Suzy Tenenbaum kindergarten report

Teacher Suzanne Tenenbaum Class Kindergarten Date 7/1/09
Writing genre Report

CENTRAL IDEAS

Overall theme: Hard work pays off.
Preparation is necessary for survival.

Content: Animals and people prepare for the change of seasons, specifically there are things they do to get ready for winter.

Reading: Students will demonstrate initial understanding of informational texts through read aloud. We will read non-fiction and fiction about this topic and understand the difference between the two.

Writing: Report, with picture, on how animals and people get ready for winter. Students reference texts to support a given focus.

Focusing Question

What are some of the things animals do to prepare for the change in the weather?
What are some of the things people do to prepare for the change in the weather?

Focus (answer to focusing question)

Before winter comes, animals and people do many things to get ready for the cold weather.

Animals do many different things to get ready for winter: grow more fur, change fur color, store nuts or other food, make winter homes, hibernate, migrate.

People get their cars ready, get out or buy warm clothes, put up storm windows, stack wood, plan for winter activities, eg. buying sleds.

Building Content Knowledge, Understanding of Writer’s Craft

Vocabulary: hibernation, migration, prepare/preparation,
camouflage,

Think-pair-share on things their family does to get ready for winter.

Read books.
Build public notes on how animals and people prepare for winter. Have pictures from the books ready to put up on our charts, and/or sketches.
Have two charts with different color headings so when we go to write they can more easily sort which notes are on people and which are on animals.

Drama activity. Students think of an idea to act out, or reference our charts/public notes which are our ideas we have been talking about of ways people and animals get ready for winter. Take turns acting out one way, and the only clue is animal or people. Rest of the group guesses what the preparation is.

Prior modeling of reports. Whole class reports, independent reports.
Prior practice at reports: dreams for Kindergarten, Ladybugs, Apples and Pumpkins.

Oral rehearsal for what we will say specifically on the prompt before independent report.
Practice at using charts to get ideas.

Structures

We will have our prior work to refer to from when we wrote our group report earlier in the year.

Students will know how to organize their ideas from our oral processing and from our public notes.

Oral practice of specifically what they plan to say when they get to their seats.

Students will know the yellow marker is the paper about animals, and the blue paper is about people.

Students will draw and write one section at a time. Yellow paper for animals on one day and blue for people on a different day.

Writing / Revising

Students write and adults confer as they write. If they don't show clarity in their ideas we go back to the charts.

Students will write one day on animals and one day on people to help them keep their focus.

On third day, students will get back their work to re-read and add to, or fix. They may then add color and details to their pictures. They will share their reports with a partner who may give feedback.

Lesson Sequence

Depending on attention and time, this sequence may vary some. This unit will be taught in a timely way to match the ending fall, as children are noticing it is getting colder in Vermont.

Step One:
Teacher tells students we are going to read and think to understand the ways people and animals get ready for winter. We will keep this in mind as we read a number of books, both fiction and non-fiction. (Not being in my class I haven't pulled out specific titles.) Over the course of probably 2 or 3 weeks we will read the books and build our public notes. We will keep track of the ways animals prepare on the yellow paper and ways people prepare on the blue paper.

Step Two:
Having read several books, and kept track of information on our charts, we will do the dramatic acting out so each child can show a way they know animals or people get ready. This is practice for that child at having and sharing an idea, and practice for the group at thinking of ideas the acting could be. The drama activity is also the activity that helps teach children to refer to our public notes, as that is a place to get ideas for what to act out, if you can't think of one.

Step Three: Ready to write!
Teacher reminds children of what a report is and past class reports.

Step Four:
Teacher gives the focus question: How do animals and people get ready for winter? Teacher has introduction written out and reads it to class. Class is told they are going to write the supporting information of the report.
Today we will draw and write on ways animals prepare for winter. Review of our notes on yellow paper, showing only the pictures, as paper is folded to block words.
“Turn to a partner and tell what you plan to write when you go to your seat. “ Teacher listens to children as they tell partner and she gives paper to those ready to write, or teacher asks children what they will write. Anyone unsure is asked to stay at the rug and teacher goes over our public notes until they decide on an idea to draw and write about.

Step Five:
Depending on time and speed of work, some children may get next blue paper and go on to write about ways people prepare for winter. Otherwise, the next day we review our next chart of ways people get ready for winter and children orally rehearse before going to their seats. Children who can write more than one sentence are asked to give another idea of how people get ready for winter.

Step Six:
Sharing of reports. May share as a whole group or in small groups or partners, depending.

Assessment: How are students doing? What are my next steps as a teacher?

Teacher reads reports and sees if children kept focus of report. Did they draw a picture that supported/matched their words? Score reports against rubric for reports in kindergarten.
Copy reports children have done that meet and exceed the standard to use in future as models.

Next Steps: Gradual Release of Responsibility

I am not sure how I would gradually release responsibility of report writing in kindergarten. I think all year they will need and benefit from the steps given here, as children begin to internalize the concept of writing to support a focus and keeping with that focus. Over the course of the year children can be more involved in writing the introduction and conclusion.