A Learning Activity is a strategy a teacher chooses to actively
engage students in learning a concept or skill using a digital tool/resource.
You may save this Learning Activity to your hard drive as an .html file by
selecting “File”,then “Save As” from your browser’s
pull down menu. The file name extension must be .html.
Phase:
After/Explain/Elaborate
Activity:
Note: This activity can be completed digitally or by using paper copies. See the Advanced Preparation section for more details.
Each student will need a copy of the poem, "The Snowbird's Song."
The teacher will divide students into partner groups: Partner 1 will read the poem aloud to Partner 2 using appropriate phrasing, rhythm, and meaningful expression. Partner 1 should identify at least two rhyming words from the poem and share them with Partner 2. Partner 2 repeats these steps, reading the poem aloud to Partner 1. (If desired, the teacher can listen to each student read the poem aloud in a one-on-one setting.)
The students will answer the corresponding question set that contains questions about the main idea and supporting details of the poem and requires students to provide textual evidence to support their answers.
Assessment Strategies:
The teacher will listen to students reread the poem aloud to ensure each student reads with appropriate phrasing, rhythm, and meaningful expression and can identify at least two rhyming words. The teacher can listen to students in their partner groups or require students to read the poem to the teacher.
The teacher will review each student's responses to the questions. The question set will assess each student's ability to determine the main idea, supporting details, and key details in the text. The question set requires students to support their answers with textual evidence. An answer key is available on the ReadWorks website. If using the digital version, the multiple-choice questions will be graded automatically.
Advanced Preparation:
ReadWorks is a website that provides K-12 teachers with free literacy resources (About ReadWorks). ReadWorks has literary and informational texts on a variety of subjects and reading skills. You may narrow your search using grade level or Lexile level, making this website a wonderful tool for differentiation. Students will complete their work digitally, and you will provide their scores and feedback digitally. This makes it easy to go paperless for this activity.
Prior to implementing this activity, you will need to sign up for an Educator Account on ReadWorks. After setting up an account, create a class from the Class Admin tab, this will provide you with a Class Code to give to students. Next, use the Find Content tab to search for the poem that will be used during this activity, The Snowbird's Song. After navigating to the article, click on the blue Assign button to assign it to your class.
Each student will need access to a digital device, such as a tablet or laptop. The first time students enter the website they will need to enter the Class Code that is listed on your Class Admin page. If you utilize Google Classroom, you can import your Google Classroom rosters into ReadWorks. You can also assign ReadWorks articles directly to your Google Classroom platform.
Alternatively, the poem and corresponding question set can be printed and copied for each student.
Variation Tips (optional):
There is a Full Question Set (10 questions) and an Express Question Set (5 questions). The Express Question Set still correlates with the selected standards, so the teacher can choose which set to use.