Power of Choice in Writing - OLW Reflection

W.5.7. Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

Enter Magic School Bus.  Who doesn't love Miss. Frizzle and their far out adventures? After several mini lessons on non fiction text features, I told my class it's time for their first research of the year.  You could have heard a collected sigh from my students. Even, "On no not yet Mrs. Caplin."  I played along for a few moments telling them they would have to research about their favorite president or season.  "Ugh..." to say it politely.  

I then passed out the Magic School Bus books again and asked them if they would like to write their own little book modeled after Magic School Bus. Sighs turned into cheers and then it got even louder when I told them they could choose their own topic and would become a published author, "Who me? Really? How?"  

Some of the topics included:  hockey, Eiffel Tower, monkeys, headphones, pocket watches, music, Empire State Building, remote control cars, and fiber optics. The icing on the cake was reading this page in her book.

Changing Up Nonfiction

List seven nonfiction attributes? 

Look through this article and label the characteristics.

Cut out five attributes and explain what you learn from each trait. Design a poster.

I always have used our 5^th grade Weekly Reader magazines as a focus as well as using Wonderopolis for articles to support content areas.  I have started to purchase a wider variety of nonfiction books for our class library.  I am excited about new series: Scientists in the Field series and I just found Smart Kids series.  The layout is amazing and focus on key vocabulary is perfect for several lessons.  My new favorite series. Check it out!  Below are some of our favorite books.  Thanks Franki and Mary Lee for several of these titles.  

When I get stuck in my teaching practices, I turn to twitter, blogs and professional books. I just finished reading Aimee Buckner’s book:  Nonfiction Notebooks: Strategies for Informational Writing.  As I read her book, I highlighted several key ideas and then went back to reread to pull out some key quotes.

            “If we don’t change our approach to writing, we’ll get the same kind of report we’ve always  gotten from our students.”  AMEN! And I am guilty…..

            “We can use the same approach…but the focus needs to be on relevant information.”

            “They need to research what they don’t know yet” AMEN and I am guilty again….

“…need to move students away from random fact collecting to systematic informational gathering” Do I need say it again?

Building on Aimee's  idea:  background + new information = higher learning. The first strategy that I am going to borrow from her book is:  TAKE A TOUR.  She begins with a strong lead “Museums are fascinating.”  I have a group of students this year who really benefit with a visual both with introducing a new topic and extending a topic.  I am going to twist her idea and make it my own. 

1)     I am going to ask my class to draw a picture in their writer’s notebook of something they believe they are an expert on and then write around the picture with short bullet points.

2)    Next each student will put 4 sticky notes on the side of their desk next to their open writer’s notebook.  The students are going to walk around the room and write questions on the sticky notes, so each student will have further areas of research.

3)    Then each student will use our class nonfiction resources or check out a book from the library to search for further answers to gain new knowledge of their topic.

4)    Finally I will have them verify their answers with a second source probably Internet sources and have them present their findings to the class.

I am excited about this new introduction to nonfiction instead of my typical three questions. How are you expanding your nonfiction lessons?  Leave me a comment.

Pieces of the Puzzle

I don't count the days of summer, but I am beginning to think I need to start putting some of the pieces of my puzzle together. I always feel like the first piece of the puzzle starts with my classroom especially after being in the same room for 15 years. I need a change something that stands out for the students.  This year I was struggling but through blogs (Franki @ A Year of Reading) and some pictures once again I have a new set up. My first priority is community space and next some nooks for students.  I created a large open area with the smart board and teaching chart along with 2 table (round and rectangle) and a reading corner.  Moving to puzzle piece 2: math. I will be teaching 80 mins of math daily.  I have been searching for a morning math warm up and have found some links to help me.  Here is one I found through #5thchat Mrs. White's Teaching Resources. When the students come in, I want them to be actively involved thinking about math so I am considering some math games, websites and focus # work This is one piece I need to continue to focus on and build some more strategies. Puzzle #3: increasing the wonder! For the past 2 years I have used Wonderopolis in every subject typically as a hook for a new subject, a follow up article for HW, and end the year with students choosing their own wonder research project. But this year, I want to build wonder- have students think about the why?  One idea I am floating around is changing the focus of the summer pictures my students bring into share. I am going to ask them about what they wondered over their vacation?  I think this might be challenging but if they have a picture of Niagara Falls from vacation, perhaps they wondered about how much water flows or how the falls developed? If they visited a beach, perhaps they wondered about sharks, jellyfish or sand castles? I will model this with my pictures from our summer vacation.  I just get excited by starting the year off with wonder/inquiry/questions.  Finally the last piece of the puzzle #4: stretching NF writing. I have been reading Jeff Anderson book 10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know and Kelly Gallagher's book Write Like This. I want to go beyond our weekly Scholastic New articles although very good for conversations, but I need to have my students think deeper.  I am working on using my #cyber PD to help me with forming higher level questions.  I have learned the value of the word "yet." I also am working on the idea of choosing relevant articles from local newspaper and having students write from those (point of view, main idea/details, 5 Ws, opinions of article etc.) 

