We technically began unit 6 during the week of testing, but didn't really get into the meat of it until testing was over. We having really been working on taking notes in our reading response notebooks. We really struggled with translating their great thinking to paper at the beginning of the year and reading response notebooks have been a great place for them to record their thoughts about a particular book, interact with the objective, and a place for them to practice anything new we work on. As a teacher it is wonderful that all of their materials are in one place. I walk around while they are working and score them on our objective score sheet, it makes grading beyond super easy! Well we began our unit by having students take notes on the digestive system by reading a few books and watching several videos. We discussed how to organize our notes and site our sources. Everyday it still blows me away that I am having 2nd graders do research, take notes, and site different sources. I didn't do that stuff until high school.
After we had taken notes on the digestive system as a whole we worked on taking notes on a complex text. I have a variety of student text levels in my room all the way from a DRA 3 to a DRA 40+, so for some it would be more difficult then others. We have an example page from our book and practiced taking notes on that.
Then we practiced taking our note sheet and using that information to come up with 3 key facts and then a concluding statement about why scientists think this information is important. This went right along with what we had already learned about having students create meaning with the 3 questions of "What does it say?" ( taking notes), "What does it mean?" ( summarizing key facts ), and "What does it matter?" (why is this information important). After we we practiced with our class sheet, we broke up into groups to take notes on our individual chapter. Students took notes while reading in their reading response notebooks.
After students finished their notes independently, they got together in their groups to discuss their thinking and what they thought were the most important key ideas from the text. This hits several CCSS objectives, such as "Describe how reasons support specific points the author makes in a text" "Identify the main purpose of a text" " "Write informational texts in which they introduce a topic, use facts to develop points" " Participate in collaborative conversations with diverser partners".
In the group were designated leaders who lead the conversations and made sure everyone had an opprotunity to talk. After they had created their 3 key points, students then put notes away and worked together to create their concluding statement. This statement was about why this chapter was important and why someone should read it. After this we came back together and talked. For many students the concluding statement was the most difficult. They wanted to summarize the learning, instead of telling why it was important. Then we worked on how to take that information and make it into our presentations. Students were given various jobs including creating diagrams, reading and inputting information into a smartboard presentation, and leading and supervising both groups.
They did wonderful! After they were done we used smartnotebook recorder to record the information and create a window movie player video to upload to our class webpage so they could share with their parents. All of the students showed alot of pride in their work and were very happy with the end result. As I was picking the leaders, I picked one student who is a resource student who at times has difficulty with authority. He has great potential, but he himself struggles to see it. At the end of the group project time, I was reminded again why it is important to not look at the student before me, but beyond that to what they can be. I have another child in my room who has been struggling a lot this year and we are looking at a variety of ways to help him. He really struggles with group work and staying focused. So my "leader" sat down with him and had him look for how to correctly spell all the words in the presentation. He did this with no direction from me, but because that was his job. He said it was his job to help all his group members to do their job, and this was a job he could do. :)
