Lisa Forehand's 5th grade students have been reading Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt (Nancy Paulson Books, 2015). It's the story of Ally, a girl who is good at math and a great artist, but who has a secret: She can't read.
As part of Ms. Forehand's lesson, she reads sections of a chapter aloud and then shares her thinking with students. For example, at one point in the chapter, Ms. Forehand shares a question she has for the author, "How can Ally's teacher let her know that he knows her secret without embarrassing her?" She then invites students to talk with one another in small groups about additional questions they would like the author to answer. Generating questions while reading is a habit that good readers use to remain engaged in the text.
At another point, she summarizes her understanding of the text, saying "There's a lot of important information about Ally in this section. I'm going to take some notes on my character map so that I can remember how she changes."
Ms. Forehand is an experienced teacher who knows that lessons combining teacher modeling with student participation are important for developing students' habits of mind. She also knows that it's hard to plan for exactly how much time these lessons will take because students will need different amounts of time to generate and discuss their questions. Fortunately, whenever there's time to spare, Ms. Forehand can draw on her collection of sponge activities—"learning activities that soak up precious time that would otherwise be lost" (Hunter, 2004, p. 117).
Using Four Corners
In the video that accompanies this column, you'll see Ms. Forehand's 5th grade students engaged in a Four Corners activity. They've completed their shared reading lesson on Fish in a Tree with 10 minutes to spare before recess. Ms. Forehand is ready. She has prepared five statements that she could use to review content from the book.
Students start in the center of the room. After Ms. Forehand reads a statement about the book, they consider whether or not they agree and then move to the corner that best represents their thinking: strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. Ms. Forehand has time for two discussion prompts:
- The friendship bracelets are true symbols of friendship.
- Mr. Daniels knows Ally's secret.
For each statement, the students move to their chosen corner and then talk with others there about the reasons for their choice. Ms. Forehand joins various groups as they talk. She pauses their discussions periodically to invite specific students to share the thinking of their group. Students can move from corner to corner as they consider the information presented by others and their opinions change.
With this strategy, Ms. Forehand has ensured that her students' time is not wasted just because the planned part of the lesson ended early. The Four Corners activity gives students the opportunity to review information from the book and to practice making claims and supporting their claims with evidence from the text.
Two More Sponge Activities
In addition to Four Corners, Ms. Forehand has other sponge activities in her toolbox to soak up those valuable minutes when the need arises. Here are two examples.
Daily Tweet asks students to write a message of 140 characters or fewer from the perspective of a person or character they are learning about. For example, early in the book Fish in a Tree, readers discover that the main character is bullied. Ms. Forehand includes in her lesson plans opportunities for students to write tweets of support to the character, if and when there is spare time in her schedule. These tweets further engage students with the book and also allow Ms. Forehand a quick glimpse into students' understanding.
RAFT Writing Frames (Santa & Havens, 1995; Simon, 2016) are most often used to help students prepare for writing assignments. RAFT stands for
- Role. Who are you as the writer? (A movie star? The president? A plant?)
- Audience. To whom are you writing? (A senator? Yourself? A company?)
- Format. In what format are you writing? (A diary entry? A newspaper? A letter?)
- Topic. What are you writing about?
RAFT prompts can also be a great sponge activity because they're easy to complete and they enable teachers to check for understanding. For example, in preparation for her students' study of Fish in a Tree, Ms. Forehand conducts a read-aloud of a picture book, The Day of Ahmed's Secret by Florence Parry Heide, Judith Heide Gilliland, and Ted Lewin (HarperCollins, 1995). This book tells the story of a boy in Cairo who is making his daily delivery rounds on a donkey cart, all the while anticipating the end of the day when he will share a special secret with his family—that he has learned to write his name in Arabic. Ms. Forehand believes that reading this book will sensitize her students to a central theme of Fish in a Tree—the importance of learning to read and write even when we're older.
In case the reading doesn't require as much time as she anticipated, Ms. Forehand has planned a RAFT prompt, which invites students to decide how they believe Ahmed will tell his family. Students respond to the prompt individually and share their thinking with their teacher in a Google Doc. A sample response might be
- Role—Ahmed
- Audience—his family
- Format—a note on the kitchen table
- Topic—I have a secret to tell you!
Ms. Forehand uses the students' work as a formative assessment to plan lessons that will address their writing needs as well as their understandings about texts.
This RAFT task will engage students in thinking more about the character of Ahmed and the theme of the book. At the same time, it's not essential to the goal of the lesson—so if Ms. Forehand doesn't have time to use this sponge activity, students will not miss it.
Lest We Forget
Sponge activities can be planned as part of powerful lessons. They shouldn't be left to chance. It's simply too hard to invent relevant and valuable experiences for students on the spur of the moment when teachers discover that there are a few minutes remaining.
Even skilled teachers can't always predict how long a given lesson will last. What makes some teachers amazing, even when lessons run short, is their ability to ensure that powerful learning happens every minute that students are in class.
