Research Recording Sheet

Tip: Research Recoding Sheet
How do I do it?
Support student research work with a recording sheet that asks teacher and/or students to collect information about a topic using different sources (e.g. websites, books, people etc.) and list 3 important ideas, any key words, and questions that the source provoked.  Depending on the ages and linguistic levels of the students, introduce the chart and fill in an example row.  Start by recording the topic, sharing or eliciting prior knowledge about the topic in the “what I know” section in the chart.  Next choose and show a source to students and read it aloud.  Help students in choosing 3 key ideas from the text and recording them as well as any key vocabulary.  Finally, list a couple of questions that remain unanswered.  Support older students as they work on their individual research projects.

Variations & Extensions
After students have listed key ideas, have them add a star to the ideas that they think are most important.  The same can be done with the questions that they have listed.  You can also ask students to begin forming summary statements by asking them to list 5 things they have learned so far about the topic.

Common Core Writing Standard 7
    Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Organizing Writing Flow Chart

Tip: Organizing Writing Flow Chart
How do I do it?
Collect a variety of comprehensible texts that students are very familiar with, for example, a poem, a social studies textbook chapter, a read aloud chapter book, a picture book etc.  Talk with students about the author’s task, type of writing, organizational format and audience.  Choose one of the texts and ask volunteers to talk about how it would be different if it had been written as a letter, if the audience were the mayor of your town, or if the task were to convince the reader of the truth of the story.  Explain that topic, writing type, audience, and organizational format matter when writing that it is important to consider the best format for the task and audience.  Ask volunteers to give examples of new writing topics that are working on and talk about how to choose an appropriate format given the task, audience, and any required writing type.
Variations & Extensions
Keep the chart posted as a support to students when they are writing.  Add tasks, formats, audiences etc. with simple sketches as shown as they come up for students or based upon texts that you read in class.  Refer to the chart often to help students see that they can make strategic choices about their writing organizational format etc.
Common Core Writing Standard 4
    Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Show Me! Sentences

Tip: Show Me! Sentences

How do I do it?
One of the most wonderful things about reading a story is when you can imagine what it looks like in your mind.  Choose a few sentences that students of different proficiency levels will understand from familiar books and read them aloud to students.  Ask students to draw or share the images in their minds.  Introduce the anchor chart.  Some sentences do not make a picture in you head (telling sentences) and some do (showing sentences).  Choose a telling sentence from a book or a student and work with the class to make it a showing sentence by adding details about what can be seen, heard, felt, and tasted (as appropriate).  Next, students can be given a telling sentence to make into a showing sentence with a partner.  Encourage students to use showing sentences when they write narratives.
Variations & Extensions
Provide picture dictionaries for language learners and have students refer to word walls to add detail to their showing sentences.
3rd-5th Common Core Writing Standard 3
Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Slice the Slice

Tip: Slice the Slice

How do I do it?
Students often choose topics that are too big and end up being somewhat rambling or a essentially a timeline of events.  To support students in narrowing an idea to an engaging writing topic, have students place their big topic into a pie or pizza etc. and label the slices with the parts of their topic.  Next, ask students to choose the slice that represents: What was special to me?  Finally, of that slice, have students identify what made it special and then they have their topic that they can write about in detail.  In the example above, “My Vacation” is the topic.  Each slice is one of the memorable activities like swimming and going to bed late.  When going to bed late, the child read to their 2 year-old cousin which he identified as the most special part of the vacation.  

Variations & Extensions
Students can keep a few blank pizza charts in their writing notebook so that they can be reminded to “slice the slice” when their topic feels too big or hard to write about.

3-5 Common Core Writing Standard 5
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

Cut and Paste

Tip: Cut and Paste

How do I do it?
When we reread a draft of something we have written sometimes we notice that something might be missing, it may tell the story or explain some parts out of order, or that we need to add more to it.  Cutting and pasting is much easier that rewriting the whole thing.  Using scissors and glue, we can either open up a space in the story to add a sentence or two; cut and rearrange a story to make more sense, or glue more on to the end.  Model doing all three with a story you have drafted yourself before directing students to use this revision strategy on their own.
Variations & Extensions
Students can practice this strategy with a story they are familiar with that you have rewritten or photo copied and then cut into sections. They need to rearrange it.  You can also illustrate a short story or make a cartoon version of a story for lower level proficiency students to rearrange.  Lower proficiency students may want to make story boards or a cartoon with short selections of dialogue for their story which they can then revise with the cut and paste strategy.
3-5 Common Core Writing Standard 5
5. Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

