As weeks passed by, I started to observe several students grasp the idea of ordering paragraphs into main ideas more quickly and efficiently with the green level of the Leveled Research Library. To introduce students to the blue level, I decided to give every student an opportunity to try it with teacher support. I began with my fourth graders and then an opportunity presented itself for my third graders to try researching at the blue level with a detail template as opposed to a question template.
Question Template
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Detail Template
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I chose a book on their reading level from the book room for my students to read with me during small group time.
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To start the research process at the blue level with my third graders, I first ordered additional resources from the local and school libraries. Then, I created a dinosaur detail template for my students to gather their information.
Dinosaur Template
I approach researching in the elementary classroom with a detail template for several reasons:
- It limits the space to record information, so it prevents students from copying sentences from resources.
- It supports students in practicing the skill of determining important for they have to decide which details or information is more important to gather since there is limited space to record the information.
- The detail template can become tactile to organize the information.
- It incorporates all the skills learned in the previous levels of the research library and the new skills they will be learning to gather and organize information.
After we finished reading the current fiction book in our small groups, I introduced the book Tyrannosaurus Rex. For the next seven days, I identified the new vocabulary words and reviewed the reading strategy of monitor and clarify for the selected pages to be read that day. The students read the pages with a whisper phone while I listened to each of them. Then, I reviewed a phonic lesson and introduced the detail template. I did this on day one of this lesson and for the next 7 seven days we met in small groups.
Partially Completed Dinosaur Detail Template
I asked my students if there was any information that could be recorded in the boxes. I reminded them that they were not going to complete the boxes in order which is the same as the question template. Then, I listened and supported students as they talked to each other and gathered information from the pages they just read. At the end of our small group time, I collected their research for safe keeping and continued with my small group plans.
After the seventh day, I gave my students some more books about Tyrannosaurus Rex to read and to review with each other in the “Read to Someone” station. Depending on how many more boxes they needed to complete, I gave them about two days to review the books with enjoyment. After these two days, they spent about two days at the “Research Station” or the “Writing Station” to complete the dinosaur template about Tyrannosaurus Rex. During our small groups, I started a new book with them.
Additional Resources
During this research project, I changed how I approached the implementation of the detail template into the classroom. I decided to have students complete a few boxes of the detail template each day as we read a book together about the main idea. I approached it this way to provide more teacher and student support since this was their first time researching at the blue level and several students were not ready to research at this level by themselves. In implementing my new plan, it also lowered the frustration level so they actually researched and wanted to research again on their own.
Completed Detail Template
The students began “Day 1 of writing” about the book Tyrannosaurus Rex during their small group time. During this first meeting, students expressed which boxes they didn’t understand or had difficulties completing. I modeled with their books how I would seek the information and guided them to the correct page to gather the information. After they completed the template, I instructed them to initial the back of each box before they began to cut the boxes apart. I have them do this so we can identify lost pieces when two students are working next to each other or the pieces end up on the floor and I find them hours later. The pieces were stored in an envelope until the next day. The students spent their next station working together to assemble their boxes into groups or main ideas which they had to justify to me at our next meeting.
Cutting boxes apart
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All boxes cut apart.
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On “Day 2 of writing,” students finished cutting up apart the boxes and organized their boxes into groups or main ideas. After they justified their reasons for grouping certain boxes together, students glued these pieces to half sheets of paper and wrote the main idea on the paper. Since this is a teacher supported activity, I encouraged students to listen to the ideas of others as I supported each student for a few minutes at my table. The concept of main idea and detail can be a difficult skill for some students to understand before they can master it. Some students may move ahead faster than others and that is okay. I work in three days during small group time to support my students during this process, but some productive struggle may be necessary on their part.
For “Day 3 of writing”, students finished the organization of the boxes into main ideas. Next, students ordered the half sheets of paper to practice the skill of ordering paragraphs. I then stapled the papers in the order the students requested. I didn't interfere in this process, but I did take notice of the order of the paragraphs to witness growth in this skill. As an adult, I know which paragraph should go first, but my students are still learning. They aren’t strangers to researching, but ordering paragraphing is a new concept for several of them. The more they read nonfiction books and the more they research, the better they will become at ordering paragraphs on their own terms.
Ordered Paragraphs with Main Ideas
Ordered paragraphs and ordered sentences within each paragraph.
Before I sent them off to their stations to begin the task of writing their research report, I left them with one final skill to practice of ordering sentences within each paragraph. I instructed them to read all the boxes on each half sheet of paper and ordered them before they began writing each paragraph. I suggested they number the boxes in the order they would like to write them. Since one box equaled one sentence, they essentially practiced the skill of ordering sentences within their paragraphs. Again, I didn't make suggestions of which sentence they should write first. I observed and took notice of how they ordered their sentences. Again, the more nonfiction they read and the more they research, the better students will become at ordering sentences within each paragraph. This skill can be casually practice at the yellow level for an added challenge.
Two paragraphs with a two-finger indent
The students wrote their reports at the writing station during their station time. Each half sheet of paper was one paragraph written with a two-finger indent. Each box was one sentence with a capital letter at the beginning and a period at the end. Students were allowed to come to me for a quick paragraph check in between groups since that was a skill they were trying to perfect. Writing one paragraph with a two-finger indent was easier to remember than writing multiple paragraphs and remembering to have an indent at the beginning of the second, third, and fourth paragraphs.
After students finished writing their reports, they constructed a poster for their reports. These materials consisted of a piece of large construction paper and some clip art which I gathered from the Internet. Students colored the picture with colored pencils, crayons, or markers. They made a title for their posters and I usually assisted with the gluing of their report. Students published to another student or to a teacher in the building. I then displayed their work in the hallway for everyone to see.
To purchase this template, please click on the links below:
Editable:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dinosaur-Research-Template-EDITABLE-3589788
Non-Editable Template: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dinosaur-Research-Template-3589714
Editable:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dinosaur-Research-Template-EDITABLE-3589788
Non-Editable Template: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Dinosaur-Research-Template-3589714
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