Collaberation and Deeper Reading

I don't know about you guys, but I can see where collaberation could also be a great way to help students think deeper about what they have read. The ten strategies Gallagher gives us to use on p. 114 have great implications to start the students off with. Anchor questions start the class lecture off to a deeper understanding of what the students need to see regarding reflection of historical background and elements of the novel, but if they are going to reflect on a personal level to the novel we're wanting them to engage to, we should let them collaborate. When I gave a quiz in my class this week over "Of Mice and Men" I asked them questions that would help them see what they needed to from the novel, but when we discussed the answers, I let them pull their personal knowledge into the text and this really urged them to think critally about it from their own experiential values. They also discussed it among themselves to come up with the answers in lecture. It really seemed to work.