Weaving the Elements of Reading & Writing

Rules for Discussion• All eyes and attention should be given to

the speaker. • All members of the group should speak

politely. • Do not interrupt another person. Begin

speaking when he/she is finished. • Support your opinion with evidence from

the text. • Use complete sentences when speaking

to provide details or ask clarifying questions. Formative Assessment:

Evaluate students abilitiesto effectively follow the “Rules for Discussion”.

Purpose Setting: 1) Read, Gorillas independently.

Getting Ready to Read Independently

Purpose Setting: 1) Read, Gorillas independently.

2)Seed Discussion –

Questions you haveWords that need clarificationEnjoyable sectionsBeautifully written languageHumorous bitsInteresting or vivid descriptionsEmotional sections (sad, angry, tense etc.)

Place students in groups of four and have them number off. Student(1) leads the discussion choosing one of the topics. Each student in the group should be allowed to address one of the topics.

Teacher Read-aloud…

As the teacher reads the book aloud the students are listening for topics covered in each paragraph, and make marginal notes.

A comparison of physical characteristics between gorillas and humans

Hollywood’s unfair portrayal of gorillas

Example….

Coming to Consensus…..

• Participants remain in discussion groups• Each should share their subheadings for each section. • Groups should come to a consensus creating

common headings for each sections.• Each group presents their headings and a whole

group consensus should be reached.

• Setting the purpose for re-reading using the text coding as a • As the students re-read the Gorillas they underline and code as

they find evidence of how Seymour Simon draws comparisons of gorillas to humans in the following categories:

• B-Behavior(purple) • R-Reproduction/Young(brown)• P-Physical Characteristics(green)

Text Coding

After modeling text coding, put students in groups of (3). Assign each student within the group a category to text code.

strategy.

B-Behavior(purple) R-Reproduction/Young(brown)P-Physical Characteristics (green)

Content Frame OrganizerGorillas/Humans

Behaviors Reproduction/Young

Physical Characteristics

Gorillas Humans Gorillas Humans Gorillas Humans

Muscle and Bone are the same

Arms much longer

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and heavier

32 teeth 28 teeth

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and heavier

Young shriek when bothered or separated from its mom

Gorillas and Human use facial expressions to let others know what

they are thinking or feeling…ex. Tight-lip expression

Walk on all fours, using their arms as

front legsWalk on two legs

Young spend a lot of time playing-doing somersaults, climbing trees and sliding

down hills

Crawl at two months

Crawl at seven months

Four months walk and stand

Slower to communicate and in different ways

Begin to use language/speech to communicate

Content Frame OrganizerGorillas/Humans

Behaviors Reproduction/Young

Physical Characteristics

Gorillas Humans Gorillas Humans Gorillas Humans

Muscle and Bone are the same

Arms much longer

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and heavier

32 teeth 28 teeth

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and

heavier

Young shriek when bothered or separated from its mom

Gorillas and Human use facial expressions to let others know what

they are thinking or feeling…ex. Tight-lip expression

Walk on all fours, using their arms as

front legsWalk on two legs

Gorillas actually dream like humans

Gorilla babies weigh half as much as humans at birth

Young spend a lot of time playing-doing somersaults, climbing trees and sliding

down hills

Crawl at two months

Crawl at seven months

Four months walk and stand

Slower to communicate and in different ways

Begin to use language/speech to communicate

Organizing information for writing…Power Thinking

Power Thinking is a strategy that will help you organize your ideas before writing.Content Frame: Power 1 is the topic which is comparing gorillas to humans so number that power 1.Powers 2’s are the categories that support the comparison for power 1… for our informational writing this will be a subtitle. Number the power 2’s. Powers 3’s are the support or details of a power 2. This is the information you gathered for each category. Number those details with a 3.

Content Frame OrganizerGorillas/Humans

Behaviors Reproduction/Young

Physical Characteristics

Gorillas Humans Gorillas Humans Gorillas HumansYoung spend a lot of time playing-doing somersaults, climbing trees and sliding

down hills

Crawl at two months

Crawl at seven months

Four months walk and stand

Slower to communicate and in different ways

Begin to use language/speech to communicate

Muscle and Bone are the same

Arms much longer

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and heavier

32 teeth 28 teeth

Shoulders, chest and head much larger and heavier

Young shriek when bothered or separated from its mom

Gorillas and Human use facial expressions to let others know what

they are thinking or feeling…ex. Tight-lip expression

Walk on all fours, using their arms as

front legs

Walk on two legs

1

2 22

3

3

3

Gorillas actually dream like humans

Gorilla babies weigh half as much as humans at birth

Using Our Evidence to Write a Compare/Contrast Prose Constructed Response

• Group students/participants into five groups.• Assign each group a category/task

– Introductory Paragraph– Behavior, Reproduction/Young or Physical Characteristics– Concluding Section/Paragraph

• Groups 2, 3, and 4 will discuss and develop a compare and contrast paragraph based on the information gathered from the “Evidence” chart.

• Groups 1 and 5 will follow the Common Core expectations when developing introductions and concluding sections for informational/explanatory

Formative Assessment:Evaluate students abilities to effectively follow the “Rules for Discussion”.

Summative Assessment: Evaluate the students abilities to effectively develop a compare/contrast paragraph.

Introductory ParagraphIntroduces a Topic & Hooks

the Reader

Compare/Contrast ParagraphGroups Related Information

(Specific Categories)

Concluding SectionRelated to the Information

PresentedConnection to the Audience

ex: Have you ever been around a tap dancer, you know how irresistible tap shoes can be. Let’s find out why.

