Biographies with MLK

This week the students are learning all about biographies along with Dr. King.  Today we broke apart the elements of a biography.  As we were reading A Picture Book About Martin Luther King, Jr we charted the elements of a biography.  We discussed the main idea, organization, author, and facts included.  This adorable chart by Abby was the perfect backdrop for our information!
Since the book was organized by date, we worked on ordering important dates from MLK's life. There are SOOOOOO many important dates in Dr. King's life, but I just picked ten that the students could discuss and order.  I randomly numbered the events from 0-9 to match our 9 sided dice.  Students rolled the dice and chose the event that matched the number rolled.  Students had to discuss and order the events as a class.  Rolling the dice was a lot of fun, plus we really were able to focus on the organization component of our biography!  You can grab Dr. King's dates HERE!
 After we read, charted, and ordered events it was time for us to put our organization skills to use.  We made our MLK booklets and chose events from the beginning, middle, and end of his life to include on our booklet pages.
Dr. King's suit flips up to make a booklet :)
 We went ahead and added this booklet to Rooted in Reading January.  If you have already purchased, make sure to go to your My Purchases tab or Dropbox to download the revised unit!
The kids loved how they turned out, and were able to tell me a lot about Dr. King AND biographies!  I'd call that a win-win!

Research for Kids: Animals and Continents!

Research can be a tricky thing to teach.  Our students not only need to learn how to research topics, but they also need to learn how to organize, write, and present the research gathered.  Starting with informational and paragraph writing most definitely helps out.  If you haven't checked all of that out click HERE or see how we use the hamburger paragraph in Hope's post HERE.  Learning how to write a strong paragraph will enhance their research writing immensely!

In weeks 1-2 students will become Animal Experts as they research a specific animal.  This can be done in groups or individually.  You could also do this as a whole class research project and focus on one animal together!  Here's what I've done in the past:
-Gather all of the nonfiction resources I have about animals (books, magazines, etc)
-Check out nonfiction books about animals from the school library
-Put all of these onto a table and sort based on type to see which books I can group together (sharks, whales, frogs, lions, etc.)
-I try to get at least 15 animals for students to browse through
-Students get with a partner and choose an animal to research together based on the books I have available
-They will use the books I have collected for them as well as online resources to become animal experts!

You definitely don't have to do it like that.  You can take your students to the school library and let them look through all of the animal books and choose from there.  You could also allow them to look online at animals before choosing.  That part is completely up to you!  I just like to make sure that I have plenty of resources available for them to complete the research while in class with me.

Students begin this unit brainstorming different types of animals, browsing through animal information, and building their knowledge bank for one animal.
Here you see how students can record their initial brainstorming.  Students can either use a printable or the Jeep booklet to chart their schema.
These books are perfect for whole group lessons about animal research.  Students could even choose an animal based on what they hear during a read aloud!
 After choosing their animal and brainstorming, the students will start the research.  We've included different books and websites that they can use to gain knowledge about their animal.  Students start with just gathering facts and small bits of information.  They will then turn that information into paragraphs in their Animal Research brochure as their rough draft.
It's important to go back and check through the research that has been gathered to make sure that we answered the initial questions.  We have questioning cards or a checklist that students can use to make sure they included as much information as possible.
Once students have revised and edited, it is time to publish their writing!  Students use this Safari craft to write their research paper.  The outside pockets were completed earlier in the week, so that is not something they have to worry about on publishing day.
But that's not all!  Since students only became an expert over one animal, it's time to learn from their classmates!  On the last day, students will collect facts from each other.

Of course it wouldn't be complete without a little safari hat and badge :)
Now let's move onto weeks 3 & 4 where students will travel the world to research a continent!  
The first two weeks expose students to researching while the last two weeks really dig deeper into different research components.  
Students begin by brainstorming essential questions.  In weeks 1 & 2 the essential questions were provided for the students.  Now it is their turn to work on creating questions that they believe their reader would want answered.  This helps narrow down the topic and allows the writer to be more focused and organized!
One of the major battles in research is just copying facts from our research sources.  During week 3, students will learn how to be fact finders.  Through modeling we will also teach students how to jot down research rather than copy complete sentences.
Once students have created their essential questions and learned how to find facts, it's time to research and write!  Students take their essential questions and find facts about the particular continent they are researching.  After research has been gathered, students will turn those bullet points into complete sentences and paragraphs.
Just like before, it's not over when the students have completed their research!  Now it's time to learn from each other.  PLUS, we really want the students to know about more than just one continent.  Students will take their passports around the room and learn about all of the continents from their classmates.  Here they will put their fact finding skills to work again!  Students will record a few facts about each continent without copying word for word  :)
We do provide a lot of websites that can be used for this research project, but sometimes it's nice to have books on hand as well... especially if technology is limited in your classroom.  Before purchasing anything, ask your coworkers or librarian if they have any books that you could borrow for a couple of weeks.  You'll be surprised how many book hoarders there are at your school, ha!  Here are some books we found that work great with weeks 3 & 4: