How do we know what our students know?

Traditionally, teachers have always used exams, tests, and quizzes to assess student knowledge of a concept.  However, in the process, it is hard to know whether or not students are actually paying attention and taking in the information the teacher specifically wants them to know.  Teachers may use homework assignments and such as assessments along the way, but even with homework assignments, students may receive help from others or may work different when under home conditions as opposed to school conditions and vice versa.   It is especially discouraging when the students’ assessments reflect they didn’t learn a thing.  Most importantly, what these standard forms of assessment don’t cover, as well, is how students derived that information. I can remember sitting in 10th grade Geometry class while students around me passed around a graphing calculator that had the answers to all the proofs typed on it.  They passed the calculator around, that student copied all the answers and they passed it to the next student.  The teacher never knew what was happening. Everyone received their high scores and moved on to the next concept. All the while, the teacher concluded that the way he was teaching was a great job and continued to do the same old lecture and notes he’d done for decades thus far.  

This obviously doesn’t work with the classrooms of today with trying to invoke an inquiry based learner.  We teachers need not only to see if the student can derive the “correct” answer, but whether or not the student understands HOW and WHY they got that answer.  As well as working on the “hows” and “whys” of content, we are also trying to teach our learners to be able to ask questions to help their learning and measure their learning process along the way.

When I taught 7th grade Advanced Math many moons ago, I would often “quiz” my students when we finished a concept.  Though it was the traditional paper and pencil quiz, I would often insert self-assessment based questions along the way in the quiz.  I would also, in addition to the correct answer, include a section with the problem that asked students to explain their process of receiving that answer or what they’re thinking was in getting that answer. As a Math teacher, this helped me not just mark answers right or wrong, but see where my students’ thinking was deriving and how they were working the problems and help them find the correct answer or use the correct method by going through those steps with students. 

I think in addition to asking your students to explain their logic and reasoning is also getting to know your students.  We, as teachers, are with our students 8-9 months out of the year, it is our responsibility to know how our students learn, what makes them tick and what their interests are. This isn’t just filling out an “All About Me” checklist at the beginning of the year and that’s that.  It is more about interacting and observing your students on a daily basis as well as learning what interests them, what makes them happy, angry and sad. We get to know which learners prefer pencil and paper over videos on the Promethean board. We know which students are better at investigations and which are visual and auditory learners.  Once we know all about our student, we can easily know what they know and we can assess that knowledge.   

The Struggle is Real: Inquiry Roadblock

            One of my biggest struggles as an educator has always been time management within my classroom. I can never seem to fit everything I need to get done into my school day. When I plan great lessons, they always take longer than my allotted time frame to complete. As a result, another lesson has to be cut short or cut out entirely. Then I get behind in that content area and find it hard to catch back up.

            Because of my time management problem, I find it nearly impossible to include a lot of inquiry into my daily lessons. Inquiry has become an important part of our standards. I know it is important and I see the value in it, but how do I incorporate it into content lessons and still maintain a set instructional schedule?

            I have attempted full-on inquiry lessons on several occasions. For a while, I worked hard to create blended learning units using science and social studies content. Students selected their own research topic based on the standards, completed independent research, and worked with somebody that chose the same topic to create a final presentation to share with their classmates. For example, students could choose to research earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, or landslides for our natural disasters (fast processes) unit because those are the specific processes the standard requires students to know. They used books, encyclopedias, and Blendspaces I created to research their topics. Then they created a replica of their natural disaster (to make it STEM) and used some sort of technology presentation to share what they learned. The problem is the amount of time these blended learning projects took. (I should have prefaced this by stating that I teach third grade.) Third graders do not have much experience with research and struggle to find the information they need, paraphrase it, list the source, etc. My kids greatly enjoyed these projects, but they took a solid three weeks to complete. The other problem is that these projects only addressed one small part of a standard; the rest still had to be taught! I ended up running out of time to teach all of the content that my students needed to know.

