Thoughts and Ideas Needed please

[spedrunner]

This summer I am teaching ESY to a group of 8th grade students that will be entering 9th.   I have 12 students, various levels of reading levels, various disabilities, etc.


They have a summer reading assignment which I am working on with them.  They have all chosen between the following books:

A Raisin in the Sun
THe Secret Life of Bees
Animal Farm
Sorta Like a Rock star


All of my students have access to Learning Ally (audio book) and they have the hard copy to follow along, since they are required to make annotations including

? - questions or cmments!

!-  interesting facts
+ positives
- negatives

My problem is that this is difficult for all my students. I have been going back and forth with ways to make this exciting, stress free and academic for all students.  

My thoughts are to break down the annotations and teach each one and help students find examples of one (for e.g. spend one day on looking for questions or comments and annotating with ?)

I have provided my own personal examples but they are still having difficulty putting it to use in their own reading. 

Any thoughts and ideas of how to successfully run this?  I have always taught elementary so this is a learning experience for myself as well!  (as I never really make annotations in books i read!)

Woul dlove to hear any input, comments, suggestions, etc from all your smartie pants'!

[grover]

My 8th grade LD and ED/BD students loved post-its. The ED/BD kids in particular would refuse to annotate unless they had post-its. Maybe you (or they) could spend a small amount of time putting a certain number of ?, +, - and ! on post-its, so all they have to do is stick it in the spot when they come across it, and then write their question directly on the post it so they remember what question they had about it?

[grover]

Another thing I did one year when I had some students who had aide support, was have them all vote for the top two choices of books until we had one book as the clear winner. Then we all read that book together (I knew it wouldn't get read at home.) The aide or myself would read aloud, pausing occasionally to state "hmm, what annotation could we make here?" until the students were asking us to stop because they wanted to annotate something. By the halfway mark, 3/5 of the students were annotating on their own without much prompting.

[redmonkeystomper]

I agree, if you could narrow it to one book and start off reading whole group modeling annotating. Or you could use an article or short text to teach the skill and have them practice each type after presented.

[spedrunner]

thanks everyone! These are awesome suggestions! I love the idea of doing one book, but unfortunatly I dont think I will have time to do that book then give them time to do their own (and I know they wont do it on their own) our summer program is very short

[spedrunner]

I thinkI could possibly narrow it down to maybe two choices. Maybe I can have two groups and do some read aloud with each group and work on annotations until they can do so independently!

[thejackpot]

Do A Raisin in the Sun orally. It's a play and they should get up and read the parts. It's not too difficult, ability wise so they should be ok. I always provide a few props with plays so the kids get into that. A book for Benetha, apron for Mama- they don't have to be complex just something. Pause between acts and chart their annotations for the first act on the board or large chart paper, then pass out post -its and pause for them to annotate. I normally lead them with a question for a part of the text and tell them I expect blank type of annotation from what we read. Guide them with easy ones. Then have them read the other text at home or in small group. For the small group book, guide them with the annotations as well. Pause and ask them to talk to the text at that point.
I also share my annotations with them. My copies of books are riddled with underlining and post-its. I share it with them. I also point out how my annotations differ between being the reader and being a teacher so they get that I am not all knowing. Good luck!