RL.7.6 Character Maps, W.7.2 Writing Prompts, & L.7.4 Context Clues

I modeled for students how to use a character map to show how an author develops a character in a story. My students don't normally struggle with finding examples from the text to support each trait, rather they struggle to explain why the example is evidence of the trait. To help push their examples to a higher level, I had students color code their writing. Text in black was the paraphrased example from the book. Text in red was their own thinking for why the example supported the character trait.

 For guided practice, I had students complete a character map for the characters of Edwin and Garvey. Early in the story, both men serve as mentor characters to Cole. We first brainstormed character traits to describe Edwin and Garvey. Here was our list:

 Students pulled up the character map on their Chromebooks, typed 'Edwin and Garvey' into the character box and selected three character traits from the board that they wanted to prove and explain with evidence from the text. Students skimmed chapters 1 & 2 (which we had read on a previous day) to find examples.

This student found two examples from the text that supported the fact that Edwin and Garvey are wise, helpful, and patient men.

Our next lesson required students to use their character maps to respond to a prompt about how Ben Mikaelsen develops characters in Touching Spirit Bear. I modeled how to analyze a prompt by color-coding each of the expectations of the prompt. As I started drafting, I color-coded each section to show where in my draft I addressed each part of the prompt.

Students then went in and color-coded their writing to identify areas where they weren't answering the prompt. This process helps students realize there are many things a writer may need to pay attention to in a prompt in order to receive full credit. The Smarter Balanced Assessment will definitely require students to analyze a prompt and respond to multiple parts!

The next day, students read Ch. 3 & 4 on their own and practiced using context clues independently. As they read, they recorded two examples of difficult words as they read, what they inferred them to mean, and the context clues that helped them understand better.

 Later on that day, students shared their words/charts with a partner.

 Partners picked two of their words to create a Context Clues poster together. The following expectations were posted on the board for students to use as a guide.

Here was the sample Context Clues poster I made so students had an idea of what the final product should look like. 

 When students felt they were 'done', I handed them a mini-checklist to help them assess whether they had everything they needed on the poster.

RL.7.1 - Make Inferences, Cite Textual Evidence

We zoomed in more heavily on inferring today. Inferring was a 'thinking code' I introduced earlier last week, but it definitely is a skill that needs more attention. I used this chart to anchor what it means to infer.

Textual evidence and background knowledge are essential for inferring. To help students remember to include both when writing about their inferences, I used these sentence stems as prompts. You'll see on the chart that it says "word-for-word support" and "paraphrased support" which are ways to cite text that I taught last week. Refer to this blog post for those anchor charts!

Students did a practice activity on the computer in which I sent them the following passage that I found on this website:
Screech! Karen stomped on the gas pedal the moment the light turned green. She looked over her left shoulder and zigged past a semi-truck. She zoomed ahead and looked over her right shoulder and thenzagged past a motorbike. She glanced at the clock on the console of her vehicle and darted into the parking lot. Whipping into a parking spot, she grabbed her suitcase and ran through the lot, up the escalator, and into the terminal. Her heavy suitcase was smacking and bouncing the whole way. As soon as entered the terminal, she heard an announcement over the loudspeaker, "Final boarding call for flight 205 to JFK..."Karen looked at her ticket and then at the line to get through the security checkpoint, which wrapped around several turnstiles and slithered like a lethargic snake. Karen sighed and then slowly walked to the customer service desk.

I asked two questions that required students to infer. They were:
1. Where is Karen?
2. Why does she walk slowly at the end of the passage?

Here are two student responses for question 1:
* I infer that Karen is at an airport. I think this because the text says she heard an announcement that said it was the final boarding call. From my background knowledge I know that airports will go on the loudspeaker and announce one last time before the plane takes off These are called boarding calls. Therefore, that is how I came to infer that Karen is at an airport.
* I infer Karen is at an airport. I believe this because in the text it says that she was rushing through the terminal and she had a suitcase with her. It also talked about her boarding a flight. From my background knowledge, I know that at airports they have terminals to separate flights and a suitcase is often something people bring to the airport to take on a plane. Therefore, I infer that Karen is at an airport.

Here is a student response for question 2:
* I infer that Karen is walking slowly at the end of the passage because shse probably missed her flight! I infer this because it says the line went all the way down the hall way and "Karen sighed and then slowly walked to the customer service desk". From my background knowledge I know that if someone sighs, it usually means you're disappointed and a line that goes down the hallway means it will take a while to get to the front. That's how I came to infer that Karen missed her flight!

R.7.1 - Citing Textual Evidence: Word-for-Word & Paraphrased Support

Last week, we talked about how READING is THINKING! Your inner voice should talk to you while you're reading and say things like, "This part is confusing..." or "I predict this will happen..." or "That makes me think of this one time when I..." or "Now I get it!" I modeled how to use post-its to flag thoughts in my book while I was reading and 'code' them with the kind of thought it was. Students then did the same thing for their independent chapter books.

This led naturally into students needing to use textual evidence to support their thinking because all of their thoughts were sparked by something they read. One day we discussed word-for-word support and practiced. The next day we discussed paraphrasing to support your thinking. Here are the anchor charts and student practice examples: