Stellaluna – a few quick ideas

I read the book with the kids for enjoyment first. Then I read looking for bat facts and bird facts and things that are the same and different.

The kids read in groups of two or three depending on the strength and grade of the readers in your room. I start a venn diagram graphic organizer with the whole class. Then the kids read looking for information to add the the venn diagram. I give the kids sticky notes so the kids can put a sticky note where they find the information. We gather back together and add to the graphic organizer. To “assess/grade” I have them write two ways that bats are alike and two ways bats are different.

Bats

Book Club Books
A Smart Start Reader Bats by Scholastic 0-590-96960-9
All Aboard Reading Bats Creatures of the Night by Joyce Milton 0-448-40193-2
Bats A First Nature-Fact Book 1-56156-253-0
Bats by Gail Gibbons 0-439-14787-5

Teacher Resource Books about BATS
Bats Scholastic Books Grades 1-3 by Robin Bernard 0-590-10617-1
Bats Evan-Moor EMC 535 JoEllen Moore 1-55799-385-8
Bats A Science Discovery Book by Annalisa McMorrow mm2090
(Monday Morning PO Box 1680 Palo Alto, CA 94302 http://www.mondaymorningbooks.com)

Another guided reading book activity
Stellaluna by Janell Cannon 0-590-48379-X

Guided Reading

Anticipation Guide
Children will answer the following questions. After reading several bat books we will revisit these questions. The children can record yes/no or true/false.
1. A bat is a kind of furry bird.
2. All bats can fly.
3. Flying foxes eat rabbits.
4. Most bats are blind.
5. Vampire bats suck lots of blood from animals.
6. Little Brown Bats hibernate for the winter.
7. Bats are nocturnal animals.
8. Bats hang by their tails.
9. A bat’s wings are covered with feathers.
10. Baby bats hatch from eggs.
11. Bats are very clean animals.
12. Mother bats feed their babies milk.
13. All bats use echolocation to find food.
14. Mother bats find their babies by sight.
15. Some bats catch fish.
16. Bats build nests for their babies.
17. The smallest bat is the size of a bumblebee.
18. People would be better off without bats.
Day one
Using the book club format I will teach my class about bats (see the book club group section in The Teacher’s Guide to Four Blocks, pages 58-61). THIS LESSON is totally based on the example given in the guide using different books.

I divide the kids into 4 equal groups. I follow the guide’s suggestion of letting the children preview the books for 5 minutes on a book. After the 5 minutes is up, I switch the books. I have found that instead of having the kids move, it is quicker to have the books move. After the kids have seen all 4 books, I have them write their first, second, and third choice on an index card. They are reminded that they can select the other books to read during ssr time next week.

The guided reading time today is getting a bit familiar with the bat books then signing up for a book to read.

The teacher needs to plan who will be in which group, how to divide the book into three days of reading; get a KWL chart ready for each group; and post the name of the book with the names of the children in a group.
Day two
Each group has an assigned area. Each group has a marker to record on the KWL chart. Each group has a KWL chart. For the first 10 minutes the groups record as much as they can in the first two columns: What do they Know? and What do they Wonder? The teacher circulates encouraging.

The second twenty minutes the teacher explains that the groups have 20 minutes to read the pages in the first third of the book. I use paper clips to clip down the last page they read to the back cover so they know exactly where to stop. The students record what they are learning on their group’s KWL chart.

The last 10 minutes the groups gather together and share what they are learning as a group. I list “bat” vocabulary on chart paper. I also will list more questions with them to help focus their learning the next day.

Day three
Repeat day two reading the second third of the books.

Day four
Repeat day three reading the last third of the books.

Day five
This is the section I do a little different from the teacher’s guide.

Important Poems: Children write their own Important Poems based on The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown. I use this technique often. After we have finished a unit, then I have them write an important poem to show what they remember. An important poem example: The most important thing about a pencil is you write with it. It has lead and an eraser. You write spelling words with it. You write notes to Junie B. with it. You get a new one for 25 cents from the office. But the most important thing about a pencil is you write with it.