            In addition to the time constraints, I know inquiry should be student-centered but I feel like teaching kids how to discover new material on their own requires a lot of teacher guidance. On top of figuring out how to create good inquiry lessons that involve science experiments and hands-on social studies activities, I would love to figure out how to add inquiry as a station in math (and of course reading). I just don’t know where to start!

So I guess my big question for all of you is, what do you do to include daily inquiry in your lessons? What are some examples of good inquiry lessons (in every subject) that you do regularly within your classroom? How do you manage the time needed to complete a good inquiry lesson? What are simple ways I can introduce inquiry to my students so that they can do it independently?

I would love to know your thoughts. I am open to any and all ideas! I think if I can figure out a good way to start, then I can use that to spark new ideas and new thinking in order to create the best possible lessons and learning experiences for my students.

Ashley Blackwelder's Post

Over the past two weeks, I've had the opportunity to dive back into the 5th grade classroom (which I love) and lead those students and teachers through a unit I've designed on forces and motion (which don't typically love, but have really enjoyed as a result of this re-vamped unit). I've felt a little like I have bitten off more than I can chew with this whole thing, as I've just finished helping 5th grade with their STEAM program and am now getting to work with 2nd grade on theirs.  There's usually not enough time in the day to make all of these things happen...but it's been a great experience for our kids so far, and something I was dying to try out after we explored the elephant text set in class and began working on our own. Although I am our STEM teacher (or STEM Lab Lady or The Scientist, depending on which kid you ask), my "first love" in teaching has always been reading--and I was instantly excited about the idea of seeking out really great, high-interest texts to jump-start a unit that our teachers typically dread and students struggle to understand. We started the unit with my text set  and moved into two days of exploration with force-and-motion-themed Goldiblox building sets. From there, we've moved on to pendulum painting and art critique, graphing motion with the help of some 4th grade runners, and we'll finish up with a guest speaker this week, who is on the Canadian curling team. As the students have completed each activity, the only writing requirements I gave them were to take notes on 3 things: 1) any important/new terms they encountered that would be good to remember 2) any questions they had about something they read or experienced and 3) any reflections (visualizations, connections, etc.) that they wanted to add. We've been assessing their understanding and participation through rubrics based mostly on conversations with peers and teachers; we have yet to assign a "quiz" on the material, but have had plenty of opportunities to get an authentic measure of what they currently know and what they need. All of this is leading up to the final week of our unit, during which our students will reflect on what they've learned and found most interesting, and then design an experiment to test out some aspect of force and motion.

Although I started trying to be more "STEM-focused" during my last couple of years in the classroom, this unit is vastly different from anything I attempted with my own students. I feel that I have grown a great deal myself in really understanding the value of questioning and exploration as learning experiences, and it's the first time I ever started off a unit without any real direct instruction. It's really been interesting--and eye-opening--to see how well they're doing when they're constructing that knowledge through their experiences and wonderings.The big difference is that from the start, they've been reading and writing LIKE SCIENTISTS. There is no 5-paragraph format, no need to assess their grammar, punctuation, etc. at this point.  They are simply reading, thinking, and writing what matters to them about what they are doing. I am hoping that their culminating projects will show that this whole endeavor has been worthwhile--that they will be able to investigate something that matters to them and present it in a way that shows a deeper understanding and purpose than they would have through textbook learning and direct instruction. Based on what I've seen so far, I suspect that they will.  Check out what they're doing, and hopefully I'll have more good things to report in the next few weeks!

Samantha Morton's Blog Post

Leadership: Lighten Your Load with Shared Duties



Stephen Covey states that leadership is communicating to people their worth so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.



The concept of leadership in the classroom is one that I was initially reluctant to put in to practice. This was not because I was against student leaders or even the idea of giving up control of my classroom to my students. I believe this idea frightened me more because of the unknown variables that come into play with initiating something new and if I am honest there was also a fear of piling more work onto my already overflowing plate.



