Arctic Children PWIM Cycle, Grade One

I worked with my grade one teacher on this PWIM cycle. We were trying this photo out to see how it went. The kids really liked the photo and it blended well with our curricular goals. Thanks Mr. S for sharing your beautiful kids 🙂

 

After studying the picture for several days, doing multiple read alouds , asking questions, and co-creating an anchor chart of who /what/ where/when, we had each child give us a word which we added to the word chart. The anchor chart requires a great deal of conversation and looking in books. For example the word Inuit came from a read aloud. Once each child has their own word we added some verbs in red. Each child has their name written in pencil under their word. Older children don’t like having their name on the photo but younger children are proud to say “That’s my word.” We created an anchor chart with the students for any questions they had  about the picture.

We worked really hard on our phonics and high frequency words. I used the sticky notes to show how changing the initial consonant makes a new word that rhymes. face –race-lace,  house -louse-mouse, kid, hid,lid,did…Your photograph should be a living document-not wall paper.

We analyzed the words on the following chart so that we could decide which word properties to work on.

Word Study

Vowels	short		long
a	man standing		face
e	sled     pelt
i	kid   Inuit   sitting
o	son		boat    rope      snow  dogs
u	fur    hunting
words to support   letters students struggling with in abc		d    (daughter/blood, dogs,standing) variety of student names  (days)w   (snow ,wood) white winter
Content		clothinghunting
blends		blood
digraphs(sh,ch,   wh, th)
y   as vowel
r   vowels
word   families		face –race-lace,house -louse-mouse,                         kid, hid,lid,did…
compounds
plurals		dogs     houses    huskies
suffixes
silent   letters		rope
hard   soft c
hard,   soft g
ou,   ow		house    houses
oy,oi
other vowel patterns(oo, ui, all,aw,ew, au)		boot, blood, wood

We worked hard at studying words-through the photograph as well as see say spell and word games. Below is a word-picture match. It is important for the children to see the words in a slightly different context. The word baby means a baby no matter where you read it. We also worked on word to word matching. Finally we gave the students sticky notes and asked them to notice any of their PWIM words or word families in their reading.

We created an anchor chart called What we notice where the students talked about what they noticed in words. They were still noticing mostly number of letters and initial consonants so we tried to model other ideas for them. One example was son and dog. Both are have 3 letters. Both are one syllable. Both have a vowel in the middle. Both have the letter o.

We created a dictionary where the students practiced their printing and illustrated each word.

We worked on building sentences with sentence blocks by rolling the blocks and composing sentences. Sometimes they made sense -sometimes they didn’t . The laughter and self-correcting led to better comprehension. Students then wrote their favourite sentences into their notebooks. This activity also improves fluency and comprehension. Students then illustrated their sentences. Stronger students worked on paragraph writing by rolling multiple sentences and illustrating the sentences.

  

After  most of the students knew most of the words we moved  on to sentences.  We read a lot of books to see how real authors started sentences so that not all of our sentence would start with THE.

We worked a lot  on titles. Titles are a good lead into main idea and determining importance. We studied different titles of published books. I brought in stacks of books and students had to compare and figure out inductively what kind of title the stack represented. We looked at one word titles, question titles.titles that start with the, repeating titles and titles with alliteration. We used the sentences to help us write class and individual paragraphs.

We learned that the huskies must stay close to the town or be attacked by the caribou. We learned how the Inuit people survived  by hunting the caribou and compared it to how the Plains People survived by hunting the buffalo. We worked hard to incorporate all aspects of the curriculum.

Subject	Outcomes
Science curriculum connections	Needs and Characteristics of living Things LT1.1 Differentiate between living things according to observable characteristics, including appearance and behaviour. [CP, SI]
Health  curriculum connections	The Seven Teachings Buffalo-respect	A minimum of one inquiry and/or interdisciplinary unit per year is recommended. Any multi-genre thematic or author/genre study unit can become an inquiry unit.
Treaty Kit	The Buffalo-compare and contrast with Northern People	Page 30 treaty kit
Social Studies curriculum connections	Comparing Cultures Families past to present

We used a variety of books about arctic animals ,the buffalo, families around the world and the needs of living things to help us with the cycle. Our teacher librarian was really helpful at ordering books for us to use both at the children’s level and at higher levels for us to use for read alouds. We also used the internet and magazines to learn about Inuit clothing, and food.

