Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested
teachers are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop
and other ideas about supporting young adolescent writers and
readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing teacher/coach in Long
Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion. Last year,
Juli kept a weekly journal from her Reading Workshop.
This year, Juli is continuing her journals, but this time she's
focusing on her Writing Workshop. Find out more about our project
at our Reading/Writing Workshop homepage.
You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues
are embedded in these journals. Most often, when you click on
them, a PDF file will begin to download. You'll find a list of
the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's
Journals, find out how here.
Look at the Sun, but use a Sunspotter. Sunspots spanning the
surface. Solar flares flying into space. The Solar Wind stirring
things up.
And that's just the beginning.
Take, for instance, auroras -- "many Native Elders in Alaska,
Canada, Denmark, Greenland and Siberia say that Northern Lights
are created by spirits playing soccer in the sky. When the players
run, they leave streaks of color that can be seen from Earth as
the Aurora. These spirits use a walrus head for a soccer ball."
(http://www.auroraalive.com)
They got that right.
Now our kids are seeing spots before their eyes! No, they aren't
dizzy or about to pass out. These are Sunspots, and it's all a
part of our thematic unit of study in Writing Workshop -- "The
Sun Has Spots!"
To plan for this unit of study, I began with a review of the science
standards and benchmarks. Then, starting on the Sun-Earth Day
2003 website, "Live
from the Aurora", I found everything I needed. The site
includes a PDF version of their educators'
guide that I used to plan the science content for our thematic
unit of study about Sunspots.
Here's what I came up with:
National Science Education Standards (NSES) Grades 5-8
The motion of an object can be described by its position, direction
of motion, and speed. That motion can be measured and represented
on a graph.
Most objects in the solar system are in regular and predictable
motion. Those motions explain such phenomena as the day, the year,
phases of the moon, and eclipses.
Many individuals have contributed to the traditions of science.
Studying some of these individuals provides further understanding
of scientific inquiry, science as a human endeavor, the nature
of science, and the relationships between science and society.
Tracing the history of science can show how difficult if was for
scientific innovators to bread through the accepted ideas of their
time to reach the conclusions that we currently take for granted.
Benchmarks for Science Literacy
Scientific knowledge is subject to modification as new information
challenges prevailing theories and as a new theory leads to looking
at old observations in a new way.
Some scientific knowledge is very old and yet is still applicable
today.
Important contributions to the advancement of science, mathematics,
and technology have been made by different kinds of people, in
different cultures, at different times.
Telescopes reveal that there are many more stars in the night
sky than are evident to the unaided eye, the surface of the moon
has many craters and mountains, the Sun has dark spots, and Jupiter
and some other planets have their own moons.
Thinking about things as systems means looking for how every part
relates to others. The output from one part of a system (which
can include material, energy, or information) can become the input
to other parts. Such feedback can serve to control what goes on
in the system as a whole.
Instructional Objectives
Students will learn to observe the Sun safely and will discover
that the Sun has spots that appear and disappear over time. Students
will discover that the Sun rotates.
Resources for Reading about the Sun and Sunspots
The next step was to gather print resources -- texts that
kids can read and use to learn. Immersing ourselves in reading
is an important first part of any unit of study in writing workshop.
The idea for this thematic study is "that the walls between
the two disciplines (reading and writing) will come down."
So I looked for a variety of materials for kids to read during
our shared thematic study of the Sun and Sunspots.
Print resources:
"Galileo," from Pioneer Astronomers by Navin
Sullivan
"Telescopes" from The Way Things Work by David
Macaulay
Stars by Simon Seymour
Space Songs, a collection of poems, by Myra Cohn Livingston
Materials
from "Live from the Aurora," 2003 Educators Guide for
Sun-Earth Day
As they read, kids will "weigh what value each brings to
their understanding of the topic, monitor each for sense and for
its relationship to other readings." Since immersion in reading
is the first part of the framework for a unit of study, "they
will learn to read at various levels of depth -- perhaps first
skimming, then focusing on selected materials, then reading and
re-reading those to learn what the author is trying to say. Students
will compare ideas and conclusions presented in one reading to
those from other readings, and there will be discussion about
how to differentiate sources that are relevant and useful from
those that are less so. Students will be encouraged to separate
fact from opinion, and to learn new strategies to negotiate difficult
text.
"Meanwhile, the teacher will help to bring out big conceptual
ideas related to the topic so that when students need to, they
can draw concepts and ideas from the reading. These concepts may
lead them to synthesize larger and more important ideas. They
will not only search out significant and useful information, but
learn to read critically, questioning the meaning and importance
of whatever information they discover." (From the Curricular
Calendar for Reading Workshop)
But our reading will not be restricted to just print materials.
We've also collected websites related to the Sun and Sunspots.
The National Education Technology Standards state: "Students
use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from
a variety of sources." Here are some of our favorite places
to search for information about the Sun and Sunspots:
http://www.spaceweather.com
http://www.sec.noaa.gov/SWN/
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
http://solar-center.stanford.edu/about.html
http://science.nasa.gov
http://science.nasa.gov/ssl/pad/solar/for%5Ftony/hi%5Fschool/intro.htm
http://www.cosc.org/vsc/planetarium/thesky/stardome/default.asp#howtoread
After all the resources were gathered, I started working on how
to assemble this thematic unit. For help, I turned to the experts
on reading, writing, and research as a part of inquiry. On pages
6-7 in Nonfiction Matters (online at Stenhouse), Stephanie
Harvey lists "a few things we keep in mind to guide our practice."
Teachers can engage in nonfiction inquiry by going through
the process themselves. It looks like I'm going to be doing
a research project, too.
Teachers need to share their passion and curiosity about inquiry
and research. At the first part of the unit of study, I plan
to share the interesting and exciting facts I've learned as I
assembled the unit, "The Sun Has Spots."
Research begins with a question. I'll show the kids how
I developed my question -- "What are auroras and what do
they have to do with the Sun?"
Research projects take time. I've allowed three weeks for
our projects, but we'll take more time, if necessary.
To write nonfiction, read nonfiction. This unit of study
in Writing Workshop runs parallel to a study of nonfiction reading
in Reading Workshop. In addition, we'll immerse ourselves in reading
about the Sun during Writing Workshop.
Writers write about things they know about, care about, and
wonder about. Kids will develop questions based on their background
experience and prior knowledge of the Sun.
Writers need to own their topics and projects. I watched
as the kids worked on their feature articles and persuasive essays.
I know that when they choose their own topics and do their own
research, they become deeply invested in their writing projects.
Writers need opportunities to share their products. At
the end of the unit of study, we'll invite another class to listen
to our research projects. They'll also be able to give us some
feedback.
Nonfiction inquiry must be authentic whenever possible.
This will be an "umbrella" unit of study. We'll all
work under the umbrella of "The Sun Has Spots." It will
be really important for the kids to develop their own, authentic
questions about this topic.
I also went back to several Reading Workshop journals about nonfiction
that I wrote last year. They helped me review what I already know
about teaching thematic units.
Week #32 -- Leti's Search for Gold - The
Importance and Power of Non-Fiction
Week #33 -- Confessions of a Non- Non-Fiction
Teacher
Week #34 -- A Road Map for Content-Area
Reading
Thanks to Stephanie Harvey, I've begun my own nonfiction inquiry
into the Sun and Sunspots. I've developed a question and plan
to be well on my way this next week as the kids work on their
research projects.
Oh, and just remember -- never look directly at the Sun!
Read next week's journal
Read last week's journal
Read Juli's backgrounder about her work
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