Overview+with+Inquiry+Skills

Overview
The activities presented throughout the two literature circle units follow the REACTS Model. The first grade unit focuses on recalling and synthesis. The seventh grade unit focuses on each phase of the inquiry process. The following is an overview of each unit. The inquiry skill, as well as the REACTS phase, is listed with each day's activities. You will see the following pattern for each day's activities: inquiry skill/REACTS phase.

Grade 1: "I Went Walking" by Sue Williams
This literature circle contains several activities. When finished with the unit, students will be able to read the story fluently, recognize farm animals, and write appropriately for grade level.

Day 1: Questioning/Recalling

 * Read story together as a class.
 * Complete a matching game that matches the animal word to a picture of the animal.

Day 2: Exploring/Recalling

 * Read story in groups.
 * Travel to a virtual farm.

Day 3: Exploring/Recalling

 * Read story with a partner.
 * Walk to or take a field trip to a local farm.

Day 4: Inference/Synthesis

 * Read story alone.
 * Write and illustrate story patterned after book.

Day 5: Reflection

 * Share story with groups.

Grade 7: "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
This literature circle involves the students in creating several student products. These include journal entries, a travel brochure, and a newsletter article. **Note:** As homework, students will be assigned the appropriate chapters. They are expected to have them read by the day in which the vocabulary and chapter questions will be discussed and completed in class.

Day 1: Questioning/Recalling

 * Discuss elements of story in small groups.
 * Share one element with class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 1-5.

Day 2: Questioning and Exploring/Recalling, Explaining, and Analyzing

 * Begin travel brochure over setting of novel.
 * Students should begin to ask questions and choose and narrow their topic.

Day 3: Exploring and Assimilation/Analyzing

 * Continue gathering resources for brochure.
 * Students evaluate resources, analyze information, and if needed, revisit topic to narrow.

Day 4: Questioning/Recalling

 * Discuss vocabulary and chapter questions from chapters 1-5 in small groups.
 * Share any interesting findings or ask questions with entire class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 6-9.
 * Write journal entry #1.

Day 5: Exploring and Assimilation/Analyzing and Challenging

 * Continue to gather information and evaluate resources for brochure.
 * Begin compiling bibliography.

Day 6: Inference/Transforming

 * Students should be drawing conclusions based on their research and connecting ideas together.

Day 7: Questioning and Reflection/Recalling

 * Share journal entry with small groups.
 * Share one journal from group with entire class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 10-15.

Day 8: Inference/Transforming and Synthesizing

 * Students should finish research for brochure.
 * Students should begin construction and design for their brochure.

Day 9: Inference/Synthesizing

 * Students should finish their travel brochures.

Day 10: Questioning and Reflection/Recalling

 * Share travel brochures with small groups.
 * Share one interesting fact from each brochure with the class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 16-20.
 * Write journal entry #2.

Day 11: Questioning/Recalling and Explaining

 * Read Appendix at the end of the book.
 * Connect ideas from the appendix to events in the story.
 * Choose a topic from the appendix to write about for newsletter article.

Day 12: Exploring/Analyzing

 * Students begin to formulate questions to use for researching topic.

Day 13: Questioning and Reflection/Recalling

 * Share journal entry #2 with small group.
 * Select one journal entry from each group to share with the class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 21-24.

Day 14: Exploring and Assimilation/Analyzing

 * Students should begin to evaluate resources.
 * Revisit questions to narrow topic, if necessary.

Day 15: Exploring and Assimilation/Analyzing and Challenging

 * Continue to gather information and evaluate resources for newsletter article.
 * Begin compiling bibliography.

Day 16: Questioning/Recalling

 * Discuss vocabulary and chapter questions from chapters 21-24 in small groups.
 * Share one interesting idea discussed in small groups with class.
 * Complete vocabulary and chapter questions for chapters 25-Epilogue.
 * Write journal entry #3.

Day 17: Inference/Transforming and Synthesizing

 * Students should finish research for newsletter article.
 * Students should begin construction and design for their newsletter article.

Day 18: Inference/Synthesizing

 * Students should finish their newsletter articles.

