Happy Sunday! And of course welcome back to our weekly bloggy book study of Falling in Love with Close Reading. I am happy just to be able to be typing to you today! Last week my computer shut off unexpectedly and refused to turn on - EEK!! Luckily it is under warranty and I could get a loaner. I hadn't backed up in a few weeks, so I lost some things, but it could have been ALOT worse!
This week we are diving into WORD CHOICE. I will admit I was not sure how in the world I would make this applicable to my little ones, but I think I have found a home for these lessons as a partner to my informational text lessons on main idea and details.
Word choice for first graders?? Huh?
I can only imagine what you are thinking - and I was thinking the same things as I began reading this week, but I think I have found some ways to make this work.
I really like how the author introduces the concept to kids - using ads. I'm not sure how well this would work for the little ones, but I think it could be modified to match if the ads are carefully chosen.
The close reading process is similar when modified to look at word choice:
1. Read through lenses.
- choose specific words to gather - words that evoke strong emotions, strong images, or a clear idea.
2. Use lenses to find patterns.
- Which words fit together?
- How do they fit together?
3. Use the patters to develop a new understanding of the text.
- Think about the author's tone, purpose, relationship to the subject, or central idea.
I really liked the way that the authors chose to talk with students about word choice in informational text. I felt like I could do some of this work with my whole class or small guided reading groups when we are studying the main idea and details of informational text.
Again, the authors gave us some sentence stems to use when kids are finding the patterns.
- One pattern I see is ______ with words like ____.
- Some words fit together, like ____ and make me feel ______.
- These words fit together because they sound ______.
- The author could have _____ but instead ______.
- There seems to be more than one pattern _____ and also ______.
I will be honest here - I think that the little kids may have a harder time working with word choice in fiction. I am hoping to find specific texts that would work with my higher readers. I will let you know what I try out!
Thanks again for joining me this week. Hopefully, this week will be one with out ANY technological interruptions!
Make sure to enter this week's giveaway!
And of course keep on reading for more AMAZING ideas!
Love the sentence stems. I've had a hard time finding texts that would work for my little ones especially at the start of the year.
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