Blog #9 Graphic Organizers

So...the conundrum of deciding what books to use and what text features to compare in my graphic organizer assignment was primarily decided based on the grade level equivalency and whether I had these books on my personal shelf.

Amelia Bedelia’s First Apple Pie by Herman Parish has a Grade Level Equivalent of 2.1. This is a fall themed story of Amelia spending time with her grandpa and grandma as she learns about apples and how to make apple pie. Amelia takes what people say literally, which is a great way to start conversations with ELL students.  This is also a childhood book friend of mine, so nostalgia points.

According to the Book Wizard on the Scholastic website,  Pumpkin Circle by George Levenson has a Grade Level Equivalent of 2.4. This book gives a pictorial time table of the process a pumpkin goes through to become a fruit from a seed and what pumpkins are used for when they are in the seed stage and fruit stage. This was a book I bought during my first year of teaching to supplement my kindergarten science curriculum. See the following link, if you wish to look up more information for teachers about children's books.

http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/

In my first graphic organizer, I decided to compare the books' organization of information. This will help students to know what to expect from both types of texts and help them find meaning for comprehension later on. Unfortunately, the blog page would not cooperate when I tried to copy, paste, and attach the graph. The picture shows how students would be able to compare and contrast the information from both texts with oral discussion or pictures if they are at the early stages of English Language Learning.

The fictional story has a beginning which gives the reader context and sets up the problem. The story elements are completely different than a non-fiction book which gives a main idea with details listed to teach the reader about something real. The middle of the story usually is growing the characters and the problem is getting out of hand or ready to be fixed. The body of a non-fiction text has a variety of details to support the main idea. The ending of the story wraps up the problem giving it a solution, while the text, Pumpkin Circle, restates the main idea in its conclusion. The teacher may put this graphic organizer on a Smart Board or projector screen. The instructor could print and hand out copies to the students after reading both books as a class. 



 

This above chart design could be given out to be filled in by the students with sentence starters or cut out pictures of ideas and subjects from the books being read for that day.

 

The second graphic organizer is a way to show how information is presented in a story versus a non fiction book. This would be used to model a comparison before having students read two more books and fill out these parts on their own. Depending on their grade level and level of English fluency, students could use one or two word answers to fill out the chart. This is designed to compare non-fiction and fiction texts side-by-side as students look at these specific examples with pictures and illustrations from the books. This should assist students with learning English as they apply the knowledge they learn in an organized format. This graph could be adjusted to be pictures that are drawn or glued to each section. The concepts of problem and solution can be thought out through several examples from real life, other subject areas, or books. For instance an addition problem must be solved with a method to get answers. However, these are more abstract concepts, so using gestures, play acting, and movie clips might also help to assist with main idea and details.