I've had so much fun in 3rd grade the past couple of weeks. In reading workshop they have been researching an inspiring African American for Black History month and created a poster to show their learning. Their classroom teacher invited me into their classroom to take their research and bring it into writing workshop somehow. I decided that it would be fun to take their research and write a poem about their subject. As a mentor text we used the book below:
Their classroom teacher read many of the poems aloud. When I came into the classroom I used one of the poems to imitate for my writing mini lesson with the research that one of the students supplied me with about her subject: Rosa Parks. See my mini lesson below:
I used the strategies of imitating a mentor author, thinking aloud, and modeled writing to show these 3rd graders how to construct a poem. I was using chart paper without lines, so I used a highlighter to show them where I would make new stanzas. I wanted them to stick to one event/topic when they wrote about their subject. Once I was done modeling, students were able to have a go with their subject. Many students were able to come up with many versions of poems about their subject.
I came back the next day to show students another way that they could take their research to construct a poem by imitating the same mentor text.
See chart below:
I wanted students to try a quick write about one topic/event about their subject. Again, I modeled using research supplied by one of the students, but this time the subject was Jackie Robinson. After we did the quick write, through think aloud and modeled writing, I demonstrated how writers can remove extra words from their writing to construct a poem. Again, I sent students off to have a go using this strategy. Once they had a poem, they took it through the writing process. They are currently in the publishing stage using Chromebooks to type their work in GloogleClassroom. Once they are done typing, they will find an image to upload into their document.
I will post more once they are done :) What do you think about taking research and presenting it in a different format than the traditional essay?
