Expository vs. Fiction

To help the students understand the difference between expository and fiction texts, we read Scaredy Crow (from ReadingA-Z) and All Kinds of Farms (from WeGiveBooks). The students then  created Double Bubble Maps to record how the books were the same and how they were different.

All Kinds of Farms

The students read All Kinds of Farms using the free books from www.wegivebooks.com. If you haven't used this website before, look it up! It is full of wonderful books and is a great way to give back as well. After reading All Kinds of Farms, the students created a foldable to record the topic, main idea, and supporting details of the story.

Ducks: See How They Grow

In reading, the students have been learning how to compare and contrast the features of fiction and expository texts. During these lessons we read Ducks: See How They Grow. After reading, the students created a four-flap foldable to write the topic, main idea, and two supporting details.

Space Research

As mentioned in previous posts, we have been learning about space over the last few weeks. The main purpose of our space unit was to provide the students an opportunity to conduct research. We began our research by asking questions. The students divided up in small groups to write down questions they have about space on post-it notes. We then added those post-it notes to a chart. We then created a class Circle Map to record information about space found from various sources. We wrote the information from each source in different colors to keep track of where our answers to questions came from. As a class, we read through various sources, including the online source Pebble Go. Fellow teachers, if your school does not subscribe to Pebble Go, I highly recommend it. After we read each source, we stopped to see if any answers from our chart had been answered. If they had, we added the answers to the chart and put a colored dot, corresponding to the souce it came from, on the question. This taught the students that we could look at the remaining unanswered questions and narrow down if they had a common theme. For example, once we answered a few questions, we realized most the remaining questions were about astronauts and space shutttles so we were able to use the Table of Contents and Index to narrow down specific sections of the sources to look at. This was a good way to hit home the importance of text features.

After researching as a class, the students divided into small groups to conduct their own research. They created their own Circle Map on large construction paper and chose their own sources. After a few days of research, they wrote their own sentences based on their research findings on topics such as astronauts, planets, stars, and space shuttles. They wrote their sentences on chart paper as groups as a way to get them used to taking information from the sources to the Circle Map to sentence form.

The following week, the students used Pebble Go again, but this time by themselves in the computer lab, to record information about space on an individual Circle Map. In class they added more information from various library books. The students even checked out their own space books from the library for their research - I didn't even have to tell them or ask them to! Once they had completed their Circle Maps, they wrote an introductory sentence for their first draft of their research paper. They wrote their first sentence as a "Did you know fact?" Once they had their first sentence, we talked about the need to stay on topic. For example, if their first sentence was about stars, the rest of their sentences needed to be about stars. If they did not have enough information on their Circle Maps, they were free to go back and look at more sources.

After writing their first draft, they met with me during Guided Writing (which we usually do on Thursdays instead of Guided Reading) to edit their work. The students then rewrote their research paper. They then glued their Circle Maps and final draft to a large piece of black construction paper. They added planets to the paper with dot paints and then added start stickers. We hung their final research projects in the hallway and they were so proud. I am so proud and amazed at how well they did on their first official research papers!

The Main Idea: Transportation

As a part of our lessons on how to identify the main idea of texts, we read several books from We Give Books and Reading A-Z about various forms of transportation. Each day we read a new expository text and the students had to verbally identify the main idea of the text. We used Multi-Flow Maps to help chart the details that lead up to the main idea. (Sorry... I did not take a picture of these charts.) After reading about the various types of transporation, the students created a Circle Map of as many examples as they could think of. We then discussed how those examples could be divided into conceptual categories. So, we then created a spider web graphic organizer to sort the examples into the categories of land, air, and water. The students then created a three part foldable to illusrtate one example of transportation from each category. They then wrote at least one fact they learned about that mode of transportation under the flap.