This is in response to Lisa and Angela's earlier posts about using the Toolkit at multiple levels.
Our district started using the Nonfiction kit in 3rd grade this year and the teachers are loving it and seeing great things with their students. They talked about it so much that the 4th grade teachers started borrowing their books as soon as they were through with each strategy. So...this year they have been able to use the same anchor books, but we knew there would be a problem next year. Certainly the same strategies are appropriate and need to be emphasized so we have picked out new anchor books to use that fits our 4th grade curriculum. In some instances we even found books by the same author. I will include our list below. Now we have the rest of the year to find the shorter pieces we want to use next year. As has already been mentioned, this strategy teaching is very adaptable to any materials. What we have found is that we teach the strategy with the kit and the non fiction anchor books and articles, then spend some time practicing that same strategy in fiction books and stories. Then we go back to the next cluster and work on it with both non-fiction and fiction. We have found that the kids are seeing the transfer and importance of using the strategy everywhere - in math, social studies, science, watching TV even. Here are the books we are planning to use at 4th grade. We still are looking for a good science book to use in place of the Mt. Everest book. All suggestions are welcomed! Train to Somewhere by Eve Bunting Tornado by Stephen Kramer Roanoke, the Lost Colony by Jane Yolen My Brother Martin by Christine King Farris Our Journey West – The Oregon Trail Adventures of Sarah Marshall by Gare Thompson The Memory Coat by Woodruff Dandelions by Eve Bunting Ann Jernigan Webb City R-7 _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
