Main Idea Activity and Analytical Writing

Ever since starting the new Wonders program, we have been trying to get a good schedule/routine down. Our principal had us go to a 6 day rotation instead of a 5 day rotation. This had prooven to be helpful beyond measure. It gave us time to dig deep into stories and skills. Oh yeah, an to do stations! Whoot! Whoot!

The last six days were all about main idea. Most of our stories were nonfiction (50% of our text has to be nonfiction according to the Common Core) which was great for main idea. With the last story before testing,  my students were completed a consensus map for main idea.

I grouped everyone into groups of 4 and gave them a piece of chart paper with the main idea that the class agreed upon in the middle. The chart paper was then divided into 4 sections. Each person had to give details (we call it evidence) supporting the main idea. After everyone was finished, they had to come to a consensus about the details written on the chart paper. Once everyone agreed, they would each sign the paper in the middle.

This went better than I could have imagined! They were truly digging. This helped them on their reading test too!

Here are some pictures of our little project:


Look at those busy bees working away on their main idea and evidences.

This was the nonfiction text that the students used.

This brings me to our analytical writing ….

In the Common Core, students have to construction analytical writing pieces (answering questions using text evidence) to prove they read. This the first year to write this deeply; therefore, I had to do a lot of modeling on using text evidence.


I found it helpful to create a “show your evidence” wall with sentence stems for showing text evidence.

Here is the guidelines that we set for our writing.



This is the piece I modeled.



This is the piece we wrote together.

 

They wrote a piece on their own too, and took it home to show their parents about text evidence.

 Here is an example of a student using analytical writing for a test question.

Show Your Evidence and Morning Stations

With the new Common Core, third grade has to show text evidence in their responses to questions. This difficult for the little guys right now since they are not used to having use text evidence. With the help of a team member, we created a "show your evidence" board in our rooms. I was going to just make a poster to put it in their binders, but then I saw her board and fell in love with it. Please ignore my mistake....it happens ALL the time, ha ha.

They can use this board to help them to put text evidence in their writing. Of course I am going to show them how first;) You can see where the kids and I have started using evidence to answer questions. Hopefully, they will be able to do it on their own soon.

Next is using quotations to help support answers! I found a really neat "whole brain teaching" video of some 3rd graders finding quotations and stating them for the class. I can't wait to try this in my room!!!



Okay...RTI morning stations....This has been bothering me for a little while now. I believe I told y'all in my last post that a team member and I was trying to come up with a schedule. Well, we did! Yay!!!! It's super easy and self explanatory.

Magnetic Numbers and The Hundred Dresses

I know that I have been absent for a little while, but things have been crazy around here! All of us third grade teachers are trying to get ourselves ready for hard core interventions before state testing. We have such a long way to go in such a short time.

In order to get all of my kids split into the groups that they needed to be in for math, I gave them a super quick assessment that I could check in 2 seconds. Then I was able to divide them into groups based on their needs and assign them to a teacher for interventions. The students that are not assigned a specific group are left for practice stations. I used my magnetic numbers that I made on my white board to keep track of which group they're in. The same thing was done for reading.

I LOVE my magnetic numbers for groups!!!! My kids are able to just take a quick look at the board and know where they're supposed to be without me having to repeat myself. It's like magic. First I bought a set then I got smart by making my own. Why didn't I do that in the first place??? Ha ha ha.

With all the testing murmurs going through the air, I wanted to get started reading another book. I decided to read The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes. I have to read books that have wonderful lessons, and this one really fits the bill. Never have read this book before, I didn't know what to expect for the kids. But they really are thinking through the characters' actions. I am hoping that they will see the whole message of the book. They are not always to taught how to treat other people that are different from themselves; therefore, I wanting these past and future book discussions to really stick! Fingers are crossed.