Hands Off!

It is the time for our Animal Research project (described in full detail: here) and this year we are using Google Drive to create the books! In the past few days I've been reminded again and again why I try to keep my hands off the computer when students are working. I've actively used a computer since I was a kid, which makes it easy for me to start a new document, insert a picture, and change the font. But, this project (and any time a project is happening in the classroom) is not about me.

When teaching my students to use technology John Dewey's quote echoes for me: "If we teach today's students like we taught yesterday's, we rob them of tomorrow." What will today's students need for tomorrow? I think they will need to be able to create, collaborate, and demonstrate persistency to challenging tasks. It will not be acceptable to not finish a work assignment because they couldn't figure something out!

This takes me back to my Hands Off! policy when my students are using technology. As I teach students the steps to change font size, change the layout on a page, or insert a picture I don't touch the computer (or at least try my hardest not to!). This starts to build students' retention of the process, as well as their muscle memory. And, builds and shows my students independence! After I have taught one student in the class something I ask them to then teach the next person who needs to learn that same skill. It spreads like wildfire and soon I have 31 students who can insert a new page, underline a word, share a document, use spell check, etc...

Poetry!

Third graders are poetic in their nature and I thought I should share a few poems my amazing third graders have written:

Plane by Josh

plane

plane

fly

away

take me

to texas

all day

take me anywhere

take me anywhere

all day

i got a passport

so let me on

i'm going to

louisiana

to see my grand ma

   A School Dog

                                                  By Sydney

                                              Marley is a fun dog

                                               a run dog

                                               a has to go again dog

                                              Marley is a sigh dog

                                                my dog

                                                a has to say good bye dog

                                               Marley is a hall dog

                                                 a ball dog

                                                 a bump into a wall dog

                                                Marley is a nook dog

                                                 a book dog

                                                 a take one more look dog

                  

                                                 Marley is a stay dog

                                                 a play dog

                                                 a come another day dog

Egyptian Queen

By Elena

Cleopatra was her name,

Luring young men was her game.

Though the captain general's heart,

She was a lovely work of art.

Using Audio Boo and Creating Podcasts

This week has been our statewide testing. There have been several incidents of crying and after we've completed the test each day everyone is exhausted (myself, as well!). I wanted to do some creating and have fun in the afternoons and so I asked my students if they wanted to make podcasts.

Using the information from their animal research books, students wrote a fun podcast about their animal. The first student to finish (who is a gifted writer) decided to include sound effects for the rest of the class--couldn't have thought of that wonderful idea on my own! Having everyone participate in this way made it possible to record these with the whole class listening (and they were so excited to hear the podcast being made).

Here's an example of what we created:

listen to ‘Wonderful World of Animals: Elephants’ on Audioboo

Audio Boo is incredibly easy to use. You do have to create an account (I sign the kids in so that the account won't be accessed from home), but recording involves pressing a series of buttons. I use an external microphone as it records more clearly. If students' podcasts will be less than 30 seconds, Croak It allows students to record with out an account.

It's fun and it covers a few common core standards!
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understandable pace.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.3.5 Create engaging audio recordings of stories or poems that demonstrate fluid reading at an understandable pace; add visual displays when appropriate to emphasize or enhance certain facts or details.

Non-Fiction Reading and Writing Unit

The Common Core Informational Text standards for third grade reading require students to be able to (I have paraphrased the standards):

• Ask and answer questions about the text (and refer explicitly to the text)
• Determine the main idea, as well as include key details and how they support the main idea
• Use language that refers to chronological order/sequence text (historical events, scientific ideas, how to) and cause/effect
• Determine the meaning of words and phrases in a text (I have interpreted this to mean being able to use context clues AND a glossary/dictionary)
• Use text features and search tools
• Distinguish their point of view from the author's
• Use information and illustrations to answer the 5 Ws of a text (where, when, why, and how--I include who especially if students are reading a biography)
• Compare and contrast, determine cause and effect, or sequence events (between sentences, paragraphs, and two texts)

For writing, students need to:

• Write an informative text to convey ideas clearly
• Introduce a topic and group related information together
• Include illustrations to help explain topic
• Include facts, definitions, and details
• Use linking words
• Provide a concluding statement/section

Now, how do we make this happen?

A Text Feature Chart

This year I spent a few months on informational text features and text structures. Each day for my mini-lessons I would pick a different text feature and we would examine how this feature was helpful to us as a reader. We would read articles in our Everyday Math Student Reference Book, the books that accompany our FOSS kits, and articles from Time for Kids. When reading from the math reference book students would first use the index or table of contents to find the article. While reading the article students would locate bolded words and look up the words in the glossary.

To introduce text structures I used this fantastic Text Structure PowerPoint from Emily Kissner (free on TeachersPayTeachers). I split up the text structures over many mini-lessons.

