Biography Book Club Jottings Assessment

This is one of the forms I used to collect data on my students and what they were learning during our biography and narrative nonfiction unit. I asked them to choose some of their jottings from their Biography Book Club books and then they had to tell why they chose those particular jottings by circling the choices at the bottom of the form. I used these forms during conferencing to celebrate success and address any weaknesses.

 

During the conference with this student, I complimented her descriptions of Rosa Parks' character, but we talked about how to better reference the text and explain events in her life that showed she was that type of woman that was described in the jottings.

 

I complimented this student on her independent use of a chart from a previous minilesson. We discussed synonymns to use that are more detailed than just caring and helpful.

 

I complimented this boy on asking such an intense question. In addition to a quick reminder of capitalization, we discussed other people he has read about that also changed the world. I encouraged him to make more connections between other texts when reading.

 

I complimented this student for referencing the text, but reminded him that when he is a biography reader he should not just be recalling facts. I had him practice relating to the text instead of just retelling details. I led him to the thought that maybe the statue was so big because Dr. King did big things for civil rights.

I was proud of the student, Bryan, because the other members of his book club were absent on the day they did this activity so he put all of their names on the jotting.

 

EMPATHY!

 

relating...not just recalling

 

again relating...not recalling

 

 

This child is religious and often makes connections to her church. In this jotting I complimented her for relating to Abe Lincoln reading the bible. We talked about reasons why he possibly chose to become a stateman instead of a minister.

 

I complimented this student on asking a question and then drawing a line to write the answer to the question after he found it in the text. I encouraged him to reference the text with a few more details. I complimented him on relating to Black Beard's family because he thought the pirate should protect his family and not the gold treasure.

 

I complimented Mya for referencing an event in her book and relating to it. I told her I agreed with her 4-star rating of her jotting.

 

I complimented this student on being in touch with the text and asking questions to help understand what she was reading. I told her that I agreed with her star ratings. She is limited English proficient (LEP) so I think that her questions were justified. We had a basic conversation about Obama and his life. It was not too deep or detailed because that is not what she needed at this time.

 

EMPATHY!

 

Great use of character traits and referencing the text.

 

I complimented this student for referencing the text, but we talked about the difference between fact and opinion when reading a biography.

 

When I conferenced with this student, I had him show me the fancy writing that he found because I thought maybe he was not understanding italics. It was actually a photograph of Declaration of Independence. We had a conversation about how writing has changed from old times and the different types of writing we might see and use today.

Impromptu Poetry Moment

One of my students asked if she was allowed to write a poem as a jotting. I had never considered this before so I told her, "sure, as long as it relates to your book."

This is what she came up with after meeting with her biography book club and discussing Abraham Lincoln:

 

I am so proud of her for extending her thinking beyond a simple sticky note jotting. She took what she knew about poetry and combined it with information she learned from her book. When she shared her jotting with her book club one of the boys shouted out, "Kyndall had a poetry moment!"

Book Club Dilemma for Low-Level Readers

In a previous post, Book Hunt, I described how I went about finding books to use for our Biography Book Clubs. I had a difficult time finding books for my low-level readers though. I searched on Reading A to Z and the lowest book I found was a level J and I need D, G, and H. I looked for some passages on Read Works, but the lexile-leveled passages on there were not low enough. So I had to get creative!

I have some old Social Studies big books that were part of a retired series. I use them to cut out pictures, paragraphs, and nonfiction text features to use as examples in various lessons (see my posts Biography Boxes and Bullets and Repurposing Those Old, Boring Textbooks). I decided to look through them and see if there were any biography pieces.  Jackpot!

 

I cut out all of the biography passages and created my own biography big book.

 

I dedicated the book to two of my students who have made great strides in reading. They will be the first two students to use this book.

 

The large print and simple sentence structure will allow my low-level, special needs students to participate in their own biography book club. They will read together with their exceptional needs teacher and personal needs assistant. They will be able to make jottings on large sticky notes.

 

Some of the passages had great text on the back. I created a flap so students could read both sides.

I also found some worksheets with short biography pieces. I cut the worksheets apart and created multiple copies of these small biography books. The vocabulary is a little bit high for the group that will use these books, but I am going to do the first read with them. Then they will break apart and read it independently and make their jottings to prepare for their discussions in book club.

Biography Boxes and Bullets

During the Lucy Calkins' unit Navigating Through Nonfiction, students learned how to organize the main idea and supporting details by using the boxes and bullets method.  Students are going to be revisiting main idea as they read biographies, so I wanted to create an anchor chart specific to the genre.

 

I have some old Social Studies big books from a retired series that I often use when I need authentic text examples. You can't hang a big book on the wall and it can bulky to use without an easel.

 

So...

 

Anchor Chart!

 

Dust Cover Dilemma?

I take the dust covers off of my books that are in the classroom library so I have accummulated a huge stack of them in a cupboard.  I was setting up my Focus Board for our new unit and I decided to use the book jackets to enhance the board. Since we are starting biography book clubs and studying nonfiction narrative books, I chose books suited to those two areas.

I hot glued them onto a map holder that is above the board.

 



Book Hunt

I have been preparing for our next book club, biography/narrative nonfiction, and since this is my school's first year using a balanced literacy framework, finding enough books at specific levels has been a challenge. 

My first step in the hunt for books was to know which levels I needed for the clubs. I know that for nonfiction it is acceptable to go down as much as 2 levels, but I am not sure how this transfers to narrative nonfiction (if you have an answer to this please share in the comments section).

My next step was to check in our school Media Center and see which Guided Reading sets matched my genre and levels.

 

Then I looked on my book shelves to see if I had multiple copies of books that matched my search criteria.

I also looked through the ancillary materials that are part of my Social Studies textbook program. Time for Kids and the Harcourt leveled readers each provided me with a set of books--yay!

Finally, I used the website Reading A-Z since I was not having much luck finding lower level books. Reading A-Z has something called multilevel books which are wonderful because you could have three different groups reading the same book that is three different levels.

 

Now I have an idex card labeled with each Fountas and Pinnell level. I recorded the books I have for each level. Now I can see how many sets I have and how many more I need.  

 

Biography Bucket

Students select a book from the bucket. While Buddy Reading, students record information on index cards. Then they sort the cards and place them in the biography folder according to the categories.  If they have an empty category, then they have to go back into the book and find facts to go in that pocket.  You can extend this center into a writing assignment by having the students use the index cards to write a paragraph about the person they read about.