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In our classroom, our reading is taught through genre studies. Below is a brief summary of each genre study and how we have fun learning and reading!
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We begin our year with a Strategies Unit. During this unit, students learn to reading strategies to keep their brains "active" during reading. The following strategies are emphasized:
Text-to-Text (It reminds me of another book I've read)
Text-to-Self (It reminds me of something I've experienced)
Text-to-World (It reminds me of something that I have heard about)
Forming pictures in your head as you read - "mind movies"
Wondering about the story before reading, during reading, and after reading
Being able to ask thick questions, instead of thin questions (questions that make your brain think because the answer is not easily found in the story)
After reading Snow White, students wrote thick questions that they would like to ask the characters. Then we held a "Fairytale Talk Show" in which students asked their questions to Snow White, the Prince, the Witch, and a dwarf who joined us in the "hot seats."
Using pictures and text to draw conclusions and form ideas about the story
What is the author's message? What is the theme of this story? What does the author want me to learn from this story?
Using prior knowledge and information gathered from reading to create a new idea or form your own opinion.
Students learn to apply these skills using various picture books. Once this skills are learned, students will be expected to apply them in their own reading throughout our genre studies during the school year.
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During our Mystery Genre Study, students work in small groups or "detective duos" to read mysteries. They keep "case files" where they record the story elements. At the end of our mystery unit, we hold our very own mystery in our classroom for students to solve, "Who Borrowed Mr. Bear?"
The "Who Borrowed Mr. Bear?" unit is available from GEMS.
Monthly Genre Book Project: Story Skeletons
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During our Informational Genre Study, each student becomes an expert on an animal (as this unit will correlate with our animal study in science). Students learn about the text features of non-fiction books, and create their very own Non-Fiction Book about their animal, which includes a Table of Contents, Diagrams, Captions, Index, and Glossary!
Monthly Genre Book Projects: ABCs of Non-Fiction
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During our Poetry Genre Study, students are exposed to many different authors who specialize in Poetry. Students learn about alliteration, similes, metaphors, and more! One of our main focuses during this unit is to work on our fluency. To do this, students read into "whisper phones" to hear how their own reading sounds. Students practice their reading until it sounds fluent. This reading unit correlates with our writing, as students write at least 10 different types of poems to be published in their very own hardcover Poetry Books!
Mr. Madden made our whisper phones from PVC piping.
Mrs. Madden spray painted them red to make them look nicer.
She also numbered them so students would get the same phone each time (less germs).
Students practiced reading with the whisper phones in a group.
Even right beside each other, students could only hear themselves reading!
Later, students would "read to the wall" when reading with whisper phones for fluency.
Monthly Genre Book Projects: None!
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Living Museum Statues 2009-2010
  
Amelia Earhart, Betsy Ross, Christopher Columbus
  
Davy Crockett, Dr. Seuss, Florence Nightingale
  
George Washington, Harriett Tubman, Helen Keller
  
Henry Ford, John Glenn, Johnny Appleseed
  
Martin Luther King, Jr., Mozart, Pocahontas
  
Princess Diana, Sacagawea, Sitting Bull
  
Squanto, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison
 
Walt Disney, Yo-Yo Ma
Living Museum 2008-2009 |
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During our Tall Tale Genre Study, students read and learn about many tall tale characters. They learn the importance of tall tales in the history of the United States as we travel through the different regions in Social Studies. They work in groups to learn about tall tales using a webquest, also! Students also learn to use exaggeration in their own writing as they create their own original tall tale characters and stories! Our unit celebration is a Tall Tale Tea in which parents are invited to the classroom to view students' regional scrapbooks and listen to their original tall tale stories!
Students read tall tale stories in small groups, looking for exaggerations, idioms, and other story elements.
Groups use their tall tale puppets to Alyssia reads her original TALL tale story
perform puppet shows they wrote mom during our Tall Tale Tea!
from scratch!
Monthly Genre Book Projects: Tall Tale Character Can
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Coming Soon!
Monthly Genre Book Projects:
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Coming Soon!
Monthly Genre Book Projects: Sell-A-Fairytale (Cereal Box)
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