Read, Think, Talk: Effective Discussions around the Textbook

Begin class with factual review questions.

Bethany: You had a question about this in your homework from yesterday. What does the word the Netherlands actually mean? Student: Lowlands. Bethany: Lowlands. Yes. Why are the Netherlands called “the Netherlands” or the lowlands? Student: Because most of it is lower than the sea.

Move to higher-level questions.

Bethany: Yes. You have a quote in your book there. This is the one that the Dutch people still use sometimes. It says that “God created the world but the Dutch created Holland.” Not quite true, but why do they use that quote?

Reword questions to clarify.

Bethany: In what way did the Dutch create Holland? Student: It used to be under sea level, parts of it. Bethany: Parts of it were under the sea. How did they make so they can use the land now? Student: They made dams. Bethany: Yes, they made dikes and dams, so they’d have more land, or they kind of took the land from the sea as Johann said.

Give students a purpose in reading.

Teacher: Let’s read a few paragraphs from your book about Dutch history starting at the bottom of page 154. Go ahead and start that paragraph. The rest of you follow along and be thinking about how you can draw a picture of the happenings here so that you can remember it.

Pepin the Short was the one that finally overthrew the Merovingian dynasty. He’s the one that started the Carolingian dynasty. I’m not going to write those things done because we did talk about those before but those are important. And then Pepin’s son Charlemagne—during that time, that was when the Frankish kingdom got to its greatest extent then.

Throw in questions to keep student attention.

It was after Charlemagne died that the country got divided up. Remember, then we mentioned that two countries that we still know of today started forming. One of them was France. Do you remember what the other one was?

Student: Germany? Bethany: Germany, yes. It was at that point, those two started forming a little bit more. At that point and some years later in 987, we have a man named Hugh Capet. Most historians would consider this the beginning of the French nation. If you look back, this year is earlier than the year we talked about with the Swiss nation. Hopefully, you remember that as well.

One difference here is that whereas the Swiss are really proud of the fact that they’ve been a free nation and a neutral nation for a long time, too. In France, they didn’t have as much freedom. They were still very much under certain religious rules. It wasn’t a very good or a very free place to live. Even though this was the beginning of the French nation, it was not like that with the beginning of their freedom, really.

We mentioned them before, they were people that a lot of the other Europeans were afraid of. Anybody know the name of the people from Scandinavia?

Student: Vikings. Bethany: Vikings. They had another name as well. Student: Norsemen.

Extend discussion with additional questions.

Bethany: Norsemen, yes. If you would have lived in this time period or even earlier, probably, the name Viking would have struck a little bit of fear in your heart because people were scared of people called Vikings. Student: (reading from textbook)

Take answers from several students.

Bethany: Just from that, if they had trade relations with Rome, way back before the birth of Christ, what does that tell you about the Vikings? Student: They’re a pretty old group. Bethany: OK, they are a pretty old group. You’re right. Student: They had to be good sailors to make it from way up north to down in Italy. Bethany: They must have had some good means of transportation. Most likely they were good at sailing, if they had ways to trade with Rome way back in time. Good. Next paragraph. Student: (reading from textbook)

Break up textbook reading with comments that add interest.

Bethany: So notice it wasn’t all just fun games there. They had some tyrants as leaders in Scandinavia as well. Alright. Next paragraph yet. Student: (reading from textbook)

Thank students—be respectful and kind.

Bethany: Alright, thank you.

If you would have lived in Europe at this time, how would you have thought about the Scandinavians? What were they known for, in that paragraph that Linda read for us here?

Student: I would be scared.

Ask why questions to prompt students to give reasons for their answers.

Bethany: Okay. Why? What would they do? Student: They were raiding…

“What else?” Keep probing for a well-rounded answer.

Bethany: Yes, they were pirates, they would plunder on the land as well. What else were they known for? Student: The fact that they were able to sail…

Summarize the student’s answer, simplifying and highlighting main points for the class.

Bethany: They were really good on the water, sailing, navigating, they were fishermen as well. Those are some of the main things that were known about the Vikings at this time.