Ask students to think of a book they are reading. Go around the group to see what everyone is reading. Ask, why do you think the author wrote the book? See what they answer with.
Discuss what Author’s Purpose is: Reason author is writing the text, usually to inform, persuade or entertain.
Go through the examples of each kind of writing as shown below.
Pass out and discuss the handout which the students can use during the activity. For the activity, use this worksheet.
For the activity, have each student in group do one question on their own and aloud after the initial model. Make sure students understand that their can be more than one purpose and that they should know that depending on the kind of writing, we can better understand the author’s intention in writing.
After the activity, have students once again think about the books they are reading and use the hand out to figure out based on the content of the book, what the author’s purpose of their book is. Go around the group for a discussion. They should be able to explain why they picked that particular purpose.
The fifth grade has been working on creating dynamic Project Based Learning units this year, which each teacher will share with the other 5th grade classes during our Social Studies and Science rotations.
The unit that I have been working on with the students in on Philanthropy.
Overview:
Groups of students will find a charity that they want to help, present to the class and try to persuade the class to choose their charity as the charity their whole fifth grade class will be supporting through raising money, volunteering their time, and making donations.
Our Driving Question and What a Philanthropist Is
Our Need To Knows
Different Types of Charities
Once the class has selected a charity in which to support, they will figure out ways in which they want to help that charity. Students will then be grouped together based on similar interest then they will develop a project proposal for their group. The groups must clear their proposal with me before they begin working.
Students will have roughly one month to complete their philanthropic efforts. During the course of that month, they will blog about the progress they have made and post their blog assignments on the Schoology site for their class.
Example of Blog Post Assignment on Schoology
After they have finished their philanthropic efforts, they will return together as a class to develop a presentation to showcase the headway they have made and the many different ways their class has been a philanthropist.
We will use the story “Peter’s Chair” by Ezra Jack Keats during the lesson. Students are familiar with it because they have read it during Writer’s Workshop.
Review what it means to summarize.
Read the story to the group. Remind them to pay attention to the sequence of events in the story and which ones are most important. Have them notice, where the character experiences “change”.
After the story, take out the Story Arch copy from Writer’s Workshop and go over it.
Have students notice the rising action, climax, falling and resolution.
Take out a blank Story Step.
Use the Story Arch to fill out the Story Step. Explain that students might need to combine some of the events on the Arch to complete the Line. Explain that after each step, we need to look for how the character changed or grew or situation worsened. There should only be three steps then the slide, which is how the problem in story was resolved.
Afterwards, ask the students what lessons did the main character learn during the story? Come up with a short list of the main lessons.
Next will be to use the lessons learned to come up with a main idea of the story.
Students will then be able to use their Story Step to write or state orally a summary of the book they read.
Begin with " In 'Peter's Chair' by Ezra Jack Keats, the main idea is that Peter learns to grow up and share with his family. In the beginning of the story..."
A finished Story Step for “Peter’s Chair” should look like this:
Lesson 2
The next mini-lesson, students will be writing summaries on their own.
I will read the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros to the group.
After we read the story, I pass out blank Story Steps. Students will then take about 10 minutes to fill out their story steps. The will need to also come up with a couple lessons the main character learned then write the main idea of the story using those lessons.
Once Story Steps are complete, they will share with the members of their group. This will be to check to make sure that everyone picked the same main points in the story. Students will have a few minutes to check with each other and to add or take away any information that may be missing or unimportant.
Once they have finished, they will use their Story Step to then write out a complete summary of the story. They will begin with: "In 'Eleven' by Sandra Cisneros, the main idea was...". This should take about three to five minutes. Afterwards, they can share their summaries with the group orally.
Students working on their Story Step for "Eleven"
After students have written their story step, they will need to give an oral summary of the book. They will not be allowed to use their graphic organizer. Stress to students the need to make good decisions about what is an important detail to share during the summary.
Here is a video of a student who did a great job on his oral summary!
Students will be able to determine cause and effect in a series of statements.
Lesson Plan:
Discuss what is cause and effect:
A cause is why an event happens. The effect is an event that happens because of a cause. For example, slamming the door might cause a loud noise. Brainstorm different examples together. You may want to name a cause and have children identify an effect and vice versa. What can cause you to wake up late? What is the effect of walking in the rain? Discuss together.
One event can cause a chain of events to happen. For example, forgetting to set an alarm clock can cause you to wake up late, which means you might be late to school, which can cause you to get in trouble with the teacher. Discuss other examples together. Also explain to children that one event can have many causes. For instance, staying up late the night before and forgetting to set an alarm clock can both cause you to wake up late. Likewise, one event can have multiple effects. What are the effects of arriving late to school? Have children brainstorm different effects.
Discuss how cause and effect can be in a sequence and often create a snowball of events that happen after the initial event.
More than likely, they will need some background knowledge on a few of the ideas. I had students watch the video one time through then talked with them and clarified any misunderstandings. The second and third time they watched it, they filled out flow chart for cause and effect, noting signal words the commercial used.
Discuss how doing one thing lead to another and it was all because...you have paid too much for cable. Ask them to begin thinking of a cause and effect sequence story for next time.
Students will identify and describe the signs of fall they observe outside
Students will understand why leaves of deciduous trees change color in the fall
Students will illustrate their tree scientifically
1. Students go on a walk outside in groups of three. They will find as many signs as possible that indicate that colder weather is approaching. Even though, it is still early on in fall, remind them to look for ways in which they think summer is coming to an end.
2. Give students twenty minutes to find a tree or bush and to scientifically illustrate their drawing. Use the illustration hand out from the previous week.
Have each group pick one of the green leaves from their tree to bring it inside with them. Each person must have their own drawings of the tree/bush.
3. Take a picture of the tree/bush used because you will again use this tree/bush later again.
Upon returning to the classroom
1. Tear up the leaves into pieces. Place in a glass jar.
2. Add rubbing alcohol and coffee filter strip and pencil.
3. After an hour, remove the strips, lay to dry Students will repeat this process once more to see how much change happened from one week to the next. Students will then record their data and answer the questions on this page.
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