Using Wordcounter for Self-Selected Nonfiction Possible Sentences

Possible Sentences is a great way of having students predict and check their predictions for informational texts. In Kylene Beers and Robert Probst's Reading Nonfiction, the strategy is described with examples. It isn't just a great strategy in the ELA classroom! It could be used very well in history and science readings as well. I encourage you to read the section of Reading Nonfiction, but in a nutshell:

1. Students are supplied with 10-15 key words for the nonfiction text they will be reading
2. Students create 5 possible sentences that will be in the text
3. Students read, clarifying their understanding and then revise their sentences for accuracy.

This is strategy for 4th grade and up, but I think it could probably go younger, especially for whole class where the teacher is helping compose sentences. (Here is a nice link to a handout your students could use.)

It got me thinking about Newsela (pronounced like news ella). I love how Newsela has leveled

versions of the same article as well as text sets novels, core content areas, and hot topics. In a Pre-AP classroom, I have students who have a reading level putting them around a senior reading level and other students who are actually below reading level. I think it is important for students to have choice and have reading that is at a level that challenges them a bit and Newsela can give me all that! Wouldn't it be neat to let students pick the non-fiction article to pair with their self-selected novel?

So it got me thinking, how to use possible sentences for self-selected nonfiction. Then it occurred to me: http://www.wordcounter.com! Students select their article (level, topic, or both), copy and past the article in the box, and then write their possible. Then students take the top 10-15 words and create the possible sentences.

Vary with Tagxedo or Wordle for visual component. 

STEP 1: Find an awesome essay!

STEP 2: Paste article in wordcounter.com

STEP 3: Get most  common words.
STEP 4: follow possible sentences strategy
as usual!

Abydos Conference 2015

Top three highlights of Abydos Conference 2015:
3. Alana Morris of Vocabulary Unplugged fame in one chart explained what I've been trying to explain to non-ELA teachers since the adoption of the new TEKS: all those old comprehension strategies we used to teach: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. When you look at the STAAR test questions, minus a handful in summarization and comparing, the questions all pop in inferencial thinking. Big takeaway: Number 12 is never coming back. The question stem will probably never be seen again. We need to move past looking at number 12 from the released test and toward the type of thinking we need to train our students to become. In order for our scores to grow instead of stagnate, we have to train the kids to be inferential thinkers.

2. Anne Stone's Classical Evaluation. Brilliant! I created a quick video on it for absent students (I literally just put my iPhone on my document cam, hit record, and posted in my conference period. AKA I totally am guilty of the black blank sides of doom. I hold my head in shame.) It helps to address the issue of under-developed support paragraphs in expository writing.
1. Kaye Price-Hawkins referred to me as "My friend, Sara" when I answered a question. Granted she was just reading my nametag, but still, squee! She took us through Dialogue with the Text which she adapted and put on a nifty bookmark for kids right here. Her website is full of priceless goodies! Go, go!

Narrative and Expository Project

I am a huge fan of pairing books. I'm also a huge fan of kids getting to choose what they read. How to give kids freedom but also pair? Enter the brainchild of my first year teaching 7th grade! After teaching narrative the first quarter and expository the second, I knew I wanted to have the kids do something with both in the third quarter - the very same quarter leading up to writing STAAR where kids would have to write in both modes.

Students read the narrative of their choice and then pair it with an expository book to check it for accuracy. I then had them present their findings by finding quotations from each, writing an overall thesis statement of accuracy, and compiling it all on a presentation. Some kids used Prezi and others PowerPoint.

Examples of pairings:
Colin Fischer paired with a book about autism
Lightening Thief paired with a book about Greek Mythology
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry paired with a book on the Jim Crow Era

Get the handout for free here!