SISD Curriculum Chronicles
Elementary ELAR Instructional Resources & Strategies
October 2017
WELCOME!
Upon analyzing Unit 1 data, I have gathered resources and strategies to help address student weaknesses. Over the next unit, try to find ways to incorporate these strategies. This may be done through daily read alouds, independent reading, reading responses, etc. Bookmark or favorite this link as I will continue to add resources.
Summarizing Fiction Text
To summarize is to reduce large sections of text to their essential points. When summarizing fiction text, this must include the plot elements (problem, solution, main events, characters, etc.) Below, please find common strategies for helping students to summarize the plot's main events.
- Beginning, Middle, End (BME): The reader retells the most important thing that happened in the beginning of the story, the middle of the story, and the end of the story. This is often done with a BME chart (works well with Unit Assessments and STAAR).
- Five-Finger Retell: See photo below
- Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then: see photo below; great strategy for writing summaries
Theme
A theme is a message or lesson you can learn from a story. It is the central or universal idea of a piece of fiction. Themes are ideas or concepts that relate to morals and values and speak to the human experience. Possible examples of theme include:
- Good friends are important.
- Believe in yourself.
- Hard work leads to rewards.
- It can be hard to change.
Students can discover the theme using the following "helpers:"
- Think about an issue that keeps showing up in a story.
- Reread the title and think about how it connects to the rest of the book.
- Mistakes can lead to lessons- what mistake(s) did the character make?
- At times, characters reflect on their lesson learned at the end of the story.
- At other times, the author may "wrap it up," leaving us with the lesson.
Theme and plot are tied together. The plot refers to "WHAT happens" while the theme answers the questions "What's the BIG idea about it?" Basically, the plot carries the theme. Students can focus on the important events of a story to determine the theme (this is especially true for Unit Assessments and STAAR). Before looking for the theme, discuss the plot together.
Poetry
Although poetry is a supporting standard, it is an important genre that is often mistaught. As teachers, we love to focus on the different types of poetry: haikus, limericks, free verse. However, what is most important is that students:
- understand how the organization of poetry differs from other literary text (stanzas, lines, rhyme schemes)
- understand that poets use sensory language and figurative language to create their message -identifying similes and metaphors is not enough; students need to know what the author is trying to say
- make inferences
Poetry read alouds are a great tool for your classroom. Once a week, spend 10-15 minutes reading a poem together and analyzing poetic elements.
Resources:
Direct Quotations
Writers use quotation marks before and after a direct quotation (e.g., Mom said, "Go clean your room.") While teaching how to punctuate quotations, also teach the rules for capitalization in quotations including capitalizing the first word in a direct quotation that is a complete sentence. Students often struggle to place the comma properly and/or to include the ending punctuation mark within in the punctuation mark. Students should be applying their knowledge of direct quotations through authentic writing opportunities (i.e. imaginative stories, personal narratives, reader's response).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7LNkNcDMEY
Tiffany Mercer
Elementary Director of Curriculum & Instruction
Email: tmercer@springtownisd.net
Phone: 817-220-1700
Twitter: @MsTiffanyMercer