Utilizing Literacy Skills while Studying Life Cycles

As we explore the benefits for students when using notebooks as tools for thinking and learning, one that keeps popping up is the authentic and engaging application of reading and writing skills within science and social studies.

The third grade students at Hutchinson are reading for specific purposes and writing for real audiences. They are using media sources (books) to learn about a variety of animals' life cycles. Then, they are using the information they gathered to create detailed digital diagrams.

A science group adding to their digital diagram about the life cycle of monkeys

A science group adding to their diagram about the life cycle of rabbits

These students are in Teresa Carlson's class.  Teresa thoughtfully prepared for students to be able to complete this writing task.  I asked Teresa to share her thinking as she planned.
"I knew that I wanted them to do research so that they would have another animal to compare with our classroom experiments for the final assessments. But, I also knew that 3rd  graders have a tendency to choose what they think is important and not what the author thinks is important when reading non-fiction text.  So, I front loaded them with a Text Savvy shared reading example How Butterflies and Frogs Change the week before.  As we got ready to do the research, we brainstormed what we'd want to see in a life cycle diagram -- using the poster from Text Savvy as our example.  I did this whole group brainstorm in order to give them key areas of the life cycle to focus on when they began reading the books. I also wanted them to connect with the audience. (In our writing unit we were doing slice of life and thinking about the reader and adding in the details that would interest them to continue reading their story. I wanted them to see that in non-fiction they also have to think about their audience/reader)."  
She provided these experiences to deepen students' understanding of what a life cycle is as well as on how to use writing to communicate their learning with others.

Mentor Text - Life cycle diagrams

Shared Reading using the mentor poster

To help students: 1) internalize what a life cycle is, and 2) understand how important writing with details is, she completed another activity.  With their eyes closed, she read them the detailed descriptions.  She then asked them to draw what they saw in their science notebooks.  Below are a couple examples.

Teresa then provided instruction on how scientists (and readers) can gain information from sources to prepare for writing.  The audience for their work was each other.  As groups chose different animals, Teresa explained that the students would share their finished diagrams with each other.  She prompted them to think like writers - what information would they need to gather to help their audience understand the life cycle of their organism? Teresa reflects, "I then used the butterfly life cycle on the poster to model the two column notes.  I wanted them to understand that they didn't have to write complete sentences and so modeled the bulleted list with phrases [Writing to Learn].  As I took the notes, I referred back to the brainstorming poster to make sure that I was getting the important ideas down.  They spent 2-3 days taking notes and reading through the books.  They took one day to do a rough draft of their diagram, but most didn't finish. Then, I partnered with our Teacher Librarian Pauline Henning to add in the Pixie program to do the actual diagram."  

Teresa modeled this writing to learn strategy which students then were able to use for their own research.  

Teacher modeled example

Completed student example

Click here to watch students explain the process in their own words.

Students using their notes to create their digital diagram

A science group working on their life cycle diagram

As Teresa works with individual groups, she recognized a teachable moment. Watch as she takes a minute to help students think about being intentional as readers and writers.  

This sequence of learning activities in Teresa's class shows how she is making thoughtful decisions about when and how students use their notebooks.  The students in her class were engaged in the learning and making connections among the skills they use throughout their day.

Afterward, I asked Teresa to reflect on how this sequence of lessons went. Her comments are below.
I think that they did an OK job for the first time doing this type of research and having to put it in a diagram.  They definitely were engaged because they chose their own animals and they know a lot about those animals now.  But, even though I modeled the note-taking and looking back at the brainstorming list -- students still chose the interesting facts about their animals instead of the life cycle.  Maybe it was because most chose mammals and really -- what's to change?  Next year, I would narrow their choices to insects so that they could focus on the different stages rather than the interesting facts. (Or, I guess I could find another text with a mammal and model how to add details to the different stages of a mammals life cycle.)   I would also slow down and model how to take the notes and put them in the diagram. As I edit their files with them this week, I realized that I missed that step and if I had stopped and modeled that, maybe I wouldn't have had to have the "rainbow" talk about their backgrounds.  This week as we edit their files, I'm able to have those conversations and add back into their project the actual life cycle pieces while honoring their interesting facts.

Thanks to the third grade teachers for planning this enriching learning experience for your scientists!