Adjusting, Revisiting, Discussing

As I worked my way through my test prep unit, I noticed some common weaknesses among my students. While I was conferencing with them, they were not discussing characters in the same light that they had during our character unit in the Fall. They were also getting a little bit lazy with their descriptions of theme, morals, and central messages. Finally, some common assessment results showed me that they needed more exposure to comparing and contrasting between texts.

My reading teacher brain turned mathematical...an equation developed in my mind...

strong characters + strong themes + comparing/contrasting books by one author =

 

CHRIS VAN ALLSBURG

 

I created anchor chart #1 to review the character elements we have used throughout the year.

 

The Sweetest Fig by Chris Van Allsburg for minilesson #1

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with my metacognition stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot using the stems. The large yellow sticky note lists common core ideas for talking and inferring about characters. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the common core stems.

 

Student jotting with my conference note to add in evidence from the text.

 

Student jotting--plus you have to love companies like Harris Teeter and Renaissance Learning who donate sticky notes! 

 

Student jotting with my conference note to use synonyms instead of repeating thoughts. The student also added in text evidence.

 

I conferenced with several students about how to use shades of an adjective when describing characters. Their art teacher told me she was teaching the same thing with paints so we were able to use each other as examples in our lessons! I love a great coincidence!

 

We conferenced about citing evidence and using shades of an adjective. This is a reluctant writer who enjoys reading. I scripted his text evidence for him. It is a fine line to push him to write because sometimes it shuts him off to jotting altogether.

 

I asked this student why he drew extra boxes and he said he heard me conferencing about adding evidence so he added it in before he met with me!

 

adding evidence and reviewing synonyms

 

 

I found several theme anchor charts on Pinterest so I combined them and created anchor chart #2.

Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg for minilesson #2

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with synthesizing stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot to show synthesis. The large yellow sticky note lists my common core ideas for developing and interpreting morals, lessons, and themes. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the stems.

 

 

 

 

I used hot pink sticky notes to show my thinking that stretches between the two Van Allsburg books.

 

Student jottings and conference notes

 

 

During Independent Reading, this student found a copy of the book in our classroom library. He said, "this isn't my just right level, but can I please read it?" Of course!

 

 

The Wreck of the Zephyr--minilesson #3. I think it is important to make jottings about the cover of the book, not just the story inside.

 

 

In the front of the book I wrote a large green sticky note with inferencing stems. Throughout the book, I put green tabs at the spots where students would stop and jot to show their inferences. The large yellow sticky note lists my common core ideas for supporting thinking with evidence. Throughout the book I put yellow sticky notes with my jottings and questions that match the stems.

 

 

Once again the pink sticky notes show where I compare and contrast between the books. The orange flags note interesting vocabulary words.