A Text Structure Chart

We then created text structure flip books. On each page students wrote a text structure and inside wrote a description of that text structure. We used several editions of Time for Kids and after reading the articles, identified the text structure they fit best under, cut the article out and pasted it on that page. (I saw this idea on someone's blog and need to give them credit--please pass it my way if you find it!).

Text Structure Flip Book

Would I do this the exact same way next year? No, I would probably create my text features and text structures chart and each time a new Time for Kids edition arrived I would take time to go through the text features and text structures present in that edition with my students. Time for Kids also work really well in Guided Reading groups and many of the standards could be covered in Guided Reading groups. Over time, I might create a "cheat sheet" of questions to ask during instruction based on the standards.

Selection of books students used for research

To put the writing standards into practice, as well as incorporate our knowledge of text features and text structures students undertook animal research projects. We used books from the library, KidRex.org, as well as Kid InfoBits (which was available through our school library) for our research. If you have access to Kid InfoBits I highly recommend using it because it shows the (relative) reading level of articles, as well as giving a citation on the bottom of each article.

Students used an Animal Research Packet I created to guide their research. After students completed their research, they outlined their books on plain paper (you might consider printing out a few templates from Power Point for students to use for their outlines). 

A student planning her animal research book

To create a professional looking book students created their books in Power Point. We learned many different "tricks" to add to our books including inserting page numbers, adding pictures, flipping text (useful for true/false answers), adding shapes, and changing the template of pages.

Here are two examples of finished products:

Text Structure Resources:

http://msjordanreads.com/2012/04/19/non-fiction-text-structures/

How have you taught informational texts in your classroom? What ideas do you have for informational text? What questions would you include in a "cheat sheet" of questions based on these standards?

Non-Fiction Focus: Narrative Biography

As we look towards the Common Core and the additional emphasis on non-fiction I have been working on a non-fiction unit with my third graders. We've studied text features and text structures. Now they are researching an animal and will be creating their own non-fiction book about their animal!

One of my favorite non-fiction books I've read to my students is My Name is Georgia: A Portrait by Jeanette Winter. The book describes Georgia O'Keefe's life from a childhood, to her schooling in Chicago, to her experiences in New Mexico.

This book is quite complex (to use that favorite Common Core word!) as the author embeds quotes from Georgia O'Keefe throughout. If possible, this would be a wonderful book to read under a document camera so that students can see where the text switch from the narrator to quotes.

My students were familiar with Georgia O'Keefe from an art project where they made their own red poppies, which added a fun element to reading the book. Living in Chicago many of my students had seen Sky Above Clouds IV at the Art Institute and recognized the importance of the incorporation of clouds throughout the book. The art and social studies connections that could be made from this book are numerous.

If your students are going to be writing biographies this would be a wonderful mentor text for them as the narrative style is much more interesting (to me as a reader!) than the traditional elementary school biography.

If you're looking for more non-fiction suggestions (or amazing children's book suggestions, in general) you MUST visit:
http://www.kidlitfrenzy.com (they are doing a non-fiction Wednesday link up)
and http://teachmentortexts.com

Hopefully, you'll see more ways to incorporate non-fiction instruction in your classroom from me!

Table by Table Organizational Supply

The start to any school year can be overwhelming and with a switch to a new school, a new grade level, and a strike the second week of school this was certainly an interesting beginning of the year!

A new start for me meant that I got to rethink many of the procedures and organizational strategies I had used for the past few years. As I switched from second to third grade I wondered how I should handle school supplies. With my second graders I passed out scissors, glue, colored pencils, or markers each time they needed them. Would there be a way to save time with third graders?

I reached out to Brandi, from Really Good Stuff, who I met last year at the International Reading Association Conference. I wanted to know what she recommended for organization of supplies. She offered to have me review their Four Compartment Caddies. This way each table could have their supplies at the ready, rather than waiting for them to be passed out. Her one warning was that I might find the compartments to be a little small.

And guess what? The small compartments were my favorite part! Look at how nicely everything stands up in the compartments!

Because the compartments are smaller than in most caddies, it is really easy for my students find what they need and put the items away in the correct compartments. There is enough room to store scissors, glue, markers, regular pencils, and colored pencils!! One of my tables has even added erasers to the large compartment where they store their markers.

If there's ever a time I don't want my students to access these supplies, the handles on top make it super easy for a student to carry the supplies off to a shelf on the side of the room.

If you'd like your own set of Four Compartment Caddies with Handles (and you are a US Resident over the age of 18) you can enter my giveaway!

To enter you can enter by doing any of the following:
1) Follow my blog
2) Leave a comment talking about the best organizational advice you have for the classroom!
3) Follow me on Twitter (@KarynTeaches)
4) Follow Really Good Stuff on Twitter

One entry for each! Leave a comment for each with your e-mail address!

Giveaway ends on October 7th at midnight! I will announce the (randomly selected) winner after that!

Classroom Pictures

Here is a glimpse of my room all set up before school started!

At the front of the room!

View From the Door

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Math Wall

Another View from the Door

Yet Another View From the Door!