This was a super proud week for me as a kindergarten teacher! Close reading is a hot topic in education these days with the implementation of the CCSS, but there is a lot of debate about close reading in kindergarten. This year in kindergarten, we have worked really hard to develop our skills in discussing a text in order to get a deeper understanding. Over the course of this week, we read Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back several times, each time going deeper into the text to think about what the author wrote and how the author wrote it. We made inferences, making sure to refer back to the text and tell our partners which page showed evidence for our thinking. Students used highlighters to find specific parts of the text and discussed the actions of the main character, Bear. The goal of this lesson was for students to make inferences about the character of Bear. Students were asked to write and draw about Bear's character traits and provide page numbers that showed evidence for their thinking. It was amazing to see that students recognized that Bear could be different in different situations - helpful with some characters, and according to one group, "horrid" with others.
One amazing moment that I won't forget is when two of my students were having a discussion about what happened to the Rabbit who stole Bear's hat. One student thought that the Rabbit had run away, while the other student thought that Bear ate Rabbit. The students discussed their thoughts and showed each other evidence in the text. At the end of the discussion, one student said, "I agree with you now. I changed my mind. I DO think Bear ate Rabbit!"
*Teacher's heart soars.*
One amazing moment that I won't forget is when two of my students were having a discussion about what happened to the Rabbit who stole Bear's hat. One student thought that the Rabbit had run away, while the other student thought that Bear ate Rabbit. The students discussed their thoughts and showed each other evidence in the text. At the end of the discussion, one student said, "I agree with you now. I changed my mind. I DO think Bear ate Rabbit!"
*Teacher's heart soars.*