The first three months of school have been devoted to non-fiction. While I have kids reading fiction through our 20 Book challenge and silent reading time, I haven't placed on emphasis on understanding fiction. My goal has been to develop the non-fiction reading skills, and establish continuity with our social studies content. That will change starting Monday.
I am still navigating the Units of Study for Reading. I like elements of the Reader's Workshop while also liking elements of Guiding Readers and Writers. We'll kick off fiction by getting into book clubs (literature circles). With my 75 kids I'll have 7-9 different books I am using simply because of the sheer number of books needed to get this thing going.
The bulk of the work will be around characters. We are going to start with envisioning. To do that we'll be using our journal to write down details from what we read. Towards the end of the week we will also look at timelines of stories, making notches to chart important events. Once we have established some basic elements (characters, setting, first events) we will look a little deeper at characters. In particular we will start to use those characteristics to make predictions, giving evidence rooted in what we know and our connections with the text. The unit is a work in progress, but I am excited to get it moving.
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fiction. Show all posts
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Sunday, November 28, 2010
And We're Back
Tomorrow we're back at school for the first time in... an eternity?! We'll tie up out Thankful writing, and also do some work with the way pieces of writing are organized (contrasting fiction and non-fiction). I'm excited to get back rolling, and ready for the drive into holiday break.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Non-Fiction to Fiction
The first 4 weeks of our rotations have been great so far. We've practiced using different reading strategies in our non-fiction text. We've gotten an understanding of non-fiction features, main ideas (and supporting details), questioning strategies, and making inferences. It is just the start of this whole process, so we aren't looking at proficiency across the board. Our kiddos are doing great work though, and the feedback they are receiving is being used to make their work better.
The current events homework that I have for them every week is a great example of this feedback loop. I don't enter current events into our online grading system. I have a good idea of what those scores would be, but I don't score it because I don't know who is doing the homework. Is that a student's work done independently, or is it work done with a parent helping guide them along? I give them written feedback, and put it in their returned work folder. Some will inevitably make mistakes week after week, which will prompt some small group instruction. Others will read it, and use it the following week. The change from week 1 to week 2, and then into week 3 has been dramatic. Topic sentences without article titles, and only loosely hitting main ideas have become more specific. Details fit well with the topic, and use transitions effectively. Conclusions that were missing were now being employed, and were quite creative. Why was that happening?
Part of it is getting used to a new teacher (last year to now having me). I also think it connected with some in-class work, and intentional instruction around putting main ideas and supporting details into an effective summary.
Looking ahead, we are going to kick it into gear with some fiction this week. We'll use our basal reader to get us started, as well as kicking off the 30 Week Challenge (30 books in 30 weeks, some choice, more directed). I'll post more about the 30 week challenge tomorrow. I'm excited about the transition. Here we go!
The current events homework that I have for them every week is a great example of this feedback loop. I don't enter current events into our online grading system. I have a good idea of what those scores would be, but I don't score it because I don't know who is doing the homework. Is that a student's work done independently, or is it work done with a parent helping guide them along? I give them written feedback, and put it in their returned work folder. Some will inevitably make mistakes week after week, which will prompt some small group instruction. Others will read it, and use it the following week. The change from week 1 to week 2, and then into week 3 has been dramatic. Topic sentences without article titles, and only loosely hitting main ideas have become more specific. Details fit well with the topic, and use transitions effectively. Conclusions that were missing were now being employed, and were quite creative. Why was that happening?
Part of it is getting used to a new teacher (last year to now having me). I also think it connected with some in-class work, and intentional instruction around putting main ideas and supporting details into an effective summary.
Looking ahead, we are going to kick it into gear with some fiction this week. We'll use our basal reader to get us started, as well as kicking off the 30 Week Challenge (30 books in 30 weeks, some choice, more directed). I'll post more about the 30 week challenge tomorrow. I'm excited about the transition. Here we go!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Week Two of Novel Study
Finally, after what seemed like a month of talking about it, our novel study kicked off. We started on Monday with a book pass where kids looked at the books and ranked them 1-5. Then I tabulated those and put them into book groups. Each kid gets a book, and a packet of work to do. I know I know, the dreaded packet!
In my packet of work you get:
-1 vocabulary sheet to find an unfamiliar word and go through the process of synonym, antonym, definition, picture, usage. It was provided by a wonderful teacher in the district who got it from Busy Teacher's Cafe. It certainly beat making my own reproducible.
-1 front and back FQR sheet. They summarize the main events from their section in the Fact section, write questions they had in the Question section, and respond/reflect in the Response section.
-1 cover sheet with due dates and skills outlined.
My day is a little different now too. They come in and get started right away on their reading, usually the first 15-20 minutes. Add that up over the course of the week and they get at least 60 minutes of reading and work time on their FQR sheet. During that time I am conferencing with kids, and taking notes on the computer (fluency, retell, that sort of thing). It takes away the total time I have for social studies, but is worth it in getting them to be focused on reading and getting them thinking about what they read.
How has it gone? Really great. Kids are enjoying it, and most are asking really wonderful and authentic questions. I think the highlight was having book group meetings on Friday. I used some role sheets from Literature Circles. While recording/role sheets aren't ideal, they are part of my release model. I need a go-between to ensure that everyone is on task and with it in their groups (which I circulate to while they are meeting).