Sentence Tips Phase 4 PWIM/MIMI

Sentence Tips

•  Talk about the picture for several days before shaking out words.
• Do many read alouds to add interest and information.
• Model sentences with alternate sentences starters and punctuation(read aloud from mentor text and model your own)
  
• Build an anchor chart before you shake out sentences-brainstorm what they see-get as many ideas as you can

Our Photo Study
Who is in the photo	What is in the photo details
Verbs in the photo	When is this happening

 Shake out

• Print each sentence on chart paper as the students are watching.
•   Print big enough so that everyone can see.
• Number each sentence.
•  Write the student name at the end of each sentence in a smaller font.

1. The little boy is wearing a plaid shirt.       Brian( I can’t make it smaller!)

• Alternate the colour of each sentence with different coloured markers.
•  Dig a little deeper for meatier sentences by asking  questions such as  where, how,… I.e. I see a man. Where is the man? What is he doing? What is he wearing?  Use the anchor chart you built together to help you.
• Don’t accept grammatical errors-be kind “sometimes we say that but when we write we say…”
•  Type up the sentences with names and numbers. Make sure the names are not the same size as the sentence. Each student should get a copy.
• Identify each student set by having the student print their name or initials or number or colour on the back.
•  Store the sentences in a location that is easy to access.
•  Use your sorting mat when classifying
• After several days of classifying brainstorm possible categories for paragraph writing

LGC 2012

L’aigle -The Eagle MIMI or PWIM en francais!!

I have been working on a PWIM cycle in a French Immersion grade two classroom. Special thanks to Mme B for all her hard work and sharing her classroom with me 🙂

The photograph we chose was fabulous. The children were engaged and enthusiastic for the entire cycle. It was great for tying in First Nation Content through the Eagle we learned about the 7 sacred teachings and the importance of the Eagle.

Mandatory Photo Credit : Flying With Eagles    
Louise Crandal, Courtesy of the Banff Photo Center 

Before choosing the words for the picture we read books about Eagles, birds of prey and parachuting in French. We spent a lot of time talking about the photograph and learning new French vocabulary before the children each chose a word.

The Children asked many questions! This is just one anchor chart of the many they had over the cycle.

It is important to have the children  notice attributes of  the words and learn to do daily word study inductively. Here we began to list what the children had noticed (Je vois) about the words they chose from the photograph. This list should continue to grow as students classify and work on their word study.

During the cycle, titles should be added. (titres) They don’t have to be added all at once. Paying attention to published books and actual titles is helpful. The students noticed titles with L’, ! , ?, one word , starting with Dans, and J’ai. Further work on other types of titles could continue in other cycles.

We have the students store their word cards and subsequent

 sentence cards in laminated envelopes. We are able to record their thinking during our conversations-that way we can push their thinking further each time .

Each child shakes out a sentence. They have sentences to manipulate and classify which are kept in their envelopes, a copy of  the sentences on an anchor chart to read together and this set is also  reduced into a running record so that the teacher can test their fluency during the cycle. It is a great way to ensure that  high frequency words are being learned during a cycle. Student names should be at the end of the sentence to remind students of ownership-the introduction to plagiarism. They are numbered for ease of classification and teacher modeling. The more children practice the sentences the more they have the opportunity to develop the rhythm of the language as well as comprehension skills. This running record is great evidence for report cards and interviews as well.

Students working on classifying their sentences into ideas for paragraphs.   Possible categories with sentence numbers brainstormed by the class.

After working on sentences and reading a variety of materials we reallized the ent ending was a challenge for many of the children. We spent some time studying picture books, looking at when and where to use the  ent ending and created a class book. These are some pages from the book. So much more relevant than memorising verbs!!!

We spent a lot of time discussing good sentence starters. We looked at books and how published  authors started their sentences. We brainstormed ideas and students practiced writing sentences. We built sentence cubes for the students to practice building sentences in the proper order.

We used the sentences to help us build paragraphs together.

Model anchor chart of class paragraph. A well used document about paragraph structure, vocabulary and correcting errors

Students used graphic organizers to help them write compare and contrast paragraphs about Eagles and other birds.

To further develop vocabulary we do Mystery Box (boite mystere) once a week. The students have to figure out which vocabulary item is in the box. They have to figure it out by asking questions that can only be answered by YES or NO.  Students discover details about the item’s location,use and other attributes. Once enough attributes are given students write a descriptive paragraph. We did a few together first. After group paragraphs students begin to write their own paragraphs. Here is one example

                                      

In order to include social studies in the photo study, we used the community in the photograph as our starting point to study communities.

The PWIM is an exciting way to teach. The key-understanding the process and moving away from worksheets and into inquiry!!

