January 19 Meeting

Now that we had an article that we thought was a good candidate for a close read, we had to analyze it more closely to determine if it was rigorous enough and that it fit our curriculum needs.  The culminating question criteria is as follows:

• claim
• broad question that connects to the unit
• analysis

We discussed the following:

• How can something be unique?
• Draw conclusions about uniqueness
• What makes a snowflake unique? (weather, cold)
• What makes Bentley unique?  
• Are all things in nature unique?  Use evidence in this text to prove your answer.  
• Do things in nature need specific characteristics to be considered unique?
• Defend why all things in nature are unique.
• Do things need to be investigated in order to determine if they are unique? 

We decided that the term unique can and should be explained up front.  

We needed to choose an overarching theme and have 1 or 2 guiding questions per paragraph to lead to the overarching question.  The questions need to have enough information to infer or draw conclusions.  We decided to think about the questions that we came up with and choose one at our next meeting.  The following was typed up:  

Book: (Level ?) Know About Snow by Mary Rose                                                Grade:  Second Grade

Summary:  the article shows how Bentley realized that each snowflake is unique because of the way each is made in nature.

Explicit Details: Paragraph 1: Things you can do with snow: roll, catch on tongues, throw, ski, sled, look at it Traits of snow: cold, white, wonderful, beauty Paragraph 2:      Bentley photographed snowflakes in 1931 (published) People didn’t realize snowflakes were crystals Every snowflake is different Paragraph 3: Shape depends on: how cold, how much water in air, how hard wind blows Look like stars, columns, plates, and bullets Most often- freeze like a 6 pointed star Shape of snowflake determines if it is light and fluffy – skiing type of snow, or thick and heavy – snowman type snow Paragraph 4:    How to mimic Bentleys collection of snowflakes: collect on dark colored object and use magnifying lens to look at them Each snowflake is different Implicit Details: Paragraph 1: Snow is fun We = people Paragraph 2:     Photographer – photos were likely black and white and probably not as crisp as pictures of today “before then” What does that tell us unique Paragraph 3: Endless possibilities based off of combinations Snow is affected by many factors different types of snow determines how we play in it Paragraph 4: Another way to enjoy snow (collect and analyze it)  Magnifying glass is needed because you won’t notice shape otherwise Possible Theme(s):   (1) uniqueness leads to different uses (2)all things are created (3) our world is not what it always seems  (4) everything can be broken into smaller parts  (5) what is a scientist (6) passion leads to discovery (7) nature creates beauty (8)  Considerations from the 10 Factors of Text Selection: Genre and Form:      Text Structure: focus on single idea – each paragraph has a different topic (not sequential) Content:       Themes and Ideas:   see above Language and Literary Features:   opening is a riddle Sentence Complexity:  Vocabulary:     Words: SNOW! Illustrations or Art:    illustrations are supportive                   Book and Print Features: )