I am giving all my volunteers a box of popcorn with this glued onto it as a small thank you. You can download it for free by clicking here!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Non-Fiction Writing Unit
I just wrapped up my non-fiction writing unit. My second graders wrote "All About _______" books. Some examples are: All About My Family, All About Cheetahs, All About Baseball etc. They had to choose a topic they felt they were an expert at. This unit was heavily inspired by A Quick Guide to Teaching Informational Writing, Grade 2 (Workshop Help Desk) by Marika Wiesen. I highly suggest purchasing it if you are interested in doing an all about unit.
Below is my anchor chart. Everyday I would add one new teaching point...
The big ideas for this unit are:
- Procedural writing isn’t the only way writers teach; we can also teach all about a topic on which we are experts.
- To help writers develop new, important non-narrative writing muscles by choosing topics in which they are already knowledgeable.
Paper Choice:
- Be flexible! Let kids use paper that helps them produce their best writing!
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| This is the "unlined" paper |
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| This is the "lined" paper |
Mentor Texts
- Any Gail Gibbons books
- Any "All About _____" books
Teaching Points:
Day 1: Help children choose a topic they feel like they are an expert in. Once they choose a topic they are an expert in have them complete this graphic organizer to help them think about their chapter ideas.
Day 4: Writers follow their chapter plan.
Day 5: Writers picture the chapter title in their mind, and think, “What do I see? What could I teach about that?”
Day 6: Writers add lots of specific details to their pictures, then they teach about what they added in their words (diagrams)
Day 7: Writers give mini lectures about their topics to themselves or to a partner to before they write to help add more details to their writing
Day 8: Writers can teach even more by rereading what they wrote and thinking to themselves, “What else could I teach about that?” to add more details
Day 9: Writers make their facts specific. I.e.: instead of “dogs eat dog food” teach about the names of different dog food
Day 10: Writers think about their audience and how they want the audience to feel and think about the information. I.e.: bugs might look scary but really most bugs are not dangerous.
Day 11: Writers who truly care about their topics are passionate about affecting their reader’s hearts and minds. They use their facts to expand their readers’ thinking and even rally them to action!
Day 13: Writers use data-and they get new ideas by collecting even more. I.e.: I am not sure how many mph a cheetah can run, but I know Bob knows all about cheetahs, I will ask him!
Day 14: Revision: Writers revise by thinking, “What are all the strategies I know to make my writing clear and interesting?” i.e.: adding more by taping it into the story
Day 15: Revision: Writers sometimes write an introduction to their book by telling the reader what they will learn and why it might be important to know this
Day 16: Revision:Writers can end with a powerful conclusion restating their most important ideas and saying again why this topic matters so much
Day 17: Writers choose a title by thinking, “What will get my readers interested in reading my book?” and then they make a title page!
Day 18: Editing: Do what the majority of your students need help with. Choose 1-3 editing skills, and do one per day. Some ideas: Capital letters (beg. Of sentence, headings, titles, important places and names), end marks (periods, exclamations, question marks), commas
Day 19: Celebrate! (see below for more details).
End of Unit Celebration:
- Bring expertise to the kindergarten or first grade classrooms and teach those younger children all about “grown up” second grade information.
- Invite visitors from all around the school for a teaching fair, in which children have stations set up to teach interested visitors about their topics.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Synthesis Anchor Chart
This is my most recent anchor chart for synthesizing. Not the best of my anchor charts but I thought I'd share anyway. :)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Reading Response Notebook
This is the sheet I have students keep in their response notebooks. They track their thinking (their "inner voice") as they read. I use this instead of stick notes because it is much neater, and easier for me to use as records for learning. Click here to download it for free! :)
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Determining Importance Anchor Chart
This is an anchor chart I made to go along with my "Rockin' Readers Decide what is Important" unit. I add one teaching point a day, and go over every previous teaching point (by reading them quickly) before I started my new mini-lesson. Please excuse the messiness, I created it with the students while teaching. :)
Friday, March 23, 2012
Fairy Tale Writing Unit
This is one of my favorite writing units. I have the kiddos write their very own fairy tale adaptations. I usually do this unit after I complete my Realistic Fiction unit.
It is important to front load this unit by reading many versions of the fairy tales you want to focus on. We read several versions of the Three Little Pigs and The Gingerbread Man before the kids set off to write their own versions. They could write their own adaption of either of those two stories, or, they could use another fairy tale that they knew very well.
Here is the anchor chart I made to go along with this unit:
The big ideas for this unit are:
- Writing stories through a fairytale format
- Working on the structure of story with an emphasis on character troubles
- Learning how authors choose what is important to focus on in a story
- Telling a fairy tale in a new style
Paper Choice:
- 3 page stapled packets (or booklets as I like to call them) with many lines per page and a small space for drawing for most children. Click here to download it.
- Be flexible! If kids need more or less line or pages, give it to them!
- Graphic organizers to help plan their fairy tale. Click here to download it.
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| This is the writing paper we use. |
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| This is the graphic organizer we use this unit. |
Mentor Texts
- Any versions of the 3 Little Pigs
- Any versions of the Gingerbread Man
Teaching Points:
Day 1: How can writers adapt a fairy tale and make it their own? Change the setting!
Day 2: How can writers adapt a fairy tale and make it their own? Change the character gender!
Day 3: How can writers adapt a fairy tale and make it their own? Change the animals!
Day 4: Writers remember that if they change something in the story it will change the whole plot! (EX: If you make the wolf a mama wolf she might take the pigs home to cook a nice meal for her wolf family instead of gobbling them up right away)
Day 5: Some authors make adaptations because of disagreement with stereotypes. What would you want to change? Why? (EX: Use the book "The True Story of A. Wolf"
Day 6: Writers make the start of the story like a small moment.
Day 7: Writers make their fairy tale have a moral.
Day 8: Writers make things come in threes in their fairy tale
Day 9: Writers show and don't tell!
Day 10: Writers think about how if you change one part, it will cause other parts to change.
Day 11: Writers use what they know from other genres. In realistic fiction the character faces trouble and it gets worse and worse, and fairy tales are like that too!
Day 12: Writers build tension in their story by making the problem get worse and worse before it is fixed.
Day 13: Writers write the most during important parts to show the reader it is super important
Day 14: Writers make the characters move different than one another. (EX: The villain might move sneakily, the hero might sing and dance)
Day 15: Editing: Writers check that they have periods and capitals in the right place
Day 16: Editing: Give your partner your story, have them read it to you. Can they read it easily? If not, fix hard to read parts.
Day 17: Writers create title pages
Day 18: Celebrate! (see below for more details).
End of Unit Celebration:
- Invite parents
- Have parents rotate around the room reading each student's writing and writing them a positive note about what they liked best.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Retelling and Summarizing Teaching Points
I found these two great units...check them out!
Essential Lessons for Retelling
Essential Lessons for Summarizing
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