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Assignment #5: Inquiry Unit

Section I: Student Information

This semester, I have had the opportunity to work with a 2nd grade general

education class. This wonderful group was comprised of 24 seven and eight year olds.

They are of a diverse group of students, with a range of needs and cultural backgrounds.

In my class, there are two English language learners: one whose parents speak an Indian

language at home, and one who was born deaf and raised with sign language, who has

started speaking since January 2016 when she received a cochlear implant and hearing

aids. Additionally, one student has relatively high functioning ASD, although he receives

resource support in language arts and math. There is also a student who has a cognitive

impairment and receives resource support in language arts and math, social work, and

language services. One student has a speech and language impairment, but he functions

well in reading and writing. In addition to these students, my class has a few students

who receive Title I support for reading, which means an interventionist pushes in to read

with them for a few minutes every day.

Overall, a majority of my students are reading at or above grade level according

to Teachers College running records. We typically follow a reading and writing

workshop instruction style with a mini-lesson on a strategy and time to practice

independently or in partners. During independent work time, my mentor teacher and I

conference with individuals or small groups and take notes on their progress with

whatever strategy we are focusing on that day. At the end, we usually come together as a

class so students have an opportunity to share.

Section II: Planning My Unit:

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To plan my unit, I started by talking to my mentor teacher about what she has

done in the past for non-fiction writing. Since we typically immerse students in reading

and writing co-units, I decided to do the same with this inquiry unit by teaching the

students about nonfiction as a whole and then having them write their own nonfiction

text. A fun inquiry unit she has done in the past is having students write a nonfiction book

about a chosen animal, so I adapted her idea for this class. Then, I searched the Common

Core writing standards to see what 2nd grade is required to accomplish. The following are

the writing standards I incorporated into this unit:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.2 - Write informative/explanatory texts in which

they introduce a topic, use facts and definitions to develop points, and provide a

concluding statement or section.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.5 - With guidance and support from adults and

peers, focus on a topic and strengthen writing as needed by revising and editing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.6 - With guidance and support from adults, use a

variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration

with peers.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.2.7 - Participate in shared research and writing

projects (e.g., read a number of books on a single topic to produce a report; record

science observations).

I then searched Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers for nonfiction unit ideas and

went to the school library for grade-appropriate nonfiction animal books. I also gathered

nonfiction books and National Geographic Kids magazines from our classroom library,

which I kept on display for the entire unit.

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After gathering a wide selection of books, I sorted them by animal. These stacks

of books are what my students would choose from to write about. This ensured that each

student would have enough information to write their books from. I also talked to the 6th

grade teacher about how his students could help mine be successful in this project (my

2nd graders meet with their 6th grade buddies almost every week).

I then created Non Fiction Text feature posters from something I found on

Teachers Pay Teachers to help my students learn to navigate the type of nonfiction books

they would be reading. Throughout this unit, my mentor teacher and I would refer to the

text features as areas where students could find information as well as features they could

include in their own writing.

Section III: Planning, Activating and Building Background Knowledge (5 points):

Day One: Planning, Activating and Building Background Knowledge
Discussed differences between fiction & nonfiction texts
Discussed types of nonfiction texts biography, cookbooks, etc.
Introduced text feature posters
Students were put into small groups and assigned a text feature to find while
reading a section of a National Geographic magazine. They then cut out this text
feature to tape to a poster (see photo above). Students became experts at their
text feature and explained to the class how they found the feature and how it
helped them better understand the text.
Students picked the books they would use for their animal project
o Books were stacked by animal (about 1-3 books per animal)
o Students were asked to pick an animal they were interested in and make
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sure the books were a good fit for reading (something we practice every
week when we exchange books)

Section IV: Teaching Strategies for Gathering, Recording, and Organizing

Information (5 points)
Day Two-Five: Teaching Strategies for Gathering, Recording, and Organizing
Information
Students were given two packets to keep in their research folders (pictured below)
6th grade buddies brought in Chromebooks to help their 2nd grader find
information about their animal from kids.nationalgeographic.com
They were instructed to find information to answer these questions: What does it
look like? What does it eat? Where does it live? Predators/Survival? Babies?
Other Facts?
o The computer research was kept on the white packet since the brown
packet was used for the book research
I taught students how to use the table of contents and index to find information in
each area
I modeled how to read a section of information in a nonfiction text and use bullet
points rather than full sentences to record information
o For all of the modeling I did throughout this project, I researched otters
and did everything the students were doing
Everyone chose one section to research and made 3 bullet points
o My mentor teacher and I checked each students to make sure they found
relevant information and appropriate bullet points
o used this as a formative assessment of students research
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Section V: Building Additional Background Knowledge (5 points)

Day Six-Ten: Building Additional Background Knowledge
Students continue collecting information from their books (2-3 topics per day)
6th grade buddies brought Chromebooks to help 2nd graders make slide
presentations on their animals
I modeled (with a think aloud) how use my research to write a paragraph
o For students who struggled with this, I suggested a sentence stem:
[Animal]s are [adjective] [mammals, amphibians, birds] that live
[location]
o I modeled a different paragraph every day from my otter research and had
students help me decide what to write. This helped them figure out how
they would put their information into a paragraph
Students started to draft their own paragraphs (5 total one for each research
area)
o After completing each paragraph, students would bring them to me or my
MT for a conference. We would use this as a formative assessment to
make sure they are on track, give individual suggestions, and form
instruction for the next day.
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Section VI: Drafting, Editing, and Revising Final Product(s) (5 points)

