News ELA has great articles on current events. These articles can be adapted to a variety of reading levels and many offer comprehension quizzes afterward. This is a great way to support the learning happening in our classrooms. Reading these articles can also count toward weekly reading minutes! You can create your own account on NewsELA or you can use our grade level username and password: laterelementary
Nov. 12, 2018 - Cheryl's class - Monthly Composition
Information:
We wrote a sample monthly composition over 4 weeks here at school, they has been through the whole scaffolded routine. Here are the steps to get this 3 paragraph (some students write more, but for him, 3 paragraphs will be a good start) piece completed.
Using NewsELA or another source....... before everything else, they will need to find a current event article. It can be up to 5 years old - but I'd prefer that it not be about violent things, politics, adult things. I'm encouraging them to look for science, geography, social events that would be appropriate for any 10 or 11 year old. If they do not find their own article, I will supply one of my choice! Then, they will need to follow the following steps.
1. First they will need to read the article.
2. Then they will need to go back through and use the first organizer to write down important things in the article. They'll use this to write a summary paragraph.
3. Next, they will use the second organizer to write down his own ideas about the article. They'll need to make a claim (opinion) about it, and support the claim with some reasoning and evidence from the article. Don't worry about a rebuttal. They'll be writing an opinion or "why is it important" paragraph for this second paragraph.
4. The third organizer helps write down their ideas about what they would like to do with this information, given all the permission they would need and all the money it would take. (Again, don't worry about a counter argument.) Kids come up with ideas like going to Florida to help baby sea turtles hatching and they flesh them out with things like talking to businesses about turning off their parking lot lights at night, and beachfront homeowners about keeping that side of the house dark. Then, they might talk about going to the beach and turning baby turtles back toward the ocean, if they are going the wrong way. This type of writing helps them get more invested in the information in the article and hopefully helps them get more invested in the world around them. So this third paragraph is an "I'd like to....." paragraph.
The format of the finished product is a letter to me - so it is in a letter format like this:
Dear Cheryl,
I was reading an interesting article this month! It was about....... ( they would go on to state the name of the article and do a summary about it in this paragraph.)
I was thinking about this article. I think....... (they would go on here with their claim/opinion, and then support it with their reasoning for it and evidence from the article.) They should restate their claim in the last sentence, for good argumentative writing!
If I had all the money and permission I needed, I'd like to........ (this is the last paragraph of the letter. Here is were they will detail their plan to get involved in whatever they have read about. It doesn't have to be realistic for their age - it needs to be something that adults could possibly do, though - not total fantasy.)
Your student,
(name)
I give them the graphic organizer every month, and should they lose it, I have extra copies at school. I do ask that parents to sit with their child and edit together, so that they get some solid guidance on the importance of spelling and grammar. I appreciate your assistance on this project!
Cheryl