Lazear Charter Academy - Oakland Unified School District

• Teacher sets up the procedures for handing-off discussions
• Examples:
1. I hand off to ...... .
2. Thank you _ __ _
• Teacher prompts the students to ask questions, answer questions and/or comment on
what they have read and want to react to from the text.
• Getting Started:
1. Model handing-off by offering comments on the text, asking questions about the
selection, the style of the writing or the connection to the unit them.
2. Use discussion starters such as "I didn't know that..." or "This piece made me
think ... " or "I disagree with _ _ because ... "
3. Participate in the discussion by raising your hand.
4. Seed new ideas as you participate in the discussion, for example, "As I read this
selection, I was reminded of . What did that part remind you of?" Or,
"This piece opened up a whole new way of thinking about the unit.
5. Wait for students to respond to each other. Don't feel the need to jump in when
there are a few moments of silence.
6. Sentence frames such as, "I agree/disagree with because .", and
"I also would like to say/add .", should be posted for student
reference and use.
• Handing-off can be used periodically to check understanding of the text and concepts.
This can be done at the end of the reading each day.
• Build the idea of handing-off into other classroom discussions.
Tips:
• There are sample sentence starters in the Program Appendix that you can use. The
sentence starters can be written on a piece of chart paper so that the students can refer to
them during handing off.
• Handing-off can be done after both reads.
Resources:
• OCR TE - Reading Recommendations from lesson
• OCR TE - Teacher Tips in marginalia
• OCR TE - Program Appendix
• OCR Level 1 Routine Card 12
• OCR Level (2-5) Routine Card 5
• OCR Routine Booklet
• SRA videos