Strategy Practice: BHH and Quadrants

We are entering our fourth week of school on Monday and we have spent the last few working on different strategies as we prepare to introduce the bulk of Notice and Note. Having a great time discussing things and at times the reminder to write it down to save a record of our awesome gets forgotten in the discussion but that is kind of the point isn’t it? We want to get students thinking and talking and that has to start somewhere.

So with yesterday being orange shirt day, a day to recognize the students who had to suffer through Residential school, we looked at the story I Am Not a Number and I introduced quadrants of thought as a strategy to help with our reflection of the text.

The story chronicles a girls time from being ripped from her family and then coming home to them after a year at the residential school. For a picture book, it does touch on some of the more disturbing events that occurred in the time of residential schools.

We have been practising BHH as a tool for reflection and so this was not new. I added Quadrants of Thought as we look at how the author promotes visualization, uses powerful language, combines the 5 senses and draws on emotion. Students listened and reflected as I read and then took time afterwards to quietly write. Then we discussed as a class and it was really excellent to see and hear their thinking. I feel very strongly giving students multiple access points to try and understand this difficult topic as well and to really understand their own reaction to it really helps to increase the critical thinking and the empathy that is required when looking at this time in history. Here are a few examples.