(Ebook) Writing Sense: Integrated Reading and Writing Lessons for English Language Learners by Juli Kendall, Outey Khuon ISBN 9781571104427, 1571104429
(Ebook) Nonfiction Mentor Texts: Teaching Informational Writing Through Children's Literature, K-8 by Lynne R. Dorfman, Rose Cappelli ISBN 9781571104960, 9781571108029, 1571104968, 1571108025
(Ebook) New Art and Science of Teaching Writing : (Research-Based Instructional Strategies for Teaching and Assessing Writing Skills) by Kathy Tuchman Glass; Robert J. Marzano ISBN 9781945349379, 1945349379
(Ebook) On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser ISBN 9780060891541, 9780062250506, 0060891548, 0062250507
(Ebook) Dimensions of Literacy: A Conceptual Base for Teaching Reading and Writing in School Settings by Stephen B. Kucer ISBN 9780415826457, 0415826454
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Copyright 2017 by Leslie Blauman
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Blauman, Leslie, author.
Title: Teaching evidence-based writing. Nonfiction : texts and lessons for spot-on writing about reading / Leslie Blauman.
Description: Thousand Oaks, California : Corwin, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016030822 | ISBN 9781506360690 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Language arts (Elementary)—United States. | Composition (Language arts)—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States. | English language—Composition and exercises—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States. | Reading comprehension—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States. | Critical thinking—Study and teaching (Elementary)—United States.
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Section 1. Evidence
Section 2. Relationships
z Lesson 8. Analyze the Connections Between People, Events, and Ideas*
Write-About-Reading Template: Events, Individuals, and Ideas: How Do They Influence?
Excerpts to Write About: Influential Speeches: “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln; “I Have a Dream” Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. 55
Section 3. Main Idea/Central Idea 57
z Lesson 9. Identify Main Idea and Details 58
Write-About-Reading Template: Main Idea 63
Excerpts to Write About: “A Hurricane Arrives” From Violent Skies: Hurricanes by Chris Oxlade 64
z Lesson 10. Understand Topics and Subtopics*
Write-About-Reading Template: Topic Sentences 71
Excerpts to Write About: “White Death” From Avalanche! The Deadly Slide by Jane Duden 72
z Lesson 11. Determine Central Ideas: Details* 74
Write-About-Reading Template: Think About the Central Idea 79
Excerpt to Write About: “How Does a Chameleon Change Its Color?” From How Come? Planet Earth by Kathy Wollard 81
z Lesson 12. Determine Multiple Ideas in a Text* 83
Write-About-Reading Template: State the Central Idea 87
Excerpt to Write About: Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin 88
Section 4. Point of View 91
z Lesson 13. What Is the Author’s Purpose? 92
Write-About-Reading Template: Author’s Point of View 95
Excerpt to Write About: Foreword by Jane Goodall From Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey 96
z Lesson 14. Determine Author’s Purpose and Point of View* 97
Excerpts to Write About: “Students Lead the Way” and “Retaliation and Intimidation” From The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement by Nadia Higgins 101
z Lesson 15. Compare and Contrast Accounts* 103
Write-About-Reading Template: Analyze Firsthand and Secondhand Accounts 106
Excerpts to Write About: Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine 107
z Lesson 16. Explore Same Topic, Many Points of View* 109
Write-About-Reading Template: Analyze Different Perspectives 112
Excerpts to Write About: Rosa Parks: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni; Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Pioneer by Karen Kelleher; Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins 113
Section 5. Visuals 117
z Lesson 17. Mine Maps, Charts, and Other Visuals
Write-About-Reading Template: Visuals + Text = Better Understanding
Excerpt to Write About: “A Hot Topic” From Everything Volcanoes and Earthquakes by Kathy Furgang
z Lesson 18. Read Digital and Print Efficiently*
Write-About-Reading Template: On the Search!
Excerpt to Write About: “Drought in the Plains” From The Dust Bowl by Rebecca Langston-George
Section 6. Words and Structure
z Lesson 19. Determine the Meaning of Specialized Words*
Write-About-Reading Templates: Word Attack!; What Does This Word Mean?
Excerpt to Write About: Weather! by Rebecca Rupp
z Lesson 20. Spot Words That Signal Text Structure
Write-About-Reading Template: Dig Into the Structure of the Text 146
Excerpt to Write About: “Death Valley’s Super Bloom” by Kio Herrera 147
z Lesson 21. Identify Text Structure* 148
Write-About-Reading Templates: Look at Structure Across a Text (for Use With Short Texts); Look at Structure Across a Text (for Grades 6–8) 152
Excerpts to Write About: Volcano Facts: “What Is a Volcano?” From Violent Volcanoes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury; Volcanoes by Seymour Simon; “The Volcano Wakes” From Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber
155
z Lesson 22. Compare and Contrast Overall Structure of Two or More Texts 158
Write-About-Reading Template: Compare and Contrast Text Structure 162
Excerpts to Write About: The Hindenburg Disaster: What Was the Hindenburg? by Janet B. Pascal; You Wouldn’t Want to Be on the Hindenburg! A Transatlantic Trip You’d Rather Skip by Ian Graham 164
z Lesson 23. Evaluate the Reasoning, Relevance, and Sufficiency of Evidence* 167
Write-About-Reading Template: Author’s Point 170
Excerpt to Write About: “How Octopuses Change Color” From The Octopus Scientists: Exploring the Mind of a Mollusk by Sy Montgomery 171
z Lesson 24. Delineate the Argument and Specific Claims* 172
Write-About-Reading Template: Map the Argument 176
Excerpts to Write About: Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow
Visit the companion website at http://resources.corwin.com/evidencebasedwriting-nonfiction for videos, write-about-reading templates, excerpts to write about, and more downloadable resources.
VIDEO CLIPS
Note From the Publisher: The author has provided video and web content throughout the book that is available to you through QR codes. To read a QR code, you must have a smartphone or tablet with a camera. We recommend that you download a QR code reader app that is made specifically for your phone or tablet brand.
Videos may also be accessed at the companion website, http://resources.corwin.com/evidencebasedwriting-nonfiction
Evidence
z Video 1: Students practice citing evidence about character traits in two biographies
Relationships
z Video 2: Students talk about how writing about reading deepens their understanding
Main Idea/Central Idea
z Video 3: A lesson on highlighting key details using an article
Point of View
z Video 4: Using the Excerpts to Write About activity to teach point of view
Visuals
z Video 5: Using the Write-About-Reading template with nonfiction picture books
Words and Structure
z Video 6: Guiding students to notice text structure by comparing two texts
EXCERPTS TO WRITE ABOUT
Evidence
z “Where Do Tornadoes Come From?” From How Come? Every Kid’s Science Questions Explained by Kathy Wollard 7
z “The Storm Factory” From Hurricane Force: In the Path of America’s Deadliest Storms by Joseph B. Treaster 13
z “Saving Cheetahs” by Suzanne Zimbler 21
z “The Computer” From What a Great Idea! Inventions That Changed the World by Stephen M. Tomecek 25
Relationships
z “Enemy at the Gates” From Science Warriors: The Battle Against Invasive Species by Sneed B. Collard III 34
z Albert Einstein Biographies: Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein by Don Brown; On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne; Who Was Albert Einstein? by Jess Brallier; Giants of Science: Albert Einstein by Kathleen Krull 40
z “Opening Doors for Others” From Jackie Robinson: Strong Inside and Out by Denise Lewis Patrick 49
z Influential Speeches: “The Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln; “I Have a Dream” Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. 55
Main Idea/Central Idea
z “A Hurricane Arrives” From Violent Skies: Hurricanes by Chris Oxlade 64
z “White Death” From Avalanche! The Deadly Slide by Jane Duden 72
z “How Does a Chameleon Change Its Color?” From How Come? Planet Earth by Kathy Wollard 81
z Years of Dust: The Story of the Dust Bowl by Albert Marrin 88
Point of View
z Foreword by Jane Goodall From Untamed: The Wild Life of Jane Goodall by Anita Silvey 96
z “Students Lead the Way” and “Retaliation and Intimidation” From The Split History of the Civil Rights Movement by Nadia Higgins 101
z Freedom’s Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories by Ellen Levine 107
z Rosa Parks: Rosa by Nikki Giovanni; Rosa Parks: Civil Rights Pioneer by Karen Kelleher; Rosa Parks: My Story by Rosa Parks with Jim Haskins 113
Visuals
z “A Hot Topic” From Everything Volcanoes and Earthquakes by Kathy Furgang 122
z “Drought in the Plains” From The Dust Bowl by Rebecca Langston-George 128
Words and Structure
z Weather! by Rebecca Rupp 139
z “Death Valley’s Super Bloom” by Kio Herrera 147
z Volcano Facts: “What Is a Volcano?” From Violent Volcanoes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury; Volcanoes by Seymour Simon; “The Volcano Wakes” From Volcano: The Eruption and Healing of Mount St. Helens by Patricia Lauber 155
z The Hindenburg Disaster: What Was the Hindenburg? by Janet B. Pascal; You Wouldn’t Want to Be on the Hindenburg! A Transatlantic Trip You’d Rather Skip by Ian Graham 164
z “How Octopuses Change Color” From The Octopus Scientists: Exploring the Mind of a Mollusk by Sy Montgomery 171
z Fatal Fever: Tracking Down Typhoid Mary by Gail Jarrow 177
TextPair
Speeches (“The Gettysburg Address” and “I Have a Dream”) and pieces on Rosa Parks
Leadsand Endings
Word Choiceand Vocabulary
Each piece demonstrates a strong point of view. How does the word choice establish this? How does word choice add to tone/ mood?
Elementsof Literature Text Structures
Determine the themes of these pieces. How are they similar? How do the authors establish theme?
“White Death” and “The Storm Factory” and Weather!
“How Does a Chameleon Change Its Color?” and “How Octopuses Change Color”
Notice how each author catches the reader’s attention with the introduction. What specifically do they do? How do the authors end their pieces?
Compare and contrast how each piece depicts the central idea of the piece.
How do the text features and structure affect how the main idea is conveyed? How does the structure affect voice and point of view?
Compare and contrast how each author establishes the main or central idea of the piece.
To Susan Zimmermann
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are a mentor extraordinaire. I am the teacher (and writer) I am because of your guidance.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A huge hug and thank you to my editor and friend, Wendy Murray. You are an inspiration. We started with a great idea, but you grew it and used your wisdom and vision to bring this book to life. You have an innate ability to envision and design beautiful books.
Thank you to my students—all 33 years’ worth. Each year there is magic. I learn right along with you, and I continue to be amazed by you each day.
A heartfelt thank you to the teachers with whom I work, here in Denver and across the country. I admire what you bring to your classrooms and the way you change lives, even when faced with daunting challenges.
Thank you to Kate Blanchard for providing feedback on the lessons and layout. Besides being a dear friend, you are a talented educator, and your students are lucky to have you.
To the schools that opened their doors and classrooms to our film crew, many, many thanks! At Aspen Crossing—Principal Scott Schleich, Jill Jesch and her third graders, and Kate Blanchard and Chad Blood and their fifth graders—your students are brilliant! At West Middle School—Principal Kate Bergles, Carol Meyer and her fabulous sixth graders, and Kathryn Strickland and her tremendous eighth graders—the depth of the thinking blew me away! And finally, my fourth-grade students. Basically, “you rock!”
A shout-out to the film crew who did the video: David Stewart, Patrick Gillespie, Brandon ReichSweet, and Maya Ferrario. It was a blast! A huge thank you to video producer Julie Slattery for directing and keeping us on track.
Thank you to my CHVE “family”—the phenomenal educators, students, and parents that make it such an outstanding school. A special thank you to Clay Borchert, Jessica Yoffe, and Sue Beman, who keep the laughter alive. And to our captain, Molly Drvenkar, for keeping the joy (and sanity) in teaching! You always have what’s best for kids at the forefront.
Thank you to the Corwin “family” who work their magic and bring books to life. I could write pages of accolades to you all: Wendy Murray, Lisa Luedeke, Lisa Shaw, Rebecca Eaton, Melanie Birdsall, Julie Nemer, Nicole Shade, Gail Buschman, Diana Breti, and Alison Syring.
Thank you to my friends, who are patient with me while I’m “working on the writing.” Friends who are worth their weight in gold. Trina and Sue, especially—thanks for keeping me balanced! I love you!
My family in Washington—a family of teachers. Andy, Jill, Allison, and Mark. I’m truly blessed to have you in my life. And finally, my kids. I am so incredibly proud of you. Carolynn and John, I love the people you are and I can’t wait to see where life takes you. Thank you for your support, love, and encouragement.
that they align with your state’s standards, for as you will see below, the writing and reading skills involved are timeless.
Writing Standard 9 states that students will “draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.” This, in essence, is writing about reading. The reading standards that the lessons in this book focus on are the following:
z Reading 1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
z Reading 2: Determine central ideas of themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
z Reading 3: Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
z Reading 4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.
z Reading 5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to one another and the whole.
z Reading 6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
z Reading 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
z Reading 8: Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
Notice that there are eight standards here and six sections of the book. Writing about words and phrases is combined with structure of texts in one section. Comparing and contrasting works is embedded throughout the lessons, as it transfers across the reading standards.
TheExpectations forGrades6–8
While the standards remain the same, the sophistication changes as students progress through the grades. Verbs change, too. In Grades 3–5, students are generally describing or explaining. As they move to Grades 6–8, students are expected to analyze. These lessons are easily adapted to Grades 6–8 simply by having students analyze how the author writes or how the text is presented. In addition, the even-numbered lessons are all the more advanced follow-up to the preceding lesson. Teachers of Grades 6–8 might simply skip to these for their students. Specific lessons that focus on Grades 6–8 have asterisks next to them in the table of contents.
It’s all about balance. I use that word a lot as I work with teachers. Best practice. And best practice means incorporating rich texts in our classrooms. There are a lot of rich texts in this book. Use them. Practice with them. Use the templates, but then move away from them and let the kids take control. The lessons in this book are meant to be the foundation for a solid start on writing about reading. My hope is that you use them to create a framework for a love of reading and writing in your classroom.
HOW TO USE THE LESSONS, EXCERPTS, AND GRAB AND GO PAGES
Key terms are defined for easy understanding.
You post these prompts and make copies for students’ notebooks. The goal is for students to work independently, and these prompts provide structure while also moving students to be metacognitive.
