Nonfiction: If I say it ten times, it's probably IMPORTANT!

Yesterday, I shared a sample anchor chart to use for main idea. One of the tips to find main idea was to look for clues in repeated ideas. 
This is huge. If you think about how we find the main idea, we really have to consider repeated ideas as important. If an author takes the time to repeat, restate, or reference an idea over and over again, it's a big one. It's also important if there are many pieces of evidence/reasons/examples that connect to it. But this idea which makes sense to adults can be very abstract to little people.

Here's a strategy to use to introduce finding main ideas. You take a song - I chose Octopus's Garden. I'm not sure why. It was literally the first song that popped into my brain when I thought, "What song shall I use?" Here are the lyrics.

I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade
He'd let us in, knows where we've been
In his octopus' garden in the shade

I'd ask my friends to come and see
An octopus' garden with me
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade.

We would be warm below the storm
In our little hideaway beneath the waves
Resting our head on the sea bed
In an octopus' garden near a cave

We would sing and dance around
Because we know we can't be found
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden in the shade

We would shout and swim about
The coral that lies beneath the waves
(Lies beneath the ocean waves)
Oh what joy for every girl and boy
Knowing they're happy and they're safe
(Happy and they're safe)

We would be so happy you and me
No one there to tell us what to do
I'd like to be under the sea
In an octopus' garden with you.

If you read through the song once, you get a general idea of what the song is about - An octopus's garden. But to create a more complete main idea, you read closely and notice what's repeated. In many songs, the chorus is repeated - it's the repeated part of the song where we get the big ideas.  In this song, this is what is repeated: "I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade/with you." It is specifically about the author's feelings towards the octopus's garden.

The repeated chorus gives us an idea of the main message/idea of the song. In addition to this, the other verses support the chorus, or main idea. Why does he want to be in an octopus's garden? Several reasons.

1. No one there to tell us what to do.

2. Girls and boys know they're happy and safe.

3. We'd be warm, below the storm.

etc.

The other verses support, or provide reasons/examples for the repeated main idea in the chorus. Nice, huh?

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Nonfiction: Main Idea Madness

Main idea is so important. Not just because it's a little skill kids need to answer questions like "What is paragraph 3 mainly about?" because that's not a very good reason. It's because, in nonfiction text, if a student can't identify what's important, they aren't determining importance! They're focusing on what's interesting rather than important. Interesting is ok when reading for enjoyment, but if we're reading for information - a vast amount of our adult reading time is spent reading for information - we need to be able to glean what's important on a large scale.

But it's hard!

This is a very very simple anchor chart we've used with kids to help them think about main ideas. 

I like the "Clues can be in" section because repeated ideas are often very important. There's a reason why the writer chose to repeat that idea/word/phrase so much. IT'S KIND OF A BIG DEAL! So that can be a big clue. 

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Nonfiction: Cause-Effect Text Structure

Our school has spent about a month in an expository unit already, and a lot of the grade levels are currently working on text structures. The structures that third grade works with are sequential order and cause and effect. Fourth grade adds compare-contrast, and fifth grade adds logical order and classification scheme. 

We have worked hard on starting with a tangible experience - something hands-on designed to have the kids notice patterns in language, etc., and then bridging to application in a text. We're trying to scaffold students' understanding of the ideas.

Text structures always seems to be the key for students to really comprehend. I feel like students often read superficially, skimming and browsing through the text, but not really noticing or reading closely enough to consider the relationships between words in sentences, paragraphs, and the overall text. This happens in fiction and nonfiction, but it's especially difficult in nonfiction.

For cause and effect - a difficult standard introduced and tested in third grade, we decided to start with an anchor chart and Mix-Pair-Share activity with statements on cards. This is the anchor chart we created as a sample:

First, kids will recieve a set of cause and effect statements on cards. Each student receives a card. They mix-pair-share to find their cause-effect match. Then, in their partners, they use the sentence stems on the anchor chart to build sentences including their cards.

My favorite part is the sentence stems on the bottom. We're trying to get kids to use the stems in speaking and writing. We're hoping this will help them think about the relationship between ideas and how sentence structures contribute to that.

One common misconception I've found with text structures is where we see them. In the standards, it feels like the entire text will be a cause-effect structure, or a sequence, but in reality, it's usually a few sentences, a paragraph, or a section of text that are organized that way. Several different types of text structures can be used in one text.

To help other teachers out with these topics of nonfiction, I've been working on a Nonfiction Pack that includes these activities as well as many others! I'm super excited about it - it will be my largest reading pack to date! I'll let you know when it's up!

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Snow Much Fun!

Out of the things that I miss about the classroom, I think math actually makes the list. (Science - no.) Math is fun to teach. It's so tangible. So to amuse myself and to help out my third grade teachers, I put together this math pack: Snow Much Fun Winter Math Stations!
Many of the third grade teachers were saying their kids were struggling with basic number skills, and so I included number lines, rounding, comparing numbers, and place value in this math pack. Hopefully spiraling these concepts through math stations can help students retain the learning they did earlier in the year!

Grab it at TPT or Teacher's Notebook!
To the first five comments (including your email address), I'll send the pack for free!  Have a happy Saturday!
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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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I don't want to go to work! I want to be a cat instead.

I know I've been largely missing this break. I have enjoyed my time with my family and my hunny. Since he proposed, I've thought of nothing but wedding Wedding WEDDING! and I don't want to think about anything else.

Like work.

Tomorrow I go back. I really really really really don't want to. ("Who cares!" says everyone who went back last week) I think it's gotten worse since I don't have a class. When you have kids, it's different. You HAVE to be there. I know I HAVE to be there, too, but there won't be 22 helpless little baby boos missing me if I'm not there. It's very different.

I was trying to motivate myself, but I think I'm just not going to think about it instead.

Instead, let's talk about what I would rather be than a human: a cat. This break, I have had the pleasure of observing my cat, the Professor, and noticing how he spends his days. And as the days passed, I realized: Being a cat is awesome. It's not really contestable. Here is my photographic evidence of what my cat does all day.

Sometimes he lays on the couch.

Other times, he feels like laying on the chaise.

On some days, nothing will do but lounging on the floor, right in the middle of everyone's path.

When he wants to be extra comfy, he smushes up all the pillows and lays on top.

Guest bedrooms are pretty nice.

And this is my favorite. I would like to say this was the morning after New Year's, but that would be too perfect.

See? I made GREAT use of my time! And so did he.    Pin It