If someone would have told me that using certain principles of leadership would have actually lightened my load then maybe my first response might have looked a little different and I would have been quicker to jump right in with both feet but I was skeptical.



I will be the first to say that there are many practices introduced under the idea of promoting student leaders that I have witnessed that are not only impractical but also not beneficial to students or their teachers BUT there are also many that I can get behind.



Here is one leadership concept that originally wasn’t my favorite as it seemed outdated and overdone. However, in witnessing how this initiative has actually allowed student to be more invested in the class as their own, I would say it is an example of a Win-Win situation.



Classroom Leadership Roles: Now many teachers already use a version of these in their classroom but in beginning this practice there were many that I wouldn’t’ have thought of on my own that proved to be beneficial in the classroom for students and me as the teacher.



·      Board Manager – Students are in charge of writing daily EQ’s and homework a daunting task that is required but not always remembered by most teachers.

·      Receptionist – Students are in charge of answering the phone when it rings and teachers don’t have to stop in the middle of their teaching.

·      Lunch Count – Students tally and total lunch choices and submit it to cafeteria. They also hunt down those students who didn’t make their choice in the morning.

·      Classroom Engineer – Students in this role manage tidying up each afternoon by sweeping floor, organizing supplies, etc.

·      Agenda Accountability – Students rotate around the room with a stamp and check student agendas to be sure they copied assignments down as required.

·      Teacher Assistant – These students help with any tasks that the teacher may need throughout the day.



What are some Classroom Leadership Roles you have found helpful in your room?

Sarah's Blog Post

Can you spot the differences between these pictures?

SHARED READING
1 adult reads to large(r) group
Teacher has the only copy of the text
Children sit in rows
The children sit and listen to the text
Seeing and talking about the book is more difficult
for the students
The teacher takes the lead in reading and
discussion, including asking questions and the pace
Less inclusive of those with learning differences,
because participation relies on good verbal skills
The purpose is typically on completion of the text or
to teach skills or content

DIALOGIC READING
1 adult reads to a small(er) group
Each person has a copy of the text
Seating is in a semi- circle
The children sit and discuss the book
Everyone can see and talk about the book
The children control what is talked about or
read; ask the questions; and the pace
More inclusive as it allows for other types of
responses, such as pointing, looking, or the
use of AAC devices.
The purpose is to enjoy the experience, build
oral language and literacy skills


While both of these have a place in our Early Elementary classrooms, we maybe less familiar with the second
method, so let’s look at how this works:

GETTING YOUR CAR STARTED:
Think of the way you read to your own children when they were preschoolers, sitting on your lap.
1) Choose your book - any type of text that interests your group of students - Yes! This works equally well
with fiction, informational, poetry, alphabet and even picture books.
2) Obtain a copy for all, if possible - you can use big books or your document viewer and smart board, in a
pinch, but it is not ideal.
3) Assemble you group in a semi-circle, and give them the book. Allow them to interact with the text on
their own for a couple of minutes.
4) Observe your students, noting what they are attending to, then…
5) Begin to Read, by following the C-A-R:
C= COMMENT on what one child is looking at
A= ASK a question about the page one child is looking at
R = respond and add more information-e.g. if a child says “ Dog”, you can “ Yes a little yellow dog.”
Repeat this for all the children in the group, and or allow them to make comments and ask questions about
what the others say.
6) Wait at least 5 seconds, when expecting a response, or even longer for those with communication
challenges.
7) Model ways to respond - you can point to the pictures or text; use a Communication Device to ask a
question; make a comment yourself; “ Oh, I see…..;” or ask a question, by saying: “ I have a question…!”
This is important so that all children learn they can participate in this activity, in these ways.
8) Allow the children to take the lead - it does not matter whether you complete the book or even look at all
the pages! Talk about whatever page they are on, and whatever they show an interest in. In a group, you will
have to make sure everyone is on the same page, to encourage a group discussion.