Ask and Answer Questions
Textual Evidence: Words, phrases, passages, and illustrations that can be used to provide the strongest proof to support an assertion about what the text says and means.
Cite Specific Textual Evidence: The act of finding a passage or any detail in a text that supports a claim, assertion, or argument about what a text says or means. Evidence comes from within the text itself, not from the reader’s opinion or experience. To cite may mean to directly quote from the text or to paraphrase it.
PromptsforAskingandAnsweringQuestions
z What is my purpose in reading this text?
z What question can I already ask and answer about the topic?
z Does there seem to be a unique slant on the main topic?
z What does the text say about that?
z What does the author seem to want the audience to know most of all?
z What textual evidence supports my account of what the text says?
z What evidence—a detail, quotation, or example—can I cite to support my inference here?
z Which specific details are most important?
z What inferences can I make and what specific details from the text led me to make each one?
z Which specific details help me understand the main topic? Available for download at http://resources.corwin.com/evidencebasedwriting-nonfiction
BesttheTest
Captain Obvious here, but tests are nothing but questions! So, it makes sense to give students plenty of practice with a variety of questions, from multiple choice to ones that require answering a few things at once.
z Teach your students to cite evidence. I call it “lifting a line,” and both verbally and in writing, I model how to do it and have students practice it throughout the year.
z During discussions, scaffold students’ skill with handy phrases: “This passage supports my thinking because _________.” “In the following quote, the author reveals his belief about the topic.” “In the first section, all the details were about _________, so this leads me to think _________.”
This section explicitly states how the lessons address test-taking skills and provides ideas to introduce students to the genre of standardized tests.
This section explains what you need ahead of time—both the materials and the key points in texts.
This section offers a quick view to find more resources.
“I notice the author uses the word _________ a lot, so I think the author’s main purpose is _________.” Students can use these same response stems in their writing, too.
z Prior to testing, devote a lesson to analyzing released test questions. Have students work in groups and create two-column charts with “Our Questions” and “Test Maker Questions,” and have them record what they notice about the different types.
z Help students to recognize “distracter” answers that are designed to trip you up. (It’s the answer that looks right, if you’re not paying attention; it might repeat a word from the end of the text.)
z Share examples of released test questions for which using background knowledge in answers doesn’t work. If a student knows the sky is blue, but the text says it’s pink, then in the answer students need to go with the text—pink sky.
LessonPrep
z Download and print out prompts.
z Choose a book that has a succinct question and answer format. The Q & A series from Scholastic is a great resource. I use Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Questions and Answers About Tornadoes and Hurricanes by Melvin and Gilda Berger. Have a second book on the same topic, which is also organized by questions but has more in-depth answers (e.g., Howling Hurricanes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury).
z Choose the question(s) you want to focus on (e.g., “What is a hurricane?”—p. 24 Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, pp. 4–5 Howling Hurricanes; “What is a storm surge?”—p. 36 Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, p. 17 Howling Hurricanes).
IntroduceIt
1. Distribute prompts to students and/or display on wall as anchor chart.
2. Construct another chart with headings for “Class Questions” and “Text Questions.”
3. Introduce the first book, Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, and show students the question/answer format. Have students share their questions about tornadoes and hurricanes. Record about five of their questions on chart paper.
4. Read aloud the question “What is a hurricane?” on p. 24 and the answer.
5. Write the question on the chart under “Text Questions.” Discuss the answer: “A large, donut-shaped storm with heavy rain and strong winds blowing around a calm center. Hurricanes are the biggest and most destructive storms on Earth.” Discuss whether students really understand what a hurricane is from these two sentences. Do they want more information?
Here is a short plan to follow, which begins with guided practice, includes student collaboration, and involves nonfiction pieces in the book or readily available elsewhere. This section always incorporates a “Write About Reading” section.
6. Share Howling Hurricanes, the second book on the same topic. Show the organization of this book, too, then turn to pp. 4–5 to answer the same question.
7. Read the first paragraph and think aloud how you determine the most important facts/details. Record these under “Text Questions” and tell students you are adding the “evidence” on the chart.
8. Read the second paragraph and have students turn and talk about what they think is most important—but reinforce that it needs to be tied to the text. Record thinking.
For more on tornadoes:
z https://www.ready.gov/tornadoes
z http://scijinks.jpl.nasa.gov/tornado z http://www.chaseday.com/ tornadoes.htm
9. Finally, read the third paragraph and record thinking. 10. Repeat this process with another question, preferably one of the students’ questions. You could stop here and pick up the next day. Repeat these same steps to cover different questions over a period of days.
11. Write about reading: Choose one of the questions and co-construct an answer using facts and details from the chart. Make sure to include at least one phrase from the text and explain that you are “citing evidence.”
Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Questions and Answers About Tornadoes and Hurricanes by Melvin and Gilda Berger Did It All Start With a Snowball Fight? And Other Questions About the American Revolution by Mary Kay Carson Q & A Series from Scholastic—great titles and topics!
