Using Chambers' model in text conversations
The purpose of the exercise is to allow students to reflect on and discuss texts with a focus on their thoughts and feelings about the reading. By using the conversation Model, students are given a structure to express their ideas about the text in a way that develops their understanding and analytical skills. The seacher models the approach before the Students try it themselves.
Here's how you can facilitate the conversation:
Read a chapter or a short text together.
Allow students to process and reflect on the text.
Model the conversation
Read a short text (preferably a read-aloud text or a short story) and think aloud about the five questions that form the basis of the conversation. The teacher is the one who guides and asks the questions initially to show how the students can think.
What do you like about the text?
Let the students reflect and say what they liked about the story. What was funny, interesting or exciting?
What do you dislike about the text?
Ask students if there was anything in the story they didn't like or that confused them.
Is there anything difficult to understand or something you are pondering?
Encourage students to think about words or ideas that they didn't understand. Perhaps some words need to be explained to increase understanding.
Is there anything that is repeated or recurring in the text (pattern)?
See if students can find something that is repeated, such as a certain event, an expression, or a character's behavior that recurs.
Is there anything in the text that you have experienced yourself, read about in another text, or that has happened in real life (connections)?
Ask students if they can connect anything in the text to their lives or something they have read in other books.
Together with the students
After you have modeled the conversation model, read another chapter or paragraph from the text and go through the five questions together. Let students bring up their reflections and give suggestions about what they think about the text.
Work in pairs
After working together as a class, divide students into pairs. Give them a few minutes to talk about the text, use the reading log, and ask their questions according to the model.
Students can now fill in their reading logs for the text and discuss what they have written with a classmate. Encourage them to be active and ask each other questions.
Follow-up
Gather the class and have a few students share their thoughts about the text with the whole group. Reflect together on what was difficult to understand and what connections students have made to their own lives.
Suggestions!
You know your students best! Adapt the questions by using simpler language and providing more concrete examples. Have students draw or use flashcards to show their thoughts about the text, especially if they have difficulty expressing their thoughts in writing.
