Social Studies and the PWIM

The photograph is taken at a market in Thailand. This photograph would lead to a great inquiry in many subject areas. When I look at the photograph, I instantly think about family relationships, foods people eat, and places in our community and other communities.

In the Saskatchewan grade one Social Studies Curriculum we can tackle so many of our outcomes through this photograph. Here is one to think about:

• Outcome: IN1.2 to Discuss cultural diversity in the family and classroom, including exploration of similarities and differences.

What should I do first with my students when we look at the photograph?

The process you are using is an inquiry one, designed to help everyone develop curiosity.

• Start simply, by asking students to brainstorm any questions they may have about the photograph.
• Chart their questions and then classify the questions into groups.
• Decide which questions we can find answers to and which questions might be difficult to find out.
  • We can figure it out: What kind of fruit is that?
  • We can’t find out: What is that child’s name? Is that his mother?
• Provide non-fiction books about the topics the children were curious about.
• Help the children discover answers to the questions they had. Allow them time to look and ask more questions.
• Have your Teacher Librarian help your students search for answers.
• Encourage them by asking questions about their world and taking the opportunity to see what they know about themselves and others including  First Nation and Métis perspectives.

Once they are curious, what do we do next?

• Try a compare/contrast activity by asking the children if any of them have been to a farmer’s market before. How was it the same as the photograph? How was it different? Make a class t-chart or a Venn diagram with clear descriptors and pictures.
• Make connections to our larger world explicit. The beauty of using a picture from another country is that we just naturally begin to create global citizens. The children see familiar things in unfamiliar places. When they eventually learn that the photograph is in Thailand it will lead them to questions about Thailand. You will know your inquiry has been successful if they still have more questions.

 

Text Structures

Have you ever wondered how to help young students with non-fiction writing? Sometimes it feels intimidating ! When we introduce children to the signal words on this chart,the words become the clues that will help them with both reading comprehension as well as non-fiction writing. Introduce one structure at a time so that you don’t overwhelm them. Tell your students the name of the structure, what it looks like and use the key questions to help you.

Why not send your students off  on a “treasure hunt” as word detectives, looking for the words in the books and coming back to share outloud which words they found and where they found them. Reading the sentences aloud together is great practice for fluency and discussing the signal words in the text will also help with comprehension.

Primary Inquiry

  John Barrell gives many ways to teach Inquiry in the pre-K to 5 classrooms.The examples given are from classrooms in Canada and the United States. Barrell gives an overview to inquiry, as well as explaining how to start , how to plan for questions and involving parents.

Corwin Press 2008

I find Barell’s book to be very teacher friendly and written with a realistic understanding of what a busy world primary classrooms can be.

I liked the idea in chapter 5 Developing Units of Instruction he talks about the KWHLAQ as a way of planning Long Term Inquiry with younger students. I think I would take a long sheet of bulletin board paper, divide it into six sections,write each letter in a section and then have my students add to each section with their thoughts or questions and drawings as we worked through them. At the end of the process we would have a clear map of where we started and where we went.

Word Study

Word Matters-Teaching Phonics and Spelling in the Reading /Writing Classroom

Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas Heinemann

Figure 8-1 Competent Word Solvers: What Do They Do? page 79

I remember when I went to school I learned about phonics through work sheets. It was drill and practice to death. Now that we know better, students have the benefit of playing with words,sorting, classifying and manipulating them, looking at all the parts, beginning, middle and end. Studying word families and searching for similarities and differences is much more relevant and leads to a deeper understanding of how words work. Word study that is inductive, leads to better word retention. Students who study words inductively through the Picture Word Inductive Model become Competent Word Solvers…

Building Community with Everybody Needs a Rock

Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Taylor

A great way to build community is to share this book with your class, discuss the importance of rocks in First Nation Culture and then take a walk to find the perfect class rock or an individual rock each. Some teachers purchase bags of rocks . The rocks can be stored in a basket or container to represent class unity. For more information on rocks see pages 57-63 Keepers of the Earth

Two other books that fit the topic as well  are The Yesterday Stone by Peter Eyvindson and If You Find a Rock by Barbara Hirsch Lember

Building Community With the Daily 5

Many teachers in our system are using the Daily Five structure to help them set up their classroom communities.

The foundational principles of the Daily Five structure are found in Chapter two of the Daily 5 book : trust, choice, community, sense of urgency, and stamina.