HowtoUsetheGrabandGoPages
z Distribute to students copies of the Ask and Answer Questions template on page 6 and the excerpt “Where Do Tornadoes Come From?” on page 7.
z If students are ready, have them work on the activity in small groups.
z If students are just beginning to ask questions and find evidence, use these two pages as a teacherdirected lesson, as follows:
� Begin by having students write down their current understandings about where tornadoes come from on the space provided on the article page.
� Then discuss what they think the author’s purpose is and what the author intends for them to learn.
4 section 1 z evidence
A bit more on tornadoes: z https://youtu.be/iMWoY PaQx0Q z http://www.chaseday.com/ tornadoes.htm
� Next, work through the article one paragraph at a time, thinking aloud as you decide which lines answer the question.
� After a paragraph, turn the highlighting over to the students, and have them turn and talk and then confirm their thinking.
� After finishing the article, decide what are the three most important facts that answer the question (it can be more than three, if you want).
� Have them fill out the reproducible, guiding where needed.
� Use this reproducible periodically with other short nonfiction texts, ultimately having students work through the reading, highlighting, annotating, answering, and citing evidence independently.
� Periodically provide teacher/text-dependent questions for practice.
Each lesson includes two Grab and Go reproducibles to share with students. One is a mentor text for students to annotate and write about, and the second is a template or task to provide additional writing practice. This “How To” page offers specific instructions on executing and extending the student practice.
Students learn by doing, so these Write-About-Reading templates scaffold their collaborative and independent work as they reread and interpret texts. These pages can also be used in other lessons in this book, or you can tweak them to fit your instructional needs.
Ask and Answer Questions
Name:
Title:
Directions:
z Write the question you are answering.
Date:
z Record the three most important details from the text that help you answer the question and then “lift a line” or cite evidence from the text that supports your answer.
z Finally, write a short answer to the question using your information on the chart. Make sure to cite at least one specific example from the text.
Question
Write about reading: Using the information from the chart, answer the question:
This book includes 24 excerpts or complete pieces by top authors. You can use them for multiple purposes in this book’s lessons and beyond.
e X cer P t to write AB out
“Where
Do Tornadoes Come From?”
From How Come? Every Kid’s Science Questions Explained by Kathy
Wollard
Name:
� Directions:
Date:
z Before you start reading this article, look at the title and the question and write down what you think the answer is here:
z Read the article through once to gain a general understanding. Highlight any unfamiliar words.
z Read the text again, highlighting important words, phrases, and sentences that answer the question from the title. Jot your thinking in the margins.
Tornadoes, although small, are the most powerful storms in nature. Twisting and turning, they snake down from clouds and wreak havoc, exploding houses, tossing cars like baseballs, and pulling trees up by their roots. Storm survivors may find even pieces of straw driven into the side of trees like nails. The sound of an approaching tornado has been described as the roar of a monster freight train.
The United States is the tornado capital of the world, with an average of 700 twisters a year. The country that comes in second on the tornado hit list is Australia, with a measly 15. (Some U.S. states get more tornadoes than others. From 1953 to 1980, Alaska had one lonely tornado, while Kansas—home state of Dorothy and Toto—had more than 1,200.)
The recipe for a tornado? Take a big thunderstorm. Add winds blowing from opposite directions, then throw in a strong updraft.
If you were to look at the top of a big thunderstorm, you would see the cloud tops bubbling up and then subsiding as powerful gusts of wind (the updraft) surge up through the clouds. A tornado sometimes forms when the air in the updraft begins to rotate, as opposing winds in the storm spin it around.
The spinning column of rising air is called a mesocyclone. Such a mass of whirling air and cloud, like the whirling water around a bathtub drain, is called a vortex. In the center of the storm vortex, the air pressure drops, as more air is sucked into the spinning part. No one knows just how low the pressure can drop, but some scientists estimate it may fall to half normal air pressure.
(Continued)
Section 1
Evidence
Right here, the author says that peregrine falcons almost became extinct because of pesticides, and later in the text, she lists other environmental threats. . . .
Expert readers support their understandings with evidence from the text. They have learned a complex process of reading, wondering, and reading on to find answers to their questions. Often likened to detective work, this sleuthing all begins with questions: I wonder what almost wiped out these falcons? Why does the author continue to think the falcon is in danger? These might have been the wonderings that preceded the evidenced-based statements above.
In this section, I show you how to open up our instructional time for explicit modeling of raising questions because it’s the central way we engage with nonfiction authors’ ideas. Students need to value their own questions and curiosities and, despite the current nonsense that students shouldn’t bring their background knowledge to the text, students need to feel free to access what they already know.
Watch Leslie Teach!
With the practice pages, your students will do a lot of asking and answering questions as they read, and they will get great practice anchoring their answers with examples from the text. As you will see in the texts I include and suggest, I believe that students need practice with nonfiction that is challenging but not so hard they can’t navigate it.