PLACES TO STOP FOR MORE INFORMATION :
1) The School of Education at UNC- CHAPEL HILL has many resource and tips for working with students with
special needs:
https://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/files/early-childhood-resources
https://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/files/early-childhood-resources/LiteratureDevLevel.pdf/view
https://www.med.unc.edu/ahs/clds/files/early-childhood-resources/early%20literacy%20resource%20list.pdf/
view
2) To see this in action -
http://dialogic-reading.blogspot.com/ - videos for strategy in action and resources for parents
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34lojHNdqLo - videos of parents and teachers using it as well as
explanations about the method.
3) https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED469671.pdf - A guide to using the Method, to accompany caregiver
training videos, which I cannot find on the Web!
4) http://www.ciera.org/library/reports/inquiry-2/2-004/2-004.pdf - see appendix for an assessment protocol for
you to use in the classroom on yourself or a colleague; or to help with parental training
5) http://archive.brookespublishing.com/newsletters/downloads/11Tips.pdf - Tips on how to used shared
Reading
6) youtellmestories.org - link to app for iPhone or iPad that allows adults to record themselves reading to
children and provides tips for the adults on questions to ask etc.
7) https://raisingareaderma.org/program/dialogic-reading/ - charts providing information about CROWD and
another set of questions - PEER - to use when reading with young children.
8) https://www.slideshare.net/Jane_Farrall/aac-literacy-handout - clear explanation of CROWD in the CAR and
using them with children using Augmentative Communication Devices.
I hope you will try this strategy and let me know how you get on!

Lyndsey Gantt's Blog Post

Classroom Spotlight: Integration of Reading and Writing in the Content Areas through Project Based Learning

Integration of Reading and Writing in the Content Areas through Project Based Learning

It has been very beneficial to take the class, Reading and Writing in the Content Areas while implementing Project Based Learning in my classroom. We have learned some of the pedagogy needed for a successful Project Based Learning experience. The first step for trying out Project Based Learning was deciding on a standards based topic that would spark student interest. I chose animals and their habitats because second graders love learning about animals. The next thing I did was create a text set. There are so many resources on creating text sets. I used examples from www.readwritething.org, Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels Comprehension and Collaboration (2009), and the CCSS Guide to Creating Text Sets. The hardest part of creating the text set was deciding on an anchor text. I chose, At This Very Moment by Jim Arnosky. I chose this book because it invites young readers to imagine what wondrous things animals are doing across the globe.

I am still not sure that this text was the best choice for my anchor text that I will be revisiting throughout the learning experience. Also included in the text set are supporting text, websites, articles, virtual field trips, and magazines. So far creating the text set has been very beneficial for PBL.

I have tried the Mini Inquiry strategy from, Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels Comprehension and Collaboration (2009) twice so far since starting my PBL. The first mini inquiry that I tried was using an article from the Change for Animals website. I chose this website in hopes that it would make students empathetic towards animals in captivity. I do believe it helped my students engage in enquiry but it did not lead them in the direction to seek more information about the problems with animals in captivity. The second mini inquiry that I tried was watching the Disney movie, Earth. This movie definitely helped students understand and want to know more about animals.

We are only two weeks into our journey of PBL. I would like to mention a reading and writing strategy that I have used that I think would benefit other teachers implementing PBL in their classrooms. The reading strategy that I have used is so basic, but very powerful. Reading Aloud: A Bridge to Complex Text, which is from ReLeah Lent’s book, This is disciplinary literacy: Reading, writing, thinking, and doing…content area by content area (2016). Reading aloud my anchor text was very powerful for students. It was something that most of my students could not read independently. It gave me the opportunity to provide my students with some inquiry as well as expose them to content. The writing strategy that we are trying out is one of Jennifer Altieri’s strategies from Content Counts! The strategy is Student-Created Informational Books. Students are researching during our PBL time to find information about the animal they chose. Their goal is to create a shoebox habitat for their animal, as well as create an informational book about their animal. These two artifacts will be used as our PBL assessments. The Student-Created Informational Books are authentic and meaningful to students. They allow students to create books that are relevant to content and will be used to help inform their classmates about the animals they have chosen. Students are engaged in authentic reading and writing activities during PBL.

