Descriptive Text Structure: Way More than I Ever Expected to Discover!

            In an earlier post, I explained how I have been focusing on text structure.  We have been hard at work looking at descriptive text structure.  We followed a similar fashion of learning about sequential text structure.  We glued in our two guiding pages into our reading journal.  Why two you ask?  In Florida, we can never do what the rest of the world does-we have to make our own standards and rules.  The rest of the educational world knows this text structure as descriptive, but for the FCAT they need to know it as define and explain.  This actually works out ok, because there is some foundational learning by using that terminology.  Anyways, here’s how we rolled out learning about the descriptive text structure.

First, we examined our Science books.  Our first, in the book, chapter starts out with this very text structure.  We used the graphic organizer to break down the information found in the text.  This was relatively easy.  It was descriptive AND IN ORDER!  We were able to look at how important each term was to the MAIN IDEA of the page.  What we took away was that this descriptive/define and explain model helped us to understand what groups of plants are.

Next, we hit up our mentor text, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  In our reading journals, we built a model of the graphic organizer.  Students charted one of the characters, Veruca Salt, from one of the chapters.  It was rather obvious that this was a descriptive chapter-Roald Dahl does an excellent job at switching back and forth between the two at the beginning of the text.  The students gathered all the evidence they could to support the definition of descriptive texts.  Here are a couple of samples of what they came up with. 

From this, we were able to determine, yet again, that it was IN ORDER!  There is a fine line between these two text structures.  They both organize themselves, but, as a student pointed out, descriptive is SUPER organized so that the description overpowers the sequencing.  Very interesting.  Yes, the author has to be SUPER organized to get their point across when they are writing in the descriptive style.   Amazing learning!

We were ready now-ready for a bigger challenge.  At this point, we dug out our reading journals, we grabbed our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and we added to this a blank piece of construction paper!  Construction paper!  Yes, it was time for a construction paper challenge.  On the construction paper, students created two boxes.  At the top, they wrote, “Sequencing:  Chapter ___ Evidence.”  On the other side they wrote, “Descriptive:  Chapter ___ Evidence.”  Then I pointed them to chapter 9 and 10!  Their mission-discover which one was which and provide at least 4 pieces of evidence- it was amazing!  They dug in and searched through each chapter to find the evidence.  They used key terms and the facts columns to justify their selections.  If they got off the scent, it was easy to point them back.  In fact, I had a table of 4 where 3 were going in the wrong direction and one of my struggling students could justify and explain why to them!  Here are a few samples of the end product.

We also made a chart of our discoveries.  This chart included the sentences the students found and some of our own discoveries about how the lengths of paragraphs impacted the type of text it was as well! 

Even with all this learning, I was beginning to question myself-was I spending too much time on this, was it important enough to spend this time on, was there enough here to keep going?  Boy, did I discover what I was really teaching!  I’ll be posting again tomorrow, because I don’t want to get too close to Halloween because it involves a fun “readcraftivity” opportunity to try with a descriptive text!!!

The Shouts and Whispers of Context Clues

           During a reading activity, I discovered something about my 4^th graders.  Most of them had no idea what to do when they came to words that they didn’t understand.  This, to me, was very surprising.  Surprising, because I know that they did receive instruction, but because it doesn’t stick.  That’s what’s been bugging me so much about returning to the upper grades after a number of years away-why isn’t instruction sticking the way it used to!  How come kids are not independent on strategies when they enter the next grade?  I have a number of ideas as to what it is, but that’s not for now. Right now we are talking context clues-so back to the topic!

