Drawing Conclusions: Day 1

Through assessing and listening to my students, I discovered that we still need to brush up on our literary skills. This week, I decided we would start with inferring and drawing conclusions. It was pretty obvious that these students would need something a little different. If the first (hundred) times didn't work, this time wasn't going to either. I decided to incorporate a variety of teaching strategies to hopefully help them understand!

First, we started off with this anchor chart I created. Sorry about the picture quality, I took it with my phone. I'm going to have to remember to bring my camera to my classroom!

Notice the faucet on the anchor chart? Wondering what that means? I used the faucet as an analogy to represent how the trickling water represents how an author gives us information. They don't always give us all the details (a steady water stream), so sometimes we have to use what the author gives us (the text) and what we already know to help us draw conclusions. I told them our conclusion represents the puddle of water that comes together (from the water trickle). Just like the way our schema and what the text says comes together to make meaning for us.

We then quickly reviewed schema.

After we discussed our anchor charts and answered questions, we watched a Pixar short film. The students loved the video and thought it was hilarious! 

As you can see, the kids had their total attention on the short film!

We did a cold watch, warm watch, and a hot watch! Each time we discussed the short film a little further and what our thoughts/conclusions were. During the short film, I had the students reflect on the following questions I had written on the board. Normally, I would have made a handout with the students, but I figured I had planned enough for them! LOL 

I did have a handout they used to record their observations and then their conclusions. I will include it later today for you to use if you would like. 

You can download the handout HERE!
The kids really enjoyed this lesson, and I did, too!

Literary Elements

I always like to review literary elements pretty early on in the year because we use it so much in our reading.  A BIGGIE for 5th graders is comparing characters, setting, and events in a single text and across multiple texts.  But, before we compare, I like to review first!  Although theme is part of literary elements, I like to save it until last because students seem to really struggle with it.  For this lesson, we reviewed character, setting, events, and plot.

First, I started off with making this adorable anchor chart!  We went over this during our whole group lesson on Monday.

As we went over it, I had the students record their notes on a simple cover page I attached to their packet I gave them for the week.

 Our packet includes pages from Jen Jones' Comprehension Strategy Sheets for Grades 3-6.  I LOVE this packet!  It is well worth every dime spent.  I use it any time I teach a standard.  It has the sheets organized by standard which is very time saving.  She also has an informational packet that I own, too!  Here's a two-page preview of the pages I use.  You should totally go check it out.  Our packet just for these four skills is about 10 pages.  And, since it includes standards 3-6, you can remediate or enrich as needed!  Score!

We work through this packet for the remainder of the week in whole and small groups.  We use our read aloud to complete the activities so we can all work together or with partners.

Before we moved on to talk about character traits that a specific character had, I introduced character traits with a character trait checklist that I found online.  Then, I use Leslie Ann's Character Trait Reading Passages to practice.  I also incorporate some writing about the characters and have the students support their writing with evidence from the text by using our evidence board.

Once we have mastered all these things we move on to theme and author's message.  We spent about 2 weeks on this unit.  Well worth the time!