Currently I am using multiple texts as a way to teach my Kindergarten
students about the inquiry research projects about animals. The students were expected to pick any animal
that they wanted and they have to present 3 facts that they researched about
their animal in the mode that they pick.
There were many formats of texts that I made available for my students
but, before allowing the student to dive in I had to teach them how to read
across the multiple texts.
Before beginning this unit with my students I worked with our librarian
to ensure that students were able to access information about animals across
various texts. We decided to pick-
Easy informational readers like this
Pebble Go
YouTube videos
I was beyond excited that I was able to find all of these great readable sources for my Kindergartners and I could not wait to dive into the project with them. I then had the realization and reminder that “wait, these students may not even know what to do with this information.”
Easy informational readers like this
Pebble Go
YouTube videos
I was beyond excited that I was able to find all of these great readable sources for my Kindergartners and I could not wait to dive into the project with them. I then had the realization and reminder that “wait, these students may not even know what to do with this information.”
After realizing that the students did not necessarily know how to read information
to learn, I had had to take a step back. I knew I needed to teach the students lessons
and model how to read this text to learn new information. I explicitly taught the students how to get
information from the sources and record it to learn new information. I had models and graphic organizers to help
the students understand how to take information from the text and write it
down.
I believe this is one of the first steps in teaching students how to synthesize
information across multiple texts. Dr. Manderino talked about teaching students
how to synthesize in his video located here. I agree with him when he stated that
students need to know how to synthesize and that we should not wait until the
older grades to teach this skill. In order for this to work in my classroom, I
had to frame this project to help the students understand the new information.
I believe that even in Kindergarten students can be taught how to read for
information to create a project.
Further in the video, the Common
Core Standards are discusses as well as the students having the ability to
compare texts. I do not think that Kindergarten students are able to do any
comparative evaluation other than saying “I got this information from this book
and this information from this book.” I
do not think they are developmentally reading to compare these texts any
further than that. However, I would hope
that the simple step of teaching to students realize what information came from
which book will help students make deeper comparisons as they get older.
I would hope that as the students get older that they would be taught
more strategies to understand these texts.
I found this PowerPoint from the National Center for Literacy Education
that explained how multiple texts can be used in classrooms. It was very similar to Dr. Manderino’s video
that I referenced in the last video.
This PowerPoint also broke down the understanding of multiple texts and
how they can be used in the older grades as well.
I agree that students in kindergarten are not developmentally ready to synthesize. I posted a blog about finding commonalities and differences in multiple texts as I see this as a first step in being able to synthesize. If you scaffold your lesson, I find the younger students as well as special education students can gain access to a higher level skill.
ReplyDeleteAli,
ReplyDeleteI complete something very similar to your project on animals in my first grade classroom. However, my students need to pick a desert animal, during our desert unit and find four facts about their animal. The facts need to include what their animal eats, looks like, when it sleeps, and one interesting fact. The students always LOVE doing this research project! After the writing portion of the project we paint our animal and create a desert habitat out in the hallway. I love the book selection you found in your school library, I wish my school library had the same resources! I find that collecting the resources is always the most difficult part. In addition to informational texts, I use discoveryeducation.com for my students to watch short video clips on their animal. They love to see actual film of their animal and learn new information from the video.