Last week students chose their animal and we did a brainstorming activity to determine what we need to know about our animals to create a habitat for them. 

This week I gave students this graphic organizer based on the questions we came up with in class. I believe the graphic organizer will help students keep the information they are researching organized.

I also decided this week to create a Symbaloo to incorporate digital literacy into our PBL experience. I chose to use Symbaloo because students need a variety of digital resources to use while researching. It can be difficult for student to type in web addresses so with Symbaloo all of the digital resources students’ can use are in one spot. Here is the Symbaloo I created for second grade animal research, https://www.symbaloo.com/mix/mrselliott. Some of the links included on the Symbaloo are BrainPopjr, San Diego Zoo, Big Universe, Epic, and Kiddle.

 I cannot wait to see my student’s artifacts at the end of our PBL experience. So far my first attempt at PBL has been successful with the support from the course Reading and Writing in the Content Areas.

Resources

Altieri, J. (2011). Content counts!: Developing disciplinary literacy skills, K-6. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Daniels, H., & Harvey, S. (2015). Comprehension and collaboration: Inquiry circles for curiosity, engagement, and understanding. Portsmith, NH: Heinemann

Lent, R. C. (2016). This is disciplinary literacy: Reading, writing, thinking, and doing…content area by content area. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Text Set: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson305/creating.pdf

http://www.changeforanimals.org/wildlife-in-captivity?gclid=CjwKCAiA5OrTBRBlEiwAXXhT6Ix5fF2ZmFii5PRtCudboLG8oBqIPP68Z8Y-wdHJbR3wuIHgktH5ehoC5CoQAvD_BwE

Stevie Fields-Strategy Share

Being able to express yourself verbally is a necessary and vital skill. However, over the years, one thing I have noticed that almost all of my students struggle with is authentic conversation.  Our standards even require 5th-grade students to not only articulate their own understanding and ideas, but also participate in discussions, consider the viewpoints of others, and build on the ideas of others. When asked to talk about almost any academic subject, students tend to each give quick sentences and the conversation dies there. They willingly listen to their classmates but they can’t or don’t want to expand upon or question those ideas.

While working on my inquiry audit trail, one strategy that I came across was called “Conver-stations”.  This is a discussion strategy where students move between small groups to deepen conversation. Students are organized into small groups to begin their discussions. After a few minutes of discussion, 1-2 students are asked to rotate to the next small group while the others stay.  This rotation of just a few members from each group occurs every few minutes so that the small groups are constantly changing. As students move through the different groups, they are picking up different ideas and perspectives and taking them with them to share with a new group. Students are encouraged to write down not only their own thoughts but also the thoughts of others that they thought were interesting. 

I really love the idea of this strategy because it exposes students to many different ideas but in a small group setting that could be less intimidating for some students.  For students who might struggle to form their thoughts, it could help them to listen to the ideas of others and, when they move to the next group, use those thoughts and words to form their own.  I would like to try this with our upcoming atomic bomb debate.  This is a topic students tend to take a side and get passionate about.  I would love to see if listening to everyone’s different perspectives changes any ones point of view or if they are able to build upon the ideas they hear to strengthen their own position.  This could be great practice for sharing ideas and responding to the ideas of others and I can’t wait to try it out!  

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/conver-stations-strategy 

Assessment

Assessment.  We all know and probably groan about it.  Somedays it seems like all that we do is test or prepare students to take the next test, especially as we enter the state standardized testing season.  While we can find value in those tests, how can we really figure out what our students know that is not dependent on them being good test takers, eating a good breakfast, getting enough sleep, or any of those other extenuating factors?  The simple answer?  Conversations. You take the time to talk to them, and more importantly, take the time to listen to the students.  This is especially important when you want to determine if students have read books or other materials.  Not only will this let you know if they have completed the book, you will now know more of the students’ interest, if they comprehended the materials, how much they are using reading strategies you have taught, as well as many other things. 