Shake Out and See Say Spell (phase one of PWIM)

The First Phase of the Picture Word Inductive Model

                                                                 Shake out and See Say Spell

 

Shake out-It is important that the photograph be a representation of reality and a source of information. It should contain curricular content from any combination of the subject areas. The picture leads to research and critical thinking. It provides students with something from which to inquire, leading to further discussion and research.

The picture should build an understanding of our place in the world, showing children our similarities as human beings for example-many children have never been to the ocean but they will still be able to recognize and name familiar things in an unfamiliar place.(plant, flippers, shark,…) The picture can take them to faraway places thus creating global citizens.

Rather than referring to the photograph as the PWIM photograph use one of the titles created in class such as our Shark picture.

Information is pulled from out of the picture. Students provide us with words already in their listening, speaking vocabulary as opposed to contrived words, provided by the teacher that they have no connection to. Students orally contribute words one by one that represent pieces of information in the photo. As the students name an item or action, the teacher spells the words and prints them neatly onto the chart.

Students do not write on the chart as it is essential that they are seeing correct letter formation and spelling being modeled. The words should be written in black marker with properly formed letters, in a large enough size to be seen from across the room. Straight lines should be drawn in black marker from the word to the picture while the children are watching. To avoid future confusion, the lines should not cross This provides an immediate connection for future word recognition. Students need to understand that their goal is to learn these letters and words therefore building their sight vocabulary. It is helpful to print the students’ names under their word. It creates another connection for students who struggle.

 See Say Spell (SSS) is a device to improve long-term memory. It provides daily reinforcement of the words as well as letters and letter sounds and properties. It is essential for young readers to begin to develop their phonemic awareness and phonics skills and SSS is the perfect vehicle with which to do it. See Say Spell time is word study time.

In kindergarten and grade one letter recognition and sounds of letters is essential word study time. As students progress: Syllables/ blends/ rimes/prefixes and word families are all studied during SSS. This reinforcement is done inductively where students are allowed to construct their own meaning, draw conclusions and share their findings. Students develop an interest in learning new words and begin to pay attention to words and word properties. A good rule of thumb-when 75% of the students know 75 % 0f the words, move onto sentences.

When studying words at the Picture word chart, teachers ask questions and provide feedback rather than going around the photograph spelling words in order. For example asking students what do you notice, what do you remember? Teachers may use properties noticed by students and then ask the students “Can you find another word in the photo with the same sound/attribute…” Example Starts w/b or double letters.

Create an anchor chart of word properties students have noticed. Allow students to share orally.”I noticed…flipper and fish start with the same letter.”

Teachers need to model an excitement for word study and vocabulary building. Inviting children to come study their shark words in an enthusiastic voice will lead students to be more enthusiastic about their word study. Being excited about what students notice about their words makes word study and word research very motivating.  Marzano states:  The teacher can communicate a positive demeanour in a number of ways, one of which is through demonstrating enthusiasm and intensity, both of which have been associated with student engagement and achievement.

Teachers must consistently explain rationale to students so that they understand why they are doing the SSS.Making analogies to athletes, musicians who need to practice to get good at what they do, just like we need to practice reading, are very helpful for students to understand why they must keep practicing. We want to instant recall with the words and word properties.

As the year progresses and more PWIM pictures appear, teachers and students need to constantly refer to the photographs around the room. It is a handy reference tool for both reading and writing. The children form connections to the words and know exactly where to go to find them. Because the chart is co-constructed with students and posted on light or white paper they are not a distraction to students. For this reason, the pictures should remain posted in the classroom all year long.

One of the major components of learning to read is reading by sight. As an adult reader I would not choose to read a book that required me to sound out most of the words.  A sight word is any word we read automatically. We recognize words by how they are spelled. As the words are spelled in SSS, spelling is emphasized through the reading- That is why we notice typos.  Shark will be s-h-a-r-k every time it will not change. When students understand this, it is a huge relief to them. Teachers need to emphasize that.. We read every letter-very quickly and not really consciously think about that the next time you read. It is much easier to recognize words we have really studied.

These words should be referred to as sight words not PWIM words. Teachers should avoid labels using the word PWIM as that is meaningless to students and parents.

As we shake the words out we are giving them their own picture dictionary. Adding a word wall of high frequency words in the classroom will enhance the student vocabulary when the sight words and high frequency words are later combined into sentences.

Co-constructing your classroom with students from the beginning of the year, rather than having a ready-made classroom is essential. The RTI is not an issue as The PWIM photograph and subsequent anchor charts become purposeful learning tools rather than a distraction to students.