As you can see my puzzle is all over the floor right now or I should say floating in my brain, I am working on having all the pieces fit together nicely. Any suggestions I would love to have some comments to help my thinking. 

Social Studies Wonder Wednesday

This is my #200 post - it's hard to believe. Thanks for traveling along my journey with me.

Tara @ A Teaching Life has started blogging on Wednesdays about Social Studies.  Here is her blurb encouraging other bloggers to join her.   Welcome to Social Studies Wednesday!  I hope you will stop by to share ideas and resources for teaching Social Studies. Please comment and  leave a link to your post, I'll check in and  round up contributions throughout the day.  If you don't have a link to share, please leave a comment about the posts in the round up. It's always good to hear your feedback! I am very excited about this opportunity to cross post with her because I have been posting about Wonder Wednesday, and I plan on making connections with Wonderopolis as well as Social Studies.


Wonderopolis is a wealth of information for all subjects, but I have found the most support in Social Studies and Science. I am constantly searching for strong non fiction that I can share with my class and also have them be able to access the same text at home for homework.  I also share the hot links and interactive websites that each wonder has in support of the topic.  This year I focused on Native Americans on a Wonder Wednesday blog post.  In addition, I also used the following wonders: #45 What is a Totem Pole?  and #53 Why Do Eat Turkey on Thanksgiving?

In addition, I share one of my favorite pictures books:  When the Shadbush Blooms by Carla Messinger.  This book is beautifully illustrated with before/after pictures to allow the reader to go on a visual discovery which is how I introduce the book.  The next day, I read the story aloud and have students listen and take notes on a T Chart finally ending with a compare/contrast lesson. While searching for the cover, I found this You Tube I will definitely be using this video next year. 

Unexpected Surprises with Wonderopolis

We just finished our first full week of school and like most teachers I totally overplanned the first week! I am still moving some plans into the next week, but as I reflect on our first week there were 3 exciting surprises for me. 

First we are continuing our tradition of WONDERful Word Wednesday with a little twist this year-we are looking at Wonderopolis every Wed. including "Mystery Picture" posted on twitter.  Our class got the correct answer last week-what a fun way to start the year!!  The students started their WONDER books and we previewed WONDER #332 about the Sun which connected to our Earth and Space unit perfectly.  For HW, the students had to watch the video, read the article, try a link and make a prediction for Thursday's WONDER. In addition, they had to write 5 new facts as well as use 3 new vocabulary words in a sentence.

Here was the surprise: As we shared on Thursday, I had the students read a friend's wonder book and share one fact that was strong!  We posted them on this chart and as I wrote them the students were commenting how their friends facts were better than their own-so we discussed why.  As a class, we came up with criteria for our WONDER facts including: using data to support thinking, using more details in the sentences, try to compare/contrast new facts and finally integrate the vocabulary instead of isolating it.  WOW that was a lot to learn from one WONDER HW assignment!

My next surprise was how quickly my class picked up on my suggestion to leave a comment on the site. In the left corner you might see a #9 circled which means 9 students left a comment on one of the week's WONDERS.  I am excited about that because of the home/school connection because to leave a comment the students had to talk to their parents and use an email address.  We set a goal to increase that number next week.

Finally the students were asking about how the WONDERS are chosen I told them that kids just like them can nominate one because there is a link at the top of every WONDER.  Samia actually went home that night and nominated -Why are there holes in cheese?  I was so excited and wouldn't it be neat if her WONDER might be chosen in the future-talk about opening the doors of our classroom.

It was a tiring but a WONDERful week, but I have to admit I am thankful for 3 day weekend.