Comparisonsex: Ballet shoes are quiet. Tap shoes are not. This book is about tap dancing. You will learn about tap shoes, tap floors and tap steps.

Fact-Based QuestionWhat kind of shoe has metal on the sole? What kind of shoe loves a wooden floor? You guessed it! Taps! This book is about tap dancing. You will learn about tap shoes, tap floors and tap steps.

Comparisions Developed with Facts, Details, Examples and or

Quotations

Ideas are linked within the category of Information

Use precise language and Domain Specific Vocabulary

ex: Topic related: silverback, knuckle walk, poaching, endangered, bed down

Leave Us with Something to Think About Rather than Simply

Summarizing the Content

QuotationPresent an interesting quotation or fact related to what you have written. You might need to write something before or after the quotation/fact so that it makes sense to the reader/audience

Encouragement to ReflectEnd with a statement that encourages readers to keep thinking about the concept.

Encouragement to ActEnd with a statement that encourages the taking of some action.

Moving from Synthesizing

toAnalyzing

Word in Context Map

Definition

Word

person example

person non-example

animal example action example

synonymsan

tony

ms

animal non-example action non-example

Plight

A struggle or problem dilemma

predicament

awful situation

Favorable Condition

Ideal Situation

Best circumstances

victim Gorilla

Python survivor protecting

poaching

Problem

Cause

Effect

Solution(s)

• Decrease in the population of gorillas• Endangered • Hollywood portrayal of gorillas• Farmers are taking over the

gorillas’ habitats• Civil Wars• Movies like “King Kong”

• Poaching• Thoughtless people pay a lot of

money for: • Bush meat• Gorilla trophies• Baby gorillas as pets

• Decrease habitat effect their abilities to survive.• Not finding enough food• Not enough area to roam

• Due to civil wars in the area; scientist were unable to access the gorillas in order to monitor their population

• Due to poaching entire families are killed and consequently lowered reproduction rate

• People think these myths are true• Preservation of the forest• Protect the gorillas from hunters and poachers• Train and pay local people to help in the conservation effort• Zoos and museums stop taking gorillas from the wild• Continued education of the public about the plight of the gorillas• Need more movies like “Gorillas in the Mist”

Performance TaskHow do the video and Seymour Simon’s Gorillas structure the ideas, concepts and information to lure the reader into becoming concerned about the plight of gorillas?

How do the video and Seymour Simon’s Gorillas structure the ideas, concepts and information to lure the reader into becoming concerned about the plight of gorillas?

Organize

points

convince

strugglecaring

Breaking It Down for Better Understanding of What the TASK Requires…..

How do the video and Seymour Simon’s Gorillas structure the ideas, concepts and information

to lure the reader into becoming concerned about

the plight of gorillas

How will the Constructed Response be

Scored?

Both the Discovery Ed video and Seymour Simon’s book Gorillas draw the reader in to the topic by comparing humans to gorillas. Simon even kept saying “just like you”. This helps the reader make a personal connection as the gorillas are very similar to humans. For example, the gorilla’s dream like humans, use facial expressions like humans, live in families like humans, and even travel together like humans.

Simon even makes sure you understand the difference between the myths about gorillas that Hollywood movies portray (such as in the movie King Kong) where gorillas seem to be very scary by capturing humans and dragging them into the jungle or smacking airplanes out of the sky. In reality, they are naturally shy and keep to themselves.

In addition, the author causes us to feel compassion for the gorillas in their struggle for survival. It is an awful situation for them as their population decreases. The more the farmers take over their habitat, the more difficult it is for the gorillas to find food and places to roam. Poachers are a huge threat because they often kill the gorillas to sell their meat and capture their babies to sell as cute little pets to thoughtless people. The civil wars occurring in their habitat keep the scientists away, so their population cannot be watched. This makes it very difficult to know how the gorillas are doing under these complicated conditions. In both the book and the video, all of these issues combined bring the gorillas closer to becoming endangered.

Simon suggests options that would create the ideal situations. One thought would be to train and pay local people to help in the conservation effort. By preserving the forests the gorillas live in, poachers would not have easy access to the gorillas. Unlike humans, the gorillas don’t have a voice. Local conservationists could speak out to zoos and museums across the world pleading to protect the vanishing gorillas by leaving them in the wild. In addition, we should keep educating the public about the plight of gorillas so that we don’t continue to add to their predicament.

SAMPLE Constructed Response:How do the video and Seymour Simon’s Gorillas structure the ideas, concepts, and information to lure the reader into becoming concerned about the plight of gorillas?

What would

your CR Score?

Teacher Modeling/Think Aloud • Teacher/student analyze question by discussing what is necessary to fulfill the requirement of the task • Teacher/students examine text to support the responses

Write Answers To The Questions • Students write individual answers • Students share written responses in pairs/groups

Improving Responses Compare and Justify • Guide students in discussing whether the answer fulfills the reading concepts embodied in the task and are supported by the selection

Develop Better Responses • Use student responses to build and model complete paraphrased text-based answers

Application For Ongoing Instruction • Students practice responding to similar questions and apply strategies independently with various texts • Teachers select assessments for primary and secondary benchmarks using the reading standards format

Performance Task Instructional Procedure

SC.4.N.1.6Keep records that describe observations made, carefully distinguishing actual observations form ideas and inferences about the observations.

SC.4.N.1.4

Attempt reasonable answers to scientific questions and cite evidence in support.