Balanced Literacy Project

Transcription

1 1 Balanced Literacy Project Name: Jessica List Grade Level: 4 Trade Book: Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise Related Literature: Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter by Loreen Leedy, First Year Letters by Julie Danneberg and The Jolly Postman or Other People s Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg New York State Learning Standard: Standard #1 Language for Information and Understanding at Elementary Level: Students will read, write, listen and speak for information and understanding. Key Ideas: 1. Listening and reading to acquire information and understanding involves collecting data, facts, and ideas; discovering relationships, concepts, and generalizations; and using knowledge from oral, written and electronic sources. 2. Speaking and writing to acquire and transmit information requires asking probing and clarifying questions, interpreting information in one s own words, applying information from one context to another, and presenting the information and interpretation clearly, concisely and comprehensibly. Objectives: Monday Given the rules for irregular plural formations of nouns the student will be able to make the plural ending of a singular form of a noun. Given the books The Jolly Postman and Regarding the Fountain the student will be able to identify variety in letter formats. Given the book The Jolly Postman the student will be able to compose a letter to another student in the class. Tuesday Given the letter lingo words and the KWL sheet the student will be able to record what he/she knows and needs to know. Given Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter the student will be able to identify and label the parts of a letter. Given Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter and mini lesson the student will be able correct an erroneous letter. Wednesday Given list of unknown words generated by student, dictionary and thesaurus the student will be able to create a word profile. Given Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter and First Year Letters the student will be able to write about why people write letters. Given Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter students will be able to compose their own request letter.

2 2 Monday WORD WORK Pattern/Rule/Strategy: Irregular Plural Formations of Nouns Nouns, end with -s, -z, -x, -sh, -ch and Nouns, end in o o Add -es Nouns, end in a consonant + -y o Change -y to -i and add es Nouns, end in -f, or -fe o Change the -f to -v and add -es Sample Words: baby, spy, poppy, self, wolf, knife, wife, buffalo, cargo, potato, echo, hero, motto, volcano, glass, buzz, box, bush, switch Procedure: 1. Hand out a Sample Words flash card to each student 2. Hand out flashcards with letters i, e, s, v. 3. Write the plural rules above on the board, and review. Ask students for original examples. 4. Say each of the words above in the plural form. Students create correct spelling of plural forms of nouns. READING Mini Lesson: What s in a letter? (The Jolly Postman or Other People s Letters by Janet and Allan Ahlberg) 1. Have the students start brainstorming and discussing the reasons they write letters. What are some of the types of letters they have received in the mail? 2. Shared reading: Read the book and have the students be thinking about the different types of mail that is being delivered. 3. Read again, have students join in when they feel comfortable. Discuss each letter separately. 4. Record the different types on the board.

3 3 Read and Respond: 1. The students should begin and read pgs of Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise. 2. While reading, have students keep a running list of words that they do not know the meaning of in their Reading Response Journal. They need to have at least 5! 3. When finished reading the student should reflect in their Reading Response Journal. Answering the following questions; What do you immediately notice about this book? Is it different from other books we have read? Why are they writing letters? Remind them to write the how and why. WRITING Work Time: Our Own Jolly Postman 1. Tell the student they are going to create their own The Jolly Postman book as a class. Each student is going to write to the person behind them and the last student on each row will write to the person at the beginning of the row to the right. 2. Each student will receive an envelope and a sheet of paper. They may write any kind of letter they wish i.e. postcard, invitation, get well card, etc. 3. The students need to address the envelope and create an original stamp in the upper left corner. 4. Express that creativity is a must!! Group Share: 1. Have the students share with the class the letters in order. 2. The class together can fill in the left out story line while a student acts as secretary and records them. 3. Teacher acts at mediator and keeps the class on track with their thoughts and ideas for the book.