I recommend you jump right into this work at the beginning of the school year and deepen it throughout. Questions should drive instruction. Questions about topics, themes, and content—and also questions designed to ignite particular types of thinking. What is the author really trying to tell me? How has the author reeled me in? What details seem important, and why? And so on.
Asking and answering questions helps students do the analysis, evaluation, and deeper thinking required by the standards. The work also reinforces students’ purpose setting because they are reading with particular questions in mind— reading for an explicit reason. We always need to know what we are reading and why, and the lessons in this section help students to practice these two facets of critical reading.
Video 1: Watch Leslie guide students’ practice with citing evidence about character traits in two biographies.
Go to http://resources.corwin.com/evidencebasedwriting-nonfiction to see the lessons and guided practice in action.
To read a QR code, you must have a smartphone or tablet with a camera. We recommend that you download a QR code reader app that is made specifically for your phone or tablet brand.
“I notice the author uses the word _________ a lot, so I think the author’s main purpose is _________.” Students can use these same response stems in their writing, too.
z Prior to testing, devote a lesson to analyzing released test questions. Have students work in groups and create two-column charts with “Our Questions” and “Test Maker Questions,” and have them record what they notice about the different types.
z Help students to recognize “distracter” answers that are designed to trip you up. (It’s the answer that looks right, if you’re not paying attention; it might repeat a word from the end of the text.)
z Share examples of released test questions for which using background knowledge in answers doesn’t work. If a student knows the sky is blue, but the text says it’s pink, then in the answer students need to go with the text—pink sky.
LessonPrep
z Download and print out prompts.
z Choose a book that has a succinct question and answer format. The Q & A series from Scholastic is a great resource. I use Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Questions and Answers About Tornadoes and Hurricanes by Melvin and Gilda Berger. Have a second book on the same topic, which is also organized by questions but has more in-depth answers (e.g., Howling Hurricanes by Louise and Richard Spilsbury).
z Choose the question(s) you want to focus on (e.g., “What is a hurricane?”—p. 24 Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, pp. 4–5 Howling Hurricanes; “What is a storm surge?”—p. 36 Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, p. 17 Howling Hurricanes).
IntroduceIt
1. Distribute prompts to students and/or display on wall as anchor chart.
2. Construct another chart with headings for “Class Questions” and “Text Questions.”
3. Introduce the first book, Do Tornadoes Really Twist?, and show students the question/answer format. Have students share their questions about tornadoes and hurricanes. Record about five of their questions on chart paper.
4. Read aloud the question “What is a hurricane?” on p. 24 and the answer.
5. Write the question on the chart under “Text Questions.” Discuss the answer: “A large, donut-shaped storm with heavy rain and strong winds blowing around a calm center. Hurricanes are the biggest and most destructive storms on Earth.” Discuss whether students really understand what a hurricane is from these two sentences. Do they want more information?
6. Share Howling Hurricanes, the second book on the same topic. Show the organization of this book, too, then turn to pp. 4–5 to answer the same question.
7. Read the first paragraph and think aloud how you determine the most important facts/details. Record these under “Text Questions” and tell students you are adding the “evidence” on the chart.
8. Read the second paragraph and have students turn and talk about what they think is most important—but reinforce that it needs to be tied to the text. Record thinking.
For more on tornadoes:
z https://www.ready.gov/tornadoes
z http://scijinks.jpl.nasa.gov/tornado
z http://www.chaseday.com/ tornadoes.htm
9. Finally, read the third paragraph and record thinking.
10. Repeat this process with another question, preferably one of the students’ questions. You could stop here and pick up the next day. Repeat these same steps to cover different questions over a period of days.
11. Write about reading: Choose one of the questions and co-construct an answer using facts and details from the chart. Make sure to include at least one phrase from the text and explain that you are “citing evidence.”
Do Tornadoes Really Twist? Questions and Answers About Tornadoes and Hurricanes by Melvin and Gilda Berger
Did It All Start With a Snowball Fight? And Other Questions About the American Revolution by Mary Kay Carson
Q & A Series from Scholastic—great titles and topics!
HowtoUsetheGrabandGoPages
z Distribute to students copies of the Ask and Answer Questions template on page 6 and the excerpt “Where Do Tornadoes Come From?” on page 7.
z If students are ready, have them work on the activity in small groups.
z If students are just beginning to ask questions and find evidence, use these two pages as a teacherdirected lesson, as follows:
� Begin by having students write down their current understandings about where tornadoes come from on the space provided on the article page.
� Then discuss what they think the author’s purpose is and what the author intends for them to learn.
A bit more on tornadoes:
z https://youtu.be/iMWoY PaQx0Q
z http://www.chaseday.com/ tornadoes.htm
� Next, work through the article one paragraph at a time, thinking aloud as you decide which lines answer the question.
