End of the Unit---Now What?

I received an email from a teacher I work with that said, "I wondered if you had any ideas about publishing mini lesson statements. The deadline is Wednesday at the end of class, so tomorrow is a busy day of finishing up work."

Then today after leaving her class she said, "I wonder why reflection is so difficult for the students."

Ending a unit of study is a difficult time. As the students are finishing up their work, making copies, checking with the rubrics to be sure they have everything they need, rereading for clarity, it is tough to know just how we can help them be better writers! We don't want to overwhelm them. We don't want to just let them go either.  How can we give them the support they still need?

For the day before the deadline, we decided to go with punctuation. We knew that could be a big issue, but it could also be something that would make their pieces better. We had to remember that we were teaching the writer, not the writing...as Lucy Calkins always tells us! So this is what we came up with:

It says: "Writers look at punctuation to be sure it tells the reader how to read their piece. It's about controlling the actions of the reader." The YouTube video is of a robot being controlled by the man in the picture. He appears to have no contact with the robot, but when he moves, the robot moves...it's about control. 

The teacher also used a t-chart to give the purpose of punctuation and the class worked as groups to come up with the punctuation marks used for that purpose. This is what it looked like:

As the students finished their pieces or recopied to publish their books, they made sure their punctuation was telling their reader how to read the text.

Next, they filled out a reflection form. One of the questions was: "Choose the best (or your favorite) subsection or chapter you wrote.  What did you do to help that reader (from #2) learn about your topic in that section? (Be specific by naming the section title in quotes and use the words of writing to describe what you did.)"
It was so interesting to listen to the children explain this answer as I conferenced with them. Sydney said the reason she liked the chapter she wrote was: " Now the reader knows how to talk like Miamis."  Then there was Dante who told me he had a great way to end his book. He was going to write: "Guess I'm done, I'm out of paper!"

For the answer to the question...Why don't students like to reflect on their work?  Well, do teachers like to reflect? Even though it is the most important part of learning, we don't reflect as much as we should!  Kind of like Jacob said yesterday, "Mrs. N., you are making my brain hurt!"

Guess I'll go reflect on that!

Writing Like a Scientist--Looking Closely

On Thursday during Gramma Preschool, Meron and I started our unit of study: Writing Like a Scientist. She was very excited to see what we would be doing. We talked about the difference between a story, like she has been reading and writing, and a nonfiction book to teach her readers. We have been doing science all year and even have a science notebook where she keeps her discoveries. But this time she would be writing a book to teach others what she was learning. Big stuff for a four year old!

We started off with reading lots of books about autumn, bugs, leaves, spiders, and even caterpillars. We looked at how the authors taught us things as we read and looked at the books. They had zoom in pictures. They had labeling. They had diagrams. These were all things she could do in her book, too. We talked about what we would see as we took our Science Walk!

The weather for our science walk was perfect!

Meron looked closely at the nut and found a "heart" inside.

As we walked to the woods in my neighborhood, we talked about how we were looking at things with fresh new eyes. She found a bug on the sidewalk and many different shaped leaves. They went right into her BIG zip-lock bag.  Yes, even the bug! We got to the woods and found many other things: nuts, more leaves, bark with moss on it, and lots of little white butterflies. We didn't put the butterflies in the bag. On the way back home, she even found a wiggly worm to stick in the bag. She had collected all the material she needed for her book.

Meron writes her book using colored markers.

Flower page from her book. Notice the F in the upper left corner. That says: Flowers

We spread all the things out that she collected in her bag. We sorted them into groups: leaves, bugs, nuts, and other things. We then talked about what kind of book she could make. She knew she could write a book about leaves because she had lots of those. She knew she could write a book about nuts because she had various types and sizes of those. She finally decided to write a book about Science Walks and talk about all of the things she found. She wanted to write a page for each subject.  She planned on having five pages: flowers, nuts, leaves, bugs, and worms.  She gathered five pages and began writing. She used two sizes of markers to write and illustrate her book. She had all her collections on the table beside her so she could refer to them to get just the right drawing. She also had a couple of her mentor texts beside her to refer back to them if she needed to some ideas. When she was done, she made a cover and we stapled the book together. She then took her book home to share with her little brother and teach him about Science Walks. She knows now how to look at things like a scientist with fresh new eyes!

Hope you have as much fun with your Science Writing as Meron and I had!

