Literacy and Social Studies

Colorado- Learning about the state we live in!

Reading

Around the half-way point in Kindergarten, we begin introducing nonfictional reading text into our literacy groups. Up until that point, we have mostly explored many fictional genres such as picture books, poems, and storybooks from the literacy curriculum. The only nonfiction text the students are exposed to formally at school are the Scholastic Kids magazines. 

Once students learn to write, they do start with more nonfictional prompts such as 'Weekend News' (what they did over the weekend), creating wish lists around various topics, wants and needs, or opinion pieces. Their exposure to both genres are continuous, but are practiced at different times of development. 

We began reading an Informational text book during our literacy centers this week. These decodable books are part of our literacy program. Kopp said 'nonfiction picture books can be used effectively with students...as they are engaging tools for introducing topics or units (Kopp, 2017, p. 49). Kopp also suggested to question whether students know the difference between nonfiction and fiction (Kopp,  2017, p. 49). With the teachers guide book, I made sure to tell the students what kind of book we were about to read, the features of the book and how it is different from storybooks. 

I engaged the students with a short discussion before we began reading to access any prior knowledge of nonfictional books. Most kids could relate to a book at home their grown-ups had read them. (Good news!). After previewing the book and predicting what we might learn, we began reading the book together. We stopped at each page for questions:

Teacher: How does the picture help us understand better what the page is saying?

Students: That cats like to hid in baskets!

Teacher: What does it mean that cats dislike suds? What is happening to the cat in the picture?

Students: The cat does not like to take a bath because he looks sad.

As you can see, this is an example of the very beginnings of comprehension and how text features (pictures) are used to help guide understanding. I also worked to capture understanding by asking questions at the end about what they learned.

Learning about Colorado

For our Social Studies lesson this week, the students began learning about the state of Colorado and its' geography, history, people, customs, and way of life. The teacher began introducing new terminology with a picture book early in the day. She, of course, would stop as ask the students questions like 'do you know what a state is or city? to increase understanding.

During the formal Social Studies lesson, the teacher pulled up a book from Epic, an online reading resource called Colorado. As a way to check for understanding and comprehension, the teacher stopped to ask questions and used many of the text features, such as bolded words, to check for comprehension. I heard her connect reading to math standards when she asked what shape our state is (Students: A square! A rectangle!). 

The lesson ended with learning about the Colorado flag and what each part represented. As she went through each element of the flag, she would ask the students first what they thought each color represented. This sparked a lively and engaging, teacher-led, conversation. Kindergarteners love guessing or telling what they know!

                                                           

Blue for the blue sky

White for the white mountain snow

Yellow for the sun, as it's always sunny in CO

C for Colorado

Red for the red rock and red dirt

Writing

In her talk about science, social studies and literacy, Nell K. Duke talked about the relationship between social studies and literacy and how it can have a positive and profound effect on both studies. She discussed that informational text read in social studies will increase informational writing skills (Duke. (2019, March 5). One of the topics discussed during the Colorado lesson was Way of Life-the activities people of Colorado enjoy. The class brainstormed some ideas before reading the page. This led to their writing assignment. After coloring the Colorado flag, students had to draw a picture of something they like to do in Colorado and then write a sentence about it. A sentence started was on the board for those who needed it, and we provided scaffolds for those who needed extra help. I like to....

Science

We did not have a science lesson in class this week, but the students did go to Smartlab. Unfortunately, I missed their day in the class and the second day, they had a substitute teacher. They did not receive a formal lesson that day. The students worked with geometric shape kits and were told to work with partners to create something. In chapter 5 of Kopp's science book, she stated 'Learning objectives are important because they establish the final destination students should reach on their learning journey, or instructional plan' (Kopp, 2017, p. 62). The  substitute did her best, but she did not lay out the instructions well and might have assumed that the kindergarteners knew what it meant to work with a partner to create collaboratively. After understanding the importance of making a plan, I saw first-hand how a lesson's intended outcome isn not fulfilled when students are not instructed well. I did my best to work with each group and talk about how to work with a partner and create a plan first, but the students were already off basically playing with the kits individually.

References

Kopp, K. (2017) Teaching Social Studies today, 2nd Edition (Shell Education).

Nell K. Duke. (2019, March 5). Speaking up for science and social studies [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAWO2lvAnjI