Liz Tompkins' Inquiry 2 Part A

1.     My target area for guided lead teaching is going to be non-fiction texts, specifically non-fiction text features as well as explaining what an informational text says explicitly and by using inferences. I will also work on summarizing main parts of the text explaining how they are supported by key details (by using both the text features as well as the text itself).

2.      We spend a little over an hour each day on “literacy.” My students will be working on other assignments for literacy, so some days I might only have 20 minutes to give a mini lesson, while other days I may have half or all of literacy to do my teaching- it just depends on what I want my lessons to look like. For example, a mini lesson on a few text features of a non-fiction piece might only take 20 minutes, but if I want to work on reading a selection and summarizing it as a class, I might want to have 40-50 minutes to do so.

3.     CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

The text features is a CCSS for 3^rd grade, but I know my students need a lot more practice working with these features. I will work on the text features while using them to work toward other CC 5^th grade standards.

4.    Teaching non-fiction texts is very relevant to students’ lives. Since non fiction deals with REAL facts and issues, it will be easier to connect this type of text to students’ lives because the non fiction texts I will pick I will choose carefully and considerately so that I believe my students will have some interest in them. Also, I will select texts that some students may have background knowledge about, which will enhance their understanding and involvement in my lessons and the texts. Students encounter non-fiction texts every day and on through adulthood, so understanding how to read them (the text and the features) will help them in the future as well as right now. From newspapers to reading the news online, to studying their textbooks as they reach secondary school, understanding how to use non-fiction texts is extremely important and relevant. Working with non-fiction texts teaches students to learn about this type of literacy, that is, non-fiction texts. It allows students to also learn through literacy because they will be reading material that is informative (maybe about science, a social/newsworthy issue, or social studies) thus they will learn by reading and interacting with this medium.

5.    There will be many opportunities for multiple kinds of classroom talk to take place during my 10-lesson unit. There will be a lot of teacher-talk- that is, I will be guiding instruction, reading directions, answering questions that the students ask and testing students by questioning them about the material. There will also be time for student-led talk where students can ask questions, talk to those around them regarding the lesson and if I do mini groups, those would be student led as well. When we talk about the summary of a particular text, this might evoke some higher level thinking when we discuss the text.  The norms of interaction that I would like to build within my classroom during my teaching of this target area is really working with students on their sharing (to the group) skills. I feel as if my students don’t have ample time to work in groups or share their ideas, especially when it comes to literacy, so I would love to be able to really help students engage with each other about school and work together to learn and make something. I think I might do small groups where someone is the “expert” regarding something and then they all have to teach the other groups about what topic or information they were the expert about. I don’t really know exactly how my lessons are going to look, but that’s just one idea I have of an activity.

6.     The core practice I would like to focus on for this unit is under comprehension strategy instruction and assessment, activating and connecting background knowledge. The majority of my lesson will be based around non-fiction text features and then reading the non-fiction and then also focusing on their comprehension after the text is read. I might want to do some KWL chars before reading a few non-fiction pieces (after we have the mini lessons regarding the text features) and learn about other ways that can really activate student’s background knowledge. I have noticed that when we read some non-fiction in class, students are so confused about the questions they have to answer afterward. I think that this might change if we take some time exploring our background knowledge before hand so they know to connect the new information they read about to the information and knowledge they already have. Personally, this will contribute to my own professional learning because it will challenge me to ask questions that foster students to make connections and think of background knowledge they have.  It will be a challenge for me and I think it will be good practice because it will force me to be creative in my questioning as well as students realize what they already know that will help them with the task, which will give them confidence to succeed.

7.    I have Scholastic News that are mailed to my mentor teacher about every week that have awesome text features that I could do a little lesson with. I also have the Literacy books that have non-fiction texts, but I probably will try to stay away from those books because I think they are boring. My teacher also has a lot of awesome non-fiction books in her classroom, so I could photocopy parts of those books if I wanted and could include those in my lesson. I can work with the literacy teacher to see if she has any good ideas for non-fiction text instruction. There is also the Lansing State Journal that I could read to my students and have them work with, as those articles would be very contemporary. My school also has a lot of magazine subscriptions such as Ranger Rick that are non-fiction and are grade level appropriate.

8.    I will probably obtain some resources off the Internet. I think I might do a mini lesson about making inferences and just use pictures so that students can learn how to use the pictures in a non-fiction text to add to their understanding of the text.

9.    I have already started to see students work with scholastic news articles, so I will use what I have observed during this instruction as part of my assessment. As for an actual assessment, I think I will give them a non-fiction article and have them point out as many text features as they can and have them explain their purpose. I will also have them read the piece and then summarize it for me just so I can get a baseline for where they are in regards to the standards I am teaching to.

10. I would like to know how comfortable students feel with non-fiction texts and I also would like to know how much experience they have had working with non-fiction texts. I would also like to know some of their interests outside of school so that can aid in my selection of the non-fiction texts to use during my lessons.

11. I want to learn how to ask questions to elicit background knowledge as well as different activities I can do to meet this same goal.

12.  I am worried that it might be sort of awkward in relation to the rest of literacy- it’s not really going to have anything to do with what they will be doing during normal literacy time, so I’m worried it might seem sort of disconnected and I question the fluidity of it. I also worry I might not have enough to teach for 10 whole lessons, but that’s not my main concern. I just hope I can formulate 10 lessons that make sense and the kids enjoy.