(F)act (D)efinition (D)etail Chart For Writing

Tip: (F)act (D)efinition (D)etail Chart For Writing

How do I do it?
When helping students to develop a topic for writing informative/informational texts, have them organize their information in an FDD chart.  Model the following before directing students to work on their own charts.  Students list the facts (F) for their topic and underline any important key words that they will need to define.  Next, write friendly definitions (D) of each key vocabulary word used in the facts.  Finally, students should list any details or explanations related to the facts in the details (D) column.  This chart will be an important resource for students as they draft their text.

Variations & Extensions
Students can work in pairs on these charts.  Have content picture dictionaries available for language learning students.  

3-5 Common Core Writing Standard 2
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

What If...? Narrative

Tip: What If...? Narrative

How do I do it?
Present the anchor chart above as a prewriting organizer.  Think aloud about a what if scenario for yourself (some good ones - What if..I was born before my sister?; ..my cat could talk?; ..I could fly at night?; ..I knew when and how I would die?; ..a real superhero came to our classroom; ..I had a million dollars?  ..no one died - ever? etc.)  Be sure to make sure students understand the “what if” scenario - draw it, act it out, as needed.  Fill in the chart with details, words and sketches, being sure to think aloud and write specific details in the sections.  Direct students to tell you what “What if..?” scenario they chose before they set off to complete their charts independently.  Students use the charts to begin drafting their narrative.
Variations & Extensions
Direct lower proficiency level students to sketch pictures in the chart quadrants. Pair a bilingual student with a student new to English to assist them in their writing.
K-5 Common Core Writing Standard 3
3. Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Building a Paragraph

Tip: Building A Paragraph
How do I do it?
House building is a useful metaphor for talking about strong paragraph construction.  Explain to students that each paragraph is a house that they build.  The roof is the main idea that gets our attention and helps hold the whole house together.  The supporting ideas hold up the main idea, without which, the roof would fall down.  Finally, without the solid foundation or the reason for writing the paragraph, the house will fall down as well.  Use the chart above.  Draw it lightly in pencil first, then trace over it in colors as you explain, with gestures, what each part represents.  Model writing a paragraph in a blank house structure format.  Have students write paragraphs using the house structure and then have them write independently.
Variations & Extensions
Build a real model with large blocks that shows how the supports will hold up the roof and foundation will keep it on solid ground.  Use an uneven or weak support and show what can happen to the house.  Read sentences and have students rate how strong they are etc.
3rd-5th Common Core Writing Standards 1 & 2
1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

Are You a Square or a Rectangle?

Tip: Are You a Square or a Rectangle?
How do I do it?
Read the chart directions above and model each step with a volunteer as you go.  Encourage students to problem solve how to measure accurately.  Pair students and have them measure one another and collect their data. Collect, display, and discuss the results, posing questions that arise.

Variations & Extensions
Graph the results and draw conclusions.  Why might our height and arm-span be so similar for many of us?  GIve students standard and non-standard measurement tools.  Have students measure classroom pets of pets at home.  What is the relationship between height and arm-span?  Have students create ratios from their data and compare or plot it on a coordinate plane.  Take the heart rates and plot those along with the ratios and create hypotheses about any relationships calculated.

Common Core Math Standards - K-5, Measurement & Data 

Student Oral Storytelling

Tip: Student Oral Storytelling - 

How do I do it?
Students can retell their own or other stories that they have read.  The story can be short or quite long depending on the student.  Model effective storytelling by explicitly demonstrating each of the 6 strategies above.  Next allow volunteers to practice in pairs or small groups with a short story they have heard many times or one that they have shared orally or in writing about their own life etc.  

Variations & Extensions
Allow students who may need extra support to tell a story in pairs.  Students can make or collect illustrations and simple props for their story.  Students may also want to create a short PowerPoint or Keynote presentation to tell a story or, perhaps, change the ending or add character for the story in their presentation.

Common Core Listening and Speaking Standards 5 & 6
Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.