Argument Writing in 4th Grade

Now, I know that argument writing isn't part of the 4th grade writing standards-but opinion and persuasive writing is.

I thought it would be a good idea to be introduced to stating opposing opinions in their writing-so they'll be super awesome when the time does come for them to write arguments :)

I used a few different strategies from Making Thinking Visible to do this.

I first started out by writing different (and I thought thought-provoking) questions on half pieces of chart paper.

I did read the questions aloud before placing them around the room-and I loved hearing their first reactions. Let's see if we can't change that :)

Then I had the kids work in pairs to write a reason for, and against each question.

After they had done their first one, I had them move onto the others. They could also extend upon a previous sticky on the chart.

*Side note-on the day we did this it was Orange Day in honor of my student (who is doing a little better but still not back on school)*

Then, a few days later (and this took multiple days), we went through each questions, and ranked the reasons from weakest to strongest.

We put the strongest reasons on the outsides and the weakest ones in the middle.

They took this one in a different direction than I was anticipating-but we still had some great convos about it!

The discussions they had while placing each reason was amazing! They would start to talk amongst themselves and build upon what others' had said. There were times that I just sat back and smiled. :)

Then, I took one of the posters (Should students wear school uniforms), and started showing them how to write an essay.

I laid out the other questions, and had the students start writing theirs.

I did have them use the reasons on the charts-that's the reason we did it and talked about it-but I did allow them to add in their own if they wanted to.

I also showed them how to state and opposing opinion and rebut it, and highlighted the different 'power words' they could use.

They've been working hard on their drafts-and this is one we are going to type (hopefully! The labs may be busy with more testing).

So even though argument writing isn't a 4th grade standard, I think that we have had a nice introduction to it-and maybe they've learned to think about other's viewpoints and opinion. :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Fact and Opinion

This week, our focus has been fact and opinion.

Obviously, we started with a chart ;)

After we had discussed it, I separated them out into pairs to read a Scholastic News (an old one-from March-I'm so behind on all of these...)

Students had to pick something from the text, decide if is was fact or opinion and tell why (of course!)

The next day, I wrote a bunch of different topics on index cards.

I held them in my hand like a fan of cards (with the backs to the kids, of course!), and had each student pick a card.

I loved their reactions to see what they had gotten! I didn't tell them ahead of time what I had written, and they couldn't see what they were picking. Made for some interesting reactions/faces :)

Students then had to 'research' their topic-using books from our library-and write down 5 facts and 5 opinions about their topic on a piece of paper (the facts and opinions needed to be all mixed together).

Then they had to switch with a partner, and the partner had to figure out which were the facts, and which were the opinions.

 Of course, they needed to know the answer in order to correct their friends' work!

For the next day, they had to read a story out of our book, and pull out sentences and determine fact and opinion.

Students did pretty well with this unit! I love that we are at the point with this program (this is our 3rd year), that when I go over certain skills it doesn't take nearly as long as it did in previous years (one of the only good things about the program...)

Next up, classifying and categorizing!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Guided Reading: Main Idea and Summarizing

Happy Monday!

I wanted to share how I've been working with my two guided reading groups.

Both of these groups are at S and T (now T and U), above expectations for fourth grade right now.

However, my S group is struggling with the main idea of a text, and my T group is struggling with summarizing!

So I've pulled together some quick, easy lessons for us to do-that works with any book! (Although we are focusing on Nonfiction for this)

Now, my S group is made up of kids exclusively from my class. And I taught them main idea...it was one of the first skills we worked on!

But they were still struggling with finding a main idea, so I decided to dedicate a whole book and block of lessons to work on it.

The book I choose was from the wonderful, amazing reading series that we have. I do actually like most of the guided reading components of this!

This book is divided into four sections-one for each of the seasons. I though it would be perfect to focus on a season at a time.

It starts with summer, so I had them read it (independently) and come up with what they thought the main idea was.

The next day, I had them tell me their main idea. I wrote each of them down, and we discussed them.

We slowly put together main ideas that had things in common, weeded out those that were in left field, and came together with one, cohesive main idea.

Working on main idea with a reading group~we slowly went through the process of saying what we thought it was, discussion of like ideas and coming up with one main idea. Their job is to now find details to support-then it'll start all over with the next chapter! 📝📖 #iteach456 #iteachfourth #guidedreadinggroups #mainidea #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers

A photo posted by Smiles & Sunshine (@smilesandsunshineteacher) on Feb 20, 2015 at 11:48am PST

After we had a cohesive main idea, they needed to find details to support, as well as read the next section and repeat.

The next section went much better.

We started out by sharing our ideas again.

Our main ideas were a little closer together this time!

Then when went through the pages and wrote down the most important idea of each one.

We discussed what they had in common-what they needed to be successful, and came up with an answer.

Which then helped us form another cohesive main idea that included elements from each one!

It's been very interesting to see what each student thinks is the main idea.

I sent them back to find supporting details, read Spring, and come up with the main idea. We'll repeat this throughout the book-and hopefully have stronger main ideas by the end!

My T group is made up of a mix of kids from all three classes. And while I know that they have had summarizing, I don't know how it's been taught or how much it has been practiced.

I had noticed that when I have asked for a summary from this group, most of them have been giving me retells. So I thought a quick lesson was in order!

I wrote down the components of a nonfiction summary-like I had discussed with my class-and had them copy it down in their notebooks, so they could refer back to it.

I modeled using Thundercake, which was our Mentor Text last week.

Then, as we just finished the book you see peeking out, I sent them to work on summaries for it. 

They did well! I was much more pleased with the quality of summaries than I had previously gotten-let's hope they keep it up!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Close Reading Workshops

This year, one of my professional development goals was to learn more about comprehension strategies and close reading.

So far, I've attended two workshops, as well as reading a variety of blog posts (though I don't think those count for PD credit!), and some books.

The first workshop was very technical and very much focused on the components of a close reading lesson, without much practice. No lie, it was a little boring-and overwhelming.

The one I went to earlier this month was more focused on us doing close reading lessons and experiencing close reading. I also attended this one with two coworkers. I felt that I had learned more at this one-and am better able to do it with my kids now.

It was a BER workshop, so you can check to see if it is coming to your area-I recommend going if it is!

I also got some validation during this one-which was nice after a difficult few days.

Here are some of my notes-although Mini got a bit of a workout too~I did an interesting mix of tech and paper :) (I have an Evernote Notebook created with the workshop info-if you would like it, please send me an email-I can share it with you!)

It was super interesting, and I've been applying some of the easy to use strategies in my class (the next day!).

She also recommended some books, which I just had to pick up!

Baloney is by Jon Scieszka-the camera cut it off

Of course, strange things happen when you are ordering from Amazon, and books mysterious appear in your cart :)

The top two are new Mentor Texts, and First Day Jitters is a replacement-with all my moving, my original got lost somehow!

I'm thinking of making a close reading binder this summer, using the resources I've found from my two workshops, blog posts, and Pinterest. That way I can have everything in one place! :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn