Minilesson Magic: Helmet Law Debate (Interpreting and Comprehending Data in an Article)

Back to reality! And boy was it a great day! I was prepared (did you catch yesterday's post of my week's plans?) Monday is also my day that my team covers recess and lunch for my kiddos, so I got triple planning time with that and my after school time~no meetings, yay! Needless to say, I still have things to think about...remember my "I'm a 3-day planner" confession. I have a problem with OVER-THINKING things, especially in science and social studies. Maybe it's because we have so little time for these subjects but sooooooo many ideas that we could do. It's hard to weed it all out and make decisions (and then have time cut even shorter and have to re-adjust).

ANY-who. I decided to check in today to share my reading minilesson. Since I shared my plans with, I spent the whole day thinking, man, I should take a picture of that or blog about that to share what exactly I did and how it went. So, this week we are focusing on the human body systems during reading and writing (research, science, nonfiction reading, all rolled into one topic). Then, in our regular science time, we are studying Force and Motion, but I didn't just want to jump right in with that on our first day back, so I planned something that connects all of this, but my little babes barely knew it today. (They will see the connections throughout the rest of our week). Let's call today an ENGAGE. :)

We spent ALL--ALL--ALL last quarter working on opinion based essays and while we are not going to have TONS of time this quarter for a large writing project, I want to continue developing students' ability to write about their opinions and to structure an essay paragraph using PEEL (free download from Tracee Orman--we have used this method to the max this year!). They have grown so much, but ya know, "Ya use it or lose it."

In walks the NC Helmet Law Repeal Debate. Should motorcyclists be forced to wear helmets? Should our state (or yours) repeal their helmet requirements? (I used the word 'forced' instead of required because it's a strong sounding opinion-e word.) Some states require motorcyclists to wear helmets, others do not. Now, I am not a motorcyclists and do not plan to be. I may never be on one in my entire life (although I would have LOVED a helmet while at Carowinds last week :) But, this topic might just stir up some excitement for my kiddos and they can connect to wearing a helmet (or not) while riding a bicycle (meanwhile, I can teach them the importance of protecting their craniums and their brain--a key part of the nervous system).

Long story short, I quickly chose three articles for them to read today, made copies, etc. Then, I read them Sunday and thought WHOA buddy. I cannot send them loose on this article, "North Carolina Motorcycle Helmet Repeal Bill Passes First Mile Marker."  So, I quickly decided to turn this into a guided lesson where we interpret the information in the article. I decided not to give students the article at all (yet) and just work from the 6 excerpts I pulled out. For each snippet of the text, I wrote a question or two.

Most of the questions focus on interpreting what point the person quoted is trying to make or "talking back" to the text. Talking back to the text is something we learned to do last quarter. (When you are reading an opinion-based text, you often want to talk back to the text with your ideas. Critical readers should be talking back to opinion based texts because we know the author is trying to get us to agree with them and may be leaving out important information).

To get their little minds engaged,  I started with a bicycling questionnaire just to see where their thinking was before we talked about the issue.

After a quick sharing of our survey answers, I explained the issue at hand and then we went through the excerpts from the article one at a time. I read aloud from the smartboard and then had students try to interpret the info or talk back. Next, we shared, I helped interpret/explain when necessary, then we moved on to the next excerpt. It sounds boring or too teacher directed, but they actually seemed to get a lot out of it and wanted to talk about their opinions the WHOLE time! My~smart~little~thinkers :)

If you would like to do this lesson, I am linking the google presentation I made, the questionnaire and worksheet, and the article so that you can implement it PRESTO! Magic! :)

In my students article packet, I also included two others articles that have a heavy opinion that motorcyclists should have the freedom to choose, but we didn't get to those today.
Helmet Law Hypocrisy from ncrider.com (I only pulled a few paragraphs from this; while I don't agree, I thought it was a good example of strong opinion and something students could "talk back" to)
The Twisting of Data in Helmet Safety Studies from bikersrights.com

If you would like the packet I made (straight copy and pasted the articles above into a packet for the kids, shoot me an email and I will send it to you. I just don't feel comfy sharing that on the web). Also, these are not 'pretty,' but they are down and dirty minilesson materials that get the job done.

RI.5.1 Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
RI.5.2 Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.
RI5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more (ideas) based on information in the text.
RI5.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s). 
Hope you can use this, if not now, next year!

lifeloveliteracy@gmail.com

Peek at My Week: Show me the Plans!!!

Hi Everyone!

Spring break, now over. I nearly laid in the bed all day (well, until 11:30). Then did some blog-stalking-pretending-I-was-planning-procrastinating. I watched an episode of undercover boss and cried when the boss gave a kid a full-ride to college so that he wouldn't have to work and go to school at night. Wow! If only everyone felt as grateful as this kid to be getting his education paid for. As happy as he was, I cried because I knew he was getting an opportunity for higher education that he wouldn't have otherwise. {Did you know I'm a softy?} I finally talked myself into a run-jog, walk-around-and-look-at-the-birds around 5. Now I sit here needing a shower, needing to pack my lunch, needing to pick out tomorrow's outfit, and needing to finalize my plans for the week so that I can link up with Mrs. Wills' Kindergarten blog for her AWESOME Peek at My Week linky.