Nonfiction Books for Writing Like a Scientist

The books I chose for today are both nonfiction books that would be good for any level student to use as a mentor text. As many kindergarteners are beginning the unit of study for the first time in this genre, it is important that they see books that will help them envision this type of writing. With imagination and approximation, these books will help children get excited about writing their own books. For the older students who will also be doing this work, these books are filled with ideas of how to turn their informational books into interesting nonfiction pieces.

Frank Serafini is one of my favorite authors, not just for nonfiction books, but also for his professional books  onn comprehension. He is an educator and avid nature photographer. His Looking Closely series inspires readers/writers to take another look at their surroundings. As the kindergarteners are writing like scientists, we teach them to look at things with new eyes. They are looking at things like scientists. Older students will do this in their content areas, too. These books are perfect for that idea. 

Gail Gibbons is one of the best nonfiction writers for young writers to use as a model. The books she writes are full of text features that the children can use in their own pieces. The samples of labeling, diagraming, and fun facts is perfect as a mentor for informational books.

Argumentive Writing for Fourth Graders

In November, many fourth graders will be writing argumentative essays--both personal and persuasive. Writers will state a claim and give supportive evidence using transitional words and phrases to organize their work. For many students this will not be easy. The first few weeks of the month will be devoted to writing the personal essay. At this time they will not be concerned with research or collecting information. Student will choose something they know well and can write about well.

To begin this unit, students will need to develop a thesis statement from a list of possible topics. In their notebook, they will make a list of big topics. The goal is to find a big topic that can have supporting details. The list might be: "Getting along with a sibling", or "Getting a new bike", or "Chores/jobs at home", or "Too much  homework". After they have a list, they might start doing quick writes in the notebook to get a feel for  one that feels right to them. That topic then becomes their thesis statement. For example: "By  having chores to do at  home it helps me become a responsible person." It might take time to revise this statement so it works with their thinking.

When the students have their thesis statements, they will be ready to collect small moment stories to demonstrate or prove their idea. This is work that is aligned with the Common Core State Standards. It might help for them to work with boxes and bullets to organize their thoughts. They would put the statement in a box at the top of a notebook page and then use bullets under it to list reasons for the claim. Those reasons will have stories to give evidence for the claim. In other words if we are using the idea of chores at  home, we might restate the claim over and over and add the word "because" followed by the reason:

• "Having chores at home helps me become a responsible person because it showed me how to be reliable."
• "Having chores at home helps me become a responsible person because it gives me a way to support my family."

For each one of these supporting statements, the students will need to collect as many small moment stories as possible.

In order to keep all this work organized, you might want to try something I saw teachers in New York City doing. They made a set of folders for each student to use. The student would take their thesis statement and write it on the outside of the folder. They would then make a smaller internal folder for each of their bullets or supporting statements. As they wrote their stories for evidence they would place them in the appropriate folder. After collecting and revising those stories they would select the best ones for the paragraph and rewrite the selected material. This method helps with organization and gives students smaller chunks for revision instead of waiting until the whole paper is written and little revision is done.

As students are collecting evidence, they could also use quotes, statistics or other students' stories. The main thing is that their evidence closely supports their claim. After they have selected the most powerful supportive material, they can tape or recopy the information into paragraphs that support each bulleted idea. Using those along with a beginning introduction paragraph and closing paragraph, they will then have constructed a rough draft of an essay.

They will soon be ready to polish up these essays with editing and celebrating. This essay will take about three weeks of the month. Next will come the persuasive essay!!!

Realistic Fiction at Several Levels

Next month's unit of study for many first, second and third graders is Realistic Fiction. This is a unit that most students will love. Children love to tell stories---both small moment or imaginary. I remember having a second grader come to school every day and tell me stories of how he had traveled over the weekend to California and saw a football game. Now, this could be true...but it wasn't. He had a great imagination and was a wonderful story teller. This would be a perfect genre for him!

Students will use everything they have learned about  narrative writing as they write this fiction. Having a plan for the stories is important. Younger students will tell their stories using their fingers for parts or will use telling the story as they move through the pages of a four to six page blank book. Older students can use a flow chart or story board to plan their book.  Using mentor texts and boxing out the parts of the story will help students see the big picture of how fiction works. Donald Crews and Ezra Jack Keats are great authors for mentor texts to use with boxing out the story.

