Guided Comprehension: Evaluating Using the Meeting of the Minds Technique

• Read an original version of The Three Little Pigs aloud to students. Ask students to think about the different points of view of the wolf and pigs as they listen to the story.
  
  
• Display the Meeting of the Minds Chart for students. Fill in the character columns with "pigs" and "wolf." Ask students to imagine the three little pigs and the wolf having a debate about the incidents in the story. Have students brainstorm questions that an interviewer could ask the characters. Record the questions on the chart.
  
  
• Choose one question and, in each of the character columns, record how each character might respond to the question. For example:
  

Do you think you did anything wrong in this situation?

• Pigs’ response: No, we were just minding our own business in our houses.
  
  
• Wolf’s response: I was just looking for some food. I can’t help it if I’m hungry.

• Using the question previously demonstrated, have the student moderator ask the question and have each character respond.
  
  
• Explain to students that they must “become” the character and answer the question as the character would. There is no script to read from so students should just ad-lib.
  
  
• After students answer the question, give a brief summary of their answers to demonstrate the role of the summarizer.

• Pass out individual copies of the Meeting of the Minds Chart to each student.
  
  
• Divide the class into small groups (7–9 students per group) and ask them to simulate another meeting of the minds. Students should begin by brainstorming questions and recording them on their charts. The characters should remain the same (wolf and pigs). Students who do not have a role should act as the audience.
  
  
• Have students switch roles after each question.

• Review the meeting of the minds strategy using the example of the three little pigs story from Stage 1.
  
  
• Guide students in reading an instructional level text, preferably with conflicting characters. You may choose to use another version of the Three Little Pigs or a new version of a common fairy tale. Some suggested books are available at Folk and Fairy Tales, Tongue-in-Cheek Versions.
  
  
• Have students simulate a meeting of the minds debate.
  
  
• Have students reflect on using the meeting of the minds technique and how it can help them to evaluate what they read.
  

• Drama center. Have students read and perform a Readers Theater for The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. (A script is available at Readers Theater Script for The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.) When finished reading, ask students to evaluate each of the characters in the skit and write down their judgment to share with the group. What did they think of the wolf? The pigs? What would they have done if they were in the same situation?
  
  
• Writing center. Have students write a review of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs. Remind them that they should use the evaluating strategy to make judgments about the story. Have students read their reviews to a partner and discuss.
  
  
• Genre center. Have students read and explore other popular fairy tales. If possible, have varying versions of popular fairy tales available for students to browse (for example, different versions of Cinderella or Jack and the Beanstalk). A list of varying versions is available at the Folk and Fairy Tales, Tongue-in-Cheek Versions website. Have students reflect in their journals about the different versions of a fairy tale and give reasons why they like one particular version better.
  
  
• Internet center. Using the interactive Venn diagram, have students compare two versions of the Three Little Pigs. Afterwards, have students write evaluative statements describing the major differences between the two versions.