Day 19: Reflection

 * Students will build a folder that contains all documents and writing produced throughout the literature circle unit.
 * Students will share their newsletter article with their small groups.
 * Folders will then be graded and displayed in library/media center for two weeks.

Novice to Expert
//"In mastering the elements of Information Inquiry, teachers and school librarians acting as instructional specialists model, teach, and learn with their students the best ways to test and select information that is valid and relevant to solve information problems"// (Blue Book, p. 170). According to this statement, teachers and media specialists should be working alongside students to develop their own information inquiry skills. So, what makes someone an expert and how do they become an expert? Let's look at a few definitions:


 * Expert** - someone who has a high degree of proficiency, skill, and knowledge in a particular subject (in our case, information inquiry) (Annette Lamb, @http://virtualinquiry.com/scientist/scientist1a.htm).
 * Young Learner (Student) vs. Adult Learner (Teacher or Media Specialist)** - A young learner has the opportunity to bring knowledge to mature, and an adult learner has the opportunity to continue learning and to learn to change (Annette Lamb, @http://virtualinquiry.com/scientist/scientist0.htm).

Based on these two definitions, a person is never finished learning, they just complete different levels of learning. The phrase, "practice makes perfect" is an excellent example here of how a person can continue to learn and inquire about a particular topic or skill no matter the age or level. A young learner will recall information and ask new questions, while an adult learner builds upon questions asked to create a solution to a problem.

On her website (@http://virtualinquiry.com/scientist/scientist1a.htm), Annette Lamb defines five key areas that should be the focus when helping students become information experts. These include: core concepts and experiences, task analysis, pattern recognition, metacognition, and self-regulation. Let's explore these a couple of these in depth:


 * Core Concepts and Experiences** - a foundation of knowledge and experiences in the concept. In first grade, the students will learn how to write appropriate sentences using proper punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. They will use experiences on their field trip to help. (English Standards 1.6.6, 1.6.7, 1.6.8) In seventh grade, the students already know how to write appropriate sentences, but they will build upon this concept by writing several sentences, turning them into journals analyzing a character from the novel. (English Standard 7.3.3)


 * Metacognition** - being able to adapt to changing needs when completing an inquiry. Callison explains, metacognition places more emphasis on the process of learning instead of the product being created that displays the knowledge learned (Blue Book, p. 435). In first grade, the students will be learning how to write appropriately. While the end result is a book written by them, the emphasis during the lesson is to write appropriately. (English Standard 1.1.3) In seventh grade, the brochure and newsletter products will display what they have researched; however, more time is being spent on the inquiry process, allowing the students to gather information, ask questions, evaluate resources, etc. (English Standard 7.5.3)

From the overview of the two units above, you can see the difference in the levels of learning and the inquiry skills being taught. The first grade lessons focus on recalling of information from both the story and their field trip to build a book following the pattern of the story read. The seventh grade lessons focus on the entire inquiry process in some way. The students begin by recalling the setting of the story (Philadelphia). Then using the setting of the story as a springboard for their brochure, the students will ask questions about Philadelphia, evaluate resources, write a bibliography, and produce a brochure about Philadelphia. From these two activities, you can see that the first grade learner is using the information recalled to write a story while the seventh grade learner must analyze information before creating an original product.

//At [] I read about how one teacher gave students in each literature circle a certain job for their reading. The job titles she used were discussion director, passage picker, word specialist, investigator, and illustrator.//
 * //Example for a DIFFERENT GRADE LEVEL from Lori Osmon//**
 * //FOURTH GRADE LITERATURE CIRCLE//**

//I would choose certain novels for the unit and include different titles that were written at different reading levels. I would then arrange students into groups based on their reading ability. I would let students draw out their jobs randomly from a hat. The students would keep that job for the week and then switch at the beginning of the week.//

//I like the idea of the jobs for the fourth grade because it allowed the students to be more involved with the book, each other, and gave them a very specific task for their weekly reading. I think that fourth grade students are able to think more critically and are able to draw conclusions better than third or even first grades. The level of maturation can be much higher with the different jobs that you create for the literature groups.//