Don't get me wrong, I am excited about our upcoming quarter, but I always get a little paper-bag hyperventilating when it feels like we are starting so many new things at once. I know I will be fine by Tuesday, and seriously, I am planned-and-ready for tomorrow, so calm down!

If you take a close look at my plan...you.will.find.some.holes. Seriously, I am a 3-day planner. I want to see how things go and then re-organize. I have some ideas in my mind (usually) but I wait to make final decisions on what comes next based on what my kiddies do. So, don't-judge, please :)

If you click on the images above, it will take you to a google doc where you can click on the hyperlinked plans. (Can't figure out why the google doc does not allow you to click on hyperlinks, but if you download, you can get them that way).

I made these plans in word and converted them to a PDF. Then, I watched Deedee's video about how she makes her visual lessons and she does it in powerpoint. You know I love to make stuff in powerpoint over word but I thought word would be easier for these lesson plans...I might be converting over to powerpoint next week! If you haven't hopped over to see Deedee, you definitely want to check out her blog and the other bloggers that are giving a "Peek" at their week.

Reading and Viewing with a Critical Lens: Monday's Minilesson Magic

This quarter in readers' workshop, we have been working on reading informational texts (specifically opinion-based informational texts). We have focused on previewing, knowing whether a text is for, against, or neutral, summarizing, previewing to try to figure out the structure of the text, note-taking, and talking back to the text. Last week, we worked on reading and viewing texts with a critical lens. We learned to analyze the text with a number of critical questions in mind.

For our minilesson models, we have been focusing on the "chocolate milk in schools" debate. For my lessons on critical literacy, we analyzed two texts that we had previously used in other minilessons that have two opposing views on chocolate milk in schools,  an ad from the National Dairy Council and the Jamie Oliver Foundation.

We chose to read our Jamie Oliver article critically first because it would push us to think critically since we are leaning towards limiting chocolate milk in schools for our opinion essay. Next we analyzed an advertisement from the National Dairy Council titled "Five Reasons Why Flavored Milk Matters." We had previously used this text in our "talking back" to the text lesson. We realized that Jamie Oliver was biased (he says "chocolate milk does not belong in schools" AT ALL) because he is trying to fight the obesity epidemic and sees processed foods and extra sugar as a contributor to the obesity epidemic. The National Dairy Council is biased because their main goal is to get people to consume more milk and have specifically targeted increasing consumption of flavored milk. We discussed how the NDC uses fear to try to manipulate parents and schools into thinking that the main way to help kids get their nutrients is through flavored milk. ("Kids like the taste!") We discussed how this is the easy way out and does not require schools and parents to TEACH kids to like the taste of white milk and other foods that will provide them with the same nutrients.

For more practice, we used a commercial recently put out by Coca-Cola. I prompted students to think about what messages the Coke company was trying to send us and what they were trying to get us to believe. Next, I showed the video again and asked students to look for visual and auditory methods the authors of the text used to send us their messages. Through these lessons, I hope my students are getting more critically intelligent. I also shared with students the recent Fooducate blog post that brought this video to my attention. Fooducate is well-known by my students as we used the fooducate app in our science/nutrition unit last year. I explained to students that Fooducate typically does a great job with critical literacy. They are trying to help us navigate the world of food where food companies are trying to convince us that the products they make are healthy and nutritional for us.

I just found this video where someone has taken the Coca Cola commercial and put in the "real" information that we need to know in order to critically understand this video. Can't wait to show this to my kiddos this coming week to show them critical literacy IN ACTION!

For our unit, students have been reading opinion-based articles and blog posts on debatable topics (like athlete salaries, school uniforms, technology money spent in schools, e-readers versus books, single-gender schools, competitive sports for young children, etc.). Basically, they are doing the research for an opinion-based essay during our reading time so that writing time can be spent learning the techniques of essay writing and using evidence based terms within a researched piece of writing.

 I found a lot of the texts we are using through the Teacher's College Reading and Writing projects website if you are looking for Opinion-based articles. As students have honed in on their topics, we have also had to search for more articles on their specific topic through our handy-dandy friend named google.

For me, the whole point of critical literacy is to teach students to consider whether or not a text is trying to send them an ulterior message and to think about the goals of the author, company, or organization that has created the text. While I don't think critical literacy will stop us from having chocolate milk or soda now and then, I hope my students do not let the media convince them that these are HEALTHY choices.

By the way, you can download the chart above at my TPT store. It is in a one page format and 1/2 page format for student journals/reader response notebooks.