New learning with 20 days left

I have been trying to tie in more reflection and questioning with our inquiry circles.  It's been fantastic.  Although I'm not as good as Sue Kempton with the questioning.....yet!  Here's what we have been working on:

In the first picture, we discovered that Belugas are carnivores because we saw their sharp teeth.  Then we went on to talk about omnivores and herbivores.  We also read and tracked our thinking in a section of the book Octopuses.  We also read about their bodies and created a labeled picture to explain our learning. 

Each student shared their learning about their sea life inquiry.  It was something that they felt their classmates would be eager to learn.  I also used this opportunity to practice my questioning.  My favorite part was when the students debated on whether they thought it was fair that some places use nets to keep sharks away but in the process some get killed. 

The other day I wrote this...
3. Right now I am in the process of reorganizing my mentor texts. I decided that there should be 7 bins, one for each of the comprehension strategies. I also decided that keeping them in a cabinet, using them and then putting them back wasn't fair to the kids. I want them to enjoy them whenever they please!! So I am going to make it accessible to them. A typed label will be on the outside of the book to tell which strategy (s) I use it for. (Look for pictures and labels to come!)

Now I'm in the process.  I have 7 bins and the books are sitting in them.  Now onto the labels...7 comp. strategy labels

Grab them for your own!  Pictures to come on the completed project.

 

Getting Started with Inquiry Circles

I mentioned the book Comprehension & Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action in my last post.  My reading coach, intern and I are taking the leap to give it a whirl!  We are excited but also in the mind frame of, "How will this work?" 

I find that I can research and learn to my heart's content but it's not the same as leaping and learning through the actual action.

My intern and I decided to tackle a topic that seemed easy and narrowed to us:  REPTILES!  Then we collected as many materials (books, posters, magazines, etc.) on the topic.  We then decided on five group topics based on the amount of materials: dinosaurs, snakes, turtles, lizards, and alligators.  Our overall strategy is Inferring, which lends itself naturally when you are learning about familiar things and investigating.

Our first week will focus on collaboration and learning about what inquiry circles are.  I grabbed lessons from the book and tweaked them a bit to fit for my firsties.  My thinking was plan for the things I know are absolutely essential and then add more as needed.

To start it all off we will be doing a chart on the questions we have about reptiles, then move on to the collaboration lessons.

My essential questions for the first week are (they are planned to be minilessons unless the students need otherwise):
-What is an inquiry circle and how does it work?
-What should the ground rules be while working in our inquiry circles?
-How do we make and use a work plan?
-How do we show friendliness and support while working together?
-What are the skills of effective small group discussion?

In the document the borders are from From the Pond and the fonts are from Fonts for Peas.

Here are the documents that I will be using with my class (only a few are pictured):

Inquiry Circles: Getting started

The following week will be short mini lessons and then time to work!  The essential questions for the mini lessons are: How do we leave tracks of our thinking while researching? How do we read with a question in mind?  How do we draw inferences from images, features and words?  How do we use our schema of the subject matter to support inferring?

If you have given this a go or are interested maybe we could talk further...let me know :)

Enjoy!

Synthesizing and Sensory/Emotional Images

We still have a little while till we get to explicitly learning these two comprehension strategies (especially synthesizing) but I like to know where we are going and where we need to get.  Hopefully with all the smart thinking we have been doing we'll understand them easily!

Sensory and Emotional Images

Synthesizing

Enjoy!

Questioning/Inferring

I was at an inservice this week on using Comprehension Toolkit in small groups.  We reread chapter 1 of Strategies That Work, and I read something I knew but needed a reminder....that questioning propels readers.  Duh!  I knew this but when we are in whole group I find that with the lack of time makes me forget it all.  I let that go this week and gosh I have been surprised at the level of questioning my students are coming up with!  Silly teacher stop worrying about time and start doing what you know is right!!

That being said I created 2 new graphic organizers that you can also find on the Reading page:

Questioning

Inferring


Enjoy!

My new reading page!

Check out my new reading comprehension page!  It is set up by using the seven principal comprehension strategies that are listed in Mosaic of Thought. 

After I teach a lesson/skill/strategy, I place a thinksheet in our center called Read and Track Your Thinking.  The students continue to practice the skill all year long and it provides a nice spiral throughout the year.

Hope you enjoy!!