Informational Texts

I am pleased to be a guest blogger at Mrs. Payton's Precious Kindergartners today, and my topic is kids and research writing.

When I was growing up, kids didn't start research writing until high school. When I began teaching, kids didn't start research writing until middle school. Who's researching today? All kids---big and little! Even kindergartners can read and write informational texts.

How can little kids do this? I've published a free document, Animals! Animals! Animals!, to give you some ideas and show you how research writing provides natural opportunities for differentiation in your classroom.

Bigger kids need bigger projects. Students in Grades 4-6 are ready for note cards, outlines, and works cited. This Animal Research Packet is one example of how big kids can handle research writing.

Gathering and synthesizing information is a big part of our daily lives. It's now second nature for us to google a topic, scan the available websites, select the most applicable, skim a few pages, and go on our merry way. Whether we realize it or not, that's a lot of high-level reading and thinking used in a matter of minutes! Our students, who are growing up in the Digital Age, need to know how to find, sort, and present information. Let's get started on those research projects!

Estimation Station

Estimation Station provides a fun, motivational way for students to practice and conceptualize measurement topics.

Each day for the past few weeks, a student in my class has been assigned a unit of measurement (for example, pounds). He or she chooses something for others to estimate (such as a filled backpack). In the morning, the student sets the item on our Estimation Station table and creates a record sheet. At the top of the page, he or she writes a question, such as "How many pounds does this backpack weigh?"

Students are allowed to visit the Estimation Station and write their answers on the sheet in the morning. When we return from lunch, the student in charge looks at the record sheet to establish the winner(s). Of course, we must then pull down the class prize box, and the winner gets to select a prize.

This year I've also added a Power Point presentation. As students are estimating, a corresponding word problem is displayed. Students must conceptualize, draw upon knowledge of measurement conversions, and practice multiple mathematical strategies.

After students have enough time to estimate, they answer by holding up their fingers (one finger for answer A, two fingers for answer B, and so on). I can immediately discern who understands and who does not. What an easy way to gather formative assessment data!

One strategy and solution are displayed. Then students are invited to discuss additional ways to approach the problem. To me, this is the most powerful part of the lesson. Learning to approach problems in different ways stimulates mathematical connections and deepens understanding.

Estimation Station is now available in my Teachers pay Teachers store! This five-week activity addresses the following Common Core State Standards:

• 4.MD.A.1 - know relative sizes of measurement units
• 4.MD.A.2 - solve measurement word problems
• 4.MD.A.3 - apply area and perimeter formulas
• 5.MD.A.1 - convert standard measures
• 5.MD.C.3 - recognize volume
• 5.MD.C.4 - measure volume
• 5.MD.C.5 - find volume with formula

Online Skills Resources

This week my class and I are gearing up for Round #2 of state testing. We held a class pow-wow and decided that we could use some practice on specific skills. One of those was simple, compound, and complex sentences. That's all well and good, but where would I find the proper resources? I turned to my favorite twenty-first century teacher helper: Google.

Thankfully, I found a great resource from Parade magazine. This handy sheet asks kids to search for simple, compound, and complex sentences in news articles. Aha! A parent had just sent me a cute article, "Oh Rats! Why Rodents Are Becoming Increasingly Popular Pets" (also from Parade). Since our class hosted two rats this spring for a nutrition experiment, my kids would love it! Today my class will search for simple, compound, and complex sentences in the rat article.

In addition to the activity on simple, compound, and complex sentences, I also found these helpful sheets from Parade:
Editorials: Fact vs. Opinion
Summarize the News
Understanding Cause and Effect
Newspaper Main Ideas

You can find oodles of skills resources at http://www.parade.com/paradeclassroom/skills_sheets.html. Thanks, Parade!

A Sentence a Day . . .

The first half of my fourth grade English book is packed with parts of speech. Chapter by chapter students learn about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and more.

The second half of the book presents a variety of genres of writing: personal narratives, persuasive essays, descriptions, informative pieces, and so on. Students move through the genres and learn how to tackle each one,

This makes perfect sense, right? Wrong!

• Parts of speech, though necessary, are only one of the many aspects of language. And teaching them as isolated components is not effective. I've learned this from experience. Kids learn about nouns, take the test, forget about nouns, learn about verbs, take the test, forget about verbs... You get the picture.
• Writing employs nearly all language skills. In order to become effective writers, students must work on it all year long. Delegating it to the second semester robs students of important practice time.

