See-Think-Wonder

Connect: I did a See-Think-Wonder with my students before the last field trip. Last time, I added a “learn” section to the end. I liked the idea of that, but I did not do a good a job of ensuring the students connect their “thinks” and “wonders” to it as I should have. I decided to try it again before the field trip to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

What I Did: I showed my class a picture I found online from DMNS’s rocks and gems exhibit. First, we had a discussion about what we saw, thought, and wondered. Then, the students wrote down their thoughts on a worksheet. I decided to have them do the worksheets instead of just having a discussion so that all the students would have to participate.  Before going to the museum, I reminded them of the picture and asked them to look for it in the museum. The day after the field trip, they discussed and wrote about what they learned.

Extend: Although this routine is pretty simple, I the students were so into it! I loved that it required them to look at a new image in three different ways. The first few times I did this routine, I didn’t really like the “see” part. I thought it was so obvious, and I didn’t see the value in responses like, “I see something shiny.” However, this time I noticed that the “see” responses inspired deeper thoughts and wonderings. A student saying “I see something shiny” led to an interesting, although very structured, conversation…

·         “I wonder why some stones are shiny and some are dull?”

·         “I think some are shiny because they’re polished by water.”

·         “I wonder why some parts of the stones in the picture are polished by water and some aren’t?”

·         “I think it’s not shiny because of water because then the whole thing would be.”

One student’s fairly surface comment led to some much deeper thinking!

Challenge: I acted purely as a facilitator for this routine, and it was difficult to not chime in to respond to some of the thoughts and questions the students had! I think I might share their responses with Shannon Umberger, the students’ science teacher, so that she can answer some of their questions. I also still didn't get the types of connections to their thoughts and questions that I was hoping for. This may be because it's outside of my content area. If I do this modified routine again next year, I will have to put some thought into how I get them to connect their "What did I learn" answers to their thoughts and wonderings.

Headlines

Connect: Shannon Umberger and I decided to spice up our Nonfiction Fridays. Instead of doing the Red Light-Yellow Light routine, we decided to try the Headline routine this week.

What I did: Shannon and I got all our students together, and we led them in discussion about what a headline is. I was surprised by how little schema about headlines the students had. We discussed the headlines in a previous week’s Time for Kids. We also had the kids do a turn and talk to brainstorm what a headline would be for the previous day’s fieldtrip. We split the classes up into two groups. This week, all the boys went to my classroom and the girls went to Shannon’s room. From there, we let them pick partners or triads and they read the week’s issue of Time for Kids. Their job was to come up with a new headline that could be used on the cover of the issue.

Extend: I can see a definite connection between being able to determine the main idea of an article and this routine, and I plan on using it more.

Challenges: I was quite unimpressed with the majority of the responses from the boys (the girls in Shannon’s room had much better results). Most of the boys just made mild adaptations to the existing headline. I do think, however, that with more instruction they could become much better at this.

See/Think/Wonder

Connect: Second grade is going on a field trip to the Botanic Gardens tomorrow (yes, in the snow). This field trip goes along with the math/science curriculum, so as a literacy teacher I hadn’t really done anything related to it. I decided to do a See-Think-Wonder with my kids to get them thinking about the trip we’d be taking.

What I Did: I showed my classes a picture of the indoor tropical exhibit at the gardens without comment. I asked them to share first what they see, then what they think, and finally what they wonder. With my morning class, I then had the students write their thoughts on a worksheet, with a spot for “What did I learn?” that they will fill out after the fieldtrip. Lacy Smith and I got our afternoon classes together for this routine. After sharing out loud, the students each wrote what they saw, thought, and wondered on stickies and put them on appropriate charts.

Extend: Although this routine is pretty simple, I the students were so into it! I loved that it required them to look at a new image in three different ways. Some of the responses, like “I wonder if they have to water in there or if the water cycle does it naturally?” impressed me. Other responses, like "I think this is at the Botanic Gardens” were less impressive, although still valid. Next time, if I add a learn section again, I will make sure the students connect it to their thoughts or wonderings.

Challenge: This routine, specifically the wondering part, made me think of the wondering part of the weekly Red-Yellow Light routine Mrs. Umberger and I do weekly. Some of the responses were very surface. I think with more time and instruction, the students would be able to express deeper wonderings.

I Used to Think/Now I Think...

Connect: The idea of homophones have come up several times in the past few weeks in my 2^nd grade classroom.  I have been working with my students on using two/too/to correctly. Also, on her weekly goal sheet, one of my kiddos wrote she wanted to get better at using our/are/hour correctly in her writing. Also, some levels of the DRA ask students to identify roots of words, and I haven’t taught that at all! Although homophones aren’t a part of the second grade curriculum, I decided to spend a small block of time touching on this concept. I wanted to do it in a way that would allow my students to visually see what they’d learned, so I decided to do a play on the I Used to Think/Now I Think routine. I knew from past experience and from conversations at PLC that young students have a difficult time reflecting back to what they used to know, so I decided to revise the routine.

What I did: I wrote the word “homophone” on the board and gave each student a worksheet. I explained that I only wanted them to do the top portion. They independently filled out the top section and turned them in to me. I was able to quickly assess what they knew about this word… turns out, they didn’t know anything! J Later, I passed their sheets back to them. They took notes in the blank section of their sheets during the lesson. As we discussed that “homo” means same, I realized that they didn’t have any schema for this root. “Phone” was easier for them. They connected it to “telephone,” “iPhone,” “cell phone,” and one student even connected it to “phonograph.” Through discussion, we learned that “phone” means sound, so homophone essentially means “same sound.” After learning more about homophones and brainstorming examples, they students wrote what they now know a homophone is.

Extend: I really liked that the students could reference their own writing to see how their thinking has changed. I am planning on incorporating versions of this routine into more of what we do in my class…I just need to figure out how!

Challenges: I would have loved if more students filled in the “now I know…” section with their own words rather than just copying the definition I had written on the board.

Red Light-Yellow Light

Connect: Almost every Friday, Shannon Umberger and I get our classes together for Nonfiction Friday.  The kids read an issue of Scholastic News or Time for Kids in partners. Shannon and I have adapted the Red Light-Yellow Light routine to accommodate the needs of our students and what we wanted them to get out of the activity. We added a green light to have a third area.

What I did: In partners or small groups, the students read Time for Kids or Scholastic News. Then, they write their thinking on sticky notes. For red, the students identify the main idea of the article. For yellow, they write a question they had while reading. For green,  the students identify new learning.

Extend: In order to really make this routine effective, we have used it (so far) for a total of 13 weeks! Now it truly has become a routine and the students are able to identify each part of their thinking easily. Their questions are becoming deeper and you can really see their thinking becoming more collaborative. I have noticed that after so many weeks of doing this routine, students have become much better at identifying the main idea of their readings in class and not only during Nonfiction Fridays.

Challenges: In the beginning, the main challenge I experienced was that the student’s questions were not very deep. They would ask questions about why an animal was a certain color, or why a character was named something. It was a challenge to get them to think about their questions regarding the actual contents of the story rather than about some minute detail.