Focus on Nonfiction!

Focus on Nonfiction!

We have been working with nonfiction texts across our day to become more proficient readers!  We have switched all the books in our book bins to be nonfiction, for our work in Reader's Workshop.  Students have so much enthusiasm for this genre that they are incredibly engaged during Individual Reading time and are eager to share the thinking they have jotted on post-its and what they have learned during partner reading time.

 

Naturally, we have also been studying nonfiction texts across content areas like Science and Social Studies.

Social Studies
"Community" Book Clubs Read nonfiction books all about communities.  For some groups, the text was very easy so they had to make meaning using connections, inferences, and evaluations.

Book Clubs hard at work reading and jotting their thinking on post-its

Students then "jigsawed," teaching peers from different book clubs all about a nonfiction community-themed book they read with their book clubs.

Community Book Clubs, Video 1

Community Book Clubs, Video 2

Community Book Clubs, Video 3

Community Book Clubs, Video 4

Community Book Clubs, Video 5

Community Book Clubs, Video 6

Science

We learned all about bats with several close readings of Bats by Gail Gibbons.  We then read Stellaluna and searched for  parts that were real/make believe.  Finally we worked on reading nonfiction texts with fluency in a Bats Reader's Theater.

Bat Reader's Theater

Zoey, Shawn, Anthony, Regan, Faizan

Ema, Ryan, Juliann, Billy

Jena, Kayleigh, Brandon, Zachary, Sean

Naomi, Kylie, CJ, Robert, Mikayla

Reading Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read accurately, quickly, expressively, with good phrasing, AND with good comprehension.

A recent study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education found that fourth grade students’ oral reading fluency is a strong predictor of silent reading comprehension.  For the full article, click this link. This fact was brought to my attention when i heard Dr. Tim Rasinksi- a professor of literacy education at Kent State University who has written over 150 articles and has authored, co-authored or edited over 15 books or curriculum programs on reading education- speak this summer.  To address this issue and make sure my students are as prepared as possible to comprehend more challenging texts, we have been working on improving our reading fluency!  

Check out the links below for videos of us practicing our fluency.  In these videos, students reread a piece of their choosing from their Reading Folders smoothly and with expression.
Zoey & Jena
Robert & Billy
Juliann, Zachary, & Mikayla
Brandon, Naomi, & CJ
Regan, Anthony, & Ema
Kylie & Ryan
Kayleigh, Faizan, & Shawn

Happy Johnny Appleseed Day!

On Thursday, September 26th we celebrated...

First, we learned all about the life of John Chapmann, aka Johnny Appleseed, with a digital read aloud.

Johnny Appleseed Read Aloud from Scholastic

Then we participated in Johnny Appleseed inspired learning centers with the help of some fabulous moms: Mrs. Mondaruli, Mrs. Edge, Mrs. Szekula, Mrs. Karamanol, and Mrs. Kratzel.  THANK YOU LADIES!  We couldn't have done it without you!!!

At our Science Center, we learned the names of the parts of an apple and labeled a diagram.  Then we taste tested 3 different kinds of apples (red, yellow, and green), describing them and choosing a favorite.  Finally we chopped apples with plastic knives to make our own crock pot apple sauce.  It was delicious!  Most kids even liked it better than the store bought version!!

 

At our Math Center, we practiced our math fact fluency with the game Apple Add Up.  In teams, we tried to fill our boards using 2-3 small apples at a time to cover up addends of 10.  Teams raced to see who could cover up the numbers to make 10 the fastest.  After playing a few times, we were able to decorate our own apple bookmarks. 

  

 At our Word Work Center, we practiced working with short vowels.  We matched onset blends with ending rimes that contained short vowels to see if we could make words.  After we played a few times, we tried to play the game like Memory (with the cards turned upside down).  It was pretty funny to see the silly combinations we flipped over!

 At our Big Book Center, we listened to a different version of a biography of Johnny Appleseed.  Afterwards, we worked together to sort and organize an out-of-order timeline of his life written on sentence strips.  In class we have been working on retelling our reading in sequence, so we were on the look out for sequence words like first, next, then, and last. A few especially savvy students noticed that the sentences were written in an ABAB pattern using a red and green pen!