We have learned how reading in the content areas can differ from how we teach and read in English Language Arts.  So when we have our conferences about nonfiction books, we can teach about using the skills found within those books.  For example, there may be tables and charts that students skip over, not realizing their value.  Or students may be reading the book cover to cover, when all they need is one small section of the book and can use the table of contents or index to locate the information.  By having conversations with our students, we can see if they understand how to read different texts or if they are attempting to read them as they would a novel. 

A Short flyer about conferencing strategies and questions can be found here:

https://www.centergrove.k12.in.us/cms/lib/IN01000850/Centricity/Domain/24/Reading_Conferences_Suggestions.pdf

Collaborative Learning

In the book, "Disciplinary Literacy," Chapter 5 talks about collaborative learning. Collaborative learning can be the result of many things such as partner sharing, group discussions, literature or inquiry circles, book clubs, project- based learning, etc.


This year, when I introduced journals in my 4K classroom, I noticed that a lot of my students were struggling to come up with a writing topic. I always begin writing, by modeling a journal entry myself. Often times, my students were taking my idea and writing it in their journals too, even if it did not pertain to them.


After that, I knew my students needed help coming up with writing topics. I thought it would be a good idea for the students to work collaboratively on this. We made a class web of all of the different topics that included: family/ friends, holidays, camping, pets, the ice cream shop, etc.


I found this to be very beneficial for my students. Every time they struggle to come up with a writing topic, I refer them to the web that we made as a class. I have seen a lot more enthusiasm for writing in my class by doing this.


I also give my students time to share their ideas with each other. I set a timer for writing and when the timer dings, they may talk about their journal entry and share what they wrote about with the friends at their table.


See web below!


-Kristen Cochran

The struggle is REAL...

I feel like I have a permanent seat on the struggle bus this schoolyear.  I was out on maternity leave October, November, and December and I’ve had a hard time balancing everything since I’ve returned to school.  I have a wonderful group of kids this year but when I returned after winter break I felt like I didn’t know my kids.  I didn’t know what they did while I was gone, what they were struggling with, or any strengths they had.  When we went over the student data sheet in class I took the time to fill in most of the categories and try to really get to know my students better.  I think this helped a lot.

I have also been really stressed with guided reading this year.  When I came back I was told that I had to do meet with my groups every day.  In the past I always met with my groups two or three times a week and I couldn’t wrap my head around how this would work.  I met with our literacy coach and she helped me with my schedule and time management.  I had a really hard time at first but we are finally getting into a groove and my kids are making so much progress.  I feel this is the first year I have truly gotten to know them as readers.

I have been struggling to get science and social studies in and meet with my guided reading groups.  After a lot of begging, our school has decided to buy leveled readers that cover our standards during guided reading groups.  This will give me more time to meet with my students.  I can work on reading skills and I teach them to read like a scientist and how to read books about our social studies standards.  I hope this helps set them up for their future.  This class has made me realize how important it is to introduce disciplinary literacy in the early grades.  I want them to know how to read these texts for their future classes and careers.   I plan to cut out my science/social studies block completely and cover the skills during guided reading.   I can let them explore and ask questions they want to know about the topics.  My students this year lack confidence, by working in small group I can help them with their questions and hopefully give them an opportunity to learn more things through research.  I will also have more of an opportunity to help them pick out important information in the text guide them in notetaking.

This year has been the hardest year of my career.  Trying to balance being a mom and a teacher is so hard (props to all of you that do it successfully).  I feel that when I spend time with my family I’m not doing enough for school or if do all of my school stuff then I’m neglecting my family.  If anyone has any advice or tips, I would appreciate them.   This year has been hard but I feel like I’m currently teaching my students the best way possible.  I will use disciplinary literacy during my small groups and do even more of it next year.

