We used dinosaurs to focus on reviewing text structure. The first two articles came from The Comprehension Toolkit- The Scoop on Dino Poop and Dozens of Dinos. For Dozens of Dinos we discussed that it was organized by describing the different types of dinosaurs and we chose three different dinosaurs to compete the description graphic organizer for. Once we completed that, we looked back over the graphic organizers to help us write a main idea sentence for the whole article. We reviewed the connection that text structure and organization can have with the main idea.
The page we used to organize our thoughts is attached below.
The page we used to organize our thoughts is attached below.
dozens_of_dinos.docx |
For The Scoop on Dino Poop, we again discussed text structure. For this one we decided on description as well.
We divided the article into three sections and completed a graphic organizer for each section. Once we did that, we came up with a subtitle for each of our sections and reviewed how the subtitles reflect the main idea.
We divided the article into three sections and completed a graphic organizer for each section. Once we did that, we came up with a subtitle for each of our sections and reviewed how the subtitles reflect the main idea.
The graphic organizer page for dino poop article is attached below.
dino_poop.docx |
Next, we used an article from Tween Tribune about the movie The Good Dinosaur. (The BEST part of this website is that you can get the same article in four different Lexile levels. And all the differentiation spirits said "Amen".) The article can be found here. Before we read, we discussed 5 vocabulary words that they would find in the article and they highlighted them as they came to them while reading.
We then discussed the cause-effect relationships we saw in the article and how the movie and the state of Wyoming are depending on each other to receive benefits. The cause-effect graphic organizer is attached below.
That picture above is terrible so here's a screenshot of part of it. Some basic cause-effect they have to pull from the article and then a place for vocabulary. I had them write their thoughts for the word and highlight context clues for their evidence.
good_dino.docx |
Our overall question that we used our cause-effect relationships for was:
All in all, what is Wyoming hoping for?
All in all, what is Wyoming hoping for?
We looked back at each cause-effect graphic organizer and thought through what each was telling us about Wyoming. Several of them used the vocabulary words for this to tell me, "Wyoming wanted to promote tourism to their state to make more money." Some of them didn't quite get there without a lot of support, but they sure worked hard!
Several times throughout the week, we reviewed text structure with some sorts. One sort included the key words for each and the other sort was the description as well as the graphic organizer that usually represents it. That one is attached here.
Several times throughout the week, we reviewed text structure with some sorts. One sort included the key words for each and the other sort was the description as well as the graphic organizer that usually represents it. That one is attached here.
text_structure_cards.docx |
I was able to find several books in our library to go with our dinosaur fun. They loved them all! Life-Size Dinosaurs (bottom right) was really neat because the pages unfolded to show the actual size of different dinosaurs.
(excuse the cords, we had a flood and everything is moved around and out of place)
(excuse the cords, we had a flood and everything is moved around and out of place)
Another piece to this week was some "mini research". I have used this research technique with several different topics and it seems to work really well. I got the inspiration from the Dozens of Dinos article that I mentioned above. I have found that there are some topics that the kids are interested in researching but there just isn't enough information on the websites I trust for them to research. So for those topics, I make it into Mini Research. I find information that they can use online and then I print and glue onto file folders. I laminate them and have them for years to come.
For the dinosaurs research, I found pictures, charts, graphs, and information on all of the dinosaurs mentioned in the article Dozens of Dinos. This way they already had at least a little bit of background knowledge.
From the folders, the students were able to complete a research graphic organizer. This was a good ending for this week of quick and easy text structure review.