How can this problem be solved? I believe that the "old school" had it right: sentence diagramming. I dedicate about one-fourth of my daily English instruction to grammar and mechanics. The remaining three-fourths is spent on writing and speaking. With ten or fifteen minutes of daily sentence diagramming, my students master their parts of speech in ten to twelve weeks.

The process is easy. We start small. During the first week, we review nouns, verbs, subjects, and predicates. Each day students label parts of simple sentences like this:

Ducks quack.

As the weeks progress, we add articles, conjunctions, adjectives, etc. We learn about sentence types and simple subjects and predicates. Daily sentences start to look more like this:

Close that blue and red door.

Adverbs and prepositional phrases, which have the annoying habit of moving all around in a sentence, are taught last. By focusing on one part of speech per week, students are soon flying through sentences like this:

As the ruby red sun set in the distance, a gleaming jet bent its wing and headed home.

A sentence a day is the best way! Students learn the role of each part of speech and how they interact with one another. 

You can easily "layer" parts of speech in your language arts instruction time. Need help? Check out Parts of Speech Compacted Moderate Pace or Parts of Speech Rigorous Pace at my Teachers pay Teachers store.

The Classroom Walls CAN Talk

The classroom walls CAN talk. They can tell a visitor what's going on in that room. When a parent, administrator, or evaluator visits your classroom, the walls provide a wonderful way to show and tell. You can show the important work your students are doing and tell how you are addressing the Common Core State Standards.

The title of this display is "Owls from J.K. Rowling." The other page says, "Exploring Theme: What message has the author sent to the reader?" This classroom wall tells the visitor that the students have read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and learned how to find a theme* (CCSS RL.4.2). Reading the students' papers also allows them to see that they can support their answers with evidence from the text (CCSS RL.4.1).

Here the students are showing that they can create tally tables, frequency tables, and line plots (CCSS 4.MD.B.4).

This display demonstrates students' ability to conduct research (CCSS W.4.7, W.4.8, W.4.9) and develop multiple-paragraph persuasive essays (W.4.1). Since these essays were in the form of letters to their congressmen about a bill being considered, social studies standards are also being addressed.

These are only a few ways that your walls can talk. When your students do important work, hang it up! Let your classroom walls sing your praises!


Would you like to teach your students to find a theme? Try these products at my Teachers pay Teachers store:
RL.4.2 Finding a Theme and Summarizing Lesson Plans - Use adaptations of Aesop's fables to practice finding a theme.
RL.4.2 Finding a Theme Power Point - This presentation guides students through the process of finding a theme.
RL.4.2 Summarizing and Finding a Theme with Ella Enchanted Lesson Plans
RL.4.2 Finding a Theme with Ella Enchanted Power Point
Hatchet Bundle

You Are the Cheerleader

Lean to the left,

Lean to the right,

Stand up, sit down,

Fight, fight, fight!

When I began teaching 30 years ago, a wise veteran teacher told me, "You need to honk your own horn." Now let me tell you: I wasn't really keen on this advice. Raised in a middle class midwestern family, modesty was driven into me at an early age. But this proved to be one of the most valuable pieces of advice ever given to me.

With the Era of Assessment upon us, teachers must demonstrate their effectiveness more than ever. I say, "Let your classroom (and hall) walls do the talking." Displaying student work and photos of students involved in learning is essential. Of course, you can also share with parents through newsletters and websites.

When you're out in the community, talk it up. Let others (friends, family, community members) know about the important work that's going on in your school and your classroom. Become a cheerleader!

Why should we cheer?

• Our communities, which fund our schools, need to know that their dollars are being well spent. They, in turn, will become cheerleaders.
• The public, which has somehow soured on our noble profession, needs to see that we are competent, caring, and hard working. They, in turn, will become cheerleaders.
• The parents, who can be the best assets or our biggest nightmares, need assurance that their children are in good hands. They, in turn, will become cheerleaders.
• The administration, who hold our evaluations in their hands, need evidence of our effectiveness. They, in turn, will become cheerleaders.

It's time to inject some positive energy into our profession, and who better to do it than a cheerleader?

Lesson Plan for Long Evaluation, Part 3

Objective? Check!

Connections to prior learning? Check!