Without the community building, Daily Five is nothing more than center time. Building a strong community is essential so that the teacher is able to teach explicitly, work with mini groups, conference and assess for the rest of the year. Creating community starts on the first day of school .It is such an important task to create community in any classroom setting. It can make or break a class at the beginning of the year. Beginning of the school year activities, get to know you activities, sharing writing, and choosing great read alouds are all ways to build community in your classroom. When students are working together towards a common goal ( building reading or writing stamina for Daily Five) they are building community. The 2 Sisters suggest you take 20 minutes to build community in your classroom each day. The Daily Five encourages all students to take responsibility for their role in the classroom!

In their book The Daily Five, the authors state the following about community. “We spend a great deal of effort creating and maintaining a healthy classroom culture. Each new group of children will fashion their own unique community based on the schema they bring to the classroom and the experiences they have… A sense of community provides members with ownership to hold others accountable for behaviours of effort, learning, order and kindness. During the Daily Five, students may come one step closer to achieving goals they have set for themselves….the “how-tos” for building community are an integral part of each and every lesson

(Daily Five pg 21,22)

Credit:

http://ramblingaboutreading.blogspot.ca

Great video link to chapter 2,with teacher comments below http://www.wereadweblogweteach.com/2012/07/daily-5-chapter-2-from-management-to.html

The Name Jar

Here is an idea for a mini inquiry in Social Studies. Children learn about their own names as well as their classmates’ names. This inquiry leads to better understanding of each others’ cultures and development of  world view.

Read The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi

Talk about the importance of names in Families, the Communities and larger communities. Co-construct a list of questions the students have about their own names, on chart paper.

Title –What do you know about your name?

Sample questions:

• Who am I named after?
• What if we all had the same name?
• What does my name mean?
• Does everyone have a middle name?
• Do all our names put together  cover all the letters in the alphabet?
• Have you ever been teased about your name?
• Why would someone tease you about your name?

You might add a question of your own to push them deeper, but try to let the children ask as many of the questions as possible.

Bring in a variety of baby name books and have children look up their names. Get parents involved, ask them to explain why they chose the name they did, what is the significance of the name…

An extension for grade two and three would be to inquire into whom streets, communities/cities are named after and why. Why were these people or words important enough to that community to name something after them?

Click here if you want to take the Name Jar Inquiry even further!

Other picture books I have found about names include:

• Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
• A Name For A Metis by Deborah L. Delaronde (available as a class set in CMC )
• My Name is Elizabeth by Annika Dunklee
• Eleanor, Ellatony, Ellencake, and me / by C.M. Rubin
• Josephina Hates Her Name by Diana Engle
• The Name Quilt / Phyllis Root
• A porcupine named Fluffy / Helen Lester
• Matthew A.B.C. by Peter Catalanotto
• White Bead Ceremony: Mary Greyfeather Gets Her Native American Name is written by Sherrin Watkins
• The Secret of Your Name by David Bouchard (as a read aloud)

Learning to Question to wonder to learn Jamie McKenzie

The author examines why it is so important to question and then proceeds to   learning and teaching questioning. The majority of the book takes a look at different kinds of questions (essential , inventive, irrelevant , provocative) to name just a few. Each chapter gives examples for primary, intermediate, grades as well as middle school and high school.

In other research I have read, the concern comes up again and again that the teachers of today are asking too many questions and the students are asking nowhere near enough questions. This book would really help teachers to find a starting place to get their students asking questions .

I loved this quote from the book -``Thinking without questioning is like drinking without swallowing`.

This book would be good for a book club so that teachers could bounce ideas off each other and make commitments to try the various kinds of questioning and bring back conversation, observations and products to share ad evaluate.

Mentor Text for Writing with -This Plane

Cover of This Plane

Talk Aloud for Comprehension

Day One

My talk aloud will allow me to model the reading/Writing Connection for my students.

This Plane

By Paul Collicutt  (629.13)

Concepts from ELA

• Structured sentence writing. (scaffolded)
• Use of sentence starters other than THE
• Pictures match the writing.
• Illustrations of real planes inside front and back covers
• Pages go together: made of/ is a / taxis/ takes off / carries / gets fuel/ has / is / drops

• Illustrations and text can be used together to support comprehension.
• Sentences can start with other words than the or there is. Short informational texts with pictures about familiar objects

Also available in this series  This Boat, This Rocket, This Car , This Train

Introduction-I make connections to past learning (sometimes to future content):“We have been talking a lot about airplanes since we started our Airplane photograph. I found a book about planes that I really like, because it shows so many kinds of planes and the jobs that they do. I remembered that one of your words is plane and my book is called THIS PLANE. The author is Paul Collicott.”

