Christine A. Elmore
We will begin information gathering to gain basic facts about chimpanzees and students, working with their partners, will be encouraged to use at least three sources from the variety of books and internet articles I will provide them with. Victoria Miles, in her previously mentioned book, presents a format which I plan to replicate. The first part of the reporting form is in table format.
Common name: Scientific name: Order: Suborder: Family: Genus: Species:
This table is followed by separate paragraphs briefly describing each of the following categories:
Size/weight
Description
Reproduction
Food
Approximate Lifespan
Status
Habitat
Range.
I will include enemies and ways they protect themselves in this section.
The next step in their research on chimps will be the writing of an informational text and I plan to use Calkins and Pessah's previously mentioned book to guide my instruction. The making of this informational book presupposes a thorough grounding in the features of nonfiction writing which the student has already received in the previous section of this unit.
One important challenge for children reading nonfiction is learning to categorize the information that they read (Calkins and Pessah 2003) .To facilitate the planning of this 'all-about' book, I will provide my students with the following organizer:
I. Decide on at least four sections (chapters) for your book. Choose from the following list:
Physical Description
Habitat
Food
Enemies
Communication
Grooming
Mothers and Babies
Similarities to Man
Weird Facts
Causes of Chimp Endangerment
II. Decide on the format you will use for each section. Choose from the following list:
Straight narrative
Pictures and captions
Diagrams
How-to list
Once the student decides on the sections, he/she can plan the table of contents pages. The next step is where the real research begins. It will now be the student's job to refer to the informational texts available to find out more about each subtopic chosen. With notepad in hand, the student will be asked to locate relevant information (using the book's table of contents, index, captions and pictures and diagrams) on his/her subtopic and to jot down notes. A mini-lesson on how to take notes will help facilitate this. (See Lesson Plan Three). The student will then decide how he/she will present the information for that chapter. Calkins and Pessah emphasize the importance of paper choice when writing and have suggested the following formats to serve specific purposes.
(images available in print form)
Throughout the writing of this all-about book I will be regularly conferring with each student as he/she goes through the process of writing each chapter. Upon completion of these books students will now be given the opportunity to teach their partner about their topics. Young students may feel overwhelmed with this prospect so Calkins and Pessah offer some useful guidelines for students to consider. They suggest that a student can teach others numbers that go with his/her topic (i.e, kinds of, weight, frequency of behaviors), names of things (i.e., places, people), weird facts (i.e., chimpanzees never sleep in the same 'nest' twice) and advice to tell readers (i.e., never have a chimpanzee as a pet) (Calkins and Pessah, 2003). Students will take great pride in being able to teach others about what they have learned and written about. From here students may opt to begin research on other endangered animals and begin the whole process again of writing informational texts.
