Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension: Role Plays, Text Structure Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enrichment Techniques That Engage Students with Text (Paperback)

~ Jeffrey D. Wilhelm (Author) "A sky any colleague of mine, What's Jeff's main mantra?..." (more)
Key Phrases: choral montage, enactment strategies, enactment techniques, Deepening Comprehension, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (more...)

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Product Description

Role Plays, Text Structure Tableaux, Talking Statues, and Other Enactment Techniques That Engage Students with Text
Enliven Reading!
Before reading, hand out lines of a poem and have students try to build an idea of what the poem will be aboutŠinvite two students to play good angel/bad angel for a book characterŠhave students perform a vocabulary statue depicting the meaning of terms such as global warming or deforestation. This book has many motivating ideas like this that energize students before, during, and after reading. These strategies can be done Individually, or through pair work or groups. Great for deepening reading strategies such as activating prior knowledge, inferring, visualizing, making connections, and more.

About the Author

Jeff Wilhelm is the author of Improving Comprehension with Think Aloud Strategies (Scholastic) You Gotta BE the Book (Teachers College Press) and several other books. He has taught middle school and high school and currently teaches in the Professional Development Network at the University of Maine Writing Project. He regularly presents at national and international conferences. This is the second book in his Action Strategies for Readers series for Scholastic.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Teaching Resources (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439218578
• ISBN-13: 978-0439218573
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #87,138 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's about engaged reading. . ., July 26, 2004

By	M. G. Marsh (Pensacola, FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension is a wonderful resource for any educator who wants to engage students in learning and in critical thinking about text (fiction and non-fiction). The drama techniques outlined in this book are based on research and on Dr. Wilhelm's real classroom experiences. Dr. Wilhelm explains how these strategies can be used before, during, and after reading to 'help students enter the community of expert readers.' Every time I go back to this book to try another technique (and there are tons of them with many variations) I feel inspired by Dr. Wilhelm's enthusiasm so that I can't wait to try it out with my middle school students. I can say with confidence that I haven't had one fail yet. The movement, interaction, and creative outlet provided by these action strategies help my students connect with text and comprehend its meaning.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific resource for all teachers!, February 11, 2007

By	Mary G. Dovey (Egg Harbor City, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Wilhelm's book, Action Strategies for Deepening Comprehension is one of the most valuable teaching resources I own. I've had phenomenal success with the hotseating and tableaux activities, only two of the terrific resources in this great book. Kids of all ages love hotseating in particular because it's so much fun. In a nutshell: one kid gets in front of the room (I drape a piece of red fabric across the stool) and "becomes" the character. He/She may have a "helper" of their choosing by their side. The rest of the class are "reporters" who ask the character any question they choose. The student in the hotseat may confer with his "helper" in order to answer as the character would...and therein lies the beauty of this. As the questions and answers unfold, everybody is thinking and when an answer doesn't ring true, the majority
will know it and question it.

We've done this with multiple characters as well as the "author." The questions are nearly always completely authentic; as kids, most would feel stupid speculating about motive, etc., and asking questions, but as
"reporters" it feels completely natural. I love to see the light bulbs go in everybody's head when new ideas--synthesis!--occurs.

One of my best hot-seating moments was after reading "The Gift of the Magi," a difficult work for my 8th graders. We'd hotseated the two main characters as well as O. Henry, and it was the question to O. Henry that did it. A girl who had a real problem with making inferences asked him why he'd written the lines about Della being afraid that her new short hair made her look like a Coney Island chorus girl. My student, Tony, clearly had paid no attention whatsoever to that description--in fact I was surprised that anyone had-- and he really had to think. Finally, he answered, saying, "I wanted Della to be a little bit afraid that maybe she didn't look like a (and he stressed thsi)nice girl."

The book also offers a number of other "action" activities that you can use. For my money, these are terrific
for any age! I encourage you to check this out. I also had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Wilhelm present his research and findings on his new book, Going with the Flow, and I was wowed to hear him in person as well.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You must buy this book!, September 3, 2006

By	Susanne R. Dunn "susrd2002" (Maine) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I took a workshop with Wilhelm this summer. He demonstrated these techniques and I quickly bought the book.
This book has revolutionized my teaching and I am going back to school this year incredibly excited about using it in my classroom. I teach kids that struggle and this is going to be great for them.

Wilhelm is a dynamic speaker. If you can, snag him for your school's professional development or run to any workshop he is giving.

Enjoy!