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>>student 1: Evergreen leaves can be many shapes and sizes.
You made a mistake, put a capital.
>>teacher: This week we were focusing on informational and explanatory text which
is standard W2.2. Um the students should be able to write information
about something and support it with facts and definitions. The way I
organized my my lessons this week is on day one I had the students read
informational text so they had actually read a passage on evergreen trees before
they wrote about the evergreen trees which incorporated reading into our lesson.
>>Mary Jane: Evergreen trees lives-leaves can be many shapes and sizes.
When you think an of an ever-tree, you probably picture a tree with...
>>teacher: The students read Scholastic News article on evergreen trees. We went over
it on the Scholastic News news website. We highlighted some details, circled some
explanations, highlighted some important words and definitions. And then they use
the article to do their planning on their t-chart. So I had the students use
a Step-Up To Writing t-chart. They are able to plan what their topic is. They are
able to write three details that support the topic in they're able to write two
explanations for each detail and then they end with the conclusion sentence
and it's all color coded so topics and conclusions are green, the stars are
yellow, and the explanations are red. So I had them go into the magazine and use
stars to highlight what details they wanted to use and then underline what
explanations they wanted to use.
You're gonna write your rough draft. That's easy, we do it all the time
you're gonna color code right? Try your best use your capitals, periods, and
correct spelling. When you're finished I want you to read a book until your
partner is finished. When your partner is finished you guys are gonna trade papers,
read each other's papers out loud and make the corrections that are on your
pencil right?
On day two I have them write their rough drafts. So what they did
is they took the information from their graphic organizer and they
organized into paragraph form on a piece of
lined paper. So after they do that they color
code the sentences to match their graphic organizers so the topic is
underlined green, the details underlined in yellow, the explanations are underlined in
red. They complete their paragraph and switch papers with their partner. And I
have their partner read their paper out loud so that they can hear it and then
they're able to go in and correct mistakes - look for capitals, look for periods,
look for a variety of words, make sure things are spelled correctly then make
sure that they make sense when you actually reading out loud. And so then
when I edit them, they are almost...um perfect because somebody else helped them.
>>student 2: Was it evergreen? Leah. >>Leah: Yeah? >>student 2: Was it evergreen, or evergreens?
Right here.
Evergreens. >>Leah: Evergreen.
No, evergreen.
No, because look - does this make sense when it says: Some evergreens trees?
>>student 2: Oh. So it should be evergreen.
>>teacher: That's what we're going to do today, we're going to look for pictures
and then you guys are going to open up your Keynote you open
When you open up your Keynote, all your presentations
are gonna pop up from last time right?
So you have to click up here you have to click presentations, and then you need to
click the white one with the plus sign to start a new presentation.
So day three is when we normally would write our
final drafts but this time instead of having
them just write a perfect published paper, I had them put the information
into a Keynote presentation. So I had them organize the sections of their
writing into slides. So they had a topic slide they had a detailed and explanation
slide (well they had 3 detailed explanation
slides) and then they had a conclusion slide.
and they were able to type their information into that and correct
whatever mistakes were there instead of just writing it on a piece of paper.
The way that this prepares a student for future for future grades for online
assessments is the typing that they did. Having them be familiar with that
keyboard and familiar with how to use Google and pull information and use
evidence to support their text is going to be really beneficial when they get
into third grade and have to start typing responses and knowing how to use
a keyboard. So this is good practice for them.
>>Christian: Evergreens by Christian Valez. >>teacher: Perfect.
>>Christian: Evergreens stay green all year. Animals can use every part of evergreens.
From top to bottom, evergreen trees have a lot to give to animals.
All kinds of animals eat evergreen seeds.
Evergreen trees can have many shapes and sizes...
>>teacher: So on the last day - day 4, they presented their Keynotes to the class.
And speaking and listening is a pretty huge part of Common Core it's a new challenge
for most of us to have the students get up and speak, speak to each other, use
academic language. And so the kids took each of their iPads-we hooked it up to the
Apple TV and they stood in front of the class and gave their presentation. And they
had practice speaking in front of a group. The kids got to practice being
part of an audience, being respectful and polite.
And then you know, they clapped for each other at the end.
and told each other, good job. And it was really fun.
Anybody should be able to teach this pretty easy as long as you have an
article for the kids to use that they can read and you have a graphic organizer
that your kids feel comfortable planning with, I think it's a piece of cake. They just
have to, you know, edit with their partner and understand what their...understand
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