            While we were investigating how text features work through our science focus of the nature of science, I introduced key words.  Key words are usually bold face, italicized, and/or colored.  In this particular text, they were colored.  We recorded our text feature in our reading journal, talked about what to look for, focused on the fact that these words WILL show up on tests, and talked about how, in the content area they must retain them because they will be expected to know them forever without review.   Then I got back to focusing on what to do with them.  I informed them that I was going to read the information after the key word and they were to let me know what the definition of the word was.  I read, I stopped, and I heard crickets when I asked what the definition was.  Crickets, nothing but crickets.  Most were looking at me like I had asked the hardest question in the world!  INTERVENTION TIME!   So, I asked, “What context clue do you see here?”  Crickets, again!  MORE INTERVENTION TIME!  Being the wise owl that I am, I jumped into my large, and I mean large, supply closet (Oh, trust me, you’d be VERY jealous.  I’m very tempted to write a post on it, but I think I’d get hate mail!) and pulled out my context clue signs.

I’ve had these for years, and they are showing it.  We turned our page in our reading journals and began to record the information.  

The kids obediently did so.  We returned to the book, repeated the same, and….crickets. Yes, at this point, I couldn’t figure out what to do, and then it hit me.  There are two types of context clues-whispers and shouts. 

            Kids need novelty. Brain research says that it helps them to remember and learn.  For some reason, I realized that these obvious, right-there context clues shout at us.  So, I began to explain that there was a word from our list on the page, and it was shouting to us.  I would shout when I got to the word, and that would signal the definition.  Every time I said shout, I shouted!  In fact, since then, I shout when I’m talking about shouting context clues.  It’s driving them nuts-but it’s working.  It’s really working.  It’s helping them pay attention when we are reading materials that have key words in them.  This is what I mean by how context clues shout-they are right there, on the page, giving the definition. 

            Next we moved onto the whispers of context clues.  When Scholastic had their awesome $1 sale, I thought it was worth the risk of buying a set of books on direct reading topics.  I picked up this one:

What I did was I ran copies of the teaching page for my kids at 86% reduction, making it small enough to fit their reading journal. 

On the teaching page are the whisper clues for words they don’t know.  That’s what I called these, the whisper clues.  And I whispered.  The novelty is there, again.  Whisper when you teach them; shout when you teach the others.  So, whispering, we moved on to learn about how to handle these.  This starts with identifying a word you don’t know.  You see, I know up until now, most kids have been just skipping over the words they don’t know.  They are almost doing context clues in reverse.  They skip the word they don't know, and use the context to build understanding.  But that won’t continue to work on the harder texts that they are reading.  They need to begin to pay attention to words and what’s around them-and to use the clues to figure out the word.  Once we learned the whisper clues, we started to practice.  This book comes with 18 opportunities to practice the skill.  We have been practicing!  What’s great about this, is it will help kids to move to questions like this:

1. Read the sentence below from pg. 25:

             “That man’s dotty!” muttered Grandma Josephine.

       In this sentence, what does dotty mean?

This question is styled like the FCAT 2.0 questions are written and, more than likely, how most of the Common Core assessments will be written as well.  This is a little sample of questions I’m working on for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  This is how the kids need to be able to handle context clues.   And, if you notice, the book also includes figurative language, and, yes, they are found on FCAT 2.0 and within the Common Core standards.  Is this worth the investment of time and effort to really teach and make the kids independent with-yes, it is!  Not just for FCAT 2.0 or other assessments, but because it’s a life skill for any reader!  Isn’t that what we are really striving for.  We might practice the style of question we need them to learn, but these skills are for life.  I want my students to walk away understanding that words matter, and to take the time to begin to understand them.   They need the shouts and whispers of context clues to do that! 

            How do you teach context clues?  I’d really like to have some additional ideas and resources that you use.  I know I will have kids I need to remediate this area in and would love some additional ideas.  Please leave me a comment about how you do context clues!

My Top 5 Crazy Things this Week(end)!

I just love those Top 10 lists that go around!  I can’t stay up late enough, ever, to watch the late night guy who does them.  But I have seen them on lots of blogs lately.  So, here is my Top 5 for the week(end) !

5.  In classic formation, this first long weekend of the year resulted in sickness!  First my younger son, then I, ended up with the stomach bug that has been going around.  It is characterized by cramping and it wasn’t any fun!