� After a paragraph, turn the highlighting over to the students, and have them turn and talk and then confirm their thinking.
� After finishing the article, decide what are the three most important facts that answer the question (it can be more than three, if you want).
� Have them fill out the reproducible, guiding where needed.
� Use this reproducible periodically with other short nonfiction texts, ultimately having students work through the reading, highlighting, annotating, answering, and citing evidence independently.
� Periodically provide teacher/text-dependent questions for practice.
SampletoShareWithStudents
e X cer P t to write AB out
“Where Do Tornadoes Come From?”
From How Come? Every Kid’s Science Questions Explained
by Kathy Wollard
Name: Date:
� Directions:
z Before you start reading this article, look at the title and the question and write down what you think the answer is here:
z Read the article through once to gain a general understanding. Highlight any unfamiliar words.
z Read the text again, highlighting important words, phrases, and sentences that answer the question from the title. Jot your thinking in the margins.
Tornadoes, although small, are the most powerful storms in nature. Twisting and turning, they snake down from clouds and wreak havoc, exploding houses, tossing cars like baseballs, and pulling trees up by their roots. Storm survivors may find even pieces of straw driven into the side of trees like nails. The sound of an approaching tornado has been described as the roar of a monster freight train.
The United States is the tornado capital of the world, with an average of 700 twisters a year. The country that comes in second on the tornado hit list is Australia, with a measly 15. (Some U.S. states get more tornadoes than others. From 1953 to 1980, Alaska had one lonely tornado, while Kansas—home state of Dorothy and Toto—had more than 1,200.)
The recipe for a tornado? Take a big thunderstorm. Add winds blowing from opposite directions, then throw in a strong updraft.
If you were to look at the top of a big thunderstorm, you would see the cloud tops bubbling up and then subsiding as powerful gusts of wind (the updraft) surge up through the clouds. A tornado sometimes forms when the air in the updraft begins to rotate, as opposing winds in the storm spin it around.
The spinning column of rising air is called a mesocyclone. Such a mass of whirling air and cloud, like the whirling water around a bathtub drain, is called a vortex. In the center of the storm vortex, the air pressure drops, as more air is sucked into the spinning part. No one knows just how low the pressure can drop, but some scientists estimate it may fall to half normal air pressure.
(Continued)
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Some mesocyclones get stronger, spinning faster and faster as they shrink. As the pressure in the center drops, the whirling air mass takes on the familiar “funnel” shape we know as a tornado. And as more air gets pulled into the funnel, it accelerates upward, stretching the tube.
A tornado may be shaped like a cone, or a thick pillar, or a long, thin, twisty tube. Tornadoes come in different colors, too. When the funnel cloud first dips down from the sky, it may be dirty white or gray. But as it lifts up dust and debris from the ground, it often turns brown or clay-red.
Wind speeds may reach 600 miles an hour. Pieces of wood and metal picked up from the ground hurtle around in the tornado at the same speeds, becoming lethal weapons. And the extremely low pressure in the center can explode small closed buildings as the funnel passes overhead. Lucky for us, meteorologists are getting better and better at predicting when a tornado will form. If a tornado warning is issued, the northeast corner of a basement or the center of a first floor is the safest place to be. Outside, a ditch or other low-lying area is the best bet.
Note: Kathy Wollard uses many techniques for engaging the reader with her subject matter. Instead of delivering just plain facts about tornadoes, she uses descriptive words, similes, metaphors, and comparisons to help us envision both the science and the havoc of these storms. Choose a paragraph to see what you notice and what you might try in your own nonfiction writing. For example, in paragraph one, notice the verbs: twisting and turning, snake, exploding, tossing, pulling, driven—do you feel the “wind energy” of those words? Wollard likens tornadoes to familiar things her reader might know. Why does she do that? For example, the tornado’s approach is “the roar of a monster freight train.” In paragraph four, she helps us understand vortex by reminding us that we see one in action when the water whirls around a bathtub drain. Read this excerpt and think about how Wollard is clearly writing for a particular audience of readers about your age. Might that be why she alluded to Dorothy and Toto in paragraph two? Or the recipe in paragraph three?
Cite Evidence
BesttheTest
Many test questions have two parts. The first asks students to identify something (e.g., a main idea in a passage). The second part asks students to cite evidence to support their answer.
z Help your students to see that citing evidence is a vital research skill and life skill! Whether debating who deserves the Oscar or which candidate deserves the White House, educated citizens know to back up their opinions with evidence.
z Practice this skill throughout the content areas, and make it as much a part of discussion as writing about reading. I find students really get the hang of determining what’s important and citing it when they can see and hear the process through talk.
LessonPrep
z Photocopy for each student the Prove It! template on page 12 and “The Storm Factory” on page 13.
z Choose short informational pieces of text that lend themselves to answering a specific question about a specific topic. Photocopy for students.
