Using Scrolls

Fourth and fifth grade students collaborate to map a difficult text. They can see at a glance the layout and content across many pages. This encourages them to stretch, question and discuss.


© 2004 Renee Goularte
reprinted by permission
find more images

Scrolls and Textmapping are most effective when used by individuals or small groups because these are the settings that best support hands-on learning.

That said, there are situations in which it makes more sense to work together as a class on a single scroll. For example, it makes sense to introduce Textmapping to your students by taping a scroll to the blackboard. This allows you to quickly preview the text - to discuss both the overall scroll and selected features.

The scroll and blackboard together form an extended, unified marking area. There are a number of advantages to using scrolls on the blackboard.

• When students are following along in their own books, there are too many opportunities for distraction. A single text taped to the blackboard provides a common focus. All eyes are on the board. You have a better chance of getting - and keeping - your students' attention, a better chance of keeping everyone focused on the issue at hand, and a greater opportunity to ensure that everyone in the class understands the lesson.
• The scroll and blackboard together act as a common text. This reduces confusion ("What page are we on?", "I can't find where we are on the page?", etc.). When you circle a heading, the message is clear: "This is the heading that I am talking about now." When you draw an arrow to an illustration, everyone knows which illustration to look at. When you circle a word and draw a line from it to another word, you are clearly and explicitly indicating that there is a relationship between the two words. The common text formed by blackboard and scroll provides you with more opportunities and options for improving the clarity and effectiveness of your classroom instruction.
• 
  Your markings on the blackboard form a cumulative record of the lesson - a trail of crumbs that you lay down over the course of the class period. Your scribblings, diagrams, pictures, circles, arrows, and other notations will often remain on the board for the entire period. All that chalk on the board - linked explicitly to the scroll - makes your message concrete and explicit; it helps clarify what you are saying; it reinforces your message by giving students something to look back on as the lesson moves forward.