4.  Since doing anything fun was out, I worked on a new product.  It has really been bugging me that I can’t assess kids understanding the way that I used too, by simply observing.  I am now thinking like an RTIer!  How can I see who really needs help?  The packet that I created is called Nonfiction Formative Assessments for Text Features.  Since I am investing so much time in teaching them, I want to be able to understand the students’ knowledge gain and correct any misconceptions.  I created two-one for the Common Core Standards and one for FCAT 2.0-and you can find them on TPT. I’m covering my bases! 

3.  I think my great idea for Words their Way is going to work!  I borrowed the Flip Video recorder from school and tried out recording a sort!  It came out rather nice!  So, here’s what I want to do.  Instead of trying to meet with every group, every week, I thought I would record the sorts and let them watch them in small groups.  The other benefit to this is that kids who struggle with the sort can watch it multiple times.  What happened the first day is that I had kids not even knowing what the patterns meant!  This way, I can be in more places at once.  I also figured some things out trying out this first one.  I need to be sure I know what I am going to say!  Some of the bloopers are funny!  And, if I do them at home, I have to be sure the dogs and kids are quiet!!!

2.  Some interesting changes in our grade level are coming.  That’s all I can say about that right now!

1. The Cut-a-Thon occurred!  On Friday, we spent our Social Studies time cutting and cutting!  This is the prep work for our Florida Government Project!  

We had some bloopers, which is good, because then I can share some recovery ideas from these bloopers!  Check out the trash!

What I had them do is put them in baggies to keep them safe.  The rule was that they needed to keep the baggie flat so it could hang from the wall.  This year I put clothes pins under the board with their number attached under it. I will use this for a variety of things.  The first thing we used it for was to hang their flags. 

Now they are holding their cutout shapes for the project. 

So, that’s my Top 5!  What does your Top 5 for this week look like?!

Great Data Day!

Here it is, the Friday night before school starts, and what am I doing-writing!   I can’t help myself!  I feel totally motivated because something amazing happened today!  At my school we are beginning to dive into data!  Real data-data we can use and how to use it!  We are new to this, and it will take a little while, but it will have real impact.  So let me tell you about today!

Our presenter was the Director of Middle Schools, Mrs. Saunders.  During the summer, when she was hired, I read over her credentials and was very impressed.  Today, I am even more impressed!  She gave us an incredible presentation about what is really going on within the state and how our district will, finally, begin to remedy itself of the neglect that has gone on in our curriculum knowledge.  For many, this might have been overload.  A month ago, this would be overload for me! Today, it was CONFIRMATION! 

Our first activity was……put kids into the correct level of FCAT success!  Wait, I think that sounds familiar.  Next, determine what it takes for the students to gain points/levels that will cause even more success!  Exciting!  Use your new knowledge to determine remediation-BINGO!  I was secretly dancing in my seat!  Even more fun-I got to use my handy-dandy chart I made this summer!  And so did my whole team!  We were data recording like crazy!  And in a way that made sense and was usable!  We can target kids and KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE CRAZY NUMBERS!  The greatest part-new knowledge coming-we know what it takes to raise the lowest quartile students-the ones and twos-to get them to make a years worth of growth!  AWESOME!!!!  Can I say, it felt really good to be there mentally, and I really think I need to thank Jody O’Meara’s book RTI with Differentiated Instruction for that!  She really got me thinking and diving into what needed to be done!  A successful day for sure!  

Our district may be in a tough spot right now, but, for the first time I can see how putting a person who is strong in data, strong in character, and strong in her convictions can make a true difference.  I still know it will hurt a little, or a lot, but I think I’m ready!  I’m glad I have five great team members to go with me on this journey!  Thanks Lisa, Emily, Teri, and Keli for going with me! 

P.S.  Today I made a Math Data Chart to record the FCAT scores on.  You can find that here.

