I made a mistake the other day in class. I assigned my 7th grade a chapter to read in class and supplied a worksheet with questions about the reading.
As I circulated around the room, I was disappointed to see the majority of my young charges were just scanning the chapter for answers instead of reading. Several scholars had started the worksheet without even opening the book. Only a tiny handful were actually reading the chapter first.
I mentally reminded myself, “Must not supply questions before they actually read the chapter.”
<Ugh>
The scanning for answers has become kind of a thing for my students. I beseech them to read but they resist. Better to get the work done poorly in 13 minutes, than take 19 minutes to read the chapter and provide well thought-out answers to the questions.
In an effort to avoid the pan-and-scan approach to reading, I often ask questions that require them to use the facts from the reading as foundational information - questions that have no obvious answers; queries they cannot quickly search through the text to find. In other words, I ask them to think critically. I do not accept, “I don’t know’ or ‘IDK.” (See previous post)
You would think I had them strapped to the rack and was slowly turning the giant crank.
“Oh, nooooooo, not thinking!” they wail from the torture chamber that is my classroom.
“How do you think Columbus was able to sail due West from the Canary Islands?”
Gnashing of teeth.
“Compare and contrast our milkweed bug study with Jane Goodall’s chimpanzee study.”
Groans of despair.
“Why do you think locating sources of water on the Moon might be helpful to NASA’s ambitions to send astronauts to Mars?”
Shrieks of pain.
“In your opinion, should NASA receive more funding, less funding or exactly the same funding. Cite three pieces of evidence from the reading.”
Heads around the classroom…..explode.
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