Author's Purpose

Last week, we focused on the skill of author's purpose and author's perspective. We discussed that most of the time, authors write to persuade, inform, or to entertain (P.I.E.).

We started off by reading The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, and pondered why the author would have written this entertaining fantasy. Many of my readers came to the conclusion that Lynne Cherry wrote the book to persuade people to take care of the environment and to avoid destroying the rainforest, as it is home to many animals.

The next day, we took it a step further and analyzed author's purpose within a text, using an article about Bill and Melinda Gates. We were able to determine very quickly that the author's purpose was to inform us how the Gates Foundation helps people, but then we talked with our reading partners about why the author included specific information. The author chose to inform us of several things: who the Gates are and how they became so successful, what their foundation does, what their current goal is, and why they think it is so important to help others.

Our next piece of text was an article called "Hooked!", which was about children who are hooked on video games. By reading the article headings and skimming through some of it, several readers made the prediction that the article was written by someone with the perspective that there should be limits to how much kids play video games. We were able to use evidence from the text to prove this point.

When I assessed my readers' learning today, I was very pleased that the majority of my class not only understood and applied the information they learned about author's purpose and author's perspective, but more than half scored 100%! Wow!

Next week, we will be exploring story elements of fiction, with an emphasis on character and character development. I'll be reporting back to fill you in on the details next weekend! 

Beginning Reader's Workshop

In third grade, we kick off Reader's Workshop right away! I wanted to share a few of the lessons I have taught my students, as they are essential for building a strong classroom community of readers.

One of our first lessons was about keeping track of our thoughts while we read, since, after all, we should be thinking during reading. We charted the many things we could jot down on sticky notes while reading. My students came up with a bunch of great ideas, which I recorded on large paper for future reference:

I modeled for them how I jot down my thoughts, while doing a read aloud, and then students had the opportunity to jot down and share their own thoughts relating to the book. During independent reading, students had a stack of mini-sticky notes to make tracks in their books, as well. Here is a postcard I gave out to remind students what they should be doing while reading:

During the first week of school, I sent home an "assignment" requesting that students bring their very favorite book to school. Since we will be doing a lot of reading this year in third grade, why not get started with books that have already inspired us and have a special place in our hearts? One lesson last week included how to partner read. It is important for both partners to be able to see the book and read along while sharing. This helps to engage the student who is not reading aloud. I teach them a little poem, called EEKK! (not my original idea) to help them remember how to sit.

My students did an awesome job practicing EEKK! while they shared their favorite books last week.

 

 In a future lesson, coming soon, we will discuss the importance of being a reading coach to our partner when we read together. Both partners are then accountable for the reading.

We also created a great chart in which we created a very long list of what good readers do. All of the behaviors on our list support reading. For example, good readers get started right away, read the whole time,  keep track of their thoughts, stay focused, make good book choices, "real" read instead of "fake" read, and so much more. I was quite impressed with my students' responses!

During independent reading that day, we stopped about 15 minutes in to discuss how it was going. Was everyone in our class making good choices as readers? Without naming names, we talked about how sounds of beanbags, whispers of students reading near one another, or students' laughter (hey, the book was funny!) could be distractions for other students. We discussed how we could minimize those distractions in order to benefit best from independent reading. During the second half of our independent reading time, we noticed an improvement!

I am looking forward to a great year of Reader's Workshop with my third graders!

A Workshop Approach to Reading and Writing

A reader and writer since the time I can remember, I hope to share my enthusiasm for reading and writing with my students. I like to take a "workshop" approach to teaching because it encourages responsibility, independence, and I also get time to meet with each reader and writer regularly - both individually and in strategy-based groups. Here's what each workshop period might look like in a typical day:

Reader's Workshop Example -
Part I:
Mini-Lesson Focus: Retelling a Story (Comprehension)
Read Aloud: Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg
Explain and discuss how to retell a story. Students read independently while practicing the strategy that I just taught. I will conference with 5-6 students, discussing their reading and the strategies they are using to better comprehend. We will discuss strengths and a reading goal. After about 20 minutes, we will gather to share examples of how students used the strategy of retelling a story.

Part II:
Mini-Lesson Focus: Attending to Punctuation While Reading Aloud (Fluency)
Read Aloud: When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant
Students will work in stations chosen by them in the morning. Some will be working on the strategy I just taught (reading to someone), some will be practicing word study skills, some will be listening to reading (on a CD player), and some will be in a reading strategy group with me. After about 15 minutes, we will gather to share examples of how students used the strategy of attending to punctuation while reading aloud. Some students may volunteer to practice this strategy while reading aloud.

Writer's Workshop Example -
Mini-Lesson Focus: Discovering Small Moments
Read Aloud: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
Explain that authors usually start with a big "watermelon" idea (family vacation weekend in Orlando), and then focus in on a small "seed" idea inside that watermelon (being "slimed" at the Nick Hotel) to be their writing topic. Students will talk, discuss, and list some watermelon ideas. Then, they should choose some seed ideas within their watermelon ideas. They may start to write a narrative based on the seed idea. During this time, I will be conferencing with writers to see if they are on the right track. After about 30 minutes, a couple of writers will share their seed idea and the beginning of their narrative.

Students fully engaged in reading: