In response to Ginger's comment.... I would love to hear more about how your unit of study went .I am a 3rd grade teacher in a NYC Reading First school. Hence, I do not have the liberties I see you have. I have been racking my brains for the past 3 years to tie in Science and Social Studies into our Daily Flow of the Day and yes it HAS gotten better but still not to my satisfaction. In Reading First were really restricted as to what we can use and so its not so easy to do this kind of study (although I can feel the power that comes from such a study). However, I have and will continue to incorporate literature (outside the Reading First Read Aloud) in the allotted 15 minutes a day entitled, Oral Language.
For example, in NYC the 3rd grade S.S. curriculum calls for the study of communities around the world. Our SS textbooks (bought recently) are way offline in discussing communities WITHIN the US, NOT the world. It is because of this that I DO NOT teach from this textbook. Rather I look for whatever books I can on the country we are studying and teach from there (the basics, geography, history, people, theyre culture, etc.) I only have an allotted time designated Science and Social Studies 2 hours COMBINED per week (two 30-min sessions each). And so my question is .how can I HAVE such a powerful science/social studies unit with such little time and restrictions as to what and when I can TEACH within that subject? I MUST make those 2 sessions on each subject VERY powerful to be able to have the kind of outcome that I want and that I see youre achieving with your kids! Maria 3rd Grade/NYC RESPONDING TO: >ginger/rob wrote: > >I have received a few emails asking if the Mosaic list is offline. Rest > >assured that we are up and running. I'm thinking that many districts are on > >Spring Break this week??? > > > >This is a great time to share what you have been focusing on in your > >classrooms. Or to ask any questions you may have about comprehension > >instruction. > > > >I've been working on nonfiction reading/research using questioning as our > >springboard. We studied honeybees (Life Science standard) whole class these > >past three weeks. Now when we return from break, we are launching our > >Physical Science standard study (energy, matter, electricity, sound/light, > >gravity, magnetism, simple machines). > > > >I've gathered all the guided reading leveled books I can find in our school > >on these topics (our district did a HUGE buy of Pearson SuccessNet books) > >and later this week I am going to the public library to grab all the easier > >books on our topics. > > > >I had my kids previewing all the Pearson books for two days. Mostly just > >exposing them to the topics we will be studying. They wrote down new > >learnings in their learning journals. We've been working on listening to > >the inner signal (visual or auditory) that goes off when we read something > >new that is important. > > > >My kids will choose their top three areas to study by interest. I will > >assign them in small groups to become the "experts" in one area. I am also > >using the Lucy Calkins Unit of Study on Nonfiction Writing so they will be > >writing "All About" books on their topic. > > > >We'll start off by listing our "I wonder...."s. > >I've done this sort of "study" with third and fourth graders but this has > >been my first time with second graders. They did a great job when we were > >all studying honeybees (as our model). I had our librarian borrow all the > >honey, honeybees, and beekeeper books from the other schools in our district > >plus I supplemented with books from the public library. We read a fiction > >book as our anchor (and to activate schema) and then we wrote 5 chart papers > >of "I wonder...."s. They read for days trying to find answers to the class > >questions. Then we grouped into "chapters" of interest (life cycle, how do > >bees make honey, how do bees communicate, beekeepers, parts of a bee, > >interesting/important facts about bees, types of bees, etc.) and the groups > >became the experts. I didn't have them write a "book" but rather gave each > >group a chart paper and they could represent their learnings as they chose. > > > >Then they presented their learnings to the whole class. We watched two > >movies on honeybees and we even had a REAL beekeeper come and talk to our > >class. It was so validating when he started off by asking my kids what they > >know about bees and they just rattled off TONS of information. All things > >THEY learned by THEIR OWN reading. Not taught by me lecturing at them. > >VERY POWERFUL!! I will be doing some whole group explicit mini lessons on > >each science topic to be sure that everyone gets a base of new learnings. > >But for the most part they will teach each other with their "All About" > >books. > > > >I like to do science and social studies this way. It puts all the > >strategies to use in real reading. Yeah, they aren't perfect at it yet, but > >it's a start and to me, it is all about building background knowledge > >towards deeper study as they get older. Learning how to navigate nonfiction > >text is HUGE in life and this is a sure way to capture their interest. > >After studying nonfiction conventions and doing a lot of modeling and guided > >groups on catching/reporting new learnings, we are on a roll. > > > >That's what's been happening in my little world. Check in with us on what > >YOU'VE been doing with your students! > >Ginger > >moderator > >grade 2 > > > > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Mosaic mailing list > >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Mosaic mailing list > >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > > > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > > > >________________________________________________________________________ >AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from >AOL at AOL.com. >_______________________________________________ >Mosaic mailing list >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. > > >_______________________________________________ >Mosaic mailing list >[email protected] >To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to >http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. > >Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