Next up is week two, and getting them to improve on the work they are already doing. What do we think about while we read? How can we note the main events, and put them into complete sentences (plus have some voice!)? Where can we find evidence that elaborates on our statements? All good stuff that is in the works.
In my packet of work you get:
-1 vocabulary sheet to find an unfamiliar word and go through the process of synonym, antonym, definition, picture, usage. It was provided by a wonderful teacher in the district who got it from Busy Teacher's Cafe. It certainly beat making my own reproducible.
-1 front and back FQR sheet. They summarize the main events from their section in the Fact section, write questions they had in the Question section, and respond/reflect in the Response section.
-1 cover sheet with due dates and skills outlined.
My day is a little different now too. They come in and get started right away on their reading, usually the first 15-20 minutes. Add that up over the course of the week and they get at least 60 minutes of reading and work time on their FQR sheet. During that time I am conferencing with kids, and taking notes on the computer (fluency, retell, that sort of thing). It takes away the total time I have for social studies, but is worth it in getting them to be focused on reading and getting them thinking about what they read.
How has it gone? Really great. Kids are enjoying it, and most are asking really wonderful and authentic questions. I think the highlight was having book group meetings on Friday. I used some role sheets from Literature Circles. While recording/role sheets aren't ideal, they are part of my release model. I need a go-between to ensure that everyone is on task and with it in their groups (which I circulate to while they are meeting).
Next up is week two, and getting them to improve on the work they are already doing. What do we think about while we read? How can we note the main events, and put them into complete sentences (plus have some voice!)? Where can we find evidence that elaborates on our statements? All good stuff that is in the works.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Small Time Chunks
I'm utilizing smaller blocks of time to get things done. My social studies/literacy block is an hour long 4 days a week, and 45 minutes on Wednesdays. The issue I've been trying to tackle is how to ensure I engage all of literacy, and not simply the nonfiction end of things. Its my Everest, and I am determined to make the hour block of time work.
I borrowed the idea from the Reading Zone, a posting I found a while back. The main difference is that instead of a read aloud, I am substituting leveled and independent reading (I'm hoping to start some book groups next week). Also, instead of 55 minutes, I am working with 60. I'm working on 15-20 minutes of reading, which is currently a short story from our basal reader. Following that is 40-45 minutes of social studies content, which still has reading integrated. My hope is to have Mondays be a strategy/skill instruction day and then the remainder of the week be focused on employing that strategy while I pull small groups. We'll see.
The driving force was a level of guilt I had. While I was providing some fictional reading, I was providing a vast majority of my instruction in nonfiction... barely nicking the surface of the wide array of fiction (particularly in intermediate grades). Part of me didn't feel bad (the part that recognized that a vast majority of what adults read is in the form of nonfiction- I forget the statistic on that, but it is well over 50%). But the other part was... well, wanting to do better.
I borrowed the idea from the Reading Zone, a posting I found a while back. The main difference is that instead of a read aloud, I am substituting leveled and independent reading (I'm hoping to start some book groups next week). Also, instead of 55 minutes, I am working with 60. I'm working on 15-20 minutes of reading, which is currently a short story from our basal reader. Following that is 40-45 minutes of social studies content, which still has reading integrated. My hope is to have Mondays be a strategy/skill instruction day and then the remainder of the week be focused on employing that strategy while I pull small groups. We'll see.
The driving force was a level of guilt I had. While I was providing some fictional reading, I was providing a vast majority of my instruction in nonfiction... barely nicking the surface of the wide array of fiction (particularly in intermediate grades). Part of me didn't feel bad (the part that recognized that a vast majority of what adults read is in the form of nonfiction- I forget the statistic on that, but it is well over 50%). But the other part was... well, wanting to do better.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Where social studies and literacy meet
This week we are making a transition from the social studies text to the basal reader. The goal is to intentionally integrate the basal into our social studies block, and primarily focus on reading comprehension skills. While I think I can integrate those skills into the social studies text, I've struggled getting that going. Why? Largely because of the content we've been reading. The first section was laden with vocabulary, setting the stage for the chapters to come. Instead of thinking about reasons for migration, or tensions between colonies (etc), we were developing geography skills.
You might wonder where we're going next... We are going to launch the reader with the theme "Nature's Fury." The focus is on nature's impact on humans, using realistic fiction as the vehicle moving kids along. How I will mesh geography into this is through adding some articles on earthquakes (the first selection), and using our knowledge of maps to identify where earthquake faults are and how that relates to where people are located (we have started using population density maps a bit). We'll be working on predicting/inferring, as well as sequencing. I have high hopes...
On another note, I'm still in the beginning stages of getting a blog up and running for the classroom. But I do have designs on some wiki work- collaborative research, as well as some podcasting. It will all come together... hopefully sooner rather than later.
You might wonder where we're going next... We are going to launch the reader with the theme "Nature's Fury." The focus is on nature's impact on humans, using realistic fiction as the vehicle moving kids along. How I will mesh geography into this is through adding some articles on earthquakes (the first selection), and using our knowledge of maps to identify where earthquake faults are and how that relates to where people are located (we have started using population density maps a bit). We'll be working on predicting/inferring, as well as sequencing. I have high hopes...
On another note, I'm still in the beginning stages of getting a blog up and running for the classroom. But I do have designs on some wiki work- collaborative research, as well as some podcasting. It will all come together... hopefully sooner rather than later.
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