Yesterday, we read Chapter One of Charlotte's Web. The task was to analyze the illustrations and to use those illustrations and the text to infer what the mood of the story was at the beginning of the chapter, and at the end of the chapter.
I know! Analyze? Infer? Literary mood? My kid is only eight!
Believe me, the rigor is incredible, even for third graders. The good news is, the students are capable, with LOTS of training and patience to get to the point where they can actually do these complex tasks.
Step One: Analyze illustrations....
We recognized that illustrations in a text can help us visualize, predict and confirm, and sense mood. After we analyzed the illustrations, we read chapter one of the book, seeing how our understanding of the text was impacted and influenced by the illustrations.
Next, we wrote a open response answering the following question...
How has the story’s mood changed from the beginning of the chapter to the end of the chapter. Remember to give text-evidence to support your answer.
The students responded yesterday, but they summarized what was happening in the story instead of answering the question. That helps me see that they needed more instruction on focusing on a prompt and answering the question being asked.
So..........
Today we started by brainstorming how we could write a better topic sentence. Each table came up with a suggested topic sentence.
Then, we brainstormed what the mood of the story was at the beginning of the chapter and the end of the chapter.
Then the young writers went to work!
After proofreading, and final publishing, our task was done.
Whew, that's a lot in two days. So, the next time you ask your child what they did in school and they say, "Nothing" know that they probably did quite a bit :)
