In my US History inclusion class at Baldwin High we are always struggling to find new ways to trick the students into reading historical documents. For my bellringer today I had my students read an article about Mary McLeod Bethune and answer some basic comprehension questions afterwards, which were listed at the bottom of the article. I noticed that some of the students, maybe even a majority of them, skipped down to read the questions first and then skimmed the text for the appropriate answers, not bothering to read the remainder of the surrounding material for context. So, I decided to employ the “popcorn reading” method for the remainder of the time. One student began reading, and at the end of the paragraph that student would pick a classmate to continue the reading, and so on. I found that this method engaged the students and kept their attention. Students who would have normally skimmed (or not read at all) were now able to answer the questions with a richer understanding of the subject matter. Popcorn reading also helps to develop public speaking skills, encouraging students who might not normally be active in class to have a direct involvement in the proceedings.
Overall, I believe that popcorn reading has a lot more of a personal impact on engaging a majority of the classroom as opposed to my lecturing the text aloud or imploring the students to individually sift through the page long text themselves. Although some students struggled with reading aloud and battled with specific terminology, overall, I believe that through fostering an environment of understanding and patience with readers that might be at different levels that this can help elevate not only those individuals specific reading handicaps, but also proved beneficial to the entire classroom's understanding of the text.
I totally agree with the popcorn reading approach. I remember in high school i loved popcorn reading because i loved to read out loud and i know that it definitely keeps the students focused because no one wants to be called on and look dumb because they don't know where the class is at. Students are clever and they pick up the "quick" ways to doing everything so they can get it done faster. I don't blame them because i too find myself reading the questions first and then skimming through the text to find them. It is something we are taught to do in this fast paced society, especially in classrooms now there is no time to cover something just for the heck of it. We have so many standards we have to meet by the end of the semester we are pushing the kids to go throw all the material so fast and hope that they catch on and don't have any questions so we can move on to the next thing we have to meet.
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