Reading Reactions: Growing New Ideas

One of the goals of doing reading reactions is to linger on ideas that feel important, and to flesh them out so they lead to new ideas.  We flesh them out by doing the reaction and following our thoughts, we flesh them out in conversations with partners and book clubs, and we flesh them out in whole class conversations.  Here's an example of a new idea that grew out of reacting to Magritte's Empire of Light last week.  Denniz noticed that the top part of the painting is light and the bottom part of the painting is dark, and said, "I think he wanted to make the picture because it's like angels and demons."  He shared that on the rug, and then he said, "Maybe he's showing heaven and hell."  I asked, "If that's true, what do you think Magritte thinks about life?"  One of Denniz's classmates said the because the part where we live is in darkness, Magritte must think we're living in a kind of hell.  Intense, right?  Who knows what Magritte really thinks or what he was trying to portray, but this is a really interesting and well supported idea, and it's a perfect example of how a reaction can lead to a new, fabulous idea.


Here's another example, this one from our conversation today about Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech.  Rosie is the main character.  In the part of the book we read today, Bailey, her best friend who is blind, was missing.  Everyone was really worried that something bad had happened, especially since he was alone and cannot see.  It turned out he wasn't lost, and that he had just gone, "for a short walk that got very long."  When they were reunited, Rosie kept insisting that Bailey had been lost, and Bailey kept insisting that he hadn't been, that he'd just gone for a walk.  Here's the class' reaction from that conversation (My notes to you are in pink and blue.).


As students continue to react to text and to discuss their ideas, the expectation will be that the reactions and discussions lead to new (mind boggling!) ideas.


Thanks for reading.