Basically, the kids pick one fact for the beginning and the ending sentence (same fact) then they list facts in the between. I compare it to an oreo cookie. I give each kid a cookie and the figure out the top and bottom are the same…

The way The Teacher’s Guide to Four Blocks works just as well. I just try to have a variety.

Day six
I begin today’s guided reading with a graphic organizer called a Venn Diagram. I label one circle bats, the other birds, and the middle overlap both.

I read Stellaluna as a read-aloud sometime earlier in the unit. The kids hear and enjoy the language and the story. Then as they read with partners today, they can look for facts about birds and facts about bats. I give them a venn diagram of their own to jot notes on. I do not expect super duper independent facts yet. It is just a place to jot down notes.

E.R.T…find out or figure out

I believe in setting purpose for reading (and all lessons).  Reading for a purpose is necessary in classrooms and during at home reading.  Children are motivated to read carefully to figure out the answer in order to participate in the class discussion.  By setting purpose, students are experiencing gentle, relentless pressure to reread for the answer and to read carefully.  Students are asked to read materials chosen by the teacher.  By asking students to turn and talk to each other for the set purpose, it helps to have the students refer to the text when proving their answers to their friends.  Setting purpose motivates and engages students.

Two authors help to assure that students read for a set purpose. 

 Pat Cunningham writes about E.R.T. (Everyone Read To…find out or figure out) in her book, Guided Reading the 4 Blocks Way.     

Connie Hebert  author of ,Catch a Falling Reader,   made a list of setting purpose prompts that I use frequently.

Formats – How we engage all students in reading

Charts assist students with procedures

Ways to Read

Chart Telling Students Who to Read With

The groups are posted on the board so that students know who to read with.  This way the students are not spending time deciding daily how to get organized instead of reading.  Every procedure that is well thought out and modeled allows students to spend more time actually reading.

It’s time for S’more Reading! Groups

The students quickly look at the chart and get into the correct format for reading. One “Nestles” and “Graham Cracker” and “Marshmallow” and “Chocolate Bar” will read together for a group of 4 readers. Sometimes only a marshmallow and a chocolate bar. Sometimes a marshmallow, graham cracker, and a chocolate bar. The point is that the children quickly look up and see how the groups are organized for reading today and get into them. It works, no time is wasted.

Guided Reading Script by Lucy Calkins Teachers College

This is a script that most (maybe all…) teachers do not need. I think there is a comfort in having a script sometimes. This is what I could/would/should say (if I want to). Instead of having to say because I am not smart enough to know what to do, it is also really great to know what to leave for substitutes or parapros who are brand new. As a new teacher, I had no clue how to tell a para pro who had 18 years of experience as a para professional what to do. There was no class in college that prepared me for that! This is on my list of “make sure brand new teachers know how to do this” lists by the way!

“Readers, we have been learning that good readers ____.
Today I want to teach you that good readers _____.
Watch me as I show you how good readers _____.
Did you notice how I showed you how good readers _____?
Now it’s your turn to try it.
Take out one book from your book baggie and practice _____.
Readers, I noticed how some of you ____.
Today and every day I want you to remember that good readers _____.
Off you go!”

Partners or Triads

Peanut Butter & Jelly and a Slice of Bread Partners / Triads

The students do not waste time picking who will I read with or who will I do an activity with or who will my writing partner be. Instead, the teacher establishes when the students will read or write or complete an activity ahead of time. The teacher has thought through the criteria needed for the particular activity needed: a high and middle reader, a low and middle reader, a low, middle and high reader, or three middle readers reading an easy text. The criteria changes as the activity changes. By having the names written on slips of paper and having a pocket chart or other easy to manipulate chart, this is an easy way to assist children in making decisions.