Comparisons, Writing About Our Reading, & Students as Teachers!

Our mini-lesson in reading today was how comparisons are used in many non-fiction texts to help us visualize something by comparing it to a familiar object. One sign that you might find a comparison is when you see a picture of something in a text that, at first glance, seems really out of place. Chances are the author is going to use a comparison to help you understand at a deeper level! I copied two samples from Zoobook magazines to use as my mentor texts for this lesson. I recorded the non-fiction topic, the comparison language, and the familiar object.

 

 For guided practice, I copied another page from a Zoobook magazine on kangaroos that had a comparison. Students recorded the non-fiction topic, the comparison language, and the familiar object in the genre learning tab of their Thoughtful Logs. In the guided practice text below, you'll see that one kangaroo jumped 44 feet which is almost the length of a school bus!
Guided practice allows all students to practice the strategy in a close proximity to a teacher.

Students returned to their desks to do a little more independent work with comparisons. I handed out a Zoobook magazine to each student and told them to skim and scan for more comparisons and to record examples they found. This student scanned his magazine on deer and thought that a man with big muscles seemed kind out of place, so he knew the author was probably making a comparison!

Here is what he recorded in his Thoughtful Log as proof that he could independently identify a comparison in a non-fiction text.

Did you know tigers' faces are like our fingerprints? No two tiger faces are identical, just like no two fingerprints are exactly the same!


We also read the book Hungry, Hungry Sharks as a mentor text for comparisons. Students glued the following chart into their Thoughtful Logs to anchor their learning.

 As students listened, they recorded the comparisons they heard!

 

Here are some examples of comparisons this reader found during independent reading:

 Here are more comparisons one reader found in a variety of Zoobook magazines!

In one of our guided reading groups, we have been discussing how we can learn important lessons from characters in texts we read. Today was Phase 2 for one of my groups. In Phase 2, students respond in writing to a deeper-level prompt using the text we read the day before.

We learn that providing evidence from the text is an effective way to support your answer. I love it when I see students doing exactly what Natasha is doing below!

Here is what one student wrote in response to the writing prompt:

Here is what another student wrote:

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Last week in Social Studies, I decided to flip flop roles with my students. I made THEM the teachers! I divided Chapter 1 of our immigrant textbook into 8 sections and created graphic organizers for each of the 8 sections to help guide students to pull out the most important information. After reading their assigned pages, they were to fill out their graphic organizer overhead to communicate what they learned. (It's amazing what a transparency and Vis a Vis marker can do to motivate kids!) Students had to share writing responsibilities, in addition to assigning which member of the group would 'teach' each piece of information to the class. Here are a few examples of some of the overheads. I encouraged students to refer to page numbers in our text as they presented to help give us visuals to deepen our understanding!

 

 Today it was time for students to teach the important information they read. I gave each group member a pointer to use, too, so they would feel even more like teachers!

After each group presented, we created an anchor chart of our learning. We discussed who immigrants were, where they came from, and why they wanted to come to America! In this activity, students were definitely in charge of their own learning.

Animal Research, Part 1

One of our fourth-grade writing genres is a non-fiction report. This week, we kicked off our non-fiction writing unit by selecting animals to research. Students considered a few different animals, thought about which one made them wonder the most, and made their decision. Personally, I decided to research owls since I think they're beautifully mysterious birds! (And I also have a small obsession with owl jewelry and knick knacks!) While I want students to research authentic questions, for the sake of this project and the level of support most students require when doing research, I made the decision that all students would research the habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms of the animal they chose.

The next step of their research process was to brainstorm where a researcher can find information. We will be using three resources for our research. First, we discussed non-fiction books.

By reading chapter titles in a table of contents, a researcher will need to infer where to find the information he or she needs. I modeled for students how I inferred where there might be information about an owl's habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms.

Then I recorded those page numbers on my notes sheet. Essentially, this is pre-writing (creating a plan for what we will write about.) This also helped us eliminate pages that we inferred probably wouldn't have information about my three subtopics.

