Reading Reactions

Heads up:  There is an example of a reading reaction (Thanks, Jack!) after the jump.  You may find it helpful to take a quick look at it so you have something to picture while I explain reactions!


All year, we've been noticing our reactions to text.  We are studying the different ways readers might react to text, and we're thinking about how our reactions help us understand the text on a deeper level.  There are lots and lots of different ways to react to text, and reactions have varying degrees of sophistication.  We are working to broaden the types of reaction each student has, and to move them further along the spectrum of sophistication.
Students keep track of their reactions in different ways.  Sometimes, they jot a quick note on a Post-It or in the margin of a reading.  Sometimes, they record a reaction in their reader's notebook.  When they record in their reader's notebook, it's a quick, informal, thoughtful way for them to get their ideas down on paper.  Reactions in notebooks have three components: What I Know, What I Think and My Idea.  Those words don't need to appear in the reaction, but the corresponding thoughts do.

The current class read aloud is Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, by Sharon Creech.  Yesterday, we reacted to the title.  The class talked about how grandmothers are typically sweet and warm, and that they want to take care of their grandchildren.  Students also talked about soup: how it's used to make people who are sick feel better,  how it can be made up of a mish mash of ingredients found in the fridge.  The class correctly assumed that the book isn't only about soup.  They thought about the title and came up with a theory: This book is going to be about kids who are having trouble getting along, and a grandmother who helps them figure it out, maybe by making soup with them.  Bingo!  By thinking carefully and deeply about the those four little words, the class was able to figure out what the book was going to be about before they read a word.  That is the power of reacting and thinking about reactions.  We started reading today, and the students did reactions in their notebook.  Here's an example from Jack's work today, with his comments below (The words in the speech bubbles are quotes from the text; the words in the thought bubbles are what Jack imagines the characters are thinking.):

"In the top section I was drawing what I know, and I know that Bailey and Rosie were in a fight and what I think is that Rosie and Bailey should make up and become friends again.  My big idea is that Rosie and Bailey eat Granny Torrelli's soup and it makes them friends again because soup makes you feel better.  I also think that in the world, good friends should always make up after a fight."