I activate the student’s listening by saying:“Listen carefully while I read this book about planes to you.  Notice what the author says about different kinds of planes. Be ready to tell me something you learned about planes and something you noticed about how the writing changed or stayed the same.

 

Read book and show illustrations

I like the way the author started every page with the words THIS PLANE.

It matched the title of the book( Show cover) and really helped me to know HOW each page would start. It helped me to feel comfortable as I read each page.

I liked the way the paintings matched the writing (show fuel / drops water- show how they match) The pictures helped me to understand the information the author was giving me in the text. Ask the children if the author painted a clear picture with both words and paint

Student application:

“Today while you are reading I want you to notice if the pictures match the writing. Take a sticky note with you and list some words that the author of your book uses to start a sentence. When we come back together we will talk about it

 

 

 

Day Two                       Talk aloud for writing-writing using Mentor Text

We’ve been working on trying to start our own sentences with something other than the word  the.

 

“Yesterday we read the book This Plane.  Remember how I told you I liked the way the author’s writing matched the title of the book (Show cover) and really helped me to know HOW each page would start. I liked how this pattern gave us another way to start sentences! You looked for words in your books to start sentences with-here is some of our thinking from yesterday ( show chart)

Today I want to show you how I used Paul Collicut’s writing to help me write my own sentences. “ Remember how I told you that I really liked the way Paul Collicutt wrote this book. I liked the way he started every page with the words THIS PLANE. I liked the way the pictures matched the writing. I wanted to try to write the way he did. . “

Now listen to how I used Paul Collicut’s sentences to help me write my own sentences:”

( show models)

#1 This plane has purple stripes.  (Explain -In my first picture the only colour, is purple so it is easy to see that I will talk about that purple stripe.)

Do you see how I started my sentence with “This plane…” I liked the way the author started his sentence with something other than the. I wanted to do this with my sentence too.

(Show the cover and turn pages pointing out the words THIS PLANE)

“I liked the way I could tell what the author might say next by looking at his paintings. (Go to GETS FUEL and then DROPS WATER and show how the painting reflects the writing) I knew my picture had to give a clear idea of what I was going to say. Ask the children “Do you see how the author painted a clear picture with both words and paint? That is what I tried to do in my sentences. Do you see the way my pictures match what I wrote about them? Did I start with the words THIS PLANE? Do my sentences match my pictures?

Let’s look carefully at my work. Did I start with the words This plane? Do my writing and picture match?”

 

Attribute checklist-I make an anchor chart for the front, and also give a small copy to each child.

THIS PLANE Picture matches writing Capital at the beginning Period at the end

“I tried another one and I want you to help me correct it.”

Second sample  .” Let’s look at the check list together. Did I ….”  go through the check list carefully an point to each part. Place a large check mark in the bubble,

#2 This plane is upside down.   (Explain –In my second picture my plane is upside down, and it is pretty clear that it is so I need to talk about that.)

Student application–

“ Today we are going to make our own class book  using the model of This Plane by Paul Collicutt. I want you to write a sentence to describe an airplane. Start with the same starting words as the author This plane. Then you will draw and colour a picture that matches your drawing.  I want you to try really hard to use words you know. They might be colour words, size words like big or small, location words like high or low…Try to use in the room or your word wall to help you so that you can do it all by yourself. Don’t forget to start with a capital and end with a period.

Reflections on student responses:

This activity went really well and I am really pleased with the work they did. Every child was able to write a short sentence and draw a picture to go with it. Some of the children were able to write more than one thing and used the words around the room. One child ended up writing three sentences and was ready to write even more but we ran out of time. They aren’t used to creating their own writing and I think the lesson was a good starting point.

Student Samples

 

This plane has a red stripe.

This plane puts out the fire.

This plane has a wing. Its wing is red. It also has a stripe.

 

My Personal Reflections

I really enjoyed this lesson. The children loved the book and beautiful paintings. They were really excited by my models. They were eager to get to their desks and do their own writing.I think that the talk aloud for comprehension really flowed into the talk aloud for writing

I could have the children do so many things with this scaffold now that they are more comfortable with it. It wouldn’t have to be about airplanes I could relate it to almost anything we are working on. For example a pattern such as: “This triangle is red and has three points.”- would work great for math while “This bear is brown and fuzzy.”-would work well for science or descriptive writing.