Children will be writing stories about characters their age with a problem. It might be beneficial for the class to create a  list of possible problems. This would help them have some starting ideas. The rest of this paper will include possible solutions and end with an eventual solution.

As the students begin this unit, they can begin by collecting beginning ideas. They will start by writing the start of a story and then move on to another with a new character and problem. These collections could be kept in a special Realistic Fiction folder. Students will pick one to focus on after a couple days of collecting. The idea is to have your writing time look like a real workshop with students being at various points in the writing process.

One way to insure success for the children is to model this process in a class shared writing. Developing a character, choosing a problem and listing possible solutions shows the class how to do this in their own writing.

Using the enthusiasm for this genre will give you a great start. Constantly using the mentor texts as support will help children visualize how the piece will look. Remembering the goal of writing being sequenced and having detailed narratives is part of the Common Core State Standards.

Writing Like a Scientist in Kindergarten

Next month in many kindergarten classrooms the students will be writing like scientist since their unit of study is Observing, Labeling and Listing Like Scientists.  To get ready for that unit coming in November, it would be best to be reading as many nonfiction books for the read aloud time as possible. Students will be learning that writing is not only a tool for writing stories, but it is also a tool for writing about science.

Depending on the focus that will be used in your classroom, you will want to be sure and read lots of books on that subject before you begin the unit. As you are reading the books, be sure to talk about the text features that you see...zoom in pictures, bold fonts, italics, color fonts.  Things that perhaps the students will want to try when they begin their own books. Deciding ahead of time what your focus will be for this unit will help. As I am getting ready for using this unit with Meron, my four-year-old granddaughter, I am looking for books on autumn and fall since that is the focus I will use with her.

Working on her nonfiction writing!

As you are preparing for this unit of study, one thing to have ready for all children is science notebooks. This might seem like something only older children could take part in, but that is not true. As the students make discoveries in the world around them, they will need a place to collect those findings. The notebook collections will only be approximations of what they will do in the future. The information they put in these notebooks might be simply drawings and labels. Still they are looking at things with new eyes and have a place to keep those findings.  Another thing you might want to gather for this unit is several magnifying glasses so they can look closely.

Looking through a magnifying glass

You also will want to have a few boxes of zip-top baggies for the children to collect things when you take nature walks. You will probably want to have containers to keep the things they collect.  By preparing for this unit now, you will be able to enjoy more the discoveries and awareness the children have while writing about science next month!

Interpretive Essay Focused on Characters

Many fifth graders are  now finishing up their interpretive essays in which their thesis statement focused on themselves and their beliefs. They have learned  how to support those statements with stories, quotes, and other facts. Now it is time to encourage those students to do the next round of interpretive essay writing.  This is similar to what they just finished, but this time they will be using a book character.

The first day of this unit of study will be spent picking a character for the essay.  It could be someone from their independent reading, one from the class read aloud, or one from a basal story. They will look back over any notes from their reader's notebook and find ones they have written about who would be worth including in an essay.  So, by the end of that day they would have the character and an idea of an angle that will become a thesis statement the next day.

On the second day, the students will not only write the thesis statement, but will also begin to plan how their essay will go.  They might box the ideas out in their notebook or use a story board to do their planning. They would have a good idea of which scenes will be useful to turn into anecdotes. They might have lists of examples that would give evidence to assemble into their supportive paragraphs. This would be the thinking necessary to plan for the essay.

Next, they will begin to assemble the evidence. This would be the scenes or lists that they had planned to use. This might be a good time to have a specific way to collect this material. On a visit to a classroom in New York City, I was able to observe an interesting way to do this. The teacher had made a type of accordion folder for each student. That folder would have many parts to it, just like the ones you could purchase in a story. On the cover or front of the folders the students had the thesis statement. On each of the separate folder tabs was a support statement. As the students collected (wrote) the stories, anecdotes, lists, quotes, they were then put into the corresponding folder. When they had collected all the evidence, they then could use what they felt would best support their thesis.

The paragraphs would then be written focusing on each of the supportive evidence. Now it is time to spend several days on the revision.  This would focus on elaboration.  In other words they would explain HOW a scene supports the claim they made in the thesis statement.

Since the students have already written the first personal essay, this one should not take as long to write. Some children might even want to do multiple characters if they have time. This unit of study is the backbone of the future essays they will be writing this year.