just to
the text but to our society

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and to other pieces
of literature.

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>O'Brien to class: So equality
not just among people but -- -

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>Student: It's like in
some seasons last longer

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than other seasons, and they
might make them equal -- -

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O'Brien: So, somehow they've
made the seasons equal?

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Student: Yeah.

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O'Brien: Does that echo
true with another piece

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of text that we have read?

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Student: It'd be "The Giver,"
they try to control the climate,

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just everything that
was happening around.

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They wanted everything
to be controlled.

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Student: Also on "The
Giver," they tried

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to control people's feelings

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so they couldn't feel
jealously of each other.

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I think kids do pick up
on the big ideas more

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than we give them credit for.

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So they're good at
getting the big ideas.

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They're just not
sure what to say

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about them once they've
got them.

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I want them to understand

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that the more they're
questioning their world,

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the more that they're thinking.

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And that's the key

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to comprehension is --
think while you read.

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[Music] To learn more
about Mark It Up!

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Scaffolding Text Discussion
please explore the additional

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resources on the Doing
What Works website.