An Opportunity to Grow!

   Today is the day that most Florida teachers dread and despise like no other day-School Grading day.  Yes, no matter what level of ability or economics your school is associated with, it is a day of dread.  Today, the worst case scenario happened.  My district, already in a state of upheaval because of poor management, scored very poorly.  17 elementary and middle schools received a D or F score based on the "new" system established by the state.  It doesn't matter what my school scored, it matters what is being done to all students and teachers in this district.  We have undergone pay cut after pay cut that promised to protect jobs.  Then, jobs were cut-lots of them-300 teachers alone!  Our neighborhoods are changing.  My former school is now a Title 1 school.  It sits in what is considered one of the wealthiest areas of town.  What was once farm and woods to the east is now an elite society, master planned to be just that.  Everything has shifted-jobs, housing, wealth-to this outer areas of our county.  Our system is now headed by a very different regime, one who is finally doing away with many of our district level problems, through job loss or movement out of the positions once held by friends of friends of friends.  So many changes!  So many moments of loss and, now, this. 
     It also offers hope, if you can find it in this kind of moment. Real change comes not from the same ideas, but from new ideas.  Many are upset by the idea that one set of good ole' boys is being replaced by another.  I, in my willingness to embrace change, am seeing it as an opportunity to improve and build.  I am very impressed by many of the leaders that are coming into our system, their resumes are impressive-let them live up to it and do the same changes here in our county as they have in others.  Today, as dreaded and despised as it is by us, today, may this be the last day that we face this news.  May it be the final hole that is dug.  May it be the hole that is filled with fresh soil, fertile for change and growth.  I look forward to seeing what will grow and grow and grow!

Nothing New Under the Sun

     Nothing, really, is new, ever.  As I continue to look at what needs to be done to assess conceptual standards, I’ve investigating “new” and old resources.  The first idea formed when I began to, really, assess my students toward the end of the year.  The class was really hitting written response hard.  Most things were done through short or extended response.  Now, if you are an oldie like me, you have already inferred where I am going with those two terms.  Way back in the day, FCAT actually assessed students through written response and the two levels of this form-short and extended response.  While Lisa and I discussed the idea of conceptual standards and how best to assess them, we came upon this:

FCAT Express Practice Assessments from FCIT

If you click on Bonsai, which is the first downloadable pdf, you will find the explanation of how the two rubrics work in scoring!  Well, to say the least, they are still pretty good at scoring a conceptual standard!  That will be the starting location, the formula to follow, as I grow in understanding what and how to do this. 

     Many of you are probably wondering, “Why all this work when it’s the last year of FCAT!”  Well, I haven’t left that off my list either.  You see, all of this is the up and coming testing of Common Core State Standards.  Take a look at this:

From the PARCC Website not my own design

That is the chart from PARCC that shares what the general flow of expectations is for 4^th grade.  There is one for every grade, along with your grade info, on their page as well.   Scary, isn’t it.  Yet, REALLY, examine it-closely!  Do you see it???  Do you see that the old is becoming “new” again!  That’s right, we are bringing back written response!  The expectations are so similar, and there is a “sample” rubric.  To be honest, I don’t like the rubric.  It is vague and not developed enough to really cover the depth and complexity of written response.  So, for this year, I’m sticking with the FCAT “oldie” rubric! 

     Yes, this is beginning to tie together nicely, new with old, and old with new.  As I continue to look at this information, I will be looking more into PARCC and trying out things with Common Core all year. I will be working to tie new with old, and concept standards evaluation will be an ongoing quest.  And, just to be clear on my stand with Common Core-I LOVE the Language Arts standards and feel this is really a step in the right direction.  As you can tell, math has not been as easy to share as reading.  I’ve gone through them and they hold some very enlightening finds as well.  I’m just really stuck on how to lay them out, even for my own understanding.  They will come, in time.  And when they do, I’ll share-I promise!