Jaime Steading--Classroom Spotlight

This course, and the articles and books that I have read throughout it, have shown me the importance of reading and writing in all content areas.  Writing, in general, has been a struggle for me to teach to my students because the spoken language is so difficult for them.  This impacts their ability to write as well.  I have learned that writing across the curriculum does not mean that students have to write lengthy paragraphs or essays every time they pick up a pencil.  I have learned the importance of quick writes, notetaking, "I Wonder" statements, and graphic organizers.  These are all types of writing and allow the student the opportunity to freely express themselves without the burden of a particular topic or the constraints of a paragraph. I have tried, this year, to be more intentional in incorporating the above strategies in my classroom, where my students are constantly writing across the curriculum without even realizing they are doing the work.  I have attempted research in the past with my students and it has not been very successful.  I have been looking for ways to incorporate more inquiry in my classroom, as well as, more independence in research.

In my special education classroom, I teach four grade levels.  This can make teaching science and social studies standards very complicated.  This year, I am planning with second grade.  This has given me the opportunity to collaborate with them and gain some very useful tools along the way that I have been able to adapt to meet the needs of my students and our classroom.  Our second grade team has laid a great foundation of reading and writing across the content areas and using research stations in their classrooms, so planning with them has been very beneficial to me as a teacher.  The credit for this classroom spotlight goes to them (Amanda Fortenberry, Abby Eidson, Mary Bobo, Kayla Schauss, Lindsey Harris, and Taylor Berry).  

My current unit of study in science is Animals.  My students love animals and are very excited about this unit.  They already know a lot about particular animals, so I am challenging them to choose animals for their research that they do not already know about.  The students will be learning about the different classifications of animals (insects, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians) and their adaptations, habitats, and life cycles.  This unit is also the unit I created my text set for, so I am easily able to incorporate reading into this unit.  I am able to incorporate the writing and research into the unit with the help of second grade.  We began this unit with an "I Wonder" wall about animals.  We then discussed the different classification groups (a broad overview) and used our anchor text to introduce these.  Then, students chose an animal that they would like to know more about.  Throughout this unit, students will be conducting research about each classification group through research stations.  They are using websites, nonfiction books, and videos in their research.  They are working in small groups with a teacher to assist them because I have learned the importance of scaffolding these research stations with my students.  Here is an example of the research sheet students are having to complete on mammals:

  

                           


Here are some examples of student work and the sites they had to visit to conduct their research:

http://school.eb.com/levels/elementary/article/353414#

"Marvelous Mammals" by Lydia Carlin

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/content/animals/profile_mammals.htm

http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/027257AE-1BD2-469E-8EFB-F89F77D058F3

                       
 Students will have a research sheet for each classifcation of animal that we are studying.  What I like most about these sheets is that they are already covering many of the accommodations that my students need.  For example, so students are not overwhelmed or overstimulated, the sheets can easily be folded in half or cut in half so students only have to view one section at a time.  The website for the first section has a megaphone to click on, so the material can be read aloud to the students if they are unable to read the text.  I have paired higher readers with lower readers, so that as they gain independence, they are able to help each other in their groups without the teacher's assistance.

Throughout our study of the different classification groups, students are going to be given one day of the week to work on the research for their chosen animal during our science block.  They will also have the opportunity to work on their research during independent reading time or during their free time if they finish an assignment early. The students will be given the opportunity to check out books on their animal from the library.  They also have Big Universe, videos, and other online texts to choose from on my itsLearning page.  The research sheets they will be completing on their animal will be similar to the research sheets we are using in our research stations.  That way, they are familiar with the format.  For their presentation, students will be given the choice to write a paper, write a poem, make a poster, create a Power Point presentation, or use Voki to teach the class about their animal.

The students are already enjoying this unit.  I know that by being provided with the support they need, they are going to come up with some amazing ways to share all that they have learned and have fun in the process!