Taking Notes, Donorschoose Books, & Thanking Our Donors

We continue to embark on taking notes to gather information from multiple sources about our focused topic. The topic I'm modeling with is spirit bears, as it relates well to the novel Touching Spirit Bear that is guiding a lot of our learning we are doing this quarter. Yesterday I modeled taking notes from watching a video about spirit bears. Today I modeled how to take notes from a website. This is the website I used:

As I read from the website, I noted key words and phrases that I felt were important for the public to know about spirit bears. I recorded those ideas on the graphic organizer below (and on the back!)

After I modeled, students tried on the skill of reading from a website and taking notes about circle justice, another topic from novel Touching Spirit Bear. I sent the website to their email to read online. 

Students added notes to their graphic organizer from this second source. This graphic organizer is one all disciplines in our school are using to help scaffold the writing process of any informative/explanatory writing task in any subject area. By consistently using the same graphic organizer, our hope is that kids will eventually be able to create one from scratch as they organize their writing in the future when we teachers are not around or aren't allowed to help them (a.k.a. taking the Smarter Balanced Assessment!)

 Notes that didn't fit on the front were written on the back.

Here is an example of one student's notes from the website about restorative justice/circle justice. Many students made comparisons to this factual information and how Ben Mikaelsen used these facts as part of his novel. My favorite quote from today was, "So, Miss Bongers - spirit bears and circle justice are real things? I thought Ben Mikaelsen just made those things up for his story!" Helping kids see these connections - that real authors pull in facts to write fictional stories will help as we draft our own narratives later.

After students finished reading their second source and taking notes, they read Ch. 6 from Touching Spirit Bear. In this chapter, Cole (the protagonist) encounters the spirit bear for the first time. There is also narrative in this chapter about Cole's circle justice hearing. Our research helped inform students about both of these topics so that their comprehension of the text would increase.

In our next class, students shared the notes they recorded from restorative justice website. Before they discussed with one another, we reviewed our rules for collaborative discussions.

Partners practiced these behaviors during their discussions.

Students recorded any facts their partners shared that they did not have on their own sheet.

Then we came together as whole class, and I had every student share one thing they learned from the website as a way to 'hear all voices'. This was the final set of notes for one student after independent work, partner chats, and whole class discussion.

In other news, our shipment of new books came from Amazon as a result of our project getting funded at Donorschoose.org. Check out all the great new titles that will now be in the hands of our 7th grader! Thank you to all of the community members (parents, grandparents, friends, and strangers) who donated to this project. I wanted to give a special shout-out to U.S. Cellular who funded the projects of MANY teachers all over the country. Thank you for supporting education!

The kids were excited to get their hands on these new books today!

 (PS - It's Superhero Day at our school, so some of our students have costumes and hats on!)

I am very grateful to the donors who were so kind to help fund our project. Because we want them to know how thankful we are, we wrote thank you letters to all of them. So, to Mom & Dad, Libby Jones, Pat Jones, Michelle Hase, Dusty Jacobson, Meghan Cropp, Heather Trevino, and U.S. Cellular - THANK YOU for keeping the excitement of reading alive in our 'tweenagers'!

And one more picture because one of my 7th graders ROCKED Superhero Day with his pink tights and cape:

Animal Research - Part 9

In our last blog posting (Part 8), students learned to expand their habitat notes into complete sentences to make a paragraph.

Today, we followed the same process using our green notes on our animals' diets. On the left are my notes in the order I thought gave them the best flow. On the right, you'll see the paragraph I wrote from my notes. I highlighted where my notes appeared in my paragraph so students could see the relationship between the two pieces and that I had to use my own brain and words to expand my notes. You'll also notice I taught students to carry over the resource code to give credit for where each of our ideas come from.

Before I set them loose to practice the process themselves, we watched the clip I took yesterday as they drafted their habitat paragraphs. I told them how impressed I was at how focused everyone was! We noticed how everyone was on task, no one was talking, kids were looking back and forth from their notes to their notebook, kids were rereading, the list went on! I think this technique of having students watch themselves truly inspires them to be the best writers they can be.

Here are some still shots of students drafting their diet paragraphs:

And here's a clip of what they looked and sounded like as they drafted today! I was proud, once again, of their work today!

Here's the paragraph one of my kiddo's wrote about the diet of a polar bear!

