SAVE THE LAST WORD FOR ME
(A during and after reading strategy from Subjects Matter by Harvey Daniels)
DESCRIPTION:
This is another discussion strategy to develop thinking. However, it uses groups instead of pairs, and helps each student compare his/her interpretation to others’. While reading each student selects several statements or passages of particular interest and writes each one (or summary) on a note card. On the back of each card, the student jots his/her reaction to the selected passage. Then, in small groups or as a whole class, students take turns sharing their selected passages. After a student reads or re-states a passage, others offer their thoughts and responses. The author of the card gets the last word by reading his own reaction from the back of his/her card—or starting a fresh view, if hearing the others has altered his interpretation.
WHY USE IT?
This is structured form of group discussion that helps students see how the meaning of any piece of reading is recreated by the reader, and not just funneled into her head from off the page. As students share their passages and hear various people’s responses, they hear similarities and differences in one another’s thinking. But instead of being drawn into a defensive debate, each card-reader gets the face-saving protection adolescents often need, as he/she listens and decides for himself/herself whether to stick with his/her interpretation or, free of others’ criticism and judgment, to revise it.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT:
1.To help everyone quickly locate the passage being discussed, students should indicate on each card the page number or paragraph of their selection. Be sure students understand that when they write a comment on the back of a card, it can take the form of a question, a connection with something in their own lives, an explanation of why the statement is important, or why they disagree with it—any of the kinds of thinking that good readers employ.
2.Have students complete three or four cards as they read. When they’re finished with the reading assignment and the cards, they should organize them according to which seem most important, or most worth sharing. That way, if someone else chooses to read the same statement, each student has several back-up choices.
3. Be sure to circulate among the groups as they share, to see how they’re doing and what ideas they’re focusing on.