I taught a couple of lessons on how to paraphrase when reading and writing nonfiction. Majority of the students were able to understand and use the term paraphrasing accurately by the end of the third lesson. There was evidence of students understanding and using the term paraphrasing. Sam explained how he would paraphrase “breaching.” Afterwards, Justin shared how he would paraphrase. Sam repeatedly said, “I already said that,” interrupting Justin as he was explaining. I responded by saying, “ Sam, you also explained about breaching but you said it in your own way, and Justin said in his own way. And that’s both okay. That’s what paraphrasing is. You guys are using your own words to explain…” Sam responds, “Oh yea,” indicating that he recognized how paraphrasing allowed writers to share the same ideas in their own way. Earlier I had asked the question “What is paraphrasing?” and Laura tried to explain her understanding on paraphrasing. She started off by saying “I remember how Amy was paraphrasing,” and then struggled to explain her thoughts in a clear manner. It was evident that Laura did not know how to verbally express her understanding on paraphrasing. Therefore, I asked if someone could “add on to what Laura said.” Laura’s classmate Ashley shared her understanding on paraphrasing. She explained, “Paraphrasing is when, uhm, there is something in the book that you want in your book, but you have to use your own words to write.” Ashley demonstrated a strong understanding of the language and skill through her clear explanation.
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The Julian series have been the Quiet Time Read Aloud books for the past few days. Students have been enjoying them quite a lot. It was a great way to get into our Character Study. In the previous Reading lesson, we talked about thinking about what their characters are like as they read their books. They were able to get into their character book clubs and talk about what they read and what they thought about their characters.
Many students enjoyed completing their character webs. It was one of the few assignments that we’ve had that didn’t require them to write a lot, and none of the students had trouble completing it. There were a few students, however, who struggled with a problem. The one issue that did come up was identifying the character traits and not the characters’ feelings. Many kids would say their character is “angry,” “sad,” and “excited.” While I wasn’t surprised by this confusion, I hadn’t prepared for it and realized that I should have. It was the first graders’ first time identifying character traits, and I knew that I had to discuss the difference between character traits and character feelings. I thought about what I could do to help. I thought about making a list of character traits with the class as part of a mini lesson. We could discuss the difference between feelings and character traits and make sure the list contains only traits. This list of character traits can be used throughout the Character Study Unit and could be hung up in the front of the class for the students to use. The students were to distinguish between a problem and solution within a given text. The informal assessment monitored students by engaging them within group discussions about the focus questions and their prior knowledge.
One of the most common mistakes by the struggling readers was that they did not use details from the story to support their evidence. Students also had difficulty with the words enough, neighbor, stirred, and burned. Students would either sound out the word and skip it, or try to figure out the word by looking at the pictures. Students need guided assistance individually organizing information in the correct categories and providing more details from the text to support their evidence. Students seem successful in interpreting and comprehending the storyline, such as the problem in the story or the solution to the problem. The students understood the conflict of the story, the solution to the story, the main characters within the story, and the five W’s (who, what, where, when, and why). However, they struggled to provide sufficient evidence to show understanding of the reading. Struggling readers would benefit from individual conferences. These conferences would help the students understood the emphasis of referring back to the text to support their evidence. Students had a mini-lesson on elaborating. Students are writing All-About Books.
