WORK TIME Build Engagement Around a Shared Research Topic If you notice… Then you might say… A student or group
“I think you know a lot more about plants than you realize, and whatever you know can get you thinking about what you wonder. To recall what you know, you can look at pictures. Think, ‘What do I notice?’ Tell others your noticings and then say, ‘What I wonder about this is…’ and push yourself to also wonder.” “Can I tell you a few things that fascinate me about plants? See if these catch your attention, too. There are plants that can tell what time of day it is, just like us. This helps them know when to open their flowers. And there are plants that are carnivores, that are meat eating. Truly! The Venus flytrap eats animals—it eats the mosquitoes, and they’re animals. Amazing, right? Try to find some more super fascinating things about plants that you can teach me and your research group.” “I’m noticing that one of you is already interested in plants, and the rest of you seem like this isn’t yet a topic you find super enthralling, am I right? I’m going to suggest that the person who already loves this topic has a special job. You need to get others aboard.”
saying, “I don’t know anything about this topic.” A student or group that seems less than enthralled about the topic.
Only one student in a group is engaged.
SMALL GROUP: Help Group Members Be Supportive of Each Other RALLY Recruit kids to think about past groups that have/haven’t been supportive.
“Will you think about research groups or sports teams you’ve been a part of?” Then, describe Fist to Five to students. “Show five fingers if the group or team was super supportive and kind. And show your fist (zero fingers) if the group or team absolutely was not. And maybe two or three or four fingers if the group or team was somewhere in between.” TRY IT #1 Set partners up to brainstorm ways to be supportive. “I’m asking this because this year, in this class, we’re going to work hard not only to learn deeply about plants, but also to learn deeply about how to be part of a five-finger group. Will you, together, see if you can come up with five ways to be supportive group members for each other? Talk now as partners, listing a few things you can do to help each other feel like you’ve got each others’ backs.” TRY IT #2/LINK Encourage partners to share as a group, and invite them to invent ways to hold onto their ideas for being supportive as they move forward. “Oh my goodness, your ideas are so important! Share them! Maybe you can figure out ways to sketch little pictures to go with those ideas and add them to your treehouse sign.”
Fist to Five is a method sug- gested by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). This method helps students build healthy and supportive relationships and to understand the perspective of others.
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Bend I • Strengthen Nonfiction Research Skills: Researching Plants
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