During my lesson, we read a non-fiction article as a class
about why frogs are going extinct. Before we read the article, I had students
point out the non-fiction text features that they saw before they read the
article. We talked about the title, sub title, map and bold words. We discussed
how these are important to notice as they help us activate our background
knowledge before we even read the article. I passed out the KWL charts, and the
students filled out the “what I think I know” and “what I want to know”. We
talked about how we should fill the “what I want to know,” while keeping in
mind the header and sub header we read while looking at the non fiction text
features. We talked about how we think this article might be about pollution
and how it affects frogs (the title was “Frogs and Risk” and the sub title
read, “South America’s frog population is on the decline. That spells trouble
for the environment.”) Since this was our first KWL chart, I tried to do a lot
of guiding and modeling. I had the students try to write two things they would
like to know or find out, BASED around what they think they might find in the
article. I said that if they wonder something, such as “how long do frogs
live?” that they may write that, but I tried to have a little discussion around
the idea that we might not find that specific answer in this article and we
might have to look elsewhere because the article is very specific (as are most
articles). After I collected the KWL charts, I was pleasantly surprised with
that the kids wrote down- a lot of the “what I want to know” questions were
based around what students think they WOULD actually find in the article. I
wonder how well they will do with this idea as I pull away my direct
support/instruction. Something I will definitely have to pay attention to as I
look at more KWL charts my students create for me during non-fiction features.
My students learned about KWL charts and how to apply them
to a non-fiction text article. They also had more practice using non-fiction
text features, which was the main idea my teacher really wanted me to cover
during my guided lead teaching. My students learned about frogs and why
pollution affects them. A lot of their responses were so cute- a lot of
students expressed sadness is their, “what did I learn” section- one student even
said “WE MUST DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. FROGS ARE SO CUTE.” Some students who
have a hard time expressing their thoughts in writing had a difficult time with
this assignment- they didn’t write very much in the boxes, but I actually noticed
a few of these students participating and sharing their ideas, even though they
didn’t have it written down, which was a good thing. I learned that students
like to talk about what they know- I really don’t think I have ever seen that
many of my kids get excited about sharing what they know (I don’t really think
I have seen that many activities with background knowledge, so it was a
interesting to see their interactions).
I will continue giving students closer support with their
KWL charts and reminding them to utilize text features to activate background
knowledge as well as help them read non-fiction. I don’t think I need to “re-teach”
any thing specifically, but I will just make sure my students have more
practice with the KWL charts as well as reading non-ficiton.
If I was to teach this lesson again, I think I might be more
explicit or explain the W part of the KWL chart. I was happy with how my
students performed, but there were times when I felt shaky explaining HOW to
know what to put in the W box. I just think this will come with more practice
as I get more comfortable teaching and getting up in front of the class.
So far, implementing my core practice is going really well! I
would like to try some different activating background knowledge activities,
but I haven’t really found any that I like as much as the KWL chart.
Also, just
with the time aspect of this guided lead teaching, I think I would rather
really get my students comfortable with using a KWL chart rather than make them
do a lot of activities where they activate background knowledge but never
really get super comfortable with a specific one. What do you think about this?
Should I stick to KWL charts or try to venture out and do something different?
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