Bella: (Writing on babies) Babies can help around the house by cleaning up stuff. T: Can all babies help? Elaborate. Explain. Bella: Well, not all babies. Babies that are at least 2 years old. T: Okay, then how can you write that in your writing to help your readers understand better as they read this section? Bella: I can say, “Babies that are at least 2 years old can help around the house by cleaning up stuff.” Shows how she is using the strategy/skill learned in the mini lesson. Does she understand the strategy? Yes, she is getting there. Does she use it? She uses details to elaborate. Does she explain thoroughly? Although the information might be incorrect, the Bella does explain thoroughly. Aveley: (Writing on cats) You can buy toys for the cats. T: How can we elaborate here? Aveley: I can give examples on the types of toys. Like the mouse, the ball, strings… T: Okay, how can we include that in your writing? We learned that we can start off the sentence with “For example.” Aveley: Yea. “I’m going to add it here. For example, toys like the mouse and the ball.” Shows how she is using the strategy/skill learned in the mini lesson. Does she understand the strategy? Yes! She elaborates by giving examples. Does she use it? Yes, and she does it successfully. It is clear and her sentence is richer in details because of it. Jack: (Writing on Puerto Rico) You can do a lot of stuff in Puerto Rico. T: What can you do in Puerto Rico? As a reader, I don’t know what you can do. What do you mean by “a lot of stuff?” How can you elaborate? Jack: You can go to the beach. You can eat. You can play in the sand. You can swim. T: Great! Now, I’m getting a better idea of what I can do in Puerto Rico. Now, I want you to write that in this section. Jack: Okay. (Adds onto previously worked on sentence) “You can do a lot of stuff, such as you can go to the beach, go swimming, and eat.” Shows how he is using the strategy/skill learned in the mini lesson. Does he understand the strategy? Yes, he does. Does he use it? He uses details to elaborate. Does he explain thoroughly? Yes. Although he can be a little more thoughtful about the activities that people can do in Puerto Rico, he does list different activities. Therefore, he used the strategy/skill learned in his writing. Revision: grammatical, content, uniqueness, writing style
-making story better -adding feelings -adding internal thoughts (expression in pix) -adding dialogue (speech bubbles) -adding sound words (onomatopoeia) -show, not tell -bit-by-bit action -looking at beginning -looking at ending -developing setting -deleting what doesn’t belong -adjusting sequence -revising to another genre Editing: technical -making words better -checking spelling -making sure tense is consistent throughout -checking and correcting grammar -correcting punctuation Conference is about having a conversation-
*give child your undivided attention *keep moving between conferences: change it up *balance craft and mechanics *it's okay for kids to eavesdrop *make sure your routines are in place *are you an editor or a teacher? *make sure you are teaching, not telling *use your conferring toolkit *compliment is more important than the teaching part *don’t write on a child’s writing, respect someone’s writing
*have writer retain that ownership of their writing *write your thoughts and comments on a post-it and give it to the student Small Moment Story- a story that zooms in on one tiny moment
Personal Narrative- a story told in first person, a true account or memory, this can be several connected smaller moments My first graders are starting their Small Moment Unit. Their writing goals are the following: • generating a true story from one’s life • to value a tiny moment from one’s life • “zooming in” (focusing on the small things) • stretching a moment across the pages • showing through feelings through actions and expressions • dialogue (speech balloons) • picturing a story like a movie in one’s mind Miller, pg. 14
– 60-90 minutes of Reading Workshop That would be ideal, but realistically, is that possible in all settings? My current placement tries to go for 60 minutes but it usually ends up being 45 minutes and another 45 minutes for Writing Workshop. While this is suggested, I can't imagine my first graders reading for a full 60 to 90 minutes. It may be possible if it's broken up into two reading periods, but uninterrupted 60-90 minutes is hard to imagine. When I first went into my first grade classroom, I was so confused when I saw my CT "tapping" out the sounds. The students seemed to be comfortable with it. It was a strange concept to me. What didn't help was that I didn't know what the terms diagraphs, blends, and glued sounds were. When I was assigned to teach Word Study the following week, I took the entire weekend learning how to tap out the words according to the sounds. This was quite difficult, but once I got it, it helped me to listen carefully to the different sounds that are part of a word. Sound Tapping is when you use your fingers to tap sounds. The students are taught to tap their thumb to each finger while they counting the different sounds, or phonemes, in a word of the word. This should fade out when we get to multisyllabic words. The following is a video that helped me master tapping!
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AuthorA learning teacher and student living in New York City. Love exploring new ways to teach literacy and finding new books that inspire me and you. Archives
May 2015
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