Now it's time to develop the instructional processes for my lesson on the coordinate plane. The lesson must contain a hook and/or introduction, direct instruction, guided practice, and independent practice.

I begin with my original plan of reading A Fly on the Ceiling and having students complete coordinate plane pictures. But these ideas are not enough. I have to build on them to show what I can do. Since the evaluator only sees me teach a few lessons, I must demonstrate as many indicators as possible during the evaluation. Collaboration, differentiation, checks for understanding, and higher order thinking must be included. My lesson will go better if I plan for these in advance. And my evaluator will recognize them more easily if they are spelled out in the lesson plan.

Hook

• Establish background information and hook students by reading A Fly on the Ceiling by Julie Glass. This fanciful story presents the myth of how Rene Descartes created the Cartesian coordinate system (also called the coordinate plane or coordinate grid).

Introduction

• Review x- and y-axes. Use arms and fingers to simulate the two axes. (When facing class, right arm goes straight up in the air and hand makes peace sign. Left arm is held out perpendicular to body with fingers crossed. The peace sign is the top part of a "y" while the arm is the stem of that letter. The fingers crossed on the other hand represent "x.")
• Introduce additional terms: ordered pair, coordinate, and origin.
• Check for Understanding: Fly Swatter Game (When a definition is called out, students "swat the fly" with their left hands and indicate the answer by holding up the correct number of fingers on their right hands.)

Direct Instruction (Modeling - positive integers only)

• Demonstrate how to plot an ordered pair on a coordinate plane.
• Demonstrate how to write an ordered pair for a point on the coordinate plane.

Extension (include negative numbers)*

• Show Brainpop video entitled "Coordinate Plane."
• Check for Understanding: Brainpop quiz (oral)

*The extension reviews terminology and provides information that will prepare more able students for today's differentiation piece. When checking for understanding, I do not expect all students to get all answers right. Instead, it will help me determine which concepts need to be reviewed and emphasized in our next two lessons.

Guided Practice

• Hand out simple coordinate plane mystery message worksheets (created at WorksheetWorks.com).
• Have students complete worksheets in pairs. One partner reads the ordered pairs one at a time using the correct terminology, the other plots the points. Switch.
• Check for Understanding: Ask students to present correctly completed pictures as concept checks before moving on to independent practice.

Independent Practice.

• Allow students to select coordinate plane picture puzzles (Quadrant I only) and complete.

Differentiation

• If a student feels ready for a bigger challenge, he/she may complete a simple four-quadrant activity to show readiness then select a four-quadrant coordinate plane picture puzzle to complete.

Wrap Up - Connect to future learning with questions such as these:

• How do people use coordinate planes in the real world?
• Can you think of some ways that you might be able to use them in your life?
• If we can plot coordinates for x and y, what do you think we will do next?
• Have you ever seen lines that are plotted on coordinate planes? Where?
• How would graphing an equation help us better understand it?

Homework

• Randomly distribute a variety of simple line drawings (clip art) and graph paper.
• Explain that each student will create his or her own coordinate plane puzzle.
• Provide these instructions: (1) trace the line drawing onto the paper, (2) place points at key coordinates, (3) list ordered pairs on the class website for all to try.
• Give students the option of creating a more elaborate coordinate plane puzzle, if desired. This could mean a more elaborate picture or using all four quadrants.

Extensions (available on class website)

• Play "Catch the Fly" to practice locating coordinates in all four quadrants.
• Complete four-quadrant graphing characters worksheets.
• Challenge your friends or relatives to play a game of "Coordinate Plane Jeopardy."
• Play "Stock the Shelves."

This lesson plan now feels finished to me. Sure, I could add a few more things. But that would probably be overkill. One thing makes me nervous, though. Since I teach high ability students, I'm accustomed to asking higher order questions, and I know when an activity requires higher order thinking. Will my administrator be able to recognize them? I decide to add a graphic showing how the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy are addressed in this lesson.

This lesson plan looks different than those I prepared for last year's evaluation. That's because this one was specially prepared to meet the specific criteria on which I will be judged. It's tempting to say, "I do it every day; they just aren't in my classroom to see it." As true as that may be, I now have the responsibility to demonstrate all (or much) of what I can do during my long evaluation. After all, this is high-stakes assessment. For teachers. And it'll be fun to have the chance to strut my stuff.