IntroduceIt
1. Review how to cite evidence and discuss how it is an important component in written answers to questions. In addition, discuss the real world/ authentic connection. Writers cite! Television pundits cite! Scientists cite! Sportscasters cite!
2. Set the purpose by telling students they are reading to answer a question (e.g., “What is the storm factory?”). No matter what text you use, keep the question focused! Prompt with: What information in the text answers this? What can you highlight to lift out to cite evidence?
Key Details: Parts of a text that support the main idea and enable the reader to cite evidence, draw conclusions, and infer what the text or a portion of a text is about.
Evidence: Studies, expert quotes, statements, and data that supports the author’s claim, or meaning, in a nonfiction text. The evidence may, indeed, support an author’s intended message, but a reader may question it and find it flawed and use it to assert an opposing point of view.
To find out more about hurricanes:
z http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
z http://www.weatherwizkids .com/weather-hurricane.htm
z https://scied.ucar.edu/ webweather/hurricanes
Can You Believe? Hurricanes by Sandra Markle
Hurricanes Have Eyes but Can’t See and Other Amazing Facts About Wild Weather by Melvin and Gilda Berger
Hurricane Force: In the Path of America’s Deadliest Storms by Joseph B. Treaster
HowtoUsetheGrabandGoPages
z Distribute copies to each student of the Prove It! template on page 12 and “The Storm Factory” excerpt on page 13. You can do this as a teacherguided lesson or have students work in groups, with partners, or independently.
z When students are finished reading, highlighting, and annotating, have them transfer information to the Prove It! template. Note: as with any technique, at a certain point later in the year, ease up on “always” highlighting and annotating. You don’t
The Perfect Storm movie trailer is on YouTube. Use it as a springboard for students to write an evidence-based poem or paragraph about Hurricane Grace: z https://youtu.be/RZvljNvnd18
want kids doing it on autopilot if they are ready to use their own style of note taking.
z At the end of the Prove It! template is a writing task. If your students need support, complete this as a collaborative activity. If they can do it independently, use their responses to inform next steps. Ask yourself: Do students need more direct instruction or are they working independently successfully? What’s strong about their responses? What might they need more demonstrations and guided practice on?
z Use the Prove It! page with other texts throughout the year.
SampletoShareWithStudents
Prove It!
Name:
Title:
Question you are answering:
Date:
Directions:
z Read the text once. Read it again and think about what information is important in answering the question.
z Fill in the boxes with information from the text that answers the question.
z Remember to use direct lines from the text—cite evidence. (You may not have information for each box.) Who?
Write about reading: Use the information from your chart to answer the question you have written above.
Available for download at http://resources.corwin.com/evidencebasedwriting-nonfiction
From Hurricane Force: In the Path of America’s Deadliest Storms
by Joseph B. treaster
� Directions: Think about the title “The Storm Factory.” What question does that title make you ask? Read the first two paragraphs and highlight information that answers that question.
Hurricanes owe a great deal to the dry, hot winds of the Sahara desert. In summer, the desert winds swirl out over the Atlantic from the coast of West Africa, carrying tropical waves (also called easterly waves) that often spawn clusters of thunderstorms stretching hundreds of miles.
Some of these sprawling patches of turbulent weather grow into hurricanes right there off Africa. Most shift and scatter as they drift westward across the Atlantic on the trade winds and die out quietly. But if conditions are right, some of the clusters of thunderstorms build into hurricanes in the Atlantic east of the Bahamas, in the western Caribbean, or in the Gulf of Mexico—within easy range of the coasts of Mexico and half a dozen southern states.
� What important information have you learned from the first two paragraphs? Highlight and annotate any information that helps explain what a storm factory is. Use the margins to sketch or draw visuals to help you understand.
Scientists are still searching for the answers to what causes some tropical waves to blossom into hurricanes and others to drift into oblivion. But it is clear that hurricanes get going in areas of low atmospheric pressure, that they need warm water to fuel their massive engines, and that they depend upon certain favorable wind conditions.
� Does this paragraph answer questions or does it raise new questions?
As you read on, notice how the author uses the term low pressure from the last paragraph. How does that help answer what a storm factory is?
Use the margins to sketch or draw visuals to help you understand.
Tropical waves provide a vast area of low pressure. As they move over the ocean, warm, moist air rises and condenses into clouds that often crackle with thunder and lightning. The pressure drops further and surrounding air rushes in. This creates wind, which, because of the rotation of the earth, begins turning counterclockwise. The pressure continues to fall and the swirling warm air alternately absorbs and releases heat and energy that drive the storm even faster.
Any number of conditions can scatter a gathering storm before it can become a hurricane. Warm, dry air at altitudes of 10,000 to 20,000 feet can choke a storm. Wind shear—a sharp difference in wind speed and direction—can knock the rising air at an angle, destroying the chimney that the storm needs to channel moisture and heat upward. If the layer of warm water at the ocean’s surface is not deep enough, the storm will quickly use it up and weaken.