4 4 Tuesday WORD WORK Pattern/Rule/Strategy: Vocabulary you use when writing a letter. Vocabulary Words: Pen Pal, Heading, Salutation, Body, Closing, Signature, Postscript, Return Address, Address, Zip Code, Postcard, Invitations, R.S.V.P., Sympathy, Apology Procedures: 1. Have the students work with their 4 o clock clock buddy. Working together they can start to fill in the KWL. Filling in what they Know and what they Want to know next to the corresponding vocabulary words. READING Mini Lesson: How to Write a Letter (Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter by Loreen Leedy) 1. Discuss the two books read on Monday. What was the common theme? There are lots of different examples of letter writing in those books. In this book we are going to learn how to write one. Be listening for your Letter Lingo Words. They can have their KWL out to record any information they might learn from the book. 2. Read the book slowly to the students. If they feel panicked, assure them that they will hear the book a second time and not to worry. 3. Read the book a second time stopping to clarify Letter Lingo words and any new questions that come up. Read and Respond: 1. The students should continue reading in Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise pgs While reading, have students keep a running list of words that they do not know the meaning of in their Reading Response Journal. They need to have at least 5! 3. When finished reading, have them copy one of the letters they have read in Regarding the Fountain into their Reading Response Journal and then using the knowledge they acquired from the Messages in the Mailbox book and their Letter Lingo KWL have them label the parts of that letter using their red pen.

5 5 WRITING Mini Lesson: Correct Punctuation, Spacing and Spelling in a Letter and Addressed Envelope. 1. Tell the class that together you are going to write a letter to the cafeteria staff expressing the need for a better variety of chips in the cafeteria. Tell them to observe the spacing, spelling and punctuation. 2. Talk about the parts of a letter and ask if are they represented in the letter you are forming. They can refer to Messages in the Mailbox to assist in criteria. 3. As you record on the board the class s letter, have the students also copy it down in their Reading Response Journal. Does not have to be a lengthy letter! Work Time: 1. Given the Help Letter Handout and a red pen, have the student correct the erroneous letter. Remind them to correct spacing, punctuation such as periods, commas, question and exclamation marks. When they are done have them rewrite or retype the corrected letter.

6 6 Wednesday WORD WORK Pattern/Rule/Strategy: Word Profile- Create a word profile for an unknown word. Use dictionary and thesaurus to look up whether it is a noun, adjective, verb, and adverb. Also look up it s antonyms, synonyms and definition(s). Having all this information creates the word s Word Profile. Procedures: 1. Have students create a word profile for each word they recorded on Mon and Tues while reading Regarding the Fountain. This is independent work. They may use computers and are allowed to make it creative once the profile information for each word is acquired. READING Mini Lesson: When to write a letter. (Messages in the Mailbox; How to Write a Letter by Loreen Leedy and First Year Letters by Julie Danneberg) 1. Read the Messages in the Mailbox book again, this time only reading pgs (These are the types of letters) As a class compare and contrast the different letters and formats you observe as a class. 2. Read First Year Letters as a class, each child taking turns reading a letter in the book. You can read the last letter as it is from the teacher. 3. Discuss as a class, why the students wrote to their teacher? What kinds of things did they write about? Did they write formally or informally? Type or write? This should exemplify the variance of letter writing. Read and Respond: 1. The students should continue reading in Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise pgs When finished reading, have them reflect in their Reading Response Journal about Regarding the Fountain. Have them answer the following question. Is it easy to follow what is going on in the book even though it is written entirely in letters? Why or Why not? Provide 3 examples from the book to support your opinion. WRITING

7 Writing a Request Letter: 1. Ask the students to think about the book Regarding the Fountain, is there anything that you would like replaced in our school? What should we do? (Write a request letter!) 2. Have the student think about what they would like to replace in our school. Have them compose a letter to whomever deals with their request. They can find addresses in the yellow pages. 3. Remind them to use proper language, punctuation, correct spelling and spacing. 4. Remind them to include in their letter where, when, why, how and who they are. 5. Tell them that they are only working on the Rough Draft so there is no need for final typed copy. 6. Please be available for assistance and questions. 7. This is independent writing time. No collaboration! 8. Make Messages in the Mailbox available for reference. 7