Day Eleven-Fifteen: Drafting, Editing, and Revising Final Product(s)
During this time, students finished drafting their 5 paragraphs
A parent volunteer came in and bound the final copy books
o Students got to choose their cover color
Students were at different stages, but since many of them were finishing up
drafting, I started to teach editing and revising
When editing, students went through their paragraphs to fix spelling, punctuation,
and capital letters
o Students made edits in red pen so they (and I) could see what they fixed
During the revising stage, I modeled how to make revisions and find bold words
in my paragraphs
o We made a list of potential bold words on the board, including
endangered, omnivore, herbivore, carnivore, predator, prey, mammal,
amphibian, etc.
o Students made revisions in blue pen and traced bold words with a skinny
marker
As students finished revising and editing, they started transferring their
paragraphs to their final copies and illustrating each page
o Illustrations were supposed to include each of the following: map, diagram
with labels, fun fact, and caption
o Students were allowed to print how to draw worksheets for their animal
at technology to help with illustrations
The bold words were used to form a glossary
o Students went through their paragraphs, wrote all of their bold words on
scrap paper, and then put them in ABC order. Then, they wrote the
meanings in 2nd grade language. If students were unsure what to write,
they looked in the glossary of their research books or a childrens
dictionary in the room
See glossary worksheet below
Students made a simple bibliography by writing the title and author of any books
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they used and the National Geographic Kids website where they did internet
research
Students wrote a dedication given the option to use the sentence stem: This book
is dedicated to ______ for ______. J.M.A
I modeled how to make the table of contents and index (see worksheets below),
which students finished at their own pace while illustrating and completing their
final copies
After most students were finished with everything but some illustrations, my MT
and I made a rubric for students to self-assess their progress
o See nonfiction rubric below

Section VII: Presenting or Publishing Final Product(s)/Assessment and

Accountability for Learning (5 points)
Day Sixteen: Presenting or Publishing Final Product(s)/Assessment and
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Accountability for Learning

Writers Celebration
o Everyone in the class was paired up to read their final copy to a partner.
When partnerships finished, they switched places to read to someone else.
I circulated during this time to hear as many as I could.
o When each student finished reading, their partner was required to give
them at least one compliment
My MT and I modeled examples and non-examples of thick
compliments (i.e. I love the way you used details and a map to
explain where your animal lives rather than good job)

Final Copy Student Example 1 (average performing student):

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Final Copy Student Example 2:

This book was done by a student with ASD. As you can see, we accommodated his needs
by drawing straight lines on the pages and having him color a printed map instead of
drawing one. He worked on a lot of the writing in the resource room, but all of the ideas
are his own. He greeted me every day of this project with a fact about whales

Section VIII: Reflection and Critique of Unit (narrative of strengths, weaknesses,

and next steps) (5 points)

I thought this inquiry unit went very well, and my second graders blew me away

with the higher-order thinking skills they were able to demonstrate throughout the

project. The final products all included the text features we had discussed throughout our
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reading and writing of nonfiction texts, and they were all extremely informational. I also

loved the collaboration we were able to establish with 6th grade buddies to use technology

throughout the unit. They were a huge help with finding research and creating slide

presentations; every students was able to have individual help and the 6th graders were

able to use their freshly developed researching skills.

One of the strengths of this unit is that we read a variety of nonfiction books to be

immersed in the type of language and information nonfiction texts exhibit. I would often

read nonfiction books aloud - including ones with information about their animals,

habitats, and endangered species - to continue to build up background knowledge.

Students were encouraged to get at least 1 nonfiction text in their book box each week;

however, some students starting wanting to only read nonfiction. It was amazing how

much they were enjoying this, learning, and teaching me.

Throughout the unit, I taught using a great deal of modeling and think alouds.

This made the concepts and expectations accessible to all students, and everyone was

able to succeed while working at a comfortable pace. Sometimes it took a really long

time to model everything, but the payoff seemed worth it.

Overall, the main weakness of the project is that it took a long time. Therefore, we

rushed at the end to make the final copies to ensure that I was still at the school in time

for our Writers Celebration. For the last week and a half, most students ended up

spending all of their reading and writing time finishing final copies.

While doing this project, my MT was really focused on making their paragraphs

and final copies perfect. While I have high expectations for my students and want them to

do everything to their best ability, I prefer more authenticity and think a few mistakes or
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imperfections are okay at this stage. To save time, preserve creativity, and let the

responsibility lie with the student, I think I would avoid guiding them through every

miniscule edit and revision. Another next step to preserve time would be a sign-in sheet

for conferences. Often, many students would finish working on something at once and

line up to conference and get things checked with us. Instead of lining up, I would have

them sign their names on a conference sign-in sheet and move on to something else so

they werent wasting precious time.

All in all, I loved doing this inquiry unit and look forward to doing another one

with my future students.