What's important about fiction? *Chant/Song!

So last year, we had a few kids in fifth grade who didn't pass The Test. And by a few, I mean a lot. In Texas, fifth graders take The Test once in March and then the kids who failed get another opportunity to retake in May. So in the meantime, we had to make some things happen for these kids. 
After talking to the kids about what areas they struggled in, and after talking with Rachel Reyna of Fisher-Reyna about some helpful strategies for comprehending, we realized our kids didn't really know what to look for when they read different genres. Their previous experiences (K-4) hadn't really been genre-based, and they were struggling to navigate different genres and know what to focus on. 
At this point, we put together some strategies to help them focus on the structure of the genre first, to improve their comprehension. We started with fiction.
Fiction is special because in fiction, we have characters. As I mentioned in my previous post, Fiction is all about CHARACTER. Our kids were lacking that understanding. So my teaching buddy, Chris, and I  put together several tools for them to help them focus on this. 
They worked so well and really gave kids an "anchor" to hold on to, so we're now using them during our fiction unit at the beginning of the school year in grades 2-5. 
First, we wrote a chant. It's to the tune of a cadence, or sound-off.

Fiction Summary Chant

Main Character you know the best

You see them most throughout the text.

Motivation towards their goal

Their actions unfold as the story is told.

Fiction …. Summary

Using …… Strategies

Fiction, Drama, Poems, DETAILS!

The conflict comes from want or need

Becoming the problem, yes indeed!

The conflict must now be resolved

Their solution begins to evolve.

Fiction….. Summary

Using…… Strategies

Fiction, Drama, Poems, CONFLICT!

Once the story begins to unfold

The outcome may be very bold

The character will surely earn

An important lesson learned.

Fiction…. Summary

Using …. Strategies

Fiction, Drama, Poems, THE THEME!

We chanted it every day and added gestures to represent the important pieces we wanted the kids to know: Main Character: frame the face Motivation/Goal: hands over hear (cause it's what you WANT) Conflict: fists pushing towards each other Resolution: hands folded together Lesson Learned: finger to head as if thinking
Click back tomorrow to learn about how we helped kids fiction process text with a pocket chart! Pin It

Fiction is all about Character! *Freebie!

My teachers grades 3 - 5 are working hard on introducing fiction to their kids. We've built in tons of read alouds and shared reading experiences to help kids practice noticing, finding evidence, and making inferences about characters.
 

To do this, we're using a few different books. I really recommend using short stories with upper elementary students.

Books like Every Living Thing by Cynthia Rylant and Baseball in April and Other Stories by Gary Soto make the perfect vehicle for giving kids multiple opportunities for analyzing different characters within a short time span!

To give kids a handle on character analysis, we started building this anchor chart.

We added something different to it with each lesson, making sure that we were focused on analyzing elements of character that hit our TEKS and standards!

It was a lot to fit on one chart, but we did it!

To focus on character conflicts, we created a foldable and a simple graphic organizer. 

Outside of foldable

Inside of foldable

Grab it here for free on GoogleDrive!

These are some charts we've used at other times to support character analysis:

Find more great information about Fiction being all about character here:

Teaching That Makes Sense. Click on "The 5 facts of fiction!"

And check out my Character Analysis Strategy MiniPack on TPT!

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Retelling Gloves! Fun fun fun

One of the things our K-2 teachers are working on is increasing student accountability for comprehension. This can be difficult for students when practicing independently, such as in daily five stations. We found this adorable and simple strategy to use with kids to help them remember how to retell. It's called the Retelling Glove and it's great for fiction. Our teachers got to make one today during an after-school meeting.

They're super easy to make! You take a glove (they're on clearance now - I got a bunch of pairs for 50 cents each, and you only need one per class!) And you print out an image representing each item necessary for a good retelling. 

These are the images, where they go, and what they represent:

The thumb: a picture of people. This represents the characters.
Pointer finger: a picture of a house/scene. This represents the setting.
Middle finger: a picture of a lock. This represents the problem.
Ring finger: a picture of a key. This represents the solution.
Pinky: a picture of a ladder. This represents beginning-middle-end sequence of events.
Palm: A light bulb. This represents the main idea.
Back of the hand: A heart. This represents a personal connection the kids have.

I got great instructions for it here:
Retelling Glove

The teacher models using the hand to retell during a read aloud or shared reading. After the students have become familiar and received lots of practice, the teacher can put it in their read to self or read to someone station and have students wear the glove to retell. What a cute and easy way to encourage retelling and grow comprehension!

By the way, I just started watching The Tudors today on netflix, and I'm super hooked.

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