Strategy to Enlighten a Student Reader

 


The Book, Head, and Heart Strategy for reading is a wonderful approach to aid in comprehension.  In book club # 1, these connections resonated with personal experiences that I shared with the characters in the book.  The book, New Kid was about someone that was introduced into a different situation that made them feel isolated, alone, and misunderstood.  The author tells the story of being the “new kid” in a school that is not only different from anything that you have previously known, but also the struggle that some face when trying to fit in.  When I was in elementary school, my brother and I were the only African American students on a particular campus.  To top it off, English was not their primary language.  We attended school in this district because my parents decided to move and lived next to border of Mexico.  A district where a majority of the students were Hispanic and were learning English as a second language.  Learning how to communicate and not feel like an outsider was something that I had to face on a daily basis.  However, as time passed, and I learned ways to adapt, the awkwardness did diminish.  In my head, the situations that the characters had to experience were similar to mine.  The book confirmed my feelings of unpleasantness that come from being a minority person.  Having to deal with racial profiling and socioeconomic racism on a regular basis can leave one feeling disheartened.  In my heart, I realized that learning ways to love myself and to not put limits on what I desired in life should be my primary focus.  Making these connections allowed me to enjoy the content of the story in a way that made everything seem believable.  I understood how the “new kid” felt.

This strategy would work well in my ELA classroom.  ELA breaks down practices and techniques used to convey a message or story.  It also aides in the understanding or comprehension of a literary work.  It helps you to be able to relate to and understand different experiences that occur in life outside of your own scope of awareness.  How I would utilize it is by having students notate their thoughts as they read on a created worksheet that asks them to document their Book, Head, and Heart connections.  They will have to submit these notes, on a regular basis, preferably after the reading of a couple of chapters at a time.  We will then have class time to discuss the notes that everyone has written.  This will force them to be more engaged in the text that they are reading.  My hopes are that it will also spark a wonderful discussion about the text that will increase their understanding and appreciation for the reading.  By forcing them to explain the thoughts and feelings that are happening as they read, they are using their prior knowledge to relate understanding.  When the student feels apart of the story the journey to finish the reading might not be so daunting.

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