Students then went into their own books to write down the names of chapters/page numbers they inferred would have information about their animals' habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms.

Here is a short clip of our kiddos utilizing their table of contents to infer the location of information about the habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms of their animals.

 

I also modeled how to use an index when doing research. I circled topics that I inferred would have information about the habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms of an owl.

 Then I recorded all the topics/page numbers onto my notes sheet for each of my three sub-topics about owls.

Students applied their learning by using the index from their own books to find and record more topics and page numbers.

Using an index is a helpful way to quickly find the information you want!

Here is one student's sheet so far.  He also has the second page filled out with all the page numbers for each of the chapter names and the book topics that he inferred would have information on the habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms of moose.

By the end of writing, students had a plan for what pages they will search during our next writer's workshop.
Also, if you're interested in the sheets I created for students to use for this research project, visit my TpT store. I recently posted them! :)To see the next part of our process where students gather notes from a non-fiction book, an encyclopedia, and a website, visit this next blog posting (Parts 2, 3, & 4).

Lovin' Literacy!

Our study of non-fiction text features continues. Yesterday and today we focused on insets and sidebars. We added them to our list of non-fiction text features!

Yesterday we focused specifically on insets. I modeled my own thinking of how my brain processed an inset that I had found in one of our social studies readers. We have been studying the economy of the five regions of the U.S. so this text helped to combine literacy and our social studies content.

For guided practice, I photocopied a different page from the text about strawberries in California.

Students recorded their thinking in their Thoughtful Logs in the Genre Learning tab.

During guided practice, I noticed there were a few kids who still struggled with connecting the text, the bigger pictures, and the inset. I pulled these students during guided reading and used yet another page from our social studies reader to practice the skill one more time. Students read about rice plants in Louisiana.

Students recorded their thinking in their Thoughtful Logs after telling me verbally what their thoughts were for each step of our process in regards to understanding insets.

Today we reviewed our learning of insets from yesterday and then focused on sidebars.

I modeled my thinking using a page from our social studies reader that informed me of a potato festival in the Midwest.

For guided practice, I photocopied a different page from the same reader that had a sidebar in it. The text overlapped with our social studies content and discussed an oyster festival in the Northeast.

After students read the guided practice page, they recorded their thinking in their Thoughtful Logs.

Here is one student's response:

As I've mentioned several times in this blog, we are studying the economy of each of the five U.S. regions. Today we focused specifically on the Northeast. I assigned each student to a reader at his/her independent level. Students summarized what they learned about one specific industry or product in the Northeast.

I worked with some students to read about the fishing industry in the Northeast. Together we wrote a summary of what we learned about fishing and recorded it on our notes sheet that we will later use to create a magazine about our nation's economy!

April read about cranberries in the Northeast. She used her own words and key words from the text to help her write her summary! 

In Writer's Workshop today, we used two pages from the mentor text Bubba the Cowboy Prince to continue our exploration of verbs and adverbs. We highlighted the verbs in yellow.

I focused more specifically on the word 'perfectly' on this page to introduce adverbs.

We recorded our learning in our Thoughtful Logs in the Powerful Words and Phrases section.

Students selected three verbs and three appropriate adverbs and wrote sentences to demonstrate their understanding.

I had a teacher email me and ask if I could post all my anchor charts for our writing process. Here they are!

In other literacy activities, we got to meet with our second-grade buddies in Mrs. Adams' class. We helped our buddies learn to use a great spelling website. Students any age can use this website at home to practice their spelling words!

And last but certainly not least, students who left the classroom during learning time only 5 times or less during Quarter 1 (to go to the bathroom, get a drink, or get something from their backpack) got to eat lunch in the classroom. I love students who value their time IN the classroom! Way to to Natasha, Tyler, Summer, Blake, Adam, Casey, Cody, Katie, and Elisa!

Homework:

1. Reading - 15 mins., Turkey Log

2. Math - 10 mins. facts, 8.4 

3. Spelling - Sentences, Test Fri.

4. Social Studies - North America Map Test, Fri.

                         - Finish Northeast notes