Students followed this same process for drafting their defense mechanism paragraphs! In our next lesson (Part 10), we will write our introductions to our reports. Visit my TpT site if you're interested in getting all the student sheets used in this animal research unit.

Animal Research - Part 8, Team-Building, & Kidnetic.com

In our last last blog posting (Part 7), we finished organizing our defense mechanism notes.

Our journey continues as we learn to be mindful writers of research. Today I modeled for students how to draft a paragraph from their organized notes. We focused solely on the habitat notes and drafting the habitat paragraph. I had already written up my paragraph ahead of time so that I could really EXPLAIN how to expand notes into complete sentences using both my notes and my own words. I highlighted each of the main ideas of each sentence so students could see that every one of my notes was expanded in my draft. I discussed how to include a citation like (R1), (R2), and (R3) at the end of a sentence to indicate which resource each idea came from. You'll also notice my blue arrows on my pink notes on the left. While I was drafting, I made a decision as a writer to actually write about my notes in a slightly different order than I had glued them down. I explained to students why I decided to do this and that good writers need to constantly evaluate the best order for things. As much as we try to stick to our plan, sometimes we make decisions later on that we believe are right for our writing, even if it goes against the plan or wasn't included in the plan.

Here's some footage of the kids as they attempt this process on their own using their own notes. Notice their eyes and fingers going back and forth from their notes to their draft. AWESOME!

A few still shots of students expanding their notes into complete sentences.

This student expanded each of her habitat notes to draft a paragraph about the habitat of wild horses. She added some of her own words to each of her ideas and included a citation at the end of each sentence to give credit to the source where she got her information!

This student followed the same process for the habitat of a lynx.

To see pictures and footage from the next lesson in this animal research unit, visit this blog posting (Part 9).

Visit my TpT site if you're interested in getting all the student sheets used in this animal research unit.

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In social studies today, students worked in their tribes to brainstorm different uses for items the Europeans brought to trade at fur trading posts. Each member took a turn writing. This lesson helped the tribes work together. Their evaluation skills will be applied as they have to prioritize and rank which items their tribe believe are most important and least important to trade for in our mock fur trade later this week!

Our lessons in health/guidance right now is about nutrition, advertising, and healthy habits. I reserved the lab so we could visit Kidnetic.com. There are some great activities in the 'Move' section of the site. Students can go on a scavenger hunt by him or herself or against a sibling or a friend, do a fitness challenge, or invent a dance. Either way, all kids need is a COMPUTER to GET MOVING! Imagine that! It's a perfect site for kids who are bored with nothing to do at home...

Animal Research - Part 5

In my last two blog postings (Part 1 and Parts 2, 3, & 4), you learned how our fourth graders used a non-fiction book, encyclopedia, and a website to gather information on the habitat, diet, and defense mechanisms of their animals.

Today we got a little more hands on with the notes we've been taking. I transferred my own habitat notes to pink paper so my visuals truly mimicked my students' habitat notes. I cut each of my habitat notes into strips (but at this point kept them in the order I had written them).

The order in which we write notes down isn't always the best order. I explained to students that when we do research, we need to truly consider how to sequence all our information so it has the best flow which eventually helps a reader understand our writing better. By cutting each of my notes into their own strips, I was able to manipulate and rearrange my notes. When it comes to an animal's habitat, we discussed how continent information should come first, then country information, then specific types of environments. Here is the sequence I felt gave my owl habitat notes the best organization and flow.

Then it was time for students to try out this process themselves with their own pink habitat notes they had recorded for their own animals. Students cut each of their habitat notes into individual strips, then rearranged them for best order, just like I had modeled for them.

Here is a video clip of our little researchers in action!

Here is the new and improved order for this student's notes on the habitat of a lion.

Students raised their hands when they were ready to get their order checked by an adult. After teacher approval, students glued their habitat note strips to a piece of paper in the new and improved order. This sheet will become the outline students use later on to draft their paragraph about their animal's habitat.

Students tucked their habitat sheet into their writing folders for safe storing. Tomorrow we will follow the same process with our green notes on our animals' diets!

To see pictures and footage from the next lesson in this animal research unit, visit this next blog posting (Part 6). Visit my TpT site if you're interested in getting all the student sheets used in this animal research unit.

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).